There is no amount of praying or hand-wringing that can change this particular casting, so I’m going to take my own advice with a wait and see approach. Filming has started for upcoming tvN drama Answer Me 1988, the third entry in the popular trendy Answer Me series following the original 1997 version and the subsequent 1994 take. One can argue that the drama has always cast leading ladies who are untried (Jung Eun Ji in 1997) or had a reputation for being a bad actress (Go Ara in 1994), and both times the ladies delivered big time. Hence this casting of Girl’s Day‘s Hyeri as the female lead of 1988 is merely par for the course.

I’d argue that Eun Ji is a natural and didn’t have an early stinky acting performance under her belt, like Hyeri was beyond horrible in Hyde, Jekyll, Me, and while I’ve actually never liked Go Ara but also didn’t think she was ever that bad an actress in all her previous outings before 1994. This discussion really won’t mean anything until AM1988 airs and Hyeri validates her casting or proves her naysayers right. Joining Hyeri as her two leading men are Go Kyung Pyo and Park Bo Gum, along with a huge supporting cast of Sung Dong Il, Lee Il Hwa, Lee Dong Hwi, Ryu Hye Young, Kim Sung Kyun, Choi Moo Sung, Ra Mi Ran, and many more.