THE MBN TV show I am a natural is a popular nature documentary that started airing in Aug. 22, 2012. The show has now aired more than 440 episodes and has an average viewer rating of 5%. According to Hanguk Gyungjae, it is one of the most popular culture programs on Korean broadcast. The show strives for “escapism,” the experience of finding distraction and relief from the unpleasant reality [1]. I am a natural introduces its audience to different naturalists who each pursue a unique lifestyle in nature. The show has two comedians, Lee Seung-yoon and Yoon Taek, as its hosts, visiting different naturalists around Korea. Each episode features the hosts interacting with a naturalist and trying out their lifestyle for a day. On the official MBN website, the show claims that its purpose is to “provide healing and genuineness happiness coming from living in nature” for busy urban citizens. Through the process of healing in nature and learning about the individuals and their lifestyles, I am a natural offers its viewers a sense of escapism into the peculiar world of the naturalists.

There is more to living in the wild than simple survival

   The show introduces the naturalists as individuals who not only survive in nature but as people who know how to live their lives to the fullest by enjoying quality leisure time. In one of the episodes, Host Lee Seung-yoon hikes up a mountain to find naturalist Jung Gwi-hwan napping in a cave in the middle of nowhere. After getting to know each other, the host introduces his main living area and demonstrates how he had fixed his broken water system by connecting the hoses inserted in a small water stream. He also introduces his hobbies such as meditating in the stream and playing the Dae-geum [2] in the middle of the forest. In fact, a big portion of the show is dedicated to showing how individuals spend their time fruitfully enjoying, crafting, and creating in the wild. By introducing some of the unique hobbies they have acquired while living in nature, the show strives to convey the fact that there are multiple aspects to the naturalists’ lives other than survival. 

   Naturalists are capable of building their own homes, and many of them find their own sources of clean water, fire, and food. Jung shows how he had creatively expressed and applied his knowledge of engineering to improve the quality of his life by, for instance, using solar energy to gather sufficient power to operate a fan—portraying survival as a form of art rather than a tedious task. There is a certain charisma to how the naturalists are able to skillfully and artfully enjoy their lives in nature, inspiring the audience with their confidence and contentment toward their unique lifestyle. 

The deeper contexts behind the naturalist lifestyle

   In order to create an emotional connection between the audience and the naturalist, I am a natural displays background stories of how each naturalist came to live in nature. Jung, for example, shares that he was a student who studied engineering and was hired by Samsung to work for their export team. In Samsung, he spent most of his time going through paperwork, which made him constantly feel confined and unhappy. After he had quit his job at the company, Jung successfully established his own academy, only to lose everything he had due to poor investment choices. By listening to the individuals’ stories and the reasons why they chose to pursue this lifestyle, the audience is not only able to find a deeper meaning in their decision to live away from society but is also able to relate with what the naturalist is going through. Seeing how the naturalists dealt with societal challenges—challenges that mirror the viewers’ own obstacles in society—by escaping to nature, the audiences are encouraged to imagine a scenario in which they abandon all responsibilities that weigh them down to live in the wilderness. Indulging such thoughts provide a way for the audiences to escape their own stressful reality. 

   The main demographic of the show’s audience consists of middle-aged Korean men [3]. Perhaps it’s because middle-aged Korean men—individuals who have been trapped within Korea’s restless workforce—are fed up with society’s workaholic mindset and want to take a break from the stressful cycle. 58-year-old businessman Kim says, “I sometimes like to imagine myself as living just like the naturalist on the show when I retire and leave the city. I want to live in a rural area just like him.” Although the naturalist’s lifestyle is not considered “ideal” by everyone, many of the show’s audiences feel a certain sense of yearning towards abandoning their social responsibilities to pursue the same care-free lifestyle in nature. This, in fact, is the show’s very intent; they aim to introduce the unfamiliar yet comforting notion of a place untainted by our modern society, thereby inviting its audience to live vicariously through the naturalists.

What does the show achieve?

   The audience who watches the show would be able to compare themselves to the naturalists, being that they are around the same age as the main demographic of the show. I am a natural provides the audiences nearing their retirement period with a possible idea of what it would be like to finally have freedom and start crafting their new, post-retirement life, much like what the naturalists have done in leaving their “old lives” to create a new one in nature. Each episode features a careful balance of both entertaining and reflective moments. But by trying to sincerely understand its subjects, the show treats their tumultuous and often tragic backstories with the kind of empathy they were withheld in their previous life in the city. Ultimately, the show’s biggest achievement is not just that it provides moments of respite for its audience, but that it validates the experiences of those whom modern Korea abandoned. The pure and raw illustration of the creative, emotional, and tranquil aspects of naturalists’ lives come together to build an alternate universe that the audience can indulge in to escape their own mundane lives. 

[1] Oxford Languages

[2] Daegeum: a large transverse bamboo flute with a distinctive sound, widely used in Korean music (Britannica)

[3] Hanguk Gyeonjae