Celebrity – Netflix Series Review

CELEBRITY on Netflix is a new South Korean series. Officially a K-Drama but with a mystery death – well, sort of – so there’s that. There’s a distinct Gossip Girl vibe to the series, but we’re dealing with adult social media influencers. Read our Celebrity Season 1 review here!

CELEBRITY is a new Netflix K-Drama thriller series about the crazy world of social media influencers. Or e-celebrities as they’re also referred to here. Not a bad name for this particular group of people who are famous for being online influencers.

There are 12 episodes in the season and the runtime is between 40 minutes to an hour. I would definitely have preferred fewer episodes as the drama tends to take up a lot of time. I want more of the thriller and crazy intensity instead. But hey, to each their own and I’m sure plenty of viewers will love every second of this South Korean Netflix series.

Continue reading our Celebrity Season 1 review below. Find all 12 episodes on Netflix from June 30, 2023.

A K-Drama take on Gossip Girl

Admittedly, calling Celebrity a K-Drama take on Gossip Girl is oversimplifying it. However, it does also give a very good idea of what to expect from this new Netflix series.

Very importantly, though, we’re not in a High School setting for this series. Well, only a bit in flashbacks.

Instead, we’re in the high society of Seoul where e-Celebrities are running the world. Well, they seem to believe so themselves, anyway. And, to be fair, they do also make a huge difference for the shops and brands they hype.

All isn’t just parties and dinners for these social media influencers, who are featured on Instagram in particular in the series. Oh no, there is a very sinister backdrop. By the end, we discover that the influencer who is telling her story live on Instagram was assumed dead.

Who killed Seo A-ri?

The revelation at the end of episode 1 obviously takes us to the big question; Who killed the influencer Seo A-ri? Or, you know, what really happened with this attempted murder since Seo A-ri is now live on Instagram?

When she begins telling her story live for all her followers to hear, she speaks of all the “cheats” to get to the top. It begins with her not even having social media just recently. Once she gets on social media, however, she quickly starts rising to the top.

How this all happens is for you to see – not for me to reveal and spoil here.

Anyone familiar with South Korean movies and series (or celebrities in general) will no doubt recognize quite a few faces in Celebrity. For one, we have Park Gyu-young playing the role of Seo A-ri. She was also in the two Netflix hit series Sweet Home and Squid Game.

Watch season 1 of Celebrity on Netflix now!

Kim Cheol-kyu is the director of the new Netflix K-Drama thriller series Celebrity (org. title: Selleobeuriti – according to IMDb, anyway). Previously Kim Cheol-kyu has directed several other series. Most recently, Flower of Evil (2020).

Kim Yi-young is the creator of the series. I’m not familiar with any of the previous productions from Kim Yi-young, but once you’re working with Netflix, there’s a good chance you’ll continue. In other words, we’ll probably see more from the creator on Netflix in the future.

And yes, this is a Netflix production and not a South Korean TV production that Netflix later acquired distribution rights to. While there is, of course, a lot of drama in this series, there are also many weird and uncomfortable moments. As well as the mystery murder/death situation. If you like series from South Korea as well as Gossip Girl, check this out.

All 12 episodes of Celebrity are on Netflix on June 30, 2023.

Details

Director: Kim Cheol-kyu
Writer: Kim Yi-Young
Cast: Park Gyu-young, Kang Min-hyuk, Lee Chung-ah, Lee Dong-gun, Jun Hyo-Seong, Han Jae-In, Han Eu-Ddeum, Park Ye-Ni, Jin So-Yeon