"The Fabulous" is such an irredeemable mess that it approaches a point that makes it almost impossible to review. An end-to-end mishmash of poorly conceived characters brought to screen through addled direction that is stretched across an excruciating eight episodes of barely plotted and rapidly increasing unrealistic action. There are scant positives to point at, but the fact that it somehow is relatively less awful than the other recent fashion-themed drama "Now We Are Breaking Up" is probably its greatest selling point.

As for background, it's four friends - Chae Soo Bin's PR exec Ji Eun, Choi Min Ho's photographer Woo Min, Lee Sang Woon's designer Joseph and Park Hee Jung's runway model Seon Ho - working in the fashion industry. Here's the spoiler - they all succeed with only Ji Eun encountering momentary resistance and difficulty. And they party and dance and drink and literally nothing remotely bad happens that isn't easily and quickly solved. The solution? No idea. But whatever the problem was, it magically goes away. At the end, it's like every character showed up the day Oprah gave out "Happily Ever After" lives to everyone in her studio audience. The flying car at the end of "Grease" was a monument to realism compared to this fashion fantasy land.

Chae Soo Bin plays the latest in a string of near identical characters - sweet and cute and clumsy but inwardly determined. It's a character that she plays well, but there's no side of Ji Eun that hasn't been portrayed multiple times before by this actor.

Choi Min Ho has barely a cardboard cutout of a character. He's had previous roles where he's demonstrated enough competence to earn a leading role, but he shows nothing here to indicate he can take a character beyond what is explicitly written for it.

Park Hee Jung has, by far, the most presence on screen and character with some shred of depth to convey. She's in many respects playing herself but she is modestly convincing when she seem to have the closest thing to an actual crisis - whether she should continue modeling or not. Of course, it's barely set in place before she's told how fabulous she is and her grand conquest is [checks notes] pretty much doing the same modeling thing she had been doing before. It falls a bit short of the transcendent metamorphosis in to someone who contributes more to the world than being tall and walking in a straight line on stage.

But it is Joseph that is a cringefest from start to end. The industry should be commended for making a flamboyantly gay character a lead in a major drama. This particular character, however, is an incredible misstep. A flamboyantly gay man is not a toddler. He can be professional and strong and an adult and not need to be constantly emotionally supported by every other person in their presence. That his sexuality and the stereotype associated with it is so obviously being lampooned for cheap laughs is insulting and everyone who is associated with this character should regret their part in bringing such a travesty to screen.

As for the supporting characters, Shin Dong Mi deserves better than this neurotically clueless CEO, Shim Do Young tries very, very hard but has no gravitas, there's a couple of one dimensional boyfriend types that appear and say things and then move offscreen and are immediately forgotten and Seo Soo Hee plays the most ridiculous stereotype of a self-important idol type of recent memory.

Lee Si Woo has a nice turn as Joseph's assistant Esther. Im Ki Hong is brilliant in a guest role. And Seo Hye Won makes a brief cameo. That's the positives.

Strike a pose? No. Not recommended.