Premiere Watch: Mad Concrete Dreams
by stroopwafel
Time slot: Saturday & Sunday
Broadcaster: tvN
Genre: Black comedy, crime, family, thriller
Episode count: 12
Global streamer: HBO Max (Asia only), Viki
Reasons to watch: Ha Jung-woo returns to the small screen for tvN’s newest drama, Mad Concrete Dreams. The black comedy thriller will take viewers through the ups and downs of being a property owner in Korea. Joining Ha Jung-woo, we have Im Soo-jung, Kim Joon-han, Shim Eun-kyung, and Krystal rounding out the main cast.
Owning real estate is a dream for many, and Ha Jung-woo’s character has turned that dream into a reality. As the owner of an entire building, he may be leveraged up to his eyeballs, but the life of a landlord means that a payday could be waiting just around the corner. Alas, Ha’s luck seems to exist in an inverse relationship to his giant debt and he’s constantly on the verge of defaulting. Out of desperation–and a deal for his debt to be paid off–he agrees to join a crazy fake kidnapping scheme proposed by his friend (played by Kim Joon-han). Predictably, nothing goes to plan, and Ha’s decisions start off a chain reaction that plunges his wife, Im Soo-jung, and their family into grave danger.
The show is shaping up to be a study in the choices people make out of desperation–or greed. Watch for a dark and darkly humorous take on how people deal with broken dreams. I’m also super excited about this cast, particularly Ha Jung-woo. He’s one of my favorite actors and he very rarely does dramas. This is only his third drama in the past 20 years, so I’m looking forward to seeing what it was about Mad Concrete Dreams that tempted him back into dramaland.
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