“Prison Playbook” (슬기로운 감빵생활)

By Jae-Ha Kim
Substack
August 18, 2020

☆☆☆☆
Kim Je-Hyuk (played by Park Hae-Soo)
Lee Joon-Ho (played by Jung Kyung-Ho)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

The premise of “Prison Playbook” didn’t interest me initially, which is why I waited over two years to watch it. But I’m glad I did. This dramedy had so many moments that made me sad, angry and ridiculously happy.

Je-Hyuk is South Korea’s most famous baseball player and is headed to the U.S. to play in the MLB. One night, he goes to check on his younger sister and hears her screaming. She is being attacked by a rapist. In the ensuing struggle, Je-Hyuk beats him unconscious.

It seems like a no-brainer: His sister was being attacked. He ran after, caught and fought the attacker. The rapist did all he could to pummel Je-Hyuk as well. But the court system deemed that his reaction of grabbing a trophy and hitting the man on the head  in self defense was … too much. He is sentenced to a year in prison.

Excuse me?

Never mind that I don’t think that’s how the ruling would have gone in real life for a squeaky clean athlete, who had never caused any trouble on or off the pitching mound. But this sets the premise for how he survives — and even grows to thrive — in prison.

Brought to you by the same showrunners responsible for the superb “Reply” trilogy, as well as this year’s smash hit “Hospital Playlist,” “Prison Playbook” shares many of the same actors and idiosyncrasies. Instead of a goat … or was it a sheep? … bleating as in the “Reply” series, we hear a small whistle. But the most important thing it shares is the characters’ stories.

MILD SPOILER ALERT: The kindly prison guard (Sung Dong-Il) who seems to be in Je-Hyuk’s corner is really just a criminal blackmailing prisoners for money; the helpful prisoner (Joo Seok-Tae) who seems in awe of his celebrity is a rapist whose ultimate goal is Je-Hyuk’s body. And the hardened lifers (Choi Moo-Sung; and the actor who played the elderly man who was in charge of the incinerator — I can’t find his name! Argh! — who others view as trash show more morality than the righteous do-gooders.

It’s no spoiler to point out that Je-Hyuk’s guardian angel is prison guard Joon-Ho, a childhood friend who excelled at baseball, but gave up that dream.

As Ji-Ho — his former coach’s daughter who is now his ex-girlfriend — Krystal Jung balances the right amount of nuance as a strong-minded college student who wants to pave her own way into the future, with or without Je-Hyuk. And honestly, the way he behaved to her — not calling for days when his team lost, being clueless about so many things, and being a man-child all too often — Ji-Ho wasn’t exactly great boyfriend material.

There are so many stories going on here and just about all of them are strong enough to have been the central plot: a military officer (Jung Hae-In) accused to assaulting an underling so severely the latter died; a drug addict (Lee Kyu-hyung) who is in and out of prison, rather than a drug intervention program that could be more helpful.

Though this series doesn’t shy away from showing the brutal side of prison, in many ways it was like “Hogan’s Heroes,” which depicted dense, but non-threatening prison guards. For most of the series, the prison’s warden (played by Ahn Kyung-Chan) seemed like an overgrown child, whose biggest joy in life was being positively portrayed in the press. But when push comes to shove by his underling, he shows that behind his clueless Baby Huey demeanor lies a man who knows exactly what’s going on and how he wants to run his prison.

As for the prison itself, it’s about the cleanest facility I’ve ever seen, with prisoners who have their own privacy toilets in their cells. They are also served food that looks quite delicious. That’s when you know this is really a work of fiction.

No … This couldn’t possibly happen: With dramas, viewers often have to go with the flow and not think too much about reality. Or your fun will just be inevitably spoiled. But Je-Hyuk’s one request for signing with a baseball team once he’s released from prison has nothing to do with money and a multi-year contract. Rather, he said he will sign with the team that can control the media and not write about his sister in any articles about him. I know that many celebrities worldwide want to control the press. But there is no baseball team in the world that could do that, especially initially when he’s making his comeback. His story was too well known not to mention why he was in prison.

Meta Moment: There’s a tongue-in-cheek reference to Park Bo-Gum. When Choi Moo-Sung, who played Park’s father in “Reply 1988,” brags to his fellow inmates that he used to look like Park when he was younger, they stare at him incredulously. ㅋㅋ

Airdates: Sixteen 90-minute episodes aired on tvN from November 22, 2017 to January 18, 2018.

Spoiler Alert: The series ends with Je-Hyuk returning to his team as a baseball pitcher. We see him on the mound, with the crowd roaring its approval. But his team lost. I was so happy that the show didn’t create him as being back to his pre-prison form right off the bat. But it showed that he had already won over the public … and Ji-Ho.