[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Check Out the Event" Episode 1

Song-I (played by Bang Minah) works in an arboretum and is dumped by her boyfriend Do-gyeom (played by Kwon Hwa-woon) without explanation. "Check Out the Event" teases that his behavior might indeed have a reasonable explanation, but unfortunately Song-I always stops short whenever she hits the odd moment where Roo-ri (played by Lee Joo-myung) is talking to Do-gyeom about some mysterious topic. Nevertheless, Do-gyeom eventually agrees to go with Song-I to Jeju Island to compete in a contest they applied for two months prior.

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Despite being promoted as an award-winning scenario in the opening subtitle, I am not to date particularly impressed with "Check Out the Event" conceptually. The trope of the well-meaning significant other breaking up with a partner to hide some kind of secret is rather played-out. It's hard to top what "Another Miss Oh" did years ago by simply showing the whole event from the uncritical perspective of the heartbroken woman, with the revelation of the man's later reasoning belatedly proving to be a massive miscalculation on his part.

What's worse is that neither Song-I nor Do-gyeom are particularly sympathetic. Song-I is overly clingy and Do-gyeom is overly uncommunicative. Their characters don't necessarily need to be likable but the story at least needs some meaningful stakes. I'm still not sure what the purpose of the Jeju contest actually is. Why does Song-I want to compete in it so badly? Is there some kind of prize at stake, something valuable enough to convince Do-gyeom to go along with the ruse?

One of the more interesting elements is the implication that their guide, Ji-kang (played by An Woo-yeon) appears to have some sort of sinister motive for arranging the entire competition. My guess is that the winners were deliberately chosen because Ji-kang had some reason to believe their relationships were all fraying. So he's not documenting their love stories, but rather their love disintegrations.

That's purely speculative on my part. Frustratingly, "Check Out the Event" really doesn't offer enough in terms of discrete details that I can do much aside from speculate. The exposition of the premise is so minimalist I honestly don't know that much more now compared to when I just read the one sentence synopsis. While future episodes of "Check Out the Event" might flesh out the story in a more compelling way and offer an actual sense of mystery, the first episode by itself is just a complete waste of time.

Review by William Schwartz

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"Check Out the Event" is directed by Kim Ji-hoon-XIV, Lee Han-joon, written by Kim Tae-joo, and features Bang Minah, Kwon Hwa-woon, An Woo-yeon, Kim Hee-chang, Kim Young-sun, Lee Jin-hyuk. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2021/08/14~Now airing, Sat 21:50 on MBC.