Excitedly waiting for Finland Papa which should be out soon although I think it’s likely to be tomorrow afternoon.

The Good Bad Mother
Wow what a rollercoaster of an episode one to get us from Kangho’s parents’ courtship to his job as an adult. They gave clear evidence of the parent/child relationship strain and the briefest of glimpses of young love! This show is going to be the queen of Cliffhanger endings 😱

Episode one I was so hopeful it was a double agent manoeuvre and part of a bigger picture to take the company down but as we have been burned too many times with characters doing things that we think is out of character I was a little worried it would be shown that he was all about the money. Now we have seen both episodes I am quietly confident that I am right he had a plan to take down both the people who let his family down.

However, this unexpected ‘accident’ is a concern as the plan will not be executed so he would have gone through all of that without making them suffer the consequences of their actions. I wonder if he will go through a period of healing physically and emotionally and come up with a plan B which is less about losing his soul and more about making sure justice is done and that people don’t have to be collateral damage. I do hope he tied everything up with the woman and the baby and they are not dependent on him being in his right mind any time soon. I don’t know if they will use temporary/permanent amnesia as part of the brain injury symptoms.

I am looking forward to week 2 to see if they can continue to fill the gaps and develop the other side of the story as well as they did in week one. It has been a great start to a much anticipated watch.

Sungkyunkwan Scandal
Watching this as a potential for the May Watch and Discuss Korean Drama club meeting.

Octogenarians and the 90’s - Chinese drama
I liked the trailer about a group of elders and their adventures in their care home, with an enemies to unexpected love storyline with the home manager and a salesman with ill intentions. The salesman is the male lead from New Life begins so good to see him in a modern drama.

Tomorrow’s Cantabile
I am finally on the home stretch after leaving it for a while to finish off more interesting dramas. I am now seeing it all with one of the characters using a pocket watch to hypnotise the man she wants to be with, I can not believe they went there. Anyway it was good to see the props department reusing the same pocket watch in Chicago Typewriter three years later along with Kyoungpyo who was playing a more grounded second male lead. I will finish this off today as the Bogummy’s storyline should be finishing off soon although the way the show is going they may stretch it out to the last ten minutes of the last episode of the show just to make me strain my fast forwarding finger.

Completed
Chicago Typewriter
I am so glad I went with this drama based on beanie recommendations. It’s a great story well told...

SUZUME (2022): It has been three years since I went to a movie theater to see PARASITE. Last Sunday, I went to a “private” screening matinee (only 4 people were in the 150 seat theater) for Makoto Shinkai’s latest anime. One cannot see or appreciate the massive detail of the backgrounds unless you see them on the big screen. The artwork and animation were excellent. He uses supernatural themes to harness stories about nature and humanity. His movies still draw Studio Ghibli influences and his endings are more or less predictable and safe. After watching 25 minutes of commercials and repetitious summer action movie previews, Shinkai’s work was a breath of fresh air.

FAMILY (Ep. 3): South Korea is a nation of laws. Do-Hoon’s assassination of gangsters and criminals without an arrest or trial under guise of national security is so repugnant to its actual purpose: The National Intelligence Service in Korea is responsible for overseeing national cybersecurity policy and defending against cyber threats, including distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks as well as investigating crimes against national security. The NIS is not involved in domestic police work as his two sniper jobs indicated. If this a a rogue unit, then tell us. Then, Do-Hoon is not a stable father/family man but facing life in prison for his own crimes. Despite the writer’s massive reality error, the marriage story is still an unwatchable train wreck. Yura and Oh’s drinking marathon was pointless. Do-Hoon and Yura’s attempt to have another child in a bad and fractured marriage is also pointless especially as written as attempted comedy. Even Min-seo’s crush has gotten cringey. The rest of the family acts like a band of grifters whose loyalty to Oh’s gifts is more important than Yura’s sacrifices for them. Since the premise was weak and the execution bad, I dropped this series since it is a misguided waste of talent. I really do not care what Jang Nara’s “secret” is other than why she accepted this project.

DR. CHA (Ep. 3-4) I guess the humor is going to be the tension-reactions of Dr. Seo to his wife’s awkward situations. And those attempts at humor seem often misplaced and flat. Team building drunkenness for an entire surgical department does not seem to be the appropriate standard of care for work on the next day. The big reveal in Episode 3 was that Dr. Choi, who we thought was a pining spinster, has a daughter?! But the new Choi Eun-SEO character is clearly the birth secret time bomb. If Seo knocked up Cha and had to marry her, then shortly thereafter went out and knocked up his first love, he is really brain dead from the waist down. I got more of the weekender MIL vibes at their lunch when Cha’s mother put Seo’s mother in her place; the flood gate of sad stories is just beginning. In Episode 4, Eun-Seo knows Cha is the woman who is blocking her mother’s happiness. The expected chaos of Cha’s residency work load is focused on her mistakes, which in the end of...

The Real Has Come
We are finally there, the contract cohabitation starts now!! 🥳 with the big help of our Moms who are quickly becoming the besties. 🙂
Yeondoo and Taekyung seem to already have a very good partnership anyway, together with mutual respect and kindness. They also keep thinking and worrying about each other... and the best romantic scene for me so far surprisingly was Taekyung's checking on the baby at his clinic. ❤️
The show is still good at cliffhangers (oh, Grandma 😄) and I also like the humourous directing (siblings checking on Yeondoo 😁).

Dr Cha
Ha ha, the comedy is great in this one and I'm especially enjoying Kim Byung Chul as Inho (that kick in the bed 😂). I'm also loving the caring relationship between Dr.Cha and her son. And then there is smexy Dr. Kim with his straightforwardness... and bike. 😍

Bad Mother, ep1 only
Bad people doing bad things, corrupt prosecutors, some neighbour/school bullying, domestic violence and way too strict Mom... I'm not sure whether I will continue, despite my love for Ra Miran.

Deborah
After episode 5, I was on the verge of dropping the show - as much as I like the leads together, the break-up phase lasted way too long for me. Luckily episode 6 saved it and now I want to see reborn Deborah (and a possible cohabitation???)

Kim Sabu 3
My plan was to first go back to season 2 and finally finish it, but I didn't manage... and then I couldn't resist and pressed Play anyway and the first episode was as epic as it should be 🙂 and I was happy to see the team back, saving lives and be Idealistic/Romantic. 💕

The Love You Give Me
C-fluff with the couple from Once We Get Married. 😊

Bora! Deborah/True to Love: Still really enjoying this drama. The more I see of the ML, the more I like him (in stark contrast to the Chicken King, who I detest slightly more every minute he’s on screen). I still have “Half and Half” playing in my head from when I listened to it 14 more times after ep 6.

The Good Bad Mother: I’m probably one of the few Beanies who thought this had a pretty strong start. There was a ton of setup, and the ML is darker than I was expecting, but I only believe about half of the awful things we’ve seen him do. Hopefully it will be one episode of coma/coming back to life, one episode of setting up at the farm in his new situation, and healing from there on out. He and his mom could certainly use it.

Call it Love: Started this one this week as well, and it’s just as good as all you lovely Beanies said it was. I’ve never seen Kim Young-kwang in anything (except now I’ve watched On Your Wedding Day also) and he’s a revelation. He walks around like he’s so dead inside, it reminds me of My Ajusshi, but I can already see the little bits of life peeking out from the cracks in his facade. Meanwhile Woo-joo is nothing but cracks, held together with a wish and a prayer. Min-young can go get hit by a truck of doom as far as I’m concerned.

K-Action Movie of the Week: The Roundup Ma Dong-seok. What a professional. My partner’s review: “He could make one of these movies every year and I would watch them all.” Same, folks, same. The team is back together after The Outlaws, and they are more endearing than ever. This one featured an extremely evil Son Seok-goo who was way too handy with a short machete, and a totally bada$$ wife and mother who was absolutely unwilling to take any more of his stabby nonsense. MDS did what he does best (be larger than everyone else and command every scene he’s in), they had an exotic new setting for the first half, and I will happily watch the next installment when it comes out.

CRICKET - too many t20 leagues danger to international cricket, but, this is where money and employment is. Cricket boards having low budget, less income more costs, corruption has already done too much.
Cricket paid broadcaster already reduces huge viewership and interest among young. Cricket not bein profitable creates so many troubles that completely take over interest and love for the sport

It's best to see when Male AFghan team keeps stutus when Female team is gone - as per rules without female team, male team losses status but male team is competitive enough to generate revenue so no one talks about female team - money is supreme -

same with t20 leagues - control isn't easy because too much money

ECB ready to go back with t20 n leave 100 which was promoted as child n female friendly.

ASHES - schedule - money deciding when matches gonna be -

Frustrating it is

The Secret Romantic Guesthouse I like how the 3 men have an interesting arc (even my favourite is Shi-Yeol and I would be happy if they could give us his past story). Sadly it's not the case for the FL.

Bora! Deborah So have we finally reached the rom-com part? Because the FL crying over jerk during 4 episodes, it's quite long. She was more in love with the fact she was in a relationship than the man in question.

Joseon Attorney I didn't watch the 9th episode yet. I'm not so excited or curious. But WDH on my screen always is a pleasure.

Romantic Doctor Teacher Kim 3 I didn't watch it yet but I wonder what kind of role Lee Sin-Young will get.

I am in a bit of a slump tbh, I need to find a kdrama that makes me feel like I'm on a kdrama crack. On reflection, this hasn't happened in a while.
Watching Secret Romantic Guesthouse, but not going crazy over it, don't know why exactly. It's beautifully shot and the pacing is good. But Kang Hoon is the only one giving me a thrill. All the other actors are good, but not terribly exciting. Dan Oh, as a character, has nothing to do which is a shame, since I quite like Shin Ye Eun. I'm also a bit disappointed with Ryeoun, I hoped he would be good in this and he's just... competent.
I'm also casually watching The Real has come and mildly enjoying it.
I wanted to watch Dr. Romantic 3 but I can't access it for now. So I'm going through Viki's catalogue, hoping something will grab my attention. I'll probably start Finland Papa.
Outside kdrama I started The love you give me for a light, no stakes attached watch. I like the fact the female lead is presented as highly competent and the boy playing their son is very cute.

Bora Deborah: Hopefully we are past the "heartbreak" and on to interesting things. I guess they needed a desperate way to get her to go back to the publisher, but voice phishing was certainly interesting. I really hope they don't put Sang Jin with that child, how creepy, I hope she is like a long lost sister and child.

The Good Bad Mother: Honestly, that was a hell of a setup. I liked everything up to the car crash, that was just stupid, unless it was done on purpose, why didn't the truck stop? Whatever, I am excited for the healing part of this drama, plus such a fab cast.

Stealer: I am having the most fun with this drama. It is wildly entertaining and also funny.

Joseon Attorney: The way I continue to not care about anything else except the OTP. It is background noise until they come on. Also bless him but Yoo Ji Sun aka N, is a terrible actor. He does not emote.

Dr. Kim:😍😍, we begin into the fire immediately. I love that.

Joseon Attorney: A Morality: 7.0

Duty After School, part 2: 4.0 Ep 1 of part 2 started ok (and a lot like part 1) but then... While part 1 seemed like an imitation All of Us Are Dead, which I liked enough to re-watch and which did well enough to get a sequel, part 2 of this show could be renamed "All of US Are Sorry We Kept Watching". The Easter Egg in the finale closing credits mostly just showed how disjointed the whole show was.

Secret Romantic Guesthouse: 7.0

Bora! Deborah / True to Love: 7.5

Stealer: The Treasure Keeper: 6.5 So the ML is traumatized whenever it rains because he came home during a rainstorm and found his mother had been murdered... A year ago I could have just told him to move to California. Now I just want to tell the writer where to go for resorting to such a stale old gimmick. But in between the dreck, show has some good stuff like a scene where they appeared to mock the excessive PPL that we all know so well.

Doctor Romantic 3: 6.5 OMG! Lee Kyoung-Young got thru a whole episode without being too overtly evil 😲 Meanwhile, season 1 was good and season 2 was ok -- just hoping s3 doesn't become "Doctor Repetitious". It's easy for sequels (and baddies) to wear out their welcome.

What a crazy mixture I got myself last week: Scary aliens, lots of gore in the streets and on operating tables, hidden kings, cute piglets and newborns, an attorney and a donkey; guns, explosives and pens as weapons, buckets of tears and endless terrified screams… No ghosts, though!
Duty After School
Watched the first part almost in one sitting and had a blast (literally at the end of Ep.6 😉) Aliens instead of zombies, otherwise quite similar to All Of Us Are Dead. Can’t complain about the acting of the very young cast, CGI is good, and I’m looking forward to more fun and a little less helpless terror in the second part.
Joseon Attorney
Again, I only picked this up recently and could watch episodes on end on my own time, that was great! WDH is a treat, it looks as if he has the time of his life being funny, adventurous, moving and romantic in turns.
I wonder, is always the latest sageuk I watch my favorite one? Because now I enjoy this even more than Romantic Guesthouse and that more than Our Blooming Youth. But no, I like them all and find it an embarrassment of riches to have so many sageuks to watch at the same time.
Stealer – The Treasure Keeper Dropped for the moment, this feels too much like a Marvel action comedy for me.
Bo Ra! Deborah
How much can an actress cry? Feels like the for the last 3 episodes Deborah was crying most of the time. I’m not sure if I find that moving or funny – I’m afraid neither. On the contrary, I’m totally with ML and SML being exasperated by all this drama. But I’m still hanging in and looking forward to the fun of our “enemies” having to work together.
Doctor Cha
I really connect to Doctor Cha and the way she doesn’t want to be a burden to anyone but still wants to live her own life. But I don’t even want a redemption arc for her husband, I just want him gone from her life!! Please let Dr Cutie in instead…
Dropped Family So sorry to the leads…
Dr Romantic S2
I finished it in time! Kim Sabu’s diagnosis shouldn’t have been that hard. It was obvious that it would be something serious and chronic, and even I had that diagnosis in mind (I’m not a professional but witnessed that illness with acquaintances). Looking forward to how S3 handles that and Project Goofball!
Dr Romantic S3
I loved the first episode. Hero walks for all of our cast, a likeable new doctor, one adorable couple and one where we don’t know what’s going on yet, a splendid new trauma center complete with helipad, but the Doldam sign is still on the blink 😊 My feeling is that I get to share the cast’s joy of being back together.
The Good Bad Mother
I had quite a few “you are not really doing that” moments here. I take it not everything will turn out to be as it looked now (especially the murder of the young mother and baby). The contrast between fun and idyllic country life and dark reality (or cute piglets and murder by staged accident) was jarring...

This week I have finished the nice and sweet DIY k-drama Eun Joo's Room.

Weekly watching:

_ Secret Romantic Guesthouse (12 out of 18). I'm still enjoying this a lot. I think it's time we start a Shi Yeol fan club around here because we are legion XD

_ Bora Deborah (6 out of 14). This is very good. I'm looking forward to knowing how FL and ML relationship evolves.

What I have started:

_ Live (2018). Because it is going to disappear from Netflix and it was in my "plan to watch" list. I have watched 6 episodes. It's a good "slice of life", but I'm not loving it yet. Too many angry, unfriendly and shouting people for now.

Finished Attorney Woo and loved every minute! It has its flaws, but overall it was a wonderful journey.

Started Go Ahead last weekend because of all the talk about the Korean remake. I'm at ep 30 and so far it has been a great family drama. I do agree that the loveline went from zero to sixty a bit abruptly, but as long as it keeps Song Wei Long on my screen, I can overlook it :D Hopefully the Korean remake will handle that aspect a little better.

Started Love Like the Galaxy. I had been holding off on it until I finished Who Rules the World. I'm on ep 25 and the drama so far has exceeded my expectations. The OTP chemistry is about to melt my screen and I don't know how my heart is gonna handle all the heartache the drama is sure to dole out between now and the ending.

The Good Bad Mother (Episode 1-2) - Mood: C
When was the last time I actually had expectations for a drama to be good? But expectations can betray you as this drama did with the pointless inclusion of the conglomerate prosecutor villainy both in the past and in the present? Wasn’t Kang Ho vs his mom enough conflict already? Or their family vs the village with their NIMBY pig farm as the backdrop? And on top of that we get this Reply-patented brand of Guess the Father without the Reply-patented brand of red herrings, which isn’t so interesting. However, adjusting expectations, I guess the setup was okay? Also, Lee Do Hyun: I know he will deliver.

The Secret Romantic Guesthouse (Episode 11-12) - Mood: D+
As feared, the love triangle that had been overshadowed by the mystery elements rears its ugly head because we needed a conflict between the leads before they all go up against the one note villain that is the king. Do I really care for both of their struggles? Not really! The kiss was miss-timed while his jealousy reeks of self-indulgence. Honestly, I just want Si Yeol alive at the end of this: I read comments which claimed that the kid beating him at the temple was a foreshadowing that his time was coming to an end and he was preparing the next watchman heir. And my heart sank! Because objectively that’s sound.

Doctor Cha (Episode 3-4) - Mood: C-
While Jung Sook continues to be an epic troll (that work dinner was a riot), the plot does seem to be advancing in less than satisfactory ways, what with the lame reveal of her son and his girlfriend or the more frustrating scene linking Roy Kim with the mistress. On the other hand, the show does seem to be treading the cheating arc with a lot more greyness, which might seem promising, but I do wonder how it’ll stand as the affair becomes known. I do sense that Jung Sook won’t ever see Roy Kim in a romantic light which is sad because he seems to be seeking companionship but friendship might just do it for him?

Stealer: The Treasure Keeper (Episode 5-6) - Mood: D
Huh, I don’t understand why Team Karma trusted Dr Ko so easily: Skunk has had a history of helping them and they sought him out but Dr Ko is the exact opposite. Won’t it bite them in the ass later on? At this point, the plot twist would be Min Woo not being the sister: the only other candidate would be Dae Myung’s female colleague, who is well into plot device territory.

Bora! Deborah (Episode 5-6) - Mood: D-
I don’t know why we spent six episodes setting up the main story, but finally, there’ll be more interactions between the main leads next week. You would’ve expected something more by this point for a rom-com of all genres, but let’s just hope that a late start means no stupid breakup phase later? Also, the army guy is practically a stalker and the show is romanticising it?

I watched the american movie Alone from 2020, based on the same script upon which #Alive is based on and I cant belive how terrible it is compared to #Alive
makes me even more regretful about Yoo Ah In but he will surely come back.
right now there is kind of a bad moment for myself as well - hard to explain. People hiding their condition so they wont ruin the trip and im upset. and we had a fight :-( so im feeling bad.

butwe´re going to be ok. right?

Queen In-Hyun's Man: Well, I liked half of this show. It was nice to see a warm genius male lead, especially one who stayed calm under pressure and was willing to put his life on the line over and over again for his ideals and the people he loved. However, I'd have preferred an arrow to the chest to hanging out with the whiny, materialistic narcissists in the contemporary world. I also have very little tolerance for waif-ish female leads whose stupidity, whether real or feigned, is presented as endearing (oh look, the little lady's trying to spell words again - isn't that cuuute?). Also, when you lie about real people dying unjust deaths because it might get in the way of your hot romance with the guy you only met a couple of weeks ago, I'm done.

Alchemy of Souls: I'm sure I'll be head-desking over plot holes somewhere down the line, but so far this has lots of fun and lots of pretty so it's working for me.

ONGOING
Secret Romantic Guesthouse - Plot has slowed down considerably it feels. I'm ready for the rebellion to start in earnest.

Stealer - Conceptually I like the whole 'two parties aiming for the same heist' thing but logically it's weird that the cops don't care about the mass-murderer who also tried to murder one of them.

Bo-ra! Deborah - The conversation at Dad's Chicken (lol) was great. The show shines when the leads are together and it seems we are finally over the break-up hump so hopefully there'll be lots more of our leads together. The phishing scam was a bit unnecessary though.

STARTED
The Good Bad Mother - More intense than I expected. The 2nd episode especially was a bit too frenetic but I guess the pace will slow down from next week. I like the cast of characters in Jo-woo-ri.

C-DRAMAS
Real life has meant I am running behind on Till the End of the Moon and the internet is a spoiler minefield 😭.

As a diehard fan of Kim Sabo, I couldn't wait for ROMANTIC DOCTOR 3. They pulled out all the stops with action packed first episode - great stuff. Lazy resident Jang and the insufferable Dr. Yang are sure to make trouble. Do Yoon-wan had to be replaced by a new main adversary, but did it really have to be Lee Kyoung-young?

Watching THE GOOD BAD MOTHER was uncomfortable at times, but probably necessary to set up the story. A mother withholding food for a growing child so that he can study more is truly a bad mother. I cannot believe that Kang-ho murdered the mother and her child, it would be impossible to root for Lee Do-hyun in the next 12 episodes if he did.
The villagers are luckily not as silly as in other, similar dramas, but the joke with the woman wearing face masks got old already in episode 1.

I was surprised to see the misery in BORA continued, I thought she had already reached rock bottom. The security at the publisher is severely lacking, how many times more will a visitor just walk in and overhear a private conversation? Please, let the healing begin now.

DR CHA is a pleasant surprise, the comedy is done well. Love watching Kim Byung-chul squirm as flustered Seo In-ho and Cha Jung-sook breaking the rut and pushing her family out of their lazy, entitled comfort zone.

Still watching and JOSEON ATTORNEY and STEALER, but FAMILY is a drop. THE trashy MASK will likely follow.

Should I watch the real has come? I love the leads and the plot sounds so fun but it’s 50 episodes!! I’ve never watched a weekend drama before

What I would give for just one new drama to love and get emotionally invested in. I’m getting tired of watching old dramas.

This whole month was like a trip to Chinatown to me - that's more or less the only entertainment I've been watching and listening to in April. K-content needs to up their game soon because my plans for May also mostly consist of cdramas... ouch.

ROMANCE OF A TWIN FLOWER: I've gained all my willpower to finish this and oh boy, what a waste of time! Last 1/3 was already not good, but I could've forgive the show for tropey misunderstandings, stretches of logic and characters flip-flopping endlessly to drag the plot had it deliver a decent ending. Instead drama jumped multiple sharks in two final episodes leaving me FUMING all the way till ending credits. I seriously regret not stopping midway to keep fond memory of show's initial cutesy untarnished.

TILL THE END OF THE MOON: Two words - emotional damage. The amount of raw, gut-wrenching pain this week gave its viewers can only be rivaled by the amount of blood characters spat. Someone on MDL has been counting the latter and looks like ML is seriously fighting for cdrama all-time gold medal))) You can do it, babe! Jokes aside, I continue to be super impressed with how far into the darkness show is willing to go - I know it's still a far cry from source material's madness (which is pretty much un-adaptable given censorship), but omg, if The Bloody Wedding (cnetz' are on point with this name) was already pushing it, then what escalated in Ep28-29, particularly ML's actions... Wow, just wow. Shock, horror, heartbreak, rage, insanity, chills, squeak - all combined and up to 11. Kudos to everyone involved, esp actors, to make it this vivid. I didn't even care for some writing and editing blips others disliked - was too busy either bawling my eyes out over loss after loss (nooo, foxy! you'll be missed) or being creeped out and simultaneously awed by LYX))) Man really set the new standard for all the future fictional yanderes.

Time-skip and healing calmness of Ep30 almost felt surreal at this point. While I'm sad to let go of mortal arc, this new one seems fun, looking forward to certain twists I've been spoiled about and, ofc, finally some REAL romance. That one's a LONG overdue, to put it mildly... NOT looking forward to return of SFL - we've been hardly stomaching her for 2 eras already and that wasn't enough? Really?! Talk about torture lol. The only thing that gives me more rage here are rumors about bad ending - after all the suffering crow boy is better to get his eternity of marital happiness! Or else *sharpens sword*

P.S. The fashion show tho - costumes are beyond fantastic overall, but that Orpheus trip gray-and-azurre garb (plus mermaid locks) was BREATHTAKING, complete with strongest waist game I've seen from male actor in my whole life. Saw people claiming this look altered their sexuality and I'm not sure they were joking)))

Memorist is darker (litterally) and "more detective than my friend can fathom, so we will start another drama tonight.
This does not let me much time for Reborn rich or Chicago typewriter whose music I love.
And I'm confessing to watching Love of replica. This cdrama has the combustible couple of Mysterious love and (so far) the ambiance/plot/identity swap/hot bodyguard of Lethal man. A cotton candy drama : no real substance by full of enjoyment. One more drama that re-uses a couple. There a bunch of them lately.

Is there anyone in here who like me is in love with Dianxi Xiaoge's Vlog? It really is better produced than most shows!

I started When We Were Young and Perfect and Casual, both very good so far.

From Korea, Call it love until now is the only good thing in 2023. I've dropped even Taxi Driver

I finished watching the Chinese drama, Road Home. Overall, the drama ended up being a nice, sweet, low angst second chance romance that I really liked and enjoyed primarily because the drama featured a great romance. While the leads had chemistry, their romance never sizzled but we did have tons of episodes with them just being loving towards each other. They actually get back together fairly early in the drama and never really have any conflicts or misunderstandings once they reunite as a couple.

While some of my all-time favorite dramas have a lot of angst, misunderstandings and conflict, I find I really enjoy watching low angst dramas like this one. The episodes just seemed to fly by.

While I don't recall feeling this way after reading the book, the drama did leave me wondering if it is just a matter of time before the ML is killed in the line of duty (lots of bombs and dead co-workers in this drama). Also, the SWAT team members jobs appears similar to being in the military as the ML was very rarely home and was given no time off for major events, not even the birth of his child. Neither the drama nor the novel explored the ML considering a different job in law enforcement that had a lower risk of death or one that allowed him a personal life. Nor did the FL lead or anyone in their family ever once question his job choice, not even after he was severely injured.

My wife and I watched the Chinese Costume drama MISS CHUN IS A LITIGATOR. Not great drama but fun.

My wife really likes the Chinese Costume fantasy TILL THE END OF THE MOON which she calls, very simply, “the best”- she just loves this show and eagerly catches the new episodes as soon as they are available. This is as good as any previous great Chinese costume drama. When episodes of that ran out, she watched the classic sageuk DAMO.

I finished my re-watch of EMERGENCY COUPLE. With four episodes left it suddenly was no longer available on Viki at least in my region. That was frustrating but I was able to finish it on the legal site TUBI but had to endure commercials to do so. I am still re-watching the classic CITY HALL.

I am still watching BORA! DEBORAH but is it OK to admit that this mostly because of my love of Yoo Inna and Sojin (who deserves better roles- actually they both do)? As for the character of Sojin’s husband- his character is simply too stupid to be believable. But I have not dropped this show.

THE GOOD BAD MOTHER started this week and a lot happened.

It took ten episodes but our leads have finally moved in together- into the Annex- in THE REAL HAS COME! And all Grandma could do about it in the end is throw salt on our FL. Her power has been diminished as the just reward for her narrow-mindedness. Others may say it took too long to get there but in fact it seems to me that it was a more logical series of events and reasons that got us to this point. If I have a complaint about this week’s episodes, it is that we saw almost nothing of our side couples.

I am really looking forward to watching FINLAND PAPA- and behind on so many other shows.

Joseon Attorney: Up to ep 7. I'm an episode behind. It's just not the type of drama that makes me want to gobble up the next episode, but it's a lot of fun when I watch it. I'm enjoying the progression.

The Real Has Come: I love how fake relationships come with long pauses and facial gymnastics and stories that don't match - practically screaming "WE'RE LYING AND WE'RE TERRIBLE AT IT!" and everyone else doesn't notice.

Meet Yourself: C-drama. Up to Episode 32. I love this drama so much. I'm slowing down on watching it because I really don't want to say goodbye to the characters and the town they're living in and helping to preserve.

J-dramas
Rinko-san wa Shite Mitai was a complete delight. 8 episodes at 24 mins each, the heroine is a 27-year old wedding planner exec determined to lose her virginity. It’s completely predictable but so charming and fun. The actress did a great job and is one of the prettiest women I’ve ever seen. The show is full of gorgeous men but I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

I found the show in between episodes of Our Dining Table, a found-family story that’s vaguely BL but at the half-way mark is more about the healing powers of food and eating together. One of the two male leads is in Rinko-san, in a small role it turned out.

Everyone, Kim Sabu (aka Romantic Doctor 3) is sooo good!!!

On episode 16 of Meet Yourself and enjoying the warmth of it. Amazing how they make mundane things like an introverted writer taking out friends for a birthday celebration so interesting.

Kiddo and I started 1% of Everything and in the middle of episode 2 but the ML is very hard to like. Why are his clothes so ugly? Brown plaid with a different brown polka dot shirt and then a different patterned tie. It is very jarring. Is there a reason for this or is the stylist just trying hard to make him unattractive?

Starting 'The Real Has come' I made the happy comment 'Oh! This is just like a 2013 melo!' The more I watched, my tone changed to a disappointed 'Oh, this is just like a 2013 melo.' Maybe I need to be in the right frame of mind. I might be the only person to have actually watched the 50 episode 'Revolutionary Sisters' to the end.

I got distracted by that OST thread and have been listening to the albums instead of watching the dramas. I did dip into Queen of Masks for the first few minutes, but that doesn't look like my cup of tea.

Outside of kdrama, I found the end of Picard satisfying. Also, I rarely watch Chinese shows, but I found Miss Unlovable fun.

- Love Me If You Dare (cdrama) - 14 of 24 - it has just the right amount of romance, friendship, funny bits, and interesting cases to be something I really enjoy.
- W: Two Worlds (kdrama) - 5 of 16 - slightly angsty, pretty funny, and a stunning chemistry filled otp... perfection so far. Very taken with the drama so far.

Mostly I've been obsessing over Till the End of the Moon, which is the first C-drama I've watched live. Its six episodes a week release schedule is very much appreciated.

I also started the 2012 kdrama Wild Romance, which is, uh, not what I thought it was, but does have the advantages of a very young Lee Dong Wook and Lee Si-Young, being cute as all get out.

I would advise everyone to do themselves a favor and watch Queenmaker. This drama is top notch with a tight storyline, superb cast led by the brilliant Kim Hee-Ae. Special mention to Seo Yi-sook who is the ultimate villain. K dramas often go over the top with the villain but her performance is pitch perfect.

Additionally, I’ve found this drama to be a visual feast from the wardrobe to the set design particularly the home of the chaebol family.

This drama is what Why Her? could have been without the nonsensical romance and university storyline haphazardly thrown in.

I'm watching Shooting Stars because I was curious about the entertainment but oh, it's now a bit hard for me because it's feeling too real. The way the public just turns on a person after YEARS of proclaiming to love & support them. Not even giving them the benefit of the doubt.

It's breaking my heart to see the celebrity going through that and then it also affects everyone else on the team or the company because he's the main earner.

It's so messed up how people treat each other.

I started a J drama Watashi no Ojisan: Wataoji/Wataoji My Middle-aged Guardian Angel

Hikari Ichinose, failed at work and in love. She starts a new job as an assistant director {ad) at production company behind a variety show.

It is rough going. As stressful as this is, she now has a ojisan as a guardian Angel.

Going to give it a try.

I have not yet watched The Good Bad Mother. I knew it would be a tear-jerker and I've already cried once at an excerpt on youtube. I will watch it later. Yes, I know this is where we catalog what we are watching and this is something I'm not watching.

The Real Has Come What a guilty pleasure, total soap opera, really adorable. This might be the series that finally gets me to try to learn Korean. There were several audible onomatopoeias that made me stop and rewatch and listen with the subtitles. (“You were doing ha ha ho ho” isn’t exactly onomatopoeia but it’s just great thing to hear! It was translated as something like, “having fun” or “playing games.” )
The Secret Romantic Guest House I really like the characters but I miss the thrill of trying to figure out who is who. Seeing the grumpy prince tucking in the watchman was adorable though.
Under the Queen’s Umbrella This was really fun to watch! I had it on in the background as I worked. I didn’t realize that one of the kids was gender non-conforming. My heart was in my mouth that she would be discovered and I really identified with the Queen as her mom. I've seen Kim Hye-Soo in other shows, but I liked her better here.
The Eighth Sense This was a very satisfying BL web drama. I bet there are people bickering already about whether it has dethroned Semantic Error as the best Korean BL of all time, since it’s also a campus romance. No, it has not, in my humble opinion, in spite of having a way more k-drama like plot, with a terrible trauma for one of the characters. Yet it was still delightful—I like the way the protagonists were shown in the midst of their friend groups.

non-Korean TV of note:

Shadow and Bone I finally finished it. There will probably be another season for the last book in the trilogy. In the end, my favorite bit was the realization of the gay couple. It was more dramatic in the original series when they got together—more misunderstandings, etc.—but I really love the way the two actors look together. The actors in this show were generally great at looking like the characters as they were described. It’s possible that overacting is easier to detect in my native tongue than in a second or other language.

Rough Diamonds This series is in Dutch, Yiddish, English and French, with some Hebrew and Aramaic prayers. This confused the heck out of the people doing the subtitles. I find that happens a lot on Netflix, the subtitles say something is in English when it’s in some other language and vice versa. I’m only on episode 3 so I’m waiting for people to also speak Albanian. (My friend said they won’t, though.) This is a fun show for me because I can actually understand a lot of these languages even though I’m not a fluent speaker. I’m not sure I will continue watching because I find most of the characters unsympathetic. It’s neat to see the actually religious singer and actor Dudu Fisher as the...

Did anyone watch the movie Soulmate cos i’d love to know your thoughts about it..

What??? Two of the minions are watching Lookout??? Probably one of the most underrated revenge kdramas ever. There was really only a couple missteps in it— one being the open ending and needs a second season NOW!!! @sicarius, @bbstl, what say you?

I’m watching The real has come, Island, and trying to figure out where to watch Doctor Kim 3! Help a Beaniw out peeps. I have a VPN and will go to the dark side if needed!