On the Verge of Insanity: This drama is so underrated. Ban-seok was adorable with his red checkered shirt and lip balm. So Se-gwon sold a million dishwashers with a defective part. Figures. Now he needs Ja-young to save him, of course. I really like Mr. Shin. He’s realistic as are the other characters.

The Devil Judge: The script is pretty standard but the drama is working for me. I continue to love Sun-ah and the interaction between Yo-han and pretty much everyone. I like the Live Court scenes. The flogging was disturbing, but Yo-han is becoming a populist hero by feeding into the people’s hatred for the elites.

Hospital Playlist 2: Some good friendship scenes this week. I really liked the conversation between Song-hwa and Seok-hyung about his marriage. I love Rosa. The time jump was a bit jarring.

You are My Spring: I wish I liked this more, but honestly it puts me to sleep. I don’t mind the mixed genres, the murder mystery is even the most interesting part of the show for me. More interesting than the healing relationship between the leads, whose feelings seem to be developing quickly, and the inevitable heart drama. I notice the writer is the same as Bubblegum, which explains why I find it dull despite liking some of the dialogue and themes.

The Witch’s Diner: Episode 1. More school bullying and a scam I could see coming a mile away, but I liked Song Ji-hyo as the witch.

Racket Boys: I like how this drama handles PPL. Se-yoon and Han-sol made me sad.

Nevertheless: I actually liked Na-bi with Do-hyuk. She seemed brighter. Can we assume he’s a good guy because she’s not interested in him. Her judgement when it comes to romantic partners is a bit suspect.

Love (Ft. Marriage & Divorce): Finally, Pi-young found out her husband is a cheating scumbag and confronted him and his mistress. Of course, hair pulling and drinks throwing commenced …. By creepy stepmom who is outraged he cheated with a younger woman and not her. If you read that sentence and feel ill, be glad you missed her lingerie dance the week before.

CRICKET - busy season is coming up with lots of teams in actions and lots of matches and even more international events.

T20 International world cup groups are announced. good choices but i wished for more matches as well as more opportunities for small teams.

Australia Vs. West Indies - Indies guys are ready for t20i world cup.

England Vs. Pak - 1st match was runfest.

England Vs. India - 5 test matches - this is what am waiting for.

Tennis - Djokovic already is matching Nadal and Federer and surely gonna surpass them in next few years. Tennis need more competition. 3 guys ruling a sport for 180 months and have all the big events divided between them isn't good for the sport.

COMPLETED
My Roommate is a Gumiho - This was nice. Can see myself at least revisiting all the funny scenes from the show. The second leads were obviously far cuter though. Looking forward to more from Kang Ha-na and Kim Do-wan.

ONGOING
Racket Boys - Skipped so I can watch with Ep. 14. I do not like pre-emptions 😔

You Are My Spring - The Yoon Park doppelganger thing was the least surprising twist ever. I do really like the chemistry between the leads though - the raccoon/rabbit conversation was hilarious and the Dr. Hollow thing was super cute.

Monthly Magazine Home - I cringed a lot this week. Hard to believe any of these people are the age they are. Everyone was so petty and childish - Chief Editor with Sangsoon, Ui-joo with Young-won. It's supposed to be played for laughs but it just ended up making me mad. This workplace needs significant reform 😤. At least the OTP are cute together.

Hospital Playlist S2 - This episode felt like ALL filler with the only movement in storyline being the time-skip, which was much too late in the episode. And it just left me with questions about what happened in this one year - did Jun-wan talk to anyone about what he was going through with the break-up, did Min-ah use up her 4 chances, are we supposed to believe that WinterGarden are still a secret?? Anyway Jung Kyung-ho >>>> Won Bin 🤣

C-DRAMAS
Dropped The Flaming Heart but started Unforgettable Love which may just have the cutest child actor ever.

Dishwashers are ON THE VERGE OF INSANITY’s appliance of the week. Although a million of them have been sold by Hanmyeong Electronics, their issues in eps7-8 demonstrate the dangers of going big without first tending to the small. Our hero Choi Ban-seok is all about getting the basics right, whether in engineering or in ethics, but he is a lone voice in a world where trends (“it’s not plagiarism, it’s a trend!”) are more important than function, and a bit of bid-rigging or data-tampering is “no big deal". Ban-seok isn’t even your typical K-drama heroic idealist. One of his reasons for whistleblowing is that the error you commit or overlook now might return to bite you in the arse later - which is exactly what happens to Han Se-gwon.

Things do look rather grim towards the end of episode 8, but OTVOI continues to be wildly entertaining simply because - like Ban-seok - the show takes care of the basics. The seemingly dry or mundane can be transformed into drama gold when the plot makes sense, the characters behave like real people and the scene is set in painstakingly believable detail. And I haven’t even mentioned the funny bits. OTVOI's main actors can get a laugh with a mere gesture: Moon So-ri tossing her head awkwardly; Cha Chung-hwa furrowing her brow in disbelief; and Jung Jae-young, all innocent eyes and moisturised (!) lips. Can’t wait to see Kim Nam-hee in a spandex bodysuit next week.

At a distance, Spring is Green: So in order to protect his brother he blackmailed his father. That is a back story. Again Jun with the layers. I still don't believe his relationship, but I do believe their friendship. I am glad SH is opening up. It also makes sense that he likes YR, she is the only person he hangs around. I can believe their romance though.

Racket Boys: I was so sad about this show being on once a week. 😭😭. I love it so much, that my double dose missing is awful, but I guess that means it is on longer.

You are my Spring: @stroopwafel, your description is spot on. There is both a calm vibe and a vibe of inevitability. It is like it is meant to bring out anxiety. Regardless I love it.

Hospital Playlist: OOOOOOH a time jump. That lessens the utter on the nose aspect of a romance between Ik Joon and Song Hwa. I also love the way they did the time jump with Ik Joon and Ik Soon. That was great. Especially after the non subtle hints of a year isn't a long time, ha.

Nevertheless: The half way point. Hmmmm

The Devil Judge: Who will he take down next.

Also finished watching a Swedish drama Eagles SVT: I did not realize Swedish and English had so many words in common. Also much like American teenage dramas, very little parental supervision, sex, drugs, and MESSINESS. I enjoyed it. Lol. I have to wait until next year for Season 4 though.

I’ve completed BOSSAM: STEAL THE FATE recently.

It was tedious to follow how the king was playing cat and mouse game with Left State Councillor. On top of that, the actor who played the king just began to irritate me with his constant maniacal yelling.

Throughout the 20 episodes, several political wing groups were struggling to capture the princess! Though this princess and her people would enter and leave her mortal enemy’s residence with a lot of guards around it, unseen. The writer often operates through that plot device of tragically separating Princess from ML (of course with sorrowful ballads playing in the bacground), only to be saved shortly afterwards as deux ex machina, most of the time by SML (who was seemingly tracking the princess’ whereabouts with a GPS). Speaking of this, this poor SML was injured so many times, but don’t worry, he was apparently made from steel.

The OTP was lifeless with no sign of humour or passion in their relationship. I wonder what was the turning point in their affections because I didn’t notice the build-up to that. All of a sudden, from a grumpy rufffian ML turned into a romantic lovelorn man. In my eyes, he was anything but a hero, because heroes tend to be proactive and ambitious and not just react at events. Princess was too meek and mild to my taste.

The only interesting thread of the drama was the SML’s story (including the Aunt and Dae Chul), which in the end left a lot to be desired in elaboration. In fact, he was the real hero of the drama. The first 6 episodes made me eager to watch the next episode, but then the plot was becoming increasingly repetitive (I lost counting how many times ML tried to get rid of the Princess, then went save her instead, because his son was wailing) and because of that my enthusiasm for the characters was waning.

Overall, I find BOSSAM an average drama without real heroes/heroines, to be totally lacking in passionate romance which could make your heart flutter, and it suffers from lazy writing.

I have so much to watch and so little time... and yet... I mainly watched 4 episodes of Unforgettable Love 🙈🙈🙈

I also watched Uju (Hospital 2).

You Are My Spring: 7.9 Heart transplant? Doppelgangers? Childhood connections? How about a trope transplant?

If two shows use all the same tropes, does that make them Troppelgangers? Doppeltropers?

Devil Judge: 6.0 Was planning to drop, but... Kim Min-jung, and Veronica Park, and... and... the Dexter of judges (?????)

Racket Boys: 8.0

My Roommate Is a Gumiho: 8.5 Jae-jin & Hye-sun and their non-kisses :)

Voice 4: 4.0 I really like the super-hearing bit and Lee Hana's performance in the emergency calls, so making day 8 so horrid that I put it on hold for days was quite an "achievement". The writer has the setup for an amazing crime/suspense thriller but keeps veering into 2nd-rate childhood trauma & psychological weirdness. Parts are so bad I tried to get my Voice fix from the Japanese remake of season 1 but day 1 was just a scene-for-scene copy with every flaw of the k-version and a less-impressive FL -- a totally pointless watch for anyone who has seen the original. 👎

Hospital Playlist: It’s difficult and rare for a sequel to live up to the first, so I’m constantly adjusting my hopes lol. But I’m happy I got 1 song right and I seem to be in the minority who felt this episode was too short hehehe. I want to give Eunji’s mum a big hug. I want to send Junwan on a vacation. I don’t know what the freaking hell Iksun is doing, killing him twice by hiding her illness and lying. For at least a year!!! Writer-nim, WHY WHY WHY. YOU WERE DOING SO WELL.

Lovestruck in the City: Perhaps my on-off binge watch dulled my enjoyment of this show. I loved Eunoh and I completely understand where she’s coming from. I doubt she and Jaewon will last long. I dont know what that ending was. The end.

At a Distance, Spring Is Green I don't really care about the ML, I watch it for the second lead. I would like the FL to have her own story, not just as an accessory for the ML.

Racket Boys It's my favourite ongoing dramas and only one episode by week is so unfair! I need my double dose of these lovely kids!

You Are My Spring I'm not sure what genre is this, but I really like it. Kim Dong-Wook and Seo Hyeon-Jin are doing a good job.

On the Verge of Insanity I like this drama, for once the politics are interesting.

Monthly Magazine Home They're in couple! Now, I want lovely moments!

My Roommate Is a Gumiho The 16th episode was so empty... I didn't really like this drama. There were some good comedy scenes. Kang Hanna was great! But the main couple story was boring and at the end, I'm still wondering why they're dating. The ML spent all the drama searching help and unburden to the another woman...

Hospital Playlist 2 I really hope they won't put Ik-Soon and Jun-Wan together in the futur... He deserves better!

Nevertheless The story is interesting but I don't really care about the characters...

Imitation Chani had scenes with people!!!

The Witch's Diner I want to try it for Nam Ji Hyun :)

Dramas: None.
Waiting for The Witch's Diner
Variety:
Problem Child in the House and The Sixth Sense. The Great Escape 4 just started but is more a drawn out story drama than a puzzle/quiz show.
YouTube:
In my starter page, the algorithm has popped up so many Korean celebrity golf videos. There is even a Star Golf League series of 12 men (I only recognized a couple of them). There are also golf pros instructing celebrities on a course. (Son Ye Jin was the first one I saw but there are several other celebrities with different golf pros.) Based on the amount of videos, celebrity golf has exploded in popularity.

Run On
I was finally in the mood to watch this drama after a year of hearing its praises. I am enjoying it more than I expected and I now understand the hype it got. It's the comfort drama that I needed.

What impressed me the most about this drama is the world building...I know I know, that's a term associated to the fantasy genre but I don't know how else to explain the richness of this drama's characterization and relationships. There are A LOT of characters and each of them are well rounded....how is that possible?

My only complain is that the French subtitles on Netflix have clearly not been revised. There are many mistakes, typos and awkward translations, which is all the more ironic considering the premise and themes of this drama.

Nevertheless
I am loving this show more than expected. I find Nabi and Jaeon's relationship painfully relatable. They are two people who are attracted to each other, get along well, but want different things from the relationship. Nabi, in hope of eventually getting the relationship she wants with Jaeon, compromises. I've been there...it did not end well...

Also, I know it is too early to be certain of his good intention, but how adorable was Dohyuk with his potatoes? I'm shock at myself for being smitten so easily. I really hope he stays cute.

Finally, I am impatiently waiting for Sam Kim's OST to drop on youtube. Please give me the full version of that song!!

Hospital Playlist 2
Ohhh a small time jump! Interesting. I'm looking forward to see where the stories go from here. I hope the drama with Iksun is kept low key as per last episode. Sukhyung is slowly opening up and we finally have the full story about his marriage and divorce. I am satisfy with the ending we got to that storyline.
Uju remains adorable.
I am excited to see our interns next week!

My Roommate is a Gumiho
I have yet to watch the last 4 episodes. I am waiting for all of them to be available on Viki before watching.

Racket Boys (Episode 13) - Mood: B+
The show may only have one episode this week but it’s still packing a good punch with all the narrative arcs shown: I’m amazed that with the climax coming up, the village side-arc is still getting new material (golf course) which guarantees that we’ll still see the lovely villagers in episodes to come. Though the cliffhanger was very predictable, the twist where the smoker was raised by Bae’s wife still caught me surprised in a good way: it may not even be just a cameo! I’m quite glad that Han Sol finally got an arc of her own (better late than never), though Na Ra’s villainy wasn’t really necessary?

Hospital Playlist 2 (Episode 5) - Mood: B-
Gyu Wool, did the noble idiot disease get passed on to you from Ik Sun somehow? Why aren’t you telling Jung Won that there’re some complicated dynamics you have at home? Speaking of family, I hope that Seok Hyung does tell Min Ha: it doesn’t matter now but he should be honest if he’s to accept her feelings. On another note, I must say I’m disappointed that the show chose to jump past Song Hwa’s break with a time skip: it felt like there was no consequence that she had been stationed at Sokcho and I was wondering if Yulje can’t manage without her! But I guess we need story movement?

At a Distance Spring Is Green (Episode 9-10) - Mood: C-
There was no escaping the family drama since Yeo Joon and So Bin have family traumas as their backstories but it was certainly very heavy-handed when his father and her mother suddenly reappear and cause chaos in the same episode: the obvious implication being that the writer had no idea how to pace the show. Something else that felt forced was the pairing between Young Ran and Chan Ki: if there’s going to be a new love triangle together with Soo Hyun I’ll be pissed. To be honest, Soo Hyun staying single would’ve been fine for the plot but that ship’s sailed after his indirect confession.

My Roommate Is a Gumiho (Series review) - Mood progression: C+ / C+ / C / C / C- / D+ / D+ / D+
This show was pretty much doomed the moment they didn’t bother to even pretend like Sun Woo wasn’t a plot device: I am of the opinion that if you can’t even develop your main characters properly, the narrative’s a lost cause. Of course, I don’t think that was the only issue: the fantasy part of the show solely existed to create drama (evil spirit, hunger issue and red thread say hi) and every single character just gets developed along a love line which makes things pretty lame.
And of course they pulled the disappearing and reappearing cliche with two last minute couples squeezed in the finale.

You Are My Spring (Episode 3-4) - Mood: B-
What a bummer, it’s the twins cliche. Still, it’s a weird mix of romance and thriller that’s somehow working.

The Devil Judge (Episode 3-4) - Mood: C-
Regardless of whether Ga On’s a doppelgänger or Yo Han’s secret family, both possibilities suck narratively.

I just adore On The Verge of Insanity . Ep 7 put the hugest grin on my face for an entire hour. The cast of experienced actors get the most out of every detail. But also - and this surprises me - I'm also really interested in the manufacturing of home appliances. I've never seen anything in this setting before ever and the reasons why washing machines might get recalled or why they could catch fire, was fascinating. And I now want a washing machine that you could put an entire container of powder in, in one go, or a dish washer with extra sound proofing! (I'm an ahjumma, I care about things like that)

You Are My Spring also still keeps me glued to the screen. I'm still not sure what kind of drama this is but I'll keep watching. Going between healthy conversations between two adults to a very creepy vibe to do with the past, I'm intrigued. (But, unlike with OTVOI I can also still see this one go completely off the rails)

I'm also watching a cdrama Crossroad Bistro about a group of women who open a restaurant. I really like these female-centric group dramas and wish kdrama made more of them. It's been too long since Search WWW or Be Melodramatic...

Light on Me - It's simple but better than the average BL. I can't decide if the ML is artificial or if he has some kind of issue or if this should even matter to the audience. I know BL lovers won't care about this question and I don't know if it's done on purpose but I find it interesting. The twist by the end of ep 6 surprised me, I was thinking this would be a basic frenemies to lovers story and instead it might be about bittersweet unrequited first loves? Why so much bad make up? Are they all pretending to be vampires?

Nevertheless - The comments about this show prove more characters like Na-bi and Jae-Un are needed. Dramaland should have a lot more ambiguous leads, then maybe their unconventional choices would not seem disturbing to many people. Many MLs act like jerks every season and FLs fall for them left and right without much thought. Their happy marriage is guaranteed so people don't care much. A college girl chooses to get into a casual sexual relationship with a playboy, fully aware of his thoughts on the matter, and she gets labeled as a troubled person. She spends almost every moment telling the audience how it was all a big mind game about power, something she chose to do, to learn more about herself, but just because she thinks or pretends it's only about romantic feelings, people think it's a story about toxic relationships.

At a Distance, Spring is Green Ep 1-7 - Another psychological show. I like this genre and it's nice that it spent 6 eps basically building the friendship between the leads. The romance feels a bit awkward though, unless it's intentional, then well done. It can also be redundant sometimes, YJ's fake friends and monster family are exaggerated and SB's shyness and SH's job issues seem to repeat themselves.

Monthly Magazine Ep 1-8 - I like the grumpy boss, that's why this works, the rest is pretty common, romcom stock characters and situations.

Nevertheless: I had made up my mind to drop it but still watched it. Someone take the chemistry from it and throw it in a romance show.
CDramas:
Mysterious Love : It is what a teenage girl would imagine an action romance to be. A typical Werewolf romance without wolves - Alpha male, Beta second lead and a pack. Kisses every episode. I wish there were more action scenes.
❤Don't leave after school❤: Now let me introduce you all to this gem of a drama I am watching on Viki. I had thought this would be another - a typical carefree girl mindlessly chasing that jerk class topper who is also a great athelete, or a badboy of the class chasing the sweet innocent nerd girl of the class. No, No. This is nothing like it.
So we have a batch of students repeating an entire year of school again. Some to score better marks to get into the top Uni, some just to score enough marks to get into any Uni or college. Ensues chaos. Ep 1 Scene 1 - the school gets flooded - Chaos + 1. This show is making me want to go back to my school days to create some chaos. I was too filial child to my parents. Tsk Tsk. Romance is a subtle hum in this one. None of those falling accidently in his arms type. Every episode has something whacky to it that makes me laugh. I hope the beanies give it a try and like it.

Reply 1988 - Finished this, and have very mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it's quite well done, with a winning cast of characters that kept me watching in spite of the slice of life style and insane episode lengths. On the other hand, I don't think I'm really the audience for this particular flavor of nostalgia. As I near 50, the last thing I'd want to do is go back to my teens or early 20's - that sounds like a nightmare, not a reward. Also, while childhood friends to lovers is obviously a standard trope, the way this show took that to the extreme started to feel claustrophobic and quasi-incestuous. Is it really healthy to grow up, marry, and ideally die within the same four family network on the same block? The way that characters who presumably didn't find romance with first loves next door simply vanished from the narrative at the end made the situation even worse, as if the mere idea of expanding your world to "outsiders" was some sort of betrayal. Finally, the show's glorification of "living your life for others" started to get extreme, especially when many of the sacrifices felt unnecessary and even unwanted. And should choosing a partner really be based on who "needs" you the most? Because if a character proclaims that they'll die if you don't date them, that sounds like a threat, not a declaration of affection.

Nevertheless (3-4): Officially done with the show. The characters are so annoying and I am confused as to who I hate most. I have lost my patience for the plot to actually move forward but even after ep 4 I am left with more questions and dislike , about and towards the characters. The things are getting repetitive and the heroine's monologues are really frustrating. I ff through ep 4 and that's when I realized I have lost interest in the show.

Love S2 (1-10): I have watched the first season and although not much of a fan, I was curious about the mistresses and how they are gonna wrap up things. Everybody cheat here, even the ghosts. One episode it's the step mother trying to kiss the step son when the father's ghost enters his body and the other episode it's the father's ghost that lusts over a woman in swimsuit. The doctor is the worst here and it felt bad to see pil young going through all of this mess. Out of the three, I felt bad more for her. At the same time it was fun to watch the stepmom getting hysterical on discovering the doctor's affair. It's high time for that lady to stop lusting for him.

My roommate is a gumiho (9-16): it started off really well but went downhill after our ML took his bead. It's like the writer doesnot know what to add so he just continued with fillers about a red thread and a final short separation. And what a wasted talent in case of BIH. Kang Hanna's arc was the one that prompted me to complete this series. She was hilarious all throughout.

At a distance spring is green (9-10): what an emotional week. I have always felt that the older brother isn't evil, the man was just trying to protect his brother. This show and its characters have grown on me. The development of the relation between Joon and NSH has been the highlight of the week. NSH is learning to accept help without feeling indebted and Joon now has someone to lean on to. My only complaint about the show is the female characters. They dont have a plotline that can define their individuality. Kim Soo bin has a storyline only with Joon while the other two girls are mentioned only in connection with NSH. Min Ju's character is the most lazily written one. Even her explanation about liking NSH seemed so flat. I mean he would have helped any customer who was in such a trouble. In fact he didnot even ask her if she is okay which many would have done. She is gonna find many people like that in her life who will leave a mark at tough times, but she can't go on being obsessed with each of them. In a way I am glad she is giving up. I wish for Young ran to confess and move on. For the first time I agree with the lady professor.
On last note I wonder who NSH meant when he said " he like someone". The show want us to think it might either Young ran or Min ju, but I get a feeling that he didnot mean either of them.

You are my spring (3-4): Its slow and I felt bored throughout ep 3. I dont know how long I will be watching this...

Prison Playbook⚾👮 (4/16): Timing has not been on our side for the last few weekends, so imagine my pleasant surprise when my friend and I managed to watch two episodes (3+hours!) in one evening!😉 Our baseball player has new cell mates, and all of them are adorable. Most of them because they graced my screen in Racket Boys, Pegasus Market or Reply 1988. Others because they are a certain K-pop cutie pie!🤭Seung-Yoon and Shin Jae-Ha have officially joined my cell of cutie pies. This show makes me appreciate ramyun and Jung Kyoung-Ho. He did not have many lines in these episodes, but his mimic and body language delivery are flawless.❤️

Racket Boys🏸👦👦👦👦👦👧👧(13/16): Seung-Yoon strikes again!❤️The city couple has guided us well on our journey to get to know and love all the villagers in Haenam, especially now that big gran has passed. In return the villagers are including the city couple, who also need some extra love. Losing a colleague all of a sudden is a shocking experience, a suicide when you were the only who cared is a whole other level. Fortunately there are Hae-In hugs and unexpected pregnancy reveals to end on a heartwarming note.😘

Airhead owes Nerd some onscreen love too. In-Sol might not be the best player, but he has been busy coming up with brilliant badminton strategies that benefit Hae-Kang (and the whole team), rather than only himself. For that reason I was glad that Hae-Kang and his dad expected In-Sol to play that deciding match, and heartbroken when In-Sol deliberately missed for Hae-Kang’s sake.😢Speaking of showing onscreen love, that adorable little pest made my heart flutter when he made that announcement to Se-Yoon and literally closed that gap between them!🤭

However, he needs to put in some more effort to beat Yoon-Dam.😉 I worried because he never explicitly admitted to liking Han-Sol back or dating her, despite the running gag with Yong-Tae. In the end he did not need to. He might not have the right words at all times, but his hugs and cheers make up for the lack of attention her team has been paying to her.❤️

Started a Jdrama

Nile Perch Girl’s Association

Talking about delicious fluff wait to reach ep6 @missvictrix and you'll rewind several scenes for more than 50 times.
And I hope this drama can bring in change to this cruel industry and the way idols are treated by fans.
They're human beings and they need to live and love , I'm talking to you Fins 😂😂

LOVE, Ft MARRIAGE : train wreck of a first season. I'm only watching the second to find out how the doctor's wife is going to retaliate. I fast forward through ghosts and other nonsense.

HOSPITAL PLAYLIST: I'm not a fan of the plot but the cast (Jung Kyung-ho in particular) keeps me going with plenty of good feelings inside. I do feel, though, that we've lost the strength of the first episode. Noble idiocy will do that to any great show.

RACKET BOYS: Love the kids and the overall feel of this drama. That's why I switched to Kdramas 18 months ago, for this type of series. Still not a huge fan of coach Yoon but, hey, I'll get over it. :)

YOU ARE MY SPRING: Still unsure about this one. If it leans more into murder/mystery I may drop it. More romance? I may keep going. It feels wishy washy at the moment.

DEVIL JUDGE: So far so good thanks to both MLs and the FL. We shall see if I make it through the middle part (that's usually when I get bored. Yes, Bossam, I talking about you!)

MONTHLY MAGAZINE HOME: It's light and silly so I'm in for now. Again, we shall see what the next episodes bring.

LOVE IN THE MOONLIGHT: I just started this one. Love PBG and as I've never seen him in a historical, I'm curious.

started the new show THE WITCH’S DINER. Just the first episode. I am not actually sure about this one but Song Ji-hyo is very effective as the titular witch and so I will keep watching for the time being.

MONTHLY MAGAZINE HOME is now one of our favorite shows. Jung So-min is great and she even somehow found time to squeeze in a cameo appearance on MY ROOMMATE IS A GUMIHO which is one of our other favorite shows, Hyeri is still perfect but Kang Hanna is also still shining in GUMIHO.

The daily drama BE MY DREAM FAMILY will now be on hiatus due to COVID19 infecting one of the child actors. I am really bummed about that. At the end of this week we were left with quite a cliffhanger as both of the wives of the two married sons are walking out. But, on a much more hopeful note the younger of the three sons may have finally found a career as an illustrator, to the great disappointment of his now once again ex-girlfriend, but this leaves the door open for a new love- who is standing right in front of him. However, now we have to wait nine full days before we see what happens next.

I sent iQIYI a message about the Chinese historical drama NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY having disappeared. It has now been restored. Sun Li is a great actress. While it was gone my wife had binge watched QING LUO staying up until 2 AM to finish it. Then my wife went on to finish NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY, leading us to a discussion of the Dowager Empress Cixi who was, in my opinion, the single worst woman in history.

HOSPITAL PLAYLIST is still good but recent twists in episodes 4 and 5 leave me a bit bemused. Are we really seeing an idiotic separation with Jung-won and his lady? Why?

We have continued to enjoy the C-drama rom-com MOONLIGHT and also HELLO MR. GU.

Ms Kim's Million Dollar Quest (2004) - Young and cute Kim Hyun-joo and Ji Jin-hee star as two normal people in their small world with small stakes - just earn about a million dollars to buy back a runaway boyfriend and family home. The story starts right out of the gate, where financial ruin, scars, traumas are passed off in fleeting words. Age of Youth's writer presents Ms Kim's turbulent money-making adventures in a chipper tone, and the actors' over-the-top comedy is actually fun to watch.

It's also satisfying to see Ms Kim wear the patronising pants in this drama - she rents their house, owns their businesses and is the one with a steady job. Cocky Moo-yeul gradually dissolves into a more subservient and introspective person around Ms Kim, recognising and admiring her competence, following her decisions and finally, actively supporting her ascendance.

Where on Earth?? (2018) - It was nostalgic to revisit the place I grew up through Jin-hee and Cha Tae-hyun's eyes. I love places of natural beauty, and the contrast here of an untouched, dry and desolate desert with the lush and wet Munros of Scotland was so beautiful to behold.

Most of all, it was stirring to see these normal people endure and confront the challenges, especially Jo Se-ho with his chronic back pain. It's in unscripted shows like this and Roommate, I think, where Se-ho shines with his warmth and courage, his smiling face hiding his struggles. And you got to hand it to the camera team, matching the cast stride for stride in the heat, rain and dangerous terrain while filming them.

If I had liked Ji Jin-hee as an actor, I grew to love him as that laidback leader who decided with calm deliberation, consideration and common sense, and being so low-key about it all. And him climbing steep mountains, unaided and barely breaking into a sweat when he's nearly hitting 50, wow.

My Roommate is a Gumiho: Couldn't believe something as dumb as the white truck of doom found its way into this drama though. Still, it's a good enough - though not great- finale. Drama started off really well, but Woo-yeo and mountain spirit grated on me the last few weeks. Most everything else was enjoyable. Dam, Hye-sun, Jae-jin, and Sook-kyung were just so lovely. I want to eat chicken with them.

Otherwise been a cdrama binge..
Truth or Dare: Unbelievable, cute, and unbelievably cute despite it being your paint-by-number teen-oriented costume rom-com.

Qing Luo (up to ep 15): Moves at a good clip and full of likable characters. I like how the ML is sensitive to the FL's kid's worries of having his mom marry.

I love my president though he's a psycho (up to ep 3 and stopped): Never thought I would touch this with a 10 foot pole. It's even more terrible that I imagined, and I couldn't look away. ML should be in a jail. Fascinated with how much psychological torture the FL could endure without going mad.

I'll never let you go (up to ep 5): I like Ariel Lin and it's interesting so far, but probably won't stick with it since I hear the drama just goes off the rails.

Chang'an Youth(up to ep 3): Cross between Sungkyungkwan Scandal and Hwarang. FL reminds me of Park Min Young and has the swagger to pull off the crossdressing role. No addictive quality to it but it seems to have a fun group of characters.

Imitation - This is my first time watching kdrama featuring idol stories. I'm quite surprised and amazed at the hard works idols & actors have to do. Now I understand what it means by them working hard.

It's sad to watch the reality of them unable even date in public. Hopefully this reality will change one day...

Love La Ri Ma's character especially after she leave Queen Agency. Hyuk & Do Jin duo are hilarious. It'll be great if there are more scenes of them.

Devils Judge - At first I thought this wasn't for me. But the story is getting interesting with each episodes. Judge Yo Han is quite creative with giving punishment.

Never thought he'd suggest flogging, and the 235 years of prison from previous episode was totally daebak!

I wonder why his niece hates him when he was the one who saved her. Can't wait for the backstory!

Racket Boys - I'm not an athlete. This drama opened my eyes that athletes really have to work hard.

I'm also quite surprised to know that for a badminton athletes, training such running 20-30 laps is a must, there is swing training and many other training. I used to think that badminton is just about playing with the rackets.

I find this drama is great to inspire my little kids who wants to do best with their badminton. It teaches us that fitness and critical analysis is among the recipe to success.

I'm amazed at the fact as why we have to record one's game - like In Sol did. It's to rewatch the game and observe strength and weaknesses of the player and the opponents.

Also the location of this drama is stunning.

Finished Airing

MY ROOMMATE IS A GUMIHO: I'm really enjoying this. I was planning on catching up while it was airing but didn't get a chance to. I'm still liking our main couple, even though I don't understand Woo-yeo's reasoning for returning the bead. (If someone knows, please help me out. I feel like I missed something. The threat was gone, so there wasn't a reason to.) I may have also missed what exactly allows him to become human. I know they said it was human energy, so why couldn't he have gotten it from Dam? (ep. 7-8)

MONTHLY MAGAZINE HOME - I had been watching this on Viki but I got impatient so I switched to Iqiyi….and now I’m all caught up and need to wait anyway 😄 it’s really nice to have a fun rom com, it feels like it’s been ages.

HIGH END CRUSH - I randomly watched all of this in about two days. It was cute (as long as you didn’t think about things too much) but what I really noticed was the male lead’s short suits in the latter half - he looked all normal and business-y on the top and then SURPRISE KNEES. I found it quite distracting 😄

Variety - MASTER IN THE HOUSE has a new member (Yoo Su Bin) and I have hope he will be good. He seems a lot more willing to try things than Cha Eun Woo was (CEW seemed nice and all but I don’t feel like variety was his strength - he never seemed that comfortable) . They played a prank on the new member and I really hope this isn’t going to be a running theme on the show because I really don’t like hidden camera pranks. There have been a few since the PD changed earlier this year and I don’t find them entertaining or funny, they’re just mean (This one wasn’t as bad as the one with Rain). I think pranks like this are especially a bad fit for MitH which generally has a kind tone even when members are competing and teasing each other.

Monthly Home Magazine: This drama is cute and stress-free.

Never Have I Ever ( American Netflix) this show has given me life this week that is normally reserve for Korean drama.

The Devil Judge - I’m enjoying it week to week. All the chemistry is great and despite having mustache twirling villains I’m not minding it as much as I usually do for some reason. Perhaps because they’re not spending multiple episodes with each trial? It’s very brisk in it’s pacing, and I’m excited for more.

You Are My Spring: Still getting tonal whiplash. Shifts from fun witty dynamic between our characters to murder mystery and it’s jarring. That said, I look forward to each set of episodes, so it’s doing enough to keep me intrigued, and coming back.

The Witch’s Diner: New show this week! I’m here for Nam Ji-hyun, as I love her in damn near everything. The premise isn’t incredibly unique, but that has never really bothered me. If a concept is done incredibly well, I’ll look past it’s cliches and tropes. So far, I’m entertained. Here’s hoping this will be the first Song Ji-hyo drama I actually finish. I’ve loved her on Running Man for years, but she’s very hit or miss in her drama selections (at least the ones I’ve attempted to get through).

My Roommate is a Gumiho: 6/10 - Slightly above average series in the end. Had some fun characters and performances but nothing really elevated it above that. Trope ridden and made me chuckle from time to time. A solid watch, but not something I’d go out of my way to recommend.

Still watching others, like Racket Boys, Hospital Playlist 2, and Imitation but they’re just steady and strong without much to add.

At a distance, spring is green: I picked it up last week, and caught up. It's an interesting watch, though the characters and their stories are exaggerated; and some plot points just do not make sense (the writers try too hard to make a conflict and it just does not reach that level of angst) The bromance is what I like the most.

Mine: on hold for now. Stopped at episode 12 and I have a hard time picking it back up.

Mad for each other: picked it up because so many beanies liked it. But I ended up not enjoying as much. On hold for now.

My roomate is a guminho: on episode 1 and though the premise is super unrealistic (I mean, how is it possible that it is that easy to lose the bead, just like that!!), I enjoyed it!

Monthly magazine home: Fluff that I so enjoy! A very fun show!

Hospital playlist, episodes 1 and 2: still dope!! I love Jo Jung suk playing Ik Jun so much!