LIVE WATCHES
Destined with You
...was really good for 14 episodes, and then was not good for the final two. We Beanies had so many better ideas for how to wrap this all up, keeping the spirit of the freaking show. Sigh. However (하지만)! I enjoyed every moment of making gifs of this drama and discussing what was wonderful, and could have been wonderful, about it with this community.

Strong Girl Nam-soon
I enjoyed the first week, although I admit to using the FF button freely. I think I’ll keep doing that—until the moment that the show grips me by the heart. I expect it to, but we shall see!!

FROM THE RESERVES
Mad Dog
The Community Fan Wall watch will conclude next weekend with episodes 13-16!! I’m not sure that any of us are convinced that this drama is any good per se, but we’re all certainly paying attention to the Min-hari relationship, just like it was back in the day (or so I hear from the weecaps and some persistently venerable Beanies!!

ON DECK-ish
Evilive
I don’t actually intend to watch this drama (and it looks like I won't have access to it anyway) but do you know what I would pay attention to with eager expectation every week?? Gif-gifts from our talented Beanies on the Fan Wall. I know My Dearest is starting up and will take up space from time to time (*euphemism alert*), but still. Will someone take this important job on? There are dramatic scenes with dramatic lighting to capture on tap!!

Happy Weekend Beanies! My drama plate is so full right now!

ONGOING
The Kidnapping Day - Caught up with the show this week and oof it is so anxiety-inducing. It felt like I was riding a roller-coaster I can't get off of 🤯. The way I gasped when she said "shrimp fried rice" 😯.

Twinkling Watermelon - Not a fan of Eun-yu at all. I'm ready to have the mom and dad love story be the focus now. More Chung-ah please 🤲.

The Worst of Evil - I knew they'd get caught on the Wonju lie. It's such an easy fact to check unlike cop personnel records. Am I the only one who felt bad for Jung-bae? He's the only one not screwing anyone over at this point.

Bracing myself for the angst in My Dearest Part 2.

STARTED
Strong Girl Nam-soon - There were parts of it that were obnoxiously bad esp. some of the mom's scenes. The OTP are cute and watchable. Will give it another week.

A Good Day to Be a Dog - It was sweet but a bit boring. Got fun when we got to the student finding out though. I'm not sure if this story is interesting enough to be stretched all the way into January.

C-DRAMAS
Finally completed Sunshine by My Side. Unfortunately lots of fast-forwarding was involved. Got to the point where the only characters I cared about were the Moses threesome.

Don't really feel like unpausing My Journey to You right now. Might start one or more of Hilarious Family, Ripe Town, or Romance on the Farm instead.

Current/recent:
Destined With You: The usual late-innings nosedive aggravated by an FL who has accumulated centuries' worth of indifference to self-preservation. The ending was another victim of uneven editing and a writer who dropped the ball, but at least they’re alive and together, so, yay?
My Dearest part 2: This show is going to kill me.
The Kidnapping Day: This is the BEST show going. Ro-hee’s and Myung-jin’s banter and gunplay are so funny. Sang-yoon’s desperate moves making everything worse is such a great reversal of the usual rogue-cop stereotype. Ho-young expresses so much by not having an expression. I can’t guess - and can’t wait - to see what happens.
A Time Called You: It drives me crazy that the older version of the ML spends years using a cane that’s too short. I know it makes him look more broken and pathetic but COME ON.
Twinkling Watermelon: I'm a week behind. Eps 3-4 drew me in a teensy bit more, but overall this is just not my kind of show, no matter how well done.
A Good Day to Be a Dog (ep 1): Hasn't made me angry yet, which is enough to keep going for now.

Older shows:
Mad Dog: Group watch on the fanwall. Ep 10, the found family finds itself. It’s getting better as it goes along but I’m frustrated because I don’t have time to keep up.

CRICKET - Trash - yeah what more to speak

One sided matches for most part. Mismanagement i such that you feel it is all done with purpose so T20 leagues that bring lot of money could be promote more.

World events usually have idea of govt promotion but Chna with 2008 Olympics made i such a spectacle that and now everyone does that because it is image PR at the expense of tax payers money aka public money.

As you expect mostly boards are controlled by politicians or their friends - so milk the sport and shift the earnings to politics and from politics is business.

No one cares about the sports

I expected it world cup to turn into a big politican event but it didn't as much - Elections in November and BIG elections in April so money is kept for that.

Indian cricket generates 70% of cricket profits so monopoly and they get to do a lot of things.
Earlier it was England and Australian cricket that managed world cricket.

TWINKLING WATERMELON (ep 5)—I am slurping this up while trying to savor episodes since I started the live watch. This is beyond my expectations and includes everything I love in my personal Kdrama recipe: excellent writing, characters to root for, mystery and tension to keep the pace moving, fantastic OST, and heart—tons of heart. Best father-son duo in both times too—pulling my heart-strings in the present and cracking me up in the past. Ryeoun and Choi Hyun Wook have an easy chemistry that make this chalk and cheese duo a hoot to watch.
But I really can’t wait until he meets his mother and to see her reaction when he signs to her. It breaks my heart that she has been forced to live assuming the mask of a “normal” hearing person and denied support let alone her ability to be herself. No wonder why she is so happy in the present even with the hardships they faced.

A GOOD DAY TO BE A DOG—I am holding judgment on the tricky webtoon moments that cross over consent. I was uncomfortable with the alcohol deception. I will give it one pass. Everything else is zinging and zipping so I hope this will be a good watch. The Dog/Crab misunderstanding cracked me up. Park Gyu Young is a joy to watch, I am thrilled to see Lee Hyun Woo (and knowing his webtoon character I love the little hints in his delivery and the scene framing), and Cha Eun Woo is pleasant as usual.

PARALLEL WORLD (CH)—THANK YOU, Beanies! It is not at all what I was expecting, but it doesn’t matter. I am captivated— in large part because the actors’ chemistry is electrifying and the characters have a lovely rapport. (Side note: usually I get butterflies from the way the ML looks at the FL, but in this one it is the way SHE looks at him. Holy cow.) I can forgive the poor lighting/horrid color correcting on the desert“night” scenes.
Plus I would give an A to the music director—great OST. So happy to hear Liu Yuning’s voice.

I”VE FALLEN FOR YOU (CH)—everyone was crazy, the tone was delightfully absurd, and I was laughing every minute. And THEN the crazy happened and now I can only hope the absurd comes back.

EVER NIGHT 2 (CH)—I think Arthur Chen’s Ning Que was certainly more dynamic and Dylan just didn’t have the menace seething under the surface nor the cheeky shamelessness that AC had. I tried the second season and couldn’t make it far. The magic is gone, but even with the differences it is not Dylan’s fault; I think he did the best with a poor, disjointed adaptation. It is a shame because the story is really fascinating.

Destined With You (Series review) - Mood progression: D+ / D+ / D / D- / D- / D- / D- / D-
Sadly, Ha Joon is going to be stuck with that weekender for the rest of 2023 and Q1 of 2024 while his fellow lead is lucky enough to star in another miniseries (thoughts about that, I have). Honestly, I’m surprised I even finished his show: so many signs that it was a train wreck, but maybe I was hoping against hope for an epic 2ML twist. Yeah, that didn’t happen.

CEO-dol Mart (Series review) - Mood progression: C / C / C- / D+ / D
I wished I could’ve at least laughed at something, but the finale was so paint by the numbers that I was left underwhelmed.

A Good Day to Be a Dog (Episode 1-2) - Mood: C+
Okay, I knew what was coming but I still cackled at the cliffhanger: a good sign that I’m enjoying the show despite all those usual tropes and plot devices. I am most intrigued by the nephew who was surprisingly accepting of the dog situation, but I hope it’s not because he has a crush on her or something like that. Please, Show, you can do better than that, right? Right?

Twinkling Watermelon (Episode 5-6) - Mood: C
Sigh, the show really went with the unnecessarily dramatic inclusion of Se Kyung’s daughter as another time traveller. Yes, I fear the show might be making up fantasy rules as it goes along: suddenly the master had already given Eun Gyeol hints all this while? And will Se Kyung’s daughter also now get her own time travel playbook? I still like the show but it is concerning.

The Kidnapping Day (Episode 8-9) - Mood: C
Given their contentious history, I’m honestly confused as to how Myeong Jun ended up having a daughter with Hye Eun: it’s not like he’s wronged her in any way given that she willingly snatched his place and walked into hell herself. To be honest, it isn’t great if Hye Eun’s the mastermind given that she’s not really different from Jaden himself, only just more manipulative.

The Killing Vote (Episode 8) - Mood: D
After a torturous wait for 3 whole weeks for a single episode (in a whodunit thriller of all genres), the show gave us chaos in all the wrong ways: there’s nothing satisfying about the reveal of Seok Joo being involved with Gaetal when that was pretty much foreshadowed in the earlier episodes. The taxi driver’s betrayal also seems to have come out of nowhere narratively?

Strong Girl Nam-soon (Episode 1-2) - Mood: D
Well, I know it’s not supposed to be realistic, but even then the show had me unable to suspend disbelief for quite a portion of its premiere. Characters are not interesting nor engaging while the story has all the characteristics of a superhero movie (aka it won’t survive for 14 more episodes!). Hopefully next week will bring about something, anything to hold my attention?

Literally like 15 minutes left of the last ep of Memories of the Alhambra : premise made me click play but I was most curious to see what exactly happened in the drama that earned it it’s 7.7 rating here/lukewarm comments across different review sites. I think I get why now - especially because of the ending, the some of the lore that remains a bit confusing for me and the romance that I’m not entirely convinced on (they either needed to do better to flesh it out or get rid of it entirely, but also PSH’s character I wish they’d done more with in general). That said, despite those flaws, the idea is mad creative and I really loved the story overall - the world building was fantastic, the tension & suspense was high throughout, Hyun-bin gave an amazing performance as Jin-woo, and the way the story was carried across 16 eps was sublime 👏 👏 👏

About to start second ep of the The Dog Show and give Parallel World another crack. The much awaited second part of My Dearest is here and I have…thoughts (insert wide array of internal screaming emojis). If ep 11 of MD is anything to go by, I think the Cha Eun-woo drama might become my safe place to go to lick my wounds and heal in-between 😂

I also finally caught up with new eps of Twinkling Watermelon because mum wanted me to wait to watch it with her - I wasn’t as enamoured with this week as I was with previous weeks and I think a large part of that has to do with me finding the “””new””” Se-kyeong a bit irksome. Excited to have double eps of LYOL again (I think? I hope!). I did try Strong Woman Nam-soon and while I like elements of both episodes, I think this one might fare better as a binge watch for me maybe? So on pause for now and will be following recaps to see if there’s something that happens to make me jump back into the live-watch boat.

A GOOD DAY TO BE A DOG (Ep. 1-2) In a spate of actresses in series acting extremely cute, Park Gyu-Young pours it on in a delightful way. The fantasy premise is simple and the “rules” are crystal clear. It sets up for straight forward rom-com. The second episode puts the secret in play through Jin’s nephew and a scandalous reveal. However, the star of the show may be the puppy who also made an appearance at the show's press conference.

SWITCH (2022) This Christmas holiday movie has a simple premise and good execution of a classic holiday miracle story. Park Gang (Kwon Sang-Woo) is the most popular and scandal ridden actor. He enjoys living his single life. His manager is Jo Yoon (Oh Jung-Se). In the past, Jo Yoon pursued an acting career, but that didn't work out well. One day, when Park Gang wakes up, he finds that his life has completely changed. He is not an actor and lives an ordinary life with his wife Soo-Hyun (Lee Min-Jung) and their two kids. He also discovers that Jo Yoon is now the top actor. The time travel life changing trope is well suited to deal with a major life regret. Child actors Park So-Yi and Kim Jun were great.

DECISION TO LEAVE (2022) Watching Decision to Leave left me wondering why it won such critical acclaim and awards. Hae-Joon (Park Hae-Il) works as a detective. He is polite to others, but passionate when investigating cases. He begins an investigation into an unnatural death case that took place on a mountain. While investigating the case, Hae-Joon meets Seo-Rae (Tang Wei). She is the former wife of the deceased man. Hae-Joon is suspicious of her, but he also becomes interested in her. Wei is an exotic interest in the movie; but the allure of a beautiful woman can make a man clouded decisions and bad choices is not breaking new ground. The director delayed filming for one year due to Lee Jung-Hyun’s childbirth recovery so he could cast her for a supporting role as Park’s wife. But her role was inconsequential. In fact, the story was not well developed and the characters’ motivations were not drawn out in depth or clarity. Things just happened in an art film style.

god CONCERT (KBS): The 25th anniversary concert by the group god was a special by KBS. The 17 song set was more vocals than dance/performance but it was interesting to note that the crowd sang an entire song with little prompting by the group. And it seemed both mothers and daughters were fans of this legacy group that had its run from (1999-2005).

Kidnapping Day
I pressed play... and went through first 5 episodes faster than you would desperately shout Rohee. (And now I'm sad that I don't have more time to binge the rest.)
A surprise watch because normally I would not follow a (slightly) thriller show about some elite group fighting for power (genius genes), with some shady ways and body counts along the way. But give me Yoon Kyesang as this caring Myungjoon the Brawn together with Bossy Rohee the Brain and resistance is futile. 😍 (Park Sunghoon as a competent cop is a nice addition.)
Btw, I can't stop picturing Myungjoon as a kindergarten teacher. The kids would love him, wouldn't they?

Dog Day
I put my webtoon lenses on and enjoy the ride. 😎 I'm here mainly for Park Kyu Young, but she managed to sprinkle some of her magic also on Cha Eunwoo and I think they are fine together and he even has some micro expressions around her as I could notice that Seowon actually has a crush on Haena. (Though his chemistry with the CGI dog is rather questionable. And no, a pair of glasses does not make a math teacher. 😅)
Anyway, I found it obvious who was Samchun, but I was surprised that Yul got to know about the secret... and so early!

Watermelon
We are getting more people travelling in time and one would think everything will get more and more complicated, but Mom and Dad are somehow still crossing the path... and having the most chemistry.
Just, I'm more and more asking together with Eungyeol why we are in the past... and how all this solves his Real Problem he had in his timeline.

Destined
I think I wanted a bit more of the fun and spark of the earlier episodes (and more of Mr. Secretary!!), but it was satisfying seeing Cheating Manipulating Snake getting what she deserved. Also, I thought I was immune, but I was getting a serious case of SLS during the finale! ☺️

Still watching Hyoshim and Unpredictable Family.

The Killing Vote: Finally a new episode! But it turns out all the shows I’m watching are on Wednesdays and Thursdays, so this is happening later today.

The Kidnapping Day: My favorite live watch of the moment! The teamup between Sang-yoon and Myung-joon is so so close and I’m ready! I really don’t know what else to say except that this drama is fantastic and I have all my fingers and toes crossed that the last three episodes live up to the first nine.

A Time Called You: I’m halfway through this and super intrigued. I feel drawn in by the mystery of what happens to Min-joo, disarmed by the teenage drama of the three friends, devastated by the loss of Yeon-jun, and smitten by all the tentative romantic angles. Excited to continue.

A Good Day to Be a Dog: This has started pretty adorably and I’m jazzed to continue in this vein. Our FL is juuust likable enough and desperate enough to make me forgive her (mostly) for being super pushy, and I for one am totally enjoying CEW’s performance so far. Reserved math teacher suits him.

A Time Called You When I Finally Earned the Bean: 6.5 (ep 10/12) At least it was more interesting than waiting for Dramabeans pages to load. Next time I want a time-travel fix, I'll go back to 2012 and watch Queen In-hyun's Man.

Strong Girl Nam-soon: 6.6 Sillier than what I expected and hoped for, but has potential. The airplane in day 1 was as bad as Truck, and the soles of her shoes should be pretty well trashed. Guess the Mongolia PPL in Payback: Money and Power was successful enough so they decided to go for seconds (?) I have previously seen the FL in All of Us Are Dead & All But One of Us Are Dead (aka Squid Game), so seeing her smiling and acting happy is new to me.

The Kidnapping Day: 8.5

Killing Vote: 6.0

My Dearest, pt 2: 6.0

Good Day to Be a Dog: 8.0 Boldly jumping in to fill the gap left by Destined With You, because what is life without a kdrama about an ancestral curse dating back to the Joseon era?

Destined With You: 6.5 Dumb girl uses her pepper spray for just one quick burst and then doesn't use it again 👎👎😠😠

They always say not to kick someone when he is down, but the correct procedure in a life-or-death struggle against a kdrama baddie is more like "ALWAYS kick the jerk a few more times when he's down. Then bash him on the head with a rock".

Twinkling Watermelon: I am now firmly convinced the daughter traveled back in time, why, I am not sure, but hopefully we will find out. Also she is obviously the love interest of Eun Gyeol, it is weird she is pretending to be her mom though.

Destined With you: It came, it saw, it sputtered. Rowoon gives good kiss, but is kind of a meh actor. I still like Jo Bo Ah, did not care for the character. I really like Ha Joon and hope to see him in non weekenders!!!

A good day to be a dog: This was cute, the dog was cute and Park Gyu Young is always great. Cha Eun Woo is okay, he was much better in Island I would say. I liked the 2 episodes and hope it continues to be light and airy.

The Killing Vote: Sigh, so now we know the players, SIGH. Okay, lol.

My Dearest: Still haven't seen it yet, but will watch today.

Evilive: Will check out to see if it is good.

The worst of Evil: Well...that was bound to happen. A mess.

Arthdal: I gave up, not even remotely as fun or bad as season 1. This season is dull and tedious.

Ongoing:
Strong Girl Nam-soon (Lee Yu-mi is on fire)
Twinkling Watermelon
My Dearest 2 (What a breathtaking premiere)
Completed:
Rebel Thief who stole the people
So far, I watched 3 episodes and I am hooked.

Twinkling Watermelon The magic of this drama doesn't work on me. I don't know what they're trying to do by making these 2 children coming in their parent life. His father's life was so awful that the ML needs to change everything?

Destined With You I loved it from the start to the end. I just needed to focus on the couple and their romance and forget the others characters.
I thought King the Land pushed the spicy boundaries this year, but Destined With You challenged it to a duel and won hands down. Good job team! @dramaddictally Oh yeah, it will be the scene of 2023 for me :p

A Good Day to Be a Dog It was cute and fun. PGY was very good and CEW is handsome but doesn't have a lot of charisma on screen for me...

Strong Girl Nam-soon Not sure about this one. I like the FL but the writting is over the place again...

My Dearest Nobody is happy in this drama...

Arthdal Chronicles: The Sword of Aramun I'm very behind. Neither of the main charcters have the charm of their younger counterpart. They're too cynical...

The Worst of Evil The story focusing on the character and less on violence makes it way better. Is it bad if I ship JCW and the Chinese girl?

CEO-dol Mart It ended and I don't really care about any character at the end... It started well but was pretty boring. The acting wasn't great to make the story better.

COMPLETED:-

*My Lovely Boxer* - Started rocky but got into its stride after the first couple of episodes, and then kept getting better. Lee Sang-Yeob carried this one, though the rest of the cast was pretty solid too. My only complaint is that the overall vibe was a bit morose. An upbeat vibe would have made it more appealing. 8 out of 10 Stars

*Destined With You* - I loved the bickering phase of our couple. What didn't work for me was HongJo (and her hair colour) and the unnecessarily stretched second half. However, this show opened my eyes to Rowoon's charms. And introduced me to Ha Joon. For this double win the show is a 8 out of 10.

*CEO-dol Mart* - This show didn't do anything pathbreaking, but its simple and light narrative made for a relaxing watch. I will miss these kids. If the makers are planning a second season of them doing what the surprise ending suggested, I will definitely watch it. 8.5 out of 10 Stars

*(Japan) My Personal Weatherman* - Who could have thought that a show based mostly inside a small flat with two emotionally stunted men could be so engaging! What looked like a toxic relationship in the beginning ended up being the sweetest love story. This little BL finally made me see the appeal of Japanese dramas and for that it deserves 10 out of 10 Stars!

WATCHING:-

*Live Your Own Life* (5/50) - Loving the fiesty girls in this show. MiRim took down that stuffed shirt of a wannabe lawyer like a boss! And TaeHee gets under her evil mother's skin like no one else. Am enjoying the pace at which this show is telling its story. Looks like the main romance is finally starting next week. And so is grandma's bonding with HyoShim.

*(Thailand) I Feel You Linger In The Air* (8/12) - We are heading towards heartbreak with both couples. Hoping against hope that love will prevail, but the forces against them are too strong. And Jom will anyway have to return to his era sooner or later.

*Mine* (10/16) - What a sophisticated makjang! I'm glad I'm bingeing it and not waiting for new episodes every week.

*Strong Girl Nam Soon* (2/16) - Loving it! So cute and silly. Already like our OTP. Adore the father and granny. Not liking the mother as yet - her heavily botoxed face and hyper acting style keeps taking me out. Other than that, I like all the characters and am very curious about what they plan to do with such a hot villain.

*A Good Day To Be A Dog* (1/14) - Super cute and fluffy! The school setting adds to the youthful vibe. Park GyuYoung is so naturally goofy and likeable that you totally believe that the cute dog is her in another form. Now if only Cha EunWoo wasn't so wooden! Hope the show maintains this sweet vibe till the end 🤞🏻

After the finale of DESTINED WITH YOU, I’m a little at loss how to fill the gaping hole. Awesome drama all in all, despite a little dodgy ending. I will definitely miss Shinyu’s hilarious lines (and eyebrows).

Watching STRONG GIRL NAM-SOON and enjoying it so far! Sneakers to ball gown ticks all the boxes. Will I be as hooked as I was with DWY? I kinda doubt it, but I’ll continue nonetheless, it’s still early!

After seeing some gifs on the fan wall, I wanted to quickly rewatch the first episode of EXTRAORDINARY ATTORNEY WOO, as comfort food. Was totally hooked again and am now at ep 12, lol! I’m totally cracking up any time Youngwoo and Rami do their secret hand shake. The friendships/found family in this show is beyond amazing. But let me just say: Lee Junho? Yes, please! The way he put his hand to her office window for a sneaky show of affection had me melting into a puddle! So endearing and kinda sexy at the same time. Ticks even more boxes!

Stalled the rest of what I was watching to finish this show first 😆