2 out of 5

Directed by: Jeon Woo-sung

covers season 1

A pseudo single-shot opening episode disarmingly drags us through an tensely uncomfortable meeting: a man, Hyung-soo (Jin Seon-kyu), has come to a hotel room to pay to arrange for sex with Joo-young (Jeon Jong-seo), explicitly on the basis that she’s young, and a virgin. Joo-young enhances this narrative with her schoolgirl attire, and adds further taboo with a past tale of degradation.

Hyung-soo reacts excitedly, but upon further questions, finds the story to fall apart: say, is he paying for sex with a regular ol’ of-age, non-virgin? But he relents, for a discounted price, and then while taking a shower, the twist the thriller-esque squirrely-camera filming supposes is revealed: Joo-young exits the room, interacts with several others in the hotel that proves she’s part of some larger operation, then returns to the original room where Hyung-soo has now been trussed up by associates, and a crowd has gathered, ready to bid on organs that Joo-young’s team is ready to excise.

While the single shot business necessitates some excess, this is a fantastic whirlwind of an opener, still churning as the tempestuous, bidding crowd is managed by Joo-young, and more hints are dropped regarding the state of the unseen Korea beyond the hotel’s walls: a (presumed) near-future extrapolation where this organ-bidding business, while illegal, is also commonplace.

Some more late twists occur, including ending on a pretty destructive cliffhanger that truly makes one wonder what could be next.

…When that’s answered by episode 2’s opening shot, following directly from episode 1, and the proceeding ep doing the one-shot business again – conceits which will continue for all six eps, making the show very much like a chopped up movie – The Bargain rather fully reveals its cards: you know the visual gag where someone is hanging off a cliff, then they let go, screaming, only for the reveal that the floor was only a foot or so below them, and they land, safe and sound? Yeah, this show is that type of cliffhanger, applied to the whole plot. It is, in other words, almost entirely inconsequential.

Seon-kyu and Jong-seo, appearing onscreen through almost the entirety, carry the one-shot setup by always remaining animated, despite their frankly illogically repellant and unhelpful roles – their continual brittleness and abrasiveness not making much sense both for what we know of their characters, and/or in ways that even make sense for TV show characters, and only makes sense as lazy ways of withholding narrative, and I suppose under the presumption that their volatile odd couple interactions are intended as comedy. But, again, given all that kowtowing to script and shtick – they’re very watchable, assisted by some admittedly great editing that keeps often single-or same-looking room episodes flowing. The set design in general is to be commended, as the spider-web traversement of hotel corridors is punctuated by very lived in rooms and some memorable stopping points.

It’s just that it’s all for naught. The writers hover between an escape and a heist as motivations for our leads, but any urgency behind that is supplanted by mean-spiritedness: everyone in The Bargain yells, and/or is selfish, and/or enjoys inflicting cartoonish violence on others, which I again imagine is intended as comedy but is another expression of shallow execution. It’s a show that’s driven by concept instead of content, and the technical skill of the production and execution suggests a better 90 minute cut of this, excising its aborted world- and character building for pure spectacle and energy. But at six episodes, while brisk, the spectacle runs out of steam, and the lack of depth being shouted at us in swears doesn’t improve that.

As a final aside, the English subtitles on Paramount are also distractingly imperfect, with some interactions surely translated wrong (making characters respond oddly), and, unfortunately, further adding to an overall negative impression, despite initial – and occasional sparkles of – promise.