I Picked Up a Celebrity on the Street is about a struggling contract worker (Kim Ga Eun) who wants to teach her awful manager a lesson and accidentally ends up thinking she killed the top star Joon Hyuk (Sung Hoon).
In order to cover up her crime, she prepares to get rid of the body, but to her surprise, he’s still alive! She then she has to keep him held hostage and goes to humorous lengths to avoid getting caught.
Kim Ga Eun plays the almost-killer Lee Yeon Seo. Life’s been tough for her, and things get worse when she almost kills a celebrity. Her life then revolves around keeping him hostage so she won’t get caught.
Sung Hoon is the top star Kang Joon Hyuk. He’s widely loved by his fans, but he’s really a bit obnoxious. His life gets turned upside down when he gets kidnapped by Yeon Seo and is left trying to find a way to escape her apartment.
Finally, we have Kim Jong Hoon as Nak Goo who is Yeon Seo’s neighbor. He ends up humorously oblivious to Yeon Seo’s shenanigans with Joon Hyuk and slowly becomes more deeply involved in everything.
I Picked Up a Celebrity on the Street is certainly an interesting watch! This is the kind of drama that is definitely not for everyone, so I’ll try to highlight things you should be aware of before diving into a drama like this.
Of course, the humor is on the dark side being centered around a woman thinking she killed someone, coming up with plans to hide her crime, discovering he’s actually alive, and then deciding to hold him hostage. It sounds like the makings of a thriller! But no, this is all played for fun. So if you don’t like humor involving death, crimes, and serious subjects, this may not click with you.
This drama is also the definition of a check your brain at the door kind of drama. The situation is absurd as is most of the plot. Practically everything that happens is completely unrealistic, and many people will be rolling their eyes at all of the convenient plot devices. You really just have to set your expectations from the get go and then go with the flow with this kind of series.
Much of the humor revolves around Yeon Seo trying to keep Jugn Hyuk hidden as well as his futile attempts to escape. His inability to escape isn’t particularly believable nor are some of his reasons he doesn’t always try so hard to escape.
The drama is quite light-hearted despite it’s dark humor. Because of this, we are supposed to feel kind of bad for our almost murderer/kidnapper Yeon Seo. She’s got her own sad story and plenty of struggles.
Despite being a comedy and her story being sad, I didn’t feel that bad for her though. Even though everything is so silly, it was still kind of hard for my brain to reconcile all of the bad things she did to Jung Hyuk compared with her actual motivations and sob story.
With that being said, I still liked the drama. I like crazy situations and humor, and this definitely fit that bill. I really love Kim Ga Eun, and she was great in this role. This is also my favorite role of Sung Hoon. He was very entertaining here, and I really got a kick out of all of his reactions to Yeon Seo and his situation.
While the first half of the drama is more like a dark comedy, the second half feels more like a rom-com thriller. We see a developing romance between Yeon Seo and Jung Hyuk, a love triangle, and we also have a villain adding a dash of suspense to the mix. It was an interesting change in the overall dynamic, and you may just forget that crazy time that Yeon Seo was holding Jung Hyuk hostage!
I Picked Up a Celebrity on the Street may involve dark humor, but it is light and silly. I liked the comedy, but it was a bit repetitive, and I didn’t really feel for our heroine’s plight. It’s an easy watch though with only 10 episodes too. This one is heavily taste dependent, so make sure you know what you’re getting into before starting.
My Rating: 7/10
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