The New Employee (2022)

Because this is my first life....

Why did they choose to adapt this webtoon is beyond my comprehension!
The story of the webtoon is average, the art is average and in my humble opinion, adapting it into a live webdrama is a waste of time and money!
That said, I did binge it, it was short and there is nothing unwatchable here.

But as I watched it, I kept thinking of Because This Is My First Life: a stiff male lead, a quirky virgin female lead, an adult relationship, minor crises, happy ending! Nothing particularly original in this office romance with the usual coworkers teaming up to trip up the leads and of course getting their comeuppance eventually while the leads come on top!
The main actors are average: I am still trying to figure out if the boss was supposed to be a monotone single expression robot or if the actor is just bad! The new employee is just a happy go lucky guy with an eternal idiotic happy smile slapped over his face. Everything felt somehow off about this pair: the chemistry was average. Luckily they did not drag the misunderstandings for too long.
The side characters were more interesting: the ex boyfriend (pretty & ruthless), a fellow intern (sweet &optimistic) and the best friend (who wanted to punch the bad guys, if only she could find them!).
The music and cinematography were....guess what? Average and unremarkable !

What was this about? An office romance, pretty straightforward: I like you let's sleep together. Our coworkers hate us? Let's have our own ad agency and all problems are solved!

In conclusion, this is a drama to watch when you have little time and no wish to get into a regular length fare! Nothing to write home about!

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Simple and cute office romance

I am quite surprised that this drama is only getting a MDL rating of 7.5 at the time of this review. I've seen other BL dramas with worse quality and worse acting that got close to an 8.0. "The New Employee" is nothing extraordinary, but its simple ordinariness is what makes this drama charming.

This is a cute office BL romance about two adults meeting, falling in love and supporting each other at work. I would have loved to see more of how and why they fall for each other, as it does happen a little too quickly. I guess that is to be expected as it's only 7 episodes long. The leads have good chemistry and they are quite cute together. We got some decent kisses, though no steamy bed scenes (maybe that's why the rating is low?). There isn't any annoying character, as almost all co-workers are pretty supportive and nice, with a minor plot of some office politics and picking on new interns.

Even though the romance is sweet, I do wish the new intern makes better decisions. It's his first love but some of his actions of avoidance and the reason for the first big fight are quite immature for a 30-year old man. Luckily, Kim Jong Chang is a bigger person who actually apologizes first. I actually don't think he should but the intern should be the one to apologize for making a big deal out of a simple situation that could be resolved by speaking up.

Nevertheless, this is a simple and easy watch. I recommend this if you are looking for a non-school setting BL drama.

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Expected More....

I really expected so much more from this drama. Office romance and Boss/employee trope are my favorites. The beginning of the first episode was great. The execution was great but later I didn't really liked it. The ending was so lame. The whole drama execution was really not that likable.

There was absolutely no chemistry between the characters and I really don't understand how they could fall deeply in love with each other in such a short period of time. The intimate gestures between them also felt weak.

The whole plot just didn't made sense for me. I wished there were more episodes and detailed story.

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Cute short series

This was a cute and fun series to kill an afternoon with. Each episode is about 20min long so it's really easy to binge watch the entire thing in one sitting. It was a nice change of pace for when I'm in between a couple of longer, heavier dramas.

What I liked about this was how adult it was and I don't mean in terms of "content rating." There was none of the silly misunderstandings or normal cliches that occur in BL. Every conflict that came up was valid and dealt with instead of drawn out, although that could very well be due to the short duration of the series as a whole. I particularly liked that the show still kept focus on their job and their relationship in a healthy balance of work and personal life. Oftentimes in BL, once the main characters meet, everything else gets put on the back burner and the show makes you think they now spend every waking moment together, which is unnecessary. However, here, the entire premise is about Woo Seung becoming a new employee and the show kept its focus on that. There was no "I'm going to call in sick today because I'm feeling heartbroken" nonsense.

I'd read the comic and I thought they did a decent job at keeping to the same storyline. The actors fit the roles nicely and I feel like the main leads had good chemistry. Although I'd read the 18+ version of the comic, I don't necessarily feel the loss of the NC stuff because the story and romance that we did get was worth it.

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A well-produced office set BL.

I personally liked how Jong Chan taught Seung Hyun about setting boundaries for himself on things that he should and shouldn’t do for people in the workplace. An added bonus on how it became the bridge for him to invite him to have a meal together, probably because Jong Chan took pity and noticed how hard Seung Hyun has worked so far. I viewed it as a good transition.

I haven’t read the web novel so I have no basis and clue on how they’re going to develop and get closer from here, so I’ll just have to wait and see.

Production-wise, I loved the ambiance the show gave, it was a pleasant watch.

Regarding their chemistry/dynamic, I could feel the immense gap in their position, which I consider significant since it’s a good opportunity for developing their relationship past this. So far, Jong Chan understands that in order for things to work with him and Seung Hyun, he has to take things out of work and into their personal lives, which makes it less about their power dynamics and simply between two guys who have feelings for each other.

The kiss scene wasn't anything spectacular but it only makes sense why.

As of 3 episodes, the show’s an 8.5/10 for me.

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A Solid Office Rom-Com Drama

The New Employee was a solid office rom-com drama with a simple and semi-light plot. The production value was top-notch. The music was lovely and cute. The lead male actors' chemistry was chef kiss. Their chemistry was naturally sweet and adorable. I really love their chemistry. The actors and actresses acting were natural and not too over the top. The acting performances of the lead male actors were sublime. The drama ended on a sweet note.

I don't have any major complaints about the drama. The only complaint I have about the drama is the short runtime but other than the short runtime. I think the drama was great. I dare say; each episode was pretty entertaining. I love the drama. I enjoyed watching it.

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This Was Going To Be My Favorite K-BL Of All Time

I loved this series so much. From the characters to the story and the overall plot. It was simple yet so well done... until the ending.

Though the story was simple, it completely sucked me in from the beginning. I was invested in the characters and story from the first episode. I spent week after week enjoying every minute of this show.

There are not many ways to write an office romance that is new, fresh and not cliché. Even though this series did not stray from what we have seen before, the story was still well written. So was the plot and the main characters. I could relate to Seunghyun and loved watching him take on being an intern. His best friend was awesome and so was his fellow intern.

I loved watching the romance between Seunghyun and his boss unfold. Them falling in love, starting to date, having fights and misunderstandings and just dealing with the fact that they were intern and boss was so enjoyable and then the finale.

This series started off so strong but it's finale was such a letdown. It left me feeling disappointed because of how oddly mediocre it was. It's like the writers didn't know how to end the series. This resulted in them delivering a rushed unsatisfying finale. This show was going to be may favorite K-BL but just because of that ending, I doubt that I'll ever watch it again.

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Cute and uneventful

The main charm of this BL was the fact that the relationship between the two main characters develops in a very organic way, which is something that can't be found easily in this genre.
The story is about a young man who becomes a new intern in a company and slowly gets to know his team manager. There's no pre-existing hate or love between the two, no incredible connection or inconvenient situation that forces the two of them together other than them being in the same workplace. It's common, I could even say it's realistic, and I loved it. I also greatly appreciated the fact that they're both interested in men from the get-go and there's no trace of the annoying "I don't like men, I only like you" trope that can be easily found in many BLs. Seung Hyun and Jong Chan get close to each other slowly but steadily, make clumsy mistakes and learn to communicate their feelings, but most importantly they aren't just satisfied with being together: they actually put some effort in getting to know each other and letting themselves be known.

The story mainly revolves around their job and little more than that, so I wouldn't call this a slice-of-life exactly, although the overall vibe definitely fits that label. It's also mostly uneventful, so whoever is looking for an intense and dramatic love story might want to watch something else.
It's a short series (each episode is about 15 minutes long if we don't count the opening and the ending themes, so you can easily finish watching in a couple of hours) and it might be a good choice if you're in the mood for binge-watch something cute and light.

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maybe everyone agrees with me that the new employee is an extraordinary work from south korea. from all aspects of this drama is superior when compared to other dramas in terms of story? extraordinary with the duration per episode reaching 15-20 minutes, in terms of acting from the actors? The chemistry of the main actors in this drama is no longer recognised, from a cinematographic point of view? you can judge if you have watched this drama. highly recommended to watch. but in terms of ost, I'm not interested in listening to the song, but that's just a personal opinion. I am very grateful to the hard work of the entire staff from the actors, director, and all those who played an important role in the success of this drama

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