K-drama midseason recap: Run On – Netflix romantic series is still finding its feet
- Ki Seon-gyeom continues to juggle his hopes of becoming a sports agent, family problems, and his on-off love affair with the beautiful Oh Mi-joo
- But it’s the budding romance between cool agency head Dan-a and boyish art student Yeong-hwa that will keep the series’ fans hooked
This article contains spoilers of the show.
The film references in Run On have been few and far between, but one of them got an all-important callback: Ki Seon-gyeom (Im Si-wan), who we know has no interest in films, finally sits down to watch Jerry Maguire in a library. He does not like it of course, but that is beside the point, because it symbolises his intent to become a sports agent.
So, halfway into Run On, Seon-gyeom finally has a goal. Characters in romantic dramas do not necessarily need goals beyond romantic fulfilment, but in stories that are as drawn-out as this one is, it can help to ground things a bit and give the many other characters something to play off of.
True to form, Seon-gyeom’s career calling does not exactly blast off the starting line. It would have been unreasonable to expect it to become a driving element of the series, but it’s a start. It finally allows the aloof character to go after things and act on his principles, rather than just stand on them.
Beyond getting former track mate Kim Woo-sik (Lee Jeong-ha) back on his feet, Seon-gyeom has finally taken a more assertive role in the cold war between him and his father (Park Yeong-gyu), which erupts into a full-blown conflagration after he grabs his pro golfer sister Eun-bi (Ryu Abel) from the putting green, where she is putting on a brave face as she entertains daddy’s high-powered golf buddies.