ENA Monday-Tuesday drama 'Honour' is showing an unusual upward trend. After recording ENA drama's highest premiere viewership, it has broken its own highest ratings for three consecutive episodes, emerging as a rising power in Monday and Tuesday night home-viewing. Above all, viewers have praised it as "the birth of a well-made genre piece you cannot take your eyes off for a moment."
ENA Monday-Tuesday drama 'Honour' (directed by Park Gun-ho, written by Park Ga-yeon, planned by KT Studio Genie, produced by How Pictures, hereafter "Honour") built expectations before its premiere on the back of word of mouth calling it "a meeting of wannabe characters and a well-made genre piece." Those expectations were borne out in the numbers. The first episode recorded a nationwide rating of 3.1%, setting the highest premiere record in ENA drama history, and the third episode broadcast this week rose to 3.8% nationwide. (Provided by Nielsen Korea)
In the drama TV-OTT search response for the first week of February released by FUNdex, the official platform of K-content competitiveness analysis firm Good Data Corporation, "Honour" rose 12 places from the previous week to proudly take first place. Drama search issue keywords also proved overwhelming topicality as Lee Na-young, Jung Eun-Chae, Lee Chung-ah, Yeon Woo-jin and Seo Hyun-woo ranked from first to fifth respectively. That is why it is being noted as a work likely to continue ENA's lineage of hit shows. Here are the factors driving "Honour"'s rising popularity.
#. "Honour" has bold initiative and solid friendship among its three wannabe lead characters
The most powerful word-of-mouth engine for "Honour" is the bold initiative and solid solidarity shown by the three lawyers of law firm L&J (Listen & Join): Yoon Ra-young (Lee Na-young), Kang Shin-jae (Jung Eun-Chae) and Hwang Hyun-jin (Lee Chung-ah). First, Yoon Ra-young is a character who, despite being tormented by trauma, grows stronger in the face of crisis. She takes the bold step of switching DNA samples to protect a past secret, and she confronts all threats head-on with a live broadcast declaration, "Our goal is Connect." Her choice to let an inaccessible secret organization approach became a decisive scene that raised the show's immersion.
Kang Shin-jae moves cases with calculated, cool judgment. In particular, upon learning that her life mentor-like lawyer Kwon Joong-hyun (Lee Hae-yeong) is a user of "Connectin," she showed resourcefulness by pouring hot tea onto her hand to secure his phone. Her unemotional judgment and persistence even toward those closest to her complete the character of Kang Shin-jae. Hwang Hyun-jin is an action-oriented character. When reporter Lee Jun-hyuk (Lee Chung-ju) died, she penetrated the surveillance of thugs twice her size and directly found Lee Seon-hwa, Lee Jun-hyuk's source, and discovered the existence of "Connectin." Such tenacious pursuit shakes the direction of the case and maintains tension.
Thus, instead of only worrying or hesitating, the three lawyers act directly and choose to flip the board. Their quick decisions and execution that do not back down in crisis push the plot forward smoothly and provide the unique momentum of "Honour" that allows for immersion without frustration. The reason the case moves promptly to the next phase is also their bold initiative. Moreover, their deep friendship and solidarity make viewers want to keep rooting for them. When someone makes a mistake or falters, they reach out first rather than blame. Even after client Jo Yoo-jung's death and the more blatant threats from "Connectin," the three chose together not to stop and to pursue the truth to the end. Their solidarity, which becomes stronger in the face of crisis, acts as the emotional axis of the drama beyond simple colleague relationships.
#. meticulous mystery buildup that keeps you from looking away for a moment
Another reason "Honour" keeps viewers from taking their eyes off it is its tightly designed mystery. The "clues" dropped little by little from episode 1 are connecting organically and stimulating viewers' deductive instincts. The vintage wine's production year delivered to L&J's 10th anniversary ceremony, the stamp pattern imprinted on Hwang Hyun-jin's hand, and the numbers scribbled on Kang Shin-jae's car were all fragments meant to reveal the past that bound them as a community of fate and the incident at the lakeside in 2005.
At the end of episode 4, tension exploded when it was revealed that Park Joo-hwan, who appeared in an old photo as a club member, was Park Je-yeol (Seo Hyun-woo), the prosecutor managing "Connectin." Along with this, the full story of the National Forensic Service director Hong Yeon-hee's DNA switching transaction was revealed. With the pressure and surveillance from Park Je-yeol, her husband who orchestrated it, and the prosecutor's result that Hwang Hyun-jin's DNA matched the 2005 incident bloodstain being disclosed, past and present were connected along a single line.
Director Park Gun-ho said before the broadcast, "I designed the incident from 20 years ago not as a simple past but as a layer of emotion that invades the characters' present. I focused on directing so viewers can empathize with characters' psyches along with the puzzle-solving genre fun." Such meticulous direction serves as a factor that allows deeper immersion in the mystery narrative. With the powerful drive of wannabe characters, solid solidarity, and a meticulous mystery that intersects past wounds and present events, "Honour" has established itself as a rising, well-made genre piece responsible for Monday-Tuesday nights.
ENA Monday-Tuesday drama 'Honour' airs every Monday and Tuesday at 10 p.m. on ENA and is available on KT Genie TV and Coupang Play.<
[Photo] KT Studio Genie
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