The Best Chicken

Homemade crunchy fried chicken.

Story: "Best Chicken" sets out to enchant its viewers with constant images of deliciously fried chicken, mugs full of beer, and two young adults trying their best to figure out what they want to do when they "grow up". It is a candid, homely portrayal of what it's like to jump into something new without any experience, and the aftermath of having your dreams destroyed by someone with ulterior interests. Above all, the main plot follows Seo Bo Ah and Park Choi Go's journey as they assist each other directly and indirectly, engage in mischievous sabotage (that sometimes goes too far), and find new lives and dreams through a fried chicken restaurant. As expected this is not a groundbreaking drama but its simple story is consistent from start to finish, and there are many goofy moments that will either make you smile, look away, or just raise your spirits. Just like deep frying chicken at home: it probably won't look as pretty as buying it elsewhere, but you know it tastes good.

Acting/Cast: The cast as a whole is a quirky collection of k-drama tropes between Seo Bo Ah's close friends & partners in crime, Park Choi Go's helicopter mother, and the neighbourhood's grumpy elders. All actors match the roles that were assigned to them. When it comes to the acting, there is a rift between the effort put by the female actresses and the male actors. While Kim So Hye - someone who is fairly recent to k-drama acting - performs well and her efforts are noticeable throughout each episode, the same cannot be said of Park Sun Ho's stiffness and blank eyed stares that persist from episode 1 to 12. But overall the acting quality is okay-ish.

Music: The soundtrack of "Best Chicken" features songs by SOHEE, J. Mee. Kim Eunbi (EB), and the drama's own Chick Choir that sings about... You guessed it: chicken. There is nothing particularly memorable about the music but it's easy on the ear, and upbeat.

Rewatch Value: For fans of Kim So Hye there is some re-watch value as watching her character develop and interacting with her friends is a fun experience by itself. This is also a fairly short drama, standing at twelve episodes of one hour each so it can be watched peacefully in a single day or two. As for the ending itself, it ends in a simple, kind manner: life goes on in the fried chicken world.

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Wow, I am quite surprised at how much I enjoyed it considering it is a simple plot and I even prioritized other dramas until I finally watched this one because I thought it would not be that good. It is very rare for me to enjoy dramas with such a simple plot focused on the lives of characters that could really be actual people. The drama was very realistic but very relaxing to watch at the same time. I watched it as if I had all the time in the world to watch it and never felt like skipping scenes (ok, that would be lying, maybe 1 or 2).

Last time I enjoyed such a "normal" drama was with Fight For My Way. I had the same feeling I had then: that I did not need any supernatural, time-travelling, plot-twists, mistery and intense things for me to be able to enjoy a drama so much. I smiled, got angry and even cried (yeah, I did, I am pretty sure I was not the only one).

Part of me wished this was longer since I was liking it so much. I would not mind seeing the business grow even more and their struggles to keep going, but then I guess it would turn into a daily drama. XD

The other part of me is glad that they kept it short with only 12 episodes instead of 16 or even 20. That way they were able to keep the story enjoyable and not draggy at all.

I understand some people might not think much of this drama since it is so "normal" and not amazing or over the top, but 7.2 (at the time I am writing this) is definitely not right. Some of the not so good kdramas that came out last year have better ratings than this one and they had so many negative comments.

Ok, the re-watch value might not be that high (I rarely re-watch dramas anyway) but for a first time watch when you want to take a break from intense dramas this is just what you need. I hope the rating goes up later since this is a pretty recent drama, and if it goes down or stays like this then I will definitely think it is one of those underrated dramas. (This is why I do not give much importance to ratings before I watch a drama and would rather read detailed comments and even spoilers and decide for myself if it is my kind of drama or not).

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