The past couple days, my neighbours and family probably wondered if there was a madman in our home because man was laughing nonstop at the silliness of So Not Worth It. I can't stress enough just how hilarious this sitcom has been, from the crazy situations the characters end up in to the over-the-top slapstick humour, I love it all. The comedy in this drama is universal, whether you're old or young, Korean or not, there's something here for you to enjoy so without further ado, let's dive in.
SERIES RETROSPECT AND REVIEW (SPOILER ALERT)
This is a true sitcom, with episodic events, a large number of lead characters, a ton of silly humour and a laugh track peppered throughout the series. Unlike most K-dramas, even the super long 50+ episodes kind, So Not Worth It doesn't really follow a proper storyline, with each episode more or less being very standalone. Of course, there're story and character elements that do carry over (just like a normal sitcom) and these help to push the drama forward. Each lead character also has their own unique personality which makes them fairly endearing and interesting to watch, although many of them do fit into typical K-drama character tropes. For example, female lead Se-wan's defining character trait is her struggle with poverty and how it's made her a materialistic monster of capitalism who does everything she can to make money. In contrast to that, male lead Jamie is portrayed as innocent and sheltered, so when these two spend the entire series in a "will they, won't they" relationship, their differences result in a ton of cute moments.
There're also recurring bits throughout the sitcom, such as the misfortunes that constantly befall Hyun-min or Hans always thinking he's in the right even if everyone else disagrees with him and like I mentioned before, these moments are generally unimportant to the main storyline but are instead just there to give us a good laugh. It has also been pretty clear from the start that this drama has an extremely diverse cast, being set in a dorm for international university students but even though a multitude of different nationalities are represented, they aren't really focused on. Instead, the screenwriters gave us a bunch of wacky but hilarious situations for our leads to go through (just like a regular sitcom) and if you look past the fact that the characters onscreen are American or European or black, it's just a normal K-drama. That's also a big part of why the humour in this series can appeal to all manner of viewers, with locals relating to the leads because they're normal university students while foreigners can relate to them because, well, they're foreigners.
Our cast also has good chemistry with one another and I really enjoyed their interactions as a group, especially since they present interesting foils to one another. Each character definitely fit a certain "friend type" in a group, whether it's Sam being the joker, Terris being a know-it-all or Minnie being the hyperactive one. I find that each lead has their own good qualities but of course, I do have a favourite of the bunch and that's Carson, by far and away. Not only is she probably the most mature of the bunch, she's also the one who stands up for her friends the most and does her best to help them, even if she doesn't get anything out of it. The biggest thing that happened to her character was when she caught her Korean boyfriend cheating on her and any normal person would've been (rightfully) furious, thrown a tantrum or done something unspeakable to him but she had a very different approach. Carson knew that the love between her and her boyfriend was gone, and there was nothing she could do about it, especially since it was quite clear to her that she couldn't beat the new girl. It's explicitly stated that Carson moved to Korea to be with her boyfriend, which couldn't have been an easy decision, so being betrayed by someone she loved and trusted so much must've killed her inside.
Did she let that get to her? Far from it, Carson didn't mope around feeling sorry for herself and continued to live normally, having everyday interactions with her friends. Don't get me wrong, she was still angry with her ex for cheating and did hit him once (hard enough that he flew several feet backwards in a total slapstick comedy moment) but she was very mature about the whole ordeal. Probably most importantly, she was also the only one to figure out that Terris was gay (or at least bisexual), despite the fact that the entire series has presented him as a Casanova. Carson deduced this only from observing him and his "good friend" Il-seop as well as listening to some of the things they said. She was nothing but supportive of them and even helped Terris to come to terms with his sexual identity, allowing him and Il-seop to confirm their feelings for each other (although it isn't revealed if they're openly dating). All this solidifies that out of all the leads, I would most want to be friends with Carson. Sure she acts like a boomer, can be loud and gruff, doesn't really care about her personal grooming or hygiene and might even kill me if I cross her but I know that she'll always have my back. Massive props to Carson Allen for this performance.
In general, the cast did pretty well in their roles, especially considering that a good number of them were either making their acting debut here or had little experience. Heck, I'm pretty sure Park Se-wan and Carson were the only ones with a good number of acting credits to their names so I'm pleasantly surprised by this cast. Their performances didn't feel overacted or forced, and that's a mean feat considering pure comedy is probably harder to do than series with more dramatic elements woven in. I think many people put this drama on their watchlist because of Young-jae or Minnie and they won't be disappointed by their drama debuts.
Cast performances aside, I think the sitcom's humourous take on many real-world problems will appeal to many viewers. Some of these plotlines are K-drama staples, specifically family problems. We see this primarily with Se-wan's dysfunctional family, with her con artist father in jail and her mother mired in debt. Korean society dictates that you can never distance yourself from your family so her mother's debt often catches up to Se-wan, a huge part of why she often wishes for the Earth to collapse the next day (referencing the drama's Korean title comes from). This only gets worse when word gets out that she's dating Jamie, who's revealed to be the adopted son of a famous American actress, and people call Se-wan a gold digging snake. The issues Se-wan faces are present in real life too, poverty of course being the foremost one but also having to deal with negative comments when she's found to be the significant other of a celebrity. While not entirely the same, many fans react negatively when their idols are revealed to be dating because they want said celeb to remain "available" to their fans, and this is similar to the problems that Jamie and Se-wan face as a new couple.
Having dealt with fame from a young age, Jamie suffers from the same problem that many child stars or celebrities' children deal with and that's spending their growing up years under a camera lens or under the scrutiny of the public. That's why Jamie secretly returns to Korea for his university education and keeps his identity under wraps initially, although the cat is eventually let out of the bag. Wanting to live a normal life isn't a sin and that's all our male lead wants, something that happens quite often with the children of celebs in real life as well. Thankfully, Jamie's friends don't treat him any differently after finding out about his famous heritage (except for a few times at the start which are played off for laughs).
Hyun-min is another character who has a ton of family issues. His mother is an overly free spirit and goes around having children with the different men she dates. Right now, Hyun-min has 5 or 6 half-siblings, all with different fathers and we see him having to take care of 2 of his siblings in the span of the drama. His mother is totally irresponsible and Hyun-min has to pick up the slack many times. It's quite sad too because other than his family situation, he's shown to experience a great deal of misfortune and is for all intents and purposes homeless. His family live too far away from campus, he's not allowed to live in the international students dorm and every time he's found a place to crash, he has to leave shortly after. Despite all his personal problems, Hyun-min is still one of the kindest people and has always helped those around him, and is also responsible for many of the sitcom's funniest moments.
I really do wish we had gotten more episodes because 12 was just not enough. Granted, a sitcom's episodes don't usually connect to one another for the most part but the last episode ended so abruptly and left so many plotlines dangling that I just wanted more. How will Sam and Minnie's relationship change going forth considering the fact that Sam is a little too comfortable with letting Minnie do her own thing? Will Terris go public about dating Il-seop? Will Hans become less of a rule-abiding prick and will Hyun-min fix his terrible haircut? There're so many questions I want answered and I'll only get that in a season 2. There's a lot of potential for a second season and I truly believe that with the series will be popular enough to get renewed. If we do get a season 2 though, I hope they do a little better with the inclusion of the laugh track. Don't get me wrong, I think laugh tracks are an integral part of a sitcom but I just think that they were almost excessively used and sometimes in the wrong places throughout the series.
All in all, So Not Worth It has been a joy to watch and if you enjoy sitcoms with silly humour, this is for you. I personally really want a season 2 because this cast has been great and I enjoyed their performances. I can't wait to see more of them and I hope that once you catch this drama, you'll be thinking the same thing as well. Thanks for reading.
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