‘The Fabulous’ Review: The Struggle to Reach the Top of the Fashion World
Have you ever felt like none of the things you do are good enough to achieve the dream you have been striving for? Achieving one’s dream is not a simple thing. It is a path that is hard and confusing, and because each dream requires a different set of parameters, it is hard to know exactly what to do at any given moment. The Fabulous is a new Korean drama TV series on Netflix that knows exactly how to deal with this subject, even when the characters it uses to do so are not the best in the medium.
The Fabulous is a series developed by Netflix under the direction of Kim Jung-hyun and the writing of Kim Ji-Hee. The series stars Mihno, Chae Soo-bin, Lee Sang-un, and Park Hee-jung. The series tells the story of a group of friends who are ready to face the challenges of becoming part of the competitive world of fashion in the city of Seoul. Each of the friends has the dream of making it big in one of the big positions in the industry; for example, as a photographer, a producer, a designer, or a model.
The Fabulous makes it hard to like the premise at many moments. It is hard not to say that most of the show feels frivolous and unimportant. Not because fashion cannot carry importance but because the series sometimes focuses on the worst aspects of the industry, the ones that make it seem like an industry with no relevance to most people. Because the show focuses on these wrong aspects so much, it becomes annoying when the characters try to reach for something we know has no importance.
Our main group of heroes feels quite nice. They are a group of friends that share the same values and are ready to go and chase their dreams. However, the series and its story don’t know how to see the characters. The result is a group of characters that can feel inspiring and charming at one moment and completely entitled and out of the loop at the next. It is quite jarring, and as the story progresses, it feels frustrating for the characters to be chasing goals that we, as the audience, know won’t make them happy.
If there is something that feels the most annoying about this story, it is the looping nature of it. There are, of course, the signature conventions of the genre; reluctant lovers, harsh bosses with a heart of gold, characters that are only there for comedic relief, and also a lot of lavish scenarios that couldn’t feel more vapid or devoid of meaning. Movies like “The Devil Wear Prada” end up humanizing fashion in such a way that you end up seeing why it is an industry that is important for human beings.
However, the treatment the series gives you in this industry makes you think exactly the opposite. Maybe, the world would be a better place without all these vapid, shallow, and entitled people telling others what they should wear and what they should not. The series makes you feel like independent fashion creators are the answer, while the old guard should disappear completely. They had their turn, and they only messed it up completely for the people who love fashion and those who want to take part in it.
The show’s direction is quite simple and adheres to the same kind of direction most Korean dramas have used lately. Something that really feels strange is that no matter which director is used for a project, they end up using the same tools, narrative devices, and visual tools over and over again. There is really no difference from one director to another when they all make episodes in the exact same way. You could say that they are just following the parameters of a proven formula, but when this is the only thing they are able to make and present to audiences, it becomes boring.
The cast is fabulous, which is something that cannot be denied; even when their characters are not the most likable of people, the actors do have an amazing sense of charm that pushes the story forward every time. It is hard to come off as charming when the writing is pushing your characters in a different direction, so the actors really have something of their own going on here. We wished there could be more and that the series’ story could support the actors on another level, but it doesn’t.
In the end, The Fabulous tries to sell us the idea that fashion is important for human life and that the industry is made up of hard-working people striving to do something monumental. Hard-working people are right, but the rest of the idea loses its meaning along the way. The result is a show that might make you detest the fashion industry. And make you think more about the things you might want coming from an industry ruled by the elite that doesn’t offer anything else than another way to maintain them in those elite positions.