What Dramas Am I Watching This Week?

So 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 on 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

Doctor John (8/32): In a refreshing take on the genre, “Doctor John” will portray the doctors’ search for the cause of their patients’ mysterious pain as a thrilling chase, almost like a detective hunting down the perpetrator behind an unsolved crime. Cha Yo Han is a genius anesthesiologist, who is also the youngest professor at his medical school. The brilliant doctor goes by the nickname “10 Seconds,” referring to his ability to figure out his patients in the 10 seconds that it takes for them to enter an examination room and walk to their seat. Kang Shi Young is a legendary anesthesiologist, who was always at the top of her class throughout medical school. The talented doctor inherited her skills from her cool-headed, rational mother, while she inherited her empathy, listening skills, and warm bedside manner from her father.

We learned a lot more about our characters this week and as much as I wanted the show to move on from the idea of euthanasia and focus on new patients, it was important to bring up the past so that we could find out more about our mains. Yo Han's thing is that he's so emphatic towards his patients that all he cares about is making sure they're not in pain whether that means breaking the law or not. It's why he euthanized that patient three years ago and why he diagnosed the MMA fighter this week even though the fighter wanted to die. Tbh the whole thing from the past was a little insane and I think the truth is not what we're told from either the nurse or Yo Han's POV. That nurse seems angry with Yo Han in a personal way which makes me think that the child that she was visiting last week might have been one of the two children that patient kidnapped and murdered and I bet she forced him to sign up for that clinical trial cause she wanted to prolong his pain so when Yo Han stepped in, it infuriated her. I don't know how that lawyer fits in yet but it's possible the other kidnapped child was related to him. I also liked how we learned that literally everyone in Shi Young's family works at this hospital from her mother who's chief of anesthesiology to her aunt and sister who work in anesthesiology to her uncle who's the director of the hospital. I still don't know what the full story is with her father who is the reason why Shi Young couldn't practice medicine for so long but it feels like he got into an accident with Shi Young and she couldn't treat him so she tried to kill him instead to save him from suffering but he survived and ended up in a vegetable state. I'm assuming that the sister blames Shi Young for what happened but it's so weird cause if I was Shi Young regardless of if I could do anything or not, I don't think any part of me would be like let me stop my dad's heart to help.

Hotel de Luna (6/16): Jang Man Wol is the CEO of Hotel del Luna. The hotel is situated in downtown in Seoul and has a very old appearance. She made a big error many years ago and, because of this, she has been stuck at Hotel del Luna. She is beautiful, but she is fickle, suspicious and greedy. Goo Chan Sung worked as the youngest assistant manager ever at a multinational hotel corporation. He is a sincere perfectionist. He looks level-headed, but he actually has a soft disposition. Due to an unexpected case, he begins to work as a manager at Hotel del Luna. The hotel's clientele consists of ghosts.

Man Wol is head over heels for Chan Sung and it's kind of funny cause she's trying to fight it so hard. I still live for her and how everything she does is such a big mood tbh and for once in my life I'm watching a female lead in a drama and wishing that I owned everything she wears! Where has this stylist been all my life? Why does every other female lead dress like she's blind and can't afford her way out of a paper bag when female leads can dress like this instead?? I wonder if every outfit is supposed to be an homage to actresses like she did Audrey Hepburn from Breakfast at Tiffany's this week. I debated last week who Chan Sung was the reincarnation of and whether Man Wol was even in love with Chung Myung or if was Yeon Woo in a plot twist but I think after this week it's pretty clear that she's in love with Chung Myung and that Chan Sung is his reincarnation cause the show keeps paralleling scenes of Man Wol and Chan Sung with scenes of Man Wol and Chung Myung. I also wondered if maybe the reincarnation of the princess into Chan Sung's ex meant something like maybe that was his heaven-sent soulmate and that Man Wol would interrupt it since she's not supposed to be alive now but the ex stole money from Chan Sung and doesn't seem like a good person so I have a feeling it's not exactly true. This show is much sadder than I expected it to be tbh cause it has this strange melancholy feel to the whole thing but maybe that's cause unlike A Korean Odyssey where we have a demon fall in love with a human, this is a love story with ghosts and of course there's going to be a tragic end cause the whole point of the show is to have Man Wol move on from this world.

Justice (12/32): Lee Tae Kyung is a star lawyer with the best win rate. He is able to win cases by using his sharp logic and intelligent speeches. He amasses power and wealth by dealing with clients who are part of the elite class. His cases are usually referred from Song Woo Yong who is the owner of a construction company. Lee Tae Kyung gets these high class criminals acquitted or at minimum receive probation. He first became a lawyer to get revenge for his younger sister, but has since become focused on money. He changes when he deals with a series of cases involving missing actresses. Meanwhile, Song Woo Yong has grown his construction company by funneling criminal cases involving wealthy people to Lee Tae Kyung. For his family, he desires even more power. He comes into conflict with Lee Tae Kyung over the cases involving missing actresses.

Jesus 12 episodes later and I'm FINALLY understanding the big picture of this show. I was worried for a bit cause it felt like there was multiple storylines going on that didn't intersect but we're finally getting enough information to piece it all together. I think Vice Chairman Tak is a sociopath who's been paying Woo Yong money in order to pick and choose victims from Jang Entertainment who have no family to report them so that Tak can murder them and in return the money that Woo Yong gets funds his construction projects and he protects Tak by threatening or killing anyone who looks for those missing actresses. Tae Kyung's brother was killed because of something he saw and I'm guessing it was a video of Tak killing or raping or whatever he's doing with those actresses he kidnaps. I'm also assuming that Woo Yong felt guilty about that "innocent" death (as if any of those deaths weren't innocent ugh) so he pretended to be on Tae Kyung's side in order to control him later. I was wondering for a while why Tae Kyung wasn't more crazy about figuring our what happened to his brother so I was glad he was able to explain it to Young Mi cause it definitely helped. He's struggling with deciding whether he wants to give up his easy life in order to fight something that he knows will have no end in sight. I kind of low key love his weird relationship with Young Mi cause it's like they're not friends after what he did to her but they're not enemies either and man oh man everyone in this murder chain really screwed up when they picked her cause for as much as everyone (prosecution and Woo Yong) were following her around, no one saw the amount of times Young Mi and Tae Kyung talked? After she disappears, he's going to be a thorn in their sides!

FINISHED Partners For Justice Season 2 (32/32): In crime and in life, all contact leaves a trace. There is no perfect crime and our hero and heroine have the ultimate cooperation. This drama continues the tale of a forensic scientist and a prosecutor who make the best of teams.

I want to be angry with the open ending we got for the season and I'm beyond furious that neither Gal or Noh got the punishment they deserved but I think the setup is pretty fun for next season if there is one and cause of that I'm not as angry as I would have been. For sure this cliffhanger was much better than the one last year. I loved the return of Lee Yi Kyung as the police officer he played last season even though it didn't mean that much in terms of story cause it's just nice to see when actors remember how much they gained by being a part of a previous season. I wonder if he'd come back for next season cause I assumed the reason he probs skipped this season was to film Eulachacha Waikiki 2 and since I haven't heard anything about that show getting another season, maybe he'll be free to come back cause I definitely enjoyed having him as Eun Sol's police officer. The guy who replaced him had no character or personality and with our cast members dropping like flies, we need all the characters we could have! I do hate that Ji Han had to resign but I kind of love the idea of him opening a firm with Jan Cheol and Investigator Yang through which I'm sure he's going to focus entirely on taking down Gal and Noh and their chain of command and as we saw at the end Eun Sol also wants that but she will be doing it from within the office which does suck cause I want her working with Ji Han. I just hope that whoever ends up joining her in the office isn't a Gal or Noh lackey. Overall I did enjoy this season a bit more than the previous one but I'd still give it a 8 / 10!

FINISHED Pied Piper (16/16): Every day on the job is tense, dangerous and possibly lethal! But the dangerous situations are diffused without using force by the expert negotiator Joo Sung Chan, who leads the police department’s negotiation task force. The team handles the most dangerous, volatile and high-risk situations that jeopardize the lives of innocent people. Hostage crises, terrorist threats, and other major catastrophes await Sung Chan, Yeo Myung Ha and the other highly skilled team of negotiators when they come into work every day. Son Hee Sung is a thorn in their side as an aggressive broadcast journalist who tries to report on the many coverage-worthy events.

After finishing Signal I was in the mood for another investigation/police drama so I jumped into this one cause it sounded like something I would love but also different enough that I wouldn't be bored and honestly I loved this drama so much. It reminded me a lot more of something like Mad Dog than any of those police dramas I've watched before and that's a positive obviously cause Mad Dog is one of my favorite dramas of all time. I thought it was super creative that the show followed negotiators rather than police cause it focused more on the crime scene rather than the investigation afterwards which was unique and fun. I loved that there was someone pulling the strings in the background and that everything was so well connected and written. Things were hinted at much earlier in the show but either we ignored or assumed that it didn't mean anything until they were revealed later. I loved that the real Pied Piper was actually Hee Sung all along and that we had gotten to know him so well as an ally before the plot twist came about and we realized who he was. The Crisis Negotiation Team were pretty awesome though I do wish some of the side characters had a bit more screen time so we could like them more but Sung Chan and Myung Ha's dynamic more than made up for it. I do wish that their romance which was pretty heavily hinted at was a bit more overt and I wasn't really a fan of how Sung Chan ended the show with leaving the Crisis Team and being on his own again cause it felt like instead of showing his personal growth he just returned to who he was before when the person he became would have stuck around with the Crisis team in my opinion. Despite that I really really enjoyed this show with it's precise writing, great character motivations, believable villains and shocking plot twits so I'd give it a 9.5 / 10!

FINISHED Signal (16/16): Fifteen years ago, a female child was kidnapped on the way from school. At that time, Park Hae Yeong, who was an elementary school student, witnessed the girl being taken away. A few days later, the girl was found dead, and detectives couldn't find the culprit. As time went by, Hae Yeong started distrusting the police. Fifteen years later, Hae Yeong is now a police officer and criminal profiler. One day, he finds a walkie-talkie that allows him to get in contact with Detective Lee Jae Han who is in the past. Police officers Hae Yeong, Jae Han and Cha So Hyun then set out on a journey to solve cold cases.

I'm usually not into dramas where this is no romance or even a hint of romance but I was in the mood for a police drama and I liked the synopsis for this so I was like why not check it out and after finishing it I have to say that it was absolutely incredible. I cried so many times during this drama like hard sobbing tears and I loved each and every case. Hae Young was an awesome character and I loved the chip on his shoulder. The Cold Case Squad was all fun too and I loved that Soo Hyun and Hae Young never had any romantic moments cause I was worried they would based on some stuff the show hinted at cause she was like ten years older than him and that's too much of an age gap for my taste. I do admit that I wish the radio had a bigger role in this show cause despite making a difference here and there I feel like Hae Young figured out a lot of cases in the future with little help from the past and the few times things did change it was cause Hae Young helped Jae Han a little. It's cause of this that I wish that the dual timeline was used more though I suppose that it did help in bringing Soo Hyun and Hae Young back to life after they died in one timeline but even that was a little ruined for me cause Soo Hyun died so early on in the show that I knew she would come back since she's the female lead. I also thought the ending was a bit too muddled but I liked that Jae Han ended up alive though I wished that after the kidnapping in 2001 everything would have been fixed cause how much sweeter would it have been if Soo Hyun and Jae Han basically mentored Hae Young? Overall despite what it sounds like I did really enjoy myself and the cases that we studied so much so that I'd give this show a 9 / 10!

CDRAMA

FINISHED Go Go Squid (41/41): It is late evening when Han Shang Yan walks into an internet cafe. While helping her cousin watch the shop, Tong Nian catches a glimpse of Han Shang Yan and immediately falls for him. She is usually brave, outgoing and has tens of thousands of followers from singing covers online, but she fumbles whenever she encounters him. She is used to interviews, but can't even utter a word when speaking to him. He is cold, hard to reach and not the type of guy to be interested in girls, but Tong Nian's unique personality and her persistent ways to get close to him begin to catch his attention.

I can't believe that we already reached the end cause I feel like I just started watching this show but I guess that's the thing with releasing like 2 episodes a day cause even with a large episode count, the show flies by! I really had a ton of fun with this drama, a lot more than I expected tbh cause I usually struggle with modern cdramas and their lack of believable couples and this drama started out that way too but changed into one of the cutest cdramas with a precious main couple. I adored the main leads and I was glad that the show knew where the relationship wasn't working which allowed the characters to actually talk about the ups and downs of their relationships. It was super sweet that Shangyan and Nian ended up married at the end and I also have to say that the gossipy K&K boys were one of the best things about this show cause they were hilarious and adorable and I loved how much they shipped Nian and Shangyan! The only thing I would say as a negative is that the show focused a bit too much on Team Solo so like even though we fell in love with the K&K kids, the focus was on the older generation which felt really unfortunate. This leads to my second negative which was that I felt like the show didn't know how to balance the cute with the gaming. 41 episodes later and I still can't tell you what CTF is! The fact that CTF was so confusing to follow led to long speeches about working hard and long training montages with voiceover but then the competitions lasted five seconds and were so anticlimactic. I assume it's some sort of hacking simulation but seriously who knows. I also loved Xiao Mi and Yaya but them getting together did also feel a bit anticlimactic cause we never actually saw either of them really confess their feelings and all of a sudden they're together without actually saying that they like each other. Overall though I did love this drama and I'd definitely give it a 10 / 10!

Love And Destiny (8/60): Ten thousand years ago, Jiu Chen, known as the god of war, fell into a deep slumber after sealing away the demon lord. Ling Xi accidentally wakes him from his sleep and they fall in love. It is discovered that Ling Xi was born with an evil miasma that can help the demon lord break free and allow the demon tribe to rise to power. Jiu Chen refuses to kill an innocent and tries to change Ling Xi's fate. Through the encouragement of Jiu Chen, Ling Xi who was once innocent and naive transforms into a brave leader in a fight against evil.

I keep feeling like I missed something whenever the politics of the Mountain Spirit Tribe come up and I wondered if maybe it was me and my tendency to tune out for politics but from what I seen in other recaps, everyone is feeling this way. I can't decide if they're supposed to be the bad guys or not. From what I can gather Jing Xiu (who I assumed might be the second male lead at first but actually might be the villain cause who knows) was part of the Black Birds who tried to overthrow the King so the King murdered all the Black Birds and then his daughter Ling Yue overthrew him and placed him in the Abyss causing Jing Xiu to become her loyal councilor. Somewhere during this she had a baby with who looks to be a Celestial and lost her so she adopted Bao Qing but now she thinks that Jing Xiu lied about the baby dying cause he has the same longevity knot that she gave her baby. We also learned that Bao Qing is in love with Jing Xiu but the Queen doesn't trust him anymore so she's like no you can't marry him which is obviously going to cause Bao Qing to switch sides and meanwhile Jing Xiu doesn't trust the Queen anymore cause he thought she killed her father but he actually was just in the Abyss. Most of this episode was packed with Mountain Spirit drama but we do get a little in the Celestial Realm. Lightning God is still trying to make Jiu Chen the bad guy even though all he's doing is trying to protect the Yuan family from being exiled for having submitted to the Demon King and Jiu Chen went to visit the Demon King and found out that he's slowly waking up which I guess is a way for the Celestials to focus on something else.

Love Better Than Immortality (16/40): A woman from the future arrives at a fantasy-like universe to experience love for the first time. She goes by the name Chun Hua and falls into a complicated romance with two young men who are opposites like black and white.

It was a little hard to watch Chun Hua act so silly and be so in love with Xiao Bai this week for multiple reasons. Not only am I much more fascinated with Qiu Yue as a character, the chemistry between him and Chun Hua is stronger and he's also the male lead as evidenced by the poster! I'm also sure that he's the programmed love interest though Chun Hua was still dizzy when she first awoke so she doesn't remember seeing him first. I also feel like Qiu Yue being responsible for murdering Hua Xiaolei's family should probably be a bigger deal than it was but like Chun Hua isn't Xiaolei so I'm callously like oh well and though Chun Hua wants to be angry with him too I have a feeling she's not touched by the Hua family's deaths either. After all she cared nothing for the Hua patriarch and was just like I'm going to run away with Xiao Bai and refuse to even talk to my dad about why he's against my marriage. Honestly I think she's lowkey interacting with this world like it's a video game. I don't entirely mind that Qiu Yue and Chun Hua are still trying to think of each other in terms of family cause I think both of them really care for each other but don't want to acknowledge it so they're trying to fit their feelings into neat boxes. Qiu Yue's mom was betrayed by Xiao Bei's father so he hates the idea of romantic love and Chun Hua is so sure that Xiao Bei is her soulmate that she refuses to look elsewhere. This is why I'm hoping that Qiu Yue stays away for a little while cause absence makes the heart grow fonder and as we saw how excited and then disappointed Chun Hua was at the ice pearl lighting up and making her think that Qiu Yue was here only for him not to be around, she's starting to miss him and that will lead to her love growing stronger.

The King's Avatar (8/48): In the multiplayer online game Glory, Ye Xiu is well known as the textbook level expert and a top-tier player. Due to a series of circumstances he was forcefully expelled out of his professional team. After leaving the pro gaming scene he resides at an Internet Café employed as one of the managers. When Glory launches the tenth server he throws himself into the game once more equipped with ten years of gaming experience, memories of the past, and an incomplete self-made weapon. His journey back to the top begins.

I wanted to check this drama out pretty much cause of Yang Yang and my love for him. I never got into Love O2O the way others did because I just couldn't stand the female lead and while Go Go Squid had a gaming/tech aspect to it but I also never understood CTF so I went into this drama not sure what to expect especially after I heard that there wouldn't be any romance in this show and that's usually the part of gaming dramas that I like. So far I do like the main game a lot more than I thought I would cause Glory is like a lot of other multiplayer games out here in the real world so I can understand the way it works and that helps with watching competitions cause I actually know what to root for! I also love Yang Yang's character Ye Xiu cause he's the perfect mix of serious and silly, a heartthrob when he's playing Glory but such a dork in the real world. I'm loving all the characters we've met so far and that other than the head of Jiashi and Sun Xiang, all of them are good people who just love playing Glory. I fell head over heels in love with Shao Tian from like almost the first minute I met him and though it sucks I have a feeling that he's one of the few characters we met that won't join Ye Xiu whenever he makes his team cause Shao Tian's captain Wen Zhou is a good man too and I like Lan Yu. I say this cause I assume that since Ye Xiu got kicked out of Jiashi that he will create his own league at some point and we're slowly building a team by introducing characters left and right. So far we've got Tang, Bao, and Yifan and I'm thinking Guo will join too at some point which should make up a full team for Ye Xiu.

xoxo Allie