Entertainer strays from the usual romance plotline we see in so many kdramas and instead it focuses on the importance of the people around you and the relationships you have that can both make or break you. Yes sure, there is still a little bit of romance implanted here and there but what I love about the drama is that it doesn’t focus on it and in doing so gives us quite a refreshing story about life and consequence.
The drama follows a music director, Shin Suk-Ho, who leaves his company in order to start his own. However, things don’t go smoothly for our lead as his former employer holds a slight grudge at his leaving as well as his intent to take one of their famous groups with him. Things go pear-shaped and poor Suk-Ho ends up landing in prison for a brief while as well as having his barely started venture going under.
Luckily however fortune smiles on him as he comes across a new talent while in search of funds. Enter Jo Ha-Neul an aspiring singer with a sad past and complicated situation that could break the fragile hope that Suk-Ho has. Here we have a good singer who has been falsely framed for sexual harassment by his best friend, who just so happens to have recently been taken in by Suk-Ho’s old company as a new talent.
Believing in Ha-Neul, Suk-Ho makes it his mission to clear the young singer’s name in order to make him a star and thus he begins forming a band. Joining the band are quite a few interesting characters, each with their own interesting and sad past. First we have the ex-student from Julliard, Kyle, who makes his living playing as a stand-in for others. Then we meet Na Yeon-Soo who works at night in karaoke bars in order to support his son Chan-Hee and last but not least we have studious Seo Jae-Hoon who is somewhat pushed harder than most to study and make something of himself that his mother approves.
Taking this bunch of interesting and mismatched group of boys, Suk-Ho goes on to create the ‘Ddanddara Band’, meaning entertainer in Korean. However things don’t go easily as Suk-Ho soon discovers that clearing Ha-Nuel’s name will come at a cost. It also makes things more complicated that the incident is connected to his previous company and the workings of the devious CEO that has various reasons for which to block the band’s success.
Another interesting thing is that Suk-Ho and Ha-Nuel actually have a past connection through Ha-Nuel’s deceased brother, something that also brings a bit of complication into their lives as there turns out to be some undiscovered sadness in their connected past.
Honestly this drama brings so much to the table in terms of storyline it’s hard to outline it all here. It kind of makes sense that the romance plotline would take a backseat as all the other stuff happens. But we still can’t deny the drama’s love triangle between Suk-Ho, Ha-Nuel and Jung Gue-Rin that occupies a good chunk of the drama, but not enough to overshadow the overall beautiful story that follows the lives of a few entertainers trying to overcome their struggles and make it on their own.
I loved this show and the relationship between Suk-Ho and Ha-Nuel, maybe a bit more than the romance story even. This drama had good writing and the pacing was on point. I can’t even deny that some scene’s brought a bucket of tears to my eyes while the little victories that the band had made me cheer like a crazy person. I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested in storyline over the love-love aspect.
One must also acknowledge the amazing songs that were churned out of this drama as they moved your feels into all kinds of frenzy. From the band’s first song ‘I see you’ to the heart aching duet between Jo Ha-Nuel and the deceased Jo Sung-Hyun. These are all memorable songs that you just have to love as they bring more life to the drama.
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