[Review] Level 7 Civil Servant – 7급 공무원

DOUBLE OH-NO

Han Gil Ro (Joo Won) has been dreaming of becoming a spy ever since watching his first 007 movie.  While Kim Seo Won (Choi Kang Hee) only wants to secure a stable job to financially support her family.  Gil Ro and Seo Won start off on the wrong foot and must deal with the many trust issues that plagues their relationship.  Meanwhile a shadowy figure sets his sights on taking down the National Intelligence Service.

Sigh… where do I begin with this travesty of a drama?  The drama veers far from the initial movie’s plot.  The only similar thread is how trust plays a big part in the relationship but it was illogical to have both Gil Ro and Seo Won apply to become agents at the same time.

By knowing the fact that they are both in the same program, wouldn’t you be able to guesstimate some of their motives as well?  Without good intuition, I don’t think that would make for a good spy.

However, that’s not the biggest beef I have with the drama.  Joo Won and Choi Kang Hee extraordinarily lack any chemistry.  In fact, I think she was miscast altogether as she lacks chemistry with Hwang Chan Sung as well, who plays Gong Do Ha.

The problem is not her acting and at first glance one might point to her age.  But it’s not that either.  Age doesn’t play a huge factor in the drama anyways.  She just looks awkward acting opposite the two male leads whenever they have to portray moment of tenderness.  You can’t have a romcom with the chemistry.  It just doesn’t work like that.

While lack of chemistry is the drama’s biggest downfall, the problems don’t end there.  The plot has our villians, Choi Woo Hyuk (Uhm Tae Woong), Kim Mi Rae (Kim Soo Hyeon) and Choi Woo Jin (Im Yoon Ho), getting revenge for their parents’ demise through corporate espionage.

I get that money drives people to kill but the crisis of the situation ranges from disappointing to being completely ridiculous.  The drama spends too much time with the setup, location settings but doesn’t support that with any substance.

The thing in Gil Ro’s dad’s company, is it worth killing for?  I’m not convinced.  Why would the NIS agents care to the degree that they do?  This just looks like a job for a mere prosecutor rather than spies.

Despite that, Im Yoon Ho is a relatively new actor and I think he did a good job in the drama.  It’s just too bad he didn’t have a great script to work with.  I would like to keep my eye out for him in something different.

As for the parents, I find them exceedingly annoying.  They provide most of the comedy in the drama and I’ll admit that they made me laugh but they acted more as time fillers for a drama with no substance.  Whenever they’re used to provide obstacles for Gil Ro and Seo Won, it seemed like an endless cycle of how do I keep this drama progressing despite the fact that I have nothing to show for it.  There wasn’t enough to keep this drama going for 16 episodes but to give this episode a 20 episode run?  Yeah, no.  That was a complete failure.

For a trendy drama, I can forgive a lot of ridiculous plot developments as long as it remains entertaining.  However not even the star power of Joo Won or Choi Kang Hee could rescue this train wreck.  I’m surprised I made it all the way through the drama but that’s probably because I spent a lot of time on my phone playing Anipang trying to improve my score while watching the drama.

The OST is pretty good and I sang along while the songs played.  That’s about the only positive thing I can say about it though.

Park Ji Hyun – 꽃이 핀다 (Flowers are Blooming)

박지헌 – 꽃이 핀다

Mostly, the drama reminds me of that scene in Austin Powers when the villain Random Task throws the shoe at Austin’s head. “That really hurt! I’m gonna have a lump there, you idiot! Who throws a shoe?! Honestly! You fight like a woman!”  Yeah, Austin.  I can commiserate with you there.

Rating