Mr. Plankton Review: Boring and Annoying

Mr. Plankton Review | Leisurebyte

Director:
Hong Jong-chan

Date Created:
2024-11-08 13:30

Editor’s Rating:

2

In this moving Netflix romantic comedy K-drama, Hae-jo, a man who is looked down upon by everyone and leads a transitory life because of it, runs away with Jo Jae-mi, a woman who has only wanted a family for herself since she was young and is about to marry a man whose family disapproves of her, in order to find his father. In this journey of adventure, will the two of them find their own true selves?

The series has 10 episodes, each with a runtime of minutes.

Mr. Plankton Review

You know, I love like anyone else to watch these forgettable and very cute K-dramas where the male lead, who can do no wrong, gets together with the cute and quirky female lead who knows how to get underneath his overconfident exterior to create magic. I love them – they are always the right dose of guilty pleasure that leaves me entertained. Mr. Plankton is that and then some more, with a journey story weaved in between to keep things… moving.

Both our protagonists in this K-drama face some very life-changing news that devastates them and then they decide to go on an adventure to find Hae-jo’s father. The series, leaning more light-hearted, however, feels a little all over the place. The tone of the story feels hot and cold, although, throughout its 10-episode runtime, there are a lot of adventures to be had.

Unfortunately, the humour in the series is thoroughly childish and the characters’ motivations are confusing. Throughout the runtime, characters do and say the most random things that are expected to be funny for some reason. I feel like this kind of humour was okay a few years ago, but, in 2024, they feel a bit silly. It doesn’t make you laugh or entertain you.

Plus, it also doesn’t help that the characters are extremely flat and written in order to get the most laughs out of people. As a result, they feel like they are trying to be someone they are not. It’s neither funny nor entertaining and sometimes even feels annoying. There is also hardly much chemistry between the leads and you don’t even feel like wanting them to end up together in any way. I feel like these personalities might gel well together in some other dramas, but this drama seems to not be sure about what it wants to do with either of these two people.

Moreover, the subtitles are atrocious – I don’t know what happened with the translations, but the subtitles are incomplete and some words and phrases are not translated to their actual English meanings. Thus, people who might not understand Korean will be left a bit confused.

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Similar to the character, the story is also a bit convoluted and confusing. The messaging is all over the place and it’s a little difficult to understand what the point the series is trying to make. The title of the series points to how even the smallest of organisms matter but somehow the series tries to put that point forth and then some more instead of keeping it simple and giving us an emotional and humorous story.

As mentioned previously, I find it extremely hard to follow the relationship between Hae-jo and Jae-mi because there is hardly anything that binds us to them. I was much more interested in following Eo Heung’s relationship with Jae-mi. I think it had more to do with Hae-jo kidnapping her and his cruelty that doesn’t make us believe him to be someone to be with Jae-mi. And regardless of how hard the series tries to make this work, it just doesn’t translate for viewers.

Final Thoughts

Mr. Plankton doesn’t hit the mark. It’s too lengthy, too complicated and too overdone. There are no sparks between the characters and somehow it leaves us a little annoyed with its childish antics. In the end, we can’t help but question what’s the point of investing so much time only to get so little back.

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