Lee Bo-young became the first female executive, but it was 'a ruse'

JTBC's 'Agency' Lee Bo-young's strong comeback made the time in the home theater go by in a flash from the first episode. The viewership rating was 5.5% in the metropolitan area and 4.8% nationwide (Nielsen Korea).

In the first episode of JTBC's Saturday-Sunday drama 'Agency', which started on the 7th, Go Ah-in (played by Lee Bo-young), CD (Creative Director) of the 2nd team of VC Planning who conquered the advertising world with only her skills, became the first female executive in a conservative VC group. The process unfolded. In particular, the 'girl warrior' metaphor in the RPG game advertisement that decorated the opening caught the eye, hinting at the past and future of Goa people. Expectations are high for a story of limitless success in which a girl waiting for a prince on a white horse boldly breaks the cliché, cuts off the horse's head, and transforms into a warrior who "goes beyond being the first and becomes the best, who never loses elegance despite being cruel, and who sometimes abandons herself to protect herself." was amplified.

PT success rate, annual salary increase rate, performance bonus, TVCF evaluation score, and sales increase rate are all ranked first in the industry, and Go Ain is a professional advertiser with “a habit of winning.” People whispered that she was a “success-crazed donciopath,” but she was more confident than anyone else. This is the result of giving up the joy that humans feel and only working like a war, such as going to work first, staying up all night until a good idea comes up, and having to revise and re-edit the copy until just before the bidding to get out of the way. But there was a dark shadow behind that, where I suffered from anxiety disorder, panic, and insomnia without medication and alcohol. Although it looked as elegant as a swan on the water, it was literally struggling desperately to survive under the water.

An orphan like that was given the opportunity to be promoted to an executive, whether it was 'healthy medicine' or 'rat poison'. Choi Chang-soo (played by Cho Seong-ha), head of the planning division, even put up an executive position and proposed an internal bid for an advertisement for the telecommunications company with the largest budget in the company. Since there have been no cases of women being promoted to executives within conservative VC groups, it has been an implicit custom for them to leave the company when a male colleague or junior becomes an executive. Therefore, there was a high possibility that this bidding was a 'justice-building' to promote CD Kwon Woo-cheol (played by Kim Dae-gon), a direct line of Choi Sang-moo's academic relationship, who had been in charge of advertising for the telecommunication company.

Goain also knew very well that this PT could be his last, but he willingly swallowed the ‘rat poison’. This is because I was confident that I would win with my skills. And on the day of the battle, CD Kwon, who finished PT, was confident of victory. Since he had secretly stolen the idea from Goain's team conference room, he thought that Goain would do a PT that was not much different from his own. But all of this was Goan's strategy. After noticing that the board was slightly visible through the crack in the locked conference room door, he intentionally pasted the 'discarded copy'. Go Ah-in raised the odds of the game with an idea that was clearly different from that of the Kwon CD team, preventing Choi Sang-moo from doing the 'foolish thing' of match-fixing. It was a bonus to reveal that CD Kwon had stolen the copy. It was truly a refreshing bout of flipping.

Finally, a personnel appointment announcing Go Ah-in's promotion to managing director was posted on the company's intranet. She became the executive of her dreams and expressed her feelings of joy for the first time as she received congratulations from her teammates and others. With all the pencils worn out bluntly, the laptop keyboard with letters erased, and all the medicine in my bag, I felt like all the effort I had put in giving up on being a 'human orphan' and living like a war had been rewarded.

However, there was someone who applauded the promotion to managing director with a wry smile and said, “Enjoy yourselves now,” and that was Choi Sang-moo. Contrary to Go Ain's expectations, the internal PT was a horrifying ruse designed by him to get her into the position of managing director. Moreover, it was shocking as it was revealed that this was some kind of transaction with Chief of Staff Kim Tae-wan (Jeong Seung-gil) under the instructions of VC Group Chairman Kang (Song Young-chang). Go A-in has the story and skills of coming up from the bottom without any qualifications, fits the spirit of the times that needs a hero, and was chosen as "a person who will be the face of the group that the media will like" who will support the montage. The promotion to managing director was a real rat poison.

'Agency', with its twists and turns, predicted that Go Ah-in, who found out that he was a terminally ill executive, would survive desperately and fiercely. Lee Bo-young, who predicted a harsh transformation, went from being a strong-hearted orphan who didn't even flinch even while bombarding her with 'fact bombardments' that were painful enough to make her bones ache, to a lonely and lonely person who swallowed a handful of medicine to "make her way in the industry like an elephant." Even the orphans gave persuasiveness to the characters. Even in front of advertisers, who are called 'Lords' in the industry, he proudly says, "Winning is a habit," and creatively turns down huge scouting offers based on his own will, making Go A-in a great person to follow. Although he seems like a gentle gentleman with good manners, Jo Seong-ha's 'office politics' acting, as if he is embracing 99 snakes, also added to the immersion.

Kim Ji-won, Ten Asia reporter bella@tenasia.co.kr