[ K ] The moral of Netflix’s latest Korean drama Celebrity should be very easy to comprehend – if you try to desire something out of your league, then be prepared to suffer the consequences. Now if you can apply that to the ‘dark’ world of influencers, simply multiply the potential effects exponentially.
As expected, the series is quite successful in sending the simple message across – don’t believe everything you see.
Employing a rather creative storytelling device of an insider attempting to expose the inner working of a ‘secret society’ of social climbers, we get to see how e-celebrities fake, fight, do whatever it takes to go from the K to M world.
Seo A-ri (Park Gyu-Young) the protagonist, the reluctant insta-preneur is believable and even likable, because even though she succumbs to greed, she is somehow forgivable because she has a conscience, which others lack.
But the roles and motivations of Yoon Si-Hyun(Lee Chung-Ah) and Han Jun-kyung(Kang Min-Hyuk) are slightly harder to comprehend and accept. At best, they are perhaps a pair of long-suffering lovebirds who go around Seoul looking for poor souls to rescue because they missed the chance to save themselves.
A-ri, thus conveniently becomes the reason and link for them to have another emotional dalliance.
Now the only question remains for many after 12 episodes will be this – say you post a review like I just did, will you be watching the number of likes to see how many agree, even though you know many will just click without actually reading?