Episode 2 of SBS drama series "Agent Kim Reactivated" [SBS]
Episode 2 of SBS drama series "Agent Kim Reactivated" [SBS]

SBS drama series "Agent Kim Reactivated" has taken over the weekend primetime slot, surpassing a 15 percent viewership rating in just two episodes.

The second episode, which aired June 27, drew a nationwide rating of 15.7 percent and 15.9 percent in the Greater Seoul area, with a peak of 18.1 percent, according to Nielsen Korea. The figures mark the highest ratings for any SBS drama series this year. It is also the first time a show has crossed the 15 percent mark within its first two episodes since "Penthouse 3" in 2021 — a gap of five years.

Based on a popular webtoon of the same name, "Agent Kim Reactivated" follows the world's most ordinary father as he transforms into the world's most dangerous man to rescue his only daughter. The action-revenge drama was positioned as SBS's flagship title to open the second half of the year, following "Brave New World," which starred Im Ji-yeon and Heo Nam-jun. The series had generated considerable anticipation before its premiere, anchored by a strong cast led by So Ji-sub alongside Yoon Gyeong-ho and Choi Dae-hun.

So plays a man living an ordinary life with his daughter, though he is in fact a former cold-blooded secret agent known as "Kim Bu-jang." His character — someone who swallows injustice rather than confront it, yet will do anything to give his daughter what she wants despite their modest means — captivated viewers from his very first appearance.

Having concealed his past at the dying wish of his wife, who asked him to live only as their daughter Minji's father, the character is forced back into action when Minji (played by Seo Su-min) is kidnapped. Critics have praised So for embodying the role completely — not only through intense action sequences, but through the anxious gaze and desperate voice of a father searching for his child, deepening the drama's emotional pull.

So, who marks his return to SBS after 13 years with this series, spoke about the show at an SBS press event earlier this month. "There are many different kinds of action in 'Agent Kim Reactivated,' but what stands out is how much emotion is packed into them," he said. "I think audiences will feel a real sense of cathartic satisfaction in watching the reckoning unfold."


balme@heraldcorp.com