| TvN's new drama “Vincenzo” scored 8.7 percent viewership in the Seoul metropolitan area on Friday. Courtesy of tvN |
By Dong Sun-hwa
TvN's new drama “Vincenzo,” starring actor Song Joong-ki, got off to a smooth start Friday.
According to Nielsen Korea, the crime rom-com's first episode garnered 8.7 percent of viewership in the Seoul metropolitan area, becoming the most-watched program in the prime 9 p.m.-10 p.m. timeslot.
In the series, Song plays Vincenzo Cassano (Park Joo-hyung), a Korean-born lawyer and Italian mafia consigliere who heads for Korea after being betrayed by his gang in Italy. In Korea, he joins hands with another lawyer named Hong Cha-young ― played by Jeon Yeo-been ― to defeat villains in “villainous ways.”
“The protagonist of the drama is not wholly driven by good will ― sometimes, he is more evil than the villains,” director Kim Hee-won said during an online press conference, Feb. 15. “We tried to add more variety to the existing hero series.”
Song said: “Through the synopsis, I could feel that writer Park Jae-bum was very enthusiastic about including content that's critical of society. But he recounts the story in a humorous way ― I thought this was fresh.
“Our series has so many episodes that I can stay up all night to talk about them. Please also look forward to the performances of different actors.”
“Vincenzo” airs every Friday and Saturday at 9 p.m. (KST). It is also available on Netflix.