Backstreet Rookie (2020) Review: Romance on the Night Shift

Is Backstreet Rookie worth watching?

Mostly yes. Backstreet Rookie is a cheerful, easy-going romantic comedy that coasts on the charm of Ji Chang-wook and Kim Yoo-jung, and it works best as undemanding comfort viewing. The convenience-store setting gives it an appealing small-scale warmth, and both leads commit to the broad comedy. The reservations are real, though: the writing is slight, the jokes land unevenly, and the romance rests on a history between the leads that the show treats more lightly than many viewers will.

What is Backstreet Rookie about?

Choi Dae-hyun (Ji Chang-wook) runs a neighbourhood convenience store and is not always sure it was a wise way to make a living. He is kind, conscientious and a little hapless, and the business is a daily struggle. Then Jung Saet-byul (Kim Yoo-jung) turns up looking for a part-time job. She is blunt, eccentric and fearless, a former troublemaker with a heart of gold, and she and Dae-hyun have met before: four years earlier, in a brief, awkward encounter when she asked him to buy her cigarettes. Now she is behind his counter, and the store becomes the stage for their slow-building romance.

Backstreet Rookie is a South Korean series in Korean, from Lee Myung-woo and Son Geun-joo, adapted from a webtoon. This review covers the complete show: one season of 16 episodes, and the story has ended.

Two stars carry a thin script

The main reason to watch is the lead pairing. Ji Chang-wook, better known for action and melodrama, clearly enjoys playing a flustered, good-natured everyman, and his comic reactions to Saet-byul’s chaos give the show much of its energy. He makes Dae-hyun’s decency feel genuine rather than bland.

Kim Yoo-jung plays Saet-byul as a whirlwind: loud, quick and oddly principled. The performance is big, sometimes too big, but it has conviction, and Kim finds moments of vulnerability beneath the bravado. When the script allows them quiet scenes together, the chemistry is easy and warm.

The small world of a corner shop

The convenience store is a clever setting for a rom-com. It is a place where people from every part of a neighbourhood pass through, and the series uses its regular customers, rival shops and part-time staff for a string of comic episodes. The ensemble, including Do Sang-woo, Han Seon-hwa and Ahn Sol-bin, fills out the world, though several supporting characters are drawn as types rather than people.

The show’s rhythms are those of a sitcom: short situations, quick reversals and a gradually developing romance underneath. That makes it easy to dip in and out of, but it also means the series rarely builds real dramatic momentum.

Where the romance feels uneasy

The biggest problem lies in the premise itself. The leads first meet when Saet-byul is a teenager, and the series frames that encounter as the start of a love story. It is careful about what happens, but the framing still sits awkwardly, and the show’s broader humour, which leans on slapstick and some dated gags, does not always help. Romantic complications in the middle episodes also feel manufactured to stretch the story to its full length.

Who should watch Backstreet Rookie?

It suits fans of Ji Chang-wook and Kim Yoo-jung, viewers who enjoy light workplace comedies, and anyone looking for a low-commitment K-drama to watch in short sessions. Sixteen episodes is a standard run, and availability varies by region, with different services carrying it in different territories. Content is mild, with comic fights, some innuendo and drinking, but nothing graphic.

If you want more:

• Lovely Runner, for a romantic comedy with a similarly spirited heroine and much stronger writing.
• Hospital Playlist, for a warmer, more grown-up take on a workplace full of eccentric regulars.

The verdict

Backstreet Rookie is pleasant, forgettable fun, lifted by two appealing leads and a cosy convenience-store setting. Its script is thin and its romantic premise will make some viewers uncomfortable, but as a light, easy watch it does what it sets out to do.

Rating: 3.5/5