Brain Works: Episode 1 (First Impressions)

by missvictrix

Brain Works is pretty close to what I was expecting, but rather than laugh out loud funny, it’s more like laugh out loud weird? In our premiere episode we meet our two heroes, gets hints of the rest of the team, and the drama cements its tone.

Editor’s note: This is an Episode 1 review only. Coverage will continue with weekly Drama Hangouts.
 
EPISODE 1 FIRST IMPRESSIONS

I swear, I’m only here because of Yeh Ji-won, who is always such a blast to watch. Okay, and maybe for Jung Yong-hwa too — I’ve had a soft spot for him since You’re Beautiful (only made worse with Sell Your Haunted House). Anyway, I came for these two and though we only got our first introduction to Yeh Ji-won’s character, we got a ton of Jung Yong-hwa, and it’s sure something.

Promos for Brain Works have long promised this weird misfit team of four, and sure enough we meet all of them in our first episode — with freeze frames and an onscreen stats menu that make it feel more like a video game than a K-drama for a few seconds.

The drama opens with the “murder” of a famous rocker who’s suffering from Parkinson’s. He collapses mid-concert (nay, mid-solo riff) and his wife immediately admits she killed him because he asked her to — by relaying a dangerous frequency to him via a hard-coded bracelet that would mess with his brain-implanted electrodes. Yes, you read that right. And if you’re confused, don’t worry: because of the surge in “brain-related” homicides and such, the police have created a new division called the Neuroscientific Investigations Team.

It might sound fancy, but they have a wacky captain — constantly trying to legitimize their existence — and two investigators: the “shy brain” SEOL SO-JUNG (Kwak Sun-young) and the “altruistic brain” GEUM MYUNG-SE (Cha Tae-hyun).

We don’t see too much of So-jung just yet, except that she’s bashful, awkward, and utterly adorable. Kwak Sun-young makes her the cutest little caricature ever, whether she’s bumbling in her speech or falling butt first into a box.

Myung-se, on the other hand, is our main focus. He seems like a good guy, but he’s definitely got his hands full. He tries (and fails) to ignore a call from our “sexy brain” KIM MO-RAN (Yeh Ji-won). When he runs — somewhat reluctantly — to her rescue, she’s trapped in her bathroom in a negligee with a gangster pounding on the door and a guy in boxers cowering in her living room. Myung-se comes in and makes short work of the problem, announcing to all that he’s her ex-husband. It’s pretty hilarious. We don’t see more of Mo-ran yet, but her character traits, shall we say, are more than made apparent, so there should be a lot of hijinks to come on that front.

While our Neuroscientific Investigators try to do justice to the rocker murder case, we meet our fourth player: SHIN HARU (Jung Yong-hwa). There’s only one true “Haru” in my books (but that’s a story for another day) — but this here Haru is a neuroscientist, genius to the umteenth degree, and he’s about to get kicked out of Brain Hub, the illustrious brain research foundation of which he’s the golden child. And why would they get rid of him, you ask? For the crime of forging the consent forms of a serial killer inmate and then harvesting his brain. You know, for science. Really.

Thankfully, the drama lays this on thick. Thicker than thick! As we meet the ridiculous caricature that is Haru – and Jung Yong-hwa’s totally fun and slightly manic portrayal of this character — it’s clear that the drama is just going to go ahead and be ridiculous. I mean, we see Haru cutting into this serial murderer’s cadaver and removing his brain with the glee of a kid in a candy store. The only reason he winds up admitting to forging the document (the original of which the inmate ate, mind you) is because Myung-se spills the beans to a reporter friend.

As expected, Myung-se and Haru butt heads from the very start — and that’s before Myung-se winds up with half his head shaved (mistaken for the dead inmate), and Haru loses his position and the rights to study the brain he calls his “treasure,” much like Gollum calls the One Ring “my precious.”

We can see the cards before they fall: Haru will wind up working with the Neuroscientific Investigative Team — so when we land there at the end of Episode 1, it’s not so much that we didn’t expect it, but that we have a sure sense of the ridiculousness to come.

I admit, I did worry at first that the drama was going to take itself too seriously, but in addition to being a comedy, it’s almost cartoon-like in some of its qualities. Jung Yong-hwa’s theatrical performance really adds to that vibe, too, since he plays Haru as a half-genius and half-deranged anti-hero. The fun, then, will be in seeing if Haru softens into true hero material, or if he’s meant as a foil for our more steady-thinking hero Myung-se.

Another thing the drama is setting up well is the impending character interactions. After all, the story is set to revolve around the way these four “brains” get along — or don’t — and I, for one, am dreaming up all the hilarious interactions that (hopefully) await us when they start working together. I mean, Mo-ran falling all over our psychopathic hero? Bring it on (really, please, make this happen!).

The other thing that the drama’s trippy tone makes a lot of space for is hilarious one-liners. And I have a serious weakness for a good one-liner, so listening to Haru deadpan lines like, “Sorry, my amygdala sensed danger and caused me to act irrationally,” or mantras like “Know the brain, predict the future!” made me laugh out loud. Apparently, Haru’s own brain “harbors many secrets” — so perhaps he will have more to do with our impending mystery and cases than we realize. In any case, the drama is quite wacky — but pleasantly so, and purposefully so. If they take what they’ve built in Episode 1, and dial up the crazy a few notches when all the players are on the field, it could turn out to be quite funny.

 
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