Forest, Itaewon Class, Tell Me What You Saw: Premiere Watch [2024 Update]

Firefighters, plucky underdogs, and creepy criminals grace our screens in this week’s new premieres.

Forest

Time slot: Wednesday & Thursday
Broadcaster: KBS
Genre: Romance, medical
Episode count: 32

Reasons to watch: Secrets and romance are in the air in Forest, starring Park Hae-jin and Jo Boa. Park Hae-jin seems to have it all: wealth, good looks, and brains, but he’s haunted by a memory loss that leaves him unable to remember his past. Though successful in the corporate world, he leaves it all behind to become a firefighter in the rural countryside and this brings him one step closer to Jo Boa. Jo is a rising star surgeon at her hospital, and despite the brave face she puts on, her own childhood trauma leaves her unable to focus fully on her future. Though the pair inhabit different worlds, they’re both drawn to a mystical forest. In order to sort out their personal traumas and uncover the forest’s mysteries, they must cohabitate among the trees (reason as yet unknown). While they learn more about themselves and the forest, a special romance develops between them.

Itaewon Class

Time slot: Friday & Saturday
Broadcaster: JTBC
Genre: Human, youth, coming-of-age
Episode count: 16 episodes

Reasons to watch: Adapted from a popular webtoon, Park Seo-joon headlines as a young restaurateur who’s unyielding in the face of injustice and part of a youthful “rebellion” in the streets of Seoul. The show takes place in the Itaewon neighborhood, and when we meet our protagonist, he’s determined to stop a major food corporation that’s set to create a large presence in that corner of Seoul. For Park, it’s more than just a resistance to gentrification that’s motivating him. The family who own the corporation, Yoo Jae-myung and Ahn Bo-hyun in particular, have had an outsized influence in shaping Park’s youth–for the worse. But after a rocky youth, including time spent in jail, Park Seo-joon is ready to face Goliath and the world. He has a loyal crew of friends to rely on, including genius sociopath Kim Da-mi and a possible new love in Kwon Nara.

Tell Me What You Saw

Time slot: Saturday & Sunday
Broadcaster: OCN
Genre: Crime, thriller
Episode count: 16 episodes

Reasons to watch: Jang Hyuk is back (still holding onto his glorious mane) with Sooyoung and Jin Se-yeon in this dark tale about tracking down a serial killer who was once thought dead. Jang Hyuk plays a genius profiler whose life is irrevocably changed after his fiancee is murdered in a bombing orchestrated by the serial killer. After her death, he shuts himself off to the world and lives as a recluse. Though the killer had been assumed dead, years after the bombing, the killer seems to be active once more and Jin Seo-yeon seeks out Jang Hyuk for his help with the case. Jin has an ace up her sleeve–Sooyoung, a rookie detective with an eidetic memory; it’s a meeting of infallible eyes and an unparalleled mind. The team will need to rely on every available hand and resource to track down the culprit behind so many deaths and shattered lives.