Title: Part-Time Idol
Hangul: 비정규직 아이돌
Network: SBS
Genre: Music, Drama
Episodes: 5
Broadcasting Dates: All episodes released Nov 27, 2017
Language: Korean
Source: Watched on Netflix

Synopsis: The storyline takes place at an entertainment agency. After creating a bunch of famous idols, a producer begins to question the whole process of making a star, so he goes on a break for a few years. Once he returns to the company, he gathers some trainees left on the back burner and tries to launch a co-ed idol group. The trainees undergo some peculiar training to debut in this group.

This review is long overdue, as it’s been months since I watched this drama. I watched it back when it got released on Netflix and binged it in a day. To be completely honest, that’s not a huge accomplishment given that there are only five 30-minute long episodes.

I still found this drama very addicting. I started it one afternoon after finishing Descendants of the Sun a day or so prior. I was in a sort of drama slump because I had been watching Descendants for a while and was sad for it to be over.

I had been watching the web drama that GOT7 made called Dream Knight around the same time as well so I was in the mood for a drama centering around K-Pop idols so this drama ended up coming at the right time.

I knew that I’d love it from the get-go. Why? Because it mentioned Big Bang and G-Dragon within the first few minutes!! And Winner – a group I’ve been getting into recently made a guest appearance. Let’s just say that I felt like I was in K-Pop heaven haha!

A lot of the main cast are idols themselves, which I found out with a bit of research. Kwon Hyun Bin played the self-absorbed trainee that can’t dance or sing but has a drive to be famous. I found this hilarious since he’s part of the group JBJ in real life. He’s a rapper in the group so it was funny how they made him a bad singer in the show.

Lee Soo Hyun is the lead vocalist in the group on the show and in the duo AKMU in real life. When looking this up I found out that in the show and in real life she’s part of a duo with her brother – and she uses the same name as well.

So in total, most of the cast are idols. Jisoo from the girl group Blackpink makes an appearance, the boy group Winner appeared briefly at the beginning, SoHee from IOI, and the girl group Elris all make appearances as themselves.

Now onto my actual review haha – the thing that intrigued me besides the entire K-Pop premise was a collection of semi-talented trainees being put together to make a decent group together. I also watched this before I found out about KARD (a co-ed kpop group) so the idea of boys and girls being in the same group hadn’t dawned on me before.

For only five episodes, there was a lot of character growth, which surprised me. It’s not like anybody was revealed to have a shocking past or dead parents or something else tragic like that. The group members all worked together in order for them to improve and become a better version of themselves.

This is what I love about K-Pop – there could be four or thirteen members, but the most important thing is teamwork. You can’t have a hit song and amazing show-stopping choreography without teamwork and understanding among members. If one person messes up or falls short everything could either be ruined or saved from disaster because of another member.

The members started off hating each other – either bickering, physically fighting, or just completely ignoring each other. They grew a lot as people and as a group. If there’s another season, I’d love to see how they grow even more.

really though, i still can’t wrap my head around seventeen being able to do as well as they do – i’d probably go crazy with that many group members

The producer that left the K-Pop world and then came back to form this group left because of something very tragic that reminded me of an event that struck the K-Pop world at the end of 2017. Stating specifics would be a bit spoiler-y so I’ll just leave it at that.

This drama was also the first K-Drama I’ve watched since Age of Youth (my first K-Drama ever ~ oh, I miss it dearly) where romance wasn’t the center focus of the show. There of course was romance, but very very little of it.

 

It was subtle too, nothing direct but it was something more shown in actions and little glances that nobody else but us – the viewers – were able to see. I liked to see the shy, but very talented girl fall for the self-absorbed pretty boy with next to no talent.

A lot of the time in K-Dramas I’ve found that the girls are the ones that are dumb while the boys are smart, or the boys are rich and talented but the girls are poor and don’t have any talents. It was nice to see something a bit different.

 

They’re so cute I can’t handle it!! They literally barely had any moments together but I found the moments that they did have to be adorable. I also think that their best acting was during the scenes they had together.

Something I loved about this show was the girl members of the group. I found them to be the most interesting characters in the show. Soo Hyun is the shy girl that has lost her confidence in singing ever since her brother went solo. Hee Jung is the rapper with anger issues that learns how to funnel her anger into her rapping. Lastly, Soo Ah is the optimistic member of the group with stage fright.

Also like Age of Youth, the friendship between the girls is something I haven’t really seen in too many other dramas that I can think of. They had their issues but they worked together to overcome them together.

The only thing I didn’t like about this show was the acting. It wasn’t all bad, but due to some of the main cast being idols and not actors, they could have been more expressive in the way they spoke their lines.

This review has gotten really long but I liked fangirling over K-Pop so *shrug*. I think that there’s going to be a second season (there really should be) but I’m not 100% sure.

My Rating: 4.5 Stars

I recommend this drama for K-Pop lovers or for those of you that end up having a free afternoon and want to binge something quick and light-hearted. The acting wasn’t the greatest like I mentioned but not bad to the point where you’d want to stop watching since the plot itself is so fast-paced.

Where To Watch:

Netflix

Have you seen this drama? Are you planning on watching it? Are there any K-Pop focused dramas you’ve seen? Let me know!

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