Mask Girl Netflix Review: Imagine you finally got a day off from work and you decided to have your well-deserved “me-day”. You begin to prepare to watch that really popular show on Netflix that you have been waiting for a very long time. You grab a big, bloated bag of potato chips with one of your favorite drinks. What a beautiful day! You plop on your bed, and open the chips packet, all excited and giddy, only to discover a handful of chips! What a disappointment. Feels like a scam, right? Well, Netflix’s new Korean drama, Mask Girl, is that bag of potato chips. All air, barely any substance.
Mask Girl Netflix Review: Trailer
Mask Girl Netflix Review: Plot
Mask Girl is a black comedy thriller. Our leading lady Kim Mo-mi is an ordinary office worker who did not quite expect her life to be how it turned out. Relatable, right? Well, since she was a child, she wanted to be an idol, to dance and sing on a big stage, immerse herself in the hum of cheers. Life couldn’t be better. All glitter, no tears.
Turns out, Mo-mi had been bullied all her life for her appearance. In reality, she finds herself as just another employee in a drab 9-5 job, pining for the affection of her married boss, all the while getting called a “pig” on a regular basis. But at the same time, she’s a night-time internet celebrity, the “mask” girl, who gets entangled in a series of ill-fated events. To find out more, watch Mask Girl only on Netflix!
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Mask Girl Netflix Review
Netflix’s new Kdrama Mask Girl was reigning number one just after the day it was released. Naturally, I expected it to be absolutely fabulous just like the Netflix hit kdrama, Celebrity. I couldn’t have been more wrong. On the surface, it seems like a feminist revenge thriller similar to popular hits like the American sensation Gone Girl, and Kdramas like Anna, Little Women, and Celebrity but it fails to deliver the quality of storytelling, characterization, and thematic weight.
Mask Girl begins well and strong. The introduction sequence is very similar to that of Little Women with its symbolic illustration and dark instrumental music that immediately hints at the advent of a good thriller. Mo-mi takes center stage with her backstory, highlighting the sheer mental trauma she faces due to her unconventional appearance. Despite being bullied, she carves out a space for herself through her internet channel, putting on a “mask” to escape the prying, judging gaze of society while simultaneously soaking the necessary validation that she pines for – to have people cheer for her, appreciate her and love her.
However, Mask Girl’s shining glass menagerie, in reality, is soon realized as mere pieces of colorful glass awkwardly put together to pass off as a high-end piece of jewelry. By the end of episode two, the show speed races into a catastrophic mess. Sure, the show ridicules the plastic-surgery trope that has been popular in melodramatic daily soaps but the issue arises that while doing so, it loses its vision, and originality and becomes one of those predictable, melodramatic cliched shows that are plagued by surprise pregnancies amidst crisis, lucky near-death escapades, nasty old women plotting for years to take their revenge, unrealistic and illogical character motives and so on.
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Mask Girl seems like four different Kdramas in one, in which the dark, uncomfortable sequences that made it popular, are limited to the first two episodes post which take on the form of a ridiculous generational melodramatic daily soap. The creepiness of Mask Girl, of her assaulter and accomplice-in-arms, Ju Oh-Nam which was the original charm of the show is nowhere to be seen again.
Sure, the kdrama does portray the hardships, isolation, and mental trauma of the victims of bullying especially on the basis of beauty and the effects of the stigma that is carried on. However, all such themes have been portrayed in Kdrama hits like Sky Castle. Themes and little references aren’t enough for a successful TV show and through Mask Girl, we now have realized the importance of a good screenplay and how too many chefs spoil the broth!
Mask Girl Netflix Review: Our Rating
Is Netflix’s Mask Girl worth it?
JAL gives Mask Girl a 2.5 out of 5.
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