Review of Chicken Nugget / 닭강정

Before I left for Korea in the summer of 2024, I was going mad. I’d finished my master’s thesis and really needed something to do to fill the void of what was previously filled with writing and editing. That meant I was watching a lot of television, movies, and reading quite a few books.

It’s how my blog has been booming lately, and how I was able to get ahead on my content before I packed up and headed to India and Korea.

It also gave me the opportunity to finally watch Chicken Nugget, which I had been procrastinating on watching before because I simply did not have the time. I finally caught so many shows that I’d been meaning to watch during this time, and I am grateful I did not have to work full-time during this period.

As someone who really loves absurdism and surrealism, as well as different forms of storytelling, not fitting neatly into a genre, I had no idea I was going to love Chicken Nugget as much as I did. The people who made this story are weird, but I absolutely love weird when it translates into a show like this.

I’m giving too much away already! Time to stop rambling. Let’s get into the review.

When a girl turns into a chicken nugget, her father and secret admirer try to turn her back into a human.

The very beginning clip of this show sets the ground of the weirdness we’re about to experience throughout the course of the series. A chicken nugget in space narrates a rather philosophical narrative about life and what it means for the main female character after being turned into a chicken nugget.

In this show, we first meet Go Baek-joong, who is an intern at a small, somewhat struggling company owned by Choi Seon-man. We learn pretty early on, as he’s in the office, that he has a crush on Seon-man’s daughter Min-ah, and she doesn’t seem pretty aware that he has a crush on her.

During the beginning of the first episode, a strange little photobooth arrives at the office, and then Seon-man and the only other employee who works there decide to put it in the corner. Min-ah arrives when it comes to be lunch time, and she sits with Baek-joong.

He’s stuttering and flustered around her, making it even more obvious that he has a crush, and then Min-ah notices the photobooth. She decides to go over there and take a photo, but when there’s a flash of light, Baek-joong realizes pretty quickly that something is wrong here.

It is then he realizes that she has literally turned into a chicken nugget, and specifically the identical copy of a chicken nugget that comes from a local restaurant. Seon-man naturally freaks out too when he realizes his daughter has become a single chicken nugget piece, and the two hilariously try to keep her safe from people eating her, even though she does unfortunately end up dropped on the floor at some points.

Thus begins a wacky adventure to try and figure out the origin of this weird little photobooth, as well as some connections with the extraterrestrial. This show goes down multiple different rabbit holes that can be quite unexpected, and although the series is quite short in general, I feel like it has so many relatable points in between all of the wackiness.

Overall Thoughts

As you can tell, I really loved this show. I can easily see how other people might find it to be way outside of their comfort zone, but it was right up my alley in terms of content.

I used the word “weird” in this review, but I don’t see it as having a negative connotation at all. Weird is great, it is eccentric, it is a sign of creativity. I found this multimodal approach to be brilliant even, despite it probably not connecting with a lot of audience members who simply find it bizarre.

That said, go watch this one if you’re interested in the premise. There are a lot of aspects to admire about the show, and I can definitely see myself rewatching this because it is pretty short and sweet. It could’ve used a little more world building, but I’m fine with the mystery.

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