It's definitely not the excitement I used to start this series that I ended it with, I had seen "Extraordinary Attorney Woo" sometime ago and totally loved the male lead character so I was one of those waiting for this series last episode to be aired before I start a binge-watch. It took a while before I decided to see it after the last episode.
The poster, the title and the storyline, all were weird for me but I thought a little but of weird won't hurt all because I wanted to see a particular character play another role. The series turns out to be very much less than expected but it wasn't a waste of time, I'll blame my excitement and for expecting too much from a story like that.
"The Potato Lab" also known as Potato Research Center is a 2025 Korean drama series starring Lee Sun-bin and Kang Tae-oh, with genres "Comedy" and "romance" so yeah, it's a rom-com but I'll say this one has more of comedy than romance. While I would prefer romance to comedy, I can settle for more comedy in a story.
Kim Mi-kyeong, a potato researcher and big lover of potatoes, have to face a big change in her life and job when So Baek-ho, a very practical Retail Director showed up as her new Boss. She is very hot tempered and her Boss is very practical in his words showing no emotions. While attempting to make him leave, Kim Mi-kyeong gets fired.
The comedy started from the first episode for me, especially with the introduction of potatoes in a way I had never imagined. I mean, I enjoy potato meals but I had never thought there'd be people passionately researching more into it to utilise it's potential to full. This series is quite an eye opener in that aspect for all it's viewers.
What wasn't satisfying for me in this story is the development of their love story. It was very predictable that the two will fall for each other, even a character (Kim Mi-kyeong's friend) gave it away too easily in the first two episodes so their love story wasn't so exciting, the character opposites made their chemistry not as good.
That wasn't the most unsatisfying part for me though, I know a lot of kiss scenes from Korean series that have been living rent free in my head for as long as I can remember because of how well the characters played that part. Well, this series didn't even go near my invisible minimum standard of what a first kiss scene look like.
I had too many strange moments in this series but no doubt, I laughed a lot because of how resilient and feisty the female lead is to the people around her, from her younger Bro to best friend to her colleagues at work. It felt quite unreal that she fell in love first but that kinda changed what we are used to in Korean dramas.
I would recommend this series to you if you want to laugh so much and get some good knowledge about potatoes, they gave their A-game on that. If you are a romance story lover, you might want to skip this one, or lower your expectations to see it lol. The trailer above introduced the main characters well enough and about the story. I'll rate it 6/10 for the potato lectures and comedy.