A Head Coach’s Turnover: Episodes 1-2 (Series Review)

A Head Coach’s Turnover: Episodes 1-2 (Series Review)

by solstices

Short and sweet with two heartwarming episodes, this bite-sized sports drama is chock-full of heart. It’s as funny as it is moving, with an endearing cast of characters that inspire one another towards growth, healing, and redemption.

EPISODES 1-2

Our titular head coach is MAENG GONG (Park Sung-woong), who leads his basketball team with an iron fist and a sharp tongue. His ruthless reprimands are enough to earn him a legion of anti-fans, who fire off an endless barrage of hate comments. Amongst them, one username stands out in particular: “Maeng Gong Cancel Club.” Or more accurately, Maeng-kkong Extinction Club, in which maeng-kkong refers to a type of frog. Ha.

While most of the haters revel in spreading baseless rumors, Cancel Club criticizes both the Big Pandas’ plays and Coach Maeng’s behavior with incisive precision. Cancel Club doesn’t mince his words, but his criticism isn’t without basis, for Coach Maeng’s rebukes are indeed unforgivingly harsh. The pressure winds up getting to the captain KANG WOO-SEUNG (Kwon Joo-seok), who desperately tosses the ball in hopes it’ll reach a teammate — except it ends up in an irate Coach Maeng’s hands. When Woo-seung sheepishly stammers that he mistook Coach Maeng’s white shirt for their (equally white) team jersey, Coach Maeng blows his top again and demands to know if he should show up to the court in his underwear. LOL.

Given the Big Pandas’ poor performance record of being stuck in seventh place for three consecutive years, a concerned MANAGER CHOI (Choi Byung-mo) warns Coach Maeng that his job security hangs in the balance. He has just four games left to redeem himself — if the team doesn’t make it to the playoffs, Coach Maeng’s out.

As it turns out, most of the haters are ex-fans from Coach Maeng’s athlete days who hold a grudge against him for switching basketball teams. When the Pandas admit the online vitriol is affecting them, Coach Maeng takes it upon himself to sue the pesky keyboard warriors.

Cancel Club arrives fashionably late, and he turns out to be the lollipop-licking high schooler GO HWA-JIN (Park Su-oh), who jumps straight into Coach Maeng’s taxi. HA. Hwa-jin unnerves Coach Maeng by knowing not only his destination — they’re both headed to the same hospital — but also the exact floor he gets off at.

Hwa-jin’s here to visit his hyung GO WOO-JIN (Cha Bin), who hasn’t spoken a word since his basketball dreams were crushed alongside his knee one year ago. Woo-jin throws his jersey in the trash, Hwa-jin fishes it back out, and you get the sinking feeling that they’ve gone through this countless times.

As for Coach Maeng, his teenage daughter MAENG JAE-HEE (Park Gyu-bin) feels guilty about her hospital bills, since the comments claim her dad switched teams for money. However, we soon learn the actual truth. After Coach Maeng refused to deliberately lose a match just so the company wouldn’t have to fork out sponsorship money, the chairman cut him off and framed him as a traitor.

Coach Maeng is so hard on his team because he can clearly see their untapped potential — he wants to push them to achieve more because he believes in their capabilities, but the harsh way he expresses himself comes across like he’s cutting them down. On top of that, his own athletic prowess makes him believe he knows best when it comes to basketball. Imagining Hwa-jin’s criticism, Coach Maeng starts arguing with a cartoon frog on his soju bottle, LOL.

Alas, the brewing tension in the team finally spirals into an outburst too big for Coach Maeng to handle. Woo-seung’s stress-induced tunnel vision has been hindering him from making proper passes, which makes the prideful PARK JOON-HYUK (Kim Taek) feel like he’s being deliberately snubbed. Eventually, Joon-hyuk snaps, shoving Woo-seung on the court, and it escalates into a public altercation. Needless to say, the fight is horrible for both the team’s reputation and their morale.

Hwa-jin has been (adorably) attempting to wheedle his way into Coach Maeng’s good graces all this while, but this time he extends a serious offer. If Coach Maeng lets him off easy for the hate comments, he’ll help the team win. Hwa-jin points out that all of Coach Maeng’s strategies fall apart on the court: “You don’t see the Big Pandas as one team, do you?”

With no other choice, Coach Maeng grudgingly accepts Hwa-jin’s offer — the boy may be an impertinent brat, but even Coach Maeng can’t deny his perceptive insight. Hwa-jin’s first instruction is to swap out the bickering duo for the pair of best buddy backups, who score shot after shot and win the game. Next, Hwa-jin helps alleviate the homesickness of the team’s foreign member, having noticed him expressing it on social media. (Coach Maeng’s bewilderment at the concept of social media is hilarious.)

All this leads Coach Maeng to realize the importance of his team members’ well-being off the court — he’s been too laser-focused on their performance as players, to the point that he forgot to see them as people first. The same goes for the equally stubborn Woo-seung and Joon-hyuk, whom Coach Maeng puts to a test of how well they understand each other. They end up writing the same answers, and the realization that they achieved success together has them making up. Back in sync at last, the duo emerge victorious from their next game with their arms snugly around each other’s shoulders.

To express his gratitude, Coach Maeng invites Hwa-jin over for lunch, empathizing as a fellow caretaker to a sick family member. Hwa-jin asks Coach Maeng why he likes basketball, to which Coach Maeng responds that he just does – it’s been a part of his life for decades, after all. Aww, the pile of notes on Coach Maeng’s table reveal that he’s been diligently studying his team members’ social media accounts in an attempt to get to know them better. Then Coach Maeng gifts Hwa-jin a box of fresh strawberries, having noticed that he always eats strawberry-flavored lollipops.

Coach Maeng’s kindness gnaws at Hwa-jin’s conscience, and he finally confides in his brother. It turns out Woo-jin’s injury had been caused by Joon-hyuk, and so Hwa-jin’s initial plan was to ruin Joon-hyuk by tearing down Coach Maeng. But now that Hwa-jin’s grown close to the supposed demon coach, he’s realized how much affection Coach Maeng actually holds for his team, and the guilt is eating away at him. That’s when Woo-jin finally speaks for the first time in a year, reassuring Hwa-jin that he doesn’t have to carry this burden on his behalf. *sobs*

With the team’s final game looming ahead, Hwa-jin points out that the final key is Coach Maeng’s anger outbursts — he’s always crossing into the court because he’s too emotionally invested. Thanking Coach Maeng for his sincere concern, Hwa-jin advises him to extend his empathy to his players too, and to think about what is truly best for each of them.

Almost immediately, our central duo are put to the test when an indignant Joon-hyuk confronts Hwa-jin. Incensed by Joon-hyuk’s unrepentant attitude, Hwa-jin punches him, snapping that Woo-jin couldn’t speak for a whole year due to his trauma — and here, a stunned Joon-hyuk falls silent, as if he hadn’t realized the impact of his actions. Swept up in his emotions, Hwa-jin even goes as far as to threaten that he’ll frame Coach Maeng for match-fixing if Joon-hyuk isn’t kicked off the team. It’s a testament to how much Coach Maeng has matured that he doesn’t retaliate. Instead, he’s clearly remorseful, contemplating his role in all of this.

The next day, Coach Maeng shows up with Joon-hyuk, who apologizes sincerely to Woo-jin. Joon-hyuk had lashed out due to his inferiority complex — he couldn’t bear to hear Coach Maeng constantly praising the newbie while disparaging him — but it’s no excuse. Owning up to his bullying, Joon-hyuk kneels in repentance. “Hwa-jin-ah,” Woo-jin says, looking much lighter as he turns to his brother. “Would it be okay if I forgive him?” Waaaaaa. *sobs*

Before their final game, Coach Maeng humbly apologizes to his team, and they do a team cheer as one. It’s time for their final tryouts game, and despite the section of the crowd that boos at Coach Maeng, he maintains his composure. Holding fast to his newfound trust in his players, Coach Maeng refrains from barking orders, and it does wonders for the team’s concentration. But a moment of hesitation on Woo-seung’s part costs the team their momentum, and Coach Maeng calls a timeout.

If it were Hwa-jin, he’d bench Woo-seung. But in this moment, it’s Coach Maeng who must make the call, and he asks Woo-seung if he knows why he keeps giving him chances. “Kang Woo-seung, I like your passes,” Coach Maeng admits honestly, remarking that it would have been nice if they were born in the same era so they could play on the court together. Then he encourages Woo-seung to take the shot with confidence, and prove his naysayers wrong. “I believe in you,” declares Coach Maeng.

For Woo-seung, who admires Coach Maeng with all his heart, these words mean the world. With mere seconds left on the clock and the Big Pandas lagging one point behind, Woo-seung takes the shot — and scores a buzzer beater. Aww, there’s something poetic about Woo-seung — whose name translates to “victory” — winning the game for his team. Adorably, Woo-seung jumps onto Coach Maeng for a hug, clinging onto him like a baby koala while the team celebrates their hard-earned triumph.

All’s well that ends well, and our story comes full circle when Coach Maeng asks Hwa-jin why he likes basketball. At first, it was because of his hyung; now, he likes it “just because,” in an echo of Coach Maeng’s answer. In response, Coach Maeng hones in on his potential as a performance analyst, suggesting that Hwa-jin stand by his side on the court. Aww, they’re a true team!

After everything he’s learned from Hwa-jin, Coach Maeng has turned over an entirely new leaf, centering his coaching around his players. As for the “Angry Maeng” YouTube channel with unflattering compilations of Coach Maeng yelling his lungs out? It’s since been changed to “Captain Maeng,” praising our coach’s genuine affection for his team. Of course, the channel owner is none other than Hwa-jin, who’s gone from an anti-fan to a true fan. Woo-jin gets his own happy ending too — with Coach Maeng’s help, he prepares to undergo rehabilitative training so that he may return to the basketball team one day. Awwww.

A Head Coach’s Turnover may be simple in concept and short in length, but it’s executed with so much earnest emotion. Clocking in at just two hours, this show doesn’t overstay its welcome, and neither does it rush through its story. In fact, I’d gladly watch an extra few episodes of this story, but its contained format works in its favor. With hilarious comic timing — Coach Maeng and Hwa-jin’s simultaneous exclamation of offense at being mistaken for father and son had me in stitches — and thoughtful attention to detail, this drama is enjoyable from start to finish.

It’s no surprise that veteran Park Sung-woong delivers a solid performance, but I’d be remiss not to mention Park Su-oh, who’s an absolute delight to watch. From the way he plays up Hwa-jin’s cheeky charm, to the palpable guilt and grief in his eyes whenever he gazes at his brother, Park Su-oh brings an evocative pathos to the role — reminding me just how poignant his flashback scenes were in Tomorrow. If you’re looking for a lighthearted treat with likable characters and an uplifting narrative, this drama is well worth the watch.

 
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