What has this man done wrong?
My Mister consists of 16 episodes. This is a pretty heavy drama where we follow the protagonist, who is married and has a child. But his wife is cheating on him with his younger boss, and she is planning to get a divorce. Together with his boss, she is also trying to get him fired. To help them, they enlist the help of a young woman whom the protagonist hired. She is deeply resentful and has lost all hope in humanity. But after hacking his phone and listening to every word he says, she slowly starts to see him in a different light. She realizes he is one of a kind—there aren’t many people like him walking on this rotten earth. He will heal her heart with his kindness, but who will help him from being destroyed by the evil forces trying to break him?
This is a solid and emotionally heavy drama that stands out compared to other South Korean TV series. It’s a cruel story, showing the brutal struggles the protagonist must endure. It’s disturbing and heartbreaking because he has done nothing—absolutely nothing—to hurt anyone. He’s just a good man who never judges others, and when he speaks, you listen to this wise man.
The young woman working for the evil boss—who, by the way, should buy longer pants because he looks like an idiot—is a character you will despise. She is broken and destroyed after killing a man. You almost enjoy seeing her get beaten up by the loan shark’s son, whom she owes money to. In desperate need of cash, she starts working for the devilish boss with his short pants—the man who wants his former friend fired so he can marry his wife. It’s a disturbing situation. Let’s hope his banana is longer than his pants!
But because of the protagonist’s kindness, the young woman slowly starts seeing the world with different eyes and becomes obsessed with him. Even though his wife and boss hate him, he still has his friends from the neighborhood, who genuinely care about him.
However, not everything is perfect in My Mister. My main problem with this series is the protagonist’s two brothers, who are nothing but clowns. Almost every scene with them disrupts the dark and depressing atmosphere of the show. They’re both losers, and the only true winner in the family is the protagonist—their pride and joy. One brother was a former movie director, but his movie flopped. The other brother, if I remember correctly, is divorced and the oldest, making him the family’s biggest failure. So, we have one major loser, while the former director is a hothead. These two are so cartoonish that I had to deduct points from a perfect 10 because of them. That said, the woman who falls for the former director is a South Korean hottie—but it’s hard to believe she would fall in love with this loser. However, her admiration for him is oddly cute, I have to admit. I even laughed a few times at how this hopeless man helped her gain confidence.
The two leading actors are great. The protagonist is played by the deceased Lee Sun-kyun, you know, the man that the sick part of the South Korean society killed. It breaks my f-ing heart every time I see him now. What a shitshow South Korea is. I’m sorry my South Korean friends, but you know I’m right.
And then we have IU. I’ve only seen her in two movies, but I didn’t really notice her in those two movies. However, her acting and presence here are impossible to ignore. She is perfect in this role as the hateful woman who has lost all hope in humanity. She is so cold and determined to achieve her goal that she has almost lost her entire soul. But after five or six episodes, you start to see that there’s still something good left inside her.
My Mister is at its best when it focuses on the battle between good and evil. The protagonist takes a beating in many episodes, but he refuses to go down. You’ll feel deeply invested when the young woman starts caring about him, especially when he’s nearly on his knees, broken. You can see she’s genuinely worried he might hurt himself. These emotionally charged moments are some of the strongest in the series.