Review- PUCK! – (2 ep miniseries)

Jaime the Drama Noona recommended PUCK! starring Lee Kwang-Soo and I’m glad she did. Some K-Dramas just make you feel better about yourself.  For example, this K-Drama made me feel better about how crap my finances are… and my mismanagement of them.  Apparently I am not alone in the world of hopeless debt and broken dreams.  This was strangely comforting to me.  It also made me feel better about how lonely I am and how difficult it is to connect to people, but that’s a tale to be saved for my shrink.

PUCK! is the story of a loan shark… or rather, an “enforcer” who works for a loan shark.  You know, the guy sent to beat you up and scream “Where’s My Money?!”  That guy.  It’s actually great casting for him.  He’s a big dude.  This is the first time I’ve seen him play someone openly hostile.  I’ve seen him fall in love and sob-snot-cry and be adorable and funny and lovable.  I have not seen him throw someone down a flight of stairs before, however, so let’s just say this little show let Lee Kwang-Soo stretch his legs a bit.

The plot didn’t interest me at all.  I didn’t care one bit whether or not the good-hearted hockey underdogs ever won a game.  I didn’t care that Lee Kwang-Soo magically mastered some impressive ice skating abilities in… what?  One day?  The time line of this show was rather ambiguous but however long it was, it wasn’t long enough.  Anyways, it doesn’t matter.   None of it mattered.  This was more of a character study than anything else:   A brief glimpse into the psychological life of what is usually a cliche one dimensional character, the loan shark.  It’s like when a random storm trooper took their helmet off in The Force Awakens and suddenly there was a character there instead of a blank slate.

So, it’s basically about this horribly depressed and hopeless loan shark lacky.  And the things he has to do.  And the toll it takes on him.   Whether or not you considered this little show to have a happy ending or not depends on what you were focusing on.  I thought it had one of the most devastatingly sad endings of all time.  And I liked it.  It was different.  It was short.  It was nice to have Lee Kwang-Soo as the main character and the handsome boys play the second leads for one.  The bleak focus on poverty, the precarious financial stability of the average person, and the desperation it can create really worked for this little show.  It reminded me, in a way, of What Happened in Bali… where Ha Ji-Won was basically ruined by her dire financial circumstances.

So check it out.  To take a break from the longer dramas.  To enjoy Lee Kwang-Soo.  To explore the dynamics of loan sharks.  To watch some unbelievable hockey.  There’s more than one reason you might enjoy this show…

Overall Rating – 8/10