Dear Gossips, 

I need the weekend more than ever lately. Not because of work but because the weekend is when new episodes of my current favourite show are released on Netflix. Right now, eight out of sixteen episodes are available, with new episodes, one on Saturday and another on Sunday, posted immediately after they air in South Korea. It’s all I can think about through the week, and it gets worse on Fridays because I tell myself, don’t watch on Saturday, wait for Sunday and you can watch both episodes, back to back, and have two plus hours with these people to sustain you for the next five days. Then, inevitably, I cave on Saturdays because I have no self-control. I am not okay for It’s Okay To Not Be Okay. And what makes it worse is that I have no one to talk about it with! 

 

Which is why I’m bringing it to you in this space, so that someone out there will be as hooked as I am and we can start a support group or something. It’s Okay To Not Be Okay is part fairytale, part rom-com, part mystery, and a fashion show. Like every time lead actor Seo Ye-ji shows up, the set becomes a runway. But not frivolously as the wardrobe is critical to understanding the character and advancing the story. 

Mostly though, nothing works if not for the chemistry between the two leads – I’m a mess every time they’re in a scene together, and even the cameras can’t seem to help themselves, as if operating on automatic and refusing to cut away when the two are making eye contact. That must be why they’re  always lingering on them looking at each other. Ordinarily I’m impatient with that sh-t but with this show, just watching them watching each other is enough – look at these two! I’ve now become that person who wants them to be in love in real life! 

 

Shipping aside though, here’s another example of the point I’ve been trying to make about content and distribution during the pandemic: It’s Okay To Not Be Okay only went into production in the first quarter of this year. They might actually still be filming some scenes for the final episodes. Which means they’ve been able to shoot and begin post-production and roll out the marketing (trailers, promotional photos etc) and GO TO AIR in just six months. North American projects (with a couple of exceptions), meanwhile, have been on pause with no word on when anything resembling a normal production process will resume. At some point, if this goes on, they’re going to run out of the content that had already wrapped prior to lockdown. Netflix, however, may have less to worry about because they’ve already established a robust content acquisition pipeline from so many regions around the world like East Asia where, as I’ve just established, they’re not only producing new material, they seem to be doing it more efficiently. 

This reminds me of what Bong Joon-ho said at the Golden Globes back in January where he kicked off Parasite’s award season sweep: 

The longer this goes on, resistance to subtitles may no longer be an option. Might as well get over it now, right? Please, for me, watch It’s Okay To Not Be Okay. I am desperate and lonely in this obsession. 

Yours in gossip,

Lainey