The Heirs
Synopsis: Heirs follows a group of privileged, elite high school students as they are groomed to take over their families’ business empires. These wealthy students seem to have everything under control–except their love lives. Kim Tan (Lee Min Ho) is heir to the Empire Group sent to study abroad in the U.S. In reality it’s a form of exile, as his elder half-brother back home (Choi Jin Hyuk) schemes to take over the family business. While in the States, Kim Tan bumps into Cha Eun Sang (Park Shin Hye), who’s arrived from Korea in search of her older sister. He feels himself falling for her, never realizing that she’s the daughter of his family’s housekeeper. When his fiancée Rachel Yoo (Kim Ji Won) arrives to bring him back to Korea, his heart is torn between love and duty. Meanwhile, Rachel’s half-brother Choi Young Do (Kim Woo Bin) develops his own crush on Eun Sang. Who said being a rich, beautiful high school student was easy?
If you read the synopsis, Heirs is just as soapy, fun, ridiculous, and romantic as it sounds. I would definitely say it’s the far less trashy and more interesting Korean cousin of Gossip Girl.
Heirs does indeed follow the lives of rich, beautiful elite high schoolers, but they are slightly more down to earth than the characters in Gossip Girl. Extremely popular actors Lee Min Ho and Park Shin Hye lead this gorgeous cast as two very likable high schoolers Kim Tan and Cha Eun Sang, who meet serendipitously in California, begin falling in love, and then meet again back in Seoul.
*Ugh, stop being so pretty and tragic you two!*
The plot pretty much follows the rich kids (And Cha Eun Sang, who is dirt poor) as they navigate high school, relationships, and whether or not they will be inheriting their parents companies come graduation time. There’s some politics on the side that deals with the parents and the companies, most of which affects their children, but they aren’t directly involved.
There is a love triangle, but I appreciated the way it was developed. Kim Woo Bin is excellent as the damaged bad boy Choi Young Do who starts out just messing with Eun Sang, but slowly falls for her as she doesn’t put up with his crap. I never wanted the two of them to be together because he does some terrible things to her, and he goes so far as to prevent Kim Tan from protecting Eun Sang so that he can further mess with her.
Fortunately, through getting to know Eun Sang, Young Do gets to know himself better and deals with some stuff from his past that has been emotionally stunting him. I also appreciated the slight bromance between himself and childhood friend Kim Tan.
Hilariously, Park Shin Hye (Eun Sang) has been dubbed the “Kryptonite of Kissing” while Lee Min Ho is noted as a true “Master of the Kdrama Kiss”. Suffice to say, some of the kisses on this show are MEGA AWKWARD and most people concluded that Shin Hye is hopeless since even Min Ho can’t seem to make it work. It didn’t bother me too terribly much, but it is definitely a thing. They still have plenty of adorable moments though that really make their romance work.
There are multiple side stories that are both adorable, and engaging, and kept me interested in the secondary characters. Cha Eun Sang’s mother specifically warmed my heart. She’s mute, but she’s still sassy, which made me love her even more.
Overall, Heirs is a very entertaining show about beautiful rich kids just trying to make it to graduation alive with a satisfying ending. It’s really a mix of romantic comedy and drama, probably leaning more to the drama side, but it’s not without it’s funny moments.
Content: 14+ Kissing. A teensy bit of violence.