First Impressions: “IDOL I” Is a Gritty Thriller That Peels Back the Glamour of Idol Life

After her sweet small-town romance “Second Shot at Love” that made hearts skip a beat and his fantasy “The Judge from Hell” that took fans by storm, Girls’ Generation’s Sooyoung and Kim Jae Yeong are back on screen with their Monday-Tuesday ENA thriller K-drama “IDOL I.” The drama follows the story of an idol embroiled in a murder allegation and his fan/lawyer, who is his only hope for justice.

Warning: spoilers ahead!

The premiere of “IDOL I” opens with a monologue: a woman with earphones blasting a rock ballad says, “I cannot help but keep falling into foolish fantasies, of accidentally sharing a table at a restaurant with you, or bumping into you in an empty, late-night theater.” The woman delivering this monologue is our female lead, Maeng Se Na (Sooyoung) and the “you” in question is Do Ra Ik (Kim Jae Yeong).

Maeng Se Na is a lawyer who is famous, or more suitably, infamous for the kind of clients she chooses to represent. According to the general public, she is a cold-hearted person who would defend even criminals just to increase her bank balance.

In one scene introducing Maeng Se Na to the audience, the female lead is shown walking out of court with a smile on her lips, indicating her victory. However, the people rioting outside the court, screaming, “Justice in Korea is dead!” try to convince the audience that Maeng Se Na has no morals.

But how much weight does this assumption hold?

The audience gets the answer soon enough when a man who seems to be Maeng Se Na’s close friend tells her that she should have made a statement earlier, that she should have told the press that the evidence had proven her client was indeed innocent. Our female lead responds calmly, saying that people only see and believe what they want, and no matter what she says, it would not change anything.

This single interaction makes a few things clear. First, while Maeng Se Na might be stoic, she does have morals and, contrary to popular belief, does not find loopholes to help criminals gain freedom they do not deserve. Second, she might have been wronged by people to such an extent that she has stopped caring about their opinions altogether. Third, the only person she is currently close to is the friend who also collects evidence for her cases.

But there is a secret that Maeng Se Na holds, which, if made public, would definitely upend everyone’s perception of the lawyer. Maeng Se Na, the stoic lawyer, is a K-pop fan. And no, she is not the casual type whose fangirling is limited to listening to her favorite artist’s music while driving to work. She is the type of fan whose bedroom walls are covered with pictures of her favorite idol, who buys photo cards for the sake of it, who streams her idol’s music to help it climb the charts, and who works hard so she can monetarily support him.

And guess which idol Maeng Se Na adores? Do Ra Ik.

The first scene of our male lead, Do Ra Ik, a member of the now veteran Korean band Gold Boys, is exactly how one would expect an idol’s introductory scene in a K-drama to be. Dressed in clothes worth more than most people’s monthly rent, Do Ra Ik steps out of a car most people would not even dream of affording and walks down a path lined with fans on each side, screaming his name at the top of their lungs. The scene looks aspirational, until the audience is smacked in the face with reality. A fangirl, or more appropriately a sasaeng, jumps out of the crowd and grabs onto Do Ra Ik’s jacket, making him fall.

As infuriating as this scene is, it is unfortunately not limited to fiction. There have been real-life incidents of fans attempting to touch idols without their consent. In the very next scene, Do Ra Ik is shown, quite justifiably, getting angry about the incident despite smiling in front of fans just moments earlier. This sequence does not portray him as callous or rude but simply as human.

The entire idol culture is built on idols being forced to maintain perfect personas. They cannot laugh, smile, curse, or even interact with coworkers as they want for fear of backlash. Most of the time, idols do not do this because they want to portray a fake image but because they are forced to by their companies. This is shown clearly in a later scene where Do Ra Ik breaks down in front of his agency’s CEO, who refuses to file a case against a group of sasaeng who broke into the idol’s house the night before. Do Ra Ik asks the CEO, not so calmly, “Since I met you when I was 10, I have only done exactly what I was told. When will I be able to say I am hurting when I am hurt and tell people who wronged me to stop tormenting me?” The emotions in this conversation between the lead and his CEO feel too real and too raw, palpable enough to make you wonder how many times real idols have had this very same conversation with their superiors.

By episode 2, Maeng Se Na’s earlier fantasy of accidentally sharing a table with Do Ra Ik finally comes true but in the worst way possible. The table they share is not at a scenic restaurant but in the visiting room of a police station. One of Do Ra Ik’s bandmates was murdered in cold blood at his house the night before, and the idol is the prime suspect.

At its core, “IDOL I” is a thriller murder mystery in which Maeng Se Na must prove Do Ra Ik’s innocence. It will also be interesting to see how Maeng Se Na and Do Ra Ik’s relationship develops and how their idol-fan dynamic changes. But what viewers seem to anticipate most is seeing how Do Ra Ik finally makes the world acknowledge the dehumanization idols face daily and how the story navigates their transition from idol and fan to lawyer and client and to lovers without crossing into professional malpractice.

Start watching “IDOL I”:

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Javeria is a binge-watching specialist who loves devouring entire K-dramas in one sitting. Good screenwriting, beautiful cinematography, and a lack of clichés are the way to her heart. As a music fanatic, she listens to multiple artists across different genres and stans the self-producing idol group SEVENTEEN. You can talk to her on Instagram @javeriayousufs.

Currently Watching: “IDOL I”Looking Forward to: “Positively Yours”