Why Are We Fighting Our Worthlessness? Discover the Deep Questions in JTBC’s New Drama ‘모자무싸’

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JTBC’s “Everyone Is Fighting Their Own Worthlessness” has released its third teaser, a haunting look at people driven to the edge by their battles with self-doubt and worthlessness.

JTBC’s new weekend drama “Everyone Is Fighting Their Own Worthlessness” (hereafter “Everyone Is Fighting Their Own Worthlessness”) follows a man who, outpaced by his more successful friends, succumbs to jealousy and desperation as he searches for peace. The third teaser, released March 31, opens with Hwang Dong-man (Koo Kyo-hwan) asking a fundamental question: “Why do we live like we’ll never disappear, yet have to suffer so much?” That line lands like a dagger, cutting to the heart of characters waging private wars against their own sense of insignificance.

The confession from Hwang Dong-man — a career-long aspiring director who never made his debut while his peers succeeded — is quietly devastating. When his older brother Hwang Jin-man (Park Hae-joon) presses him with, “Is success what you want?” Dong-man swallows tears and answers, “Not to feel anxious. I just want to stop being anxious.” It’s a moment that privileges comfort over grand achievement and reflects a familiar, modern yearning for stability. Even Hwang Jin-man, who appears to prod his brother toward success, has hit the limits of his own abilities and quietly drowns his feelings of worthlessness at the bottom of a drink.

Byun Eun-ah (Go Yoon-jung), a planning PD at Choi Film, manifests her pain in physical symptoms. “When I feel abandoned, my whole body aches and I get nosebleeds,” she confesses, and as she wipes the blood away she appears fragile. When CEO Choi Dong-hyun (Choi Won-young) cruelly tosses a script onto a desk, shouting, “Throw it away!” the scene seems to mirror her own collapse.

Even those who seem to be on glamorous upward trajectories are not immune. Five-time director Park Kyung-se (Oh Jung-se) keeps hearing, “Your debut was your best.” His bitter outcry — “Why is everyone pitying Hwang Dong-man and not me?” — exposes a man desperate not to be trapped by past success and cast down from the top. Go Hye-jin (Kang Mal-geum), who runs Gobaek Film and has supported her husband Park Kyung-se’s career, spends sleepless nights telling herself, “I’m sorry I ruined it,” a self-reproach that underscores the private toll of public ambitions.

As the elder statesman and moral touchstone of a renowned film circle, director Park Young-soo (Jeon Bae-soo) admits, “What right does someone without talent have to enter this business?” — a line that lays bare his loneliness in an industry that prizes innate gifts. Even once-imperious star Jang Mi-ran (Han Sun-hwa), who used to pose proudly under flashbulbs, is shown quietly wiping away tears. When these characters say, “We’re all pitiable,” their lament becomes more than self-pity; it resonates as a shared reflection of how many people flounder in the quicksand of perceived worthlessness.

Hwang Dong-man resists a world that forces everyone to “run like their lives depend on it,” arguing, “If you run like that every day, you’ll actually die.” He doesn’t ask for fame — only to make one decent film to chip away at his own sense of insignificance. That modest, heartfelt wish transforms the series into a rallying cry for ordinary people who fight daily to prove their value — a hopeful green light for those stuck at a halt by feelings of worthlessness.

Writer Park Hae-young, known for turning life’s lowest emotions into luminous prose, teams with director Cha Young-hoon, whose warm humanism captures extraordinary solidarity among ordinary people. Centered on anxiety, a universal contemporary emotion, the show has emerged as one of the most anticipated releases of the first half of 2026 — a series promising to flip the red signal of worthlessness into a green light for those stalled in place. JTBC will premiere the series on Saturday, April 18, at 10:40 p.m.

Lee So-jung, TenAsia reporter