Newtopia (2025)

A WILD, ROMANTIC ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE

Newtopia is a fresh and chaotic mix of romance, action, and zombie comedy that manages to bring something new to the well-trodden apocalyptic genre. With a star-studded cast, solid direction, and an engaging premise, it delivers both thrilling moments and unexpected humor.

The premise of a breakup-turned-survival-quest adds an interesting emotional layer, making their journey more than just about escaping zombies. It's also about navigating their relationship and figuring out if they should even be together.

The pacing is fast and intense, with chaotic chase scenes, absurd comedy, and moments of raw emotion. It doesn't waste time with unnecessary exposition, diving straight into the outbreak and throwing the protagonists into extreme situations.

Park Jeong-min shines as the everyman-turned-reluctant-hero, balancing desperation with determination. Jisoo delivers a strong performance, bringing depth to her character’s frustrations and fears. Their chemistry is believable, especially in the tension between rekindled love and unresolved issues.

The supporting cast adds to the drama, with some memorable side characters who provide both comic relief and emotional weight. Unlike typical zombie dramas that focus solely on survival, Newtopia explores how people react in absurd, almost satirical ways when society collapses.

This drama doesn’t take itself too seriously, offering ironic twists and playful commentary on relationships. Some moments are outright ridiculous (in a good way), making it feel more like a Train to Busan meets Shaun of the Dead rather than a straight horror-thriller.

Overall, Newtopia is a fresh and engaging take on the zombie genre, offering a mix of romance, action, and absurdity. If you’re looking for something fun, fast-paced, and different from typical apocalypse dramas, this is worth watching.

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Not My Cup of Tea

As you can probably tell, I'm not a huge fan of this drama. I see a lot of people enjoying it and honestly, good for them but to offer my two cents on why I didn't like it.

First of all, two things that caught me off guard were the level of gore and comedic tendencies. Now, I do realize it's my fault since the tags are pretty clear but if you are someone who's not very good with gore, this drama is probably not for you as it can be pretty graphic at times.

As for the comedy, I feel like it had real potential but failed to deliver most of the time. Instead of feeling like a comic relief after heavy moments, they turned the situation into some kind of joke, so it just ends up keeping you hanging between a really dark incident and a complete joke — unable to immerse into either.
One of my biggest issues with this drama was the absolute lack of collective braincells that the soldiers had. Funny is not equals to dumb. Aaron Park is a good example of that. Him along with Alex and Su Jeong were my favourite characters.
The complete lack of seriousness, order, intelligence, fighting skills and just about anything useful from a bunch of so-called military trained men, was so seriously ridiculous to me. And the only person with some common sense among them was disregarded because he wasn't exactly polite in a life and death situation and didn't want to cater to their dumb decisions.

Most of the characters also had little to no background story which made them feel flat and hard to connect at times. Moreover, despite the slow start, it still failed to effectively give a proper world building to either the story or the characters. But some characters like Alex, Aaron Park, Jin Uk, Gyeong Sik, that drunk kid did manage to stand out and gave the story some much needed depth. Overall, the acting was okay, nothing exceptional but not bad. And as far this story goes, Jisoo's character was actually rather interesting. In fact, I started this drama after watching the metro scene in an insta reel. Her scenes made more sense in both serious and comedic settings, since Young Ju is a regular girl who is winging her way through a crisis despite being scared. Civilians overall, had a way better writing than the soldiers.

As for the romance, I just wasn't feeling it. It could be due to the leads having barely any scenes together in present time, but even with all the flashbacks, I still didn't feel any chemistry between them.

That being said, I do agree that this drama did get relatively better towards the later episodes. Unfortunately, it still wasn't enough for me. But if you like zombie dramas and mindless comedy, and do not mind gore, stupid soldiers and the general lack of a good plot — this might be worth a shot to you as it does take a different - albeit much narrower - angle to the apocalypse and certainly had its moments. I, however, liked a little more serious dramas like Happiness and All of Us are Dead, so this was not really my cup of tea.

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