Stove League

Tracking Min Namkoong's performances brought me to Stove League. As am NOT a baseball fan I put off watching it. Then when everything else looked mediocre I tuned in--and wow--the foundations of corruption of the people who never step up to bat--those who want a team to fail for their own purposes, greed, ethical corruption and just plan dirty dealing bring a lot of substance to this drama. Min is generally stone cold stoic throughout--but still manages to give off pressure cooker steam somehow--he's a truly great actor. I didn't expect this kind of role after One Dollar Lawyer. There's solid performances from the entire cast fleshing out individual personal stories which also make it worth watching. This is not a fluffy cotton candy baseball drama. Loving baseball is not necessary for enjoying the human drama. See how long it takes before you're throwing verbal abuse at the nasty humans on your screen of choice.

As in doctor prisoner, this is again a atypical story centres on sports management. It shows male lead's effort to choose plot that is new to ordinary kdrama.

I am living in a small city and never has resources to develop sports, like the scale shown in the drama. It is interesting to know the team behind a sports team.

The pace of story is at times kind of slow. But most of the time the drama develops with great stories. Going aboard to interview foreign sportsman, taking of illegal drugs, selling and buying of team members. All these constitute a rich story and well-developed plot.

It is just disappointed for male lead to lose the best actor in Baesang. He will have more chance to win if there is a love line with a more beautiful female lead. Hope he could win in the next round of award presentation.

This drama hits all the right notes. Folks who trivialize saying 'this is Moneyball version of K-drama' are grossly downplaying the depth of this show. There is so much happening in each episode. The first episode instantly sets-up an intriguing plot and every episode unravels something interesting or tackles a deep rooted issue.

Although its set against a Sports (Baseball) backdrop it isn't simply a Sports story. Please don't turn away thinking its a Sports drama. Infact there is hardly any on-field action through its 16 episodes length. It focuses more on the management side of the team and the problems that pop-up after years of under-performance. Along the way you may even pick up few useful tips on topics such as negotiation, presentation skills and general management.

What I loved:

• Great storyline
• Fantastic acting (Namkoong Min is a Korean treasure, however he was aptly supported by Eun-bin Park and others)
• Good explanation of important Baseball stats (on Viki) and not dumping lot of numbers on our face (easy to follow for a novice like me)

It's a pity so few people have watched this drama. It deserves much more recognition and love.

Go Dreams!

P.S. There is no romance in this drama. Just so you know ;) It also won the Baeksang Arts Awards for Best Drama for the year 2020

A low cost drama that uses low budget material and low manpower. The low cost material like CEO using low cost cars still showed the same no make senses. They also keep showing the same faces which are bored to say low manpower. However the story plot are nice from episode 1 to 14 but episode 15 beginning to get low expectation and quite bored. Final episode 16 is a low standard conclusion which make no sense. Sadly the writer did not think of a better conclusion. But overall its a short 16 episodes drama so it quite exciting to pass time.

A baseball teamI called dreams has been placed last for four seasons and when the manager steps down he is replaced by Baek Seung-soo (Namkkong Min) He has no history with baseball management and may have been hired for underhanded reasons. The team is highly dysfunctional but with his calm unusual approach he starts to make real changes. I am a fan of Park Eun-bin which is what drew me to watch this series and she plays the operations manager Lee Se Young and as always she along with all the cast provide a sterling performance. I think it rates so highly as many baseball fans enjoy the vast amount of statistics and a look behind the scenes of this imaginary club.