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 the amount of 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 

Extraordinary You (4/32): What would you do if you found out that you were, in fact, a character in a comic? And an extra character on top of that? Change the course of the story, obviously! Eun Dan Oh is a 17-year-old high-school student from a wealthy family who suffers from a lifelong heart condition that inevitably means she will not live past her teenage years. However, when Dan Oh realizes she is experiencing long gaps in her memory as well, she comes into the unhappy inheritance of another fact in her life: she is a character in a Korean webtoon and all of her actions are predetermined by the artist who draws her. To make matters worse, she discovers she is only a supporting character in the cast. With her newfound understanding of the world she inhabits, she is determined to find true love in her own plot-line and circumvent the author’s plans for her character by utilizing the flashes of storyboard she alone is able to see.

I was so excited for this show to come out cause of it's synopsis! I want to say that it's similar to W: Two Worlds and Unexpected but at this point is comic book characters a genre now? If it is, it might be one of my favorites! I adore this show so far and it's defs a top 10 of the year contender! Dan Oh is an awesome female lead with her charm and spunkiness and though we haven't met the male lead yet, I'm sure he'll be awesome too cause who doesn't love a character who realizes that they're in a book/movie/comic?? It was super creative to have the first four episodes be all about Dan Oh and her cycling emotions cause I mean who wouldn't go through all of those stages but it was low key tough too cause we didn't meet the male lead until the very end which feels like a recipe for disaster cause her second male lead is not only charming but played by Lee Jae Wook from Search: WWW. I am looking forward to him being utterly confused when she stops being so interested in him but that only really works if she's able to change things. I know the show's premise is that she can change things when the male lead is around but I'm not sure how that fits in this show's rules. If the writer can control everything, why can an extra who doesn't even have a name or a face change things? I have a feeling that this question will pretty much go unanswered so maybe it doesn't really matter and I should just have fun. I wonder if Dan Oh being able to finally see his face makes him a real character now and if she starts acknowledging him in public if the others will follow suit or if we'll only see him in those off-stage moments like when she talks to Mi Chae. 

Flower Crew: Joseon Marriage Agency (6/16): Before Lee Soo became a king, he was an ordinary blacksmith in the countryside. He life suddenly changed at the age of 23. This was when Lee Soo became the King of Joseon. Meanwhile, Lee Soo’s first love is Gae Ddong. He loved her before he took the throne. King Lee Soo wants to marry Gae Ddong, but, because of her humble background, it is virtually impossible. To marry Gae Ddong, Lee Soo hires the Flower Crew Matchmaking Agency. The agency consists of 3 handsome men: Ma Hoon, Do Joon and Go Young Soo and they are the best matchmaking agency in Joseon. King Lee Soo asks the Flower Crew to make Gae Ddong a noblewoman.

Okay my favorite thing about this show is definitely the antics of the Flower Crew and how much Young Soo hates Gae Ddong but like at the same time cares for her cause it makes me die of laughter when she hugs him or talks to him and he's all horrified by it. I still super dislike Ji Hwa which is so strange for me cause I adore Go Won Hee and I keep expecting her to be more of a second female lead/villain cause of the way she acts so instead of me shipping her with Joon, I'm sitting here constantly looking forward to any misunderstandings Ji Hwa would have about Joon and Gae Ddong. It's the exact kind of drama I adore. It's also interesting that Hoon after finding out that Soo is King now hasn't done too much with this information cause I high key expected him to tell Joon about it but with Ji Hwa hiring him to find out about the King, it probably won't be long until Joon finds out and then they can decide together what to do with Gae Ddong. Sidebar but Joon definitely for sure knows that Hoon is into Gae Ddong right? All those side eyes and hidden smirks can't be for nothing! I'm also shocked that Gae Ddong found her brother already but I don't think he's going to recognize her cause of whatever mental illness he's going through. More curious though is that random nobleman who's been living like a beggar on the streets. For a second I wondered if maybe he'd be the father to Gae Ddong and her brother and that maybe he lost them or thinks they are dead after something happened that made him lose his whole family. I still think that's possible but it's also possible that he just adopts Gae Ddong after she was kind to him and reminded him of his actual daughter cause apparently that's a thing nobleman can do in this time cause Hoon said that's what happened to Soo. On another note I still ship Gae Ddong and Hoon but I wish the show wasn't so heavy handed with their romantic moments. 

FINISHED Melo Is My Nature (16/16): Im Jin Joo, Lee Eun Jung, and Hwang Han Joo are best friends who are 30-years-old. Hwang Han Joo is the head of a marketing team for a drama production company. She is a single mother who struggles to balance her work and personal life as she is raising a kid. Im Jin Joo is a drama writer with a lot of emotional ups and downs. Her personality is unique, talking to a luxurious purse at times. Even though she is a drama writer, she tries to write her scripts in a literary style. Lee Eun Jung is a documentary director. She runs her own production company, although she's the only employee. One of her documentaries surprisingly becomes popular overnight.

You know how there are dramas that start out well and end fairly meh while there are others that start out meh and end wonderfully? Well to my utter disappointment this show ended up in the former category. If you've been following my reviews of this drama you know that I fell head over heels at the start of this drama only to slowly become less and less interested and seriously it was because of the way this show was broken up in terms of screen time for the main trio and the writing. At first I thought this show was written to be so quirky and real but as it went on it felt as though this show had nothing but it's quirkiness and they focused so much on it that I started to see it less as quirky and more as trying too hard. I mean Jin Joo was hilarious at the start (remember when she spent a full day sitting on the couch doing absolutely nothing?) but by the end she just felt like a caricature cause who even acts the way she does? It burns me up inside a little that of all the girls she's the only one who got a full love story when her romance was the one I didn't care about! I hated that Han Joo and Jae Hoon didn't get together and that the show is hinting at Jae Hoon getting back with his ex for like the hundredth time but I suppose it was a good thing that Han Joo showed her ex that she was happy and didn't want him despite being single. Having said that I did enjoy Eun Jung's arc and her ending though cause I loved the way the show depicted how real and visceral her grief felt. Part of me didn't love the Director as her love interest (cause again a caricature of a real person) but another part of me thought that she deserved to be happy and in love after everything she went through while the third part of me thought that it was right that she didn't hook up with him in the end cause she was still in her final stages of grief and wasn't ready for another man. I also did love that Hyo Bong ended up marrying the man he was dating but I still wish that we had seen more of them. Sidebar but I also want to give a small shoutout to my love Jung So Min for cameo-ing this week! Overall I'd give this show a 9 / 10 cause there was things I liked despite also being highly disappointed by this drama.

Melting Me Softly (2/16): It’s a story about a man and a woman who participated in a project to be frozen for 24 hours, only to be waken up 20 years later due to a mysterious scheme. Once out of the freeze, the two experience a dangerous side effect from the project wherein they must maintain a core body temperature of 31.5 degrees Celsius (approximately 88.7 degrees Fahrenheit) to survive. Coupled with the warming of their hearts from romantic attraction, they find themselves in a sticky situation. Ma Dong Chan is a star variety show PD, who makes hits out of every show he creates. He decides to personally participate in his show called “Frozen Human Project,” but instead of waking up 24 hours later, 20 years have passed when he opens his eyes. Everyone he knows has aged 20 years, while he has maintained his perfect physique and youth from pre-freeze.

Wow what an incredible premiere for a show I was almost positive I would love. Ji Chang Wook is one of the many loves of my life so when he finally came back from his mandatory military service and dove right back into acting, I was absolutely thrilled. I was a little hesitant about Won Jin Ah because though she was amazing in Just Between Lovers, I last saw her in Life where I wasn't a fan. Luckily this show was amazingly funny and heartbreaking and I can't wait to see what happens. The weird mystery does feel a little out of there cause this show's strength already feels like it would be with the rom com aspect but I'm curious enough about who these people are that keep trying to murder everyone involved in the freezing experiment. It's cause of them that Dong Chan and Mi Ran lost 20 years of their lives and I feel like it the assistant to the Professor is definitely involved. For a while I wondered why he was that asshole and decided not to unfreeze the two but then I realized that it was cause the Professor hid the anti-freeze protein so he couldn't do anything. Was he the one to send Mi Ran's family that note about her being frozen? Why didn't whoever that person was do the same for Dong Chan's family? Dong Chan is of course perfection being all charming and smooth and I adore how much his family loves him cause I really expected that having him come from a rich family would make them not care so much. It does look a bit like they lost all their money at some point and I'll be curious to know how they're living now. On the other hand Mi Ran is adorable and I love her relationship with her brother at which I definitely cried when he stood waiting for her at their house door and whistling hoping that she would find her way home.

The Great Show (12/16): Wie Dae Han is an ex-lawmaker and is a materialistic kind of politician. He wants to get elected as lawmaker again. One day, 18-year-old girl Da Jung comes to him. She tells him that he is her real father. Her mother raised four children, including Da Jung, alone, but she died in a hit-and-run accident. Da Jung is the only one now taking care of her 3 younger siblings. Wie Dae Han accepts Da Jung and her 3 younger siblings. He carries out “The Great Show” to become a lawmaker again.

We've got two weeks left of this show and I'm sitting here wondering when the secret about Da Jung not being Dae Han's daughter will come out. I mean it's inevitable with how furious Dae Han made the leader of both political parties and the fact that it keeps coming up every few episodes as if to remind us that it's still on the backburner. Part of me hopes that the show would just drop that storyline and honestly completely ignore it but the rest of me knows that if the show didn't want to use that thread then they would have made Da Jung Dae Han's biological daughter. I complained last week about the heavy shift towards politics instead of family drama and that continued this week though I ended up enjoying the politics a lot more than I expected. One of the highlights of the politics in this show is that we get a new case every week or every few weeks so that it feels triumphant when Dae Han scores a win even if it's not the ultimate one. A large part of me still wants Dae Han to give up on politics but the rest of me knows that it's his dream and by doing so will actually be what his enemies want. I also low key didn't realize how close Dae Han and the Mayor were which is why it was surprising how hard it hit me when Dae Han asked him what happened to the man he looked up to in disappointment. I also loved that Dae Han finally found out the truth about Soo Hyun's sister and that he was able to give them all the closure that they wanted. I love the little family they've created between Dae Han and his kids and Soo Hyun and her parents. I still can't help but feel like Joon Ho is just an extra wheel anytime he's around and I really dislike when he tries to be one of the people cause he's really not. I hope next week we return to the family drama but I can't imagine that if the election is coming up and we've only got four episodes left that the politics won't be pushed aside.

The Running Mates: Human Rights Volunteer Team (6/16): "Running Investigator" shines light on the lives of those who have their human rights infringed upon from the perspective of an inspector for the Human Rights Commission, who has neither the right to investigate nor prosecute.

I felt super meh about this week's episodes and mostly that's due to my lack of interest in the cases. I'm not sure what it is but though I've enjoyed investigation dramas that focus solely on the cases rather than the characters, I'm just not feeling this one. Maybe it's the fact that the cases aren't exciting or outlandish enough for my taste or maybe it's the fact that this show looks at mistakes that were made in cases and I've got too much sympathy for cops and prosecutors but either way I'm not as interested as I would have liked to be. We did learn a little more about Yoon Seo and how her father disappeared after her sister died cause he was being investigated for improper interrogation tactics and we saw her stalk the mentally ill man who was charged with her sister's murder in order to I'm not sure what other than to make sure she knew where he was. I still think that the rich boyfriend is the one who did it and I wouldn't be surprised if Yoon Seo's dad turns up dead by the end of this show after being killed by the boyfriend because he found some sort of evidence that it was him after all. I do like Hong Tae and Yoon Seo's awkward friendship though in the way that the two aren't enemies but they don't like each other either. They always end up on opposite sides but I liked that when Hong Tae needed advice he turned to Yoon Seo. I actually enjoyed the first case we had this week with the taser but the second case wasn't my cup of tea though I liked how both Yoon Seo's investigation and Hong Tae's ended up in the same place.

The Tale Of Nokdu (4/32): Jeon Nok Du is a man with extraordinary ambition to experience the big, wide world. With looks, brains, and athletic abilities, he is the epitome of perfection. After being swept up in an incident, he disguises himself as a woman to join a mysterious all-woman community and meets Dong Dong Joo. Dong Dong Joo is a prickly gisaeng trainee. Along with her fiery personality, she is clumsy, has absolutely no sense of rhythm, and is tone-deaf, which makes all of her peers look after her. However, she is skilled with her hands as she can make anything if given the right tools. Unable to stand injustice, she speaks her mind. Due to this fact, Jeon Nok Du ends up saving Dong Dong Joo from a dangerous situation. After that, she suddenly becomes Jeon Nok Du’s adopted daughter and he decides to live in the widow village for 1 year.

What a weird show guys! I had a feeling based on the synopsis that it would be but somehow I still was not ready for what I got. Jang Dong Yoon is amazing at playing a girl and though there's literally no chance that someone would look at him and be like oh what a beautiful girl I'm still so into this. Naturally he's probs the Crown Prince or the man that should be King if not for the current King who I'm assuming was his Uncle and wanted the throne so he tried to kill Nok Du. It's also possible that it's actually one of the advisors who are trying to kill Nok Du and the King is actually his father but I have a feeling it's more of the former than the latter. I'm also curious about how they all know who he is cause you would think that knowing him as a baby wouldn't help. The best plot twist would be if it was actually his brother who was really in line for the throne and that everyone was just confusing Nok Du for him. It's super strange that this whole village is filled with female assassins but it feels like other than a small circle, most of the women don't actually know what's happening so maybe it's not as weird as I first thought. I was also surprised that Dong Joo figured out that Nok Du is a guy already and it's only week one but I'm glad cause I love when the main leads know the other's secrets and are able to be a team to hide it or use it. So far I don't entirely ship the two but it's still early so it's possible I will. I do have to admit a small bias against Kim So Hyun cause I despised Love Alarm so much and I'm low key struggling to divorce Dong Joo from Jo Jo.

Vagabond (4/16): Cha Dal Gun becomes an awakened tiger in the face of his nephew’s death in a mysterious plane crash. As an orphan himself, he had raised his nephew singlehandedly in place of his brother who had passed on. Triggered by the large-scale cover-up of the incident, he sets off on a journey to discover the truth. Go Hae Ri is the eldest daughter of a marine who had died during an operation. She has always wanted to be a normal civil servant to support her family, but life had other plans and she ends up as a National Intelligence Service (NIS) agent. Their lives intertwine as they discover a tangled web of corruption behind the plane crash.

Okay so I really jumped into this drama knowing nothing other than this was an action romance drama and Lee Seung Gi and Bae Suzy were the leads and because I adored both I was like I trust you in your choice of drama so let's go! After reading the synopsis however it sounded a lot like Mad Dog which if you know anything about me that it's one of my absolute favorite kdramas so that made me even more hyped. After checking out the first four episodes I have to say that it definitely didn't let me down! Dal Gun is amazing as the out-for-revenge man (dude he's soooo hot) and Hae Ri is a little ditzy but she's strong where it counts (and she's so pretty.) I love their dynamic so far and I love the way the mystery is playing out. It seems like J&M crashed the plane so that Dynamic would lose the fighter jet bid by hiring some outside mercenary team which is where Scar came from. I do wonder if maybe Edward actually did everything so that he could make Jessica think she's winning only to pull the rug out from under her because not only was he waaay too relaxed after everything went down but Lily saying that he's a real son-of-a-bitch was a red flag cause if a mercenary thinks you're too scary to deal with, something's wrong. The only thing that ruins this theory is that Jessica wants Dal Gun killed and unless she was the culprit, there's no need to tie up loose ends. I'm also curious about who Jessica's mole in the NIS is cause the show definitely wants us to believe it's Tae Woong but I have a feeling that's too obvious. As a sidebar I really wasn't a fan of the show starting in 2019 then jumping back to 2011 where our story is told cause it sort of spoils that things won't work out whether that's between Dal Gun and Hae Ri or this case. I'm thinking though that if the case doesn't work out somehow that Dal Gun might join the mercenary team that Scar was part of so that he could get info on the crash from that angle.

CDRAMA

Nine Kilometers Of Love (20/24): Nine Kilometers of Love focuses on the story of six people in their early twenties and their journey in the aviation industry. Lin Shu comes from an aviation family. His father influenced him to become a professional pilot at a really young age.

Okay this week was so fun so watch cause Lin Shu and Cheng Cheng are officially dating and man oh man aren't they the cutest? I love how flirty they are and how they're not afraid to hold hands or hug or kiss cause it makes it feel like they really are in the honeymoon phase of their relationship. I died laughing when they kissed in front of Yu Hang and he freaked out. I'm also glad that Cheng Cheng is sticking with wanting to be a pilot though I'm not entirely sure why she wants to hide the relationship from Lin Shu's dad when apparently everyone in the aircrew already knows about them so it's like an open secret. I wonder if the show wants to play with the idea that Cheng Cheng and Lin Shu get scared that Lin Shu's dad is also Cheng Cheng's dad with the whole conversation we had about Cheng Cheng's dad claiming that she's not his biological daughter so that after they break up in fear, the dad can set the record straight. I can low key already see how the season will end with Cheng Cheng going to the pilot academy in the finale and coming back after two years and reuniting with Lin Shu cause heaven knows why asian dramas love that separation in the final episode as a method to show that the love between the leads is true love. I also don't know how I feel about Meng Ran and Yi Ming cause it's like he knows that she's using him but he wants her anyway and like she's not hiding her contempt for him which makes me wonder how this show will end with them cause with four episodes left it doesn't feel like Meng Ran is seeing him in a new light or anything.

JDRAMA

FINISHED L♥DK (1/1): Nishimori Aoi's parents moved to another city for work, but Aoi didn't want to transfer to a new high school. She stays behind and lives in an apartment by herself. Shusei Kugayama moves in next to Aoi's apartment. Shusei is a very popular student at their high school. Due to a mistake, Aoi makes the fire sprinkler go off in his room. Until Shusei's room is fixed, he stays with Aoi.

Set during high school? Check. Cute romance? Check. Yamazaki Kento being his gorgeous self? Check. Check. Check. With all this going for this movie was there any doubt that I would check it out? I do have to say that the actual reason I wanted to watch this movie aside from all the things I listed was because I saw a clip of L♥DK: Two Loves Under One Roof which made me curious and I figured that though this isn't an exact prequel to that movie why not check this one first out anyway. I was a little disappointed in what I watched cause though I thought both Aoi and Shuusei had great chemistry, their relationship felt a little too one-sided for my taste with Aoi seeming to put in all the effort, so much so that I found myself feeling low key embarrassed for her when she did something romantic instead of squealing like I should. This led to me not exactly shipping the two but not hating them either. The plus side was that there was no second lead for me to fall for so there's that! I do also have to say that I loved Aoi and how confident she was and how unafraid she was to be who she was. Kento as much as I love him played Shuusei a little too close to the vest so until the end of the movie I couldn't really read why he was the way he was. We're told he has issues with knowing what love was but I couldn't understand how that related to his need to be constantly by Satsuki's side. Speaking of, Satsuki was the worst kind of second female lead being all manipulative! I did love all the cohabitation antics but once again I felt like there wasn't enough! Overall I did have a good time but I was also meh about a lot of it so I'd give this movie a 7.5 / 10!

FINISHED L♥DK: Two Loves Under One Roof (1/1): Aoi Nishimori and Shusei Kugayama are in love and they begin to live together secretly. Suddenly, Shusei's cousin Reon Kugayama comes to them. Their secret is discovered by Reon. Now, Aoi, Shusei and Reon begin to live together.

It's weird writing this review right after writing the one for L♥DK cause I want to compare the two but also I shouldn't cause the things I liked in L♥DK are different than the things I liked here and mostly just cause Aoi and Shusei were in different places of their relationships between both movies. Overall I did have more fun with this movie cause I found the plot more fun and interesting and tbh this is sacrilegious to say but I think I preferred Sugino Yosuke's version of Shusei more (I'M SO SORRY KENTO MY LOVE!) This Shusei was more mischievous than brooding though when he did brood it was just the right amount. I also loved that we got to know Shusei more and saw what his broken family life actually did to him with those abandonment issues that he struggled with and we saw why he would fall for Aoi and her warm caretaker personality. I do have to admit though that this version of Aoi was a bit too much of a doormat with the way she was lead around and that the chemistry between this couple wasn't as strong. Despite that I liked their story better and how they both struggled to not only hide their relationship from everyone else but also struggle with the future. I don't know how I feel about the going to college in America story cause at first glance it feels like Aoi was holding Shusei back from what he wanted to do and like love is supposed to give you wings not act as an anchor but if you look at it more closely, Shusei only wanted to go cause he thought that's how he would make Aoi happy. Eventually he realized that like his mom who left cause her husband had no time for her, Aoi just wanted him in her life. Of course Ryeon was awesome too and though part of me low key struggled with SLS, most of me preferred Aoi with Shusei! I'd give this movie a 8 / 10!

xoxo Allie