Chicken Nugget: A Lesson in How Not to Take Things Seriously

What would you do if your crush turned into a chicken nugget? That’s the question Baek-joong faces when Min-ah, his boss’s daughter and his crush, steps into a machine that mysteriously arrives at their office door and turns into a chicken nugget. Based on Park Jidok’s manhwa Chicken nuggetsthe series follows Baek-joong and his boss, Seon-man, as they are dragged through a crazy adventure involving mad scientists, purple aliens, a subplot that goes back two hundred years, a bizarre chicken nugget restaurant and, shockingly, a parody of Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar as he tries to make Min-ah human again.

If the premise sounds absurd, we can assure you that the actual show is even more so. The show’s humor, which continually indulges in dad jokes and slapstick comedy, is downright terrible. However, Chicken nuggets is refreshingly self-aware about its unfunny humor and doesn’t shy away from it. It keeps capitalizing on those bad jokes until the audience starts to find the situation ridiculous, eventually executing the so-bad-it’s-good trope perfectly.

The show’s storyline is generally stupid. Sometimes it even feels like the writers are simply throwing random elements and plot points at the wall to see what sticks. What’s surprising is that this all somehow works to the show’s advantage, as these completely random things usually stick around and help tighten the nonsensical web that the show ultimately weaves its audience into.

The highlight of the series is the few moments of tenderness sprinkled throughout the show. In Baek-joong’s backstory where he had to put aside his dreams of singing to become an engineer at his father’s insistence, and in Seon-man’s tortured madness to get his daughter back, we see the poignancy of the story and the depth of the characters. With their vast emotional range and ability to truly immerse themselves in the absurdity of their fictional situations, the actors are undoubtedly incredible in their respective roles. Chicken nuggets sometimes draws you in unexpectedly because it takes the emotions of the characters seriously. But these moments feel even more moving because, as we follow them, we are immediately thrust back into the strange world without pause or precursor.

The series was clearly made on a limited budget, which is clearly visible through the terrible CGI. However, that didn’t detract from our overall enjoyment of the show and in some ways could have even made it worse by adding an air of wholesomeness to the whole thing. The only aspect of Chicken nuggets that was somewhat annoying was the pace. Sometimes the story takes a little too long or the comedic elements become a bit repetitive due to the limited number of situations the characters are allowed to be in. Instead of a ten-part miniseries, the show could have been like that. condensed into a two-hour film without losing any essence or value. That might just be a minor quibble, though, considering the sheer amount of entertainment we’d otherwise get from the show.

The show is incredibly weird, unabashedly so, but not in the absurdist, A24 way. It’s indulgent in its ridiculousness, but never overly indulgent. It ensures that the show itself is never taken seriously and doesn’t even try to be artsy. In a time when every piece of content we consume seems emotionally charged or tense, it felt very relaxing to watch something so unapologetically nonsensical and weird. To look Chicken nuggets was, honestly, the most fun we’ve had with a TV show in a long time.

The writers had a great weekend watching this wonderful show.