TV series 'Melancholia' kicks off to modest start

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

Entertainment & Arts

Tue, October 3, 2023 | 05:48

Shows & Dramas

TV series 'Melancholia' kicks off to modest start

Posted : 2021-11-11 22:07

Updated : 2021-11-12 15:59

TvN series "Melancholia," starring actors Lim Soo-jung and Lee Do-hyun, premiered Wednesday. Courtesy of tvN

By Lee Gyu-lee

TvN's new drama series "Melancholia," starring actors Lim Soo-jung and Lee Do-hyun, has kicked off its run Wednesday, to a moderate start.

The series premiere scored a 3.6 percent viewership rating nationwide, according to Nielsen Korea, surpassing the 2.3 percent rating of the JTBC series "Reflection of You," which airs in the same time slot.

The melodrama, directed by Kim Sang-hyub, whose previous works include teen series "True Beauty" and "Extraordinary You," revolves around a controversial relationship between math teacher Yoon-soo (Lim), and her troubled student Seung-yoo (Lee).

Set in a prestigious private high school, a hotbed of corruption, Yoon-soo who has a genuine love for math gets involved with math prodigy Seung-yoo as they share their common interest in mathematics.

The first episode followed their first encounter after Yoon-soo newly transferred to the school and founded an afterschool math club.

The series is written by scriptwriter Kim Ji-un, who wrote the romance series, "Hyde Jekyll, Me."

During a press conference for the series last week, the director expressed that he wanted to show the beauty of mathematics through this series.

"I took part in this series in hopes of showing that math can be as beautiful as, or even more than, the arts," he said. "The series has a subtle, heartwarming romance but it also has strong subplots. It's important to connect the underlining mathematic references in each characters' relationship… the story has so many elements like changes in characters' relationships, emotional maturity, healing and recovery."

A scene from the series "Melancholia" / Courtesy of tvN

Lim, who is returning to the small screen about two years after the romance series "Search: WWW," said she felt like she was destined to take the role in this drama.

"When I first read the script, I felt something in my heart just by looking at the title. As I followed the story, the lines Yoon-soo and Seung-yoo exchange and communicate through math were so beautifully written," she said. "This series is special in the sense that it approaches math seriously and beautifully. I was just awed by how it portrays the subject artistically."

Adding that her heart raced the whole time she read the script, she said: "it felt like I was meant to take part in the series, so I really wanted to join the project."

Lee plays a math genius who got into MIT at the age of 10. But after dropping out of school at 12, he returned to Korea as a normal high school student, hiding his past.

The actor said he was touched by the heartfelt story of the series.

"The word melancholia is not something that we often use, so the title itself came to me as interesting," Lee said. "As I was reading through the script, the story and the dialogue felt so pure and heartwarming. It felt like destiny."

"Melancholia" airs on Wednesday and Thursday at 10:30 p.m.

gyulee@koreatimes.co.kr