A heartbreaking office drama appeared because it was so realistic. The desperate survival story of an office worker who is full of annual leave will resonate like this.
MBC's Wednesday-Thursday drama 'On The Verge Of Insanity' (played by Jeong Do-yoon/directed by Jeong-in Choi), which was first aired on the 23rd, started with a wind of layoffs in the display division of Jinha City wearing the guise of voluntary retirement. Dang Ja-young (Moon So-ri), a HR manager who came down from the head office to reduce the number of employees, had an interview with her employees, making everyone nervous from the beginning. Among the employees who oppose the company's dismissal measures, 22-year developer Choi Ban-seok (Jeong Jae-young) receives a job offer from a headhunter. However, for the sake of his colleague, he gives up his job and moves to the robot vacuum cleaner team of the Changin division.
Han Se-kwon (Lee Sangyeop), the development team leader, who he met on the newly assigned robot vacuum cleaner team, looks down on Choi Ban-seok, who has more experience and is older than him. Choi Ban-seok pointed out the problems of the robot vacuum cleaner and suggested replacing the parts, but a problem occurred during the demonstration. As if he was aiming for this time, Han Se-kwon attributed the failure to unreasonable replacement of parts and put Choi Ban-seok in a corner. Dang Ja-young appeared, striking the back of the head of Han Se-kwon, who uttered the words, “I cut you as the team leader.” Two unexpected personnel transfers raised curiosity about the future development.
Characters that any office worker can relate to fill the work. Dang Jayoung of the HR team, who is insulted even though he is only doing his job, Choi Ban-seok, a 22-year-old developer who dreams of growth even though his company's reputation is bottoming out, and Han Se-kwon, who has money and is strong, young and capable, but has a bad personality. The figure of the character is not unfamiliar not only to middle-aged office workers but also to beginners in society. It is understandable why the actors and the director agreed to empathize with each other.
Familiarity is evident in the appearance of employees being forced to retire. Begging, “Please let me work for just a few years,” seems to overlap with the head of the household around us. Some companies that prioritize work over people come to mind in the scene where a body swollen beyond the thyroid gland calls for maternity leave and screams that it will be reported to a company that is recommending dismissal. The line "It's a part that doesn't match, just replace it" also resonates with the hearts of those who see it outside the screen.
The conflict between Choi Ban-seok, who has developed a sense of humor through a lot of experience, and Han Se-kwon, who is capable but lacks experience, adds to the sense of immersion. Se-\kwon, who became the youngest team leader by selling 1 million dishwashers, shows off his eyes and facial expressions as soon as he sees the rock for the first time. He doesn't even like the way the rock catches errors that he couldn't solve. In the beginning, he seemed to respect the rock and show flexibility by saying ‘Soo Seok Choi’, but after the failure of the demonstration of the robot vacuum cleaner, he does not hesitate to say the last word.
He has no absolute evil or absolute good, but in the first episode, the three volumes are portrayed as ill-mannered characters with no basic manners. His attitude toward the rock, who is far older, even seems rude. But that's what adds to the fun of the work. It is the three domains that interfere with Ban-seok's company life, which seemed to be going smoothly. It is expected that the attitude of the three Kwons, who do not hesitate to in-house politics to achieve their goals, will be an element of spectating the work.
It was the actors' performances that made the episode more persuasive. Jung Jae-young, who studied a grievous and gloomy figure in order to express a tired and hard worker of 22 years, perfectly melted into Choi Ban-seok, who was culled over time. Sori Moon, who has no company experience, conducted interviews and listened to stories to play the head of the HR team, and successfully played Dang Ja-young, which is likely to happen in real life. Lee Sang-yeop, who takes on the role of Han Se-kwon, the development team leader who even seems arrogant, firmly established the character of 'strong, weak, yak-gang' and expressed Han Se-kwon's feelings persuasively. The passionate performances of the actors who portrayed realistic office workers without a single smoke hole raise the sense of immersion.
The fierce survival period of n-yearold office workers struggling to survive in a turbulent workplace drew strong sympathy from the first episode. The future direction is expected to be able to show a new aspect different from the existing office drama through the fresh material of 'survival in the company of middle-aged office workers'.
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