Pinocchio · Season 1 · Episode 1 · 12 November 2014
S1E1 Episode 1
THE MOMENT The broadcast that destroys the family: the moment that makes every subsequent interaction between the leads carry historical weight.
The premiere establishes the tragedy at the series' root - a firefighter's death turned into a national scapegoating by a broadcast journalist - and then jumps forward to show how the wreckage shaped the next generation. The tonal calibration between grief and romantic-comedy setup is handled with more care than the genre usually requires.
Full episode analysis below. Spoiler-light verdict above.
Updated
Pinocchio Season 1 Episode 1 aired November 12, 2014 on SBS as the premiere of a 20-episode series that earned IMDb 8.0 from a large international audience. Jae-Ha Kim called Lee Jong-suk's performance 'powerhouse acting'; Coffee and Irony called the series 'a jewel, giddily romantic and constantly surprising.' The premiere establishes the tragedy at the series' structural root: a broadcast journalist's reckless coverage converts a firefighter's death into a national scapegoating, a lie that destroys his family and shapes every subsequent relationship in the story. The tonal calibration between grief and romantic-comedy setup is handled with more care than the Korean primetime format usually demands. The show does not try to soften the media witch-hunt sequence to make the subsequent romance palatable; instead it asks the audience to hold both registers simultaneously, which the episode earns by taking the tragedy seriously before any romance begins.