When Does Pinocchio Season 2 Come Out? Is It Renewed?

What is Pinocchio about?

Pinocchio transplants the famous nose-growing fable into a South Korean newsroom, where two reporters with opposite starting points converge on the same question: whether truth-telling actually matters in a broken system. Park Shin-hye plays In-ha, a woman desperate to become a respected journalist like her mother, while Lee Jong-suk plays Dal-po, who enters journalism specifically to expose lies and hold power accountable. Their collision at a broadcasting company becomes the engine for a show that takes itself seriously when it needs to and steps back with self-aware humor when the melodrama threatens to tip over.

The series sits in that particular tonal space where South Korean drama excels: it treats journalism as genuinely high-stakes work without losing sight of the smaller, domestic conflicts that make characters matter. In-ha and Dal-po's professional rivalry has real teeth because their personal history complicates every confrontation. The show knows when to milk a scene for emotional weight and when to let a moment be lighter, which keeps the pacing from feeling like slog even across twenty episodes. What works best is how the Pinocchio conceit serves the story rather than dominating it. The lying metaphor feels earned because the characters are constantly choosing between exposure and protection, between reputation and conscience.

Audiences warmed to it considerably, and the chemistry between its leads clearly resonated. The show landed well enough on IMDb to suggest it found its crowd, though it remains more familiar to K-drama enthusiasts than casual viewers. Critics appreciated that it attempted something thematically coherent without getting lost in its own symbolism. There's a gentleness to how it handles In-ha's arc that prevents the show from becoming cynical, even when its characters behave badly.

What distinguishes Pinocchio from other workplace dramas is its willingness to let incompetence and self-interest drive plot just as much as villainy. The broadcasting world it depicts is not evil so much as compromised, full of people trying to survive and occasionally doing good in the process. That feels closer to how institutions actually function than most television pretends to acknowledge.

Created by Jo Soo-won

Is Pinocchio renewed or cancelled?

Why did Pinocchio end?

Pinocchio wrapped after a single 20-episode season on South Korea's SBS network, concluding what appears to have been planned as a finite story rather than an open-ended series. The show had strong critical reception with an 8.1 IMDb rating and developed a solid audience during its two-month run from November 2014 through January 2015. Korean drama series, particularly those on terrestrial networks like SBS, often operate on a predetermined episode count designed to tell a complete narrative arc without the expectation of renewal, and Pinocchio fit that model cleanly.

The drama's structure and pacing suggest the creative team had a destination in mind from the start. With 20 episodes delivered across a tight broadcast schedule, the series had room to develop its mystery-driven plot involving journalism and truth-telling without the narrative strain that comes from uncertain renewal or the need to pad out additional seasons. This approach, common in Korean television, allows writers to pace their story confidently rather than negotiate the uncertainty that Western networks often impose on shows with modest viewership numbers.

Pinocchio Season 2 Release Date

Best & worst episodes

Pinocchio seasons

Pinocchio trailer

Where to watch Pinocchio

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