Chicken Nugget (2024) Review: Absurdity Played Deadpan

Is Chicken Nugget worth watching?

Mostly yes. Chicken Nugget is one of the strangest comedies Netflix has released from Korea, and its straight-faced commitment to a silly idea makes it frequently very funny. The best reason to watch is Ryu Seung-ryong’s anxious, endlessly determined father, who treats a surreal crisis with total sincerity. The reservation is that the joke is stretched thin across ten episodes, and the rapid wordplay and non-stop gags will wear out anyone not already on its wavelength.

What is Chicken Nugget about?

Choi Min-ah (Kim Yoo-jung) works at her father’s small machine company, where a mysterious device has arrived that no one quite understands. When she steps inside it, she does not come back out as herself: she comes out as a chicken nugget. Her father, Choi Sun-man (Ryu Seung-ryong), and Go Baek-joong (Ahn Jae-hong), an intern with a hopeless crush on Min-ah, set off on an increasingly bizarre quest to understand the machine and bring her back.

Chicken Nugget was written and directed by Lee Byeong-heon, best known for the fried-chicken action comedy Extreme Job, and it is adapted from a Korean webtoon. It is a South Korean series in Korean. This review covers the complete show: one season of 10 episodes, which has ended.

A father and an intern against the impossible

The show’s comic engine is its two searchers. Ryu Seung-ryong plays Sun-man as a man constantly on the verge of panic yet unwilling to give up, and the gap between the absurdity of his situation and the seriousness of his grief is where many of the best laughs come from. Ahn Jae-hong matches him as Baek-joong, playing the intern with a vague, low-key oddness that makes even his most heroic gestures faintly ridiculous. Their mismatched partnership has a real warmth, and the father-daughter bond gives the show an unexpected emotional thread.

Kim Yoo-jung has less screen time than her billing suggests, for obvious reasons, but she makes the most of it. Her scenes establish Min-ah as a spirited, slightly exasperated young woman, which gives the search for her some stakes beyond the running gag.

Lee Byeong-heon’s comic style, at full volume

Lee’s trademark is dialogue that moves at speed, full of puns, non sequiturs and sudden shifts of tone, and Chicken Nugget is perhaps his most extreme example. Characters deliver outlandish lines with complete composure, and the editing leaves almost no pause between jokes. The series also borrows the look of a mystery, with odd strangers, cryptic clues and conspiracy-flavoured detours, and plays those conventions with a straight face. When the rhythm clicks, the effect is joyous.

The show’s visual inventiveness helps. The nugget itself is treated as a character in its own right, and the production has fun with scale, framing and props to make the premise work without special effects taking over.

When the joke runs out of batter

The problem is endurance. A premise this absurd works brilliantly for a few episodes, but the series tends to add digressions rather than develop its story, and some middle episodes feel like sketches strung together. Wordplay that depends on Korean puns also loses some of its sting in subtitles, so viewers outside Korea may find stretches baffling rather than funny. The mystery elements never become especially involving, which leaves the show relying almost entirely on its gags.

Who should watch Chicken Nugget?

It suits viewers who love absurd, deadpan comedy and anyone who enjoyed Lee Byeong-heon’s previous films. It is also a good pick for people who want something light and very different from the usual K-drama romance. The content is mild and suitable for most teenagers, with slapstick and a few unsettling mystery moments but nothing graphic. Browse more comedy series if this appeals.

If you want more Korean fantasy with a comic streak:

• Lovely Runner for a warmer fantasy premise that balances jokes with real romance.
• Hotel Del Luna for supernatural comedy blended with melancholy and style.

The verdict

Chicken Nugget is a genuinely original comedy that commits to its premise with admirable seriousness, powered by Ryu Seung-ryong’s frantic, heartfelt performance. It sags in the middle and depends heavily on a very specific sense of humour, but at its best it is one of the funniest oddities on Netflix.

Rating: 3.5/5