Mr. Plankton review: Angsty romance and complex characters make this a captivating watch despite not having a happy ending

Mr.Plankton's Woo Do-Hwan and Lee Yoo-Mi were an on-screen pair we didn’t know we needed. Here's why!

Mr.Plankton review: K-dramas are what we all love going to when we want to feel good and forget about our boring lives. But then there’s a whole sub-genre within K-dramas called ‘K-traumas’ that’ll leave you gutted as if you are the one who has broken up. The genre that builds this magical world of romance and love is also the same genre that brings us back down to earth in a split second. Twenty-Five Twenty-One (2022) starring Nam Joo-Hyuk and Kim Tae-Ri still has us waiting for season 2 like fools, hoping for them to get together. But news flash people, it ain’t happening! 21st Century Girl starring Byeon Woo-Seok and Kim Yoo-Jung unexpectedly had us weeping like a baby when he dies in the end. We’re still reeling from the trauma in these stories, and if that wasn’t enough, they’ve put Mr. Plankton in our lap.

The whole premise of this limited series itself revolves around Hae-Jo (Woo Do-Hwan) who has just three months to live as he finds out that he has a terminal illness. This makes him want to go on an extremely unexpected adventure. But to make it more interesting for himself, he takes his ex-girlfriend, Jo Jae-Mi (Lee Yoo-Mi) along with him. Just like him, she was also struck with bad news about getting early menopause which shattered her dreams of wanting to become a mother. She was about to marry Eo-Heung (Oh Jung-Se), who is from an extremely conservative family, and his mother agreed to them getting married only because he lied that she is pregnant. So when Hae-Jo enters her life without any notice and literally carries her with him on his little road trip, it was a given that Eo-Heung would follow her to the ends of the earth as well. 

Also Read: No Gain No Love review: Shin Min-A and Kim Young-Dae redefine K-drama norms while staying true to its essence!

Hae-Jo and Jae-Mi had such unexpected ups and downs on the journey that they embarked on and of course through the course of it all, they fell for each other again. There’s no doubt that a lot of Hae-Jo’s characteristics make him look like a red flag but what I like is that the story does not glorify it anyway. It very clearly tells you from the very beginning itself that he is a complicated human being with some rather serious issues. He struggles with accepting love and constantly abandons people who love him; by the end of the series I honestly lost count of how many times he tried pushing her away. Sometimes it was so that she lived a better life with Eo-Heung and sometimes it was because he knew he was dying so he did not want her to be heartbroken. But in a very weird sense, they both were each other’s comfort. There was no one who knew Jae-Mi better than Hae-Jo and vice versa. When you see them as a third person, you see silly banters, open conversations like two best friends would have and lots of love that they have for each other. Which is why it hurts you in the end when they cannot be together. The sexual tension and the angst that the two bring on-screen is the highlight of the show and what kept me going throughout! He is one of those ‘bad boy turned good only for one girl’ kind of guy, so that and his abs are something that’ll blur your mind and leave you conflicted of what you truly feel for him.

I love that there’s also so much the supporting characters had to offer. If Hae-Jo is the bad guy you fall for then Eo-Heung is the opposite end on that spectrum. He is the nice guy who is beyond loyal to the one he loves, your heart will ache for him throughout the ten episodes. His character is walked on by everyone and taken for granted like most kind people are, until he gets his life together and truly finds himself. Lee-El as Bong-Suk and Kim Min-Seok as Kkari are also characters that make you want to find out more about them. Bong-Suk is the one who took Hae-Jo in when he was homeless as a teenager. She taught him how to work, put a roof over him and gave him food to eat. Point to note here is that within those 10 years it feels like she hasn’t aged at all, which of course is our fascination with most Koreans in general. But her whole wardrobe is to die for! From a sexy black slip dress to extravagant fur coats, she stands out in every scene that she is in. Whereas Kkari brings in the much needed comedic effect required in a series like this. None of the characters ever felt like we could do without them; they contributed in enhancing the story more. 

I have often noticed that in shows where the leads aren’t ending up together or if one of them is dying, the romance is through the roof. The more they fall in love, the more we feel the pain, right? Mr. Plankton is created by the makers of previously popular K-dramas like It's Okay To Not Be Okay and Her Private Life, which were also based on similar themes of living without a parent and complicated love arcs. This show might look like another ‘K-trauma’ to us but, truly in its core, it's a lesson on how complex human beings can be. It's about finding your tribe and loving them like there’s no tomorrow. What brought Hae-Jo and Jae-Mi together was their commonality of bad luck in life, they truly were a match made in hell as she likes to call it. Even though the two could not be together on the show, their stunning photoshoots are all over my Instagram and that is the only ending I will accept!

Mr.Plankton is currently streaming on Netflix!

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