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If you only know director Yoo In-shik from “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” — the gentle, globally beloved legal drama about an autistic lawyer — his new Netflix series will catch you off guard. “The WONDERfools” trades courtroom drama for a town full of accidental superheroes who can barely control their own powers, set in a very specific, very Korean moment: the last gasp of 1999.
What It’s Actually About
Released worldwide on Netflix on May 15, 2026, “The WONDERfools” is an 8-episode miniseries about a group of ordinary, slightly hapless residents of the fictional city of Haeseong who suddenly gain superpowers after a strange incident — and have to figure out how to use them to stop a villain threatening the town, mostly by making things worse before they make them better.
The cast is led by Park Eun-bin (of “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” fame, reuniting with Yoo In-shik here) as Eun Chae-ni, who teleports against her will to embarrassingly random places, and Cha Eun-woo as Lee Un-jeong, a low-level city hall employee secretly hiding telekinetic powers. They’re joined by Kim Hae-sook, Choi Dae-hoon, Lim Sung-jae, Son Hyun-joo, and a rotating cast of equally unprepared “heroes.”
Why 1999, Specifically
The choice of setting isn’t incidental. The show takes place during what Korean media calls “세기말” — literally “the end of the century” — a real cultural moment around 1999 and 2000 when Y2K computer-bug anxiety overlapped with a wave of homegrown doomsday predictions and millennarian movements. For a lot of Koreans who lived through it, “세기말” carries a specific, slightly absurd nostalgia: equal parts genuine dread and tacky, neon-lit pop culture.
“The WONDERfools” leans into that tone deliberately. Rather than a polished, modern superhero story, it’s styled as a scrappy, lo-fi comedy where the “end of the world” feels more like a block party that got out of hand than a blockbuster apocalypse. That’s also what separates it from the typical capes-and-stakes formula — the humor comes from characters who are extremely unqualified to be saving anyone, leaning closer to workplace-comedy energy than action spectacle.
How It’s Landing
The show built up a publicity wave before release, with Netflix’s Korea office promoting it as Yoo In-shik’s first major genre departure since “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” became a global hit. After release, it quickly became one of the most talked-about Korean titles on Netflix this June: a June 22 roundup of currently airing and trending Korean dramas by the film blog R의 필름공장 (R’s Film Factory) ranked it the most talked-about Korean title of the month, citing a TMDB user score of 9.1 out of 10 from over 140 ratings — the strongest score-to-sample-size ratio among the shows in that roundup. Checking TMDB directly a week later, the current season was sitting at a 92% average score, suggesting the rating has held up rather than faded as more viewers weighed in.
Who Should Watch It
If you came to Korean content through tightly plotted thrillers or high-stakes melodrama, “The WONDERfools” is a deliberate change of pace — closer in spirit to an ensemble sitcom than a superhero epic. It rewards viewers who enjoy character-driven comedy and a healthy dose of self-aware silliness over polished action choreography. Given its short, 8-episode run, it’s also one of the easier recent Korean originals to finish in a single weekend.
For Yoo In-shik’s existing fans, it’s a useful reminder that the director’s range extends well past courtroom warmth — and for newcomers, it’s a low-commitment entry point into how Korean TV handles genre comedy: a little messy, very local in its references, and not particularly interested in explaining its own jokes to an outside audience. Which, for a site built around explaining K-culture, makes it exactly the kind of show worth a closer look.
Sources: Netflix Korea’s official production announcement (about.netflix.com); The Movie Database (TMDB) series page for 원더풀스, checked June 29, 2026; “지금 방영중인 드라마 순위 2026년 6월” ranking roundup, R의 필름공장 (ambitstock.com), published June 22, 2026.
