Black Knight: Kim Woo-bin leads dystopian sci-fi K-drama on Netflix

Since the outdoor air is unbreathable and the sandy landscape is littered with Mad Max-style marauders, delivery drivers have the most dangerous job in the land.

They are considered heroes as they have to fight their way to people’s doorsteps, and the most famous among these brave essential workers is the stoic and square-jawed 5-8; all drivers are known by the code numbers of the imposing black trucks they cruise through the desert with.

This society has a government, but in reality it is beholden to the Chunmyung Group, a chaebol (family-run) corporation that has a monopoly on the air supply and delivery network.

Ryu Seok (Song Seung-heon, Voice 4), the heir to Chunmyung, is spearheading the construction of District A, a gigantic new compound that is intended to house the refugee population, but Seok’s real intentions are far more sinister.

Maintaining some semblance of order is the presence of the military, and one of their top officers is Seol-ah (Esom, Taxi Driver), who lives with her younger sister Seul-ah (Roh Yoon-seo, Our Blues). They have secretly been harbouring Sa-wol (Kang Yoo-seok, Payback), a young refugee who dreams of becoming a delivery driver just like 5-8.

These are the basic components of Black Knight, a show in which the meek will eventually band together to strike against the hand that holds them down.

As with previous Korean dystopias, this is a story about social inequality. That is fairly obvious from the get-go – but the show sees fit to continually remind us of the fact, as characters point out how their society is one built on control and false hope.

They do this again and again through didactic dialogue scenes where they do not talk to each other so much as pass these explanations between each other.

Outside these exchanges, there is precious little in the way of organic conversation to be found. There is a sprinkle of banter here and there, largely provided by Sa-wol’s spiky-haired refugee buddies, but for the most part this story is as dry as the desert it takes place in.

The show spends an inordinate amount of time explaining things, but precious little doing them, making it a vexing viewing experience. We quickly understand where the story needs to go, but there is very little forward momentum, no excitement to leave us begging for more as one episode ends.

This is doubly troubling since, for all its razzle-dazzle and epic scale, Black Knight is a very short series – the average episode length is under 45 minutes (minus the dubbing credits). Given the lax pacing and lack of stakes, why is this not a movie instead?

There are a few parts that generate some excitement, and those include a section in the middle of the show that owes more than a little to Squid Game. In an attempt to claim a vacant post for a delivery driver, Sa-wol takes part in a series of vicious contests which mark the visceral high point of the series.

While watching Black Knight it is hard not to recall The Silent Sea, another dystopian Korean sci-fi series about a grim and colourless future human society strangled by corporate greed and lacking in essential resources – in that case water instead of air.

Both shows boast admirable visual effects and frustratingly bland sets, and they feature similar side plots about human mutation.

Steely-eyed and broad-shouldered, Kim Woo-bin is perfectly cast as the heroic 5-8 – but the role does not give him much to do. It is a far cry from his multi-hued performance in last summer’s Alienoid.

That goes for the rest of the cast as well, many of whom have done better work before but struggle within the limitations of their characters here.

Cho Ui-seok, the director of Master and co-director of Cold Eyes (a remake of the Hong Kong film Eye in the Sky), adapted the popular web comic by Lee Yun-kyun himself. He has made some crucial changes, chief among them changing Sa-wol’s gender – she was a girl in the webtoon.

He also changes the tone of the story, which was less dour in the original. There is an engaging mix of Mad Max-esque characters in the web comic, and the exaggerated nature of the characters when contrasted with their bleak existence gave them a pathos which is lacking in the TV series.

Despite all the money that was clearly spent on the production, little catches the eye, aside from the inventive, futuristic wardrobe by Cho Sang-kyung, a costume designer known for Squid Game and her work with Park Chan-wook.

But good costumes alone are hardly enough to save a tentpole sci-fi blockbuster.

Black Knight is streaming on Netflix.