Dramas like
The Impossible Heir

The same bargain, with the arithmetic printed on the wall. Both are stories about a deal that only holds while everybody keeps pretending it is fair, and this one stays honest about that for its whole run instead of only its opening stretch. Ryu Jun Yeol narrates it like a man describing his own autopsy, and the middle is punishing on purpose. Difference: the class war here is a rigged experiment rather than a family with lawyers.

Hooks early Episode 2, once the time for money rule is understood and the floors start turning on each other.

The same two-man pact, moved to 1960 and played by heavyweights. A fixer and an idealist build something together and the partnership carries every scene, which is the exact appeal of the first four episodes here. Song Kang Ho plays the operator as a man who has already priced everybody in the room. Difference: it is a slow, non-linear, sixteen-episode chamber piece, and the middle asks for real patience.

Slow start Episode 4, where the political machinery behind the partnership becomes visible.

The office this show fantasises about, written by somebody who has been in one. Same appetite for hierarchy, contracts and the small humiliations of not being born into the building. Twenty episodes and not one of them needs a conspiracy to hold your attention. Difference: nobody is taking over the company, and that is the point of it.

Hooks early Episode 2, once the sales team starts treating him like a person rather than a filing error.

Power struggle as a series of moves, with the plotting actually holding. If what gripped you was watching two people out-manoeuvre a family, this does it between a prime minister and a deputy prime minister at a much higher standard of writing. Sul Kyung Gu and Kim Hee Ae circle each other for twelve episodes and never blink. Difference: no friendship at the centre, and no romance anywhere near it.

Hooks early Episode 1. The prime minister makes his move against the president inside twenty minutes.

Class as an architecture that a poor kid has to climb. Same shape of story and the same interest in what money buys inside a closed institution, at seven fast episodes instead of twelve slack ones. Difference: it is a school series and much thinner underneath, so take it as a quick chaser rather than a full meal.

Hooks early Episode 1. The transfer student arrives and the revenge plot is stated outright, which is as good as it gets.

Money, politics and a chaebol built on people who can be discarded. Same slick production and the same interest in corruption as a set of mechanics rather than a moral, with Park Hyung Sik playing leverage instead of anger. Difference: it makes you wait until episode 7 for the hook, and the back half is where it earns its place.

Slow start Episode 7, and it genuinely improves from there: the ratings climb through the back half and the last two hours are the best of the run.