The Good Bad Mother: Episode 11 was a snoozefest, but episode 12 got back on track. Sam-shik took 12 episodes to become interesting, but better late than never? Where can I find the spinoff to this drama where we just watch Kang-ho, Mi-joo, and the twins be an adorable family and they all have therapy so they don’t pass on their generational trauma? I don’t even love slice-of-lifes, but I would watch that.

Sh**ting Stars: *Spoilers* I guess I understand where people were coming from when they didn’t like the heavier plot lines, but they didn’t really bother me at all. They were foreshadowed and felt like a part of living as a celebrity or supporting a celebrity, which is what this show is all about. Plus they didn’t cause our couples to break up, which is enough to make me forgive much greater wrongs than that. Nothing could dampen my excitement watching all the ships sail off into the sunset at the end, and I couldn’t stop myself from bursting into laughter at every adorable moment and holding my breath at every swoony scene. I’m putting it down as one of my favorite romcoms ever. The last episode took me forever to watch because I kept rewinding to watch things again. *happy sigh*

Not a lot on my drama plate right now. Feels like I'm just biding my time till June 17th…

ONGOING
Tale of the Nine-Tailed 1938 - I haven't seen Kim So-yeon in much before and I totally get the hype now. She's magnetic and so good at expressions and tonal shifts.

My Perfect Stranger - The torture scenes were difficult to watch. Lee Won-jung did a really good job in them though. I hope things have changed permanently for the better for Hee-seob in this timeline.

The Good Bad Mother - Hope Kang-ho works together with Mi-joo to bring down our evil duo. Maybe with some help from the Lettuce Boys whose conscience is clearly acting up.

STARTED
Delightfully Deceitful - Not a fan of the fourth wall breaks or the big-bad being some shady, cult-y 'foundation' again. I think the show would be more interesting if she did kill her parents 🤷‍♀️.

C-DRAMAS
Planning to try Where Dreams Begin for Xiao Zhan.

I was planning to catch up with Kim Sabu... but I got distracted by jdrama Ousama ni Sasagu Kusuriyubi and went through first 4 episodes. So far I quite like it, though one has to be aware that this is a manga adaptation and thus manga lenses are necessary. 😉

Dr Cha
The show is getting a biiiit makjangish... but I still like it. There is still enough heart (Mom's letter to Seunghee) and humour (of course a handbag is better! 😄).
It is a shame that Seunghee is so fixated on her dream of family life with Inho, because without that obsession she is an awesome woman.

Real
I finally got the confession. 😊
Step Hyung with his wife are giving me such contradicting emotions, one moment I feel for them (and love their relationship)... and another moment they are sooo annoying!
I'm also not sure how I feel about Step Noona and her husband, the show sort of introduced new potential partners for them. Will they really just co-parent or will they still find a way back to each other? Either of the options can be good... or not.

CRICKET - Test cricket is up

English summer is always entertaing and competitive summer

So good to see Root bat and reach 11000 - surely can become highest test run batter as England play lot of tests.

Waiting for the world test championship final and A S H E S

The Good Bad Mother (Episode 11-12) - Mood: C-
Not the poor pigs for the 3rd time! But now the show is knocking on finale’s door, everything is rushed from minuscule stuff, like the trot singer’s sudden departure, to the big revelations, like that Hospital Room of Truth. And we still have so much to cover next week with the revenge, death, parentage, lettuces, even the masked villager’s face reveal? At this point we pray.

Delightfully Deceitful (Episode 1-2) - Mood: C-
It’s double the Kim Dong Wook! Well, I’m certainly not complaining. But while I’m intrigued by both our leads (I’m of the opinion that Moo Young is actually playing Ro Um, more than she thinks) as well as our probation officer (he might also be involved in the childhood story?), the whole story seems to be your classic evil corporation and child experiments. Yawn!

My Perfect Stranger (Episode 9-10) - Mood: C-
Nah, that was a stupid cliffhanger: there’s no point trying to get the audience to speculate on who Hae Joon’s mom is since anyone else could’ve been wearing the pink hairband too? I’m worried that the show continues to ignore the elephant in the room that is the car or even time travel in general while pushing a frankly unneeded romance between the leads. We’ll see?

Tale of the Nine Tailed 1938 (Episode 7-8) - Mood: C-
So we went from the question of why Yeon killed Moo Young’s brother to why said brother was trying to kill Moo Young: nice narrative question to ponder upon, just way too late, given that there’s still the ultimate question of who the resurrector is. I honestly find the Japanese general a waste of time, not only that, not-Yu Ri’s character was basically sacrificed for his arc.

Doctor Cha (Episode 13-14) - Mood: D+
Doctor Cha’s mother has the terminal illness trope in the penultimate week while she herself has an organ rejection trope in the finale week: it just makes me laugh at the absurdity of it all. Well, at least Roy isn’t related to Cha: that would’ve been a bigger annoyance. His decision in the preview to donate his liver means he’s flipping his finger at his “family”: good for him!

Happiness Battle (Episode 1-2) - Mood: D
Honestly, I couldn’t really tell you if there’s a significant difference between this show and Green Mothers’ Club. On the other hand, it’s not like I wasn’t expecting 5 brilliant actresses to be wasted in a makjang story again: there’s just about nothing else to watch mid-week. Lee El being confirmed as not the murderer is disappointing but I’m not surprised.

Oh! Young-shim (Episode 5-6) - Mood: D-
What’s worse than a 2FL who’s determined to screw the OTP over? That’s right, assassinating the 2ML character as well! It baffles me as to why the writer ever thought that was a good idea but oh well, even the OTP hasn’t hashed out their issues.

Finished:

The Oath of Love (C-drama): The drama threw in half a dozen problems after the leads became a couple, without leaving enough space or time for satisfying development or resolution :( It’s kind of a blessing though because I was REALLY in love with his show and if that the last leg hadn’t plateaued, I would’ve had a hard time letting go. This way, I’m still satisfied (because happy ending, lots of cute moments still etc.) but not hung up over it.

Love Between Fairy and Devil (C-drama): I have a new found appreciation for the costume, styling and set details this rewatch! I really, REALLY, want to own some (who am I kidding, ALL) of the pieces in DFQC’s wardrobe! They were exquisite and the best I’ve seen in any show so far ✨

My Lethal Man (C-drama): this one hit the spot for ‘cheesy and overdramatic beautiful rich people romance-revenge plot’. It opened with our ML - tall, handsome, brooding - in a stylish three piece speaking in Italian, which made me go ‘…Vincenzo? Is that you?’.

Watching:

Race (8/12): Really nice slice of life watch! I am now team ‘not Jaemin’ because imo, the plot has gone to a point of no return with that whole bit. And if they were to try and back flip, it’d feel unsatisfactory and unfair to Yoonjo. I get the feeling though, after the end of ep.8, that we may be headed for the 11th hour character backflip potentially (and unfortunately).

Good Bad Mother (12/14): Feels I’ve got one eye 👁️ on this show hahahah I’m not really watching but just fast forwarding to see just the things I want to see (the twins).

Tale of the Nine Tailed 2 (3/12): “I’ll wait till it finishes airing” she said. “I don’t have a fear of missing out” she also said. As per usual, she has not even one ounce of willpower and the ep 7/8 recap for this show was the final straw. I’ve jumped in and trying to see if I can catch up and at least watch the finale on air with everyone else. LEE RANG, I’M RUNNING TO YOU!

Back from The Brink (C-drama, 30/I still don’t know how many there are in total): My fickle heart has jumped back onto Team ML so the whole SLS issue has abated…for now. I am starting to wonder just how many back and forth ‘dying for u’ plot lines we’re going to have (like literally, dying for you/in place of you/to save you/dying just because plot device), but then again this is the bread & butter of the genre.

To Ship Someone(C-drama, on air) I’ve added another to my on air roster! The premise for this is so interesting, the FL (ever the optimist only believes in happy endings) gets transported to the world of a popular story, along with the ML (eternal cynic, writes only tragic endings) who is the author of the story and they’ve got to navigate their way through and rewrite the story to save themselves from a sad ending. I really like the way this one has been shot and the plot reminds me a little of Extraordinary You (which...

My Perfect Stranger: I continue to really enjoy this drama. Yoon Young realizing what happened with her father while also still not being able to touch him for the damage he caused her was so sad. However, knowing and understanding his history is important. As for who Hae Joon's mother is, I think it is the lady at the tea shop and I also think she is part of the murders too. We keep catching glimpses of her and we already know she lied about seeing the guy in the blue cap. She has seemed suspicious from the beginning.

Delightfully Deceitful: It has not been a great set up for this drama. The is she or isn't she a psychopath story has been done and not well before and it is not doing well now. Kdrama writers have yet to commit to writing a true psychopath. Everything she has done was for a legitimate reason. Hopefully moving forward, they stop the 4th wall break and the rest of the character and team intros aren't so abrupt. We get it you have to take down the big bad, sigh.

The Good Bad Mother: Young Soo is still terrible and Mi Joo is still wonderful. I am curious though what is going to happen when the twins find out Kang Ho is there dad, the heartbreak for my poor poor Ye Jin and anger from Se Jin will be interesting.

Kim Sa Bu: I am calling shenanigans again. The hospital and Dr. Insu were negligent in that boys death. The fact that it was accidental tragedy, doesn't negate the negligence. Where were the nurses? Dr. Insu isn't fully responsible, but he does have part of the blame. Is the councilwoman doing too much, yes, but she did lose her child, and doctors should be punished for negligence, just like anyone. There careers shouldn't be destroyed, but they should face some penalty, just like anyone else.

Race: Race up several flights of stairs when the girl you don't like asks you to meet her. Okay, sir, lol.

GOOD BAD MOTHER (Ep 11-12)
Show can I just have Mi-joo?
Kang-ho doesn’t deserve her, and I…
probably don’t either but at least I won’t leave her hanging

TALE OF THE NINE TAILED & TALE OF THE NINE TAILED 1938 (Ep 1-5)
So I watched the first episode of the sequel and while it’s my kind of chaotic, I felt I was missing some key bits of info and world-building. Yes I could’ve read the recaps, buuuut I didn’t want to miss out on cocky Kim Bum yanno? Anyway I’m currently watching one episode of S1 and one episode of S2 and so on and so forth.

I vastly prefer S2 tho, cause of my queen Kim So-yeon. She is FANTASTIC and I’m in LOVE!
Screw Yeon.
Hong-joo is my GOD and I fully worship her! Gahhh she looks so STUNNING, but I also love her character, she’s so darn charismatic. Okay fine I’m shallow but she’s serving up those incredible looks to mere peasant folk like me, so how can I not worship her?!

Gushing aside, I think my favourite scene so far was between Mu-young and Eun-ho. Ask a lady to lie inside a coffin and talk about each other's traumas. That’s top tier seduction right there, Mu-young you playboy you…

Seriously tho, I want more scenes between them. They’ve got some sizzling chemistry

My Perfect Stranger - Sadly, dropped after ep. 8. Since I knew this drama would skirt the line of what I can handle with suspense/thriller/violence elements, I've been spoilering myself by watching KBS clips on YouTube and reading comments on MDL. The commentary for ep. 9 about the Baek brothers was the tipping point for me. I know this is an important part of Korean history, but the tragic violence is too much for me. I'm disappointed, because I've really liked the ML, FL, family themes, tone, and music. Maybe at some point I'll come back to it with a heavy hand on the FF button.

While I'm waiting for the four June drama premiers I'm excited for (!!!), I'm working on finishing up others on my list. Delighting in the humor and sparky chemistry of Sh**ting Stars; luxuriating in the languid pace and emotional depth of Call it Love.

Too Cool to Kill -- Movie on Viki. An action comedy that pays homage to old Hollywood. A bit-part actor is hired to play the role of a hitman ("Karl") in order to fool a mob boss. BUT, the actor thinks he's playing the role for a movie - without cameras or a script! ("Freestyling," lol). Absurd humor, heart, and a happy ending. Some of the funniest scenes I've seen in ANY movie, including some excellent "internal monologues" and a hilarious Mandarin/Italian interpretation negotiation scene. Highly recommend! 10/10! After I watched and loved it, I told my mom she should watch it, and she also loved it!

C-Dramas -- Decided to wait for Back From the Brink to finish airing so I can bingewatch! After a long time away from Love Like the Galaxy, I'm slowly continuing my watch. It reminds me of War and Peace - epic in scale (including visual scale!), and a sprawling cast of characters... most of whom I don't like. Also slowly watching Sword Snow Stride, which has a zen-like feel that I appreciate.

Race
Loved that the bar was finally busy and that we are beginning to see things come together in the office power play. The Yoonjo and Jaemin love life complications remind me of More than friends and Jealousy Incarnate where the FL tries a relationship with the other guy and despite them being lovely are pulled back to the one they really love.

The Good Bad Mother
It was harder to watch this week as I really struggled with Samshik trying to constantly solve his problems by scamming someone rather than explaining to his parents what has happened, especially when he had been given money.

I look forward to seeing how this will tie up as the gangster politician and gangster wanna be baseball player need something big to tie them into the murder and corruption so they can be removed from threatening Kangho and his little family. This will take a lot because of their links with people in high places who consistently keep them from facing the consequences of their actions so they need a One dollar lawyer style take down.

Oh! Youngshim
These kinds of dramas where people get involved in things that don’t concern them annoy me. When Wolsok started to get involved and was ordering people around to play games at the office retreat they should have just refused to play. She has so little power and yet because people go along with her game playing she gets away with it. I just want to know where her partner is if she is such a pro at dating.

Definitely not today - Chinese
8 short episodes about two people who meet when they are at death’s door. Quite explicit story about suicide partly based on a true story.

Completed

One Day off
I cried in episode 7 it was so sweet and so sad. I loved this drama and wonder if it will get a second season since that seems to be the way things are going these days. I don’t know if there is a big enough market for this kind of web drama slice of life because it is very different to the other slow paced dramas that have longer episodes and run times.

Nagi’s long vacation - Japanese
A drama about finding oneself, and becoming part of a community. Nagi was the Queen of T-shirts that made statements. One had the Playboy bunny, it always surprises me when I see women wearing anything with the Playboy symbol on it. She was showcasing the extremes of minimalism so I was surprised that it had made it into her select wardrobe.
Thanks for the recommendation Lixie, an enjoyable watch about finding herself.

Audio Books:
Tales told at night in Kamusari by Shion Miura.
The second in the series of the young man settling into life in a Japanese village in the mountains and working in Forestry.

The sound of waves by Yukio Mishima
Life in a small Japanese fishing village after the war

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zeven
Friends who develop PC games, and the challenges they face over the lifetime of their friendship disability, death, trust and miscommunication key themes.

I've been on a month-plus drama sabbatical (travel). Thanks to recaps and beanie comments, I've decided to catch up on Dr Cha, not resume Bora, and start My Perfect Stranger. Next, Race. One Day Off will be saved for the right moment. I won't mention the many shows that Beanies have persuaded me to not even start.

The first two episodes of MPS really pulled me into the FL's story. Oh, the mom guilt! Also, I read Please Look After Mom during my travels. It was overdone, but still, sob, sob, mom, sniffle, sob.

I'm also looking fwd to Hearbeat, See You in My 19th Life, and King, the Land thanks to Beanie chatter. And I learned a promo with Junho can garner more comments than the finale of many shows!

DR. CHA (Ep 13-14): There were so many embarrassing public disclosures of characters' private facts to fill out a weekender bingo trope card. There are about a dozen hanging story lines that need to be sewn together in the next two episodes, not least of which is Cha's own life, family and career. Despite the chaos, everything sets up for a fairly predictable finale.

ONE DAY OFF (Ep. 1-4): What a nice slice-of-life diary of a burnt out school teacher who uses her day off to explore, experience and re-charge herself with day trips. She is smart but introverted; practical but a dreamer. When learn about her as she learns about herself. It is small, quiet flowing stream of introspection which is unique in the k-drama space. I find the pace, acting, direction and subject matter excellent.

Watched the Jdrama Silent, which was a really nice piece on the ML's growth and acceptance of his hearing loss. Was hoping for just a little more from the romance, but I knew going in there wasn't even one kiss so I was prepared. Decided to rewatch Hoshi Furu Noru Yi because it more than makes up for the lack of kisses in Silent :D

On ep 14 of Cdrama Find Yourself. The SML is annoying; he's supposed to be only 5 years older than the FL, but he looks like he's the same age as her parents. The FL is annoying me a good bit right now too.

Still keeping up with Back to the Brink and enjoying the heck out of it. It's full of flaws but I really don't care, I love it.

Started Fight For My Way and enjoying it so far.

Oh! Young-shim I thought that it will be easy to turn a Kdrama about dating show and fake relationship into a good rom-com. But it's the second one and it's still meh.

My Perfect Stranger I really like this one. I like the family relationships, the mystery and the relationship between the leads. It would have been nice if the romance between the leads took a bigger place instead of the parents one. But I like them, they're confortable and cute together.

Delightfully Deceitful For once, it's the FL who is the genius!

Romantic Doctor Teacher Kim 3 How long they will lure us with Kang Dong‑joo's appearance?

Tale of the Nine Tailed 1938 I'm sad that I'm not more invested in Rang's love relationship because I don't like the actress.

Race I like the development of each character and their relationship.

One Day Off I didn't watch the last ones yet.

Bitch X Rich I wanted to cheer for the FL but not wearing things that are not yours is kinda a basic and simple rule of courtesy.

K drama

Good Bad Mother
Kang Ho and Sam-Shik open a BBQ restaurant
How to tie up murders, political corruption , etc. without losing sight of Mi-joo and the twins.

Waiting for new dramas

J dramas
First Love: Hatsukoi More amnesia !
Hikari Mitsushima & Rikako Yagi 🥰
Lots of product placement,

Finished J drama Kitchen Knife and Green Chili Pepper
I wonder if they’ll do a 2nd season as it had an open ending.

Other stuff
Nicholas Nickleby (1947) I thoroughly enjoyed this.

Tale of the Nine-Tailed 1938: 9.0 Those PPL scenes of course were brilliant. The rest of days 7 & 8 were pretty good but still dragged the score down a bit -- it doesn't take much to mar perfection.

Doctor Romantic 3: 7.0 Once you are past the incision close-ups and the strictly medical tension, show is 59.014% lame plot contrivances. I've never liked to watch obnoxious characters like the politician & her aides so that whole plot line was a liability to the show trhu day 10. Not sure what to thing of her day 11 turn, but at least we didn't have to put up with her aides.

Delightfully Deceitful: 7.5 Give me a while to decide what I think of the story. Parts are great but the excessive empathy & obligatory childhood connection are not good signs. Hoping they make it live up to the alternate title "Beneficial Fraud" with her helping him win other cases, but so far it smells like a routine murder/revenge story originating from a special school that mistreated kids long ago. Seen enough of those.

My Perfect Mystery Stranger: 8.0

Bitch X Rich: 4.0 Bullying. Rich people being jerks. "Protagonists" lying themselves into awkward situations. These are a few of my least favorite things. Bye.

Happiness Battle: 3.0 Wall to wall rich people being snobs. The synopsis says there well be a death, but it needed to come sooner if they wanted to keep my interest. Out at 11 min 35 seconds.

So I'm in a bit of a drama slump, especially Wed/Thu, and I'm spending the extra time on Perun's Youtube channel rewatching defense/economics powerpoint slideshows and eagerly awaiting Sunday's new release.

PUNCH rewatch on hold, watching ARE YOU HUMAN TOO very slowly. Both because of real life, and also because the story doesn't make me care about the main leads.
I'm actually only curious about the real Shin. I would have had finished this in 2 days if it had been the story of Shin and his Shadow.
As it is, it looks more like a playground for Seo Kang Joon. It isn't bad, but not addicting either.

Rainless Love in a Godless Land: The execution of this was often messy, and it felt more logistically complicated than it needed to be, but I don't think I've ever seen a show explore the ways that reality affects belief and belief affects reality with such nuance and care.
One Day Off: Through 5 episodes, this is a quirky, thoughtful show that rewards careful viewing.

Delightfully Deceitful: I'm a little hooked. The comedy was a lot less than I expected (mostly brought on by the characters' interactions with Yoon Park's delightfully obnoxious character), but I still enjoyed it. Not available on anything that I can subscribe to so I'm not sure how long I will continue with it. I have a higher bar for enjoyment when I have to stream it through less official sources.

The Real has Come: YES! Yeon-doo telling the family off! The confession of feelings!! I'm also enjoying having a cohabitation storyline with Se-jin's dad and Yeon-doo's mom. You usually don't get this with older adults. I'm starting to FF through Se-jin's parts to preserve my sanity.

Back from the Brink (up to ep 24): Some wtf-ery around episodes 16 and 17, which undoes character and relationship setup and development from the first 15 episodes. But there are consequences at least, so I'm not too angry. Still very watchable! Despite the plotting getting inane sometimes, I do like the characters for the most part and their interactions. The actors also portray them well.

A Love so Romantic (up to ep 11): Had this low production quality chinese costume web series playing in the background. You really need only half your attention span and you can predict and follow along everything without watching subtitles closely. Employer-employee contract turned brother-sister contract. I'm in it for the entertaining imagination sequences that pop up every now and then.

Dr. Cha (2023): It will be interesting to see how this ends. If anyone needs a little extra Dr. Roy, I found the actor (Min Wook Hyuk) very charming in Love with Flaws.

9 Tailed 1938 (2023). I just finished episode 6. Kim So-Yeon continues to dazzle. Lots of fun overall. The translation says that they are "demons" is that the correct/best word for our foxes and many of the characters?

Giant (2010): This is really my kind of watch. I'm up to episode 33. With all that scheming and revenge its a wonder that the characters have time to get through the day. I just keep hitting that play button. A great binge so far. I'm having fun counting all the actors that appear in this and Empress Ki.

Fruits Basket (2019) Season 3🍙🐈(13/13): What a gem. Words fail me, but this is a story I will treasure forever and will probably rewatch if I ever find the English dub. Not that anyone can top Kyo’s voice actor for that matter. I think I am taking a break from anime and cartoons for a bit, or they will lose the comparison with Fruits Basket! At the same time, it took my friend and I four months to watch all three seasons and now I am ready to move on to another fictional adventure!

With the shows I am watching ending soon - Dr cha, the bad bad mother - I am rewatching hospital playlist - my happy place - and looking for something new to watch

What I have watched:

_ Mini drama Two Lights: Relumino. It was short but nice and different.

_ KBS Drama Special If we were a season. Nor bad nor very good. A "coming of age" story with a love triangle and some tropes.

_ Western series "Rabbit Hole". Quite entertaining. It's open to another season.

What I am watching:

_ Meteor Garden (C-drama. 2018) (27 out of 49). Totally hooked to this "trashtastic"(credits to @sicarius) show. Sometimes it gets on my nerves, and FL rarely is sincere with her feelings. But this is like a "telenovela", and these are usual things in this kind of series.

_ Good Manager (8 out of 20). I was thinking of dropping this drama, but since episode 6 I'm laughing more, so I'll keep watching.

Reads: first volumen (Spanish Edition) of manga "Tokyo Revengers". I have not watched the anime. I don't particularly like the drawings style but the story is interesting.

Is it my imagination, or is Viki turning into a C-drama channel? I don't see much that much new Korean on the horizen.

THE REAL HAS COME: Ep 1. Written and acted by AI? Is this worth continuing with?

ONE DAY OFF: A+++ Eps 5-8. A drama cut from a different cloth. By leaving behind the noise of her life in the big city, she gets little glimpses of clarity. Out in the countryside, ordinary objects take on bold colors and lines are sharply etched. I especially loved the episode about a bakery tour of Jeju that turned into a search for the exact bread that reminded a little girl of her mother.

MY LOVELY SAM-SOON: First watched this a couple of hundred Kdramas ago, but on re-watching realize that I way under-appreciated it. While the ML could’ve been played by any number of good looking guys, it’s Kim Su-nah’s’ Sam-soon that is the heart and soul of this show, a woman of steely determination, a rock of common sense, but far from stony. She’s deeply vulnerable, even while not taking crap from anybody. Sometimes I want to yell at her while heartbroken on her behalf.
I love the side characters like her crazy mother and sister, and the timing of funny scenes like the rhythmic reappearance of the same blind date guy. Somewhere along the way, the show breaks out of its romcom shell and takes flight, becoming a more ambitious story about living life in the present, risking more pain, taking chances despite not knowing if things are going to work out.