Love brews behind the scenes in satirical romantic comedy K-drama
“Fame is a fickle food,” Emily Dickinson wrote in her cautionary poem of the same name about the vagaries of celebrity.
A century and a half or so later, the “shifting plate” Dickinson wrote of remains an appropriate analogy for the breathless world of Korean entertainment, with its alternating peaks and valleys for stars who burn bright, and wax and wane, before sometimes extinguishing in a blink of an eye.
Behind every star is an agency staffed with determined young managers and armies of publicists and assistants tasked with daily damage control in an industry that hums along on the whims of hungry fans, with a hungrier media mob fanning the merest spark into scandalous flames.
This world serves as the background for the new series Sh**ting Stars, whose curiously stylised title encapsulates the story’s impetus.
At Star Force Entertainment, the top client is Gong Tae-sung (Kim Young-dae), whose smoky eyes adorn advertisements across the city, and whose current volunteer work digging wells in Africa has made him the country’s national sweetheart.
Back in Seoul, Oh Han-byul (Lee Sung-kyung) is the long-suffering publicist who has risen to become the head of the agency’s PR department, a job that guarantees she will never experience a moment’s rest.
A blind date early in the premiere episode goes well for a moment, opposite Park Jung-min in a cameo role, but a brewing scandal quickly puts a stop to it.
A few days later, Oh and a few colleagues go for their physical examination, with each colleague forced to bow out mid-test to put out a new fire. Oh almost makes it to the end, but when trouble brews anew she winds up finishing the day back in the office in a hospital gown.
Speaking of sh**ting stars, the show gives us a front row seat to the previous night’s colonoscopy exam prep, as poor Oh dashes repeatedly to the bathroom during the night to clear herself for the following morning’s test.
Gong has been away in Africa for quite some time and fans as well as some new faces in the office are eagerly awaiting his return. But one person far from happy about this impending homecoming is Oh, who has been stuck under his thumb for six years, ever since a typo she made in a press release that she sent out as a trainee, which mistakenly referred to the star as a eunuch.
He has never her let forget it, and she is haunted by nightmares of Gong attempting to unzip his pants and prove his physical attributes – thankfully, he never gets further than the first button.
Gong is adored by legions of fans and his agency works very hard to maintain his pristine image. He seems to genuinely enjoy his volunteer work in Africa, but once he is back in the office he transforms into a needy prima donna who is clearly very difficult to work for.
When he plays the star again for an interview with a journalist, he coos about the warm and collaborative environment he fosters in the office, in front of an embarrassed battery of agency staff.
Besides expressing his constant frustration with Oh, who he is clearly far too interested in, Gong also needs to settle on a new project. Among the offers is one for ‘Star World’, a hot new project from one of the hottest drama writers in town.
Against everyone’s advice he initially turns it down, setting off a feverish battle between other agents trying to land the part for their own clients.
In the end he takes it, finally convinced when Oh says she wonders what he would be like in the role during a late night call.
The show is about a star and someone that works in his agency, naturally paralleling Gong and Oh’s situation and perhaps foreshadowing how their relationship may progress.
One person instrumental in nudging Gong towards the decision is Kang Yoo-sung. Kang is cool under fire and modest, but he quietly pushes things in certain directions for his clients, without taking credit for the positive outcomes.
He is also played by Yoon Jong-hoon, one of the three major alumni of the hit high-society melodrama The Penthouse featured, along with co-lead Kim and Ha Do-kwon, who plays the head of the agency.
Everything is on the up and up for Gong, whose unflappable confidence is constantly fuelled by the adoration he receives, but a good series needs some real drama, so expect some roadblocks to impede his smooth ride going forward.
After all, as Dickinson closed her poem about celebrity culture: “Men eat of it and die.”
Sh**ting Stars is streaming on Viu