What Dramas Am I Watching This Week?

Here's what I'm watching this week! Of course the list is split by country and episodes I've seen so far are written below! There will be spoilers from now on so if you aren't caught to the episode number I list, you might want to go watch that episode and then come back! If you're interested in previous lists, click here and if you want to see a list of my favorite asian OTPs and ships, click here!

KDRAMA

Devilish Joy (11/16): Gong Ma Sung is a successor to the Sunwoo company. Life seems to be going well until he gets into a car accident while trying to help a woman. Since then, he suffers from memory loss where his memory lasts only a day. Every night before bed, he writes notes about what happened to him that day and the next morning he memorizes everything that happened. Gong Ma Sung then meets Joo Gi Beum, a formerly well-known actress, and falls in love.

Every week I am thrown with just how adorable our main couple is. I can't stop grinning whenever I see them interact on screen and every week I seem to forget just how perfect these two are. Gi Beum refuses to back down and leave Ma Sung no matter who pressures her and Ma Sung keeps promising to protect her no matter what and refuses to forget her. I still don't love that he has all the brain diseases at once cause like just one would have been enough but just having short term memory loss wouldn't raise the stakes enough at least that's why I think the show went with dementia and memory repression from his childhood as well. I love that he came out to the world and in a way that the company can't back out of Healing Village without looking like assholes to prevent his aunt from ruining his plans. It makes total sense and I'm so glad that he was able to ruin her evil plans which by the way would have never really worked cause she's doing all this to keep the company with her for some reason but it's not like her son would choose her side over Ma Sung's or care enough to fight him for it. I love that they have such a sweet relationship unlike most dramas where family is constantly fighting for power. What I don't understand is CEO Kim. We finally got to see what happened and it looks like Gi Beum was drugged and dragged to the hotel room by CEO Kim and the other guy OD'd. It makes literally no sense for her to have been blamed for everything cause in terms of business, it would have made more sense to blackmail Gi Beum with this rather than let it out to the public cause that way he would have only lost 1 star instead of 2. And honestly unless Kim paid off everyone it makes no sense that she was blamed cause security cameras in the hotel and streets would show that Gi Beum was passed out the whole time and a simple blood test would show that he was OD'd. What a weird scenario. It would have been better if someone actually hurt him and then the blame would have made sense!

FINISHED Lookout/The Guardians (32/32): The plot centers on a group of people who find their ordinary lives thrown into chaos due to a family tragedy. They monitor criminals 24 hours a day and rescue potential victims before the crime is committed. They also embarrass corrupt state prosecutors and make sure that criminals are punished for their crimes.

I started this show cause I was still trying to find a good con artist/revenge show and I heard this one was pretty good but I struggled to get through this one. This show technically wasn't about con artists but revenge but I loved the idea of this show and how they went about it similarly to Lawless Lawyer and Mad Dog. It was fun watching the team take down on case after another that all connected back to one person and I loved seeing Do-Han lead the team without their knowledge of who he was. He was my favorite part of this show honestly cause when the show started I thought he was going to be the villain with how smug he was and it wasn't until the reveal that he had orchestrated all the events leading inadvertently to Yu-Na's death that I realized that he was actually on our side. It was fascinating watching him put on that mask for the world and then taking it off. What made me struggle with this show was actually Suji's character and the first half of the show before the team found out that Do-Han was the leader cause she seemed to constantly want to do her own thing and refused to see the bigger picture. I can understand why she acted the way she did but I just never connected with her and constantly felt irritated with her. The second half of the show was much better than the first and I loved seeing how Suji and Do-Han were parallels of each other and I lowkey shipped them even though I knew nothing romantic was going to happen. I was also a little disappointed in the end of the show cause I wasn't thrilled that Do-Han died and there were so many dangling threads left that made me feel like the show was angling for a second season. We never found out what happened to Si-Wan or whether Suji and the others were arrested or if they're still fugitives or whether Soon-Ae continued being a cop. Overall this was an okay show but probably not one I'd go back and watch. I'd give it a 8/10.

DROPPED The Beauty Inside (3/16): Han Se Kye is a top actress, also known as a troublemaker, with many rumors around her. To others her life appears as a mystery, when in fact she is faced with a strange occurrence where she must change into a different body and new identity every once a month for a week. She encounters Seo Do Jae, a brilliant man who is an executive at an airline company. He seems to have it all, a perfect appearance, knowledge and a good job, but he has a secret too. He suffers from Prosopagnosia, the inability to recognize faces. However, he manages to hide this from the world and every day, makes an effort to remember people by their personalities. Seo Do Jae's life begins to change when he meets Han Se Kye. She is the only person whose face he can recognize. But with Han Se Kye's constant disappearance and change, how long can she keep her secret?

I just cannot with this show. I wanted to like it and I do like the concept but I just can't get behind the romance. Do Jae is SUCH AN ASSHOLE and I just can't stand watching another show where a garbage man acts like garbage 95% of the time but then he's nice for a hot second and suddenly the female lead falls in love with him. There's also a difference between bickering like what Se Kye did with her guy best friend this week and what she's doing with Do Jae and while one is cute, the other is not. Can you guess which one I think? In the past I would ignore this and keep watching but now that my fall American shows are back, I don't have the time or patience to watch a show that I don't like fully. Unfortunately this is one.

The Ghost Detective (22/32): Lee Da Il is a private investigator. Jung Yeo Wool becomes his assistant to solve a mystery related to her younger sibling’s death. They work together to solve other mysterious crimes.

I'm getting a bit antsy with this show cause I really want our crew to find Da Il's body already! I'm not sure if it's just how I watch this show but I'm always so anxious and worried and the show keeps telling me that Da Il's body needs to be found now or else he'll die so it's got me annoyed whenever the crew deviates from that path even though that's no fault of the show or the characters themselves. Also how hilarious is it that it's only been like 13 days in the show's world since Yeo Wool and Da Il met but they're like half in love already? It was really cute how he overheard her talking about why she likes him and then the way he was looking at her when he popped up was so sweet! It made the moment after he turned evil so much more heartbreaking especially when he reappeared and saw how scared she was of him and how he compared it to previous times when he reappeared. I really don't understand the rules of this world. I thought only someone who would die for a ghost could kill a fetch when it was in the body but for some reason we're supposed to be scared that the red woman can kill him? Da Il asked Detective Park to kill him too but again wouldn't he just become like the red woman? An evil spirit inside of a human body? The red woman claims that is officially human so she can be killed like a human but when her mom tried to kill her, it didn't work so was she lying or was she making her mom hallucinate thinking that she had stabbed her while the real one was off to the side? I have so many questions and so few answers!!

The Player (4/14): A police redemption team consisting of a swindler, a fighter, an elite hacker and a talented driver is asked to take back property hidden away by criminals.

I'm adoring this show cause of how refreshing it feels in the midst of all the others shows I'm watching. We're settling into more of a rhythm and we've learned how this show will run week to week. The team will be working for Prosecutor Jang to take down corrupt corporations and law officials very Mad Dog-esque except Jang allowed the team to take all the money they want which is awesome for the team though by the end of episode 4, I'm not sure if they're keeping the money or giving it away or if Ha-Ri is the only one to give the money away. I hope it's either the first or the last option cause most kdramas I've seen don't allow their heroes to be grey in this sense and I don't know why they would bother to be in so much danger if they didn't get something out of it. I love that Jang was trying to be as upright as possible at first but anyone in his position would become jaded when faced with so much corruption. Either way I'm enjoying all the characters so far and it seems like Ah-Ryung has a bit of a crush on Ha-Ri. I also liked that our team seems more competent this week cause that was a complaint I had last week. The end showed us that though the show feels like it'll be a bit of a procedural, it will have an overarching storyline while at the same time giving us storylines for each character so we can get to know them between all the action! If I had to guess, I bet it was the head prosecutor that framed/killed Ha-Ri's father cause he seems sketchy.

The Smile Has Left Your Eyes (4/16): A TV series centered around the unfolding relationship between free and unpredictable yet dangerous Kim Moo Young, who is called a "monster". He is the first assistant in a Korean beer brewery who becomes a suspect when his girlfriend's suicide turns out to be murder. His life begins to change when he meets a kind, warm advertising designer named Yoo Jin Kang, who wishes to be Moo Young's safe haven. She bears as many emotional scars as him. Yoo Jin Kang also has a brother, a homicide detective named Yoo Jin Gook, with 27 years of job experience. He strives to "reveal" who Moo Young really is and attempts to keep his sister, Jin Kang, away from Moo Young, with whom she begins to know.

I wasn't going to watch the original Japanese version of this show but since I have no self control, I ended up binging it this past weekend (review of that show is below if you're interested) so I'm going to try to avoid Japanese spoilers. First of all, the kdrama seems to be following the jdrama pretty much exactly the same so far which is curious cause the jdrama only had 10 episodes compared to the 16 here so either a storyline is going to be dragged out more or something new will be added. I'm also definitely enjoying the Moo Young and Jin Kang dynamic and I feel their chemistry a bit more though I still don't know how I feel about him sleeping with her best friend but clearly falling for her. I do like the twist of maybe the friend is self centered and a little crazy through pitying Jin Kang and not even realizing that she should apologize for her mom slapping her so it makes Jin Kang falling for Moo Young a little less terrible even if Moo Young's brooding gaze would make any girl forget herself. I'm sure Jin Kang is telling herself that they're just friends but also I really couldn't care less about Jin Kang's friend or the rich politics that is happening in her world tbh. The more I see of her, the sillier she seems. I love that Moo Young is so off balance when he's around Jin Kang compared to how smooth he is around other girls cause that's something that I love in romantic leads. He's probably not used to someone caring about him having grown up in an orphanage and it also helps that they are so similar. I'm glad that we have seemed to dial back the detective stuff a little cause honestly who even is watching this show for that? Sidebar it's a good thing that Jin Gook finally got a real reason to suspect Moo Young cause before that he was just being real creepy and suspecting some random guy just for fun. It was weird of Moo Young to basically be like yeah you should suspect me, come at me cause you would think the smart thing to do is deny deny deny!

DROPPED The Third Charm (4/16): The Third Charm tells the 12-year love story of how two young people with completely different personalities manage to find each other again. From the tender age of 20, to 27 years old, and then to the matured age of 32, will they find love for the third time? At 20 years old, On Joon Young is a nerdy, smart university student who wears plain clothes, plain glasses and doesn't obsess over fashion. He plans everything in his day meticulously, grows frustrated easily, overthinks things and is very sensitive. With the guidance of his friends, he takes part in a blind date where he meets Lee Young Jae. Lee Young Jae is also 20 years old, doesn't attend university and instead works as an assistant hairdresser. Lee Young Jae has had a difficult life and is an orphan who looks up immensely to her brother, Lee Soo Jae, a barista. She is honest, hardworking and somewhat daring and the complete opposite to Oh Joon Young. Her dream is to become rich, though she would rather get there by her own perseverance. One day, her friend takes her to a blind date group with university students. At the meet, she encounters Joon Young, and goes on a date with him. From there, at 20 years old, their love story begins.

I'm really sad that I'm not feeling this show as much as I should. The main couple is pretty adorable and I love how the show doesn't shy away from kisses but I think the problem is that shows with zero plot other than the romance just don't work for me cause as much as I love fluffy romantic moments, I need something happening in the world too for me to latch onto and even when I'm head over heels with the main couple, no plot leaves us with too many of the same scenes over and over. I debated whether or not to keep going with this show but ultimately I decided to drop it cause after watching as many dramas as I have by now I think I know what I do and don't like and I have a feeling this one will not be one I like. There just wasn't enough to get me to stick around in the end and maybe I'll come back to it if I start hearing rave reviews but as of now, I'm going to say goodbye to this show...

Terius Behind Me (12/32): Go Ae Rin is a single mother who after unexpectedly losing her husband, gets involved in a spy war. She lives in the apartment in front of Kim Bon. Kim Bon, who's code name is Terius, is a legendary black ops agent for the National Intelligence Service (NIS) who has gone into hiding after disappearing without a trace. 3 years ago in a failed secret operation, he lost the woman he loved. Since then, Kim Bon has hid away in his apartment, next to Go Ae Rin, isolated from the world around him and living in secrecy, trying to uncover the mystery behind what happened back then. When a mysterious incident arises in which Go Ae Rin's husband dies, they both team up to uncover a huge conspiracy which Go Ae Rin's husband had become involved in.Joining them is Jin Young Tae, a former con man who may hold the key to what Go Ae Rin and Kim Bon are searching for, and Yoo Ji Yeon, a fellow NIS agent who appears cold and unfeeling on the outside but harbours feelings towards Kim Bon, who she is kind towards.

Unfortunately Ae Rin did not find out the truth this week which is what I was hoping for after she got kidnapped and I don't have high hopes for her figuring out the truth next week either after learning Bon is only a secret identity or whatever. Don't get me wrong, the comedy is everything but I would like for the show to get a bit more serious at least on Ae Rin's part. She's so entrapped in this web but has no idea and I do think she's really smart but she plays naive when she has to like during the kidnapping. It was the most amazing scene and I honestly love what a bumbling fool CEO Jin is. It seems like what's happening is that J International is playing the middle man for someone else. That person will want something and use J International as the way to bribe people by selling bags. The serial code inside the bag will then lead to a bank account number I'm assuming from which the bribed person can withdraw their bribe. They'll then return the bag with the bag cost so there's no evidence except of someone buying a purse. It's great and pretty simple and I'm a little disappointed our NIS people haven't figured it out especially now that Ae Rin has given them the serial code on a purse. On the other side, Bon seems to have fallen for Ae Rin already which is cute though I don't think he knows it. I loved watching her sell all the bags in the store cause she is a genius when she gets down to it. I don't particularly understand why she keeps going to meet CEO Jin cause the asshole kidnapped her and I don't care if it ended up fine in the end, it was still weird. If I were her I would ignore him and sidebar but I'm still waiting for when she uses her computer skills.

FINISHED Two Cops (32/32): His strong sense of justice is all that he has. Detective Cha Dong Tak is feared among criminals for showing no mercy. One day, his body is taken over by a con artist called Gong Soo-chang who is quite clever. Now Cha Dong Tak has to share his body with a criminal while fending off a grave threat. So they have to join forces to stay alive.

I started this show cause of Jo Jung Suk who I am half in love with and I really went in with pretty much no expectations so imagine my surprise when I fell in love with this show! Of course there were ups and downs and the middle got a little wonky but overall this was a solid show. I adored Dong Tak's character and where someone else might call him boring, his sense of justice was just so damn hot. Honestly everything about him was amazing from his swagger to his sense of style to his line right before he beat people up about the different types of martial arts Korean cops learn. Was it any wonder that Ji An fell and fell hard pretty much at their first meeting? It was a pleasant surprise seeing how they got along from the start cause she came out swinging but Dong Tak was polite and sweet and explained the situation to her without talking down or being passive aggressive and this might have been the one and only time I've seen a drama couple like this. I loved seeing them solve cases together and of course Jung Suk is the hottest kisser cause the way he grabs his love interests like a man and sinks into them is just so swoon worthy!!! Soo Chang was interesting cause as a character he was fun but it wasn't until the end of the show when he finally changed did I start to like him. I was so annoyed with him taking over Dong Tak's body without permission and then even worse hitting on and even kissing Ji An knowing that she clearly didn't know it was him cause that was so many levels of wrong. When the boys finally talked and started working together for real, I was so down for their bromance and I like to imagine that after the show ends, Soo Chang becomes a detective too. The cops of Team 2 were so lovable and I enjoyed getting to know all of them and the backup with all those thugs too. The main case did drag a little but I loved how it played out and one thing this show did really well was make you think one thing and then pull the rug out from beneath you to show something else! I'd give this show a 9/10 and I can't wait until my next Jung Suk drama!

Where Stars Land/Fox Bride Star (8/40): Lee Soo Yeon and Han Yeo Reum are rookies who works at Incheon Airport. Soo Yeon dreamed of becoming a pilot, but vision in one of his eyes was bad enough that he had to give up on his dream, he joins the general planning department. Yeo Reum begins to work in the CS management department at the airport. She wants to be a perfectionist, but her reality is a little bit different.

This week found me still thinking Yeo Reum is irritating af but also she seemed to be working a little harder at her job and the trouble that found her this week wasn't her fault so we're heading in the right direction! The first half of episode 5 was so cringe-y that I had to fast forward through most of Yeo Reum's scenes cause I was feeling too much second hand embarrassment! I am enjoying the slow build of Yeo Reum and Soo Yeon's relationship and I'm so thankful that she no longer hates him cause I didn't want to watch anymore of that. On the other hand Soo Yeon seems to have realized his feelings which is super weird cause I totally thought she would be the one to realize she likes him first. I guess that shows that Soo Yeon isn't cold as much as shy and introverted if he's realized his feelings by episode 8! Also sidebar but I seriously don't understand this airport! Someone sexually harasses a worker and she gets in trouble for it. Someone breaks the rules of customs and tries to attack a security officer but the workers are the one in trouble. There's a limit to the idea that the customer is always right. On the other hand I was totally on the side of the immigration when they refused to let that man see his wife and baby cause as emotional as it was, I'm a stickler for the rules so I was like sucks to suck dude especially after he took out a knife to stab Soo Yeon who if he didn't have the metal plate in his arm and immunity to pain would have been seriously hurt! We also learned that the airport does know that Soo Yeon has metal in his arm so I really don't understand why everyone's making such a big deal out of it! Like dude isn't doing anything that his arm would get in the way of!

CDRAMA

Fights Break Sphere (35/45): Xiao Yan is a genius child who suddenly loses all his powers.In a world governed by strength and power, Xiao Yan’s lack of talent is an embarrassment to his family. At the age of 15, Xiao Yan accidentally summons Yao Chen from his mother’s ring. With the elder’s help, Xiao Yan’s skills improve by leaps and bounds. After his entire family is assassinated, Xiao Yan embarks on a journey to find his family’s killer and return peace to the Jianghu (martial world.)

There's been a bit of a soft reboot this week which feels really weird cause I know there's a second season for this show and it feels as though episode 32 should have been the start of the next season. Xiao Yan and Xun'er have both changed hairstyles, we've met new people, gone to a new setting and are going to tackle new problems! I thought it was super sketch of Xiao Yan's family to kick him out and I definitely though his dad and possibly the other elders staged the whole thing to get him to leave and lose face so that hopefully he'll give up his notions of revenge cause from the moment Xiao Yan mentioned it last week, his dad was thrown. It's super weird cause something else has to be going on for his dad to act like the Xiao family pride means nothing and even remove his own son from the line of secession. In a way I was right cause we learned that his dad did kick him out to protect him but I was also right that something else is going on. Like now the entire Xiao clan except the branch family and Xiao Yan are dead and possibly Xiao Yan's dad is okay too but it's hard to tell. Honestly Soul Palace is so smart by placing spies in every house and destroying every clan from within. Either way it was fun to meet Xiao Yan's cousins who are super sweet and I loved that his eldest cousin was like no matter what you are the heir to the Xiao family. I'm also really pumped that we finally visited the Gu Clan cause I'm loving that Xun'er has more a prominent role and that we're seeing how strong she is. I'm sure that she's going to be the next Dragon Mother and of course the internal strife we kept hearing about is due to Soul Palace again. I can't wait until Xiao Yan comes to help cause he was very worried when he realized that Xun'er was in danger cause her life pearl cracked. That's exactly the extra motivation he needs to get stronger.

JDRAMA

FINISHED Sora Kara Furu Ichioku no Hoshi (12/12): The story opens after a young female student kills herself by jumping off a balcony. It's soon discovered that she was in fact stabbed, and the room arranged to make it look like a suicide. And so we begin. A few minor details lead Detective Kanzo to suspect that Ryo, an enigmatic chef's assistant, knows more about her death. The two have run into each other by chance a few times, and each time left Kanzo with an uncomfortable feeling. Every clue that is revealed seems to lead to more questions about Ryo, his obsessive girlfriend, his callous and manipulative relations with several women, and about a painful memory from Kanzo's past. Things get more complicated when a powerful love/hate relationship develops between Ryo and Kanza's little sister, the beautiful Yuko. What exactly is their connection? As the evidence (and body count) rises, Kanza tries desperately to save his sister from Ryo's influence. He's no saint, but is he the Devil Kanza thinks he is?

I told myself and I told myself not to check this show out cause I really did want to be surprised when I watched the kdrama remake but I have no self control and ended up bingeing the whole show in one weekend. After watching this show, it's no wonder that there's a remake cause this show was beyond amazing. I was sobbing my heart out at the end and though extremely sad, I loved the conclusion of this show. I can never figure it out but something about jdramas always make their couples feel so intense and magical and the chemistry is always off the charts. Perhaps it was Kimura Takuya's fantastic acting or the emotional score behind the romantic scenes which kdramas like to replace with fun kpop but either way I was so in love with the couple and I could feel the exact moment when Ryo realized that he loved Yuko. I kinda saw it coming that the main couple was actually related but it didn't stop my heart from breaking watching Ryo figure it out and then Yuko afterwards. The Romeo and Juliet end felt perfect to me cause there really was no other way for this show to end in my opinion and I was glad that Yuko found out the truth cause I would have been heartbroken if the show ended without her knowing that Ryo really did love her. If I compare it to the kdrama version, I do think Takuya's version of the character seemed less mysterious/mischievous than Seo In Guk's version who felt a little off from the moment you first met him and Jung So Min's version seems smarter than Fukatsu Eri's so I do prefer the kdrama version of the characters so far though I'll be interested to see if the chemistry between the kdrama cast is as strong. I also can't decide if I want the kdrama to follow the jdrama's footsteps cause on the one hand it was such a beautiful and emotional show but on the other I want the couple together in the end so if they weren't siblings that would be great. Making the sister actually a childhood friend would be perfect and we already have a change in the fact that SIG's father was a cop rather than a criminal so why not! Overall I'd give this show a 9.5/10 if you couldn't tell by my gushing and I'm glad I watched it!!

xoxo Allie