Prison Playbook

November 22, 2017

Kim Je-hyuk (Park Hae-soo), a baseball pitcher days away from signing an MLB contract, accidentally injures a man who was attacking his sister. He is imprisoned. The Cheongju prison exterior establishes the world he must now inhabit.

November 22, 2017

Je-hyuk's first week in Seobu Prison — the rules, the hierarchies, the community, the specific culture of incarcerated life.

November 29, 2017

The drama's extraordinary ensemble — each inmate a fully realised person with a specific story — established.

November 29, 2017

Yoo Hyun-gu (Jung Kyung-ho), the prison's most beloved guard — the drama's warmest character — shown in full.

December 6, 2017

The prison's indoor exercise space used for Je-hyuk's attempt to maintain his athletic form — the Jamsil Stadium a world away.

December 6, 2017

The prison community at its fullest — the mutual aid, the unexpected warmth, the small mercies of incarcerated life.

December 13, 2017

Je-hyuk's baseball career continuing its trajectory outside — the world he cannot access — while he is inside.

December 13, 2017

The drama at its midpoint — the comedy and warmth at their peak, the injustice of Je-hyuk's situation its quiet counterweight.

December 20, 2017

A sequence connected to the Jamsil Stadium — the baseball world Je-hyuk left.

December 20, 2017

The prison guards' lives — as constrained in different ways as the inmates they supervise.

December 27, 2017

The prison's informal alliances — the relationships across hierarchies that make life there liveable.

December 27, 2017

Je-hyuk's anger — at the injustice, at the system, at himself — finally breaking through.

January 3, 2018

The legal appeal that might shorten Je-hyuk's sentence.

January 3, 2018

The prison community responding to Je-hyuk's possible departure.

January 10, 2018

What Je-hyuk would return to — and what prison has taught him about what matters.

January 17, 2018

The finale. One of tvN's most beloved ensemble dramas. Park Hae-soo's breakthrough performance and Jung Kyung-ho's Captain Yoo created one of 2017's warmest, most humane viewing experiences.