Trainwreck Acting Performances of 2021

Jung Jin Young - arguably the worst drama produced in 2021 but inarguably the worst performance by an actor and it wasn't close. Jung Jin Young has three expressions - resting face, shocked face and confused face (which is separated from shocked face only by his mouth being half-closed instead of fully wide open). That he only has three is damning enough but that he doesn't know when to use them is worse. His delivery is wooden. His physical acting method is mostly to flop around aimlessly until the director yells "CUT!". And he has no awareness of what his acting partners are doing. No production should ever consider Jung Jin Young for any role, regardless of size.

Jo Seung Woo and Park Shin Hye - it's hard to say which of these two did more damage to a hyped-up sci-fi time travel bomb. With Jo Seung Woo who had no problem with the emotionless prosecutor in "Stranger", playing hipster rogue inventor should have been a welcome change. Instead, he seemed to lose interest in the role after a couple of episodes and ended up looking flippant and detached which is not a good look when your character is the genius expected to save the world. As for Park Shin Hye, she struggles with acting like a normal high school teenager, so asking her to play part future soldier badass and part naive ingenue is way too much for her. Credit to her for at least putting some energy in to the role, but unlike Jo Seung Woo, instead of pulling back and acting somewhat naturally at the right times, she opted for stomping on the gas pedal of exaggerated facial expressions and awkwardly delivered lines.

Lee Min Ki - if Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde were just two different versions of the same horrifying monster, that would be the perfect part for the performance by Lee Min Ki in this show that squandered a mostly well chosen cast. Why Lee Min Ki, as the male lead, chose to erratically alternate between sappy, cloyingly attentive suitor and aggressively self-destructive jackass is a mystery but no clues are required to conclude it's a stenchfest. What is a mystery is how Na Na's representation thought this would be a good acting partner for her.

Kang Tae Oh and Lee Soo Hyuk - imagine pairing one of the most skilled comedic female stars with a young, charming, playful rising male counterpart. A vehicle putting Park Bo Young together with Kang Tae Oh should have been a massive hit. But "Doom at Your Service" was one of 2021's biggest misses thanks to the bizarre decision to cast Kang Tae Oh as an insensitive and withdrawn minor character who shares the screen with Park Bo Young only momentarily while a host of laconic dullards circle her instead. Layer on that Kang Tae Oh, despite his talent, obviously struggled to expand his range beyond cute and fun and paired him primarily opposite a nearly catatonic Lee Soo Hyuk (more of an energy vampire than Colin Robinson in Taika Waititi's 'When We Were Dead") and it's a short trip to "Where is the button to skip to the next scene with Park Bo Young?"

Han So Hee and Song Kang - there's a long list of things wrong with "Nevertheless" but the setup was one that could have worked had better choices been made in casting and direction. For Song Kang's Jae Eon, the part needed an actor who could be both magnetically attractive and repellantly standoffish. Song Kang is, uh, very much not that. He can mix a trancelike mix of sullen and baffled like no one else but that's more like if Jae Eon's needed a marijuana-addled sidekick. Whether he was cast hoping to cash in on some teen heartthrob status or simply casting director incompetence, it's a role far beyond Song Kang's range and talents. As for Han So Hee, she played Na Bi more like scream queen recoiling from someone that had just jumped out to stab her rather than an infatuated student. Both actors had good performances in 2021 (Song Kang in "Sweet Home" and Han So Hee in "My Name") but their work here was rough.