Diary of a Prosecutor ended last week, but I was only able to watch the finale this week. I really love how this show was consistently able to humanize prosecutors (something that we rarely see in dramas) and how it consistently dealt with real life cases that were really hard to watch, especially when you know how justice is not really that fair and prosecutors can only do so much. I think the ending really fits with the tone of the show as well. And Prosecutor Kim and Mi-ran's love line is the cutest thing!

Coffee Prince: (8/18) After this weekend I am probably halfway. Is it me, or is the pace slow? I quite like it, but I am used to lots of drama and conflict halfway the show, and here it only seems to start now. Mr. Voice plays an okay guy, but he is not the best romantic partner. I dislike the second female lead Yoo-Joo for the same reason. They have relationship issues they keep dancing around and our leads get dragged into the mess and are the ones getting hurt. Yoo-Joo keeps telling Han Kyul to back off and tries to diffuse tensions between the leads, but somehow it feels insincere. Is it the writing or the portrayal? No idea, but it is a shame, because I admire her confidence in herself, her job and her beliefs. If only I could believe her confidence in her love.

No Second Chances: (30) PoongKi, you wanted to take revenge on the toxic family, so for your sake I hope you did not simply hand over the usb and laptop to them. There better be some plotting behind it! Makjangs are not known for their logic, but even I have limits.

Itaewon Class: Currently following the recaps, because I lack the time to press play for now. Unpopular opinion, but I think everyone would enjoy this K-drama a lot more if they could look at things from a non-romantic angle.

Something unexpected happened, I postponed watching last two episodes of Crash Landing... and postponed... and postponed... all thanks to the Japanese series Bokura wa Kiseki de Dekiteiru (Miracles) which I got recommended last week after my praise of actor Takahashi Issei. And... IT IS SOOO GOOOD! It's not only Takahashi Issei as a very unique university lecturer of biology, but there are other interesting (and well acted) characters... and stories (my heart aches for the Dentist who lives according to the expectations of others... and mainly those of her own). The writing is great, among others using parallels between the lessons / talks about animals and our main characters' situations, being it a new interpretation of an Ezop's fable, or squirrels crossing a bridge. And maybe it's also because I have scientific background and because I have people on the spectrum in the family that I love every second of the series! 💕

Crash Landing... was a bit too long and sometimes repetitive in the final stretch... and awesome Dan didn't deserve being left alone (I was truly heartbroken for her... when she finally found someone who loved her and admired her, she lost him so terribly. Also, why couldn't they at least hint at a friendship being formed with the village women for example?? Did they really have to leave Dan so alone??). That said, I still enjoyed the series till the end. It had many memorable characters... and a good combination of cheesiness and comedy. 🙂

CRICKET - not for a week. come 21st 4-5 matches altogether.

JAPAN -

This Guy is the Biggest Mistake in my life - 4.5/10 my current comment at MDL. If you drool over plastic face oppas then you mustn't have any problem with hero too. heh

Kotaki Brothers and Shikuhakku - 7.5 out of 10 - Writer is clever. want benefits but doesn't want to poke. stands and look serious but then just float the paper boat. Still this ensemble of brothers is entertaining. Tsukkomi and boke

No Need to Know - 7 out of 10 - then why you so desire it? ahh the Curiosity. The best thing about Yuriko is she look like bold but she always plays its safe. Her self-awareness has helped her get good scripts. Scripts that are good for her career. Not necessarily well written stories. This is why you get the feeling she's typecast now when just yuriko playing to her strenghts and acknowledging her limitations. Saw someone call her shows trash - I accept the view but clearly disagree with it.
Aoihachi is doing such a spectacular job fast translating the chapters. I'm behind 2 episodes so can't comment on story.
Rare for me to write about actors as i always consider them secondary to story+plot.

Yuru Camp - slice of life manga to anime to live-action. Cute girls doing cute stuff. so it had to be made live-action. we need sofskin teenage idols on our screen time to time. naah. yaah. heh. I posted gif showing good acting and bam spam system took it for a bike ride.

Love Lasts Forever - I call it fluff with some substance. 6/10 .
Sato Takeru's Ruruouni teaser is awesome.

Alive - is good if you can get over few things 7/10 need to play catchup

4-Gatsu no Kimi Spica - 6/10 typical shoujo trash. Still it has more value than your casual shoujo trash - more easily visible through both guys.

Romantic Doctor Kim 2: I too love the world of Doldam. Also this"May his cameo be as long as his haircut was bad"😂😂😂😂. Facts. That being said character growth requires strife and this show has it in droves. I am so proud of the growth of the characters. I will be sad when it ends next week, but I am sure the end will be great.

Itaewon Class: Continues to be fabulous and dark. I can't wait to watch the next episode.

Hyena: I just started it, but so far so good. I love a good story on how terrible lawyers can be, even though it is bad law that good lawyers manipulate. I digress though, lol.

Tell Me what you saw: Continues to be fine, nothing has jumped out to make it spectacular yet, but I am enjoying it. Plus I like the visibility of more disabled characters in dramas, so this is great.

Hi-Bye Mama: I am actually really looking forward to this, so HUZZAH.

Arthdal Chronicles: THIS IS GETTING A SECOND SEASON. YASSSSSSS. Now all I need to hear is the 2nd season of Vagabond and I will be so happy for my terrible but great dramas.

Itaewon Class (Episode 5-6)
Despite the twist that Soo Ah didn’t actually report the pub to the police, her inability to draw the line towards working for her guardian’s murderer will be the reason why I personally can’t endear myself to her (also her self-serving traits). With the introduction of Ho Jin in the present time, I’m wondering how the cop is doing now and if he’s gathering all the evidence against Jangga silently (I’m pretty sure they have skeletons given Geun Won). The preview shows us Sae-Ro attempting to divide and conquer through Min Jung, yet somehow I don’t think she’s the lynchpin taking down Jangga.

Crash Landing on You (Episode 15-16)
The show may have broken rating records with the wonderful Switzerland landscape (it does look fantastic!), but it did not break the trend of terrible writing. I feel like the writer waddled between giving happy endings and bittersweet ones while coming up with a final product that is even worse. We had all the leads as damsels in distress at some point and somehow it turns out that in all the gunfights, the second male lead is the one who dies (and no, Dan smiling curiously is pure baiting just like how her uncle appeared to be villainy once). Hyun Bin needs to find a good drama stat.

Crash Landing on You.
There are a lot of great scenes! I cried (of joy!) when Manbok came home, the unnies seeing how Seri still remembers them thru her beauty products and of course our OTPs reunion! On the other hand, I am rooting for Seo Dan! I still cant get over the fact that Jung Hyun has to die though realistically, it wouldn’t be easy as well for them both to have a happy ending. Oh well, overall, it gave us a satisfying ending, tying up all loose ends, kudos to all the actors!

Romantic Doctor Kim 2.
Still in episode 12 but damn! Nasty people just wont go away right?! These people just wont back down! I love that ep 11 dealt on how people in Doldam and Master Kim himself felt about this impending doom (thanks to this Dr Park, oh how I hate him geeez!) and it was Master Kim who affirmed that these people who believes in him are his strength not his burden (I cried a little!) so I am hyped again when they power struggle to give back the utmost service to patients who needs Doldam Hospital! I am a little behind in watching because I am so scared to let go of this drama. Being in the medical field, there are a lot of scenes that are echoed in my daily routine as seen in this drama. So. Lets do this Doldam, fighting with you til the end! 💙

Poong-ki is a loathsome idiot.

Romantic Doctor 2: This is the only drama I'm watching these days. I'd say that for me, the cast and crew team has done a terrific job producing the SS2 of this show. I love the stories in the show no matter how unbelievable some of them are. I love how Kim Sabu took care of the hospital; it'd surely be nice to have such a mentor in a place where everything can function the way it's supposed to. This is such an ideal hospital where goodness triumphs the evils, and that's the reason I love the show. I also love how Dr.Seo Woo Jin and Dr. Cha complemented one another despite being a bit bored by the crossing/not crossing the line thing. In all, I think the show has done a great job and portraying difficult situations happening in reality in medical field (e.g. politics, difficult decisions doctors have to make on the daily basis.)

I'm looking forward to this week episodes. And no, I am not ready to say goodbye to the show either.

Itaewon Class Ep1-2 - I was mildly interested in the woman from the first 5 minutes but the first 2 eps were corny. I'm tired of these silly, underdog revenge plots with nice heroes and cardboard villains. Where is that girl?

A House on the Slope - Where are all the psychologists in Japan? It's like Freud never existed. This drama makes a nice job of showing how raising kids still seems to be like a woman's responsibility but when it ignores mental issues it might send a disturbing message.

Someday or One Day - It was a good show but could have been so much better. The first 2 eps were repetitive, then from 3 to 8 it became very good, but after that, eps 9 to 11 had many problems. Some important moments were skipped to keep the mystery and there were too many twists, an awkward villain and plot holes. When ep 12 got back on track it seemed it would have a nice last ep but 13 managed to be rushed, ridiculous and brave at the same time. I would never have imagined it was planned to be 13 eps from the start, show spends the first 2 hours telling me a hundred times how the FL missed her boyfriend and then just ends without any explanation about major facts about the characters.

This Guy is the Biggest Mistake Ep1-3 - Is this a kinky You're My Pet? I think I should be offended because it's not consensual kinkiness but I'm busy laughing and wondering where it will go.

Romantic Doctor Teacher Kim 2 I need more Areum and Nurse Park scenes !

Money Game It's very interesting to see the characters changed their mind regarding the situation. They are very well written and the actors are doing a great job.

Beautiful Love, Wonderful Life Why is it so sloooow >_<

No Second Chances The title doesn't make sense now.

Itaewon Class I'm surprised the "hate" get the women in this drama when some male characters can be worse but they're still forgiven.

Crash Landing on You I prefered the stories about the ajummas or the ducklings than the main couple or the second leads.

After a busy second half of the year last year, I’m finally easing back into some dramas I missed.

My ID is Gangnam Beauty: This was such a lovely, calming watch. I loved that above the romance, the show focused on Mi-rae’s growth away from her traumatic past of being bullied and resultant over-emphasis on looks, towards standing up for herself rather than shying away or relying on others to help her.

And the show gave an incredibly nuanced portrayal of how the culture of lookism shackles everyone, whether they’re good-looking or not.

Extraordinary You: Just finished the first episode. The blatant spoof of BOF is HILARIOUS.

I’m not sold on Dan-oh yet—the actor is portraying her alternate ditzy delusions (about being the female lead) and freak-outs excellently, but the character’s mannerisms itself doesn’t quite sit well with me. But the intriguing premise has me curious to find out more. Hopefully, she turns into someone I’ll root for as more of the storyworld’s mysteries and rules unfold.

I caved and watched 9 episodes of My Holo Love in one night. I'm doubly ashamed, not only for giving in but also because I could have spent that time watching a better drama. 😑🙄

CRASH LANDING ON US: It is clear that the ending was shot first in Switzerland so the direction of the show was set in stone from the beginning. The end was not happy, but cruel. The idea that JH and Seri would only see each other twice a year is not a relationship but a holiday reunion. In addition, poor Dan is off to live another 10 years pining for a lost love. Overall, if you erased the logic, premise and impossible events, it was enjoyable, entertaining series based on the strength of the ensemble cast even though the 3 1/2 hour finale was way too long.
BEAUTIFUL LOVE, WONDERFUL LIFE: FL lead suspension unwarranted but gives her free time to find the nasty truth about Judge Hong's real crimes.
Variety:
FUN RESTAURANT: The change in best dish with one on one battles makes the show even more fun. The quirky real life scenes with the celebrities are just as entertaining as the food porn.
New:
I expect to watch the pilot of HI BYE, MAMA to see if it is original or a rehash of the sad ghost mom coming back to shock her family.

COMPLETED

- CRASH LANDING ON YOU: 10/10. I loved this very much! It was full of heart. The epilogue was a little too long, I would have preferred if it had been devoted to the OTP only. I will rewatch surely.

- A GIFT TO THE PEOPLE YOU HATE: 4,5/10. A Thai drama. The premise was good: there is a shop in which people can buy gifts for the ones they hate. Gifts have 4 levels, the last makes the person die. The drama shows how hate is something that hurts not only people that are hated, but people that hate, too.
However, the writing isn't good, lots of things are ridiculous and some episodes are boring.

STOVE LEAGUE has ended- and I am sad. Now my wife and I will need to find a new favorite show. I agree with Quirkycase that the last episode was a bit flat. And if there were going to be so many redemption stories then why not add one more: Show our General Manager getting back together with his ex-wife. But over all this show was great.

We are back to watching REVOLUTIONARY LOVE now that Viki has finished the subtitles. It is still a fun show.

We are still watching FOREST and I cannot honestly say why we have not yet dropped it. Or perhaps I can: The secondary romance is actually beginning and it is far more natural and has far more real chemistry than our supposed OTP.

HOW IS THIS BREAD? Has ended after 5 episodes. It was a fun web drama until the final episode- at which point it became a total train wreck.

We also continued to watch CINDERELLA AND FOUR KNIGHTS and started the new T-drama comedy BETWEEN (Viki’s title) which is also titled THE SANDWICH GIRL (If you have ever been a supervisor you will know EXACTLY why that last is a perfect description of the situation). So far it is entertaining.

I am considering starting NO SECOND CHANCES even though it is a weekend drama. Those are a serious time commitment.

Crash Landing on You: 8.5 Day 16 - almost 2 hours of show-it-all-and-feel-good-itis because they can't just hint at things and let us figure it out. Or because they wanted to milk their last day of good ratings for all they could. The (relatively) good parts were Dan deciding to get revenge and Se-ri's creative packaging.

Forest: Haven't officially dropped it, but didn't watch enough this week to give a rating. FWIW, I don't hate is as much as a lot of people seem to.

Tell Me What You Saw: 7.0 Day 6 -- I did not see THAT coming!!

The Cursed: 7.5

Romantic Doctor Teacher Kim 2: 6.8

The Game: Towards Zero: 6.5

Hyena: 7.0

@Selena's last line is me

Didn't see last four episodes of Crash Landing on You yet. No idea why but wasn't in the mood.
1. Itaewon Class: Eps 6-7 The more I watch the more I love it. But I do think the hate the Fls get is extreme especially Soo Ah. Despite my own unwillingness to like the FLs just cause they are different from most kdrama FLs, it's not untrue that Male characters do tend to get away with worse. Might be cause we are used to it. Anyway, so I am liking the twists. During Ep 7 I got emotional at parts, won't deny.

2. Hyena: I am not bothered by this being just another Lawyer Drama cause I haven't seen that many to begin with. So far so good. Felt a bit bad for the ML, but so far both the leads are unlikable, heh. The last minutes, the woman can take care of herself. I am liking this.

When the Devil calls your Name: Watched ep 12-13. Only three episodes left. FL finally sold her soul. Wanted to finish this today itself but was too tired. Listened to the ost, liked the ones by Sondia, You bring no Sadness being my favorite.

Can't believe I watched all this today itself after not being able to watch anything all week.

ITAEWON: Should be called Itaewon Misfits. The revenge plot (bad CEO vs good guy) is just the excuse for the excellent ensemble of misfit characters, exploring a couple of social issues - racism, prejudice, etc. I love the complicated characters who are neither entirely good or entirely bad but all have their own raison d'etre.
Most excellent k-drama. The rest of the k-drama pack I mostly ff thru.
EVERYONE WANTS TO MEET YOU: modern c-drama, cliched writing, typical modern c-drama that I usually don't like, but I've discovered Zhang Zhe Han. Now I really want to watch Legend of Yun Xi.
SOME DAY OR ONE DAY: Taiwan. If you haven't watched it, WATCH IT NOW! Best t-drama or any drama since Untamed (imo...)
THE NOVELIST: j-drama. Only 6 episodes of about 20 minutes each, which has allowed me to watch it 4 times now. I love the OST, I love the clever understated humor. It got low ratings for some reason - I can guess why but it'd be a guess. Maybe they didn't get the humor, maybe because it was BL, I dunno.
That about covers Asian drama...

Stove League : I was expecting a good ending, but man they ruined the ending. I still cant hide my disappointment even though a week has passed since the finale episode.

I wanted Baek Seung Soo watching the finals with his team and cheering and holding the championship trophy. I wanted to watch the whole Dreams Squad on the field giving their best and celebrating their win. This is what i wanted all till the end of the show.But none of this happened. Sad! I wish we could have got one more episode to make this all happen.

Forest: I cannot deny i am loving this show which is unexpected.The show has potential to do well both in the story and character development.

Just realized I'm not watching any airing dramas. I'm just waiting on Chae Soo Bin's new drama to air. Meanwhile I'll keep myself entertained with Cunning Single Lady.

Finished Diary of a Prosecutor. Would like to see a spin off of Prosecutor Cha

Tried watching Tell Me What You Saw , not really feeling it

Watching J drama Manpuku . Half way though 151 episodes and he still hasn’t got around to making ramen noodles yet. The guy went through hell though . In WW2 his business partner lied, said he was profiting from the black market. Japanese Army nearly beat him to death. A silver lining was he was beaten to the point where he couldn’t be drafted. Occupying Army (US) has arrested him twice . Pretty interesting story

Romantic Docter Teacher Kim 2 EP 13-14 - I adore this show even though this season seemed more dramatic or higher stakes. Cha Eun Jae grew on me. I’m happy with her growth and confidence. I love Kim Sabu. He is one of the main draws, but I’m really shocked and disappointed at his latest medical decision. It seemed unbelievable... Don't know what the writer is thinking. Not sure how she is going to resolve the issue.

Tell Me What You Saw EP 5-6 (last week) - So excited for this drama. It’s nothing spectacular yet, but I can’t wait to see Jang Hyuk do more with his role. Things become very interesting in EP 6.

Itaewon Class EP 7 – I enjoy watching this drama and get immersed during the watch, but it’s also competing for my attention with my other weekend drama (TMWYS). Well, the only overlapping day is Saturday so I usually watch TMWYS first then IC. XD Another thing is I'd rather not watch TMWYS too late at night and with earbuds on. Anyway, I don’t like the villain, but I’d like to see him be a formidable one against Sae Ro Yi. And it looks like he will be. I’m glad that Kim To Ni’s scene last week wasn’t just a short side moment. The Danbam crew has a lot more to understand about him.

Black Dog EP 12 - Still watching at a snail's pace. I like the story and the gradual growth of the characters, but it's just not thrilling. It's a quieter, contemplative drama.

Just finished SOMEDAY OR ONE DAY. Do you know that feeling when you finish something and just can't say goodbye to that world and feel like watching it all over again from the start?

It's beautifully written, shot and acted. This world has an internal logic that you discover little by little, and it all fits together and is super clever. The love story is compelling, but at it's heart it's a drama about friendship and carrying on through the pain. It's almost flawless and fresh and it broke my heart and mended it several times until it's very satisfying end

I have watched/ watching both seasons of Romantic Doctor Teacher Kim. However, I only started working in Emergency Department after season 1. Even before, I already know that medical dramas tend to exaggerate like all dramas. But watching season 2, there are a few things that is bugging me.

1) The amount of trauma cases is really unrealistic even if it was explained that the hospital is near 4 major highways. But I get it is suppose to be a drama hence a lot of tension needed.

2) What is the Cardiac Surgeon and General Surgeon doing in Emergency Department? It is unrealistic that the doctors follow through the patient from ED to recovery. ED are open 24 hours and 365 days. It is impossible for the doctors to cover the ED. Forget about social lives, do these doctors even have time to sleep?

3) Being in the administrative department, I wish the show also showcase our role in the hospital. We do the paperwork about organ donor and industrial accident. If that is not considered good drama material, imagine the tension of having to register 3 different critical patients without identification. Without patient's registration, doctors cannot proceed to order medication or tests.

4) Does Teacher Kim thinks he is the only doctor in the hospital? Yes, he may be highly capable doctor but I really thinks he is a little controlling if not arrogant. Especially during the bus accident. He is injured yet he was so desperate to save the pregnant lady. Teacher Kim needs to learn how to let others take control.

5) Totally understand President Park. He really should not beat himself over that accident. He is probably disoriented after the accident. Nobody should judge him on that decision.

6) Korea really needs to get over the seniority bullying/bias.

7) How hopeless it seems that even doctors have problems paying off their debt?

After all that being said, it is a drama and hence details tend to be exaggerate. Plus, I have no idea how Korean hospital operates so it could be different from where I came from.

I do enjoy the show. I ugly-cried during the organ donor part. I actually did a research on my country regarding it. Apparently in Singapore, all Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents 21 years old and above, who are not mentally disordered, are considered donors unless they have opted out. So, no action is needed for my part.

Stove League. I concur with the other beanies comments that it could have been a better ending for the show, because it felt a bit forced. But even so, I loved the show, and enjoyed it a lot. Nangung Min was fantastic. I still don't understand a word about baseball.

No Second Chances. I really hope PoongKi did checked what was inside the USB and made a copy. Although maybe that is too much for such a stupid and inconsistent character.

RDTK2. I already posted about my disappointment about Kim Sabu's reaction to President Yeo condition. It was so not Kim Sabu's way. If it were more than 2 episodes I would drop the drama, but there's only one week to go, and besides we have Yang Sejong cameo. And yes, he needs a haircut.

Tell me what you saw. I'm some episodes behind by so far I'm liking it. I've heard there's an interesting twist in ep. 6 so I will wait until there to decide, because although it's interesting it feels like something I've seen many times before. I'm still hanging for Jang Hyuk, an actor I find as attractive as annoying...

Completed Dramas

CRASH LANDING ON YOU: I’m quite surprised my overall rating of this ended up being so low, to be honest. I think the main issue for me, was that I didn’t really get into this drama until about the midway point.

Overall, it was an amazing love story. The chemistry was incredible and all of the side characters were so interesting to watch.

Now the ending… was a disappointment overall. They went with killing off a certain character and it just didn’t sit well with me, mainly because I didn’t expect the writers to actually go there. I kept waiting for him to pop up somewhere, alive and on-the-run. Let’s just say I was a little heartbroken. And then the whole way Jung-hyuk and Se-ri ended. It’s not necessarily an ideal situation. And I don’t know, somehow their relationship just seemed to lack impact during this last episode (or really the last few).

I’m probably just more disappointed that Se-ri didn’t really get to say goodbye to the ducklings or the neighborhood ladies. I was secretly hoping she would get to see everyone at the end.

I would have preferred if the drama had more episodes and didn’t last an hour and a half per episode. My attention was kind of not there at times. And I loved the side characters so much. I wanted to see them for hours more on my screen.

Overall, I do quite recommend this drama. Jung-hyuk’s character was probably the swooniest I’ve encountered so far in K-dramaland. The love story truly felt epic at times, and the chemistry was to die for. (ep. 15-16) *3.75 out of five stars*

MY HOLO LOVE: What a great little drama this turned out to be!

*whisper* Overall, I enjoyed this drama more than CRASH LANDING ON YOU. It touched on some topics that I don’t know that I’ve seen in a K-drama (while still somehow being incredibly trope-y overall), like loneliness and feeling undeserving of being loved.

While I quite disagree with Nan-do’s actions at the beginning, I really grew to like his relationship with So-yun. (It also helped that this drama was fast-paced. It made it easier to forget the male lead’s earlier actions). And Holo was absolutely precious. I love that he wanted his two friends to be happy at the end, even if he wasn’t necessarily going to be there together.

AI’s have always creeped me out in general, but it was nice to see a portrayal where they aren’t considered evil (yet while also exploring the very real privacy concerns behind them).

I definitely recommend this! Don’t expect a masterpiece, but it was so fun. While I most likely won’t rewatch the entire drama again, I will go back and watch pieces occasionally (and I already have). (ep. 4-12) *3.75 our of fi