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Why you must watch fashion-centric K-drama The Fabulous

If you are a fan of K-pop band Shinee and its superstar member Choi Min-ho, 31, you will not need much convincing to watch the idol’s new series The Fabulous, a comedy-drama about four friends navigating Seoul’s capricious fashion industry.

For everyone else, here are three reasons to tune in.

1. Friends with benefits

The basic template here is from sitcoms such as Friends or How I Met Your Mother: a group of young adults trying to establish themselves, with the delicious wrinkle of romantic tension between some of them.

The friends here are marketing executive Ji-eun (Chae Soo-bin), photographer Woo-min (Choi), supermodel Seon-ho (Park Hee-jung) and rising fashion designer Joseph (Lee Sang-woon).

Ji-eun and Woo-min used to date, and the first episode reveals that there are still unresolved feelings. It ends with them getting drunk and spending the night together.

2. Risque by K-drama standards

A scene with a shirtless Choi lustfully ripping a string of pearls from Chae’s neck is risque by K-drama standards, but viewers hoping that the rest of the series is just as edgy will be disappointed.

Still, the “will they or won’t they” game that follows creates plenty of forward momentum.

And the depiction of the bond among all four friends is heartwarming, if a little childish for their age.

Joseph is also often reduced to various “gays in fashion” stereotypes, while Seon-ho’s smouldering screen presence could have been put to better use.

Lee Sang-woon, Park Hee-jung, Chae Soo-bin and Choi Min-ho play a group of friends in The Fabulous. PHOTO: NETFLIX

3. Emily In Paris, but in Seoul

A chunk of the show’s DNA seems shamelessly copied from the Netflix comedy series Emily In Paris (2020 to present), which is also set in fashion and luxury marketing, but in France.

It veers between mocking those industries – the inflated egos, mercurial personalities and influencer creep – and taking them too seriously.

But The Fabulous has fun along the way. And what it lacks in sophistication, it makes up for with the winsome charm and dewy-eyed chemistry of its romantic leads.

 

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