Series with stars returning to small screen to air in January
From left, posters for SBS series "Payback,” MBC series “Kokdu: Season of Deity,” and ENA series “Can We Be Strangers” / Courtesy of SBS, MBC, ENA
By Lee Gyu-lee
A number of actors, including Jeon Do-yeon, Lee Sun-kyun, Moon Chae-won, Kang So-ra, and Kim Jung-hyun, are making small-screen comebacks with a list of upcoming series set for this month.
SBS will drop its first series of the year, "Payback,” starring Lee and Moon. This will be the first TV series in four years for Lee and three years for Moon.
The legal action series, which will premiere on Friday, revolves around investment manager Eun Yong (Lee) who owns and runs a private equity firm, and military judicial officer Park Joon-kyung (Moon), who is a former prosecutor.
After her mother takes her own life, Joon-kyung moves to find the truth and take revenge on the people who drove her mother to suicide. Joining hands, Joon-kyung and Yong go against a dark, powerful financial cartel and shed light on its corrupt practices.
The series is led by filmmaker Lee Won-tae, whose work includes the thriller flick “The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil” (2019), and is written by Kim Won-suk, who co-scripted the smash-hit series “Descendants of the Sun.”
Jeon has picked the romantic comedy series, “Crash Course in Romance,” as her first small screen work since the 2021 drama, “Lost.”
A scene from the series “Crash Course in Romance” / Courtesy of tvN
The tvN series, set to start airing on Jan. 14, follows the story of a single mother, Nam Haeng-sun (Jeon), who is a former national team handball player. After giving up her sports career to raise her daughter and look after her sick brother, she has been running a small, side-dish food shop to make ends meet.
When her teenage daughter tries to receive a lecture from a celebrity math instructor, Choi Chi-yeol (Jung Kyung-ho), Haeng-sun steps into the cutthroat world of private education for high schoolers.
This is the third series for which director Yu Je-won and scriptwriter Yang Hee-seung are joining hands, following the rom-com series “High School King of Savvy” (2014), and “Oh My Ghost” (2015).
MBC's first series of this year will be the fantasy romance series “Kokdu: Season of Deity,” which is scheduled to go on air on Jan. 27. This is the first series in three years for Kim Jung-hyun since the hit series “Mr. Queen” (2020).
The rom-com series will revolve around a god of death called Kokdu (Kim), which comes back from the underworld every 99 years, and ER doctor Han Gye-jeol (Im Soo-hyang).
Kokdu wakes up in the body of a successful surgeon, Do Jin-woo, in the human world and gets himself romantically involved with Gye-jeol as working together at the same hospital.
The series is led by director Baek Soo-chan, whose work includes the mystery romance series “The Girl Who Sees Scents” (2015) and the action series “Alice” (2020), and is co-scripted by Heo Joon-woo and Kang Yi-hun who both wrote the 2018 crime series “Less Than Evil.”
Actress Kang has taken on her first TV series, “Can We Be Strangers,” in about six years since playing the lead in the 2017 rom-com “Revolutionary Love.”
The new series of ENA, set to debut on Jan. 18, will follow the love and life of lawyers specifically dealing with divorce cases, Oh Ha-ra (Kang) and Ku Eun-beom (Jang Seung-jo).
Ha-ra is a successful lawyer who has gone through a divorce herself with Eung-beom. She is eager to find new love after a failed marriage, but her plan meets a huge obstacle when her ex-husband joins her law firm, leading them to work together as colleagues.
The series is directed by Kim Yang-hee, whose previous work is the black comedy, one-episode series “On the Way to the Gynecologist,” and is written by the newcomer Park Sa-rang.