The Contemporary Art Piece
Good Casting returns for a Mi-Soon-lite episode as we predominantly follow Ye-Eul and Chan-Mi instead for the duration of the hour. As romance starts to filter into the show between Chan-Mi and CEO Yoon and also Woo-Won and Ye-Eul, Good Casting ditches some of its early stylistic slickness and replaces it with a more simplistic structure. This time around though we see things start to heat up as the darker elements of the main plot come into the foreground too. Good Casting episode 8 begins with Chief Seo revealed as the mysterious Michael. Heading back to his office, he notices the number calling and immediately traces it back to Chan-Mi, hanging up instantly. Cursing his luck, he bemoans not killing her 3 years ago before phoning through and asking for a report of where Chan-Mi currently is. Meanwhile, Mi-Soon sees what’s happened to her face surrounding the smudged war paint and screams at her own reflection in the van. Mr Ok looks in his office for the camera, it turns out she’s actually taken it with her. Only, it turns out they’ve actually taken his camera with them and he sees the group together in the van. CEO Yoon organises a business meeting and he’s advised to take Ms. Baek with him. She’s approached regarding Yoon’s schedule and she agrees to drive him…but needs a fake driving licence in order to do so. Meanwhile, Yoon’s jealous ex decides to look into Chan-Mi and learn just who she really is. For now though, Chan-Mi heads out onto the road but Chief Seo is wise to what’s happening and has his men follow them from afar. While they do, we jump back in time and see more of Yoon and Chan-Mi’s past including him helping her make sure she doesn’t get wet in the rain while at college and walking away with the familiar cuddly toy we’ve seen so much of. Woo-Won meanwhile continues to suffer from nightmares, a side effect to what’s happened previously and his memory loss. Ye-Eun rushes to help Woo-Won right on the eve of her husband’s death anniversary thanks to some urgent texts. It’s one step too far for her though as it turns out he just wanted to order her to cook dishes using his new rice cooker. Midway through she notices his drawings and asks him just what what he was doing, especially given these hideous drawings appear to be of Mi-Soon. Convincing him it has artistic merit, when Ye-Eun phones through to Mr Dong and shows him, they look at the images incredulously and wonder if a child drew it. Ye-Eul starts to become paranoid though, believing Woo-Won is starting to get his memories back. Meanwhile, Yoon’s associate heads to his scheduled meeting with Cheol-Woong and learns Director Cheol has a secret ledger. Unfortunately he doesn’t get much more information other than that but thanks to him spilling these secrets, a masked figure arrives when he leaves to tie up loose ends. As Ye-Eul improvises her way through the conversation with Woo-Won about his drawing, the team work on a fake contemporary art persona known as Dong Casso to trick him. While she does, Ye-Eul’s daughter is approached by a shadowy man at the park. As she looks up and asks if he’s her Father, we fade to black. After leaving Woo-Won’s apartment, a black car arrives and tails Ye-Eul on the road. When Woo-Won leaves he notices her food on the floor but no Ye-Eul in sight. Has she been kidnapped? Do they have her child for leverage in doing so? For now, we’re left in the dark over what this means. Meanwhile, the car that’s been following Chan-Mi throughout the episode finally opens up to reveal Chan-Mi’s assailant who makes their move and leads to the duo fighting. He eventually overpowers her though and manages to knock her out, just as CEO Yoon tries ringing through. However, he seemingly notices her passed out on the ground and stares in shock. During the epilogue, Woo-Won meets Dong Casso in one of the funniest skits of the entire series, meeting him and taking a photo of his drawing which is where the episode ends. While the epilogues each episode are good, it is somewhat tonally jarring to see these humorous segments right on the back of more dramatic and tense scenes. It’s especially evident here given the shocking climax but the bomb blast is another such example that just doesn’t work as well as it could. Still, the main narrative is interesting and with no Mi-Soon this week, the series instead focuses on our other two leading ladies to flesh out their characters more. It’s certainly good for the show, given the amount of screen-time they both have, and this combines nicely with the overarching narrative which looks like there may be more action in store for us next week. For now though, Good Casting bows out with another good episode and while it may not be the best Korean drama of the year, it’s an enjoyable, light-hearted effort nonetheless. Published: 23 May 2020 at 20:39 pm on TheReviewGeek.com
