‘Let’s Drink’ K-Drama: Spin-Off Series Does Well In Viewership But Criticized By Loyalists Of ‘Let’s Eat’

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Over the course of the last six months, many Korean drama fans of the series Let’s Eat were excited to learn that the Total Variety Network (tvN) would be releasing a new series that pointed to a possible new season.

Unlike other K-dramas, Let’s Eat is a “diamond in the rough” for being a K-drama that was just popular enough to receive a direct sequel. As time went by, it was eventually realized the new series was not a third season of Let’s Eat (which would have most likely be known as Let’s Eat 3), but a spin-off series concentrating on drinking alcohol, along with the Korean culture centered on it, called Let’s Drink.

Let’s Drink, which is also known as Drinking Solo, made its Korean small-screen debut on Monday, September 5, and at this moment, four episodes have aired. The good news is that Let’s Drink started out with strong viewership ratings. However, the bad news is that the ratings are starting to decline gradually, as loyal fans of Let’s Eat are criticizing it.

The tvN K-drama Let’s Drink is about two professors at a civil examination academy in Noryangjin who have different reasons for drinking solo. Professor Jin Jung Suk (Ha Seok Jin) is a popular professor with a celebrity status. He drinks solo because he believes he can truly enjoy his alcoholic beverage in a state of “winding down” without any pressures that are often associated with drinking in Korean culture. As for Professor Park Ha Na, her reasons for drinking solo are very similar to Americans: She drinks alcoholic beverages as a “depressant” from her hectic life, especially her struggles as a professor.

Other actors rounding out the full cast include Hwang Woo Seul Hye, Min Jin Woong, and Kim Won Hae as Noryangjin Institute teachers, and Gong Myung, Key, Chaeyeon, and Kim Dong Young as Noryangjin Institute ninth-grade civil service students.

The fact that Let’s Drink is a spin-off of Let’s Eat helped a lot in its promotion. As a result, viewership was really good for the pay television K-drama as shown in the nationwide rations provided by AGB Nielsen Korea and TNS Media Korea. The first episode earned 2.922 percent for the former and 3.2 percent for the latter, in which the following episode seen an increase. However, the differences between Let’s Drink and Let’s Eat have become a hindrance for the spin-off K-drama, and loyal Let’s Eat K-drama fans are expressing their criticisms.

For starters, many K-drama fans don’t like the attitudes and personalities of the lead characters. Ha Seok Jin’s character, Jin Jung Suk, is often mean and arrogant, especially when it comes to his drinking. On the other hand, Park Ha Sun’s character, Park Ha Na, is very clumsy and kind of scatter-brained. As a result, fans do not like the former because he is not as positive as Doojoon’s character, Goo Dae Young, and they do not like the latter because she is “stupid.”

It is also possible that Let’s Drink is being criticized because it lacks the intense explanations from Let’s Eat when it comes to food, which are usually followed by five-minute scenes of the characters eating food in such a way that it can be described simply as “food porn.” Let’s Drink does not have that, which is kind of disappointing.

Criticisms from loyal Let’s Eat K-drama fans could have attributed to the third episode of Let’s Drink being the lowest in viewership rating so far, but it is still too early to say if the K-drama will be a flop. From what is shown, it looks like tvN wants to concentrate a little bit more on plot and direction.

Let’s Drink airs episodes on Mondays and Tuesdays at 11 p.m. KST on tvN up until October 25. For those who do not have access to tvN, the series is available for free, with ads, exclusively on DramaFever. Starting with the third episode, the two latest episodes will be given exclusive access to premium members for one week.

[Image via Total Variety Network (tvN)]