Tomorrow: Episode 1 (First Impressions)

by missvictrix

Tomorrow is here, and it’s an interesting mix of downright hilarious quips and physical comedy set to the backdrop of super dark themes around suicide. Indeed, our team of misfit grim reapers is all about saving suicidal humans and showing them how precious their lives truly are.

Editor’s note: This drama starts off each episode with a warning that it contains content about suicide, and though the message of the show is about the inherent worth of every life, and that suicide is never the answer, this topic is definitely not for everyone, so we’ll be putting this note at the start of our weecaps, too. And, if you ever need anyone to talk to, please know there’s a whole community here to support you.

EPISODE 1 FIRST IMPRESSIONS

There’s nothing like a drama with really strong world-building — and Tomorrow has it in spades. And with a fantastical story about an underworld that smacks of corporate bureaucracy, and an “everyman” character that gets swept into another realm, well, the story needs all the grounding it can get.

Happily, Tomorrow is quite skillful at acquainting the audience not only with the rules of the world and the conflicts our characters will meet, but it does so with a matter-of-factness that somehow makes it even more buyable. Of course there are grim reapers walking around Seoul. Of course there’s a special team that saves humans who are suffering alone in their darkest moments. Of course they’re on the corporate chopping block, under-funded, and under-staffed.

The drama starts with quite a strong opening — we see the teamwork between our lead grim reaper GU RYEON (Kim Hee-sun) and her underling IM RYONG-KOO (Yoon Ji-on). Ryeon stops a group of people in the middle of carrying out a suicide pact… but she does it through some mighty questionable means.

Do the means justify the ends, or does she need a softer touch? This will surely come into question later, but there are also bigger problems at hand, like the fact that her little team of two doesn’t have the manpower to do their job well enough. And Ryong-koo, though quite competent, doesn’t care to clock any overtime.

Ryeon and Ryong-koo soon cross paths with our (human) hero CHOI JUN-WOONG (Kim Ro-woon). Jun-woong is having a time of it, having failed yet another job interview due to pure nepotism (not lack of enthusiasm or talent), and he’s feeling sorry for himself while walking across a bridge. Our grim reapers are watching from afar, because there’s a human that needs their help. But it’s not Jun-woong — it’s the down-on-his-luck ajusshi that’s looking to jump off the bridge. Jun-woong does everything to save him, but the reapers soon swoop in, and then the scene gets crazy… as in crazy hilarious.

This bridge scene is actually the perfect example of the drama’s tone — and it’s that strange combination I mentioned earlier, where the subject matter is quite serious (and given the full gravity it deserves), but it’s also sprinkled with so many quips and comedic moments that I found myself laughing more than anything else.

For instance, while Jun-woong is trying to yank the ajusshi off the railing, he desperately calls him samcheon (uncle), but instead of being touched, the ajusshi screams back, “I don’t have a nephew like you!” Then, when the reapers land on the bridge and Ryeon kicks the interfering Jun-woong into next week, the comedy only continues — Ryong-koo assesses Jun-woong’s physical condition, prompting Jun-woong to ask if he’s a doctor. But Ryong-koo just quips that he’s been watching a lot of medical dramas lately and he always wanted to try out the lines. It’s after this scene that I knew I was going to like this drama lol.

Another important part of the drama’s world-building — in addition to the tone and the characters — is the aesthetics, and here they do a great job as well. Every scene is sharp and stylish, and our reapers look (appropriately) like they’ve been torn from a manhwa. Kim Hee-sun is particularly fun to watch as she struts around, equally weighed down by her charismatic coolness and the gravity of her mission. Whether she’s trying to snag cheap designer goods online, or making theological arguments during an underworld board meeting about human suicide, hers is a character I already like. And she’s practically built to be the foil for Jun-woong.

In contrast to the cool and detached attitude of our reapers, Jun-woong is as earnest as he is derpy. And it’s perfect, because we need a simple, blank slate sort of character that we can follow… because we’re about to follow him into the underworld.

The scuffle on the bridge leads to the ajusshi and Jun-woong going over the side — Jun-woong wakes up in the hospital later on, but he’s… in a coma. When Ryeon appears in his room, he’s sure he’s dead and that she’s come to collect his soul, but in a nice dramatic twist, she says they have to take responsibility for him because of the accident.

She gives him a body (muah!) and whisks him ~~off~~ down to the underworld — an amusing journey which starts at a mortician’s office front, goes through a hell cave, and then opens up to a sumptuous office the likes of which we’ve never seen. Except it’s not an office, really, it’s the underworld known as Jumadeung.

Here Jun-woong meets the JADE EMPEROR (Kim Hae-sook), a deity that rules over Heaven. (The theology here points back to ancient Chinese texts and mythology where the cosmos were separated into Heaven, Earth, and Underworld, and each operated within a bureaucratic structure — more on this later after I do more research, since it ties into the drama so interestingly. Please leave comments about this if you have any knowledge to drop!)

The Jade Emperor gives our hero a choice: spend three years in that coma with his sweet mom crying over him, or work for Jumadeung for six months (while his body is in the coma) and then get his life back.

It’s obvious that Jun-woong’s six months of service and Ryeon’s need for another team member will collide, and though she’s none too pleased by having a half-human on loan to her team, she takes him on reluctantly since she’s hanging by a thread (and calls him Half-and-Half to illustrate his current dichotomous state). And so the team of two is now a team of three — for now — and we get the fun of following our hero as he experiences a whole new (under)world.

The Jun-woong-on-loan setup is great because we learn the rules of the world along with him, and as cool as Kim Hee-sun is in this role, what really makes it is the contrast of her character to the derpy Jun-woong. I have to hand it to Ro-woon here — this boy has really found his niche playing an overgrown dork. Whether he’s freaking out or whimpering or hitting the hospital curtains in frustration, I spent more time chuckling at this show than anything else. If the first episode is any indication, it’s going to be a lot of fun.

However, it won’t only be fun — there’s also that deeper current that’s running through the drama, since our Crisis Management reaper team is tasked with saving suicidal humans. The Jade Emperor might tell Ryeon off for her methods, but she also understands that something has to be done about these humans. She reminds everyone during a Jumadeung board meeting that their country has the highest suicide rate in the world, losing 40 people per day (such heart-breaking numbers), and it also has the lowest birth rate.

Ryeon and her team surely have their job cut out for them, and as we end our first episode, the team gets an alert (on their underworld app, hah) that identifies a human who’s entering dangerous levels of negative energy. And off they go to try to save her, with our clueless hero tagging along, and hints of the mind-bending craziness to come in Episode 2 as they try to save her.

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Tomorrow: Episode 1 (First Impressions)