Review | Netflix K-drama review: The Fabulous – Chae Soo-bin, Minho star in vapid fashion industry drama that could use some tailoring
- Chae Soo-bin plays bubbly fashion PR Pyo ji-eun and K-pop star Minho the puppy-boy ex she has hooked up with again, Ji Woo-min, who also works in fashion
- Ji-eun is playing Woo-min off against her businessman boyfriend, and the show is torn between fantasy and relatability as it charts their love triangle
2/5 stars
High fashion and high jinks collide in the incandescent The Fabulous, a young professionals drama headlined by Chae Soo-bin and Minho of the K-pop boy group Shinee.
Hedonism and materialism are the order of the day in this new Netflix original series; given the focus on high-powered and hip young professionals and luxury brands, Sex and the City immediately comes to mind as the template for the show.
The Carrie Bradshaw stand-in here is fashion PR pro Pyo Ji-eun, played with unquenchable bubbliness by Chae. Speaking of bubbles, the show is positively drowning in bubbly, with champagne flutes fuelling most of the characters at all hours, which might account for their interminable peppiness.
The first episode is even called “Dom Pérignon and a Shot of Soju”, the soju here performing a role as the earthy people’s drink connecting these characters to the real world in their down moments.
11 new Korean drama series to look out for in December 2022
Ji-eun works for the Audrey PR agency, where she helps to promote luxury brands. She’s been dating dapper businessman Lee Nam-jin (Choi Won-myeong) but she recently hooked up with her ex Ji Woo-min, a fashion photo retoucher played with puppy-dog impishness by Minho.
The trouble is, Woo-min isn’t just any ex, he’s also a core member of Ji-eun’s close-knit cadre of friends. The other members are the camp and flamboyant designer Jjoseph (Lee Sang-eun) and the fierce top model Ye Sun-ho, played by real-life catwalker Park Hee-jung.
This group of friends all work in the same industry, one that in this show seems only to have about 20 people working in it. The quartet don’t work together, but the script sees fit to have them conveniently cross paths every other scene.
The narrative thrust of the show is to see what will happen with Ji-eun’s love triangle, while all four leads also see their fortunes rise and fall in the fickle climes of the fashion industry.
As far as its love triangle is concerned, The Fabulous strikes an uneasy balance between fantasy and relatability. Woo-min and Nam-jin are both brilliant, charming, handsome and considerate, while Ji-eun is the audience surrogate.
She’s flawed, needy and indecisive – traits that make her relatable, but to such a degree that they overwhelm her likeability, which erodes our desire to root for her.
It’s hard to understand why Woo-min and Nam-jin go to such lengths to woo her. Ji-eun cheats on Nam-jin at the beginning of the show and constantly uses Woo-min – sweet, dependable Woo-min who takes care of Ji-eun’s grandmother when she’s at work or stands in line at a popular restaurant so she can waltz in when the food arrives and promptly storm off in a huff.
Nothing she does makes her any less attractive to her would-be suitors, but viewers at home may not feel the same way. Beyond treating the men in her life poorly she’s also quite bad at her job.
Actually, most people in the show seems bad at their jobs, but this doesn’t stop them from falling upwards and celebrating their dubious achievements with more bubbly and all-night partying.
Ji-eun even manages to charm fashion mag editor An Nam-hee (Choi Hee-jin), who is modelled after Meryl Streep’s character in The Devil Wears Prada – herself modelled after the legendary Vogue editor Anna Wintour – but it isn’t clear why she deserves to be in her good graces.
The Fabulous positions itself as a progressive and zesty slice-of-life drama targeting younger viewers. Jjoseph, as the sole gay character, offers queer representation, though don’t expect him to smooch anyone on screen.
As a senior model, Sun-ho deals with ageism and sexism in the infamously lookist fashion industry. The story strives for a cathartic note of women’s solidarity when she becomes a big sister for a former rival, but its treatment of systemic prejudice is perfunctory and rather disappointing.
The Fabulous seeks to capture South Korea’s youth culture through a parade of Instagram-ready backgrounds, which includes the quartet partying it up in the Itaewon District during Halloween. The show was initially due to premiere in early November but its fluke parallels with the Itaewon Halloween crowd crush delayed the show’s release.
Another aspect of youth culture that comes through loud and clear is social media, particularly online influencers.
The show’s only villain is the odious Insta-celeb JD. She’s portrayed as a vacuous diva who holds the fate of everyone in the fashion industry in her bored and manicured hands. Yet the show also puts celebrity culture, including stars and luxury brands, on a pedestal.
Given the energetic and colourful package it’s presented in, some may take to The Fabulous as escapist fantasy, but it’s more likely that viewers will be turned off by the vapid characterisations and a narrative that lacks stakes.
Not all stories need a real-world edge, but even fantasy needs obstacles and characters who convincingly strive to overcome them.
There’s nothing fabulous about having everything handed to you on a silver platter. Well, except for the bubbly, and it is Christmas after all – so if you do choose to dive in, best to have a glass handy.
The Fabulous is streaming on Netflix.
