Is it living or is it… just robotic? Are You Human Too? (너도 인간이니?) received around 5% viewer ratings nationwide for its first two episodes, which is quite low for a major KBS network drama.
Its preceding drama, The Miracle We Met, initially had 7-8% viewer ratings nationwide and it climbed up to 12-13% during the eight week period. It looks like Are You Human Too? is following the trend set by fellow KBS drama Radio Romance, which received similar initial ratings and panned out to around 4% viewership in its last week.
With such little viewership, the show’s future does not look especially bright, especially because K-netizens shared that they felt the show was over-hyped. It also has quite a lot of competition from popular dramas like SBS’ Wok of Love, MBC’s Investigation Couple, and JTBC’s Miss Hammurabi.
The series looked promising because Hallyu star Seo Kang Joon stars as the main character, Nam Shin. Kang Joon gained recognition and stole the hearts of thousands of girls suffering from Second Male Lead Syndrome after his supporting role in Cheese in the Trap. The drama’s leading lady is TWICE Jungyeon’s older sister, Gong Seung Yeon as Kang So-bong. Seung Yeon is famous for many small acting roles and starring on the Korean reality show We Got Married, with singer-actor Lee Jong Hyun.
The premise of Are You Human Too? is that Nam Shin is the third-generation heir of a conglomerate and after falling into a coma, his mother and Nam Shin’s secretary (Lee Joon Hyuk) replace him with an identical android. The android successfully mimics Nam Shin, but when the android starts developing human feelings for bad-ass bodyguard Kang So Bong, he wants to be more than just a stand-in.
Sci-fi fantasy dramas are a bit more difficult to get into than typical romantic comedies because they have a lot of backstory that needs to be slowly revealed. The show’s first episode is very confusing without prior knowledge of the drama, but hopefully the drama continues to gain a larger audience because Seo Kang Joon has got a lot of potential.
There are a bunch of cool special effects and this drama had a solid budget of 10 billion won, but it has all been pre-recorded so if viewers dislike something, it’s likely it won’t be changed.
Are You Human Too? is definitely worth a try for all k-drama fans. If it’s not your cup of tea, fellow current drama Miss Hammurabi definitely will be!
This article was written by our guest blogger, Christina Yun (@sunnycyun).
