Drama Digest
The drama recounts the emotional journey of two former lovers who pretend to be together in order to go on a couple’s trip they won at an event.
Song Yi, a cheerful and kind person who is open about her thoughts, believed her mother’s advice that plants, unlike people, never betray you and became a botanical garden curator. However, when her boyfriend Do Kyum, who was her everything, abandons her, she is unable to live proudly and becomes sluggish. Do Kyum is the fiery and self-assured vocalist of an indie music band. As his crew’s reputation grew, he abruptly announced its disbandment and requested a split from Song Yi. When Song Yi tries and fails to win back Do Kyum’s love, she gets a ticket to Jeju Island at a competitive rate of 500:1 and chooses to bring Do Kyum with her. Is this trip going to make a difference between the two?
The Feel-Good Part
As expected of a 4-part drama it is short and sweet. “Check out the event” delivers an interesting story across the span of these few episodes. The cinematography and shoot locations in this mini-series is absolutely gorgeous. The bright colors and all the beautiful shots are stunning and leave you with a happy feeling. The acting and the interaction between the characters was pretty cute. Each character was well-developed, and their dynamic as individuals within their interactions with one another was well-balanced. The dialogues were well-written and the OSTs were also perfect for the show.
The Disappointing Factor
The main issues with short drama’s is the pacing. Since its a short drama the pacing tends to go haywire since they are trying to fit in a lot of elements within that tiny time frame. This particular drama had the complete opposite problem. The pacing was quite slow and dull. This killed the dynamic of the plot progression and prevented any new developments from taking place. Apart from the pacing, even the whole premise of the story is slightly off and make come across to some people as promoting unhealthy relationship standards. The main female lead literally asks her ex-boyfriend to come on, what is essentially, a couple’s trip. With the whole love triangle and everything, most elements of the story were quite predictable.
In-Depth Analysis
Despite being a slight cliche, “Check out the event” is surely an entertaining watch. Especially because it is a mini-series, you can binge it all at once. By focusing on several unsavoury and cringe-worthy elements the drama focuses on bringing out a certain level of depth in their story-telling. Whether or not, this depth comes through is another story. If the pacing of the story had been well-managed and a few more elements had been incorporated then this series could have reached newer heights. Apart from the high production quality, this show certainly has a light-hearted vibe to it making it an easy watch.
Star Power
In my opinion, I think everyone did a good job at their roles and were cast well. There were some very good acting moments, which is rare in shorter dramas like this. The main female lead, Ha Song Yi is played by Girl’s Day member Bang Min Ah. Minah made her acting debut on Roller Coaster (tvN variety show), in the “Frustrated, But Let’s Stick Together” segment. She has since appeared in a number of films and television shows, including “Vampire Idol” and “Beautiful Gong Shim.” She has played her role quite well although her character did get slightly annoying in between certain changes.
Overall Opinion
I would suggest watching “Check out the event” with the most neutral opinion because it is after all a rom-com mini-series. I believe it fulfils its most basic requirements better than most other short K-Dramas. It surely is entertaining and it is a good show to binge on days you’re not sure what to watch.
