The New Employee is all about workplace romance with short episodes and cute scenes and of course, the genre of this drama is BL. I had read its manhwa and was already familiar with the story and how it goes. Nevertheless, I wanted to watch it and I remember I had fun reading the manhwa so much.
Short Synopsis
Woo Seung-Hyeon is the new employee. He had finally graduated from college(in drama) and lands the position of an intern at the advertising company. He is a bright, optimistic, and cheerful guy with a learning attitude. At the workplace, he then meets his team manager, Kim Jong-Chan who is a workaholic and handsome but is cold and grumpy too.
The relationship between them is not good but will it bloom into a sweet and cute love story? Workplace romance? Enemies to lovers?
Why I watched it?
Manhwa vs Drama
Honestly, I’m not too fond of an adaptation of BL manhwa into drama. It is because most of the adopted dramas I’ve watched have failed to extract and show the actual story and content of the manhwa. It fails to show the whole story based on the manhwa. The storyline is changed to fit into short episodes accordingly.
The story flow in the drama is bad too. Even if they have decided to shorten the story, I always hope that they wouldn’t affect the flow of the drama but it does. In one episode, the main leads meet, and then next episode they fall in love which is ridiculous no matter how much I think.
Usually, BL drama fails to show the beautiful first meeting and excitement when two person like each other. It feels out of place and there is a sense of a disconnection with the characters. You know, when watching drama, we connect with the characters and their feeling. Korean BL drama fails to showcase such matters.
It’s not just Korean BL, even Thai BL and Chinese BL have made me disappointed in such matters. So, I prefer reading manhwa rather than watching their adapted dramas.
Reasons for watching this drama
I was in dilemma about whether to watch this drama or not and was quite skeptical. The dramas are always short in Korean, I don’t know the reason though and the story is fast-paced with no logical situation or circumstances.
There are only a couple of Korean BL that I have enjoyed. Some of them are Semantic Error, To my Star, and Roommates of Poongduck 304. And, most of them have let me down. Recently watched – The director who buys me dinner disappointed me a lot in a sense of story adaptation and story flow. Following that are- Oh! My Assistant and Individual Circumstances. Honestly, I have watched so many, I can even name more.
Anyway, I finally decided to watch this. As a BL fan, I always give in and give chance to new upcoming dramas. And, it was also because of my friend. She told me it has each episode of 20 minutes and the intro and ending are short too. I was like finally, I can watch a proper love story and drama. The fact that episodes were longer than usual was enough to enlighten hope within me.
Did Drama do justice to the Manhwa?
I finished The New Employee in one go in one day. I felt it was short though having full 20 minutes of each episode. Telling the truth, I didn’t expect a lot from it. But, it exceeds a little bit high that other drama in satisfying my so-called expectations for an good BL drama.
The Actors and Their Acting
In the BL genre, it is so so important for an actor to act well. The actors mustn’t feel awkward or uncomfortable with each other otherwise it is seen on the screen and we as an audience can feel and see that awkwardness.
The New Employee’s actors – Kwon Hyuk as Kim Jong Chan and Moon Ji Young as Woo Seung Hyeon, I think did a great job in portraying their characters and their feelings on the screen. It was fun and interesting to watch their interaction and dispute. First and foremost, it didn’t feel awkward watching them and their chemistry was okay and average.
I think they could have done even more better if there were more diverse scenes to act and perform. I know they have the potential to do better than this and I must say I am looking forward to their future projects too.
OSTs
There was one OST that caught my attention when I first heard it. It was an ending song by the way. I couldn’t help but feel uplifted and fresh by listening to it. It is an upbeat slow and calm song that soothes my mind and ear.
There is another OST by the main leads itself. It has a little bit of a ballad genre and is upbeat too. They both have beautiful voices and music fits and suits their voices respectively.
Short episodes & storyline
As I said, the drama felt short. But, it somehow managed to showcase the storyline a little more effectively than most of the other dramas.
In the first episode, I felt the story was rushed and fast-paced. I didn’t understand the perspective and feelings of Kim Jong Chan. Did he like Seung Hyeon or not? It was not shown. It can maybe because the storytelling was done from the perspective of Seung Hyeon. I didn’t understand what Jong Chan wanted.
After a few episodes, I liked the story-paced. I felt manhwa being brought into real life. Since I liked reading the manhwa, I was so happy and grateful that finally, one drama has brought the same content as its manhwa.
They have changed the ending from its manhwa but it was a small change and I liked this ending better and more sensible.
Overall Thoughts
In short, the drama didn’t disappoint me but it was also not perfect. I can only say it tried to put as much as a similar storyline. The performance was average and okay for me.
So, did the drama do justice to the manhwa? I think to some extent, it did. It was not boring to watch and followed the manhwa accurately though some parts were changed. Overall, I would give it 3.5/5 stars.
Let’s Chat
Have you watched this drama? I would love to hear about your experience too. Let me know in the comments.
Else, have you watched any other BL this month? I have watched Color Candy Paradox (Japanese drama) which is good but felt average. In coming days, I am planning to watch My Beautiful Man S2 soon, will post reviews as soon as I watched it. So, Look forward to those posts.
