A sure sign that my daughter is into whatever I’m watching is when I peek over at her and find her headphones only half on, her eyes on the TV screen. If the over-ear headphones are fully on I know she’s not paying attention and doesn’t like what I’m watching. She also tends to leave the room after a few minutes if she’s not engaged. In the case of “Mr. Plankton” she not only removed her headphones and actively watched, but she stuck around for two full episodes. I also found that I was completely engaged in this dynamic, if uneven, comedy drama about life, death, and everything that matters in between.
Premiering on November 8, 2024 on Netflix, “Mr. Plankton” is essentially a 10-episode dramedy in which two bickering former lovers end up on a road trip to find peace and closure. Written by Jo Yong (“It’s Okay to Not to Be Okay”) and directed by Hong Jong-chan (“Her Private Life”), it revolves around Hae Jo (Woo Do Hwan (“Bloodhounds”)), an errand-runner who had been abandoned by his family as a child, and Jo Jae Mi (Lee Yoo Mi (“Squid Game”)), his ex-girlfriend who is about to get married into a rich family. Coincidentally, they each happen to find out terrible news on the same day (he has a terminal illness with only months (or even weeks) to live, while she discovers she is unable to have children – the one thing she always wanted to do).
Later, on her wedding day to a very sweet man named Eo Heung (Oh Jung Se), Hae Jo shows up and kidnaps Jo Jae Mi. His mission: find his true biological father since the father of his childhood had all but abandoned him upon finding out they were not blood-related.
Having this show run only 10 episodes was the right decision for a couple of reasons. First, it got rid of the unnecessary fluff found in many kdramas and mostly kept the main story moving forward, reducing repetitiveness. Second, in a story that revolves around a man dying from a terminal illness, it kept the show – billed as a comedy despite the darker plot – from becoming overwhelming from its emotions. Unfortunately, it is also because of that lack of deep emotional buy-in from the beginning, that the final moments of the show are less effective than they could have been. And, because there are more than a couple storylines we’re meant to follow, this diluted the impact the main story could have had.
The cast is mostly good in their roles, with a few character misfires here and there. I liked actress Lee Yoo Mi in 2023’s generally panned “Strong Girl Nam Soon” but here her character alternated between sweet and perky (similar to “Strong Girl”) to annoyingly shrill. The end result was that I found myself checking out the moment Jo Jae Mi would start screeching at Hae Jo. And this happened a lot.
I was not too familiar with lead actor Woo Do Hwan prior to this show but found his scrappy character likeable if more than a bit unreliable at times (a character trait Hae Jo is completely honest about so I can’t really find fault in that). When Woo Do Hwan was able to sink into his character’s sadness and abandonment issues he was spellbinding to watch – he’s a really good actor.
And Jo Jae Mi’s older fiancé, played by Oh Jung Se, was incredibly sweet but very naïve. Oh Jung Se is a fantastic character actor who was given the opportunity to shine in his role here, although there was a brief period in Episode 8 where I wondered what Eo Heung was doing, and just what the screenwriter was intending. But fortunately that was short-lived and a more mature Eo Heung showed up in the final two episodes to become a source for Hae Jo to get out of his own way and accept things as they are, and accept himself as well. Their scenes together in the last two episodes were some of my favorites throughout the show.
The only character aside from Jo Jae Mi that bothered me was Eo Heung’s mother, portrayed by Kim Hae Sook, a marvelous actress who has been acting for decades and more recently had roles in the aforementioned “Strong Girl” as well as 2022’s “Under the Queen’s Umbrella” and this year’s “Gyeongseong Creature.” In “Plankton,” Eo Heung’s mother Beom Ho Ja is petty, jealous, and mean until suddenly at the end she has a moment of clarity and admits she loves her son. Pfft. She sure didn’t show it for 9 of the 10 episodes. That role was a disservice to Kim Hae Sook in every way.
During the show as we watch Hae Jo and Jo Jae Mi attempt to reconnect while he searches for his birth father, I never really bought into the notion that the two characters were romantically involved. This wasn’t helped by the fact that the first half of the series Jo Jae Mi was doing her best to return to her fiancé Eo Heung. We did get scenes of Hae Jo and Jo Jae Mi’s past together, but Hae Jo’s past boyfriend behavior with her was antithetical to the character we were introduced to in Episode 1, and for the most part I felt they had the vibe of squabbling siblings versus former romantic partners.
I already mentioned that my daughter stayed and watched a couple episodes with me. This is because the comedy and action of the show are well done and enjoyable to watch. However, my daughter chose to leave the room around Episode 6 because the mildly disjointed storytelling became distracting. Is this a romance? A drama? An action piece in which our hero is being chased by criminals who wish to do him harm? We’re not sure because the show was not sure, bouncing between various characters and storylines. This is the one area in which having 2 additional episodes might have helped, but I’m not sure I can necessarily prove that. Also, once the final credits rolled after the last episode, I realized there were a few smaller plotlines that went unresolved.
I’m also realizing now as I write this review that it sounds very negative, and I don’t mean it to. I did enjoy this series. I appreciated that it did not go for the easy ending (he’s healed! she’s pregnant! they are together!), and I liked both Woo Do Hwan and Oh Jung Se a lot and will pursue watching Woo Do Hwan’s other shows. I binged the series over the course of two evenings and stayed engaged and interested throughout all the episodes, even if I found them uneven. But maybe I would tell you not to binge-watch the entire series like I did. Perhaps if I had spread it out and watched one episode a night then some of the uneven aspects and acting wouldn’t have stood out so much against what was still an enjoyable show to watch.
So do I recommend the show? I do.
My rating: 3.6 out of 5.0 stars
