Korean actors light up U.S. TV shows

For the fall TV season, many actors of Korean descent are breaking free from the stereotypical Asian roles and appearing as major characters in the storyline. Daniel Henney, who has a huge fan base in Korea, is appearing in CBS’s “Three Rivers”, while John Cho, who is well known for films such as “Star Trek: The Beginning” and “Harold and Kumar”, is starring in ABC’s “Flash Forwards”. They are just two examples amongst many such actors. Comedian Ken Jeong received a lot of attention appearing in six movies this year, including “The Hangover” and “All About Steve” and is now on NBC sitcom “Community”. In addition, Lindsay Price is in ABC’s “Eastwick”, comedian Margaret Cho in Lifetime’s “Drop Dead Diva” and Linda Park, who has appeared in many TV shows, is now starring in the second season of “Crash”.

The most eye-catching one of all these shows is “Flash Forward”, which has been picked up for the entire season and received an average score of 73 points on critic’s portal site Metacritic.com. The pilot episode of “Flash Forward”, about everyone in the world suddenly seeing their future for 2 minutes and 17 seconds, has already drawn 12.47 million viewers. It has maintained its high ratings and is being called the next “Lost”. John Cho plays Demetri Noh, partner to the main character who is an FBI investigator played by Joseph Fiennes. Demetri Noh is a character who is anxious because he, unlike others, has no flash-forward prior to his wedding to fiancee (played by Gabrielle Union) but receives an anonymous phone call that he is going to be murdered.

In “Community”, set in a community college full of problematic students, Korean-American comedian Ken Jeong plays a very proud Spanish professor Senore Chang, who does not overlook such students asking questions such as, “Why do you teach Spanish instead of martial arts?” Jeong’s castmates include noted stand-up comedians like Chevy Chase and Joel McHale. It received an average score of 69 on Metacritic.com, but is drawing talks of an early departure due to a huge decrease in ratings since the first episode.


Meanwhile, Daniel Henney’s “Three Rivers” and Lindsay Price’s “Eastwick” have received low scores on both viewership ratings and quality. In the case of “Three Rivers”, which airs on Sunday when the competition is comparatively low, has seen the number of its viewers decrease by 2 million from the pilot to its first episode of the season. And the score from Metacritic was only 48 points as well. One critic called “Eastwick” an “old version of ‘Charmed’” while “Three Rivers” was said to be a “forgettable TV series.”

Lastly, in “Drop Dead Diva”, a dramedy about a former model who is reincarnated as an overweight yet successful lawyer, Margaret Cho appears as Teri Lee, the main character’s assistant who helps her deal with the reality. In “Crash”, a drama version of the 2004 Academy Award-winning film of the same title, Linda Park joins the second season in the role of Mary Blanchard. Blanchard, a children’s book illustrator married to millionaire businessman Seth Blanchard (played by Eric Roberts), is a character living a wealthy but unstable life due to her husband’s erratic behavior.

Reporter: Yang Ji-hyun, New York correspondent
Editor : Lynn Kim lynn2878@asiae.co.kr, Jang Kyung-Jin three@10asia.co.kr