For my 102nd K-Drama, I watched Imitation on Netflix. There was this one night that I fell asleep at around 8pm then woke up at 3am. I couldn’t go back to sleep. I decided to watch something that would make me drowsy. The K-Drama series Imitation popped up my Netflix recos. I thought the poster looked cheap and cheesy so I figured it would put me to sleep. Boy was I mistaken. I ended up binge-watching until 7am! Took me 2 days to finish this 12-episode series.
Netflix’s synopsis for Imitation makes it seem like it’s all about one K-pop artist copying another. But it’s not, it’s really not lol. Imitation is about the reality of K-pop trainee/idol life, the dark side of the Korean music industry, and the harsh realities of life as a K-pop star. If it were a book, it would be a page-turner.
Watching this series made me appreciate K-pop bands a whole lot more. It’s really not easy. They pretty much abstain from a lot of things (food, drinks, dating, and so forth) and practice dancing till they collapse. Some are even victimized by EVIL music industry execs, like one character was driven to suicide because she was being forced to hand out sexual favors. Fans get all stalkery and crazy too yet the K-pop idols can’t afford to displease them. Jeez.
A lot of the cast members in this series are K-pop stars. There are 4 guys from Ateez, 2 guys from SF9, Park Ji-yeon from T-ara, etc. This lends a lot of authenticity to all the dance practice scenes. The songs are so catchy I found myself searching for them in Spotify — and they are there!
Although some Korean music industry problems are touched on, they are not really addressed head-on. The series merely acknowledges that shit happens in the industry. All the K-pop idols actually turn in excellent acting performances. One of the things that bothered me was the lead actress’ weirdly done eyebrows but it’s not that big of a deal. Imitation is a really solid and entertaining series… highly recommended even if you’re not into K-pop. It’s definitely one of the better ones I’ve seen this year.
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