Taxi Driver 2 (Series review) - Mood progression: D+ / D+ / D / D / D- / D- / D- / D-
I thought Shin Jae Ha’s role in Crash Course in Romance was bad, but looking at Taxi Driver 2 has made me appreciate slingshot guy instead. Somehow, the 2nd season has found a way to be even worse than the 1st one: I am actually impressed they made it more unrealistic, with less character development, blander procedurals, lamer villains? Well, the silver lining in the cloud is that no matter how makjang this show was, Shin Jae Ha won’t be involved with the 3rd season: surely he doesn’t want to be yeeting off yet another high building? But maybe he wants it, we’ll never know.

The Secret Romantic Guesthouse (Episode 9-10) - Mood: C-
Despite the predictability, I still found myself gasping in shock when Si Yeol was revealed to be the watchman, credit due to Kang Hoon’s acting which magnified the difference between his bumbling facade and his watchman identity. But it looks increasingly hopeless for the political arc of the plot and the mystery is no more so I’m not optimistic to say the least?

Doctor Cha (Episode 1-2) - Mood: C-
Initially, I baulked at watching the show given the blatant infidelity, but I saw the first impressions post and thought why not given the lack of any show capturing my attention these days. And that slap made it so worthwhile! I was worried about the kids if she divorces but it seems like they don’t deserve any worry. General plot is pretty mediocre, but it’s a guilty pleasure.

Stealer: The Treasure Keeper (Episode 3-4) - Mood: D+
You know, I get that I’m not the intended audience when Japan’s historical colonialism of Korea was the backdrop behind a cultural war between our protagonists and villains here (not my place to judge either). But the writer can certainly do better than making Pen Killer’s motivation be his sister who I dread is Min Woo. Still, there’s hope for the arcs of the cop team trio.

Bora! Deborah (Episode 3-4) - Mood: D-
If I recall correctly, the last time I gave a D- to a drama’s 2nd week was Forecasting Love and Weather (or Now We Are Breaking Up before that). I can’t comprehend what compelled Chansung to accept this role or the wild writing that somehow has him as a leading character. There’s no one to root for and that’s certainly unintended in this plot.

Bora! Deborah/True to Love: The Chicken King is well on his way to winning Prick of the Year, and that breakup scene was truly epic. I felt so bad for the poor men picking up the garbage!

My Love from the Star: Spoilers This was such an addictive drama, and since I have fewer other dramas going, I zipped right through and finished yesterday. It was so good! I loved the bromances that developed between Min-joon and Yoon-jae, and between the prosecutor and the detective; I found Hee-kyung endlessly sympathetic and Se-mi not sympathetic at all; I loved the daggers flying between Song-i’s mom and Lawyer Jang; and I thought the villain had an extremely satisfying end (when his dad finally came to his senses). But obviously it was all about Song-i and Min-joon and they were both so great. I wasn’t sure how they were going to end up, and it was quite a bittersweet ending in lots of ways, but I still found it pretty satisfying. I mean, not every drama can pull the old reincarnation trick to snatch a moderately happy ending from the jaws of tragedy, but it still made me sad to think of Min-joon on his own again after Song-i is gone. Still, they have a while, and now they know how to make the most of it.

FAMILY (Ep 1-2): I felt Episode 1 was a disjointed mess. The direction and sound effects did not not make it an easy follow. Billed as an action + comedy + spy + family drama, it was weak on all four points. It is like driving without a map or GPS into a poorly marked double clover-leaf expressway exit. The major point missing was WHY the characters were in the position they were in. Episode 2 was not much better; the intrusion of Director Oh into the family life seems out of place for the head of a secret spy agency. It puts the family in harms way. I like Jang Nara as an actress but it seems she is playing Yura like she did in Go Back Couple, brooding and temperamental, but that show at least had a heart. I have not found a beating one so far in FAMILY. This is her first role since her marriage; I wonder if subconsciously she will pull back on affection to ML since she is still a honeymooner. I do like the child actress (Shin Su-A) playing Min-seo.

DR CHA (Ep 1-2): The pre-show posters and articles led me to believe that this would be a light-hearted show. It was drastically more serious than I expected. I like the leads Uhm Jung-Hwa and Kim Byung-Chul even though some of his early expressions did not match the mood or scene. It does have the over-emoting weekender mother-in-laws and a premise that stretches thin ( the reality of returning to medical profession after 20 years; but I wonder about her prior medical license having lapsed; is that why she has to re-do her residency?). It also has stereotypical characters: the straight-shooting best friend; the love triangle; a tempting affair candidate; and children caught in their parents vision of their future. I thought the first two episodes were good with no egregious medical errors, but now the show will focus on her residency which is cause for concern in this area.

YouTube:

ROBWORDS: A British gent, Rob Watts, explores the niche world of English words and language. His channel (290K subscribers) just popped up on my feed. I saw two interesting commentaries: one, on the lost letters of the English alphabet and two, Medieval words that he would like to bring back into modern use.

I learned Hangul was developed in 1443 by Sejong, fourth king of the Joseon dynasty, to improve literacy. The letter shapes corresponded to lip and tongue placement to make sounds. However, Chinese characters remained the principal writing system for upper classes for 500 more years.

Real Has Come - oooh, Sejin is a snake of the highest order with twisting the facts in her favour... and how she reacted to the news about her father, I can't even. She and Narcissistic Cheating Ex deserve each other!
Taekyung, in the meantime, has spent some happy time dining (and drinking) with Yeondoo's family... and roasting marshmallows with little Soogyeom 💕 ...and I have never seen him so relaxed before. He may be closer to his happiness there now as Yeondoo finally decided to go with Taekyung's plea and saved him from the doom and gloom (=marriage with Sejin). Very dramatically, of course 😄

Bora Deborah - this is not the romcom I expected, it's more a relationship melo with wacky comedy elements (SML in a tiny bathtub... or that garbage truck scene! 😂😂). But after I adjusted my expectations, I actually quite like it and some scenes and dialogues cut rather deep.

Family: HMMMMMM, the subs aren't great. The baby girl harrassing that poor baby boy and the writers acting like that is an innocent crush is not the look. The father is a terrible husband and we don't know enough about the wife. I think I will just say I couldn't watch this due to subs and move on like it never happened.

Bora!Deborah: Having Bora cry and act a fool for two whole episodes is certainly a choice. Not a choice I am particularly fond of. One episode I get, but two is doing too much especially for someone who was self assured. The fact that her loser cheating boyfriend is all it took for her to utterly and completely lose her mind and have a break down is sending a message I just don't like, 🤔🤔.

Stealer: This has actually gotten really delightful for me. Joo Wan is clearly having fun and I am happy this drama is not taking itself seriously.

Joseon Attorney: I continue to only care about our OTP even the absurdity of him telling her all about his sister while drunk, lol.

Bait: I gave up, I don't if that man is dead or alive.

CRICKET - ODI world cup in October but there is no schedule - means no tickets - no planning - stadiums are getting makeup - that's how things go in highly corrupt system - no one knows which team gonna play when with which other team in whichever stadium in which city

Frustrating -

too many know players injured too -

Well this world cup gonna be a big political campaign spectacle so everything you can show frustration at.

The Secret Romantic Guesthouse It's always weird when you don't really care about the main leads but very curious about another character.

Bora! Deborah The last episodes made it hard to care about the FL. I mean I understand she's suffering but can she be still professional?

Joseon Attorney The leads are great together!

Decoy (Bait) I really like JKS in this role and it's why the story was frustrating by focusing so much on the past and the villain. I would have prefered they focused on the present and the ML's story about the fact he left his attorney job to become a cop. But instead, they prefered to hint a next season about it. There were way too much characters between the victims, the villains and the cop. Adding the fact, the PD chose a very dark filter and a break between the 2 parts, it made difficult to remember everyone and their purpose in the story.

So many new streaming platforms and it's still complicated to find some Kdramas with good subtitles... I really want to watch Paper Moon :(

I re-subscribed to Disney+ eagerly awaiting the release of FAMILY and then finding out to my utter disappointment it’s not on there *sigh*

I’m not particularly interested in any Disney+ offerings apart from ABBOT ELEMENTARY which I’m enjoying. Tho I am curious, in both the Korean and American educational systems lunch seems to be provided from the school? Do parents have to pay for this in fees or is this a service the school provides? Especially since Abbot Elementary is a public school.

I find this fascinating since in Australia we have to bring our lunch from home. I’m not sure how much has changed but back when I was in primary school we had tuckshop days (which was once or twice a week). Parents would write the lunch order and put the money in a brown paper bag, this was collected by the teachers and sent to the volunteer parents who worked at the tuckshop. A box filled with the brown paper orders would arrive at the designated classes for lunch time.

However, as a newly immigrant child with barely any comprehensive english skills, I did not understand this concept and stole some poor kid’s lunch. I don’t particularly like owing people but to this day I owe someone their lunch…

I started watching FAMILY and then quit immediately 10 mins later. The subs are terrible, and I also cannot quite make head or tail of what's going on, nor was I impressed by any of the performances. This is a shame because I was really looking forward to seeing Jang Hyuk and Jang Nara on screen again.

@missvictrix @dramaddictally I was thrilled to read that you 2 are watching Lookout. Also, @missvictrix , Lee Shi Young did all her own stunts and was 4 months pregnant! Yes, she is my hero!

And wow, 2 of my favorite shows at the same time?? @dramaddictally I hope you enjoy Confession as much a I love it. To me it is less a crime show and more a show about the characters interacting together.

All the dramas I enjoyed are over.

Deborah: I have recalibrated. Ep 4 was much better.
Doctor Cha: Sounds like it’s going to be a fun show with the right amount of heart. Fingers crossed.
Nothing but you (c): Done. Great OTP but too many episodes. Towards the end it dragged and some of the issues felt drawn out. But still a very enjoyable watch.
Take us home (c) ; Why does Bai Yu keep picking these roles. It’s like another Bond. The characters are frustrating. The siblings love is nice but it’s hard to like them as individuals. My biggest issue is the elder sister. I should drop. But then Bai Yu smiles.

Looks like it’s a good thing we didn’t get subs for Family 😜

ONGOING
Secret Romantic Guesthouse - Brothers at cross-purposes is such delicious sageuk material. Hope this lives up to potential.

Stealer - The pacing and editing seem rushed - maybe because it's only 12 episodes - but I'm having fun watching the hijinks. When he accepted the rear-end knockout gas coz it makes his butt look rock-hard 🤣…

Bo-ra! Deborah - I must be severely lacking in empathy because the FL's behaviour just made me roll my eyes 😕. At this point, Yoo-jeong, Woo-ri and Sang-jin are the ones keeping me invested.

STARTED
Family - Was annoyed we didn't have proper subs for it but, based on the recap and comments, that might be for the better? Seems like my fears about the writer came true.

C-DRAMAS
Continue to enjoy the extremely addictive Till the End of the Moon.

Taxi Driver s2: 6.0 Taxi Ex Machina.

Joseon Attorney: A Morality: 7.0 "A Morality" or "Amorality"?

Secret Romantic Guesthouse: 7.0

Family: The Unbreakable Bond: 2.5 The TVN show that proves all the good subbers have gone to Netflix? I lasted partway thru ep 2.

Bora! Deborah / True to Love: 7.5 Day 4 -- so Deborah is going to be the Kim Sae-ron of dating coaches for a while?

Stealer: The Treasure Keeper: 7.5

Romantic Guesthouse
Since I started this late, I had the advantage of watching it to my heart’s content and following the speculations about who is who on Dramabeans. Great pacing in this drama, it kept playing us viewers without ever getting boring. Now the cats are out of the bag, but I’m still cautious, identities could turn around once again. And things are getting really dangerous for all of our heroes…
Stealer – The Treasure Keeper
My favorite person here is villain harabeoji! Next in line: Ahjumma supporting money, intelligence and technology. The over-the-top Spiderman suit got upgraded to being bulletproof and emitting gas ☹
Bo Ra! Deborah
This is fun and entertaining; but did that breakup have to hit Bora that hard?!
Doctor Cha and Family
These two dramas went completely against my expectations: I was looking forward to Family because of both leads and expected a fun comedy/action drama like Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I understand that the drama has to set up the problems in the family before starting to clear them, but this felt just so unlikeable, choppy and uneven that I really did not enjoy it and stopped after Ep.1. Having to watch it on D****c*** with bad picture quality, worse sound and terrible subtitles didn’t help either. (One ray of light: recognized dongsaeng Kim Kang Min from To My Star).
On the other hand, I didn’t even want to watch Doctor Cha, because we are watching for escapism, aren’t we, and her place in life is much closer to mine than students, princes or chaebols. But I really enjoyed the first episodes, liked the storyline, acting is great and Dr. Cutie is a bonus!
Dr Romantic S2
I’ll be in time finishing this for S3. I really love it, but I liked S1 even better.
KDrama friend project:
No time for “real” kdramas, we are too busy with kpop content (BTS, PeakTime, Boys Planet…) and BLs. Binge watched Unintentional Love Story (good) and started Eighth Sense, because people were raving about it, and it is great at being different. Also, I had to find a way to watch Cool Doji Danshi because of Yuta of NCT127 😉

This week I watched MY HOLO LOVE which was sweet and captivating and like the ultimate kdrama recipe with every single trope in the book, but it never got insulting or annoying. Maybe more suitable for younger audiences but I enjoyed it a lot too.

I'm now 3 episodes into THE GOOD DETECTIVE but it doesn't grab me. It is very uninteresting and boring. In complete contrast to My Holo Love which managed to pack as much story as possible in every episode, The Good Detective's first 3 hours have given the information that are usually given in the first hour. I don't know if I will continue or not.

Binged through WILD ROMANCE for the nth time. Might rewatch PUNCH next.

I'm also on a mission to encourage people to watch WHAT'S UP.

Binged Love To Hate You and enjoyed it a lot. This is one I'll probably rewatch again at some point.

Finally watched the last two episodes of Who Rules the World. Enjoyed the drama up until the leads got married, then the focus turned to all the political scheming and plotting and building up to war, and I lost interest. This is another drama that needs a good fanfic to fix the ending.

Completed Lucky's First Love with a LOT of FF. Waste of time. Not sure how in the world it has an 8.2 rating on MDL.

Finally getting around to watching Attorney Woo and I am LOVING it. Making myself watch only 2 eps a day. I'm spoiled on the ending somewhat so I went in with tempered expectations, but the moment Joon-ho started acting smitten, I was all in, dang it.

Decided to drop The Starry Love, sigh. I was enjoying it, but was accidentally spoiled on the ending and now I don't want to finish it because I know the ending will make me mad.

I think my next Cdrama will be Go Ahead. Hadn't heard about it until I read about the Korean remake.

"Lookout" was my favorite performance of KYK's before "Call it Love." I feel I can say that with authority even though I only watched a few episodes--not because it's not a hugely entertaining drama (it totally is) but because it's so hard to access.

TRUE TO LOVE: It certainly isn't the masterpiece that "Call it Love" is, so I don't look forward to Wednesdays quite as much as I used to, but I have to give this show props: it got waaaaay better from episode 1 to 4. The writers and actors didn't shy away from depicting raw, devastating heartache, and even if I don't quite get Bo-ra's depth of feeling for her ex, I do see how his duplicity acted like an earthquake destroying her entire sense of personal and professional identity. I've also completely warmed up to the ML, now that the writers remembered to show him as a vulnerable human being, not just some robotic, cynical man whose professional attack on Deborah basically boiled down to the deeply offensive "I don't find you attractive so you must not be good at your job." I do hope, though, we don't wallow in heartbreak for too long; seeing Deborah completely lose it in public and then be attacked by that public may be somewhat realistic, but I don't want to watch weeks upon weeks of her humiliation. Yoo-In Na is killing it, though.

JOSEON ATTORNEY: This is a well crafted show with snappy dialogue, a very charming set of leads, and some interesting cases. I like it, but the addictive element is missing for me so far (I'm only at ep. 4 and progressing slowly).

SECRET ROMANTIC GUESTHOUSE: This show is delivering on its premise, and even in revealing the mystery is keeping up the dramatic tension. A lot of shows have failed to do either of those things well this year, so I applaud this one. It's true that Ryeoun isn't as strong of an actor as the others, which means the central romance isn't quite as compelling as it might have been, but he's doing well enough. And the other two male leads are really selling me on their internal struggles.

REAL HAS COME: This show is basically about a bunch of people freaking out over adult women having sex, and then endeavoring to shame, guilt, or quarantine them because of it. So it's very hard to watch at times (the FL's mother in particular drove me nuts this week with her bullying, whining, and manipulative behavior), even though the writer is clearly critical of societal freak-outs over female sexuality and single motherhood. That said, I do continue to like the burgeoning relationship between the leads; even though it's very messy, there's something about the ML falling in love with the FL's family that got me.

Feel somewhat sheepish to admit that I am watching C-dramas almost all of the time now. Saw that K-ent is remaking Go Ahead so I started that (having added it earlier from a Beanie rec). Love slice-of-life and found family themes.
Started Ode to Joy which is dated and bloated but still enjoyable. Chuckling at the rare dig at "those clingy Kdrama girls" as example of how not to behave in a relationship.
Many raves about Till the End of the Moon sent me over to xianxia land. Watched ep 1 and thought, "gee this looks like the role-play parts of Love 020, all flat lighting and stilted dialogue. Turns out, the C-drama youtuber at AvenueX recommends online gaming as a viewing lens for this show. Puzzling character development and plot twists but great CG. Seems exactly what 14 year-old boys would expect of an enemies to lovers arc.
Really want to watch Stealer but can't find it.
The C-drama The Bad Kids has so many admirers but I can't locate it either. Any ideas (besides signing up for yet another streaming service)?

So this unintentionally became retro time travel week . . .

The Best Hit: This is structurally messy, oddly paced, and has a lot of set ups that never quite pay off, but I kind of loved it. Snarky Lee Se Young is a hoot, and I could watch Yoon Shi Yoon channel his inner 90's hip hop star forever. I also personally liked the way it upended the standard "misfits make good" tropes. It's ultimately more a show about losing than about winning, about almost getting what you want or only getting bits and pieces of it, but still fighting and building odd, random, found families along the way. I do wish it had included more scenes of everyone making/performing music together though . . .

Queen In-Hyun's Man: So I really like the ML, both in terms of acting and characterization, but everyone in the modern world feels like a grating, over-acted cartoon. Also, I'm not really a fan of female leads who are treated like and act like children. On the fence about this one so far.

Yay, more Lookout fans! Great cast, script, directing, and music.

Joseon Attorney: Yay scenes outside of the usual palace and street sets. I love it when characters travel to a new place. For me, the drama doesn't have that stickiness/crack factor, but it's been developing quite nicely and at a good pace.

The Real Has Come: Glad I waited until ep 8 to watch while I worked on some projects. Enjoying the various couples and characters and the concept of blended families, but not enjoying the discrimination against single moms. I really like how the main couple fell into friendship pretty quickly.

Meet Yourself: (cdrama, up to episode 26) So warm. I laugh and I cry and I laugh again. The dialogue in this drama is just *chef's kiss*. The beauty of it comes from how relatable and real and raw.

Paper/Pale Moon: Yay! @missvictrix I’m not the only one watching this, or trying to. The auto-translate subtitle are atrocious. And it was still good. That scene, and much more.

It definitely won't be everyone's cup of tea, most definitely not, but it’s mine. I stopped at the end of Episode 2 because I missed way too much thanks to poor subtitles. Also, I needed to fan myself. (If you’ve seen it, you’ll know what I mean ;-).

Dr Cha: The first episode was soapy and tropey. It's still that, but the second episode added layers to our characters, even the villains, gave our hapless housewife a backbone, slapped in some great comedy and promised romance. Keep your expectations low and enjoy the ride.

Bora! Deborah: On the fence.

The Real Has Come: Expecting to fall off the fence.

Because of obligations/life, I only have time for Our Blues, trying to catch up for the Baeksang Awards. I love this show since I am partial to ensemble casts (e.g. Be Melodramatic, When the Camellia Blooms). And it has a sterling cast. I love Lee Jeung-un's character. I hope it wins something at the Baeksang but I am assuming it will be overshadowed by Atty. Woo and The Glory.

In danger of being dropped: Taxi Driver, Season 2. I don't mind the unbelievable stuff but I don't like the humor (slapstick?). It's not working for me and I find it quite silly, esp. Mr. Park and Mr. Choi that I cringe whenever they have a dialogue.

REAL HAS COME - Can’t wait for this weekend’s episodes, even though the previews indicate there will be more ridiculous hysterics from the usual suspects. But that’s what makes it a weekend makjang.
SECRET ROMANTIC GUESTHOUSE - The Flower Boys’ identities have been revealed and I’m feeling deflated and wary. With so many subplots, I’m hoping this doesn’t go off the rails.
DEBORAH - This is supposed to be a RomCom? Deborah’s utter humiliation was too much, and she has a drinking problem among other things. Her “friend” is not a friend for watching it play out without any intervention and then cowardly denying they are BFs. If this doesn’t turn around fast, I cannot watch anymore.
DOCTOR CHA - This is basically a refresh of TWENTY AGAIN, but so far, I’m loving it!!! I enjoy stories about women in midlife coming into their own with or without a romantic arc. But Dr. Roy Kim is easy on the eyes, so I’m game. And yes, that slap was hysterical.

Like everyone else, apparently, Bora Deborah has me a bit confused. It not that often that my reaction to a rom-com is "This isn't how K-dramas are structured, what's going on?"

I'm watching other stuff, besides, but not with sufficient enthusiasm to mention their names.

Scheduled for the weekend is the new Kim Da-mi movie 'Soulmate' which I have high hopes for.