The pitch is one of the oldest in television: a man with everything discovers he has nothing once the person who runs his life walks out the door. What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim takes that setup and turns it into 16 episodes of comedy that never quite tips into the cruelty the premise invites. Lee Young-joon (Park Seo-jun) is the vice-chairman of a major corporation. Kim Mi-so (Park Min-young) has been his secretary for nine years. When she announces she is resigning, his world is shaken.
That is the whole engine. Park Joon-hwa created the series for tvN, where it aired on Wednesdays and Thursdays from June 6 to July 26, 2018. That was 8 years ago.
Trailer, via Viu Singapore.
Jung Kyung-yoon’s Novel and the KakaoPage Webtoon
The show is based on a novel of the same title by Jung Kyung-yoon, first published in 2013. KakaoPage serialized it into a webtoon comic in 2015. So the audience for this story existed before a single frame was shot.
The broadcast schedule matters less than the structure it forced. Sixteen episodes over eight weeks is a tight run. There is no room for a filler arc, and the show does not waste one.
Park Seo-jun and Park Min-young Carry the Office
The cast is the reason this works. Park Seo-jun plays Young-joon as a man whose arrogance is a costume he has forgotten he is wearing. Park Min-young plays Mi-so as someone who has already made her decision before the first episode begins.
The supporting roster is deep: Lee Tae-hwan as Lee Sung-yeon, Pyo Ye-jin as Kim Ji-a, and Kim Hye-ok as Madame Choi. Kim Byeong-ok plays CEO Lee. Kang Ki-young is Park Yoo-sik, Kang Hong-suk is Yang Cheol, and Hwang Chan-sung is Go Gwi-nam. Kim Ye-won plays Seol Ma-eum, Lee Yoo-jun is Jung Chi-in, and Hwang Bo-ra is Bong Se-ra.
That is a lot of names for a romantic comedy. In this paper’s view, the size of that ensemble is the show’s quiet advantage: a dozen named players give the series more than one register to work in, even if the source material says nothing about how they are used.
What Nine Years of Service Buys
The nine years Mi-so spent as his secretary is the detail the series builds everything on. Young-joon decides to do whatever he can to persuade her to change her mind. That is the synopsis, and it is also the joke: a man who has never had to ask for anything now has to ask for the one thing he cannot buy.
The comedy comes from his incompetence at that task. The drama comes from the fact that she is not being coy. She quit for reasons, and the show respects them.
Schedule
| Episodes | Air dates | Network | Slot |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–16 | June 6 – July 26, 2018 | tvN | Wednesdays and Thursdays |
| 16 episodes | 1 season | — | — |
Hard Numbers
- Title: What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim (김비서가 왜 그럴까)
- Year: 2018
- Network: tvN
- Creator: Park Joon-hwa
- Episodes: 16, in 1 season
- First aired: June 6, 2018
- Last aired: July 26, 2018
- Genres: Comedy, Drama
- Source material: novel by Jung Kyung-yoon (2013); webtoon via KakaoPage (2015)
- Leads: Park Seo-jun, Park Min-young
- Score: 8.3/10
Where the Show Earns Its Score
The strongest choice the series makes is refusing to let Young-joon’s pursuit become harassment. He is arrogant, and the show says so. But Mi-so’s resignation is treated as a fact he has to work around, not a problem he can override. That keeps the comedy on the right side of the line.
Park Min-young carries most of that. Her Mi-so is competent in a way the script never has to announce. You can see nine years of accumulated knowledge in how she moves through the office, and you can see her relief at the idea of leaving it.
This paper’s view is that the office ensemble — Park Yoo-sik, Yang Cheol, Go Gwi-nam, Seol Ma-eum, Jung Chi-in, Bong Se-ra — is where the show’s second pleasure lives. That is a judgment about what works on screen, not a claim about what the writers intended. Still, when the central pair has little to do, the supporting players are what keep a viewer watching.
What dates the show, in this paper’s reading, is its pacing. Sixteen episodes is lean by the standards of its era, but the middle stretch drags for me. The scheme-and-deflection rhythm wears thin well before the finale. That is a subjective impression of a long season, not a measured pattern.
What the Audience Score Measures
The published 8.3 out of 10 is a TMDB audience score drawn from 726 votes. That is a small sample, and it is a self-selecting one. People who finish a 16-episode Korean romantic comedy and then bother to rate it are not a neutral jury. The figure is best read as satisfaction among viewers who signed up for exactly this, not as a general verdict.
Within that limit, the number is fair. What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim is not trying to be more than it is. It is a well-cast romantic comedy with a clear premise and a lead pair that sells it. The novel and webtoon gave it a floor of existing fans; Park Seo-jun and Park Min-young gave it a ceiling above that.
The show’s real achievement is tonal. It takes a setup that could easily read as a boss refusing to accept a woman’s resignation and plays it as a man realizing he has no idea how to function without her. That is a smaller, sadder, funnier story, and the series commits to it.
The weaker stretches, to this paper’s eye, are the ones that reach for plot. When the show manufactures reasons to keep the pair apart, the thread goes slack. When it just lets two people who have worked together for nine years talk, it is very good.
For a 2018 tvN Wednesday-Thursday drama adapted from a 2013 novel and a 2015 webtoon, that is a strong return. It is not a reinvention of the form. It is a solid execution of it, and the casting is the reason.
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