I can’t believe I’m saying this, but unless something radically pops up in the promotional materials for Goddess of Fire Jeongi with Moon Geun Young and Lee Sang Yoon to revive my flagging interest, I will probably check out its direct competitor Empire of Gold first when both premiere in two weeks. SBS is hoping EoG will win the critical and ratings acclaiming that eluded Jang Ok Jung, Live in Love during its run, and right now it has good reason to get its hopes up since this drama comes from the crack team that produced The Chaser last year. Of course having one hit doesn’t guarantee lightning will strike twice, but the first teaser trailer just released makes it clear SBS should feel pretty confident right now. Starring Go Soo, Lee Yo Won, Son Hyun Joo, Jang Shin Young, Park Geun Hyung, Ryu Seung Soo, Yoon Se Ah, Lee Hyun Jin, and Ko Eun Mi (most recently seen as the dearly departed Kyung Mi from Cruel City), I’m finding myself increasing excited to be pleasantly surprised. All the main characters from the drama are brimming with intensity in the teaser, and I’m loving the three main character posters with the shadowed darkness imagery. The drama centers around a filthy rich family controlling the financial backbone of Korea in the mid-90s and spans twenty years in time during which the country was hit hard by the financial crisis and managed to rebuild and bounce back. Lee Yo Won is the guarded and aloof daughter of the rich family while Go Soo plays a brilliant man of poor birth who claws his way to the top. Watching the teaser and the spare intense vibe of the character posters harkens back to Giant, but EoM will probably be less epic since its slated to be a 24-episode drama while Giant ran for 60 episodes. I’m very curious how the ratings for Mon-Tues will be reshuffled in two weeks when the two newcomers join Shark on the same stage.

First teaser for Empire of Gold: