Potato Lab: Can You Grow the Perfect Potato?

AdminMarch 5, 2025

“Potato Lab” was released in 2025, has 12 episodes, is categorized as Office or Workplace, Romance, and Comedy (Rom-Com); and is streaming on Netflix.

SUMMARY: There is a lot that goes into creating the perfect potato and the perfect romance.

♦ 2000 Attempts at Growing the Perfect Potato?

In “Potato Lab”, Kim Mi-Kyung is a researcher and her company’s ultimate goal is to grow the “perfect potato”. What is the perfect potato? A potato that can still grow regardless of the weather, is resistant to attacks by insects, makes the perfect potato chip, and tastes great! Kim Mi-Kyung is a researcher, so she doesn’t realize that the company she works for is about to go under.

So Baek-Ho is responsible for strategic planning in a different company and his company acquireds the potato company where Kim Mi-Kyung works and that includes the potato lab. She used for work for that company and when she left it was not pretty. Since then the mere mention of the company’s name provokes her ire. You can imagine her reaction when she realized that she is now working for that company AGAIN! So Baek-Ho is her new boss.

So Baek-Ho is kinda hot! AND cold. Judging by his external appearance, he can make women weak in the knees. But his attitude toward Kim Mi-Kyung and the other workers is extremely professional and he keeps his distance. There is no mixing of work with personal. Most of the time he is strictly business. He was sent to the potato company as a “temporary” general manager because the person they hired for the position had not yet arrived.

While Kim Mi-Kyung and her team had gone to Seoul to the new company’s personnel office to get their badges, So Baek-Ho was already at their workplace inspecting the premises. They got a phone call and were told that “somebody” was there inspecting their workplace. The team panicked and immediately drove back to the old company, now under the management of the new company. She confronted So Baek-Ho immediately assuming that he was there to close down the potato lab. Their working relationship got off to a bad start.

However, to his credit, he told her he takes his job as a strategic planner very seriously. He doesn’t make hasty decisions and always performs thorough evaluations before submitting recommendations to executive management. Then So Baek-Ho added that they had tried about 2000 times to make the “perfect potato”. He wondered if their research would ever be successful. For now, the potato lab is safe.

Meanwhile, back at the new company’s offices in Seoul, Park Ki-Se, the executive director, realized he made a serious error in his “strategy”. He was trying to eliminate his “competition” AT WORK by sending So Baek-Ho on that “temporary” general manager assignment. But he did not know that was where Kim Mi-Kyung worked. He and Kim Mi-Kyung once worked together and had been in a romantic relationship. But they broke up and she left the company and him. He climbed the corporate ladder of success, got married and divorced, and was now available to pursue her again. But! … So Baek-Ho is HOT! Kim Mi-Kyung might get attracted to him and that would ruin Park Ki-Se’s chances of ever getting back together with her. In strategic planning circles his error is called “Oops!”

Main Characters:

Kim Mi-Kyung (played by Lee Sun-Bin, “Mission: Possible”, “OK! Madam”, “Rampant”, “Missing Nine”)
So Baek-Ho (played by Kang Tae-Oh, “Extraordinary Attorney Woo”, “The Tale of Nokdu”, “Doom at Your Service”)
Park Ki-Se (played by Lee Hak-Joo, “Parole Examiner Lee”, “My Dearest”, “Shadow Detective 1 and 2”, “My Name”)

Where to Watch

Viewership and Rating:

IMDb: 7.1 out of 10 stars
My Drama List: 7.8 out of 10 stars

My personal rating is 7 out of 10 stars. It’s in the seven-ish range.

If I were to rate “Potato Lab” for the scenery, it would get 9 out of 10 stars. Who knew potato fields were so gorgeous? “The Potato Lab” K-drama was filmed in the picturesque mountain valleys of Gangwon Province, South Korea.

However, it’s being rated for overall delivery. I don’t know what’s up with Netflix. Did they decide to go all in on cheesy, tropey, rom-coms for 2025? (O.o)

It’s sterotypical but when I think Asian, I think rice. This is the 3rd K-drama where there’s been a potato field. Although, I do often see Korean characters eating sweet potatoes (known as “goguma” in Korean). But since growing potatoes to feed the population was mentioned in these Korean dramas, it made me wonder how important potato crops are to the Korean economy. The answer is: VERY IMPORTANT!

It is believed China introduced the potato to Korea in the early 19th century. However, they became a staple crop during the Japanese occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945. After World War II, the importance of potatoes continued to grow, and they played a key role in the country’s food security during times of hardship.

SIDE NOTE: Even in North Korea, Kim Jong Il started the “potato revolution” in 1999, aimed at improving food security in the country. (Although I’m not sure if that worked!)

P.S. The other K-dramas were “The Witch” and “Heung-Boo: The Revolutionist”