Memories of the Alhambra: We knew, going in, there would be lots of unanswered questions given writer Song Jae Jung's track record, but "why was Jin Woo a bug?" is not one of them. I loved how Se Joo so casually said, "Every time Emma sees a bug, I made her stab it in the heart and kill it." Emma was badass. I teared up when they showed Secretary Seo's ranking in Episode 14:

RANKING LEVEL ID LAST PLAYED
No.4 Lv.50 City Hunter 3 weeks ago

SKY Castle: Episode 18: I cried when Jjin Jjin cried upon seeing Woo Joo in jail. When Han Seo Jin asked, "Ye Seo-ah, can you give these up?" I thought she was asking Ye Seo TO give these up and go confess together. She keeps reiterating "just one more semester," "only the first semester," but poor Woo Joo can't last one semester. Is there any way Professor Cha can salvage his marriage? I don't want the twins' parents to get a divorce. I think Se Ri's character turned out the opposite of what the writers expected. The writers expected viewers to love her because Se Ri is anti-her dad and stands up for what she believes in, but the majority of viewers hate her because she has no right to act this way. So Teacher Jo was in it for the money all along.

Sky Castle is amazing! Sending offerings to the drama gods that it ends well!
Finished MOA and decided it was a happy ending mostly cause Jin Woo and the game, the real OTP ended up together.
Today I realized that the beanie influence is a scary thing. Even though I loath zombies and horror, I almost started watching Kingdom!!! I'm a total chicken! The last "scary" movie I watched was World War Z. My friends didn't tell me it was a zombie movie so I was stressed for 2 hours! It wasn't even that good! I'm so tempted to watch Kingdom but I like peace of mind... but y'all make it sound so good! Someone please tell me it sucks and is not worth my time!

*Liver or Die* - 5/10 - Honestly I'm close to dropping this one, it's bordering on dropping below average at this point. They keep introducing more despicable people, while simultaneously making all the siblings worse people. That being said it does manage to tug at my heartstrings every now and then. Jeon Hye-Bin and Lee Si-Young's characters are what's keeping me coming back.

*Clean with a Passion for Now* - 7/10 - Still really enjoying. It's not a show I'm going to scream from the heavens that everyone must watch, but if you're in the mood for a fun rom com, it fits the bill. The two leads have great chemistry.

*The Crowned Clown* - 7/10 - I'm glad they're bringing the King back so soon. The cliche palace politics honestly drag down the show a bit, despite the strong performances from all involved. Dropped the score a bit this week because of that. Excited for the coming conflicts though.

*My Strange Hero* - 7/10 - I admit, I kind of wanted Se-Ho to have some antihero master plan (which I suppose could still happen) but seeing his confrontations with his mother just broke me. Especially the last one in the gym.

*Sky Castle* - 9/10 - All caught up, and just in time to only get one episode this week. The wait was already so hard, but with one episode to go, I'm chomping at the bit. Watch. This. Show.

*Kingdom* - 8/10 - I was REALLY looking forward to this one, and it honestly didn't disappoint. The only bad thing is where they end it, and that I want MORE and the wait is going to be brutal. I'm growing to like each of the characters, and want to spend more time with them. The basic concept is just phenomenal though, zombies without high tech modern weaponry to fight them/communicate is just way more tense in an already freaky situation.

*Romance is a Bonus Book* - 8/10 - I'm all the way in. The leads seem to have a solid chemistry and it's a bonus that one of the leads is a (now) single mother. Though it seems they plan to keep her child out of the picture for now. Lee Jong-Suk honestly picks really good projects(most of the time) so my hopes are high already.

*Best Chicken* - 6/10 - It's above average. The overall conflict is a bit on the weak side, but the main cast is really charming.

*Spring Turns to Spring* - 5/10 - Average. Body swapping is a trope for a reason, and it can be fun when it's done right. The characters are a bit too over the top for me though. I only managed to get through the first episode, and haven't had the willpower to try the second. I love Lee Yu-Ri, but I haven't found a drama she's in (besides Father is Strange) that I've enjoyed.

Kingdom! OH MO OH OH OH! So good. But yes there's only 6 episodes and then ... we're waiting for season 2.

But so much to love! You'll definitely see many drama faves along with Bae Doona. Our dashing prince is none other than JOON JI HOON. ... actually I probably don't need to name any supporting actors now.

The Good.

Crowned Clown. This show continues to fascinate me. I don't know much about Korean history (I research when I watch historical dramas), and knew very little about the historical figure who is the basis for the king when I started watching, although this doppelganger-substitute seems to be a popular theme in Asian dramas (My first exposure to the concept was Akira Kurosawa's fabulous award winning 1980s film, "Kagemusha"), and doesn't appear to have any factual basis. The acting is excellent, and I honestly have no idea how this story will be resolved, but I can't wait to find out. (Question: was the Queen also married to or a concubine to the former king? Is she supposed to be older than King Lee-Heon? Because the actress looks to be visibly and significantly older than Yeo Jin Goo).

My Strange Hero. While it's far from perfect - the storyline is somewhat thin - I am all about character development when I read a novel or watch a TV series, and this show delivers the goods for me. I am, once again, charmed by Yoo Seung-ho. Just watching his adorable cuteness makes me feel happy, and I find myself inevitably tearing up anytime his big brown puppy-dog eyes fill with tears. (I would love to see him in something other than a romcom, which is not my favorite genre, but Kdramas are my escape these days, and I just can't watch the ones that end tragically, so for now I won't watch him in Remember). I also continue to be fascinated with Kwak Dong-yeon's portrayal of Se-ho. When KDY is on screen, it's hard to notice anything else. He broke my heart in Moonlight Drawn by Clouds (so far, with 2 of his dramas watched, Park Bo-gum has yet to draw a single tear from me, and I'm usually waterworks when I watch these dramas, but I was sobbing so hard I scared my cats while watching a particular scene at the end of MDBC, with a remarkable performance by KDY, and it was PBG’s best acting in the entire drama). It was just a wonderfully acted scene, and was far better than any scene with the OTP, IMO, although they were cute as buttons. KDY's character was my favorite, in a show where I loved all 4 of the main characters).

Ashes of Love. This is my second C-drama. (The first was a silly, really cheaply made drama, The Eternal Love, which I only continued watching because of the charming chemistry between the two leads. The costumes were SO BAD - one young prince wore some shiny-polyester hot pink robes with bright neon-yellow chicken down at the shoulders - hideous!!), but I didn't realize how cheap the costumes/sets were for a Cdrama until I watched Ashes of Love). I loved Ashes of Love. It was gorgeous to look at, the sets and costumes were amazing, I enjoyed the mythical story, and while the actor (Deng Lun) playing Phoenix/Fire Deity/Xu Feng isn't girlishly gorgeous like so many of the Korean actors are (I often think that it must be hard to be an actress in Korea, because the young men are so often literally prettier...

The Bad.
Boyfriend. This is by far the most disappointing serious drama I have watched, and I really ended up disliking it. The first episode was the high point, and it kind of went downhill from there, and crossed some irredeemable point around episode 10 or 11. I was disappointed in the story itself (it could have been so interesting if they had made PBG's character a true independent, fun loving, free spirited young man, but instead they did the "I fell in love with the boss before I knew it was the boss" thing, and that was the first mistake. (Why not make him a freelance photographer, like Gregory Peck's character in Roman Holiday, which was a theme in the drama? Give him some real autonomy, and make his character interesting, instead of some boring, good-two-shoes, totally unbelievable boy-man, who looked like a 12 year old during some of the scenes, especially when he was trying to look woebegone/sad/cry??) I hated the Evil Mother and Evil MIL tropes, and the ending for both characters was rushed and ridiculous, with no satisfying or believable resolution. I hated the way Jin-hyek's mother was portrayed, and the entire "please dump my son, oh no, I'm sorry, take him back because he's so sad now" storyline was just STUPID. The two actors had zero chemistry, the dialogue was the absolute worst in any supposedly high quality drama I've watched (stilted, unnatural, devoid of any content other than “look how romantic, arty and deep we are!”), and the acting was mediocre to poor. Maybe she’s a great actress, but Song Hye-kyo was practically comatose when she was on screen. I never, at any time, forgot I was watching two actors delivering lines from a screenplay, and following an off-screen director’s directions. The literary allusions were the most awkward I've seen in a drama, and regularly popped up like clumsily inserted, mandatory product placements. I was embarrassed for the writer. And the story - ugh. I actually was rolling my eyes at so many of the OTP’s scenes – as an example, the "let’s have a date at the bookstore!" scene, which was so obviously inserted as an excuse for another "product placement" literary scene. (As an avid reader, I have often ended up at a book store with a boyfriend. But it was when we were out on a weekend, having breakfast or lunch, and wandering around downtown, and spontaneously decided to go in the store. Who can pass by a store like Seattle’s Elliot Bay Book Company without going in??). Also, for the first time in my Kdrama watching history, I didn't shed one single tear (the emotional manipulation was too blatant, the couple and story too unbelievable), I could not care less what happened to the OTP, and (because I generally pick what I hope are top quality dramas based on reviews) actually skipped scenes and/or found my attention wandering as I was watching. My overall impression is that if not for the fame/popularity/attractiveness of the two lead actors, no one would have...

The Ugly.
Strong Woman Do Bong-soon. So, who exactly determines the ratings of Kdramas anyway? I had heard so much about this drama, and saw that it had something like a 9.7 on Viki, that – although romcoms are far from my favorite - while dithering about what to watch last week, I decided to give it a try. OMG, what total DRECK. Worst. Kdrama. Ever. (Or, to be more accurate, worst that I have watched in the last 7 months of spending every spare moment I have watching Kdramas!) I hated everything about it, but especially the disgusting, juvenile bathroom humor, and ridiculing/mocking gays as a punch line, which was unacceptable and offensive. But virtually everything was horrid, from the ridiculous premise, to the gangsters and school bullies side stories, to the "poop liquor," to the attempt to combine a dumb romcom with a scary, serial kidnapper/murderer plot that featured a lot of gratuitous, disturbing, sexualization of violence against helpless, attractive young women. Why anyone would watch this total garbage is beyond me (so I am once again back at the conclusion that the popularity of a Kdrama often has little to do with quality, and everything to do with how big a fanbase the pretty male lead has).
Now I need dramas to watch! Recs anyone? My top two dramas are Goblin and Because This is My First Life (so different, but I loved each of them SO MUCH). I also loved City Hunter (so sad I can’t watch it or Goblin on Viki), Healer, Legend of the Blue Sea, You From Another Star, Heal Me, Kill Me (DESPITE that super-annoying actress, who made me utterly incapable of watching She Was Pretty, another show with inexplicable popularity – but then, Park Seo-joon is in it, so . . . . I don’t MIND watching just for Teh Pretty, but at least I’m honest about it and don’t pretend it’s some top quality drama!), and most of Lee Jong-suk ‘s and Ji Chang-wook’s dramas. I had a hard time getting into, but ultimately ended up enjoying, What Happened to Secretary Kim and Oh My Venus, which were both light, entertaining fare, with the huge plus of the palpable on-screen chemistry of the OTPs, and the sizzling hotness of the male leads. Ha!

Currently Watching :
Clean W Passion for Now
My Strange Hero- glad I stuck with both of them even though I find neither exemplary, because we actually went places character wise this week. Woo!
The Crowned Clown- so far? Bloody brilliant. Pun... intended.
The Liar And His Lover- Still need to finish... -.- got sidetracked by WWWY18 and Memories of Alhambra ending and such.

To Start:
Kingdom- just. waiting. on finding. a watchable. version. still. sigh. what's another few days when I've waited two years.
Romance Is A Book
Tree With Deep Roots- I said I'd watch you this year so dammit watch you I WILL!

THE LAST EMPRESS- Love this show SO MUCH! I haven't been this excited about a show in a long time.

DEVILISH JOY- Meh.

MY ONLY ONE- Took a week off but will resume next week. This is my white noise drama. All of the mothers and sis in law annoy me, but not enough to hate them or stop watching the show.

HEALER- I'm 3 eps in and I'm liking it. I'm not obsessed, but I'm intrigued by the premise. I'm told that this show is magic so I'm gonna continue and hopefully I experience the magic.

Planning to check out ROMANCE IS A BONUS BOOK and KINGDOM. Let's see if they stick.

Like everyone around the world, last Sunday i completed Memories of Alhambra, i enjoyed the plot and Hyun Bin and a few supporting characters ie Secretary Seo, Min juu, halmoni, the NPCs and the game itself, and the OSTs are lovely and sweet candy to my ears. The ending left me hanging tho, and I am done putting enough crazy rants on my wall 🤣 MoA could get 10/10 but since the ending left me a froth in the mouth, overall i give it 6.5/10 (10/10 for the original idea and the RPG which was my diehard hobby for a decade when i got my first internet at home).

My (kdorama) current watching list:

Top Star Yoo Baek (im going to complete ep. 11 today) - i stay because the old folks of the island are too cute. and i hope for the 2nd lead's happy ending 🤣 6/10.

Sky Castle - the funny families keep me glued to the show. And the evil coach's scheme. 8/10

The Last Empress - nope, i dont high expectation. i still watch it just for the comedy 🤣🤣🤣 6/10

The Crowned Clown
My Lawyer Mr Jo 2
Spring Must Be Coming

To pick (after i finish some of the above):
Kingdom

Oh my, the last time I commented was back in November and at that time I was on ep 6 of Twelve Nights. I FINALLY finished that show last night and realized why I wasn’t in a rush to finish it. The relationship between the main leads ended up being so frustrating to watch with their wishy washyness that I was continually checking how much time was left before the episode was going to end.

The Last Empress: I am hooked on this show! I’m still a bit behind and need to catch up on the last 2 episodes that aired this week but man oh man... (don’t hate me) I am having a change of heart with Lee Hyuk’s character. Episodes 31-34 where he is starting to fall for Sunny and realizing how crazy his mom is is making me root for him to change for the good. SSR is such a good actor.. making me hate him one moment and cheering him on the next! I’ve read a bit about Wang Shik possibly having a sad ending and I hope that isn’t so. I really like the ridiculousness of this drama and I hope the writers give a happy ending!

Coffee Friends is still my choice of show when i need something to chill with (preferably with food). i do wish they'd buy a dishwasher to let them interact more with each other and the guests.. and give ho jun an electric milk frother ffs, poor guy's arm going numb from all the grinding and pumping (that sounds SO wrong omg) XD

Boyfriend

I only watched the last two episodes this week, and by the end of the week. What can I say??
It seems also nobody else is watching this?? By this time (Sunday morning) only three beanies have written something about this show, and I feel I have so much and so little to say at the first time!!!🙄🙄🙄🙄

What I liked:

- no exactly noble idiocy. I liked the fact that she was honest about why to break up with him, and he was soo honest about why not to let her go.
- open end for many characters. We had discussed this before, and I know many must be unsatisfied about it now, but if you really come to think of it... life carries on. You "end" up a relationship you have (with someone, with a story, with a job you had) but you don't get to know how other things and people involved come to and end as well... this drama had a lot of fairy tale allusions, but these open ends I actually feel they were very realistic, and they were nice open. The bad one in jail, Sh's dad also in jail, but happier... Dae chan and Secretary Jang kind of dating or at least being friends; driver nam and kim manager spending time together...
Jh's parents with their simple life... and so on... I think it was very realistic.

What I dislike:
- Sh's stubbornness on something that it didn't make much sense. She didn't even try to give JH's mother time, just like he asked her. But well, at least she apologized for that.
- JH kept on being an employee at Dongwha hotel. I know... he was good at it and had a great work team... And also, he was never interested in class, but I feel he could have been in a better position just working somewhere else. Or would people stop gossiping them just because his mother accepted Soo hyun at the end??
- the dialogues. Not that they were bad, but I felt them a little bit lazy at the end, in comparison with the past episodes.

Overall: I was satisfied with the end. It is hard to write a good end for a drama, and even more if the writing has been consistent until ep. 14. So, I was really happy that at least the writer kept the tone and the personalities of our leads. They remain faithful to themselves and that was a nice touch. The music, the melancholic tone, the simplicity... I liked that.
More spectacular display of passion, mackjang, actions, etc... would have been an exaggeration.
It sounds masochist but I liked that when they suffered, they suffered at the same time and they knew they were suffering, and when they were happy, they were happy at the same time and they were happy together. In many dramas we see the one suffering but pretending he is ok, and the other one also suffering but pretending she wants to hurt him, or the other way around, and even insulting each other, just to reconcile and be happy the very last 5 minutes... I hate that...
Here, at least, they didn't become someone else and they knew they loved each other the whole time.
I liked that.
No stupid second leads, no...

My Strange Hero I really like YSH as an actor but for this drama it's more KDY who shows how good he is as an actor.

Clean With Passion for Now How to make happy angry watchers because there will be only one episode this week? Give them a 3 minutes long kissing scene!

The Crowned ClownI'm not really interested in politics but the different relationships are great.

An Empress's Dignity Still crazy...

Boyfriend I didn't like this drama because it was a fairy tale with the perfect charming prince and the princess in distress with beautiful actors, places and a lot of products placements.

<b<SKY Castle I didn't watch the last episode for now.

Top Star Yoo Baek They're too cute :D

Memories of A....is on Netflix...still can't get into it. I've tried. Just hate the whole video game theme. I did marathon the first season of Kingdom and it's good. I'm not all that stoked about zombies as a theme. I am an American so they aren't anything new to me. I quit watching The Walking Dead after about 5 seasons. That's a record for me lately. They aren't the shuffling slow moving walking dead type, they're more like the UK, 28 Days, Train to Busan style.

The cast is good. Although I think 6 episodes is kind of skimp for a "season". Even series with short "seasons" usually have 8 or 10 episodes. These are probably more expensive to produce. The sets, costuming and production values like Mr. Sunshine and Memories are there with this series too. This is a good role for Joo Ji hoon because he's not a comedian. He's one of those "one note" melodrama actors that we like anyway because he does look good with a scowl.

My crush this week would be REVENGE NOTE a.k.a. Sweet Revenge, starring Along with The Gods' maknae (Kim Hyang Gi), Sky Castle's Kang Ye Bin (Lee Ji Won), Gangnam Beauty's Do Kyung Seok (Cha Eun Woo) and Park Solomon. The story evolves around a pushover highschooler named Ho Goo Hee (Kim Hyang Gi) who gets bullied all the time (by her beautiful school friends as well as her gorgeous looking brother). One day, she suddenly got a chance of revenge with the mysterious appearance of an app in her phone called Revenge Note. If she is wronged (or if she witnessed wrongdoings somewhere), she has the chance to write the name of the person who wronged her in that app, and the revenge shall somehow be carried out, one way or another. Sounds scary right? Not quite. Bearing in mind that this is a teen drama, the revenge is quite mild, not always directly related to the wrongdoing and prank-level instead of real punishment, but quite effective.
I watched ep 1 one night and ended up watching all the way up to ep 11 the following night. The story is adorable and leaving me feeling utterly satisfied within every 2 eps. Definitely targeted for teens and young adults, but it is entertaining for older adults too. It sends me straight back to school, and makes me thankful for having siblings not as annoying as Kim Hyang Gi's brother. Gangnam Beauty fans out there might like this series too. Cha Eun Woo played as himself and is super adorable here. The first Park Solomon drama that I watched and I am liking his character here.

CROWNED CLOWN
what is not to love from this drama? I even rewatch Masquerade because of this drama! I love it that all characters here has some story to tell.

NEIGHBORHOOD LAWYER
I love it when the crazy villain is actually crazy for a reason, not only because they are born evil.

I didnt watched BOYFRIEND this week. I want to watch SKY CASTLE first.

I wasn't going to post, but...after reading a fantastic analysis of MEMORIES OF THE ALHAMBRA on another site, I gained a whole new perspective on the drama, so with different eyes I binge watched it this weekend. Absolutely loved it. She didn't cry as much as I remembered. She wasn't a "stand by your man" but the steady influence in his life that was spiraling downwards into an abyss. She was the only person who didn't abandon him, but had faith in him. Which was part of what this story was about - faith. In the end, he also had faith in her that she would come find him, as she had done in the past. I didn't remember or realize how many times throughout the drama she had saved his life in one way or another. So it wasn't about the typical romance but faith and love. At least that's what I've taken away from watching it again, and I'm so glad.
KINGDOM: How do you make a zombie drama boring? It's possible.
However, I read some rave reviews about it, so maybe I just wasn't in a zombie mood at the time. After awhile I'll try again.

Sky Castle - that cliffhanger!
Saikou no rikon ep 1 - I wanted to watch a jdrama so started this but is this good?
When we were young ep 1 - read that beanies recommend this one so I try it out.
Kingdom ep 2
The Crowned Clown - so much happened for 4 eps

I'm back!

So I watched Romance Is A Bonus Book late last night and gobbled up the first two episodes with a quickness! I can't wait for this story line to unveil. I normally don't watch shows as they're airing because I hate waiting a week in between each set of episodes but I think this one will be an exception! The chemistry between the 2 leads is soooo good and I can't wait to see how the 2nd male lead will play into the story. Excitedddd!

I just started 'Liver or Die'. What a dark series. Its as though the producers thought 'My Ajusshi' wasn't quite bleak enough.

When I watch 'Boyfriend' I think to myself "Imagine what the story would be like if that pair had the chemistry of Pretty Noona". Noona romances should generate heat, not ennui. This pair should be as flaming hot and scandalous as 'Secret Love Affair' from 2014.

Kingdom is AMAZING! Especially after watching the let-down that was MoA, the carnage in Kingdom was so cathartic - and that is how you write a ending/cliffhanger! (I bet you that the zombies from Kingdom can kill the zombie NPCs in MoA! You don't deserve to even be zombies, MoA characters!). My only complaint was why only six episodes??? Please give us at least 12 or 13 in season 2.

Clean With Passion for Now: I watched this after Memories of the Alhrambra, and Gil O -Sol's (Kim Yoo Jung's) cheery ways were so refreshing and infectious, after having to commiserate with a crying Hee Ju (Park Shin Hye) in MOTA. And I must say I am so glad to have Yoon Kyun Sang step in to play Mr Jang. He hit all the right comedic notes and yet can come off being earnest and sincere at the same time. Despite the usual rom com tropes, thought the story was well excuted. The sountracks too were catchy and memorable.

May I ask why SKY Castle isn’t being recapped? 😭