The Art of Sarah Review: When a Korean-American woman’s ambition leads her to create a fake luxury bag company targeting the top 0.1% of the population, things spin way out of control for her.
The Art of Sarah Netflix Cast
Shin Hye-sun, Lee Joon-hyuk, Kim Jae-won, Jung Da-bin, Shin Hyun-seung
The Art of Sarah Series Director
Kim Jin-min
The Art of Sarah Kdrama Writer
Chu Song-yeon
Original Title
레이디 두아
The series has 8 episodes, each with a runtime of around 45 minutes.
The Art of Sarah Review
In Netflix’s limited crime-thriller series The Art of Sarah, we jump into the dangerous world of counterfeited luxury bags and a woman’s desperate try to get to the top of the game after life brought her down over and over again. The series is a thrilling and sometimes emotional watch helmed by the fantastic Shin Hye-sun and Lee Joon-hyuk, and it examines some of the reasons people find themselves on the wrong side of the law after being brought down one too many times.
The biggest part of the series is questioning Sarah Kim’s identity. She is the central figure in all this, and everything starts and ends with her. What is her reality? What does she want? What is the truth behind her facade? There are a million and one questions that revolve around Sarah Kim’s identity, and the series doesn’t hold back from bringing those questions forward. I found the general mystery quite intriguing, and Shin Hye-sun is fantastic, so it’s easy to keep watching her performance.
The mystery twists and twists like this throughout the runtime, and after a while, it gets a bit confusing to understand as the layers accumulate. The pacing can be a bit of a headache after a while as well, although the comparatively shorter 45-minute runtime helps. Some twists are a bit more atmospheric than being realistic by any capacity and can even be a bit too over-the-top to be enjoyed. I found myself waiting for the reveal to finally arrive, and fans of faster narratives might find themselves very annoyed with the cumulative payoff.
The themes in the series surround people’s need to be seen as wealthy and accomplished, and the shifting narratives are very interesting to watch. We meet many people along the way in our quest to uncover Sarah Kim’s identity, and it all comes down to understanding people’s vanity and their desire to showcase their wealth. It might seem silly, but no one wants to look poor, and the series does a great job of showcasing that in subtle (and often not-so-subtle) ways. I liked how the series highlighted the authenticity of wealth and class – anything more, and it somehow becomes tacky.
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Sarah herself isn’t immune to the very problems that she identifies, and yet, she has a mystery around her that is hard to ignore. The character is created well, and despite some moments wherein you are forced to roll your eyes, it’s Shin Hye-sun’s Sarah who keeps us glued. Apart from her, we have Officer Park Mu-gyeong, whose character sometimes tends to exist to solve the case and nothing else. It’s a letdown in that sense. All the other performances are great as well, and do a great job of creating the thrilling environment.
Final Thoughts
The Art of Sarah is a mixed bag in a way. And yet, I found myself taken by Sarah’s conning charms. I think the mystery surrounding Sarah’s life is where the true story lies; the thrill is only a part of it. There’s an odd melancholy in the story as it holds a mirror to society and highlights how we treat people we believe to be beneath us. Overall, this one might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I enjoyed its melancholy more than anything else.
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