Yay!! Thanks a lot! Excited!

podcaaaaaaaaaaasssssttttt been waiting for this for so long!

Do I hear a bit of an aussie accent perhaps?

Thanks for the Podcast.

Secret Love Affair - People tend to focus on the affair between Oh Hye-Won and Lee Sun-Jae, but for me – it was the music, artistic look/feel, and styling of the drama that was most memorable. How beautiful and heartbreaking the language of music can be as a form of communication between people. Music knowledge and music literacy was weaved into the drama’s storyline. Musical instruments whether front and center or in the background were always on display in the drama. What a welcome sight to see - the main lead actor and actress showcasing their real life talents and accomplishments playing the piano.

Golden Cross - Intense, thrilling, and riveting melodrama until around episode 15 or 16. Jung Bo-Suk's character Seo Dong-Ha was a sight to behold from the beginning till the very end. Kim Kang-Woo's Taekwondo moves, action sequences, and high kicks were always fun to gaze at.

A New Leaf - Different in that it was intellectually appealing and the amnesia trope was definitely not cliché. Disappointed about the episode count being reduced from 18 to 16 episodes. Great performances from Kim Myung-Min and Kim Sang-Joong. Fond of the bromance between Park Sang-Tae & Kim Seok-Joo. The strained father & son relationship of Kim Shin-Il and Kim Seok-Joo was compelling.

Doctor Stranger (aka Doctor WTF) - 20 hours wasted and not worth it...Just avoid this drama! It's unfortunate that Lee Jong-Suk, Park Hae-Jin, and Kang So-Ra will forever have this drama on their resume.

Instead just spend the time watching Heartless City (aka Cruel City). This is a worthwhile and memorable 20 episode drama about a Doctor (aka The Doctor’s Son/Baksa Adeul/Jung Shi-Hyun) forging his way through life and its hardships while embedded in the midst of undercover agents.

You’re All Surrounded - Glad I watched it although the writing was weak in some areas and it didn't take full advantage of its cast. Lee Seung-Gi, Cha Seung-Won, and Seo Yi-Sook had the most memorable and emotionally layered characters. Regrettably, Oh Yoon-Ah's character was under-developed.

Jin Se-Yeon - Thank you Javabeans & GirlFriday for your comments. Nice to know others recognize and share similar opinions about how important acting, casting, and writing is to a drama.

You briefly touched upon recent villains, for the next podcast I would like to request a shout-out to Daniel Choi for his awesome acting as the villian Kang Dong-Seok in Big Man.

Finally, new podcast!!! Love to see it back...
Anyway do you guys have any plan to talk about Empress Ki?? The show never even mentioned here (unless in news).
Anyway thanks for the podcast!

Let's me echo the shouts of Yay!!! for a new podcast. A great way to spend part of my weekend is to listen to your thoughts on the various dramas. Happy to hear that another one is soon to follow. Double yay!! Thank you!!

Yeesh. Yeah, Jin Se-yeon needs to stop landing leads. Wtheck, Productions. She is AWFUL at acting. I cut her some slack in "Gaksital" because it was here first outing as a lead (and she wasn't a noona to Joo-won, lol), but time and projects have shown she is a terrible actor and should stop landing roles, especially leads. Eck. She seriously brought the crashing plane that was "Doctor Stranger" down faster than it was falling.

And seriously, Lee Jong-seok came out with scratches. His performance knocked him down on my Actors I Think Are Really Good list. Noooo. Also, since "Doctor" and "High School King of Savvy" was airing at the same time, I finally checked out "No Breathing", and Seo In-gook outshined Lee Jong-seok BY FAR. I get that Lee Jong-seok's character in "No Breathing" was more mellow and tamed, but uhh, yeah... check it out yourselves. Ha. I know in an interview Lee Jong-seok had noted Joo-won's performance in "Good Doctor" as a sort of inspiration to be a better actor (part of the reason I, personally, think he took up "Doctor" because of its interesting premise and genre as a spy/medical drama), but he couldn't really manage as well as I'd hoped he would. I know it was largely because of the insanity of the script and his terrible leading counterpart, but also because he just couldn't quite make me root for his character or even Lee Jong-seok as Hoon. Sad! Please pick a better project with a better leading lady and own the role, Lee Jong-seok! I still really like you! Lol.

The next podcast should be good. There are dramas I'm following now that I'm actually enjoying and think are written well. Ha.

Thanks for the pod cast guys, I always enjoy hearing from both of you! I think most of the dramas since YFAS has sucked big time - at least to me. There are some that are decent/good-ish like YAAS, FTLY and Gap-dong but mostly everything has been so bad its puling me out of my kdrama addiction.

The thing about dramas for me is that it needs to have heart, whether or not the writing and acting sucks. I can be perfectly in love with a badly written ones as long as they hook me emotionally. Nothing has been able to do that recently so I'm doing a marathon of older dramas I haven't seen instead.

But just to comment on Dr. Stranger - I can't believe how bad it got; and I was just reading recaps. I'm not sure what the writer was aiming for but whatever it was, he/she gave up half way through. It's a pity because other than JSY, this one initially looked like it had a good cast with likeable actors. I never quite got on the LJS ship, but now I'm not even going to try and like him. He was forgettable and at points overacted in trying to sell his character's emotions. I'm sure it has a lot to do with the writing, but I felt everyone didn't do well with their roles. Even PHJ - who was my favourite guy in YFAS - felt slightly out of touch.

I'm just hoping we have a better second half from here on. There isn't one drama I'm really looking forward to with Night Watchman looking like a doozy and Nodame looking like a hot mess before it even starts. There isn't even a Hong Sisters drama to save my year. /sigh

I'm going camping and it takes an hour to get to the campsite so thank you for this! I totally agree about Jin Se Yeon. I don't know. There's something about her that I don't like. Even in Running Man where she doesn't need to act, she's still not likeable to me.

Spinach made Witch's Romance extra great to watch. I didn't expect to enjoy it too, actually. The chemistry between Uhm Jung Hwa and Park Seo Joon totally carried the show.

What a relief that I didn't watch Gapdong and Doctor Stranger!

So I take it that you're not watching Yoona's street? I'm only in episode 3 right now and I quite like it. I just can't share my feels with anyone. ><

Looking forward to the next podcast!!

Secret Love Affair - Sadly I am old enough to know how difficult it is to break out of the cage that is one's life b/c no matter how stifling it is, it also feels the only safety one knows. I feel that this drama has shown the fierce struggle of a woman to break free and eve though at times it was suffocatingly slow, finally when she looked up at the sky with a faint smile, the huge sense of liberation I felt .... One of the best dramas this year IMHO.

Kim Myung Min - I have not seen every drama and movie KMN has been in. But there was this old drama called "More Beautiful Than a Flower" (꽃보다 아름다워) penned by No Hee Kyoung in which he played star crossed lovers with Han Go Eun. The best No Hee Kyoung drama I've ever watched and the romance between them is poignant.

People often work their ways from the bottom to the top but for whatever reasons Jin Se Yeon works her way from the top to the bottom. #JUSTSAYING

Thanks for the podcast gals!

I just realized that Jin Seyeon was in MBC's sageuk The Duo. She played the teenage version on Han Ji Hye's character.. But she looks different last time... Something about her look, probably because she was like 16 or 17 at that time, saw her earlier clips and her appearance in Taxi with the other teenage stars, I think that she had a job done..

It's not a major one, I believe only a minor double eyelids operation.. It makes her eyes bigger...

Yay, a new podcast!!!! :')

In the past I was willing to cut Jin Se Yeon some slack because she's young and relatively inexperienced. In Bridal Mask she was already showing her limitations, but I put that down to flat writing for her character. But in Inspiring Generation and DS she hasn't showed any improvement - rather, I think she's got worse. She's completely unconvincing in emotional scenes + unfortunately she has no screen presence/charm to make up for her lack of actual skill. There are far more talented young actresses around who could have played these roles better than her imo.

Luckily for me she's good at picking bad projects, so hopefully I won't see much of her in the future.

I thought apart from Wild Chives and Soybean Soup, jtbc have been doing really well with their programming this year. Especially with their Mon/Tues shows, which have been grabbing higher ratings than tvn's. I totally agree with you about them carving out a niche for themselves - I wish they'd be a bit daring too, actually. But I generally love the stuff they put out - their shows are more realistic and hyperactive than the ones you get on the big 3, less about instant viewer gratification and more about actually telling a story about people that feel real. They do have duds too - the handbag drama was absolutely dreadful, lol. Her Legend, I think?

But yeah, keep doing what you're doing, jtbc. I love Yoona's Street!!

Aside from the fact that I think JSY is boring (see RM), her character in Dr. Stranger wasn't likable for me from the time she reappeared in Hoon's life for the same reasons GF said. Jae-hee was fine, but Seung-hee is hateful. I didn't like & trust her so it was disappointing that Hoon trusted her when there was Sora's character who was better (initially). The show has lots of things not going for it plotwise so I thought that rooting for Hoon and Soo-hyun and the possibility of them getting together in the end would've at least made me continue watching it. I feel bad for my favorite director because he's really good but no matter how good he is,the writing killed his efforts. It's not the most disappointing show for me though since I didn't get to finish it and my engagement fizzled early on.

The Taiwanese version of Witch's Romance did a much better with the relationship issues due to age difference in the later half and I loved it as a noona romance but the first half of Witch's Romance was more enjoyable for me. They're both good in their own rights and I think where one succeeded the other faltered and vice versa.

A little harsh on Dr. Stranger?

Can a drama be fun and interesting, and not necessarily be 100% coherent? Unlike (what seems to be) everyone else, I never got caught up with details and the plot points that seem to have caught up with the drama.

For the record, I watched it over the course of 3 straight nights, between about 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., and maybe I didn't have enough time or sleep to parse and analyze the drama as well as others.

But at the same time, I found the story lines to be strong enough and linear enough. There are three stories, intertwined.

1. The main story of the boy turned doctor, who is seeking to hold onto the only things that matter to him: his doctor-ship, his love and his mom.

2. A secondary story of the main foil is one of pure revenge, about a boy who lost his parents and is seeking to bring pain down about the ones he deems responsible.

3. The third story is political, and deals with the decades of internecine Korean politics - the rise of a politician naked in his ambition to rule.

Those are the stories, and each story taken separately makes sense.

I would not say that it is 100% logical, but rare is the show where logic rules the day. Every movie every made has continuity issues and questions like "If Aragorn always had an unbeatable ghost army at his beck and call, why couldn't he just unleash that army about a few weeks earlier and just beat Mordor without losing a single non-ghost life?" But nobody complains about that, so why should I let that bother my enjoyment of the movie?

The biggest thorn in most people's sides appears to be the character of Jae Hee/Seung Hee, who waffles like she was created at IHOP. But she was not critical to the story - her existence was critical (see story line #1), but she herself was not. In other words, it mattered not whether she was a NK spy doppleganger, the best anathesiologist in SK, Song Jae Hee, Han Seung Hee, or whatever. Whatever she was, Park Hoon was willing to accept her. And since Park Hoon was willing to accept her, then I am okay with whatever she was planning on being in a particular episode.

Anyway, I'm happy to sing Dr. Stranger's praises. It was good enough that it kept me going for 3 straight nights, despite the wife+3 kids and a heavy workload that is and always will be ongoing. That's gotta stand for something - maybe the drama isn't as bad as people think it is.

I wonder whether people get this idea that a particular drama or two is fashionable to bash, and then it is a free-for-all on who can score the most points. While the mirth factor is certainly evident in the snark, I am always wondering whether the snark is a really a cover for a lack of quiet contemplation that might lead people to discover that maybe one can watch dramas with the heart rather than the brain, and the world won't end. Obviously, I am not speaking about JB or GF (as we have had that conversation more than few times and I...

i love Cha Seung Won

Wow. I have to say I am not at all on the same page about Secret Love Affair, and honestly disappointed at the way you girls wrote it off..

I am not into cougar/love affair/older-woman-younger-man stories, but this is not what this drama is about. It's more of the journey and internal struggles of the female lead who essentially experienced a mid-life conscience break, where she gets the chance to look back at her adult life and tried to figure out what she really wanted and how she would live out the rest of her life. It just so happens that the trigger of it all was through this not so legit/moral love affair.. And the masterful use of classical music was front and center and the show made no apologies about bringing that to the audience in each and every one of the episodes and it was really a integral part of the experience.

It was masterfully directed, very well acted and the story was cohesive and logical without any trace of the over-the-top staging. Loved this show and for me, it sits at the top amongst all the best k-drama shows.