What a lovely surprise to find Javabeans here this morning. Your writing is so tied up with my discovery and love of k dramas that it really made me happy to be able to read your writing again.

Tell Me That You Love Me: The first half of this was one of the most sweet and swoony romances I've watched. It was perfection in the actors, writing, and directing. Then I honestly don't know what happened. I hated that I eneded up feeling so sad for our ML and hated that he kept feeling like he had to apologize for something that is not his fault and not a problem. This is also my first time watching Jung Woo Sung in anything and he was so good. It doesn't look like he does many romances which is a shame, lol. But if anyone has any recs on his work I'd love to hear them.

Doctor Slump: I woke up looking forward to watching it which is always a plus. I'm glad that we are now going to focus more on our FL's depression and maybe the MLs PTSD. The building romance and trial seemed to be a distraction and temporary bandage to those issues. Together or not right now I hope they go back to talking everything out with each other. It's one of the aspects of this romance I like the most, even when they'd walk away from each other in anger or embarrassment they'd think it out then come back and talk it out.

Admist a Snowstorm of Love: I have two eps left. I like the MCs and the sweet quiet romance. I did prefer the first part when they were in Finland.

Thinking of starting the C drama Road Home.
Also, trying to decide if I want to start Captivating the King or Flex x Cop.

I think I’m in the state of denial? Javabeans is back? Is she REALLY back? Are my eyes fooling me? Did I click the wrong post? How could this be? Is She really back? The Javabeans that is a co-founder of this very place and community that helped me go through the years???

I think I stumbled upon this site when Javabeans was about to leave or already left the place (around 2017?), but I always know @javabeans and Girlfriday are the legend. That’s why it feels so unreal to really see your comments on on-airing shows right now; right in this very community that you created. Welcome back 💗💗💗. @db-staff has kept the site on-going and with so many new creative posts lately, of which I feel so thankful. With your comeback, it makes it even better.

@mary also just came and and now did Javabeans. If only all the Beans that have left over the past years had know of this, the site would have blown up like fireworks 🎇.

Welcome back Javabeans! I wasn’t on DB during your time, but I have constantly gone back to your recaps and recommendations. I’m so happy to see you back and can’t wait to read more.

KNIGHT FLOWER: It was cute, sweet and predictable . It took such a light/surface view of a very serious topic (Joseon widowhood) that I was left wanting more. Lovely cast, but mostly underutilized. I’m glad others liked it, but I was kinda bored.

SECRET LOVE (2014): Two episodes left! What a makjangy blast. I can’t stop watching and am having a lot of fun. With all those women getting yanked around by the wrist, it is a wonder that no one has dislocated a shoulder yet.

Welcome back @javabeans! We missed you! 🥰🥰🥰

Flower That Blooms At Night ep 11-12 Jeong turned out to be such a great guy after all. It wasnt explained yet why he is in Joseon if he has a wife in Qing. I still appreciate him doing what he can to save Yeo Hwa from a difficult life of a divorcee. Soo Ho is as adorable as ever in his quest to avenge his famiky and also save his beloved. Yeo Hwa is amazing. Honey Lee did justice to the role and no one couldve played her as well as she did.

Captivating the King ep 11-12
Chu Dal Ha's anger is directed at the wrong person. He is stupid for thinking HJ's death is the King's fault alone. Hee Soo is as deluded as him. I have not disliked a FL as much as I do for her. I expect that she willbe redeemed later on but I may still not feel anything for her other than that other person on the screen with JJS.

A Killer Paradox ep7-8 it was okay. If it were not for CWS and SSK, I wouldn't watch this. So it is mostly thanks to them that I got past ep1.

Queen of Divorce ep1-4 I checked this out because postsabout it piqued my interest, particularly with the villainous SML. I wanted to check if there was anything redeemable about him.

JAVABEANS is back?!?!?! All you, new beanies, do you even realize the significance of this?!?!

Guess, who’s back!!!!!! Omg. lol

The return of the GOAT of recaps seems to have spurred a lot of action on the WWW. I don’t think I have ever had to click on page 2 when it’s still Saturday morning before. Hooray!

Live watching:
Doctor Slump. This show keeps me on my toes. The emotional highs and lows all rolled into every episode although the overall trajectory has to be up from rock bottom. I like that they don’t ever let us wallow for too long in the sad or depressing.

Goryeo Khitan War. Military uprising driven by a revengeful lord. A great mastermind manipulator and now that poor empress will never get the emperor back. They manage to do politics well enough with cliffhangers that I am eagerly hoping for some comeuppance in the next episode.

Started: Flower Knight after reading positive reviews here. Seems ok so far although I was very happy go see it was only 12 episodes as I didn’t think after episode 1 that there was enough for the usual 20 episode sageuk.

Completed:
The Hope cdrama. Wished they had just ended it after letting us know how the kids did on the test and what they planned to do in the future. I guess in reality very few relationships from high school survive but this is drama land and I didn’t want a dose of reality.

With the happy and well earned conclusions of Knight Flower and Marry My Husband, I've picked up Doctor Slump to fill the romcom void. It's pleasant, but mostly I alternate between horrified fascination at the amount of alcohol consumed by (admittedly, non-practicing) medical professionals, and bemusement at Park Hyung-sik's eyelashes.

I'm quite enjoying Flex X Cop, even though they've somehow made Ahn Bo-hyun look like a Korean Ken doll. Park Ji-hyun's low-key professionalism is a good balance to his antics, and the secondary characters--cops, coroner, butler, families--are all gold.

I'm hanging in for the silly yet weirdly engaging Branding in Seongsu. A custom pop-up store in a day? No problem. Eun ho being horrified that his pristine cheek is sullied by a gay man's friendly kiss, while Na Eon is blithely down for screwing her same-sex rival? Whatever show. Random unexplained villains? Bring it on. I do keep wondering if Na Eon does Eun ho's makeup for him every morning, since it's consistently perfect.

My favourite remains Captivating the King. What a wonderful character Jo Jung-suk has created, full of complex emotions and strategic calculations, while struggling to retain his humanity under the impossible circumstances. I have a lot of empathy for Shin Se-kyung's Hee-soo, who is even more deeply caught in the "captivating" dichotomy. She does cry perfectly for the character.

Doctor Slump (thru Ep.8):
-Me at the end of Ep.7: I reallllyyy wish that Jung-woo were not drunk during his confession. His drunken repeating "I like you," dancing in front of the claw machine, and falling headfirst into the ice cream freezer were not cute.
-Me at the beginning of Ep.8: I wouldn't trade this scene for the world! This scene was gold. Ba-da begging Jung-woo to date his sister ("But she has no friends."), Ha-neul's silent meltdown in the bathroom, Ha-neul getting drenched by the shower head LMAO and it all wouldn't have been possible if Jung-woo were sober. It was so swoon how Jung-woo said that they were dating loud enough for Ha-neul to hear.
-Me at the end of Ep.8: Empty. Spent. I already had a bad omen from her keeping things from him and was scared that they would break up... and they did. 😭 Why does a therapy clinic not have soundproof walls? I remember the incident in Ep.1 where Ha-neul's inept professor added other doctors' names to her dissertation, but when she grabbed at her clothes and had a panic attack on the stairs at Jung-woo's mention of Kyung-min's wedding, I automatically assumed the WORST in that Kyung-min had sexually assaulted her. Jung-woo really should've discussed Dae-young's job offer with Ha-neul because she would've wanted him to take it.

Marry My Husband (thru Ep.14): I haven't finished the final episodes, but Yu-ra's character truly ruined this show. She may have been tolerable if she had stuck to Ji-won and Ji-hyuk only because the OTP was so boring that I didn't care about them anyway, but I am extremely annoyed that she had to involve Su-min and Min-hwan who are by far the best characters in this drama and the only reason to watch. Ji-won was dumb to drop her seduction act with Min-hwan so abruptly. Did Ji-hyuk seriously believe that Yu-ra would be the other woman? The only good thing about Yu-ra's character is her secretary.

JAVABEANS! So good to hear from you! Welcome home!

Finished watching 'Marry My Husband', which was great fun, (though the two villains really ran away with the show, and it rather lost steam when they were sidelined at the end).

Still watching 'Queen of Divorce', which is.. undemanding. But the poor actors seem to be battling rather a tired script. (The religious cult thing was painful. And didn't I just watch that somewhere else?)

Still loving 'Flex x Cop'. I'm a complete sucker for the Family Secrets and the childhood-trauma-ticking-time-bomb-angsty stuff. Watching this is my highlight of the week.

Really struggling to find anything else I want to watch at the moment. It might be time for a re-watch of 'Goodbye Mr. Black' (possibly the cheesiest Korean melodrama ever written. I'm partial to nice bit of cheese...)

Finding it so fascinating that Marry My Husband has such divided viewers. There are those who are smitten with Na In Woo and those who find him bland. We're all watching the same drama but have completely different reactions to it. Is that not fascinating? Maybe there's some truth to each side, as they say? Maybe ML is both attractive and boring, and viewers just have to decide which qualities are more important to them. This is embarassing to say but I get a sense of basic decency, pureness of heart, and kindness emanating from Na In Woo's portrayal of his character. Am I just imagining things?

I finished "My liberation notes" just in time to start "Marry my husband".
I liked MLN but the ending left me a bit dissatisfied.

Marry my husband is very enjoyable so far. I am about to start episode 8. I have never seen Na In-Woo before and it took me some time who he reminded me of. I is like a love child between Keanu Reeves and Wesley Crusher.

Seeing @javabeans here makes me feel like I just received the world’s biggest forehead flick: rocked back on my butt, dazed and eyes filled with tears. SO glad to see her 🎉🎉🎉

Welcome back, Javabeans! So happy to read your thoughts again.

This week I ended up binging the Thai drama READY, SET, LOVE and would recommend it despite several loose threads at the end, a final shot that made no sense to me but obviously exists to potentially set up a second season, and a lovely "Four Years Later" epilogue that inexplicably didn't include any of the characters other than the leads. Nevertheless, it has an interesting premise and the love stories are very watchable so I don't regret the six hours I devoted to it.

And then I went ahead and started THAT COP COMEDY WITH FLEX IN THE TITLE and ok, it's utterly absurd that this dude would end up exposing the department to all manner of lawsuits by participating in actual investigations and being privy to sensitive information. But whatever, it's so fun. I'm not too far in, but am glad to see that although once again Park Ji-hyun is playing a grumpy character I like this one, probably because she's so competent yet not infallible. I also like her dad. Oh, and I have such a soft spot for Kwak Si-Yang (he really should be a lead already) so am desperately hoping his character remains the devoted big brother throughout.

But focusing on these two shows has meant that I'm woefully behind on CAPTIVATING THE KING (I'm lukewarm on the actual romance but its existence ratchets up the stakes in such an addictive way) and just a little behind on DOCTOR SLUMP (this show isn't always delightful but that bathroom freakout was hilarious and PHS is painfully adorable and yet so wonderfully sincere as a drunken serial confessor).

I do miss KNIGHT FLOWER, but thought it did its job well and knew when to turn off the lights and leave so I can't be too upset. I am one who believes that the final shot was a real scene of these two one year later and not part of dead-not-dead husband's traveling storytelling act, but there should have been a kiss before the fade-to-black.

I usually don't write in this thread because I usually watch one show at a time and you all know which one. 🤣
But besides that one I managed to see Jealousy Incarnate ( loved it ), The knight flower ( loved it ) and a movie with, who else, JJS, My Love, My Bride (pretty good). That is a lot for me, I feel like a bonafide beanie now.
But I didn't come here to bore you with this. I wanted to tell on you all to @javabeans. Yeah, @javabeans, THEY TALK ABOUT YOU ALL THE TIME!!! Javabeans this and javabeans that..stories about how you started, stories about how you left...I felt like a child being told stories by older folks about a knowing someone great in their lifetime...almost everyday I had to read about you. Then, of course, I had to read you. Yeah, you're all they say that you are, but still it was annoying that I had to hear so much about you. And about @girlfriday, which was double annoying! By the way, how is she? Is she joining you? Which is your first recap? I hope Queen of Tears. Are you back for good? Tell them! Not me, of course. They are dying to know! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Welcome back javabeans 💕
I wasn't a member of beanies when you were writing in this site, I was just lurking about but I remember how I enjoyed your writing
Dramaddictally too, I think you weren't around for a long time too
Extraordinary you: yes I started a rewatch! I don't really remember what happened in this show and I missed KHY so much

What a pleasant surprise to see @javabeans lead off batter today at WWW. Welcome back or home perhaps!

Greetings Javabeans!
What a delight to read your reviews. I remember your countless contributions from the past and you have been missed.
Dramabeans has been my go-to page for...what has it been? More than 10 years.
I truly hope you are doing well and hope to hear from you again as time allows.

What am I watching:

Queen of Divorce I love the villain. Period. He will help me earn my bean as the show tethers and careens from ridiculous to even more ridiculous.
Captivating the King What can I say - other than that I am determined to earn my bean. At least the episodes got better. It's headed for a very sad ending, and I don't see any other way out. But for some reason, while I am sad that I might lose the awesome King I have totally fallen for (JJS is SO good as a royal), I don't feel that sad because the romance is not engaging me at all.
Doctor Slump I am already getting withdrawal symptoms, thinking we only have three more weekends to go. Episode 9 was a chef's kiss. What a beautiful, beautiful episode all the way around. Hong-ran redeemed herself - somewhat. And once again, they took a trope and turned it on its head. What many thought was noble idiocy (I didn't) turned out to be anything but. How refreshing is that! But that last scene...how many hearts can I give it?

Catching Up:
My Demon I am trying hard to like this. I will persevere and perhaps, earn my bean.
Marry My Husband Is it the hype that's letting me down? Another drama where I am loving the villains WAY more than the main couple (they are dreary and bland and well, I don't mind f-fing their effing scenes.) I liked Perfect Marriage Revenge better, somewhat.
Secret Inspector Joy This one is right up my alley, and I need to stop meandering and focus on this one.

@ javabeans is finally back! Looking forward to read more recaps from you in the future.

COMPLETED:
Marry My Husband: I thought I couldn't finish this drama due to episodes 12-15. But, yeap, it is a wild ride, as I have not watched a makjang for a really long time. I love the secondary cast (Gong Min-jeung,Choi Gyu-ri,Ha Do-kwon and Lee Gi-kwang) here. Whatever faults it has, I have to salute the production as it managed to pull-off a satisfying ending.... a wedding and children. Flower Knight: For me, Flower Knight is the BEST ever drama for the first half of 2024. I can't think of any other drama which deserves an 18.4%. The cast are amazing, the writer and director knows where to take the drama and no unnecessary postponement (along with extensions). It also managed to blend action, comedy and social commentary into one, without making it a mess.

Currently Watching:
Queen of Divorce: Still enjoying the many cases and the comedy.
Goryeo-Khitan: Still watching this epic saeguk, which will in March.
Captivating the King: Captivated by JJS, but others (not at all). Still need to finish the drama.
Judge Dee Mysteries: I was so impressed with episode 1 and could not stopped watching after that. I never thought I could like this drama, which is adapted from the book. But, after 9-10 episodes in, I must say, the mysteries, a bit of comedy and the actor of Judge Dee are amazing.

Rewatch: Crash Landing On You: The only romcom that I can possibly repeat for 10. 50 and 100 times and never grow bored of. Love the chemistry between the main leads, the wonderful secondary couple and the supporting cast.

I had to come here and welcome @javabeans back to DB!!! Omg! You’re watching RWTMR!!! I put a new background OST together for that show because the original was terrible and several of us, including @sicarius, @carlybisek, @ayaan, group watched it together. Those were the days! So much more enjoyable watching it together and we discussed how absent the Sila culture is from sageuks. It still holds a special place in my heart. ♥️ And here is the link for my OST: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLan98REOrWaQbMt5PhuO0a7jd0U5qCLxS&si=RjaHWwWRyuo1F8Kw

Javabeans!!!

Slow to post today but this is such a great way to keep tract of what I watch.
Finished: Marriage not Dating: what a fun show. Thank you Beanies that recommended it. Just what I needed. Of course love ML Gi Tae. And main couple was very cute. Hated the ever annoying ex girlfriend, which is how I'm supposed to feel. This show would have been great with less episodes - kept showing the same flashbacks. Overall 8.5 and will rewatch someday.
Watching:
Weightlifting Fairy- I love how they are portraying the different sports and how difficult it is on both the athletes and their families to be at this high level. Counseling should be a requirement for both- now days I'm sure most do it. I also love this main couple and the friendship they are developing. I loved FL in her other shows but really disliked ML in Start Up but he is great in this. A better role for him. Looking forward to another fun week of watching this.
Alchemy of Souls: another Beanie recommendation. Really love how different this is so far- only on Ep 6. Love the magic, the pace, and the cast.

Adding to my weekly report for my own benefit:
2024 Beanie Count 2
Welcome To Samdal-ri
Like Flowers in Sand
Because I don't watch live this is a pretty sad start but January starts are finally ending so hopefully this will grow.

Oh my god @javabeans !!! I've so so so missed your voice, your take on dramas, and especially your immense love for them, warts and all! The trickles on Twitter were not enough.
Lovely to see you here again, and I'm glad you found your drama love back, and I hope we can watch many more dramas with you! 😍🤗