Still melodrama and noir but it’s different, MBC’s Friday-Saturday dramas are building trust step by step
With Lee Jong-seok and Lim Yoon-ah’s unique noir drama “Big Mouth” hitting 10%, the competition to win the golden timeslot of Friday-Saturday drama is hotter than ever.
Actors Lee Jong-seok and Lim Yoon-ah‘s noir drama “Big Mouth” is receiving great love amid favorable reviews. MBC, which launched its first Friday-Saturday drama last year, is building trust from viewers by presenting a series of high-quality works.
As it gained the upper hand in the head-to-head showdown with SBS’s “Today’s Webtoon,” which enjoyed the effect of a Fri-Sat series, with its solid genre build-up, “Big Mouth” is also entertaining the audience through the confrontation between Friday-Saturday dramas, which have become the golden timeslot.
According to Nielsen Korea, a rating research company, on Aug 14th, the 6th episode of “Big Mouth,” which aired on Aug 13th, recorded 10.8%. As tensions escalated due to the twists surrounding Big Mouse’s identity, “Big Mouth” broke its own highest ratings one after another, recording double-digit ratings.
“Big Mouth” is the story about a lawyer with 10% winning rate being caught up in a murder case that he accidentally took over, due to which he became the genius con man Big Mouse. He now has to survive while digging into the ugly hidden truth of the privileged class, which is marred by a huge conspiracy, to protect his family.
The drama might seem to be another heavy genre following “Doctor Lawyer,” but “Big Mouth” has formed a consensus with viewers through the realistic ordinary couple at the beginning. Park Chang-ho (Lee Jong-seok), who has a job as a lawyer but is always criticized by his wife Ko Mi-ho (played by Lim Yoon-ah) for being a lacking person, gave viewers both sympathy and laughter.
The content of a lawyer, who was falsely accused and went to prison, turning evil and taking revenge was not much different from other noirs. However, the couple Park Chang-ho and Ko Mi-ho, who sometimes showed their sweet couple side despite the quarrel, lowered the audience’s guard before building up the narrative step by step. Before introducing viewers to the cruel world of noir, the drama lowered the viewers’ guard and set the stage for viewers to be strongly immersed in Park Chang-ho’s journey. The shock could be doubled because the reversal of Park Chang-ho’s awakening also had a sense of reality built in the early parts of the drama.
As such, “Big Mouth” shows the charm of a noir drama, which is full of huge conspiracies, while creating a different texture through the realistic aspects of Park Chang-ho and Ko Mi-ho couple. It has a well-organized plot development, actors’ passionate acting, and unique plot twists. The series is showing the charm of a well-made drama evenly and is receiving favorable reviews from viewers.
Last year, “The Veil” also met viewers as MBC’s first Friday-Saturday drama. Starting by showing the essence of a Korean-style spy action blockbuster despite being rated as 19-and-above, MBC enjoyed the effect of establishing the new Friday-Saturday drama timeslot as it received keen attention for “The Red Sleeve.”
While “The Veil” showed the aspect of a large-scale action blockbuster, “The Red Sleeve” drew enthusiasts’ support with the sophisticated love story of Jeong-jo Lee San and court lady Deok-im, tailored to the taste of current viewers.
There were also works that couldn’t catch up with the success of their previous works, such as “Tomorrow” and “Doctor Lawyer.” Nevertheless, those works were also clearly imprinted with their specific genre’s charm, and at least they were still showered with positive evaluation from the viewers who watched. After the Grim Reaper introduced a new genre called the Underworld Office Fantasy with “Tomorrow,” where they now have to save “People Who Want to Die” from ending their lives, MBC also attracted young people’s attention with different attempts, such as trying to harmonize court and medical science in “Doctor Lawyer”.
SBS, which had been attracting viewers of Friday-Saturday dramas with intense works such as “Passionate Priests,” “One The Woman,” “Penthouse,” and “Through The Darkness,” is also giving up its No. 1 spot to MBC. Following actor Song Hye-kyo’s starring role in “We’re Breaking Up Now,” Kim Se-jeong’s brilliant performance is failing to help “Today’s Webtoon,” which aims at young people, to win against “Big Mouth.” Currently, “Today’s Webtoon” has a low viewer rating of 2% and is showing disappointing results.
It is interesting to see whether MBC Friday-Saturday dramas, which are gradually building trust with high-quality works and fresh stories that give different twists, will be able to establish a trustworthy time zone for viewers, as SBS once did.
Source: daum
