The Heirs

The Heirs

Wikipedia Summary: "The Heirs" depicts the friendships, rivalries and love lives of young, rich heirs led by Kim Tan and a girl named Cha Eun-Sang. Unlike the others, Cha Eun-Sang is considered ordinary and comes from a poor background.

Number of Episodes: 20

Stars: Lee Min-Ho, Park Shin-Hye, Kim Woo-Bin

Language: Korean

Additional Info: It's also called 'The Inheritors.' It's available on Dramafever and on Hulu.



At the beginning of the year, I got rid of cable in favor of using internet TV services. This was how I started watching Korean dramas. Of course, I knew about Asian dramas in general. I was a huge anime fan in the late 90s into the mid 2000s, so I did try to watch some live action versions of anime or manga back then... and I thought they were awful. I particularly remember thinking the Taiwanese version of Peach Girl sucked. So it did take me this long to get back into them but I've been watching the obsessively ever since.

I read somewhere that The Heirs was a Korean Gossip Girl. While I didn't actually like most of Gossip Girl (I read a few books and only made it through season 2), I do tend to like the insanely rich, poorly behaved teen stories.

The Heirs starts out mostly in California, where Kim Tan has been exiled. By chance, he runs into Cha Eun-Sang, who has come all the way from Korea to see her sister. When her sister bails, he helps her out. Then they get back to Korea and find out that she is the daughter of his household's maid. From then on, for them, it's a rich guy/poor girl story with family disapproval and whatnot.

While Kim Tan and Cha Eun-Sang are the main characters, it's the other characters that make this drama. When everyone is back in Korea, we meet all the super rich, spoiled, and snobby friends/enemies of Kim Tan. The relationships between the other characters and between them and the main characters were great. There is also change happening throughout the whole show. We get to see progression rather than 'mean one day, nice the next.'

I had two favorite couples during the show. One was an actual couple- Lee Bo-Na and Yoon Chan-Young. At first, Lee Bo-Na annoyed me so much, but as time went on she became so much more likeable and the relationship that seemed crazy didn't anymore. They weren't in it nearly enough for me. The second 'couple' was the moms, Kim Tan's and Cha Eun-Sang's, that changed from an employer/employee into more.

My favorite character, though, is Choi Young-Do. I never thought I'd love the bad guy turned good but I do. He's the Chuck Bass of The Heirs, but soooo much better. At first, I had a hard time believing that he was the second male lead. He was just so awful. But he changed over the course of the show and I found myself hating that Cha Eun-Sang was not picking him. I haven't felt this bad about the second lead not getting the girl since You're Beautiful.

I really liked this drama. It does have elements of Gossip Girl, as well as some common Korean drama things, but it had more depth. Once you get past the beginning in California, though I didn't hate it as much as some people, it picks up. The ending is not awful, either. It's a little cheesy and some things didn't necessarily make sense- like some people still around- but it didn't make me say WTF like some endings. It's definitely worth watching if you like spoiled rich kids doing their thing.