We always wonder why more romantic comedies don’t take place in space. Not in some far-off future or planet, but in the relative isolation of working in orbit around Earth in 2025. Tight spaces, not a lot of people around, close working conditions… It’s a recipe for sparks to fly, isn’t it? A new romantic dramedy from South Korea actually does take place on a space station in the present day.
Opening Shot: Archival footage of humans’ relationship with space and South Korea’s developing space program.
The Gist: On a launch pad in Kazakhstan, three people enter a space capsule that will be launched that day and dock at the International Space Station. The first one is mission commander Eve Kim (Gong Hyo-jin), who has her first command assignment. The next one in is Gong Ryong (Lee Min-ho), who Eve calls a “space tourist.” Ryong is an OB-GYN, and is indeed not a professional astronaut. He’ll be on the space station for 8 days doing experiments with creating embryos in zero gravity. The third member of the crew is the pilot, Santiago González (Alex Hafner).
Among the people on the ground hoping Ryong has a safe flight is Choi Go-eun (Han Ji-eun), the CEO of MZ Electronics and daughter of the chairman, Choi Jae-ryong (Kim Eung-soo). MZ is bankrolling Ryong’s mission, and the doctor also happens to be Go-eun’s fiancé.
As the G-forces increase during liftoff and the capsule’s ascent, Ryong gets physically sick, but vomiting is dangerous in zero gravity, as droplets might get into the instruments, his life literally flashes in front of him. His mom dies at birth, and he was raised by 3 of her friends, who did *anything* to get the funds to get him through school. He always loved the thrill of bringing new life into the world, but he was blackballed by MZ’s Chairman Choi when surgery he did on Go-eun reduced her chances of providing an heir. However, Go-eun fell for him, divorcing her husband in the process. He may or may not have felt the same way towards her.
Eve has to save Ryong from choking as some space debris — an arm from a space suit redeployed as a satellite — hits the ship. That forges a bond between the two of them that will only grow at the space station.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Any number of Korean romance series, like It’s Okay To Not Be Okay, combined with a space-oriented series like Constellation.
Our Take: Written by Seo Sook-hyang, When The Stars Gossip takes a fairly standard Korean romantic dramedy and puts it in a new setting, with some excellent visual effects. At its heart, though, it’s still a story about an unlikely couple falling for each other in spite of all the circumstances that would indicate that they shouldn’t.
Kim and Ryong both have complicating factors back on Earth, as both are in relationships. But it seems that both of their relationships might be more about attraction and convenience instead of love, which leaves this opening for them to find each other. There’s also another complicating factor: Kang Kang-su (Oh Jung-se), Go-eun’s ex, is also an astronaut, and he’s been working on the space station for almost a year. What happens when Kang-su and Ryong meet?
Ryong’s experiment has a lot of secrecy around it, but we’re guessing that the embryo he’s going to try to create in zero-g is Go-eun’s; it might also be his, but we’re not sure. So that’s another factor to consider.
All of those complications are what we typically see in a romantic K-drama, but it’ll be fun to see a lot of it happening with people and things floating around.
Sex and Skin: There’s a little bit of sexiness, about as much as any K-drama would have. More of it is implied than anything else.
Parting Shot: In a post-credits scene, we see what led Ryong to start choking during liftoff, especially given the fact that he was told to fast before launch.
Sleeper Star: The visual effects on the show are really well-done, and the floating looks realistic, given everything we know about how astronauts deal with zero-g in real life.
Most Pilot-y Line: There are a lot of characters on the ground, in two different mission control areas. Keeping track of all those characters feels like it will be tough to do, given the fact that what happens at the space station will take the bulk of the storytelling energy.
Our Call: When The Stars Gossip is a typical Korean romance dramedy in a lot of ways, but two good lead performances and fantastic visual effects make it very watchable.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.