The Divorce Insurance: Episode 1 (First Impressions)
The Divorce Insurance: Episode 1 (First Impressions)
by SailorJumun
The Divorce Insurance is tvN’s newest romantic comedy, and ironically, it’s here to prepare people for the end of romance. This cast of characters has been through plenty of heartbreak and financial woes, so they think it’s about time that they save clients from falling into the same path. And with all the failed relationships happening around them, they’re sure to get plenty of business.
Editor’s note: Weekly coverage will continue.
EPISODE 1
It feels like it’s been forever since the last time Lee Dong-wook was in a romantic comedy. He’s impressed as multiple anti-heroes, and as a charming nine-tailed fox, but it’s nice to have him back as the everyday bumbling office worker. He certainly seems to be having fun with the role, as we see in the very first scene.
We’re dropped into a wedding fair filled with happy(-ish?) couples, when NOH KI-JOON (Lee Dong-wook) comes bursting in to introduce a new product — divorce insurance. He explains to the confused crowd that divorce has become a common disaster and one that they must prepare for.
The crowd is baffled that Ki-joon would promote divorce to newly engaged couples, but he makes the fair point that “life insurance doesn’t promote death.” He’s just trying to help and encourages everyone to take advantage of it. This, naturally, leads to him and his team being chased out of the fair.
We rewind to three months prior, when Ki-joon is still a struggling actuary trying to figure out his next project. He has a dream of his insurance idol asking him what his greatest risk in life was, and he wakes up knowing exactly what he wants to do. He hurries over to his workplace, Plus General Insurance, to pitch the idea of divorce insurance to his boss.
Unbeknownst to Ki-joon, his boss NA DAE-BOK (Kim Won-hae) was literally just threatened with divorce over the phone, so this insurance idea is sounding mighty tempting. Ki-joon takes his time doing research and crunching numbers, and then he presents the project to the entire company. Some people are skeptical, but the presentation is able to convince Team Leader Na (whose divorcee life is flashing before his eyes). Project Divorce Insurance is a go!
The next step is putting a task force together. Ki-joon approaches his prickly co-worker AHN JEON-MAN (Lee Kwang-soo), who happens to be his childhood friend, as well as a fellow divorcee. (I love that he surprise-attacks him with a bubble gun, lol.) The only way Jeon-man will join the team, though, is if Ki-joon finally explains why he got divorced a whopping three times.
Ki-joon’s answers? Ex number one had different marriage views, ex number two had different world views, and ex number three had different life views. Wah-wah-wahhh… Jeon-man looks at his friend like he’s an idiot, but he holds up his part of the bargain and agrees to work with him. They seal the deal with some drinks.
Elsewhere, we meet KANG HAN-DEUL (Lee Joo-bin), an underwriter who is currently going through a messy divorce. The poor girl isn’t used to grocery shopping for only one person and has to go around the store returning items. When she returns home, her ex is moving everything out, having left her with nothing but the apartment.
It turns out that Han-deul’s ex is a total tool — on top of being a cheating cheater, he also bought the apartment on loans and purposely put it under her name. Rather than be concerned for her, he only worries about finding the missing screw to his bidet (not surprised, seeing that he’s full of shit).
Luckily, Han-deul has a good friend named JO AH-YOUNG (Chu So-jung), who gets her hyped up for her upcoming interview at Plus General Insurance. Ah-young suggests that she should start anew and that she should ditch her sweet, reserved personality for a more edgy weirdo vibe.
Later, Han-deul decides to stop moping and to take her old mattress out to the trash. This is, of course, right as a drunk Ki-joon comes stumbling over. Han-deul freaks out at the sight of him, falling backwards onto the mattress and pulling him down with her. If that wasn’t awkward enough, a resident’s sheet comes flying down and covers them just as a biker’s radio starts playing jazzy Let’s-get-it-on music.
Um, yeah… that earns Ki-joon and Han-deul a trip to the police station for public indecency. They bicker over who’s at fault, but when Ki-joon gets a really good look at Han-deul, he recognizes her as the woman he saw crying at the grocery store. The memory reminds him of someone, so he gives in and apologizes.
Outside the station, the couple agrees that it would be best if they don’t meet again. Ki-joon notes that the chances of running into each other aren’t likely, and that they have a better chance of running into an albino raccoon. Ah, if only he knew they were in a K-drama.
In fact, they reunite not too soon after, when Ki-joon is doing interviews for his task force. Han-deul has dressed for the part of the edgy weirdo, but even so, Ki-joon sees the potential and brings her aboard. With that, the team makes up of Ki-joon, Jeon-man, Han-deul, Ah-young, and Team Leader Na.
However, Team Leader Na reveals that there’s one more person they’re waiting on — the assigned senior managing director. Said director comes strutting into the building, coming face-to-face with the team in the elevator. And whataya know, Ki-joon already knows who she is. It’s none other than JEON NA-RAE (Lee Da-hee), his ex-ex-ex wife.
Well, this should be fun. I was already hooked by Ki-joon’s energy and by the task force’s strong dynamic, but I’m all in now that one of his exes has been thrown into the mix. I’m curious to learn about their history and their real reason for getting a divorce. Because it was clear that Ki-joon was holding a lot back when his friend asked about them.
The comedic hijinks in this episode were right up my alley, but you know what? All jokes aside, I get the need for this kind of insurance. Ki-joon made a lot of solid points in his pitch, and if I were in the crowd, I would’ve taken him seriously. It’ll be interesting seeing how he’ll get others on his side, how he’ll work alongside an ex, and how he might approach love in the future.
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