My new favourite chaebol girl – UEE in High Society.

I’m continuing to love dramas that other people hate. I watched High Society and think it’s a brilliantly written exploration of class and privilege that the (admittedly young) cast just about carry off. What’s so great about it, is that the writer actually makes the viewer implicit in how we judge people from a certain background, by having two couples who are the mirror opposites of each other (always a good writers trick).

On the one hand, we have the rich chaebol guy and the candy part-time worker. They are the second couple. They’re cute. They are what we’ve seen a gazillion times before and well, you know what you’re going to get.

But on the other hand, we have the rich chaebol girl and the smart guy from a poor background looking to marry his way up.

And what the drama is asking all the way through is: why are we okay with scenario one, but get Mr Ripley vibes from scenario two. Oh, and to make it all more interesting, chaebol girl’s family is considerably richer than chaebol guy’s family. The drama makes this clear because the girl’s family own a private jet and the guy’s family doesn’t.

The drama starts off with the two chaebols on an arranged date. The guy is pretty clear that he wants to marry her for her money and power. So, when then poor guy dates her, and gets called out by the chaebol for that, he asks the question: why is it okay for you to marry for money, but not for me.

It’s really cleverly done and asks these kinds of questions of the viewer all the time. Why do we think it’s okay for the chaebol girl to lie about her wealth (she pretends to be poor) to her best friend for two years, but it’s not okay for the poor guy to pretend he doesn’t know she’s lying. By having the different characters ask those questions of each other, it really makes you think.

On top of that, I absolutely adored the FL. She’s been physically and emotionally abused by her mother all her life and just wants out. The way the drama deals with the damage that family can do (or the strength that you can get from a supportive family) is also great. She doesn’t want to have her background – but of course still uses it. Her self-awareness is utterly satisfying, especially when she realises that even when she was a part-timer, she was only holding onto that job because of her connections – getting her brother to bail her out of tough situations. Again, these are moments that are really fun for the viewer (because nasty customers get their come-uppance) but that later on take meaning. Also, I was looking forward to the angst episodes (not a feeling I have very often) because I knew that she was strong enough to deal with it.

Anyway, I thought it was great. Probably better to binge-watch than to watch when it was airing live, as some of the annoying bits (like the plot line with the brother) pass really quickly.