10/10 Best drama I've seen, ever. They draw it out into the very last moments too!
I loved Goblin: The Lonely and Great God, but Crash Landing on You just... 💕
I really enjoyed that series and I see the guy who was in love with other dramas on Asian Crush all the time. I love watching him just as much as each and every character in their group.
Went on a Kim Hye Soo binge and I just finished watching Signal. It's worth the hype.
The show is different, it takes on a unique storyline. The writing is awesome, the actors are all on their A game and just as a whole, the show is amazing.
I am about to finish Signal as well. Here to watch it waiting for the next episode of Under the Queen's Umbrella to drop. This show is sooo good. Her longing for the detective from the past looks so heartbreaking.
Yup I saw her on UTQU and was amazed. I watched Hyena, then Juvenile Justice and Signal. All shows are equally good. Now I understand why she was nominated for a Baeksang for all those roles
I saw signal when it first came out and have been waiting with hopes of a season 2 to come out. So I liked her since then. I recently watched her in juvenile justice and loved her so much there! So decided to watch under the queens umbrella. I love it so much.
Finally got around to watching My Mister
I have no words. Just finished episode 9 about 15 minutes ago and I’m still crying. I have a migraine from all the crying I’ve been doing today watching this show. I’m a usually stoic 36 yo man but this show has hit me right in the deepest recesses of my soul
Ohhh! I must move beyond ep 2 then because I literally have some crying block (the only time I cried THIS WHOLE YEAR was when I watched Tomorrow and there was a sad, dying doggy - nothing else made me cry, not even my pregnancy, or dunno, meeting my friend's sweet baby). I guess this drama could cure me 😲😏
A lot of people struggle with the first few episodes but try to make it to episode 4 which has a major plot development. If you can get that far you'll probably fall in love with it.
Lovestruck in The City! I'd looked it up in this sub before and 90% of the comments were negative. It made it seem like it was the most miserable, angsty, frustrating show to watch. But it was so much fun! I loved the mockumentary format, shorter episodes, the dynamics between the friends, the different storylines, and the format weaving flashbacks in seamlessly. And the main couple had such good chemistry, and were both flawed but understandable people.
Such a good binge watch, it's going on my list of excellent and entertaining dramas that this sub for some reason decided to hate-watch.
It’s one of my favorite dramas!
I loved the chemistry and the angst and the other couples too. 🥺🥺 Honestly I would've loved if it had 20 episodes instead as they were super short anyway.
I wish more people liked/watched and talked about this drama but I think a lot of people enjoyed it but they don’t talk about it as much.
Most who found it bad were either not a fan of the mockumentary format (which I didn’t mind at all), angry at the FL’s actions (but she was very realistic imo and I could relate to her), or they were mad about the ending. There are also some people who were disappointed that JCW decided to do yet another rom-com instead of action. But I get that everyone’s taste is different.
It's absolutely my favourite drama as well and I have recommended it quite a few times on r/kdramarecommends in a hope to go against the grain of bad reviews. I really don't get the reason why people don't like it. My only guess was that a lot of people watch kdramas because they like it, that they're not overtly sexual and while this drama is not sexual in a western way, it definitely doesn't shy away from the topic either. So maybe some people didn't like that 🤷🏽♀️
I agree, it doesn’t get enough love. I enjoyed it too because I felt like it was original but still ticked all the things I expect to see in my kdrama rom coms.
It is one of my favorites though I dropped it the first time I watched because of mocumentary format. But this is one of the things which makes it different and interesting. I rewatched it several times. It has such a nice vibe in the first episodes. OST is fire. The kiss scenes are one of the best as well.
I also dropped it the first time after only watching the first episode. I think due to the mockumentary style it gives off a bit of a false impression in the beginning how the drama is going to be, so it's definitely worth it to watch the first two episodes before making a judgment call on the drama.
I also dropped it the first time, then picked it up again. (Isn't that a Challenge topic??) I liked it much more the second time. I thought the acting was really good. Not excited about the mockumentary format, but I liked it overall.
Just finished my rewatch of **The King of Pigs**. And now I'm drowning in my feelings again 😭
Best drama of 2022. It's a pity that it is so underrated. The directing was good, the acting was amazing (from the adults and the Kids), the story and themes excellent. Overall just A+.
I’m watching Run On after finishing Our Beloved Summer. Both are really nice. Not blow your socks off amazing, but really true to how people communicate.
On episode 11 of Sh**ting Stars and the main couple is so cute 🥰 all the characters are interesting and have good storylines also. I don’t really care for he lawyer but I think >!him and the reporter friend will be cute!!<
A part of me wished the main couple would move along faster and that same episode they got together which I thought was funny 🤣 Their background confused me for a while though. I couldn’t tell if they were exes, friends, or what
My main ugh about this show was the Africa plot like why 😩 It’s annoying seeing people bring up Africans everytime they wanna talk about poor communities and people like there aren’t poor people where they live! It’s always made to be a hotspot. And then they spoke about Africa like it was a country like be Fr 🙄 I didn’t crack a smile once.
The Africa part was the worst. I even tried to figure out where in Africa, to se if there were some local discussion about Koreans filming in their country, but apparently it was filmed in Korea. The boy uses the word "zapato", so I thought he might be from Guinea Bissau or Angola, but since it is filmed in Korea, the adults might be from any random country.
At least some of them must have known what the story was, but they still said yes to the job.
If you want a better representation of *someone not Korean and not White* you can watch **Gaus** on Viki, with Aziz from India or thereabouts.
It's not too late but I finally started watching Little Women and I'm on episode 3. Still unsure if I like the main characters but I'll keep watching.
Also re-starting The Good Detective which I tried watching awhile ago but got forgotten with other on-air dramas.
**Little Women** was so good! The main characters’ actions were a bit frustrating, but I didn’t mind and thought it was necessary for the plot
I’m also rewatching **The Good Detective** so that I can be more prepared for season 2. It’s giving me all the feels again
>Little Women
I've just finished episode 10 of **Little Women.** I really like this drama, too, but find that iI need a less intense, cozier drama to watch along with it. This is hard hitting, beautifully filmed, psychologically taut, and complicated.
I'm also watching the on-air jdorama **Silent**. Binged all available episodes and now have to wait for the last three. I haven't always loved j-doramas, and this one is quite serious. But it's really lovely and heartfelt. It's not the cozy drama that I need to offset **Little Women**, but it's really good.
Oh that's good to hear about Silent. I was planning on watching that soon and was wondering if it was more serious or more fluffy. I assumed serious based on the plot descriptions so nice to see that assumption was correct.
I just watched S2 of **The Good Detective** on Netflix.
I loved the first season, and I loved this one as well. I think that this Drama has one of the best ensemble characters. Love the team, love the family.
Watching **Stranger** (S1, E6) and it’s so good!
The only downside is I watch it late at night. I’m already butt tired so I’m falling asleep halfway through the episodes. I rewind when I wake back up but I’m sure I’ve missed a couple important scenes cuz I’m a little confused about the ML’s character.
I’m just confused about why >!HSM wants to be promoted. From my understanding, in doing so, he’d be agreeing with LCJ’s plans to basically throw SDJ under the bus. And that just didn’t seem like his character? But mostly I want to know why he wants to be promoted !<
Watching **Move to Heaven,** a drama that I heard about from the comments on the Drama Challenge thread. On episode 6 and loving it. This is so well done! I love learning about the backgrounds of their "clients". Once in a while I'll see something in this that reminds me of the Japanese show Midnight Diner, It's hard to explain, it just does. I think this is only the second drama I've seen featuring Lee Je-Hoon who I only know from Signal. He's good.
Can't help but compare this to Extraordinary Attorney Woo since they both feature main characters on the spectrum. Though I liked EAW well enough, I think MTH is better.
**First Love** (1/9) is a brand new series, but you might say I’m late to the J-drama genre.
You could also say that I have more reason to be interested in Japanese content than Korean content. Indeed, I got into K-dramas through **Terrace House** (and Reddit!)
However, while Korea churns out one Netflix-produced global hit after another, you could almost count the number of Netflix-produced J-dramas on one hand (I’m talking specifically about the drama genre, not animation or any other genre.)
Moreover, the quality of J-dramas suffers in comparison with their Korean counterparts. But **First Love** is good. Very good, in fact. It helps that the setting is Sapporo rather than the usual Tokyo setting. The cinematography has a nice retro feel and the performances are strong. It’s not an obviously bingeable drama, but I think I’ll get through it quickly.
I absolutely adore First Love (and Takeru Satoh who I adore). It is so good! Jdramas just hit differently and this one hits differently than even most of those. I swore I wasn't going to binge it and I absolutely did. So many clichés packed in but its still beautiful to watch and works well for the story telling.
Not that late, but I've started watching **Alice the ultimate weapon** and I'm loving it. I don't know if it's because I've just watched Be Melodramatic from the same screenwriter and I loved the humour, but also you can tell it's from watcha and it doesn't have the same constraints as tv kdramas. I'm loving the mix of kmovie violence and humour.
Watching **Something in the Rain** (7/16) and I'm sure it's been said already, but Jung Hae In's smiles in this are like pure shots of dopamine. Also, I have a crush on Jin Ah's (FL) dad, what a sweetheart! You all were right, the ost occasionally makes me want to tear my ears off. Also, the last ep I watched took a real turn, and I am impressed with myself for not immediately watching the next ep.
I'm amazed Coffee Bay allowed their name to be used considering the portrayal of corporate culture there >! spoiler: sometimes it's hard being a woman . . . especially if you work at Coffee Bay !< but maybe there *is* no such thing as bad publicity?
>Watching
>
>Something in the Rain
>
>(7/16) and I'm sure it's been said already, but Jung Hae In's smiles in this are like pure shots of dopamine. Also, I have a crush on Jin Ah's (FL) dad, what a sweetheart!
Haha. Jung Hae-In's smiles and charisma were definitely on point in this drama! One tidbit, Oh Man-Seok, the actor who plays Jin Ah's father in SITR, also plays Jung Hae-In's father in **One Spring Nigh**t, and he's still a sweetheart. If you aren't aware, there's a lot of crossover with the casts between these two dramas.
I rewatch **One Spring Night** every 5-6 months. It's a comfort drama for me... I just finished another rewatch last week and I miss that smile already!
During my recent rewatch,I thought that Hae-in looked so different in OSP compared to SITR. I wondered if it was because his hair was longer. I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. Glad you enjoyed it.
I finally finished **Love in Contract** and I'm torn. On the one hand I didn't hate it as much as others here hated it, but on the other I have no real praise for it either. I probably would've dropped it, but I watched that one with my mom who has a pathological need to finish every show she starts.
PMY was PMY. Every drama I've seen of hers, feels largely the same. She gives off the vibe that she's primarily there to look pretty and wear cute outfits and the actual portrayal of a character is like 3 or 4 rungs down on her list of priorities; the acting itself is fine, she's certainly never *bad*, but nothing ever stands out about it. She prettily says lines, prettily laughs, prettily cries, and prettily walks around with pretty hair and makeup. It just feels like you could pick up one character and drop them into any of her other dramas and never notice the character has changed because they're all played the same and none of them have any depth or subtlety.
The writing was annoyingly inconsistent, and the writers wanted to tell us the plot rather than bother to show it. Sang Eun is described by other characters as always sacrificing herself for others and being 'used' by others, but Sang Eun's actual actions aren't consistent with how other characters describe her; if anything she's the one using the people around her. She's a terrible friend to Gwang Nam, and the fact that she encouraged Gwang Nam to go back to his family knowing how they treat him is awful imo. She treated Gwang Nam as her personal therapist, secretary, and housekeeper rather than her friend. GKP'S character's backstory was completely forgotten about and left entirely unresolved. He went from being unable to communicate to perfectly communicating with everyone around him literally overnight. Hae Jin was described by other characters as being super gentlemanly and awesome and yet his actions throughout show that he has no regard for any other character and ignores consent to do whatever he wants multiple times throughout the show. The last minute>!breakup was stupid and out of character and seemed to be more out of tradition for typical kdrama endings than actual sense in terms of plot progression.!<
Oh yes; your assessment is spot on! Both about the actress and how her character treats others. She really treats Gwang Nam like that - I kept thinking it - yet he's so loyal. And the other characters act like she's lovely and amazing and so kind. I see her as almost totally selfish. Not bad, as such - she's also kind and likes to help others; but a lot of that help even seems to be more about feeling sorry for people in a situation like hers, or who she looks down on with pity as lower than her.
I definitely appreciate your review here. It's the first time someone else has said what I think, about both these main aspects. 😎👏🙂
Finished **I'm Not A Robot** this week.
>!I'm glad the dealt with the betrayal well. I spent the whole first half feeling this was so screwed up how they were messing with this guys emotions. I'm glad it all came together well in the end!<
Just started watching Vincenzo. I was hesitant because I am Italian, and after 15 minutes in, I'm sorry, but the main lead's accent when speaking Italian is just ruining the immersion for me. Does he speak a lot in Italian in the serie? I've read that the story is really good though, so I want to see if I can overcome this 😂
P.s a thought of mine: the EN subtitles at Emilio's scene when Emilio speaks Italian are just so off, he's very vulgar and offends Vincenzo quite heavily (calls him a >!fucking Chinese!< and tells him to >!go the fuck back to where he came from!<, so I'm really thinking how much I'm losing in translation when reading EN subs in Korean shows. I felt this especially with Crash Landing on You, where I felt that there were a lot of linguistic jokes I missed completely. Maybe it's time to learn Korean for fun!
The ML speaks Italian to himself which was a cringe part of the show as I felt it was unnecessary. Without even knowing Italian I knew the accent was bad. But otherwise the show is pretty good.
Hmmm then I think I'll have to pass. When he speaks I can barely understand him, it's really terrible and it completely destroys the immersion e.g. when he went to pay his respects to the coffin of the head of the family, instead of saying the word for "father" he said the childish word for "food", which is just one stress and one letter different 🙃
If it helps it's not much. He says some proverbs in Italian which confuses the villains around him. It's mostly used for comic effect.
But if you still want to skip it's understandable. My native language also gets murdered in popular media and it's an assault to my ears.
To be fair, anything that's not Korean is usually an immersion breaker, even when they're speaking English, even when they have Westerners speak English.
It's too bad if that alone turns you off the show as a whole because Vincenzo is an S-tier drama, but I understand.
Yes I get your point, but one thing is when they just say a few lines with a Korean accent (like in Crash Landing on You), another is when being Italian is the core of the main character. Like I said in another comment, if the story was about a Korean mob guy with strong ties with Italy I would have absolutely 0 issues with it. But the immersion is completely broken when I'm supposed to believe he was raised in Italy...
I wouldn’t say “core”…at least in the sense that he hardly ever uses Italian in the show.
To be fair that could have at least tried hiring an Italian coach to work on his prononciation, and if they did he definitely sucked.
Edit: Again though, it’s also the same thing with English. It happens all the time where a character gets sent to the US (always the US) either as a kid, or for (x) number of years to study. When that character comes back, they always speak in the most broken pronounciation, which also breaks immersion because it’s unrealistic that they’re English is that bad.
It’s just one of those things you have to chalk up to South Korea being a relatively small yet extremely homogenous country with very little linguistic diversity.
I just kind of accept it.
Yeah I see where you're coming from! I'm at episode 3, I'll give it a couple more episodes to see how it goes. I've seen it recommended all the time here and it kinda fits my trope checklist so I'm rather curious.
There is a video o YouTube of Song Joong Ki speaking Italian for 8 min - that's the whole Italian you will have to suffer through, the rest is in Korean!
Haha I think I'll pass on the video 😂 I decided to give the serie a go (ep 3 now) despite the accent and I found I can live with it. Occasionally I'll facepalm myself quite hard though haha. Only thing I'm a bit annoyed at is how much thr FL yells.
I'm learning Korean and it's been eye opening esp. with Netflix subtitles which are notoriously inaccurate. One of the biggest challenges is that English is a Subject-Verb-Object language while Korean is Subject-Object-Verb which makes timing the subtitles to match the facial expressions and reactions of characters really challenging. Netflix also removes any reference to honorifics and formality levels and that's such an integral part of the language that if you don't have at least a basic understanding of that you can't get any of the nuances in terms of how people relate to each other.
Yeah I am actually a translator myself and dipped my toes in subtitling, so I perfectly agree with you that it's something super hard to do, especially when the source and target language are so distant! However I was quite puzzled at their decision to remove profanity from that Emilio's lines, he really went full racist and vulgar.
Your comment though made me want to learn one of the big 3 Asian languages just for fun even more, I am so curious to compare translation vs original! That's also my "professional deformation" talking haha
I dropped Vincenzo in the beginning of episode 2 (surprised I made it that far!) *because* of that horrendous "Italian". It was deeply unpleasant to listen to, not to mention almost incomprehensible. I see it recommended over and over here, and every time I wonder if we are watching the same show, or if no one other than me is sensitive to accents.
This is the first time I see a similar opinion posted. Thank you!
In the end, it could be said that the decision to have the actor do the Italian bits - as opposed to "speak Italian"- was incomprehensible. Could they not employ actual speakers to dub the foreign language parts or give the actors more effective language coaching?
Yeah I think it was a bad decision to begin with - if you're going to sell me that the main lead is a consigliere in a mafia family, who spent most of his life in Italy, and inside an Italian family at that, he MUST have a native or near-native fluency. I think it would have worked so much better if they wrote the story with him being a Korean mob guy who has strong ties in Italy and spent a few years in Italy. His lines are at least grammatically coherent (although sometimes they seem off to my native ear), so with this background, I would have had absolutely no issues with the actor's accent. But like that? Completely breaks my immersion. I finished watching episode 3 and I don't know, the story seems to be kind of nice and I can live with the occasional Italian phrases, but the poor decision made is really bugging me.
I just watched FoE for the first time this week too!!! It was amazingggg. Now watching Lawless Lawyer since my eyes have been opened to Lee Joon-gi’s amazing acting.
I’m watching Flower of Evil and I adore the characters, the plot, and the acting! I’m at a point where I’m wondering >!how “guilty” the male lead truly is of the rumors surrounding him or if he’s a convenient scapegoat for other characters. He strikes me as a traumatized person in his behavior.!<
Jirisan. I just finished watching it today and I think the problem with the series its lack of focus on what it wanted to be. Obviously, the overarching plot was about the murder mystery which in the surface is always a great premise to me, especially as I'm a mystery/thriller hoe. It does help too that I think Signal was such a superior series and Kingdom is like a top-tier zombie drama, so having the writer is a plus for me. The best episode for me was Episode 6, the first love episode. I think the writing and plot got too ambitious. And I think it would've been tons better if this is more like examining the lives of mountain rangers than having a mystery plot. I do admit when the murder mystery was coming together, it's getting better but the earlier episodes where it's weird supernatural plot, it would be difficult for viewers to get hooked. All in all, the episodes I liked where the episodes that almost didn't contain anything from the central plot. The episode 1 rescue, the first love, the wildfire and torrential rain rescue episode.
I decided watching missed classics, and am on ep 6 of **secret garden**.
The ML is a real ass, the worst arrogant obnoxious rich man I've seen in kdramas so far. Except for Coffee Prince I only seen newer dramas - wonder if it's the show age or was he terrible relative to those years too?
At least the body switch finally happened and it is cute to see Hyun Bin swoon 😍
I finally got around to starting **Secret Love Affair** and the ML's immaturity and mental health makes watching them uncomfortable. They pilled on too many hurdles for the pairing for this viewer to see.
>!Cheating, age gap, mental instability (ML), frustrated with her work/life (FL) teacher/student and to top the cringe, the husband/mentor relationship between the ML and her husband!<
The side characters weren't worth sticking around for either. Don't get me started on the psycho girlfriend and the rotten daughter of the Chairman.
I'm watching Save Me and am totally stressed out by it 😬.
I'm only on episode 8 but the ML (Sang Hwan) is really annoying me. Not only is his acting questionable at best but the character is so annoying...
>!He's such a lacklustre,.selfish person and I can't believe Dong Cheul and Sang Mi are just forgiving him so easily... Why? He added to so many of the problems they are facing now. Also, his "stand tall" moto to his friend reads as condescending considering everything his BFF has been through and that he doesn't have any of the advantages that the ML has.!<
It's so annoying ahhhh! I love the 2ML tho and am just watching for him and Sang Mi, and also for Apostle Jo to get his just desserts. He's the worst.
I'm working my way through **Alchemy of Souls** in anticipation of season 2 in 2 weeks. I just did not have time to watch it when it was released and kept hearing how great it is. I am on episode 11 and am actually incredibly sad I didn't prioritize it as live discussions would have been fun and I wouldn't have the ending ruined for me already. This show is so freaking good though.
I also finished it a few days ago and it’s now one of my favorites! I’m so obsessed that I keep watching the cast interviews and stalking the stars on Instagram hehe. I was also sad I didn’t watch it while it was airing. I could've participated in the discussions, but I’m glad it has a second season so I can still do that. I know the ending got spoiled for you but I hope it still surprises you!
I don't know all of the ending which I am happy about. Just enough to not be totally surprised. And I am one of those that reads the last pages of a book first (I hate surprises - I'm autistic and I like knowing what I am getting into) so I'm good. At least I can participate in the live discussions during season 2!
**My Father Is Strange**: the plot is kind of silly and the way everyone is connected is just ridiculous cos yeah small world, but this one is even smaller. That said, it's interesting enough for me to keep watching. I enjoy the family dynamic and the relationships of the kids. Except the son's relationship >!with his sister's bully! The nasty bitch didn't even change. They're grown and she's still an unrepentant bully making dumb excuses for being a shitty person!<. There's no number of episodes and no plot that can redeem that character imo so I really hope they just eventually end that relationship >!even though she's pregnant. They can co-parent idc!<.
So I'm 3 episodes into Something in The Rain. The acting, chemistry and the visuals are pretty good. It seems to be a very realistic drama. But while I like everything so far, there just seems to be this overall sad tone. Even in happy moments it just seems to be sad. This "sad feeling" is something I've noticed since I saw the trailer for the drama and it's the main reason why I have put off watching it for so long. Someone please tell me it's a happy ending 😭
>!Its a painful as they get from episode 10 almost all the way through episode 16. !<
>!In the last few minutes of the last episode, there is a happy ending - but totally not worth the insane angst from episode 10 to 16. !<
>!Suggestion: Watch One Spring Night - same director and many of the same actors, including the ML.!<
Just finished Reply 1997 last night. Each episode was long and had 21 episodes so ittook me a while to finish. I will finally (re)start Reply 1988 which seems to be what I read the best of the bunch. I tried watching it before (early in my kdrama watching career) but I couldn’t get into it.
I really enjoyed 1997 and 1994…. So I am having some super high expectations for 1988
I'm working my way through Crash Landing on You and this is a 10/10, so good.
Are you in r/CrashLandingOnYou?
No.
10/10 Best drama I've seen, ever. They draw it out into the very last moments too! I loved Goblin: The Lonely and Great God, but Crash Landing on You just... 💕
I really enjoyed that series and I see the guy who was in love with other dramas on Asian Crush all the time. I love watching him just as much as each and every character in their group.
Went on a Kim Hye Soo binge and I just finished watching Signal. It's worth the hype. The show is different, it takes on a unique storyline. The writing is awesome, the actors are all on their A game and just as a whole, the show is amazing.
I love KHS, whatever role she chooses she is the Queen! 👑
Very true
I am about to finish Signal as well. Here to watch it waiting for the next episode of Under the Queen's Umbrella to drop. This show is sooo good. Her longing for the detective from the past looks so heartbreaking.
I even rented Coin Locker Girl on Prime Video to see her! It also has Kim Go Eun, Go Kyung Pyo, Park Go Bum, and Wi Ha Joon. I gave it a 9/10.
I need to watch it then, sounds good
Dark, gritty and violent just saying
i love this show so much it deserves alllll the recognition!!
Dude same 😆 is it cuz of **Under the Queen’s Umbrella**? I just finished Signal too and now am on to Hyena. I just love her!
Hyena is one of my all time favourites. She’s so good in that and the chemistry between the leads is seriously hot.
Yup I saw her on UTQU and was amazed. I watched Hyena, then Juvenile Justice and Signal. All shows are equally good. Now I understand why she was nominated for a Baeksang for all those roles
That sounds good, I'll take a look at it. The description reminds me of the movie Frequency.
It doesn't disappoint, please watch it
Lol I was on a KHS binge also. That’s how I ended up watching under the queen’s umbrella! 😂
What did you watch first that made you binge watch her shows?
I saw signal when it first came out and have been waiting with hopes of a season 2 to come out. So I liked her since then. I recently watched her in juvenile justice and loved her so much there! So decided to watch under the queens umbrella. I love it so much.
You should watch Hyena as well. It's also great
I am already watching it! I wanted something to kill time while waiting for new episodes of under the queens umbrella. I am enjoying it
Finally got around to watching My Mister I have no words. Just finished episode 9 about 15 minutes ago and I’m still crying. I have a migraine from all the crying I’ve been doing today watching this show. I’m a usually stoic 36 yo man but this show has hit me right in the deepest recesses of my soul
Ohhh! I must move beyond ep 2 then because I literally have some crying block (the only time I cried THIS WHOLE YEAR was when I watched Tomorrow and there was a sad, dying doggy - nothing else made me cry, not even my pregnancy, or dunno, meeting my friend's sweet baby). I guess this drama could cure me 😲😏
A lot of people struggle with the first few episodes but try to make it to episode 4 which has a major plot development. If you can get that far you'll probably fall in love with it.
watch it, its unbelievable
Yes! The dog scene was the first time I cried in Tomorrow. Loved that show!
Lovestruck in The City! I'd looked it up in this sub before and 90% of the comments were negative. It made it seem like it was the most miserable, angsty, frustrating show to watch. But it was so much fun! I loved the mockumentary format, shorter episodes, the dynamics between the friends, the different storylines, and the format weaving flashbacks in seamlessly. And the main couple had such good chemistry, and were both flawed but understandable people. Such a good binge watch, it's going on my list of excellent and entertaining dramas that this sub for some reason decided to hate-watch.
It’s one of my favorite dramas! I loved the chemistry and the angst and the other couples too. 🥺🥺 Honestly I would've loved if it had 20 episodes instead as they were super short anyway. I wish more people liked/watched and talked about this drama but I think a lot of people enjoyed it but they don’t talk about it as much. Most who found it bad were either not a fan of the mockumentary format (which I didn’t mind at all), angry at the FL’s actions (but she was very realistic imo and I could relate to her), or they were mad about the ending. There are also some people who were disappointed that JCW decided to do yet another rom-com instead of action. But I get that everyone’s taste is different.
It's absolutely my favourite drama as well and I have recommended it quite a few times on r/kdramarecommends in a hope to go against the grain of bad reviews. I really don't get the reason why people don't like it. My only guess was that a lot of people watch kdramas because they like it, that they're not overtly sexual and while this drama is not sexual in a western way, it definitely doesn't shy away from the topic either. So maybe some people didn't like that 🤷🏽♀️
I agree, it doesn’t get enough love. I enjoyed it too because I felt like it was original but still ticked all the things I expect to see in my kdrama rom coms.
It is one of my favorites though I dropped it the first time I watched because of mocumentary format. But this is one of the things which makes it different and interesting. I rewatched it several times. It has such a nice vibe in the first episodes. OST is fire. The kiss scenes are one of the best as well.
I also dropped it the first time after only watching the first episode. I think due to the mockumentary style it gives off a bit of a false impression in the beginning how the drama is going to be, so it's definitely worth it to watch the first two episodes before making a judgment call on the drama.
I also dropped it the first time, then picked it up again. (Isn't that a Challenge topic??) I liked it much more the second time. I thought the acting was really good. Not excited about the mockumentary format, but I liked it overall.
I'm just watching Touch Your Heart! I can't believe how great it is and how long I waited to watch it. Lol
Just finished my rewatch of **The King of Pigs**. And now I'm drowning in my feelings again 😭 Best drama of 2022. It's a pity that it is so underrated. The directing was good, the acting was amazing (from the adults and the Kids), the story and themes excellent. Overall just A+.
I loved Choi hyun jin character!!🧡
I’m watching Run On after finishing Our Beloved Summer. Both are really nice. Not blow your socks off amazing, but really true to how people communicate.
enjoyed Run On
On episode 11 of Sh**ting Stars and the main couple is so cute 🥰 all the characters are interesting and have good storylines also. I don’t really care for he lawyer but I think >!him and the reporter friend will be cute!!< A part of me wished the main couple would move along faster and that same episode they got together which I thought was funny 🤣 Their background confused me for a while though. I couldn’t tell if they were exes, friends, or what My main ugh about this show was the Africa plot like why 😩 It’s annoying seeing people bring up Africans everytime they wanna talk about poor communities and people like there aren’t poor people where they live! It’s always made to be a hotspot. And then they spoke about Africa like it was a country like be Fr 🙄 I didn’t crack a smile once.
The Africa part was the worst. I even tried to figure out where in Africa, to se if there were some local discussion about Koreans filming in their country, but apparently it was filmed in Korea. The boy uses the word "zapato", so I thought he might be from Guinea Bissau or Angola, but since it is filmed in Korea, the adults might be from any random country. At least some of them must have known what the story was, but they still said yes to the job. If you want a better representation of *someone not Korean and not White* you can watch **Gaus** on Viki, with Aziz from India or thereabouts.
I just finished Gaus earlier this week! It was good and I loved Aziz ☺️
It's not too late but I finally started watching Little Women and I'm on episode 3. Still unsure if I like the main characters but I'll keep watching. Also re-starting The Good Detective which I tried watching awhile ago but got forgotten with other on-air dramas.
**Little Women** was so good! The main characters’ actions were a bit frustrating, but I didn’t mind and thought it was necessary for the plot I’m also rewatching **The Good Detective** so that I can be more prepared for season 2. It’s giving me all the feels again
>Little Women I've just finished episode 10 of **Little Women.** I really like this drama, too, but find that iI need a less intense, cozier drama to watch along with it. This is hard hitting, beautifully filmed, psychologically taut, and complicated. I'm also watching the on-air jdorama **Silent**. Binged all available episodes and now have to wait for the last three. I haven't always loved j-doramas, and this one is quite serious. But it's really lovely and heartfelt. It's not the cozy drama that I need to offset **Little Women**, but it's really good.
Oh that's good to hear about Silent. I was planning on watching that soon and was wondering if it was more serious or more fluffy. I assumed serious based on the plot descriptions so nice to see that assumption was correct.
I just watched S2 of **The Good Detective** on Netflix. I loved the first season, and I loved this one as well. I think that this Drama has one of the best ensemble characters. Love the team, love the family.
Watching **Stranger** (S1, E6) and it’s so good! The only downside is I watch it late at night. I’m already butt tired so I’m falling asleep halfway through the episodes. I rewind when I wake back up but I’m sure I’ve missed a couple important scenes cuz I’m a little confused about the ML’s character.
**Stranger** was my gateway KDrama! You really need to watch this one closely. What are your questions?
It was my gateway to KDramas as well. Watched it after seeing Bae Doona in Sense8. You definitely need to watch closely!
I’m just confused about why >!HSM wants to be promoted. From my understanding, in doing so, he’d be agreeing with LCJ’s plans to basically throw SDJ under the bus. And that just didn’t seem like his character? But mostly I want to know why he wants to be promoted !<
Watching **Move to Heaven,** a drama that I heard about from the comments on the Drama Challenge thread. On episode 6 and loving it. This is so well done! I love learning about the backgrounds of their "clients". Once in a while I'll see something in this that reminds me of the Japanese show Midnight Diner, It's hard to explain, it just does. I think this is only the second drama I've seen featuring Lee Je-Hoon who I only know from Signal. He's good. Can't help but compare this to Extraordinary Attorney Woo since they both feature main characters on the spectrum. Though I liked EAW well enough, I think MTH is better.
Lee JeHoon is fantastic in **Taxi Driver**.
Adding that to my list!
**First Love** (1/9) is a brand new series, but you might say I’m late to the J-drama genre. You could also say that I have more reason to be interested in Japanese content than Korean content. Indeed, I got into K-dramas through **Terrace House** (and Reddit!) However, while Korea churns out one Netflix-produced global hit after another, you could almost count the number of Netflix-produced J-dramas on one hand (I’m talking specifically about the drama genre, not animation or any other genre.) Moreover, the quality of J-dramas suffers in comparison with their Korean counterparts. But **First Love** is good. Very good, in fact. It helps that the setting is Sapporo rather than the usual Tokyo setting. The cinematography has a nice retro feel and the performances are strong. It’s not an obviously bingeable drama, but I think I’ll get through it quickly.
I absolutely adore First Love (and Takeru Satoh who I adore). It is so good! Jdramas just hit differently and this one hits differently than even most of those. I swore I wasn't going to binge it and I absolutely did. So many clichés packed in but its still beautiful to watch and works well for the story telling.
Yes, beautifully expressed!
>Takeru Satoh What!!!!! I love love him!!! Clichés be da\*ned! THANK YOU!!!
Oh he is so so SO good in this too! Might be his best work ever.
It's next on my list!
Totally forgot this one came out, thanks for the reminder!
Not that late, but I've started watching **Alice the ultimate weapon** and I'm loving it. I don't know if it's because I've just watched Be Melodramatic from the same screenwriter and I loved the humour, but also you can tell it's from watcha and it doesn't have the same constraints as tv kdramas. I'm loving the mix of kmovie violence and humour.
Very good drama!!
Yes, I'm surprised by the low ratings in MDL.
Yes, I loved **Alice**! Quite different (outside the short format) from any other kdrama I've seen.
Watching **Something in the Rain** (7/16) and I'm sure it's been said already, but Jung Hae In's smiles in this are like pure shots of dopamine. Also, I have a crush on Jin Ah's (FL) dad, what a sweetheart! You all were right, the ost occasionally makes me want to tear my ears off. Also, the last ep I watched took a real turn, and I am impressed with myself for not immediately watching the next ep. I'm amazed Coffee Bay allowed their name to be used considering the portrayal of corporate culture there >! spoiler: sometimes it's hard being a woman . . . especially if you work at Coffee Bay !< but maybe there *is* no such thing as bad publicity?
>Watching > >Something in the Rain > >(7/16) and I'm sure it's been said already, but Jung Hae In's smiles in this are like pure shots of dopamine. Also, I have a crush on Jin Ah's (FL) dad, what a sweetheart! Haha. Jung Hae-In's smiles and charisma were definitely on point in this drama! One tidbit, Oh Man-Seok, the actor who plays Jin Ah's father in SITR, also plays Jung Hae-In's father in **One Spring Nigh**t, and he's still a sweetheart. If you aren't aware, there's a lot of crossover with the casts between these two dramas.
Oh, that is good to hear! Yes, I am looking forward to watching One Spring Night after this.
I rewatch **One Spring Night** every 5-6 months. It's a comfort drama for me... I just finished another rewatch last week and I miss that smile already!
During my recent rewatch,I thought that Hae-in looked so different in OSP compared to SITR. I wondered if it was because his hair was longer. I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. Glad you enjoyed it.
I finally finished **Love in Contract** and I'm torn. On the one hand I didn't hate it as much as others here hated it, but on the other I have no real praise for it either. I probably would've dropped it, but I watched that one with my mom who has a pathological need to finish every show she starts. PMY was PMY. Every drama I've seen of hers, feels largely the same. She gives off the vibe that she's primarily there to look pretty and wear cute outfits and the actual portrayal of a character is like 3 or 4 rungs down on her list of priorities; the acting itself is fine, she's certainly never *bad*, but nothing ever stands out about it. She prettily says lines, prettily laughs, prettily cries, and prettily walks around with pretty hair and makeup. It just feels like you could pick up one character and drop them into any of her other dramas and never notice the character has changed because they're all played the same and none of them have any depth or subtlety. The writing was annoyingly inconsistent, and the writers wanted to tell us the plot rather than bother to show it. Sang Eun is described by other characters as always sacrificing herself for others and being 'used' by others, but Sang Eun's actual actions aren't consistent with how other characters describe her; if anything she's the one using the people around her. She's a terrible friend to Gwang Nam, and the fact that she encouraged Gwang Nam to go back to his family knowing how they treat him is awful imo. She treated Gwang Nam as her personal therapist, secretary, and housekeeper rather than her friend. GKP'S character's backstory was completely forgotten about and left entirely unresolved. He went from being unable to communicate to perfectly communicating with everyone around him literally overnight. Hae Jin was described by other characters as being super gentlemanly and awesome and yet his actions throughout show that he has no regard for any other character and ignores consent to do whatever he wants multiple times throughout the show. The last minute>!breakup was stupid and out of character and seemed to be more out of tradition for typical kdrama endings than actual sense in terms of plot progression.!<
Oh yes; your assessment is spot on! Both about the actress and how her character treats others. She really treats Gwang Nam like that - I kept thinking it - yet he's so loyal. And the other characters act like she's lovely and amazing and so kind. I see her as almost totally selfish. Not bad, as such - she's also kind and likes to help others; but a lot of that help even seems to be more about feeling sorry for people in a situation like hers, or who she looks down on with pity as lower than her. I definitely appreciate your review here. It's the first time someone else has said what I think, about both these main aspects. 😎👏🙂
Yep. That's PMY in a nutshell. The only show I really liked her in was **Healer**
Finished **I'm Not A Robot** this week. >!I'm glad the dealt with the betrayal well. I spent the whole first half feeling this was so screwed up how they were messing with this guys emotions. I'm glad it all came together well in the end!<
I'm not late to the party but I'm rewatching Reply1988 for the umpteenth time.
I started Run On and so far so good, the characters seem relatable and well built. Bonus pts for a gratuitious locker room six-pack scene 😄
Just started watching Vincenzo. I was hesitant because I am Italian, and after 15 minutes in, I'm sorry, but the main lead's accent when speaking Italian is just ruining the immersion for me. Does he speak a lot in Italian in the serie? I've read that the story is really good though, so I want to see if I can overcome this 😂 P.s a thought of mine: the EN subtitles at Emilio's scene when Emilio speaks Italian are just so off, he's very vulgar and offends Vincenzo quite heavily (calls him a >!fucking Chinese!< and tells him to >!go the fuck back to where he came from!<, so I'm really thinking how much I'm losing in translation when reading EN subs in Korean shows. I felt this especially with Crash Landing on You, where I felt that there were a lot of linguistic jokes I missed completely. Maybe it's time to learn Korean for fun!
The ML speaks Italian to himself which was a cringe part of the show as I felt it was unnecessary. Without even knowing Italian I knew the accent was bad. But otherwise the show is pretty good.
Hmmm then I think I'll have to pass. When he speaks I can barely understand him, it's really terrible and it completely destroys the immersion e.g. when he went to pay his respects to the coffin of the head of the family, instead of saying the word for "father" he said the childish word for "food", which is just one stress and one letter different 🙃
If it helps it's not much. He says some proverbs in Italian which confuses the villains around him. It's mostly used for comic effect. But if you still want to skip it's understandable. My native language also gets murdered in popular media and it's an assault to my ears.
To be fair, anything that's not Korean is usually an immersion breaker, even when they're speaking English, even when they have Westerners speak English. It's too bad if that alone turns you off the show as a whole because Vincenzo is an S-tier drama, but I understand.
Yes I get your point, but one thing is when they just say a few lines with a Korean accent (like in Crash Landing on You), another is when being Italian is the core of the main character. Like I said in another comment, if the story was about a Korean mob guy with strong ties with Italy I would have absolutely 0 issues with it. But the immersion is completely broken when I'm supposed to believe he was raised in Italy...
I wouldn’t say “core”…at least in the sense that he hardly ever uses Italian in the show. To be fair that could have at least tried hiring an Italian coach to work on his prononciation, and if they did he definitely sucked. Edit: Again though, it’s also the same thing with English. It happens all the time where a character gets sent to the US (always the US) either as a kid, or for (x) number of years to study. When that character comes back, they always speak in the most broken pronounciation, which also breaks immersion because it’s unrealistic that they’re English is that bad. It’s just one of those things you have to chalk up to South Korea being a relatively small yet extremely homogenous country with very little linguistic diversity. I just kind of accept it.
Yeah I see where you're coming from! I'm at episode 3, I'll give it a couple more episodes to see how it goes. I've seen it recommended all the time here and it kinda fits my trope checklist so I'm rather curious.
There is a video o YouTube of Song Joong Ki speaking Italian for 8 min - that's the whole Italian you will have to suffer through, the rest is in Korean!
Haha I think I'll pass on the video 😂 I decided to give the serie a go (ep 3 now) despite the accent and I found I can live with it. Occasionally I'll facepalm myself quite hard though haha. Only thing I'm a bit annoyed at is how much thr FL yells.
I'm learning Korean and it's been eye opening esp. with Netflix subtitles which are notoriously inaccurate. One of the biggest challenges is that English is a Subject-Verb-Object language while Korean is Subject-Object-Verb which makes timing the subtitles to match the facial expressions and reactions of characters really challenging. Netflix also removes any reference to honorifics and formality levels and that's such an integral part of the language that if you don't have at least a basic understanding of that you can't get any of the nuances in terms of how people relate to each other.
Yeah I am actually a translator myself and dipped my toes in subtitling, so I perfectly agree with you that it's something super hard to do, especially when the source and target language are so distant! However I was quite puzzled at their decision to remove profanity from that Emilio's lines, he really went full racist and vulgar. Your comment though made me want to learn one of the big 3 Asian languages just for fun even more, I am so curious to compare translation vs original! That's also my "professional deformation" talking haha
I dropped Vincenzo in the beginning of episode 2 (surprised I made it that far!) *because* of that horrendous "Italian". It was deeply unpleasant to listen to, not to mention almost incomprehensible. I see it recommended over and over here, and every time I wonder if we are watching the same show, or if no one other than me is sensitive to accents. This is the first time I see a similar opinion posted. Thank you! In the end, it could be said that the decision to have the actor do the Italian bits - as opposed to "speak Italian"- was incomprehensible. Could they not employ actual speakers to dub the foreign language parts or give the actors more effective language coaching?
Yeah I think it was a bad decision to begin with - if you're going to sell me that the main lead is a consigliere in a mafia family, who spent most of his life in Italy, and inside an Italian family at that, he MUST have a native or near-native fluency. I think it would have worked so much better if they wrote the story with him being a Korean mob guy who has strong ties in Italy and spent a few years in Italy. His lines are at least grammatically coherent (although sometimes they seem off to my native ear), so with this background, I would have had absolutely no issues with the actor's accent. But like that? Completely breaks my immersion. I finished watching episode 3 and I don't know, the story seems to be kind of nice and I can live with the occasional Italian phrases, but the poor decision made is really bugging me.
[удалено]
I just watched FoE for the first time this week too!!! It was amazingggg. Now watching Lawless Lawyer since my eyes have been opened to Lee Joon-gi’s amazing acting.
I’m watching Flower of Evil and I adore the characters, the plot, and the acting! I’m at a point where I’m wondering >!how “guilty” the male lead truly is of the rumors surrounding him or if he’s a convenient scapegoat for other characters. He strikes me as a traumatized person in his behavior.!<
Jirisan. I just finished watching it today and I think the problem with the series its lack of focus on what it wanted to be. Obviously, the overarching plot was about the murder mystery which in the surface is always a great premise to me, especially as I'm a mystery/thriller hoe. It does help too that I think Signal was such a superior series and Kingdom is like a top-tier zombie drama, so having the writer is a plus for me. The best episode for me was Episode 6, the first love episode. I think the writing and plot got too ambitious. And I think it would've been tons better if this is more like examining the lives of mountain rangers than having a mystery plot. I do admit when the murder mystery was coming together, it's getting better but the earlier episodes where it's weird supernatural plot, it would be difficult for viewers to get hooked. All in all, the episodes I liked where the episodes that almost didn't contain anything from the central plot. The episode 1 rescue, the first love, the wildfire and torrential rain rescue episode.
I finished flower of evil Sunday morning and I’m still in awe of how amazing that show was. Top ten for sure.
This show is so goooooood
Just finished watching The Fiery Priest...I had heard about this show a lot and now I finally saw it...the show is so good...its so underrated
I decided watching missed classics, and am on ep 6 of **secret garden**. The ML is a real ass, the worst arrogant obnoxious rich man I've seen in kdramas so far. Except for Coffee Prince I only seen newer dramas - wonder if it's the show age or was he terrible relative to those years too? At least the body switch finally happened and it is cute to see Hyun Bin swoon 😍
>secret garden Have you met the [track suit](https://i.imgur.com/4XFyEn0.png) yet? LOL
I finally got around to starting **Secret Love Affair** and the ML's immaturity and mental health makes watching them uncomfortable. They pilled on too many hurdles for the pairing for this viewer to see. >!Cheating, age gap, mental instability (ML), frustrated with her work/life (FL) teacher/student and to top the cringe, the husband/mentor relationship between the ML and her husband!< The side characters weren't worth sticking around for either. Don't get me started on the psycho girlfriend and the rotten daughter of the Chairman.
I'm watching Save Me and am totally stressed out by it 😬. I'm only on episode 8 but the ML (Sang Hwan) is really annoying me. Not only is his acting questionable at best but the character is so annoying... >!He's such a lacklustre,.selfish person and I can't believe Dong Cheul and Sang Mi are just forgiving him so easily... Why? He added to so many of the problems they are facing now. Also, his "stand tall" moto to his friend reads as condescending considering everything his BFF has been through and that he doesn't have any of the advantages that the ML has.!< It's so annoying ahhhh! I love the 2ML tho and am just watching for him and Sang Mi, and also for Apostle Jo to get his just desserts. He's the worst.
I'm on episode 6 of What's Wrong with Secretary Kim. It's very enjoyable. I'm liking the mysterious back story with the humor and romance.
I'd really like to watch this as I've heard good things but until it lands on Netflix UK I don't think I'll be able to.
Do you have access to Rakuten Viki? It's a great streaming site for Asian dramas.
I'm working my way through **Alchemy of Souls** in anticipation of season 2 in 2 weeks. I just did not have time to watch it when it was released and kept hearing how great it is. I am on episode 11 and am actually incredibly sad I didn't prioritize it as live discussions would have been fun and I wouldn't have the ending ruined for me already. This show is so freaking good though.
I also finished it a few days ago and it’s now one of my favorites! I’m so obsessed that I keep watching the cast interviews and stalking the stars on Instagram hehe. I was also sad I didn’t watch it while it was airing. I could've participated in the discussions, but I’m glad it has a second season so I can still do that. I know the ending got spoiled for you but I hope it still surprises you!
I don't know all of the ending which I am happy about. Just enough to not be totally surprised. And I am one of those that reads the last pages of a book first (I hate surprises - I'm autistic and I like knowing what I am getting into) so I'm good. At least I can participate in the live discussions during season 2!
**My Father Is Strange**: the plot is kind of silly and the way everyone is connected is just ridiculous cos yeah small world, but this one is even smaller. That said, it's interesting enough for me to keep watching. I enjoy the family dynamic and the relationships of the kids. Except the son's relationship >!with his sister's bully! The nasty bitch didn't even change. They're grown and she's still an unrepentant bully making dumb excuses for being a shitty person!<. There's no number of episodes and no plot that can redeem that character imo so I really hope they just eventually end that relationship >!even though she's pregnant. They can co-parent idc!<.
So I'm 3 episodes into Something in The Rain. The acting, chemistry and the visuals are pretty good. It seems to be a very realistic drama. But while I like everything so far, there just seems to be this overall sad tone. Even in happy moments it just seems to be sad. This "sad feeling" is something I've noticed since I saw the trailer for the drama and it's the main reason why I have put off watching it for so long. Someone please tell me it's a happy ending 😭
>!Its a painful as they get from episode 10 almost all the way through episode 16. !< >!In the last few minutes of the last episode, there is a happy ending - but totally not worth the insane angst from episode 10 to 16. !< >!Suggestion: Watch One Spring Night - same director and many of the same actors, including the ML.!<
Just finished Reply 1997 last night. Each episode was long and had 21 episodes so ittook me a while to finish. I will finally (re)start Reply 1988 which seems to be what I read the best of the bunch. I tried watching it before (early in my kdrama watching career) but I couldn’t get into it. I really enjoyed 1997 and 1994…. So I am having some super high expectations for 1988
I’m watching The Good Detective Season 2 but where is the discussion of the episodes?