Goodbye Earth: Episode 1 (First Impressions)

by solstices

Disorienting and despair-stricken, Goodbye Earth paints its tale of impending destruction in broad strokes as mayhem descends upon the country doomed to be obliterated by a meteorite. Netflix’s latest apocalyptic offering clearly has a hefty budget, but what it has in style and scale it unfortunately lacks in storytelling substance.

Editor’s note: This is an Episode 1 review only. For a place to chat about the entire drama, visit the Drama Hangout.
 
EPISODE 1

With an intriguing premise and an extensive cast of veteran actors, one would expect Goodbye Earth to have the makings of a disaster epic. Unfortunately, its premiere is undercut by its ambiguous narrative choices. By throwing us headfirst into the action, frequently cutting back and forth between flashbacks and the present day, the drama mirrors the chaos of an impending apocalypse — but its lack of emotional and narrative anchors leaves its viewers adrift as it whisks us from one scenario to another, without sufficient time to develop an investment in the characters and their trajectories.

At the heart of the story is a friend group comprising four very different individuals, with the first episode mainly focusing on the perspective of our protagonist JIN SE-KYUNG (Ahn Eun-jin). As a middle school teacher with an empathetic heart, Se-kyung derives much joy from nurturing the students she cares deeply for. That is, until their idyllic days of normalcy are ripped away from them in an instant. Despite the rapid scientific advancements of 2025 and the invention of space probes meant to prevent this exact scenario, a meteorite is headed straight for Earth — and it’ll strike Korea in three hundred days. Life as people once knew it is no more.

We first meet Se-kyung a hundred days into the disaster response, amidst a panicked flurry of people attempting to flee the country towards safer pastures, before flashbacks contextualize her journey to the current point. For the sake of clarity, though, let’s proceed in chronological order — I’m not averse to nonlinear storytelling, but this drama’s execution is more confusing and less compelling than it should be.

In preparation for the inevitable disaster, the Korean government declares martial law. Worried about her researcher fiancé HA YOON-SANG (Yoo Ah-in) who’s currently working in the States, Se-kyung contacts him through video call. Yoon-sang reassures her that he’ll return soon, showing off the rings he’s gotten for their wedding — but mere seconds later, Se-kyung is forced to watch helplessly on the other side of the screen as hostile parties attack his laboratory. Right before the connection cuts out, Yoon-sang instructs a tearful Se-kyung to seek out FATHER BAEK (Kang Seok-woo).

Heeding his words, Se-kyung heads to the church, but she’s one step too late. The military has set their sights on Father Baek, condemning the congregants’ prayers as an unlawful rally. Despite the protests of the young priest WOO SUNG-JAE (Jeon Sung-woo!!), Father Baek is hauled away by the soldiers, leaving Sung-jae futilely attempting to appease the indignant crowd. All Se-kyung can do is push past Sung-jae to run into the empty church, where she was to be wed, as a hapless sorrow sinks into her weary countenance.

Meanwhile, the seeds of unrest have been germinating, and they manifest in public rallies, conspiracy theories, and reckless behavior. A jailbreak culminates in an outright riot on the streets, with the ex-prisoners kidnapping vans full of middle school students. By the time the authorities track them down, most victims have already been killed, leaving nothing but piles of shoes for their bereaved parents to weep over.

Both these scenes ought to be gut-wrenching, but they fell somewhat flat for me. We barely get to know Yoon-sang before he’s wrenched away, so it’s difficult to form any attachment to his character or Se-kyung’s longing. As for the prisoners’ rampage, it unfolded so quickly and in such a streamlined manner that it inadvertently created a sense of detachment — you know you’re witnessing an awful atrocity, but you just can’t feel it viscerally.

Fast forward to 201 days before the meteor strike, and Se-kyung is bidding goodbye to her student JUNG HA-YUL (Kim Do-hye), who was a survivor of the trafficking tragedy. Ha-yul’s family is part of the crowd seeking refuge in other countries, and she stuffs a letter into Se-kyung’s backpack before she departs. Except she doesn’t actually leave after all, because her father JUNG SOO-GEUN (Park Hyuk-kwon) gets flagged by the embassy, forcing them to stay behind.

Ha-yul’s letter contains information about her captors — some time ago, new neighbors had moved in next door, bringing fancy cars and loud music with them. Amongst them had been the man who murdered Ha-yul’s classmates. Appalled, Se-kyung conveys the information to her soldier friend KANG IN-AH (Kim Yoon-hye), hoping she can enact justice on their behalf.

Unfortunately, In-ah’s hands are tied. Her unit barely has any power, and the firearms they carry around are unloaded due to insufficient ammunition. Worse yet, In-ah isn’t in the military’s good books. After her defiance of orders had led to an explosion, her superior Park Ho-san took the blame and got discharged in her stead. The burn scars on his neck are the mark of In-ah’s guilt.

Without any other avenue of recourse, Se-kyung decides to take matters into her own hands. She’s been training her physique and honing her knife-throwing skills, and she sneaks into the murderer’s house for revenge. Except he’s already dead by the time Se-kyung gets there — she’s just chloroformed a corpse — and she flees, terror racing through her veins.

Perhaps what frustrates me most about this premiere is its untapped potential that it only briefly skims past. With an inevitable annihilation looming, the doomed citizens’ reactions run the gamut of emotions — from the ones who hopelessly bemoan their end, to the ones who brashly live the last spurt of their lives to the fullest. There’s much conflict to be mined from these ideological differences; instead, these reactions are scattered and brief, and the breakneck plot barely gives them the time to breathe and expand.

So far, Se-kyung is the link that connects the other three legs of our friendship quartet, as well as the central figure rallying lost kids under her wings. Her precocious protégés PARK JIN-SEO (Kim Kang-hoon) and YOO SO-MIN (Kim Bo-min) aren’t particularly noteworthy just yet, apart from their opportunistic enterprise of selling videos amidst the internet outage, but their relevance to the plot will likely grow as episodes progress.

My curiosity lies mostly with our eclectic square of protagonists — the combination of a teacher, a researcher, a priest, and a soldier is a fascinatingly odd one, and I wonder how they rallied together in the first place. There’s a tight-knit bond obscured by the dire straits that have descended upon them, and it remains to be seen whether their rapport will hold true — or if the apocalypse will tear them apart.

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