(MINI SERIES) Dead End Job - Very Interesting Premise Series Though Could Have Been Better in Certain Areas

When I found out about this series on Netflix, I thought it had an interesting premise. But it was released while I was busy with other things and went for holiday trip. So I only got the chance to see it two days ago after I returned home and finished it last night. OK why don't I get right to it then?

Brief Story Line

Byeon Hyeok-jun (Lee Jae-wook - The Imposible Heir, Dear Hongrang TV series etc) was a thirty something man who had tons of debt and no permanent job to pay for it. So when he accidentally found an advertisement for part-time job that paid more than the normal wage, Hyeok-jun was intrigued and applied for it. He met with the Agency Manager Mr. S (Lee Hee-joon - Handsome Guys, Karma mini series etc) who indeed gave him the job. Obviously there would be a catch and what started as seemingly simple job, turned out to be completely different from what he imagined. 

Even though he was reluctant to do another part-time job, Hyeok-jun was really desperate and decided to take more despite knowing what they would do to him. Meanwhile his younger sister Ji-yoon (Kim Min-ha - Light Shop TV series, Hana Korea etc) started to suspect on what Hyeok-jun was doing when he managed to get some money. Things gotten complicated with the appearance of mysterious woman named Eum Yoon-joo (Go Min-si - Smugglers, Tastefully Yours TV series etc) who worked as Investigator looking into the people working for the agency.

So what would happen to the Hyeok-jun? You could find out in this series.

End of Brief Story Line

As I said above, I was intrigued by the premise of this series. And frankly since the first episode, it was already giving me the pretty exciting vibe with some quite suspenseful scenes. Being a Netflix original series, it was quite customary to have the standard 8 episodes. What surprised me though was the duration. Usually it was around  40-50 minutes and even a little over 1 hour. But this time they were only 33 to 44 minutes. Hence each episode was pretty short with a different part time job that was quite intriguing. As a fantasy series, obviously it involved a lot of mysterious circumstances and sometimes rather supernatural. However it was not the very scary type that would really terrify audience. The series also relied heavily on special effects, but I personally thought they were not that excellent as few times the computer graphic seemed rather obvious. 

After watching few episodes, I thought the series would definitely be a webtoon adaptation. During the opening credit which looked interesting with the retro video game scenes, I did not see what it was based on. Since I was really curious, I also watched the closing credits till finished but still did not find any info. So I tried searching on the internet and turned out it was said to be originally created by Han Jun-hee (writer & director of Hit and Run Squad, D.P TV series etc). Got to admire his creativity for being able to create something like this and looked like plenty of audience were impressed too, already making into Top 10 globally during its first week of release. 

I myself felt that it was pretty entertaining. But it was something that I thought could have been better, particularly on the special effects. In addition, I thought there were things which were not clarified properly, leaving me confused on certain parts like the story of how Yoon-joo could have suspected on the agency and that ambiguous ending. This series was classified as Limited by Netflix but there were things left unanswered in the end. No wonder people were already talking about second season and hoping for renewal. It was not unprecedented cause there have been more than one case where mini series was later renewed for second season, so people have the right to hope. Plus there was brief post end credit scene in the final episode which also teased for potential future.

The series only had 4 main characters that I already listed in the brief story line. Aside from them, there were few recurring characters such as Hyeok-jun's father Byeon Min-su (Baek Hyun-jin - Crash TV series, Highway Family etc) & mother (Kim Soo-jin - The King's Warden, Summer Vacataion TV series etc) along with Hyeok-jun's friend Byeong-cheol (Lee Suk-hyeong - Love and Leashes, Hometown Cha Cha Cha TV series etc). In addition it also had several guest stars like Choi Hyun-wook (Mantis, Weak Hero TV series etc) as Choi Hee-dong in episode 1, Yoon Kyun-ho (Husbands in Action, Agent Kim Reactivated etc) as the manager in episode 2, Ko Chang-seok (Project Wolf Hunting, The Dream Life of Mr. Kim TV series etc) as foreman in episode 6 and few others including brief cameos of stars whom I am sure my wife would recognized. 

Overall this was a pretty interesting fantasy series. I admired the creativity for its premise and the unique part-time jobs that were combined with fantasy & supernatural element. However not all of the jobs were really fun to watch like in the second and sixth episodes but I did enjoy the third and fourth. I also felt that the seventh episode was not satisfying even though it started promising, while the ending had few loose ends that might be more conclusive if it was done a bit differently. So if you are interested in watching a series of such genre, then I think you would enjoy this. However it might not be as great or amazing as other original Netflix K-drama series.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars