When a news anchor loses his ability to censor his innermost thoughts and opinions, his already rocky career takes a nosedive. On the plus side, his unfiltered comments put the comedy in this rom-com, while the romance between our news anchor and variety show writer begins with an awkward — and smelly — meet-hoot.
EPISODES 1-2
This isn’t the first time dramaland has introduced us to an aspiring news anchor with an involuntary habit of revealing the truth, but unlike his Pinocchio counterpart, SONG KI-BAEK (Go Kyung-pyo) hasn’t always lacked a functioning frontal lobe. No, when we first meet Ki-baek, he’s so good at suppressing his inner thoughts and maintaining his facade of perfect professionalism that he suffers from stress-induced IBS, and he nearly has a blowout when he becomes trapped in an elevator with variety show writer OHN WOO-JOO (Kang Hanna).
Unfortunately, through no fault of his own, his reputation takes a dive when his co-anchor’s husband crashes their news broadcast to expose her affair with a celebrity on live television. Although Ki-baek is an innocent bystander who gets caught in the middle of all the on-air drama — and takes the brunt of the husband’s misplaced ire — he doesn’t sit back and enjoy the spilled tea like the rest of us. Instead, he attempts to salvage the broadcast and keep on reporting the news, which results in some hilarious memes that make him not only an internet joke but a less desirable candidate for the coveted news anchor spot. You’d think his extreme professionalism would have earned him some brownie points, but not in this dramaverse.
Meanwhile, Woo-joo is also experiencing some unwanted side effects from the same scandal. It turns out the celebrity with whom Ki-baek’s co-anchor was having an affair was slated to be a guest star on Woo-joo’s variety show, Men on the Run. She needs a replacement ASAP, and given Ki-baek’s recent fall from grace and his flatulence-filled elevator encounter with Woo-joo, she suspects he’s the perfect schmuck to fill the recently vacated spot on her show. Her instincts are screaming that Ki-baek is not as flawless as he appears, and exposing his inner awkwardness will make for excellent variety show fodder.
Ki-baek, however, is reluctant to accept her invitation because, well, once you star on a variety show, there’s apparently no way to recover your career — or dignity. Problem is, though, Ki-baek doesn’t have much say in the matter because, off camera, news anchors are just like any other low-level employee who must succumb to the whims of their superiors. In Ki-baek’s case, that superior is MANAGER KIM SANG-JIN (Jo Han-chul), whose hypocritical and flighty personality has a way of making Ki-baek (internally) miserable. And so, as much as Ki-baek tries to passively discourage Woo-joo’s interest with fictional injuries, Manager Kim accepts Woo-joo’s invitation on Ki-baek’s behalf.
You know how K-dramas are full of male leads who are just naturally perfect at everything? Well, Ki-baek isn’t one of them. Instead, his talents are 100% the result of his hard work. Normally this would be a commendable trait, but there’s a sense of sadness associated with Ki-baek’s manufactured perfection because, instead of striving to better himself in the areas that interest him, he’s actively working to hide his real self in order to become an impossible ideal.
And it’s his desperation to appear a certain way is what drives him to obsessively study and strategize about dodgeball, of all things, in preparation for his appearance on Men on the Run. What he should have been researching, though, is variety shows — namely, how to be charming for the camera, showcase the sponsor’s PPL, and play nice with the high maintenance K-pop idol — or… not.
The K-pop idol in question is Ki-baek’s co-star and opponent in the Men on the Run dodgeball game, and he’s an absolute ass. So much so that even calm and collected Ki-baek can’t resist targeting the idol with multiple dodgeballs to the face. Of course, this behavior is totally not kosher with Woo-joo and her prescribed variety show formula, and so she takes Ki-baek aside to educate him on all things reality television.
While Variety Shows 101 is in session, Ki-baek accidentally falls into the building’s electrical breaker and gets a major shock that really scrambles his noggin’ and removes his filter. You know, the filter that prevents him from saying what’s really on his mind. So when he and Woo-joo return to the filming location — which has been moved outside since Ki-baek’s accident knocked out the recreation center’s power — Ki-baek can’t keep his mouth shut when he sees the K-pop idol abusing staff.
Ki-baek gives the asshole idol a very satisfying dressing down, but he experiences not only instant regret but long-term repercussions when images of his verbal — and almost physical — assault hit the internet. Any hopes Ki-baek may have had of advancing his career are shot, and with every new truth bomb he drops at work, he sinks deeper into professional obscurity. Eventually, he hits a point where the only work Manager Kim is willing to give him is hosting the network’s Branding Awards Ceremony, which is essentially an awards show where the network hands out participation trophies.
Even though this seems like the kind of gig that signals he’s being put out to pasture, Ki-baek believes Manager Kim when he says it’s an opportunity to redeem himself and impress the network. Until then, though, Ki-baek takes an involuntary vacation and uses his staycation to try and re-write his brain. And when the day of the awards show arrives, it appears he’s back to normal. Phew!
Woo-joo is also in attendance at the awards show because she’s scouting new talent for her next concept-to-be-determined variety show. Yeah, after Ki-baek’s unaired cameo on her show, the asshole idol refused to appear on Men on the Run, which was then subsequently canceled. So now she’s scrambling to think of a new original idea and find a talented individual to be her forthcoming show’s host.
KIM JUNG-HEON (Joo Jong-hyuk), the variety show star beloved by every ajumma in and outside Seoul, is extremely interested in Woo-joo’s next project, and when he runs into her at the awards show, he expresses his desire to work with her. Yeah, Woo-joo isn’t interested because these two have a romantic history, and given how frigid the cold shoulder she’s giving him is, it’s safe to say their relationship didn’t end amicably.
Surprisingly, Jung-heon also recognizes Ki-baek, who is politely aloof with his greetings now that his brain is functioning normally again. Ki-baek may be back to his ol’ lying ways, but there’s no mistaking his body language, which clearly indicates he’s not on the best of terms with Jung-heon either. Interesting…
Ki-baek is back in good form at the start of the awards show, but then a makeup artist comes over to pat away the shine on his forehead, the powder makes Ki-baek sneeze, and — Whoop! — his brain’s check engine light comes on again. Needless to say, his off-script commentary is delightfully more interesting — but only to us, the drama’s viewers. One award recipient in particular didn’t take too kindly to having his past drug scandal brought up again, and the awards show abruptly ends when the actor slaps Ki-baek unconscious.
What follows is a dream sequence so trippy you’d think Ki-baek was the one abusing illicit substances — after first watching Everything Everywhere All At Once and the 90s cartoon Street Sharks. When he returns to reality, we see that his life has gone from bad to oh-so-much worse, and so it’s no surprise that he accepts the invitation to join his bestie, YOON JI-HOO (Go Kyu-pil), on a you-don’t-have-to-talk-about-what’s-bothering-you-unless-you-want-to fishing trip.
At the same time, Woo-joo is scouting out locations for her next variety show, and she just so happens to be in the same coastal town as Ki-baek. So, of course, when Ki-baek climbs on top of a rocky ledge to scream out his frustrations to Poseidon and whatever sea cucumbers may be listening nearby, she mistakenly assumes he’s a man preparing to jump off a ledge and put a permanent end to his recent streak of embarrassments. That isn’t the case, of course, so when she climbs up on the rocky precipice in her misguided attempt to save him, she spooks him and causes him to accidentally fall into the ocean. And it wouldn’t be a K-drama if she didn’t fall in with him.
Frankly Speaking is off to a quirky start, but my personal jury is still deliberating on whether or not I’m on board for this particular brand of humor, which was hit or miss over the course of these two episodes. I like the occasional use of cut scenes and CGI to give personality to our characters’ physical surroundings, like the moving mosaic in the jjimjilbang, but Ki-baek’s bath with the talking shark was downright odd.
However, that same (dream?) sequence — along with Ki-baek’s brief visit to stay with his family — did give us some insight to Ki-baek’s perceived relationship with his parents and brothers. Ki-baek’s coworkers assumed he came from a silver spoon family, but the reality is that his parents are poor and his brothers don’t contribute much financially to the household either. It’s Ki-baek who puts most of his money towards supporting his family, which has made him feel used and resentful. And honestly, based on the little we’ve seen of his family, he seems a bit justified in feeling that way, as money was on both his brother and mother’s minds when he elected to stay with them after his scandal with the asshole idol. Then again, Ki-baek definitely has a chip on his shoulder about his humble origins, so it’s entirely possible that he’s also hurt his family while trying to maintain his public facade.
The first couple of episodes have laid some decent groundwork for Ki-baek’s character, but I don’t feel as though we know much about Woo-joo. Well, beyond the fact that the nature of her work makes her aggressively subservient. High energy and determined to make her show a success, she bites her tongue when she needs to appease those with power and influence. Unfortunately, this means she doesn’t stand up for her equally quirky and amusing rookie writers and crew members when they are being unfairly abused by the “talent,” but we do later discover that she regrets not standing up for them when she should have. And when she drunkenly confessed to Ki-baek that she admired him when he told off the asshole idol, I felt like that was the first time we saw a little depth to her manic pixie working girl persona.
I’m definitely going to need a few more episodes of this drama to figure out these characters and form a solid opinion of our story. At this point, it feels like it could either jump the shark as early as next week or become an unexpected hit, like Flex x Cop. Either way, though, I think the one positive thing we can count on is us living vicariously through Ki-baek’s unfiltered opinion on everything and everyone.