The Golden Spoon

Money and status – and the hunger for both – drive The Golden Spoon, a new K-drama that spins a riveting tale of class warfare. It follows Lee Seung-cheon (Yook Sung-jae), whose class at school is divided into ‘Golden Spoons’ – those born rich – and ‘Dirt Spoons’ – those without means. The former love flexing their wealth over their less privileged classmates, who can’t retaliate for fear of angering the upper echelons of society and losing their spot at a prestigious school.The Golden Spoon Season 1 Download

Seung-cheon, himself a Dirt Spoon, is painfully aware of his social station. After losing a friend and his family to suicide due to mounting debt, he’s forced to keep his head down and complete his classmates’ assignments for money. But a mysterious street vendor offers him the opportunity of a lifetime, selling him a literal golden spoon for a paltry sum that will let him exchange lives with a Golden Spoon. He gets three chances to reverse the change: the first after a month; the second after a year; and the third after a decade.At first, Seung-cheon dismisses this as a hoax, but after a series of events drives him into a corner, he throws caution to the wind and exchanges lives with Hwang Tae-yong (Lee Jong-won) – the biggest Golden Spoon of them all. This windfall brings more challenges, however: Not only does Seung-cheon constantly butt heads with Tae-yong’s ruthless, calculative father Hwang Hyeon-do (Choi Won-young), but he now has to deal with the paranoia of the real Tae-yong, who’s realising he now lives in Seung-cheon’s place.Based on a 2016 webtoon of the same name, The Golden Spoon must be applauded for its writing and pacing. Some sequences draw out the tension and dread perfectly, leaving viewers guessing as to what is coming next – such as when we wait to find out whether the golden spoon actually worked for Seung-cheon. The show also impressively fleshes out a tale about seesawing between desperation and calculated decisions – as well as their consequences.