With just eight pulse-pounding episodes scheduled to begin 10 p.m. KST on 21 July 2025, ENA’s The Defects is shaping up to be the darkest K-drama of the summer — and perhaps the year. Beneath its slick medical veneer lies a story about children treated as merchandise, and the grown-up “defects” who come back to burn the system down.
A premise that stings
In Korean adoption slang, “환불” (“refund”) is the nightmare scenario: a child returned by adoptive parents who decide they no longer want the responsibility. The Defects imagines a black-market pipeline that profits from those discarded kids. The show’s title is a cynical pun on “eye-shopping” and “child-shopping,” making literal the idea that people can browse for children the way they browse for shoes.
The survivors, led by fiery returned-adoptee Kim Ah-hyun (Won Jin-ah), form a guerilla family determined to expose and destroy the syndicate that labelled them “defective.” Their primary target: Dr Kim Se-hee (Yum Jung-ah) — a revered hospital chair and philanthropist whose secret side-hustle is trafficking “less-than-perfect” kids to the highest bidder.
From viral webtoon to prestige thriller
The Defects began life as the Kakao Webtoon 아이쇼핑, which racked up 51 million+ views and won SPP 2017’s “Best Creativity” award before ENA scooped it up for television. Fans praised the original for marrying brutal action beats with sharp social commentary; the adaptation keeps both, while compressing the narrative into a tight, filler-free arc.
Cast: veterans meet newcomers
| Actor | Role | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Yum Jung-ah | Kim Se-hee | First full-blown villain since SKY Castle; early script-reading reports call her performance “chilling.” |
| Won Jin-ah | Kim Ah-hyun | Taking on her first lead-role action thriller after melodramas like Hellbound 2. |
| Choi Young-joon | Woo Tae-sik | Scene-stealing character actor (Hospital Playlist) as the insider who smuggles kids out. |
| Dex (Kim Jin-young) | Jung Hyun | Variety-show breakout (Single’s Inferno) makes a high-profile scripted debut as Se-hee’s human weapon. |
Expect Yum Jung-ah’s gravitas to collide with Dex’s raw physicality, while Won Jin-ah anchors the moral core.
The creative brains
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Director Oh Gi-hwan (Fashion King, More Than Blue): known for stylised melodrama and kinetic set-pieces.
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Writer Ahn So-jung: praised for meticulous character work in cable mini-series.
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Production: Group Eight joins Takeone Studio under KT Studio Genie planning, a team fresh off hits like Crash and Your Honor.
Broadcast plan & episode format
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Run: 8 episodes × ~80 minutes
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Slot: Mondays & Tuesdays, 22:00–23:20 KST on ENA
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Streaming (Korea): Genie TV VOD drops immediately after linear air.
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Global streaming: ENA and KT Studio Genie have not named an overseas partner yet, but industry chatter points to Rakuten Viki or Amazon Prime’s Asia hub.
The short order all but guarantees a thriller rhythm: zero time for side-stories, every cliff-hanger landing on a school night.
If you liked the moral murk of Juvenile Justice or the revenge-family energy of Move to Heaven, put 21 July in your diary. The Defects promises bone-crunching hand-to-hand combat, social critique that hurts, and a found-family fight that might leave the good guys bloodied as well. Cable K-dramas rarely dare to be this bleak — which is exactly why summer TV could get very interesting.
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