Man, that beginning montage just got me right in the heart. Upcoming black comedy Smart Prison Living is about two and a half weeks away from its premiere, and we finally get a small peek at the show, which has been cruelly sparing with its details. The clip isn’t exactly a teaser, it’s more of a behind-the-scenes video, but it gives us an introduction to one of the show’s heroes, Park Hae-soo (Legend of the Blue Sea).
The clip begins with a series of small snippets that show us all of the Answer Me heroes to date, from 1997’s Yoon Yoon-jae (Seo In-gook), to 1994’s Chilbongie (Yoo Yeon-seok) and Garbage (Jung Woo), and, of course, 1988’s Kim Jung-hwan (Ryu Joon-yeol) and Choi Taek (Park Bo-gum). Ahh, the memories, the swoons! And then, we get shots of our newest hero in his baseball uniform, with a caption reading, “The new male lead the Answer Me producers have chosen is coming!” I love how they build up the tension only to reveal his face (insert goat bleat) with a “Who… are you?” right next to him.
Park Hae-soo will be playing superstar baseball pitcher Kim Jae-hyuk, who becomes a criminal overnight due to an accident. The stage actor seems really likable in real life and is adorably shy in front of the camera when he isn’t in character. It seems like there’s a good vibe on set as well: Park Hae-soo betrays his age when he attempts to order coffee from his seat instead of going to the cashier at a cafe, and you can hear Shin PD very nearly swears jokingly as he tells him to get up off his butt, while other staff members call him an old person. It’s pretty cute how flustered Park Hae-soo gets.
Although we get a brief glimpse of Krystal (Bride of the Water God 2017) in the cafe scene—looking refreshingly un-haughty and smiling—I’m impatiently tapping my foot to see more of the ensemble cast. I mean, who wouldn’t, with names like Jung Kyung-ho (Missing 9), Choi Moo-sung (Lookout), Jung Woong-in (My Sassy Girl), Sung Dong-il (The Package), Yoo Jae-myung (Forest of Secrets), Shin Jae-ha (While You Were Sleeping), and Jung Hae-in (While You Were Sleeping) in the mix?
Smart Prison Living will follow Buam-dong Revenge Club in tvN’s Wednesday-Thursday slot, starting on November 22.
