MBC’s got a fresh slate of prime-time weekday dramas on the way, which will hopefully turn things around for the network ratings-wise, following the rather dismal showing from The Great Seducer and Let’s Hold Hands and Watch the Sunset.
Investigation Couple
Time slot: Monday & Tuesday
Broadcaster: MBC
Genre: Crime procedural
Episode count: 32 (half-hour episodes, 16 hours total)
Reasons to watch: This is a forensic investigation procedural that promises hard-hitting crime and no romance, so I think that pretty much says it all to help you decide whether it’s in your wheelhouse. Veteran actor Jung Jae-young is probably the biggest reason to watch this, since he’s got a meaty antihero role as a geeeeenius medical examiner who’s obsessed with his work and completely insensitive to everything else around him. Jung Yumi (of Bravo My Life and Six Flying Dragons) co-stars as the rookie prosecutor who has to deal with his idiosyncrasies to solve her cases. This comes from PD Noh Do-chul of Ruler–Master of the Mask, General Hospital 2, and Soulmate, among others. That’s kind of a mixed bag and the less said about Ruler–Master of the Mask, the better, so hopefully the crime procedural is more his thing.
Come Here and Hug Me
Time slot: Wednesday & Thursday
Broadcaster: MBC
Genre: Romance melodrama
Episode count: 32 (half-hour episodes, 16 hours total)
Reasons to watch: This is a melodrama about the son of a serial killer who falls in love with the daughter of one of his victims. Talk about your obstacles to love, sheesh. It’s a cast of fresh faces, and I’m most interested to see up-and-comer Jang Ki-yong (My Ajusshi, Go Back Spouses) step into his first leading role after playing some memorable supporting characters in the last year. He plays a cop and the son of a notorious psychopathic serial killer, who reconnects with his first love only to find that they’re horribly linked through one of his father’s crimes. Jin Ki-joo is also headlining her first drama after small roles in Misty and Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo, and here she’ll be playing a young starlet with a tragic past. I can’t imagine worse odds stacked against a couple, but if dramas have taught us anything, it’s that the more ill-fated lovers are, the stronger the pull.