Newtopia final review: Jisoo and Park Jeong-min's wacky zombie series is a missed opportunity with only chaos and blood

2/5

Newtopia plot

BLACKPINK's Jisoo made her awaited comeback with Prime Video's zombie comedy series titled 'Newtopia.' It also featured Park Jeong-min as her love interest. The plot revolves around a young couple, Lee Jae-yoon and Kang Young-jo as they grapple with their relationship. While Jae-yoon is enlisted in the military with an uncertain future and lots of insecurities, his girlfriend Young-joo also faces a similar fate as she struggles to make things work and decides to break up. Things take a gory turn when a zombie outbreak unleashes havoc amid the heartbreak and duty calls.

Newtopia final Review

Jisoo and Park Jeong-min's zombie K-drama premiered its final episode on March 21. This limited series (only eight episodes in total) concluded with a predictable and dull ending. From the storyline to the performances, Newtopia offers nothing stunning or thrilling as it promised in the initial episodes. Despite a happy ending of the heroic reunion, Newtopia is a clear missed opportunity as it fails to capture attention and falls flat in its execution.

Also Read: Newtopia on OTT: Release date, plot, cast and everything about Blackpink's Jisoo and Park Jeong-min's zombie thriller

The slow pace and the gory zombie fights feel tiresome to watch. Even Jisoo and Park Jeong-min lose their spark at some point since the narrative and characters fail to impress with their chemistry. Whatever the initial episodes built as a sweet love story sadly faded and turned into nothing extraordinary in the finale.

Newtopia offers dark humour with comedy of errors. It blends elements of humour, horror, and romance but fails miserably due to a loosely packed narrative. The writing lacks a consistent pace, and it seems like a half-baked zombie comedy. There are some funny dialogues and chaotic moments, but overall, it appears dull and repetitive. What could've concluded in 4-5 episodes was dragged awfully into 8 episodes of roughly 50 minutes each.

Apart from grotesque zombie fights and blood-soaked violence, there is not much to offer to the viewers. Snowdrop's Jisoo had so much untapped caliber that could've turned into a power-packed character. However, the character seems to be created half-heartedly.

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However, Jisoo's love interest and the ensemble cast, like In-hoo, Arron Park, and Jae-yoon, had some hilarious scenes that definitely make up for the lost charm.The eccentric soldiers and their crazy banter, thankfully, add up to a positive for this otherwise boring and skippable show. The ensemble cast features Hong Seo-hee, Tang Jun-sang, Lee Hak-joo, and Kim Jun-han in pivotal roles.

The wacky leads had so much potential to lead a chaotic love story, but it all got wasted with a less coherent narrative. The only scenes where they are together are either in the few flashback scenes or the 2-minute reunion at the last.

Newtopia Final Verdict

Overall, Newtopia is a light-hearted watch that is packed with silly chaos of the undead creatures. However, it fails to capture the essence with its loosely packed narrative as compared to the other zombie comedy shows or films. Despite Jisoo and Park Jeon-min in the lead, Newtopia is a skippable K-drama if you crave a solid storyline with humour and thrills.

All the eight episodes of Newtopia are now available to stream on Prime Video.