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Pierce Conran

This article contains spoilers.
2.5/5 stars
Lead cast: Kim Hye-soo, Jung Sung-il, Joo Jong-hyuk
With mountains of misleading or false information being spread at lightning speed through unchecked social media channels these days, the concept of journalistic integrity seems more important than ever.
There are more news sources now than there have ever been, but which ones can we trust?
As always, there are the major networks and newspapers continuing their treacherous dance with the corporate and government sources that finance them, but in today’s media environment anyone with a phone is potentially a journalist, able to reach countless followers through the likes of YouTube, X – formerly Twitter – and TikTok.


Unmasked is about a fictional television investigative news programme, “Trigger”, led by dogged reporter Oh So-ryong, who is played with her habitual flair by Signal actress Kim Hye-soo.
Trigger is a popular show, but it faces opposition pretty much anywhere it turns. The people and organisations it investigates would obviously rather it left them alone, but the production team also face institutional corruption and interference from police, prosecutors and other media entities.
The scary outside world is not Trigger’s only problem. It also has to contend with its own network, KNS, whose president, Koo Hyeong-tae (Shin Jung-keun), does little to mask his contempt for So-ryong.
The show carries on because of its strong ratings and the principles on which it was founded, which insist that no one can interfere with the programme.
That principle is put to the test late in the series, but even before that, other threats emerge from within Trigger.

At the beginning of the show, Han Do (Jung Sung-il, The Glory) debuted as a reluctant producer at Trigger, clearly unhappy to be there.
He does gradually warm to the larger-than-life So-ryong and her team, before eventually admitting he was the infamous online whistle-blower known as “Dr Trigger” who attempted to discredit the programme by painting So-ryong with scandal.
However, a much bigger internal blow was to come, involving So-ryong’s assistant producer Kang Gi-ho (Joo Jong-hyuk, Extraordinary Attorney Woo). Despite his unflappable nature, drive and passion, Gi-ho struggled to get himself promoted to a full-time position at KNS, hampered by not having graduated from a good university.

So-ryong finally gives him a chance to produce an episode but, just before it airs, network executives push him to cut a crucial interview with a prosecutor, who has leaned on his connections at the network to have it removed.
Gi-ho’s already very precarious future at the network hangs in the balance, and then they offer him a sweetener – cut the interview and land an elusive full-time contract. Gi-ho takes the deal and the heavy guilt that comes with it.
Unmasked is far from a perfect show and it undermines itself on more than one occasion, but it is clearsighted in its depiction of Trigger and the cracks it causes.
So-ryong is furious with Gi-ho, but he remains on the team and eventually appears to win back her trust. This is not very clearly handled, but the point stands – people can make mistakes and, with a little helping hand, can also redeem themselves.

One of the late reveals in Unmasked is of another crack that appeared years earlier but was never mended: Hyeong-tae was a Trigger producer and buried a story for a chance at advancement that eventually saw him grow to become the monstrous company president Ko.
Gi-ho, thanks to So-ryong’s guiding hand, appears as though he will avoid a similar fate.
Aside from these compelling internal dynamics, Unmasked left a lot to be desired. Its narrative, ostensibly about journalistic ethics, was too often preoccupied with sensationalised cases involving lots of dead animals and murdered or victimised children.
A cold case of an actor’s disappearance introduced early on as the show’s big mystery blossomed into an all-too familiar case of iniquities at a nefarious chaebol (Korean family-run corporation).

Cho Hae-won, heiress to the corporation, adds an air of mystery thanks to actress Choo Ja-hyun, who channels her stellar role in Little Women.
But once the big villain is revealed as her maniacal brother Cho Jin-man (Choi Dae-hoon, The Judge from Hell), a drug-addled serial killer of “virgin slaves”, it all falls apart pretty quickly.
Ethics are important in journalism, but so is identifying what the core of the story is and not allowing yourself to stray from it. Unmasked, with its furious mix of often incongruous ingredients, ultimately failed to tell a good story.
Unmasked is streaming on Disney+.


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While full of promising ideas and interesting characters, Unmasked fails to tell a good story about journalistic integrity


While full of promising ideas and interesting characters, Unmasked fails to tell a good story about journalistic integrity.


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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}While full of promising ideas and interesting characters, Unmasked fails to tell a good story about journalistic integrity

While full of promising ideas and interesting characters, Unmasked fails to tell a good story about journalistic integrity