**The Dream Life of Mr. Kim: Stream It or Skip It?**
Mr. Kim kept his nose to the grindstone and did everything he was supposed to. So why is money always tight, and his job never secure? *The Dream Life of Mr. Kim*, a South Korean Netflix series created by Jo Hyun-tack (The Atypical Family), Kim Hong-ki, and Yoon Hae-sung, explores these questions through the life of Kim Nak-su. Ryu Seung-ryong stars as Nak-su, a dedicated middle manager at a large telecom company who wants the best for his wife and college-age son.
But as the story unfolds, we quickly learn that Kim’s office culture is like a big basket of snakes, his family pushes back against his authority, and his inner life is fraught with turmoil. The series also stars Myung Se-bin, Cha Kang-yoon, and Yoo Seung-mok.
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### Opening Shot
In one of the periodic flashbacks woven throughout the series, Kim Nak-su (Ryu Seung-ryong) remembers a childhood episode when his brother belittled him for losing an elementary school election. Years later, as he dresses for work, Nak-su still thinks about this slight. “I’m moving up to managing director,” he tells his brother’s photo. “I’ll be an executive soon.”
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### The Gist
From the start, it’s clear Nak-su’s promotion to managing director isn’t as certain as he believes. When he arrives at work, we see an environment riddled with petty hierarchies and personal grudges.
Nak-su feels he deserves the promotion, but he also fixates on the expensive leather briefcase of current director Baek Jeong-tae (Yoo Seung-mok) to an almost obsessive degree. His professional standing feels increasingly precarious. A younger colleague might be favored for the promotion, and Heo Tae-hwan (Lee Seo-hwan), one of Nak-su’s team members, is being forced out due to poor performance. Tae-hwan and Nak-su started at the company together, but Nak-su chooses to distance himself from his friend — he doesn’t want their fates intertwined.
Despite the work stress he constantly obsesses over, Nak-su tries to present a united front to his wife Ha-jin (Myung Se-bin) and son Su-gyeom (Cha Kang-yoon). At home, he demands credit as the breadwinner, which diminishes Ha-jin’s own contributions. Meanwhile, he pressures Su-gyeom to apply for an internship at his company, but his son has different ideas. Su-gyeom doesn’t want to become just another mid-level salaryman like his father.
When Su-gyeom runs into his childhood crush Han-na (Lee Jin-yi) at university, she introduces him to Lee Jeong-hwan (Kim Su-gyeom), an arrogant guy with a fast-moving hairstyle who’s probably vying for Han-na’s attention. But Jeong-hwan drives a Porsche and embodies the kind of startup hustle Su-gyeom admires.
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### The Meaning of “Success”
For Nak-su, surviving two decades in the corporate grind, securing comfortable lodging, and sending a kid to college—that’s greatness. “That’s success,” he tells his son.
But as Nak-su’s professional and personal worlds begin to blur and unravel, the stresses of one feed into the other. He spends more time mumbling to himself than noticing his wife or sucking up to his direct boss. *The Dream Life of Mr. Kim* begins to question what “success” really means.
Is it a big promotion or drawing from a hard-earned college fund? Or does it require a new, deeply personal understanding of fulfillment?
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### What Shows Will It Remind You Of?
Ryu Seung-ryong follows his terrific work in the period South Korean series *Low Life*, where his thief was as cagey as he was curmudgeonly. His chemistry with Yoo Seung-mok, who plays Baek Jeong-tae, is particularly strong during tense boss-employee interactions.
Both actors also appeared in *Chicken Nugget*, a quirky Korean series where a woman is transformed into a version of the little breaded fast food treat—really!
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### Our Take
*The Dream Life of Mr. Kim* invites viewers to think about the “dream life” in two ways.
First, there is what Kim Nak-su has definitively accomplished: a wife, a son, a comfortable apartment in Seoul, and 27 years of dedicated service to his company. Taken together, this is the dream life prescribed by society.
Second, there is Nak-su’s more fraught, personal “dream life”—his unchecked internal monologue where he constantly compares himself to colleagues and friends’ bank accounts. These mumbled, self-critical jabs are funny, especially when co-workers accidentally overhear them. These moments aren’t exactly fantasy, but they reveal Kim’s growing existential crisis overtaking his reality.
By the end of the first episode, we feel like we know Kim inside and out: the outwardly successful picture he presents to the world, and the conflicted inner life that’s getting harder and harder to contain.
Kim is facing significant changes, and as his so-called dream life starts to falter, his obsessive behaviors, twitchy faces, and bouts with inner mania led us to compare the series to another recent show in the middle manager-personal hell genre, Tim Robinson’s *The Chair Company*.
How far will Nak-su push his obsessions before they jeopardize his job? How much of his inner turmoil will surface in front of his wife and family?
We’re rooting for Mr. Kim. He’s not exactly likeable, but we understand him. The central question: which version of his dream life has the best chance of enduring?
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### Sex and Skin
None.
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### Parting Shot
“I’ll be an executive next year; I’m 99% sure of it!”
Scenes from upcoming episodes feature Nak-su’s strong confidence, but he has no idea what corporate forces might be working against him.
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### Sleeper Star
We really liked Myung Se-bin in *Doctor Cha*, and she shines here as Ha-jin—a woman who wants to support her husband and their life together but is also developing her own independent streak.
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### Most Pilot-y Line
Kim Nak-su tries to explain his values to his disaffected son:
> “I seem very average to you, don’t I? But do you have any idea how hard it is to lead an average life? You won’t get it until you step into the real world.”
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### Our Call: Stream It
*The Dream Life of Mr. Kim* combines flashbacks, sharp comedic writing, and a deeply personal first-person existential stress as it documents major changes in the life of Kim Nak-su and his family.
If you’re interested in character-driven stories about the struggles behind success and the personal costs of corporate life, this series is definitely worth your time.
https://decider.com/2025/10/27/the-dream-life-of-mr-kim-netflix-review/