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Once upon a time in shenanigan-ridden Saengchori

Sigh. Once Upon a Time in Saengchori, you were too many things. And yet I loved you all the same. Why? Let’s dissect my feelings and find out!

From left to right: Han Ji Min is a jokester with a heart o’gold, Yoo Eun Jun is a mean drunk, and Jo Min Song is struck by lightening, twice. Not pictured: the co-worker who farts a lot, the other who prays and cowers, the local village girl who is a saint, the branch manager who reads comics, and the co-worker that dies.

(photo via DramaFever )

So, to sum up the plot: a bunch of under-performing employees at the local branch of a large brokerage firm get shipped off to the as-yet-unbuilt technology park in rural Korea. However, at the same time:

deep in the rural wilds of Saengchori, the village leader is acting shifty about the compensation money the villagers are supposed to get once the tech park is built.
Jo Min Song, mathematical whiz kid and general manager for SamJin brokerage, gets struck by lightening and looses all ability to conceptualize numbers. He also decides to hide out in Saengchori and fake it til he makes it.
the Seoul police are investigating the murder of a former SamJin branch worker, that also appears to be connected to the murder of a local bartender and a local CEO.
romance begins to blossom between Yoo Eun Joon (the lady in the middle, above) and Han Ji Min (on the left). And also between the local hottie and some of the other branch workers. And maybe that totally antagonistic relationship between the general manager and Yoo Eun Jo isn’t?

Thankfully, for the first half of the 20 episodes, the show mainly focuses on the workplace comedy aspects— and this is where it really shines. Very quickly, the show murders some dude off camera, alludes to secrets held by the shifty villagers, strikes Jo Min Sung with lightening and then sorta dumps everyone in a crappy half-built office building to get up to all the hijinks they can possibly stand.

If you love fart jokes, cultural misunderstandings between country and city folk, girls who get drunk and beat the shit out of people, pranks and shenanigans, and then even more fart jokes, then this first half of Saengchori cannot be beat.

And honestly, it was refreshing to watch a show where romance didn’t drive the plot forward— the plot was really built around getting to know a bunch of quirky, funny characters as they do quirky, funny things. And sure, some are more caricatures than characters (especially the Farty One), but they are balanced by the more poignant moments spent with the three main leads.

Unfortunately, in the second half, we have to resolve those plot points that got us to Saengchori. And frankly, it’s too many story lines to resolve all at once, while also ramping up a love triangle between our main leads. One or two episodes concentrate on the idea that there is a murderer within our beloved ranks, only to drop that tension completely to deal with dark, buried secrets in the village. Followed by a hard switch to a new episode about poor Jo Song with his little number problem. New characters appear and disappear, some running gags get a little worn out, and by the end, we’re suddenly introduced to a huge backstory just so that we can all be let off the psychological hook of actually, possibly liking a murderer for 19 episodes.

One thing I love about kdramas is that it is all wrapped up within a season— and unexpectedly, I find myself thinking Saengchori really could have benefitted from a multi-season story arc. Imagine the first two or three seasons of the Office, except starting with a murder and ending with Pam & Jim getting together.

Sweet, right?