Monday premieres the new underdog workplace industry K-drama Advertising Genius Lee Tae Baek on KBS, a drama I admittedly only got interested in when the second leads Jo Hyun Jae and Han Chae Young got on board. Hey, not every project gets the juices flowing right off the bat. I actually like Jin Goo, he’s a fantastic movie actor and has cornered the market on playing gangsters and ruffians. It’ll be quite a change to see him a country bumpkin hard working Lee Tae Baek, but based on the trailers he dons that character like a perfectly fitting suit. Workplace dramas like this have to be high energy and creative with the workplace conflicts otherwise it’s justs snooze inducing. Who wants to watch office politics and plots when it happens in our everyday lives? Unless it involves ridiculously good looking people dealing with very dramatic versions of the mundane office events, and then we slurp that up as entertainment. While Japan churns out office doramas by the bucketful each season, Korea doesn’t have the same fixation on that subject matter. I also see K-dramas weaving the corporate dealings into many different types of dramas as background filler already which makes it less interesting to devote an entire drama theme to it. A few episodes of AGLTB should reveal whether this drama can execute on its message and make it interesting. While some early reports claim this was a four lead drama, the promotional materials have been convinced that’s a feint. It’s primarily about Jin Goo’s Lee Tae Baek, and the other three leads will likely circle around him and the interactions will mark their character development. I have no problem with that, I just hope the drama doesn’t make Jo Hyun Jae and Han Chae Young typical ambitious workplace antagonists who wants to succeed at all costs and are cold and calculating. I also hope this drama visually represents the dynamic advertising industry it wants to explore and bring on the pretty. I really love the drama poster above, it’s stylish and different, going outside the norm of four leads standing around and staring at the camera. My only quibble is that the four leads pictures ought to be bigger, there is too much dead space around them. Check out the other more typical drama poster below and the long trailer. Continue reading →