Oct 6, 20222 min read

The Weekend Binge: "Good Job"

Good Job is a 12-episode action rom-com that stars Jung Il-woo and Kwon Yu-ri and was released on OTT media service Seezn.

The Plot

Eungung chairman Eun Seon-woo (Jung Il-woo, Cinderella with Four Knights) has a mysterious past (is that a requirement for handsome chaebols?) . He’s trying to find his mother’s killer and the only lead he has is a diamond necklace. And since he has plenty of money, he works as a private detective on the side.

Don Se-ra (Kwon Yu-ri, Bossam: Steal the Fate) is an orphan (seriously, do ALL mysteries involve orphans?) who runs several jobs to make ends meet. She has super vision and is able to see the tiniest details from several miles away. Together, Eun Seon-woo and Don Se-ra attempt to uncover cases, and sparks fly between them in the process.

The Review

Anyone who wants to watch this drama must do so with a mind already willing to suspend disbelief from the get-go. Chockfull of tropes and overtired scenes, the drama doesn’t deliver much on ingenuity although it does deliver on campiness. It’s campy. Oh, so very campy.

In fact, an enhanced way to view the drama is to look for all the familiar scenes from other dramas and test one’s k-drama acuity by calling them out. Here are a few I’ve found: a drunken piggyback ride, the female lead falls asleep on the male lead’s lap and they hold hands throughout the night, an escape to a house in rural Korea, a montage of the two leads enjoying the simple things in life like market-shopping and eating street food… There are a lot more but I’ll let you call out the others.

And as Easter eggs for '80s kids who also grew up on Hollywood fare, there’s the Batcave reference with an old-school elevator hidden behind a bookshelf, a surprising Ghostbusters homage smack in the middle of an action scene, and the Mission Impossible-like disguises.

The best thing about Good Job though is that it doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what it is— a campy ride that requires neither deep thought nor complete engagement. It relies on its good-looking leads, the easy chemistry between them (they previously starred together as main leads in Bossam: Steal the Fate), and a loose plot to give you an hour’s (or twelve) worth of entertainment and nothing more.

Good Job won’t be stealing any spots on anyone’s favorite k-drama list, but it does a pretty good job (pun intended) of filling in your weekdays as you wait for your latest k-drama to drop an episode.

12 Episodes, available on iQIYI