Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Big Bet’ On Hulu, A Korean Drama About A Casino Bigwig Falsely Accused Of Murder

Crime dramas can be really dramatic or it can be, well, less so. What do we mean? Sometimes crime dramas have a bit of a light tone, or at least has its characters utter a bit of a jokey line, to show viewers that they shouldn’t be taking the story completely seriously. A new Korean crime drama on Hulu (and Disney+ outside the US) is one of those that serves us its drama with a wink.

BIG BET: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Two men are in a car in Aguiles, Philippines. “Aguiles, 2015”.

The Gist: The driver gets the location of the job; the passenger gets out of the car, enters an office marked “Min’s Consulting”, shoots someone and leaves. A woman goes next door for help.

In the meantime, a casino bigwig named Cha Mu-sik (Choi Min-sik) is at a hotel for a meeting, and Filipino law enforcement runs in and arrests him for the murder of Min Seok-joon (Kim Hong-pa). He says they have the wrong guy, but the feds put him in front of reporters, who pepper him with questions about whether he killed Min or not.

We flash back to 1972 in South Korea. A young Mu-sik (Lee Kyu-hyung) is at an orphanage after his mother (Bae Hae-sun) left him there the prior year, and he’s already showing signs that he’s going to be a good businessman, proposing that he and some other kids pool their pocket change to get some fried chicken, via games of Rock, Paper, Scissors. When his father (Kim Roi-ha), a gangster and gambler, comes back into the family fold, he sparks Mu-sik’s love of reading and learning, and Mu-sik sees how his dad runs his gambling business.

When his dad goes to prison for assaulting some cheaters, a 10-year-old Mu-sik and his mom move to Daejeon, where the prison is, and Mu-sik figures out a way to sell lots of newspapers and make some coin for himself.

Flash to the same city in 2000. Mu-sik, now in his 30s and the owner of a school that teaches English to Koreans, is brought a business proposition: A new concept in Korea called a “Casino bar.” Players play baccarat for vouchers, the vouchers are exchanged for booze, and the booze is exchanged for cash. Because of the machinations, he’s told it’s perfectly legal. After playing cards all night and seeing the convoluted system, Mu-sik starts envisioning how he’ll do things better, take out the inefficiencies, and deal with any legal issues that may arise.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Big Bet feels like a fictional, casino-centric version of “tech bro” series like WeCrashed.

Our Take: What strikes us about Big Bet, written and produced by Yoon-Seong Kang, is that it’s playing fast and loose with its narrative, and gets a bit cheesy at times, but it doesn’t seem to matter all that much. Mu-sik is the focus of the series, as we see how he’s built his casino empire, moved it to the Philippines in order to avoid tax problems, then gets accused or murder.

The show is supposed to have a somewhat light touch, despite all of the crime and violence, which is why we see the obviously fiftysomething Choi Min-sik in a dark wig as the thirtysomething Mu-sik in 2000 and we don’t seem to get all that annoyed. None of these events in the show are laugh-out-loud, but they show that Big Bet is going to be more of a broad, pulpy crime drama than something that takes itself seriously.

There’s a bit of a logic problem in the first episode, as we think that Mu-sik is going into the casino business with his old friend from the orphanage, as we see the friend at the different time periods represented in the episode. But that friend is merely advising Mu-sik’s eventual business partner, who is tired of not being able to collect gambling debts from gangsters. We also know that Mu-sik is working out how things are going to work at his new casino bar, but all he really tells people is to get the “best”: The best dealers, the best chefs, the best of whoever else. How does he even know that the people that he’s hiring are actually the best?

Again, these leaps of logic don’t seem to matter to us much, as the first episode sets up Mu-sik’s business-minded personality well. Why he’s being accused of a murder in 2015, we have no idea, but it’ll be interesting to see how he escapes the heat and goes underground for the first time in decades.

Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode.

Parting Shot: As he looks at the space he’s rented for his casino bar, he draws on his cigarette and says, “Fuck it, let’s give this a shot.”

Sleeper Star: Kim Roi-ha plays Mu-sik’s father, who was a two-bit criminal but a huge influence on his son.

Most Pilot-y Line: When Mu-sik tells the fed coming to arrest him, “This is a fucking mistake,” the fed replies back, “No, you’re the mistake.” I know you are, but what am I?

Our Call: STREAM IT. Big Bet has a lot of silly moments. But it also feels like a series that’s supposed to be a little silly. Maybe we’re in a good mood, but whatever silliness the show has actually feeds into a vibe that makes it a more lively show to watch.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.