I'm in the last few episodes of Flower of Evil, but I'm tired of the psycho killer making his psycho killer face. I get it, already! Also halfway through Happiness. I like it, but as always with zombie shows, there's a point where I just want the zombies to win. I need to start another rom-com.

P&P 1940: It's such a wonderful mess. I'm glad Laurence and Greer were our main characters. I know LCdB's actress but don't remember her name. I wonder if Austen would laugh at it too.
The End of the world with you: I guess they won't be having sex. Maybe ep 8. idk how anyone will learn Yuma changed the course of the meteorite since no one is working.
Moonlight Chicken: on ep 3. I'm really just here for Gemini and Fourth.
My School President: ep 2 was much better than ep 1. I enjoyed Guj feeling thumps from the gay-ze.
Call It Love: on ep 2. I'm annoyed is not available in my country. KYK, LSK, SJ are all the loves of my life. And I am a bag of emotions.
Jack o Frost: this class A b*tch is lying about amnesia and I AM here for it. Ep 3 out today!
Grown-ish Luca was out of line. I'm sick of the whole he might be better for Zoey thing. I can't wait o see how Jazz responds to her date wearing a dress.
Miraculous Ladybug: officially I'm on season 3. I can't wait Mari
Emma Agenda: Gay Jane Austen is God tier. I watch like they are my friends. It's such a comfort series.
Bride & Prejudice 2004: Aishwarya is such a beautiful person. She's a great actress. Worst Wickham ever! Kholi-saab! Martin Henderson!
Miracles in Cell no. 7: I loved Park Shin Hye's acting. The complete story mafe ne sad and mad and I will not be rewatching.
Advance Bravely: so f'ing gay! I want them to kiss but it's Chinese so they might not.
Boyband: finishing ep 1 today.
A Boss and A Babe: imagine meeting your most comforting YouTuber! I would freak! I'm glad the guys called Laem on his feelings. Even if they didn't convince him. That kiss!!! That second kiss!!! Are they going to hook up?
Bed Friend: I hate that I have to watch on my phone. But I need to eat at the table more. So I'll increase watching. Still on ep 1.
Our dating sim: so does Eddy love him? Or just miss him? And it will turn to love.

Crash Course in Romance: Better ending than I expected, though some parts felt like they came out of nowhere. I felt like the whole thriller plot screentime could have been replaced by character development for all the side characters. Still, a warm drama. I loved how they did the callback to Haeyi calling Haeng-seon "Umma!". No regrets watching it.

Our Blooming Youth: MIN JAE-YI! *swoon* Has any sageuk hero/heroine been able to dodge as many flying arrows as she has? Warming up to the Crown Prince again after he decided to stop waiting for answers to conveniently fall into his lap and started doing stuff, like trusting his friend and proving his innocence.

Heavenly Idol: UP to ep 7. It's my happy watch, but it's starting to run out of steam a little bit and I'm starting to have trouble following what's going on.

The Glory (up to ep 7) Finally watching it in prep for the second part. Well-written, well-acted, and well-directed. Horrifying, sad, and cathartic at the same time. I enjoyed how they filmed some of Dong-eun's moments, where her irises look black and glittering, like a demon in a supernatural tv story. Also love Yeom Hye-ran's character who really has a knack for spying!

The Starry Night (up to ep 29): Cdrama. SO IN LOVE! rewinding and rewatching it all the time. Beyond acting, visuals, and well-designed and written characters, I think the humor in this drama is a touch above other dramas in this genre. The writer knows to use the element of surprise to generate and enhance humor, especially with Shards 2 and 3 of the male lead. And the drama does a great job tying these personalities to his original self. I love the warmth, humor, and angst of the various relationships and interactions between the characters, particularly the love between the two sisters, both clever and strong in their different ways.

Warm on a Cold Night: Up to episode 29. cdrama. Took about 20 episodes to feel invested in the characters, but now I'm committed to finishing it. The pace feels more focused once we got to the third case. The drama also does a lot of pretty rain/umbrella scenes, and it even upped the prettyness for that beautiful funeral scene.

Crash course in romance: I had a hard time with the writing in the middle and with some serious issues not being addressed. The writer's choice was questionable on the pairing of secondary characters, and on redemption arcs. I wanted more of the leads and less of everything else. But overall, I enjoyed the ride even though I don't think I can recommend it.

Our blooming youth: I love this, but I wish it was better paced. I get bored sometimes while watching it, but I like it! I want the mystery to be solved quickly and the romance to get started. Lol.

Love to hate you: binged this, absolutely loved it! The beginning was a bit slow and difficult to follow but it was overall good fluff. I love seeing mature couples on screen and the FL was so bad ass it was so nice to see.

The rational life: I loved this c-drama so much! The female lead was such an inspiration. Her character was so smart, so level-headed, so wise... man this character is my 2023 girl crush. I learned so much from her, especially the way she carried herself professionnally. And the romance was so adorable and the build-up to it was so good. The writing was about the FL and I loved it about that drama.

I really like DIVORCE ATTORNEY SHIN far more than I thought that I would.

We are really enjoying THE HEAVENLY IDOL. It is a bit messy but still fun.

My wife finished BRAIN WORKS (good show) and continues to enjoy OUR BLOOMING YOUTH, as well as the currently broadcasting Chinese costume dramas THE BLOOD OF YOUTH (good) and WARM ON A COLD NIGHT (even better). These currently broadcasting C-dramas are well worth watching.

She also really likes the new Sageuk OUR BLOOMING YOUTH.

She was finally able to commence the Chinese costume drama THE STARRY LOVE. Also, the more comic MY UNCANNY DESTINY. She has paused both of these not because they are necessarily bad or subpar but because she is finding them to be silly and she is just not currently in the mood for that. Instead, she binge watched the classic Kdrama KILL ME HEAL ME which she found absolutely mesmerizing.

THREE BOLD SIBLINGS is drawing to a close. Three episodes remain and I will watch them, but it will not be counted among the best weekenders I have seen. It is a pity because the cast was good and there was real potential in the story. Sometimes things simply do not come together as well as they should.

We arrive at the end of Korean Odyssey. It's a bit repetitive, but funny. I don't know if it is the actress or the roles, but Oh Yeon Seo is not doing it for me. She is just the same bland boring as in Cafe Minamdang, so whoever is facing next I'll pass.

Crash course in romance: we are only at ep 10, and I have not be able to escape some spoilers. But I'm looking more for the acting than for the suspense, so it's fine.
I find Jung Kyung Ho very expressive, but at the same time he only has one (surprised) expression all the time. How can I think two contradictory at the same time ?

Surprisingly, my friend proposed to watch The forbidden mariage (she has low sageuk tolerance). We are just at the beginning, and laugh a lot.

It's been a long week, waiting for Taxi driver 2. Due to sport we were left hanging. How will this sloppy couple operation be saved ? What is the link between the children and the appartements ? And the new guy... bad or not so bad ? He is so suspicious that it is suspicious, too suspicious.

I'm slowly watching New life begins but after the babybirth the tone is heavier, so I slowed.

I finished Becoming A Billionaire, which I'd never even heard of until recently. I can't say I loved it, but it's a good reference for LBY's career progression. This was clearly the role that prepared her for her skillful acting she mastered in Agency. The narrative was interesting until near the end, when it tried to tie up loose ends haphazardly just to finish the drama. It would've been more preferable to have stuck with the interesting narrative and leave unanswered questions rather than end the way it did. However, given that KDramas rise above other shows because of the satisfaction it gives viewers for tying up loose ends, I suppose I can concede on this point. It was a 5/10 at best in terms of overall quality.

I started Dalja's Spring because I first watched this drama at a point in my life when I most loved my career, and I'm hoping to manifest the same career (mine, not Dalja's 🙂). It's so nice to watch a cluttered drama about a woman trying to find success and love in a metropolitan jungle while overcoming all of the strange things that life throws in one's path. I really enjoyed the throwbacks this drama makes to other brilliant movies and dramas through clips of musical scores, like "In the Mood for Love", one of my all-time favorite movies and which I took a viewing detour to watch again, and "Dae Jang Geum", one of my all-time favorite KDramas. Mostly, though, I really love Dalja's endlessly optimistic view on life and following her heart, even if that doesn't always make logical sense, since life rarely does.

Current/recent:
Crash Course in Romance: This show left me with one burning question: why won’t Netflix let me play shows at more than 1.5x speed?

Our Blooming Youth: Mystery-Solving Science, yay! Palace politics, boo.

The Heavenly Idol: Dropped due to lack of interest, and not tempted to go back based on what I read in the recaps and comments. Better luck next time, Kim Min-gyu.

Bros on Foot: Never mind the scenery, the wild variety of bedhead is one of the highlights of this show.

Older stuff (Kdrama continuing education program):
Circle: So tense. Such crazy plot twists. I have to watch at least a few minutes of Bros after every episode just so I can be sure Jin-goo is OK.

Last week I was feeling a little flat because there are only a couple of current shows I like enough to stick with, and Crash Course was winding down to its disappointing end, but then I realized that’s the perfect time to catch up on some older shows, so I started Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo, an Alchemy rewatch, and Stove League. That should hold me for a while.

I am really struggling to find live watches on the K drama front.

Once and forever: the sun rises - Chinese drama
Set in the current times with flashbacks to the female leads teenage years. The drama starts in 1997 when the female lead is preparing to take part in the ceremony to celebrate the Hong Kong handover. She lives in a small compound with a few other families. She is friends with the children who are the same age as her, and her parents’ generation and grandmother all interact with their counterparts in their compound. It seems to be a similar premise to Reply 1988.

Page turner
Short series about loss and its impact on identity and the role mothers play in supporting their children to cope with traumatic experiences.

Saimdang, lights diary
A mix of modern and historical drama.

Divorce attorney Shin
Well we knew this wasn’t going to be an easy watch when it started with a case that showed the harsh reality of living with a narcissistic partner and the dire consequences of not knowing where to draw the line in order to score points. The poor child was ‘collateral damage’ personified. I am loving the daughter in law in the second case literally giving her mother in law a’ taste of her own medicine’. In a society that reveres elders, winning this case without getting a jail sentence for elder abuse is going to be a real test of his skills.
His friend/coworker’s wife was really annoying sitting there making him do all the work in the conversation. He was so anxious he nearly finished two drinks and she didn’t even touch hers. Why keep him in suspense re the reason for the meet up. Even if we find out later that her excuse is a lie I am not going to care, he is better off without her.

Three bold siblings
On the home stretch, finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with the end next week. This will be my last hate watch ever! Every other show this year that has failed to gain interest has been dropped early.

Completed

Call me Chihiro -Japanese film about an ex sex worker who lives in a seaside town. Lots of sights and sounds of the nature that surrounds her. She sees the invisible people; the homeless man, the child living with domestic abuse, the alienated school girl, the latch key child and befriends them all by meeting their needs and then connecting them with each other. We meet her ex colleagues and see glimpses of her past life. She is like a human version of The littlest Hobo.

The full time wife escapist - J drama
Watched season one and the second season one off movie length episode.
Raised some interesting ideas about relationships and the division of labour

Drunk in Good Taste/ Have a Nice Dessert!
2 episode college friends to lovers rom com.

Books

Violets by Shin Kyungsook fiction; feminist tale of friendship, loss, identity and finding a place in the world by the same author as Please look after mother, which I preferred. Completed

Fu Ping by Wang Anyi The story of...

REPLY 1997. 1-3 of 16. Heading into a drama slump, I turned to this oldie, which I had been putting off because it sounded like a teen-oriented show. So glad I waited, because after seeing around 200 Korean dramas, I can appreciate the historical context, the humor, the Busan dialect, which to Seoul people must sound the way Alabamans sound to New Yorkers. Now I want to go back and re-watch 1994 and best of all 1988 with a more informed perspective. But 3 years later, I'm still grieving over Park Bo Gum stealing Hieri away from Ryu Jun Yeol, so 1988 will have to wait a while longer.

RUH-OH.... d****c**l seems to be down... now i can't watch most of the dramas i'm following...

Finished Crash Course In Romance
The prefinal episode looked like a final one by wrapping up the storylines, and Mr. Ji at least got a beautiful death scene. But then they had to throw this ridiculous decision by Hae Yi to be with her mother on us. At first I thought it was a ruse on her part to make her mother withdraw, but that did not seem to be the case, or she would not have hurt her aunt and the others like that. That caricature of a greedy, selfish “mother” was unnecessary.
Last episode: That was way too easy on the mothers! Not even one of them said I’m sorry once, and having a suicidal daughter about school pressure, behaving like nothing ever happened and then going on to become a counselor? No way... Loved the mutual proposal without flowers or balloons but with a lot of earnestness. And finally in the last two episodes I got the romance.
Started Call It Love
This totally had me at the first episode. The atmosphere, the visuals (pink filter…) and especially the story about two lonely souls is fantastic.
Heavenly Idol
This gets crazier and crazier… more deities, goblins, grim reapers… I love it!
Our Blooming Youth
Are we over the trust issues for good? I hope so… Each week, a drama I look forward to.
Delivery Man
Fun and easy to watch, I like the episodic format, the beginning romaance and the friendship.
Peak Time Every time I finish an episode I want more! This week’s rap contest was great. And I’m thankful we get to watch this without commercial breaks.
Finished Rain Or Shine, a great drama!
KDrama friend project:
Watching Season of Kkokdu together and still love it. Also, we are currently both watching A Korean Odyssey because Netflix in Germany will take it down soon. We both love Hong Sisters’ dramas, and this has what we like best: epic supernatural stories, comedy, romance, great sets and styling… since this is so long, it took up a lot of last week’s watchtime.

Call It Love (6/16) ★★★★☆
I am enjoying the tone of this drama and the whimsy. I really appreciate the temperament of Lee Sung Kyung’s character. She always says the first thing that comes to mind regardless of anyone's feelings. I really love the siblings and their quirky dynamic. This week we see the first buds of attraction.

Our Blooming Youth (10/20) ★★★☆☆
We are halfway through, and I need a bit more from this drama. There are so many good tropes to leverage, but the drama hasn’t taken advantage of the cross-dressing or the love triangle setup.

Taxi Driver 2 (6/16) ★★★☆☆
I keep with this for Lee Je Hoon and his weekly disguises. I am not a huge fan of the episodic format and each round of baddies just seems like a circus of outlandish caricatures. I have such an issue taking them seriously. I know this drama isn’t supposed to be realistic, but I still wonder how this drama would have fared with the original screenwriter. It's a shame that we'll never know.

Just finished MYSTIC POP-UP BAR. I had tried to watch it when I was still a Kdrama newbie, and didn’t make it through episode 2. A couple of years later, seeing all the love it has gotten from the Dramabeans community, I decided to give it another try, hoping that I’d see it differently now that I’ve watched so many more Kdramas.

Understanding the actors, the tropes, the humor, etc. made all the difference! I binged my way through the series in two days, totally captivated by the quirky characters, twisty plot, complex relationships, and—especially—the total commitment of the actors, in particular the masterclass in acting by Choi Won-Young.

I had similar experiences with FOREST OF SECRETS and HEALER, both of which went from “couldn’t finish” (please don’t judge me!) to “all-time favorite” the second time around. I’m looking to see what other potential gems I should give another chance!

OUR BLOOMING YOUTH: Things are blooming indeed this week - bromance fully, romance slowly, intrigue is literally on fire. Hope the more subtle approach to swoony/emotional scenes stays, because this drama is the best when not slapping viewers in the face with what it's trying to tell. Now that we're halfway done things should get more exciting and possibly even daring. Yes, more daring sounds good. Bring on the epic, show!

THE HEAVENLY IDOL: Ok, so who from the production team is my fellow fandom believer, to borrow Rembrary's terminology?))) They've got taste. Sadly, everything else about the drama became super messy. Still sticking around for kpop meta (where did hilarious food PPL go?), thorn birds k-romcom version and because I'm very curious what's exactly wrong with our ML's beloved deity.

ISLAND: Drama stayed consistent to what it was through its whole run - a hot mess of brilliant things/ideas and utter trash of execution - until the very end. Pls don't make a sequel - I'd rather write my own fanfic ending to this story in my head than suffer even more trough show creators' creativity. Let us remember this as a REAL start of CEW's acting career and forget everything else.

KKOKDU: Only 1 episode this week thanks to eternal k-TV plague - baseball season. Still 1 episode too many. Im Soo Hyang should sue the writer - what they did to her role way beyond simple character assassination. Nah, scratch that - everyone in the show should sue the writer! Before 3K gets fed up with all the crap they've been throwing at him and goes for a kill - of a freezing choke-hold variety. And I won't blame him even a bit if he eventually does. Can't wait for this to be over and buried along with dinosaurs.

Crash Course in Romance is over with a tidy ending, though part of the journey is missing for some characters and the emphasis on toxic academic pressure goes nowhere.

Though set in a completely different era, Our Blooming Youth has similar problems with focus and disjointed writing. Every other episode seems to be written by someone different, and it’s left to obvious musical cues to tell us whether we’re watching The Moon Embracing the Sun/Damo (i.e., angsty melodrama) or Love in the Moonlight/Sungkyunkwan Scandal (i.e., young adult romantic comedy). The drama is entertaining, but I can’t take any of the dialogue seriously. It’s nice that the crown prince trusts the left minister and his son and that our heroine would rather be head eunuch this week. Next week? Who knows? So far, I think the queen is the most interesting character, but we’ll see what happens. Also, I’d just like to point out that having the protagonist framed for murdering her family is a bit too dark of a start for a lighthearted mystery romp. It’s not really the best setting for first crushes, youth sports, or the many other coming-of-age hijinks suggested in the title, either. Why isn’t she spending more time trying to clear her name when she’s not fulfilling her duties as a eunuch? Gaps of her memory are missing, and we don’t even have a coherent outline of the events leading up to her becoming a fugitive. I have so many unanswered questions.

Finally, I finished the Chinese drama Under the Microscope, which I general liked. Apparently based on a true story, the plot revolves around the single-minded efforts of an “arithmetic nut” to correct a land surveying error, which leads him to uncover tax fraud and ultimately murder during the Ming Dynasty. Most of the characters and actors are fantastic. They give human dimension to the rampant corruption shown, and everyone has unique motivations and believable responses to the political shenanigans. The way the commoners are pitted against each other to further the interests of the wealthy also has a striking resemblance to contemporary populism, and the seeming futility of fighting entrenched exploitation is eye-opening. I just wish I liked the protagonist more. I’m not sure if it’s overacting or inconsistent characterization, but he comes across as an enigmatic eccentric with alarming facial expressions and frustratingly unpredictable levels of perception. It doesn’t help that his backstory is revealed through loud, jarring flashbacks that are initially incomprehensible. His parents and friends are wonderful, so I did ultimately develop sympathy for his character, but his behavior made him hard to like (for me, anyway).

Heavenly Idol: Not anxiously waiting for new episodes like before but it's a fairly enjoyable watch. I wisb they would cut down on the complex side stories and characters, I just want more idol fluff
Our blooming youth: on a slight hold right now, maybe it's best to binge a couple of episodes

Call it love: I don't know what else to call my feeling for this show, except for love. It was never in my radar but its now my weekly drug. I need more of KYKs longing/smitten/hurt/vulnerable looks, I could watch his eyes acting all day.

What I watched this week:

Love to Hate You Surprised by how much I liked this short rom com! It was strong all the way through to the ending.
Moment of Eighteen Someone on here recommended this. I love school dramas and this one is so good!
Our Blooming YouthEpisode 9 contained one of the most satisfying scenes I’ve ever encountered in a kdrama. It was not revenge, kissing or anything like that—just a simple clearing up of a miscommunication. So so so satisfying.
Crash Course in Romance Watched the last episode on Sunday. I like the ways the plot resolved but as usual found the ending poorly paced and a little limp. Also I felt like the show runner was trolling the audience with the extra hideous clothing on the FL at the end.
All the Liquors BL web drama with the cute but very clumsy little gourmand soju marketer and the handsome, if wooden, chef who doesn’t drink or allow alcoholic beverages in his restaurant. In episode 4, the chef drank and had a very bad reaction. Maybe instead of getting alcoholics to start drinking again, we’re getting people with no alcohol tolerance to drink and pass out again? I’m so mad at this show for the alcohol messages, but I’m still watching it.
You Drive Me Crazy: this was a rec from Dramabeans. It was as fluffy as promised. The ending bugged me a little. What’s with someone who lives in the same city not seeing her friend for a full year? But this is a persistent issue with kdrama writers and I still liked this one.
Divorce Attorney Shin Watched the first episode. Not sure I’m into it, even though I like the use of trot music a lot.
Our Dating Sim BL web drama, first two episodes this week. Lots of emotion in the first episode.

Not Korean TV I watched: Japanese BLs Jack o’ Frost and The End of the World With You. Both improved! Jack o’ Frost is really romance tropes. I also watched Dokyusei, a BL anime, and The Stranger by the Beach. It’s hard to critique anime when it’s made so incredibly beautifully. I don’t watch a lot of it, but when I do I’m always blown away.

I also watched Tár with my partner. It was a good movie but not a good experience to watch, if that makes sense?

As for currently airing dramas, Our Blooming Youth and Divorce Attorney Shin are my favourites. Yet to watch the 3rd episode of Divorce Attorney.

Completed Unlock my Boss during the weekend, and It was a nice show. It had the thrill, romance , comedy and I loved the male lead character Park In Seong. One of the few dramas where the male lead is nice to everyone and I really liked that he was such a warm character. I would rate is 7/10, a good show for the first time watch.

Such a long time without visiting WWW! Feel like I'm coming to the schoolyard after a long holiday and I'm just happy to see all the familiar handles and feeling a little shy to go and greet them personally, he!
Anyways, Trolley, The Glory and just yesterday I realized that Weak Hero Class 1 dropped on Viki in my region and proceeded to marathon the first half.... My drama watching has been bleak!
The Glory was very satisfying. I lovelovelove Park Sung Hoon. He'll stay forever in my heart as a cinnamon roll in Into the Ring, but there's something about the way he plays deranged bastards... I call it the Sean Bean effect. Just love to hate the guy, with extra points when he meets his awful demise in the end (*manic laughter)

STARRY LOVE continues to be entertaining with the quest for soul shards and I was so happy to discover Chen Xing Xu using his normal timbre for Heartless on occasion. I'm so happy to hear there's no permanent damage on his vocal cords.

SWEAT AND SOAP: This show is awkward, cute and funny with the most irresistible brah PPL. Great implementation of the anti-humidifyer as well.

Other than this, I haven't been watching any drama in favour of STREET DANCE OF CHINA. Watching Bouboo dance makes my joints ache and my inner stan go wild but the show is really enjoyable overall and the occasional Sailor Moon BGM makes me giddy. Wang Yibo even makes me willing to go back to watching the Untamed, which I dropped after the dead city on account of source bias.

Seems to me that Kim Nam-gil should stay away from one word-titled dramas. #Island #Shark #Ugh

For someone who’s firmly on the “Bring Back Murder-free Romcoms” camp, i skipped all the romance in Crash Course because i was too impatient to see whodunit. Now that i know, i can watch the romance part in peace.

But first, The Glory part 2, cos i keep stumbling on spoilers and i also want to talk about it with people. I started watching c-drama Lighter & Princess, but today i saw it’s coming on Netflix soon so i’m gonna wait for that. The only other current to-watch on my list is Taxi Driver.

I've finally started watching The Glory. Originally, I had no intention to do so because I'm not necessarily one for revenge plots and no KES drama, so far, has really managed to grab my attention.

Went in with very few expectations -- aside from seeing the attractive male side character I had already read about. Then, the victim-victim solidarity hit me square in the feels. While I think this drama could have done well without the love line, I'm also not completely averse to it. It's simply an obviously weaker part of an otherwise quite solid show. (For a while, I was hoping that LDH's character was somehow responsible for what happened to his father but, after 11 episodes, I guess that's not happening. The Hannibal-esque scene in his home made me think there was more to it.)

My favorite part of the show: Definitely Kang Hyeon-nam and her relationship with our protagonist. If that woman doesn't get her own little happy ending, I'll don't even know what to do with myself.