"Lee Jun-ho as a cash-powered superhero is a genuinely fun concept — the drama just needed to trust it more."
A superhero KDrama with a clever premise and an ensemble it does not quite know what to do with.
Cashero has an idea that should not work as well as it does: a government employee whose superpower literally runs on cash, draining his wallet every time he uses it. It is absurd. It is also, for the first half of the drama, a surprisingly effective way to explore what it means to be ordinary in a world that suddenly requires extraordinary things from you. The second half is where it starts losing the thread.
The Synopsis
Kang Sang Ung is a cash-strapped community center employee who inherits a family legacy of supernatural power — his strength and abilities scale directly with how much physical cash he has on hand. Every time he fights, his wallet empties. He is pulled into a world of hidden abilities and underground organizations alongside Byeon Ho In, a lawyer who can phase through walls when drunk, and Bang Eun Mi, a telekinetic powered by binge eating. Together, they try to protect ordinary people’s ordinary lives from forces that want to destabilize everything.
The Cast
Lee Jun-ho (Kang Sang Ung): He is charming and physically committed to the role, and the character works best when the drama allows him to be genuinely flustered by his own limitations rather than framing those limitations as endearing quirks. Lee Jun-ho is one of those actors who can make you root for someone even when the writing is not helping much.
Kim Hye-jun (Kim Min Suk): The girlfriend role is written in a way that does not give her much to work with, which is a problem because Kim Hye-jun has the ability to do a lot more than the script asks of her. There are flashes of a more interesting character in there — the scene where she secretly slips money into his wallet to test his strength is a small, well-observed moment — but they are too rare.
What Works
The misfit ensemble — a drunk wall-phaser and a binge-eating telekinetic — gives the drama its best comic energy. When Cashero leans into the absurdity of its premise and lets these three characters exist together in a scene, it is genuinely fun. The action sequences are well-staged for a comedy-adjacent drama, and the eight-episode format keeps it from overstaying its welcome.
Where It Loses Ground
The ensemble characters are underused. For a drama that introduces a wall-phaser and a calorie-powered telekinetic, it spends surprisingly little time developing either of them. The final episode also tries to do too much too fast, and the time-loop element that surfaces late feels like it belongs in a different show entirely.
Final Thoughts
Cashero is an imperfect drama that is still a reasonable watch, especially if you go in for Lee Jun-ho specifically. The premise is more interesting than most superhero KDramas manage, and when the show is comfortable with its own silliness it has real energy. It just does not fully trust itself, and the final act shows it.
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