Circle (TV series)


Circle is a 2017 South Korean science fiction television series starring Yeo Jin-goo, Kim Kang-woo, Gong Seung-yeon, and Lee Gi-kwang. The series features two parallel plots set in the years 2017 and 2037, both centered on a twin brothers' struggle with the discovery and development of an advanced alien technology that could either be a boon or bane for the entire humanity.
It aired on tvN for 12 episodes at 23:00 KST on Mondays and Tuesdays from May 22 to June 27, 2017.

Synopsis

In the year 2007, before the main events of the drama, 11-year-old fraternal twin brothers Kim Woo-jin and Kim Bum-gyun, along with their neuroscientist father Dr. Kim Kyu-chul, witness the arrival of a female humanoid alien. Out of pity and curiosity, the family brings the alien with them and adopts her like a real member of the family. The twins become fond with her, especially the younger twin Woo-jin who names her Byul. By chance, Dr. Kim discovers Byul's secret: she had brought with her an advanced form of technology that can record, and even lock, memories and convert them into video. In order to closely study this alien technology, Dr. Kim isolates himself from his family to work secretly on Byul in what he calls the "Beta Project." Dr. Kim never went back home since then, making the elder twin Bum-gyun think Byul has taken their father captive, though Woo-jin believes their father has abandoned them.
In 2017, Woo-jin, now a 21-year-old college student in neuroscience, notices that a series of suicides in his university is somehow linked to Bum-gyun, who is already in a mad search for aliens, particularly Byul. While in pursuit of the case, he meets Han Jung-yeon, a computer science student who, to his great shock, looks very much like Byul. She is also investigating the multiple suicides, all of which she thinks are actually murder.
In 2037, South Korea is now divided into Normal Earth, a heavily polluted place where crimes are rampant, and Smart Earth, a clean, peaceful, and crime-free city. Kim Joon-hyuk is a Normal Earth crimes detective who tries to get into Smart Earth to investigate a case of twin brothers who went missing in 2017. In doing so, he starts to uncover the dark truth lurking behind Smart Earth being “crime-free.”
Each episode of the drama, except the last, contains two parts: Part 1: Beta Project, which contains the plot set in 2017, and Part 2: A Great New World, which contains the plot set in 2037. The two plots merge in the twelfth and final episode of the series, titled Circle: One World.

Cast

Main

Part 1: ''Beta Project''

People around Woo-jin
Normal Earth people

Part 1

Part 2

Ratings

In this table, the represent the lowest ratings and the represent the highest ratings.

International broadcast