Old money’s desire for success goes empty
‘Sky Castle’ hits JTBC’s record 19.2 percent viewership
JTBC’s TV series “Sky Castle” rewrote the cable network’s history, hitting its highest ever viewership ratings.
The 16th episode of the drama that aired last week hit 19.2 percent of nationwide viewership, according to research firm Nielson Korea.
“Sky Castle” depicts the luxurious lifestyles of the top 0.1 percent families living in European-style mansions in suburban Seoul.
As the title indicates, it revolves around four “blue-blooded” couples, born with silver spoons in their mouths who have led luxurious lifestyles, thanks to their enormous wealth inherited from their parents.
The new focus of the couples lies on their children attending high school and preparing for university admissions.
Sky in the title of the TV series is also an acronym of nation’s top three universities — Seoul National, Korea and Yonsei universities.
The TV series is about dirty, sexy money. It shows that these luxurious lifestyles — lives that ordinary people feeling the financial pinch have been fantasizing about — are empty at best.
Beneath the surface of their seemingly perfect existences lies cruel competition to achieve their goals at the expense of others.
It’s also about the rich parents’ insane educational investments for the success of their children.
Experts say the JTBC drama is popular because it touches all the hot topics that the general public is craving — education, money and the luxurious lifestyles of the incredibly wealthy.
But viewers’ reactions to the show has been somewhat complicated. While viewers are anxious to live a luxurious life free of worldly worries, such as money, they know that mon- ey is not the end of all problems.
So what they do is see that the greedy rich who have it all pay the price for their given privilege, just as they are struggling in their lives.
“The drama not only features the hottest issue in contemporary Korean society — the country’s education system and crazy competition among people — it also gives some sort of catharsis to viewers as the families the audience fantasizes about, break down,” culture critic Jung Duk-hyun said.
“The drama is different from other dramas featuring an overheated Korean education environment, by showing the unknown world of ‘the education coordinator,’” he added.
In the drama, the coordinator or personal counselor, Kim Ju-young is depicted as the person holding the keys for the children’s success.
She charges the parents over 100 million won a year in return for her counseling services. Despite the insane price, moms are desperate to get her.
No one knows that Kim is a cold-blooded, ruthless person who had led a whole family to breakdown in the past.
Jung said the TV series inspired viewers to understand that money is not a panacea.
“The elite families in the show put enormous amounts of money towards their children’s educations and it eventually fails,” he said.
“In reality, people get what they have invested. People put in insane amounts of money and get what they want. But the elite families in the show put in enormous amounts of money and effort but still eventually break down.”
The viewer rating of the drama reached its peak last week as it aired the suspicious death of self-made student Hyena, who earned a tutor job for her academic excellence.
Her death triggers catastrophic turns for the rich couples as she is believed to be born out of wedlock and her father is one of the four husbands.
The 20-episode drama, airs on Fridays and Saturdays at 11 p.m.