Korean drama 'Beyond The Bar' faces backlash over controversial age-gap romance

An ongoing Korean drama titled ‘

Beyond The Bar

’ has been garnering major traction even though only a few episodes have been out since its premiere on August 2. Recently, however, the makers of the show have come under fire for trying to create another ‘age-gapped couple’ on the show.

A couple with a big age gap hinted at ‘Beyond The Bar’

Videos and screencaps from one of the recent episodes of the show have gone viral online, after certain aspects of the show hinted that a new romance may be blossoming between two of the characters. This plot line, however, was not welcomed by most fans of the show, who called out the creators of the drama about how unnecessary romances were being added to the show.Another major factor that became a topic of concern for most was the big age gap between the actors playing characters

Seok Hoon

and Kang Hyo Min. The scene that went viral showed

Hyo Min

visibly blushing while thinking about spending time with Seok Hoon under the rain, hinting at an alleged romance in the show.

Many fans of the show called the action out as the male lead of the drama, actor

Lee Jin Wook

, is 16 years older than the actress who plays Hyo Min. Former

DIA

member turned actor

Jung Chaeyeon

plays the role, which has caused a lot of debate amongst the fans of the show as well as the actors.

Fans react to the scene

Many k-netizens took to their online social media account to express their disdain over the matter and shared how the new plot line is not needed in the show. One fan commented, “Forget about the age gap… Literally, who gets butterflies over their boss at work? You’d just want to go home early. If she’s a lawyer, she probably worked hard to keep up her grades at a good university, struggled through law school, passed the bar, and now works under a boss doing tough professional work”, while another shared, “The stuff that sells well is rom-coms that advertise themselves as such, not shows from other genres or episodic dramas with romance mixed in. Aren’t there more people who dislike that?”The Korean drama has not been marketed as a romance drama, and has instead been represented as a legal drama that explores the hardships faced by a lawyer. Previously, Jung Chaeyeon had also been heavily criticised for her performance on the show. Many at the time commented about how she was not doing justice to the character and the plot of the drama, even when she had made the switch to acting years ago.