What have I been doing this week? I’m glad you asked! Here’s what’s been on my watchlist this week:

*Note: My reviews usually contain spoilers. You have been warned. Proceed at your own risk.*

TV

Misaeng (2014)

I’ll be quite frank, Misaeng was a gruelling watch, but it was so worth it. There’s something innately relatable about how mundanely the show represents office life and I found myself rooting for these character to get their project proposals approved and their presentations to go well.

Jang Geu-rae (Im Si-wan) is the heart of the show, and is our guide through the crazy world of office politics as he learns to navigate it himself. He’s such an easygoing and good-natured young man that I almost wanted to see how he might react when pushed far enough. Lucky for him, he had a supportive group of fellow newbies and they all learnt to survive by learning and helping one another. All four of them have difficult upward climbs in their respective teams, whether it’s dealing with misogyny, realising that you aren’t as smart as you might think, constantly having the threat of being fired looming, or being belittled by your superiors at every turn.

As much as the newbies suffer, we also see the struggles of middle- and upper-management in the show. While there are clearly good and bad choice, the show doesn’t always paint the people who make them in such binary tones. Oh Sang-sik’s (Lee Sung-min) strong moral compass is what ultimately causes his team to suffer, and Director Choi (Lee Kyoung-young) shows remorse for his decisions knowing he deserved what he got in the end. 

The show was actually quite good about being true to life in that sense, and I liked that it didn’t take place over the course of a few short months as a lot of dramas tend to. We got to spend two years with these characters, seeing them growing and evolving as people, and the long-form storytelling fit well with the slow pace of the show. Han Seok-yul’s (Byun Yo-han) arc in particular was really well teased out, going from having a reputation of a lecherous dog to being genuinely loved by his colleagues. His lively personality was what won me over, as I’m sure it did the others, and Byun deserves a huge amount of credit for turning his character around like that.

Finally, I’m glad that the show didn’t give us neatly tied up storylines. Life is messy, and Misaeng shows us that grimness in all its glory, living up to its name. This life is incomplete, and therefore it has time to change and evolve into something beautiful and unique. The most we can do is try our damnedest to be better. YES? YES!

Graphic Novels

Paper Girls (Issue #6-10)

Wow, things really took a turn in these five issues. Erin encountered not one but two different versions of herself, and not only does she have to contend with the fact that the older version of her isn’t the ideal future she would have imagined for herself, but her clone also turned out to be evil! 

The girls were reunited at the end of Issue #10, but not after some major trials and Mac also learned a hard truth about her future. Mac in particular is a wild card, but all the girls seems to be showing the volatile traits that come with the territory of being a teenage girl; that strange combination of untrusting, overconfident, self-doubting – and it’s all amplified by the fantastical scenario they’re in.

The artwork continues to be a delight, the colour palette in particular setting the tone and complimenting the writing perfectly. Now that the papergirls have been reunited, I’m curious to see how things move forward. It’s most likely going to test loyalties, but I have faith that the girls will make it through to the other side intact.