‘Idol I’ K-Drama review: Sooyoung and Kim Jae-young helm a whodunit amidst glitz, glamour and deception

In the first episode of Idol I, Do La-ik (Kim Jae-young), a famous singer and member of the group Gold Boys is on his couch and cradling a drink when he suddenly calls out to someone seemingly in his house. We assume he was all alone at home and in what feels like a jumpscare, two women jump out from behind the curtains, self-professed rabid fans of his who admonish him for drinking and not taking enough care of himself. 

This K-Drama which places an idol (a popular term used to refer to an entertainer in the music industry) at its centre starts off by making its viewers squirm. Do La-ik has to contend with fans stalking him, aggressive behaviour at a fansign event, gossipy reporters on his tail and his deteriorating mental health. If you are a K-pop stan, it wouldn’t take you long to identify some of these isolated incidents that have been seemingly inspired by real-life happenings. 

Matters soon come to a head when La-ik’s bandmate and friend is found murdered in his apartment and he is named the primary suspect. La-ik’s inability to remember anything from the night of the incident, having passed out drunk and on heavy medication doesn’t help his case. 

Enter Maeng Se-na(Choi Sooyoung), a competent, no-nonsense attorney who is rising up the ranks as a lawyer for the wrongfully convicted. Se-na might be a workaholic who seemingly abhors all niceties, but her one big secret is that she is a secret fangirl of Gold Boys and particularly La-ik. When her favourite idol is convicted, she makes a beeline to defend him. Her decision however isn’t just driven by her being a fan; she is convinced he is innocent, and doesn’t want him wrongfully persecuted much like her father was many years ago. 

Over the course of twelve episodes, Idol I plays out like a slow-burn whodunit. Alongside an ongoing police investigation, and an obnoxious prosecutor Kwak Byung-gyun(Jung Jae-kwang) hell bent on indicting La-ik, Sae-na sets out to uncover what really happened. The Gold Boys were a group in turmoil and this infighting makes up for a bulk of the drama, but so does their strained ties with their agency and Laik’s shaky ties with his mother. For a chunk of its runtime, La-ik too seems to be unreliable when it comes to his version of how it all happened and this helps with the suspense. He is infuriatingly stubborn and refuses to cooperate as Se-na plods along to help his cause. 

A still from ‘Idol I’
| Photo Credit:
Netflix

For Se-na, who is a fangirl, having her favourite idol co-habit with her might be the stuff of dreams and elaborate fanfiction, but she insists on boundaries and stashes away all her mech and life-size posters in a bid to be professional about it all. A show like this of course, requires a willing suspension of disbelief especially given how there is a slow and steady relationship that develops between Se-na and La-ik; a strict no-no if you’re going to look at how ethical this all is. The show can’t quite make its mind up about Se-na; if she is shown as someone who is capable of drawing boundaries, we soon rewind to see how heartbroken she was when her celebrity crush was rumoured to have been in a relationship. Why this dissonance when it comes to a character who is otherwise shown to be smart, capable and empathetic? 

It helps however that the show has a central mystery that sustains interest, and has earnest, likable leads. In a nice touch of meta casting, it is Sooyoung, a hugely successful idol in real-life, who plays the fangirl here. Both she and Kim Jae-young slip into their roles with ease and make a case for their characters, each dealing with demons of a different kind. Jung Jae-kwang, who was last seen as a brooding anesthesiologist in Trauma Code: Heroes On Call gets an interesting character here, and isn’t just a one-note villain who hams it up. 

In its latter half, Idol I could have done with tighter writing since much like the investigating team on the show, we are also left groping in the dark as to how all of this will eventually go down. The show thankfully does find its footing towards the end, and instead of an abrupt end, manages to dwell on whether everyone does manage to emerge from all the chaos, unscathed. 

There have been several K-Dramas in the past that include the 2021 show Imitation which focuses on the toll of being under public scrutiny and the harsher realities of fame, Idol I however makes for an entertaining whodunit over anything else. Come for the suspense, and stay for the reveal, with romance sprinkled in of course. 

Idol I is currently available to stream on Netflix