Strange Crew: Glitch
photo courtesy of Netflix
__________________Mild Spoilers________________________
There are times when I get a bad feeling after having a disagreement with a friend or colleague. This feeling is connected to a sneaking suspicion that perhaps the disagreement was not simply a difference of opinion but a judgement of me as an oddity. Despite how mainstream my life is and has always been, I am not immune to these appraisals from others. Into my 40s, I haven’t married or had children and I prioritize an unholy relationship with kdrama fandom so side-eyes are common as is the belief that I “never grew up”. But I did. I pay my bills and work hard, and yet, I still feel that the boundaries of my very normal life and thoughts are routinely policed. It makes me wonder how others stand all the chatter and condemnation that they receive for just being themselves. In contrast to the regulating tendencies of some relationships, I have also been blessed with friendships that have few limits and give me the freedom to think out loud and enjoy the possibilities that weird can bring. This is why the short Netflix series, Glitch, kind of spoke to me. It is the story about two unexpected soulmates, Hong Ji-hyo and Heo Bo-ra, who abruptly find and then lose each other in middle school.
Hong Ji-hyo (Jeon Yeo-been) was a UFO enthusiast in her youth but after a traumatic incident, she has exchanged her childhood interests for boring office work. Although keeping her mundane life on track (through intense wellness practices) seems like a full-time job. Her estranged schoolmate Heo Bo-ra (Nana), who came from the wrong side of the tracks has seemingly stayed there, is trying to make a living off alien hunting and Twitch streaming. When Ji-hyo’s ex-boyfriend (played by delight Lee Dong-hwi) who she recently rejected goes missing and his apartment is emptied, she grows concerned about his whereabouts. Her attempts to report him missing are met with skepticism by local police Kim Byung-jo (the remarkable and loveable Ryu Kyung-soo of Itaewon Class fame) and she decides to look for him on her own. This leads Ji-hyo back to what she has seemingly been trying to escape for nearly two decades…her potential alien abduction.
The strange circumstances of her boyfriend’s disappearance introduce her to the orbit of Bo-ra once again. While Ji-hyo remains in the dark at first, Bo-ra recognizes her right away and is not happy to see her. Nonetheless, their relationship is rekindled under distrust and borderline exploitation with Bo-ra suggesting her help in exchange for a documentary scoop of Ji-hyo’s investigation. From here, the entire drama revolves around this fraught friendship of two contrasting personalities brought together by a bond of alienation. Bo-ra appears to be kind of a reckless flake but is actually quite determined and committed to living somewhat authentically despite years of bullying and criticism. Whereas Ji-hyo, who looks “normal” on the outside, is struggling with significant mental health issues and appears deep in a rut. Despite her feelings of betrayal, Bo-ra has obviously missed her friend and while Ji-hyo needs help to find her boyfriend; she also wants answers about her past (in a way that becomes obsessive). The two friends find themselves on the trail of and at odds with a mysterious cult and the generally light-hearted narrative takes a noir dive. This adds a group of unlikely supporters and right-hand men (Tae Won-seok, Park Won-suk, Lee Min-goo), a reluctant therapist (Kim Nam-hee of Sweet Home fame), a bunch of insane cult types (Baek Joo-hee, Ko Chang-seok, Jang Da-bin) and their leader, Moon Hyung-tae (Kim Myung-Gon) to the mix.
Photo courtesy of Netflix
I am writing this review on my birthday. It is a review that I have had great trouble finishing to be honest. And even as I revise it, I find it so much more descriptive than my other reviews. I think this is because of how close to home this drama felt to me. For much of the last decade I have spent my birthday with my best friend…or my former best friend. We no longer speak. It’s been awhile now. Birthdays make me nostalgic and lonely and cheerful and loved all at the same time. Her absence blurs these feelings together and I got a similarly nebulous feeling from this drama. The tropes found in space exploration/alien invasion stories introduce creeping feelings of dread and isolation due to the confrontation of the universe’s size and uncertainty. Yet, these bleaker emotions in Glitch are contrasted with the realization of Bo-ra’s full and stubborn love for Ji-hyo despite their bad history and the latter’s bad decisions. Even in the midst of unauthorized kidnappings; weird surgeries; cultish schemes and the opportunity to participate in/stop a collective suicide; the one thread that runs through the narrative is the way these two continue to show up for each other, despite the weird, despite the baggage and despite the conflict.
The drama also reminds us that the people that “get us” aren’t always the ones who are closest to us. We seen Ji-hyo’s beloved father (Jeon Bae-su) attempts to suppress her memories while her now ex-boyfriend who accepts her wild explanations of his and her past without question. Yet, the story also painfully reveals that there is no template for how to love our closest companions and even less instruction on how to forgive them when things go sideways.
There are moments when I think of my former best friend and I never want to see her again. Then, there are moments when I just want her to proverbially come home and forget the whole thing. And these two feelings are both equally strong and while I am not crying into my pillow on the regular about this loss; I would be lying if I said I didn’t think about our relationship every day despite not having talked to her for well over a year.
So much of what I have read about female friendship is how we can build each other up and seek abundance together! I stan these values and beliefs. When I was young, all I wanted to do was accumulate things whether it be money or opportunities or friends or accolades. Now that I am turning older, my greatest desire is to let things go. Stuff I didn’t get, stuff I don’t understand, stuff that was never explained to me, and stuff that was never my fault. I think that good friends have helped me let unnecessary shit go. This is why breakups and separations are so difficult…we need the person we love the most to help us let them go but they’re already gone.
Photo courtesy of Netflix
At the end of Glitch, Bo-ra doesn’t really help Ji-hyo find out anything really definitive about her past but she does help her make sense of some mysterious happenings and allows her to let some painful things go. She also reinforces herself as a stan of Ji-hyo’s weirdness, which is a comfort in itself. This drama isn’t for everyone and many will write its peculiarities off as silly and decry the lack of romance, but if one looks a little closer, I think the viewer will see that this battered and beautiful friendship is a type of romance and why the scifi scenario was kind of necessary to make it stand out. The truth about kdramas right now: Weird is in. And my advice fo those watching dramas now (by echoing a transcendental Bob Dylan lyric): “you’re old road is rapidly aging”, so get onboard or get out of the way because times are a-changing.