[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Modern Farmer" Episode 5

In an odd shift, this episode starts out with two jokes that aren't really very funny to us watching at home, but are obviously funny to the characters that tell them to each other. This is actually better than it sounds, as it signals a new, effective trend regarding characterization- the guys in the idol band and the actual farmers are starting to relate to each other on a personal level. There's only really one fight this time, and unusually, the slip-up this time was actually a fairly understandable one.

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The first half of the episode focuses on the big sports competition, and there's all the right kind of physical humor to be expected from that. The bad guys are color coded yellow for our convenience and whoa, it's Choi Jong-hoon-II! Big missed opportunity here. I really wish they'd have just gone full bore and had the entire cast from "Golden Tower" reprise their roles. Normally I'm not a big fan of crossovers but it absolutely would have been worth the effort.

There's still shades of the same comedic theming though, more because the two dramas cover similar material than it is any conscious effort of a rip-off. It turns out "Modern Farmer" also has an Eastern European mail-order wife character. The obvious irony alone is a lot of fun, even if she doesn't have too much to do just yet. I just really like seeing homely Korean men paired with white women so obviously out of their league because goodness knows we get enough of that from the opposite angle.

Anyway, after the sports competition, the thaw in character relations is palpable and charming. Everyone actually seems to enjoy spending time with each other now, just being actually helpful. The penalties for rudeness are still expressed fully well, though, when a minor scandals erupts following an awkward incident involving a missing ladder. It turns out that in the abandoned countryside no one can hear you scream.

As expected the humor still isn't all that high brow, but "Modern Farmer" continue to be quite charming and even relatable. The jokes, at this point, are less about yelling and more about relationships. There's a lot of neat interpersonal connections going on here, some expected, some not so much. Most importantly, though, foolishness is rewarded. I don't know what Min-gi was thinking with his idea for the musical contest, but he got the result he deserved. Wait, why does a sports competition have a musical contest? Ah who cares it's just a vehicle for a joke anyway.

Review by William Schwartz

"Modern Farmer" is directed by Oh Jin-seok, written by Kim Ki-ho and features Lee Hong-ki, Lee Hanee, Lee Si-eon, Park Min-woo, Kwak Dong-yeon and Lee Han-wi.

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