Paramount+’s new series Bargain, arriving October 5, is impossible to summarise without major plot spoilers. Let’s just say it starts out as an intriguing two-hander in a hotel bedroom, suggestive of some kind of honey trap, before taking a sharp left turn to a whole other surreal narrative…

I’m detecting a pattern with many of the Korean dramas I’ve been watching. They often start well – an arresting premise with excellent production values – before falling apart midway. I’m told by industry buddies that this is usually down to a Korean production process, where shows start filming not always sure of their final destination. I’m hoping that, because Bargain is more contained, at just six 35-minute episodes, and has a distinct auteur aesthetic from Woo-Sung Jeon who both writes and directs, this show will buck that trend.

The season opener blew me away. Conceived as a one-shot real-time drama, the first fifteen minutes have a surprisingly naturalistic, social realist tone. A man (Jin Seon-kyu) has come to a remote hotel prepared to pay a lot of money for sex with a special type of girl (Jeon Jong-seo), but it’s clear that neither of them are who they pretend to be. The performances are superb and unsettlingly nuanced. Neither of them is particularly sympathetic, but who is predator and who is prey?

And then…? Well, the less you know about what happens next the better, but despite the shark jumping nature of the plot, it is all played for real – still in that single shot – and it’s completely gripping. Not content with simply hurdling over the shark, in the final minute of the episode, the story decides to try its hand at a narrative pole vault, which makes Episode 2 a must-see.

For about five minutes into the next part, I was foolish enough to think that the plot might have settled into something vaguely coherent, before it disappeared (almost literally) down a narrative rabbit hole into a sort of bonkers dystopia on steroids. Half an hour later, I’m still enthralled, but desperately hoping that Woo-Sung Jeon has the self-discipline not to let it become so surreal that I cease to care, as I have done too many times before.

Verdict: Based on the first two episodes, Bargain is a cut above most of the Korean genre output I’ve seen in recent years – stylistically distinctive in many ways. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the rest of it.

Episode 1 – 10/10   Episode 2 – 7/10

Martin Jameson

www.ninjamarmoset.com