I was pretty disappointed when I heard that Chun Woo-hee (The Wailing) had backed out of SBS’s Falsify, so this is welcome news: Argon, the new show being helmed by Cheese in the Trap’s PD Lee Yoon-jung, has secured its leads in Chun Woo-hee and Kim Joo-hyuk (Confidential Assignment), who will both play reporters in the upcoming tvN drama.
Although their characters are both reporters, our two leads are in very different places in the hierarchy. Kim Joo Hyuk’s character will have multiple hats as a reporter, anchor, and also the team leader of Argon, the investigative journalism program within the drama. A perfectionist by nature, he believes only in the hard facts and places truth as the highest priority when delivering the news. Well, that’s certainly a personality trait I can appreciate, especially nowadays, and I wish more media figures had similar values in real life.
Chun Woo-hee, on the other hand, will be playing a reporter at the lowest rung of the broadcasting station ladder, and with only 3 months left on her temporary contract, she gets transferred to the Argon team. She’ll set out determined to impress Kim Joo-hyuk, who is her last hope of getting hired as a full-time reporter.
According to reports, Argon will tell the story of people who strive to deliver the facts in the face of the growing social phenomenon of fake news. It’s definitely a topical plot, and I’m excited because the show’s description is giving me The Newsroom vibes. I’m trying to tamp down my eagerness, though, because of the director. Coffee Prince is one of my all-time favorite shows, which is why it hurt that much more when PD Lee’s last project Cheese in the Trap got swept up in all of that controversy. As a huge fan of the original webtoon, I couldn’t help but resent her directorial decisions along with the legions of angry netizens, though I wouldn’t think of adding to the online hate. There’s already plenty of that as it is.
Either way, it’ll be interesting to see PD Lee’s comeback project, and I’ll pray that this show will avoid, you know, imploding. Argon is scheduled to hit the airwaves this September on tvN.