Seo Kang-joon‘s popularity is extraordinary. He is enjoying a surge in popularity by taking both viewership ratings and buzz with his comeback drama after three years since his military service.

MBC drama ‘Undercover High School’, starring Seo Kang-joon, began airing on the 21st of last month and has been quickly attracting viewers with an upward viewership rating curve with every episode.

The drama, which started with 5.6% (Nielsen Korea) for the first episode, rose to 6.6% for episodes 2 and 3, and to 8.3% for the recently aired 4th episode.

This popularity is due to Seo Kang-joon’s passionate acting that is almost like a ‘one-man show’. Having mainly shown romantic acting so far, he is properly showing it as the fans said, “He has sharpened his sword.”

Seo Kang-joon plays the role of Jung Hae-sung, an NIS agent who hides his identity and infiltrates a high school to find Emperor Gojong’s missing gold bars.

Even though he is over 30, he can pull off a high school uniform without any awkwardness and flexibly displays both action and comedy acting.

In particular, as befitting the NIS’s “ace” agent, he showed off high-difficulty action acting such as nimble movements and flashy techniques in car racing action as well as one-on-one fights with organized crime members, increasing the immersion in the drama. After the broadcast, viewers praised him, saying, “It’s as refreshing and thrilling as soda,” “It’s the drama that awakened Seo Kang-joon,” and “The character of a lifetime has exploded.”

Seo Kang-joon’s sly comedic acting also adds to the fun. He struggles because he doesn‘t know the new words that teenagers use, and he even dances to join the student council.

Seo Kang-joon showed off his diverse charms by saying at a previous production conference, “I was attracted to this work because it exquisitely mixes various genres such as romance, thriller, comedy, and action.”
Thanks to this, it is living up to its name by sweeping both the leading role and co-star categories in TV and OTT topicality surveys for two weeks.

In a recent topicality survey announced by Good Data Corporation, ‘Undercover High School’ ranked first in both TV and OTT categories, and Seo Kang-joon also ranked first. This is the first time since his debut that he has topped the topicality index.



Reporter Lee Jeong-yeon annjoy@donga.com

This article is automatically translated using Google AI. If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know at allkstar@donga.com.