Lee Sung Jin is a South Korean writer and producer who has been working in Hollywood for over 15 years. His work has almost been exclusively in television sitcoms. He's worked on shows like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005), 2 Broke Girls (2011) and Dave (2020). He was nominated for an Emmy Award for his work on HBO's Silicon Valley (2014). With the exception of Silicon Valley, I haven't really indulged in any of the programs with his fingerprints on it. This is really my first introduction to Lee Sung Jin and what he can do. I was definitely impressed. The series could work as a drama. Otherwise, it's more black comedy or dark humor, as it's more of an examination of people engaging in dark or demented things with a satirical tone to it all.
Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead and Minari) stars as Danny Cho, a Korean American living in Los Angeles. He has his own business as a contractor. He seems to do a lot of repair work in and around homes. He also does landscaping. He wants to do more, but he's frustrated because it seems as though his reputation isn't the best. He's currently struggling because his hope is to raise enough money to bring his Korean parents to the United States and provide them their own residence. In order to do so, he wants to grow his business, but he needs a bank loan. Unfortunately, he keeps getting rejected, probably due to bad credit. He keeps bumping into roadblocks and clearly he's at a breaking point. Yeun's performance conveys that frustration so effectively and shows that Danny could snap at any moment.
Ali Wong (Tuca & Bertie and Always Be My Maybe) co-stars as Amy Lau, a Vietnamese American, also living in Los Angeles, but she lives in a far better part of town, a wealthier part of town. She too is a business owner, but business for her seems to be going very well. So much so, she's on the verge of making a deal that would sell her company to an extremely, if not stupidly wealthy woman. Amy has a lot of anxiety over this deal and achieving it is causing frustration to some degree and pushing her to a breaking point as well.
Danny and Amy converge one day in a parking lot where the two almost have a fender-bender, but their cars never actually touch. It was a literal miss. However, their interaction results in both of them becoming highly offended and angry. This then escalates to serious road rage, which even after the parking lot incident results in a rivalry or a kind of civil war that continues between the two of them for months. This series depicts that so-called civil war, which only keeps escalating until ending with physical harm and death.
When the series began, I was reminded of Damián Szifron's Wild Tales (2015), which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards. Szifron's film consisted of six, short films. One of which was "El más fuerte," which was about two men engaged in a road rage incident that escalates in both of them attempting to gain one-upmanship but eventually it becomes all about them attempting to gain bitter revenge. Szifron's film takes this road rage to its logical conclusion, if one was adapting the old saying from Confucius, "He who seeks revenge dig two graves." Given that there is a scene in this series that is very similar to the grave-inducing scene in Wild Tales, one can see where this series is going. Yet, there are tons of twists and turns along the way.
Young Mazino (Prodigal Son and Blue Bloods) also co-stars as Paul Cho, the younger brother to Danny. He was meant to go to college and try to do something better with his life. Things didn't quite work out and Paul ended up staying in his brother's crappy apartment, getting by on odd jobs. He occasionally will work with his brother, but he never wanted to do so. He loves his brother, but clearly wanted to separate himself. He's a young sexy guy, but he seems to be having trouble finding a romantic partner. He definitely has the capacity to love and treat a woman with respect and with a big heart.
Joseph Lee (Star Trek: Picard and Searching) rounds out the main cast as George Nakai, a Japanese American who is the husband of Amy. He's also the father to their daughter who looks like she could be five or six. George is an artist. He makes sculptures, often small ones. His late father was also an artist. George has in fact inherited some of his father's work, which is possibly worth a good deal of money. George's work though doesn't appear to have the same kind of value. Yet, he and Amy live in the lap of luxury, so he can indulge in his art.
Issues abound in Amy and George's marriage. They have a therapist. George is aware and cautious of Amy having access to a gun, which indicates perhaps some issues regarding violence or gun safety. However, it's also revealed that the reason for their therapy might have something to do with George possibly being unfaithful. The exact impetus for the therapy isn't clear but one can see the cracks in their relationship. It's exacerbated with the presence of George's mother, Fumi, played by Patti Yasutake (The Closer and Star Trek: The Next Generation).
The mother is no angel, which only reveals how every character in this series is flawed or not above some kind of lie or manipulation. Lee Sung Jin's thesis statement here might speak to that idea. It might speak to how everyone is capable of lying and manipulating, as well as having to do so in order to survive or to achieve whatever status one desires. Justin H. Min (After Yang and The Umbrella Academy) plays Edwin, a pastor at a local church who also proves that even he isn't above being shady in order to get what he wants. There's also a theme here about loneliness and on how desperate people can get not to be lonely or how loneliness and isolation can push people to do crazy things.
Rated TV-MA.
Running Time: 30 mins. / 10 eps.
Available on Netflix.
