Premiere Watch: We Are All Trying Here

by stroopwafel

Time slot: Saturday & Sunday
Broadcaster: JTBC
Genre: Black comedy, drama, human, romance
Episode count: 12
Global streamer: Netflix

Reasons to watch: Struggle is the name of the game in the latest JTBC drama, We Are All Trying Here. The cast is full of powerhouse actors, with Gu Kyo-hwan, Go Yoon-jung, Oh Jung-se, Kang Mal-geum, Park Hae-joon, and Han Sun-hwa in our main cast.

Gu Kyo-hwan headlines as an aspiring–or perhaps failed–filmmaker whose future looks bright in his twenties. He had been part of a group of other creatives who debuted and found success in cinema (such as Oh Jung-se and Kang Mal-geum), but as the years crept by, he’s the only one who hasn’t managed to debut. He can’t escape the feeling that he’s past his best-by-date, yet he can’t quite give up on his script and movie dreams.

Go Yoon-jung is also in the film industry, as a producer, and when she reads Gu’s script, she’s deeply moved, and the two of them connect on an emotional level and romance develops between them. In parallel, we’ll see how failure and discontent also impacts our other players, including Park Hae-joon and Han Sun-hwa.

All the elements of this show, from the cast, to the writer Park Hae-young, and PD Cha Young-hoon, are calling out to me. The story has all the makings of a poignant, darkly funny telling of how we measure our lives, and the ways that people deal with the grief of unfulfilled dreams. I’m ready to laugh and cry (and knowing Park Hae-young, cry some more).

 
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