Kim Ah-Joong: "Wanted" drama episode one recap and screenshots

 Air Dates: June 22 to August 18, 2016 on SBS, shows aired on Wednesdays and Thursdays

Episode one rating: 8.9%(Seoul)

Main Cast:

Kim Ah-Joong as Jung Hye-In, the heroine, recently retired actress whose son was kidnapped

Ji Hyun-Woo as Cha Seung-In, detective investigating another kidnapping

Uhm Tae-Wong as Shin Dong-Wook, recently fired producer hired for Jung's reality show

Park Hae-Joon as Song Jung-Ho, Jung's sleazy husband and owner of the UCN network

Lee Moon-Sik as Choi Joon-Goo, producer at the UCN network

Jun Hyo-Seong as Park Bo-Yeon, one of the four staff people on the "Wanted" show

Park Hyo-Joo as Yeon-Woo-Shin, one of the four staff people, also had worked with Shin

Shin Jae-Ha as Lee Young-Gwan, young assistant to Cha

Kim Byung-Ok as Jung Jung-Ki, supervisor of Cha and Lee

Park Min-Soo as Song Hyun-Woo, Jung's kidnapped son

 Guess you could start calling me a Korean drama addict now, they are currently so much better than the Japanese series from the last few years. Actually there's really no comparison these days, Japanese shows are just so boring and unimaginative while Korean dramas are so compelling. That could be a reason why Korean dramas are so popular in Japan, wonder why the execs at these Japanese networks aren't taking notice of what's happening?
 Fairly big cast though we didn't get to know many of them in this first show but think all of the above will be key figures in this 16 episode series. The main star is Hye-In(Ah-Joong) who is a 33 year old actress and a very popular one. She's just finished shooting a film which most consider to be her best work, "Mother". At the press conference for the film Hye-In drops a bombshell on the nation as she announces that after a twenty year career she's going to retire. This shocked everyone including her husband who was watching the press conference at home, he was enraged at the news.

 Hye-In and her husband Jung-Ho don't have a loving relationship, he may be using her to further his career. He's the owner of the UCN network and they are having difficulties. The network is being sued for unpaid wages, tax evasion and a few other things. Jung-Ho had planned on having Hye-In star in a reality show for his network to help revive it, her retirement has put a stop to those plans.
 What Hye-In has planned is leaving her husband and taking her son who is about seven with her, possibly to France. Her husband was unaware of the plans but once he heard her retirement speech he developed a few plans of his own. He sent their son Hyun-Woo to the set to meet his mother which really confused her, could her husband be the mastermind of what was about to happen?
 Shortly after arriving on the set Hyun-Woo went with an assistant but would return within twenty minutes. When he failed to show back up Hye-In went looking for him but to no avail as she and all of the other workers on the film set couldn't find him. What Hye-In did find was a phone, when she picked it up her whole life was turned upside down.
 That's because on the phone were some messages for her, one included a pic of her son who was tied up as he was kidnapped. The messages also said that if she called the police then her son would die immediately. So for the time being Hye-In couldn't tell one person what was happening, not even her husband, manager or anyone else.
 We didn't see much of a pair of detectives named Cha and Lee. They're investigating another kidnapping which was caught on a video as a young woman was taken from her home when she was on her computer. The detectives are on that case and would think that they may be the ones who eventually get dragged into helping Hye-In, also looks as this kidnapper may be the same one who kidnapped her son.

 In the meantime things are naturally not going well with Hye-In as she can't notify the police or for now tell anyone about her son's kidnapping. After a few days Hye-In starts receiving more messages on the phone she found, this is her only link to the kidnappers. What they want her to do is to start a new reality show with the name of "Wanted", failure to do so means the end of her son's life.
 There are certain requirements that the kidnappers want for the show. It has to air at 10:00 pm on Saturdays for ten episodes, it also has to top the 20% ratings mark for each show. On the shows Hye-In will have to do a 'mission', what those will be are unknown as the first show hasn't aired yet. But because of this demand Hye-In can finally tell some people of her predicament as so many will be involved with the making of the show which has to start in just a few days.
 Hye-In needs a producer for the show so she request the help of a disgraced producer named Shin who has just been fired from another show. Looks like these two  may have been an item some years before, wasn't mentioned officially but looks like Shin may be the father of Hye-In's son. Took some persuading but Shin eventually agrees to do the show and and starts working on hiring a staff plus getting a network to air it.
 Kind of an odd situation but Shin meets with Hye-In's husband who agrees to air the show on his network, he really needs a hit and some money to keep the network afloat. There wasn't much time until the first show was to be aired so Shin quickly gathers a small staff to work on the show, as of now there's only a total of four people. The hardest part at first will be to get the rating of 20% that is needed to save Hye-In's son, not going to be an easy mark to hit as the show will be airing on a cable network plus no one knows what the show is really going to be about. Hye-In had received a package with the instructions and a small script but for now all were in the dark on what to expect.

 We're almost at the end of this and will finish it off with what happened in the final short scene. The staff, minus Hye-Is, is working frantically on getting things for the reality show which will be starting in I think two days. Hye-In wasn't there because she didn't approve of what producer and his staff were doing but there was also one big reason for her absence.
 Hye-In was making an appearance on the talk show 'Kiss and Talk', her going on the show was unknown to everyone. On the show she revealed that her son had been kidnapped, naturally the audience gasped at the news. And with that statement from Hye-In is where the show ended. Would imagine that Hye-In appeared on the show do boost the ratings for the upcoming "Wanted" show as it needs to achieve a rating of at least 20%.
 We didn't hear her mentioning the show but episode two may or should pick up from that point. Plus episode two will have the first "Wanted" show, I went into this series cold so have no idea what to expect or what her 'missions' on that show will be. If all the requirements are met for all ten of the shows then the kidnappers say they will release her son.

 It's only been one episode but have a feeling this is going to be a really interesting and suspenseful drama. Like I mentioned don't have a clue on what do expect or what is going to happen and like keeping it that way for dramas. The ratings for this show were so-so, nationwide it was that way but in Seoul the ratings were much higher. Should be watching the second episode Tuesday so will be back then with another recap for this series. We've met all of the cast but quite a few just briefly so hopefully I can tell you more about those characters in the next recap such as the rest of the show's staff plus what role the detectives have in the kidnapping cases.