Producer: “Hey everyone, thanks for coming to today’s meeting. It’s good to have all our hair, makeup & wardrobe people together. We’ve got a big item to address today. As you know, tomorrow, we’re filming the high school flashback scene, right? You’ve all read the breakdown I trust. So the deal is, our main character, Yi Seo is supposed to be a loser and a nobody that Seon Woo would never even look at twice. We’ve got to make our star, Im Na Young, look terrible! I want your ideas on how we’re going to do that. Fire ‘em at me!”

Wardrobe: “We’ll put glasses on her.”
Hair: “We’ll put her hair in pigtails.”
Makeup: “Acne?”

[producer stays silent glaring for a minute]

Producer: “Guys. Seriously? We’re not trying to make her look even more cute than usual. She's supposed to be a LOSER. DORK. NERD. Not adorable!”

Wardrobe, Hair & Makeup: [blank stares]

Producer: “What’s our CGI budget?”

Production Assistant: “Zero”

Producer: [rubs face with both hands] “Ok fine, so she’ll be an unbelievably adorably cute loser.”

“Heartbeat Broadcasting Accident” is a web drama that, outside the context of faceplanting on their attempt to make Im Na Young not look stunning, isn’t going to break any new ground as far as novel plotlines and the character roster is nothing but stock, generic types. So its success rides entirely on how well its cast can charm the audience. Although it’s a mixed bag there, it has more positives than negatives.

Lee Hyun Joo is the antagonist, Yu Ra, a successful live commerce host with a thing for Director Cha Seun Woo. She’s the typical selfish, shallow popular girl. Lee Hyun Joo is fine here although deviating a bit from the all-unfriendly all-the-time might have livened things up. Had she been a backstabber on top of everything else, points for that. But with a web drama, there just may not have been enough run time to fit that in.

Points for Yang Hak Jin as the very creepy and terrible ex boyfriend.

The weakest of the cast is undoubtedly Jung Min Gyu as Kwon Hyuk, the friend who hooks up Yi Seo with a job at the live commerce company. The character seems written like he should be somewhat sympathetic, but he’s played so erratically and disdainfully by Jung Min Gyu that he is almost as much the bad guy as Yu Ra.

This show though, not all that unexpectedly, is about the two leads and the romance between them. Zuho plays Cha Seon Woo, the cool former high school heartthrob that’s now a director at a live commerce company and rival of Kwon Hyuk. It’s not the most arduous or novel character to play, but Zuho checks all the physical attributes for a male lead and he’s got credible skills as an actor. He’s given some bad dialogue and that he still is a mostly charming and charismatic character shows he’s not just a pretty face and singer.
Im Na Young is getting regular work but it’s mostly been as an ensemble piece where here she’s the one with unquestioned claim in the spotlight. Yi Seo is not a huge departure from previous characters and there’s certainly questions about whether there’s a lot of range in Im Na Young’s toolbox as an actor. Despite that, she has no problems playing the sweet and bubbly type and that’s what she’s asked to do in this vehicle. Is she leading material in a big production? Can’t tell based on this show but she is capable as an actor playing this type of character. So she gets to play to her strengths and the chemistry with Zuho is ok. And that makes “Heartbeat Broadcasting Accident” a better than average web drama.

Is it groundbreaking? No.
Amazing? No.
Memorable? No.

But it takes a simple concept and competently executes it and, for a bite-size show, is one of the 2021 better productions.