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 (12/32): 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.

Every week I watch this show flailing like a child cause of how much I love it! This week ended on such a cliffhanger that I'm so confused where the rest of this season will go! We're not even halfway yet and things are progressing so quickly! First things first when do we think that Kyung realized what was going on? I had been wondering for a while if maybe he was awake cause of how he'd do stuff in the shadows that wasn't in the stage but I kept writing it off cause he couldn't remember Ha Roo but then we saw Kyung hand the comic to Dan Oh and I'm like oh so you're definitely awake now! It was so obvious in hindsight cause his shadows persona was so much sweeter than the stage one! I mean stage Kyung ditched Dan Oh at the movies but shadow Kyung ran to her as soon as he could. We also learned some of his backstory and why he's been acting so terribly and it's cause he lost his mother to illness so he's been afraid to love Dan Oh in the fear of losing her. It's so hilarious cause I'm so on board with both sides of the triangle cause when Kyung is sweet and earnest I'm like yes pick Kyung but then he's an ass and Ha Roo is an angel and I'm like nope definitely pick Ha Roo. Speaking of I was living for Dan Oh and Ha Roo falling for each other this week from how jealous Ha Roo got when Dan Oh was with Do Hwa to how flustered Dan Oh got around Ha Roo. I'm really shocked that he disappeared so early in the season cause I definitely thought that would be a season finale or penultimate episode arc and I can't imagine how in the world he will come back cause like where even did he go? But like at the same time he has to come back cause he's the male lead right?? On another note I seriously feel so bad for Do Hwa and I really want that boy to fall for someone else cause Yoo Da is so eye-roll inducing and even Do Hwa knows it but he just can't move on!

Flower Crew: Joseon Marriage Agency (10/16): 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.

These two episodes were absolutely amazing and I'm on the edge of my seat cause I can't wait for what's next! Slowly but surely Gae Ddong and Hoon have been falling in love with each other and I really don't think she's cheating or anything like that cause she never loved Soo in the first place and in fact only decided to marry him cause she thought of him as a replacement for her lost brother. She was so afraid to lose someone else she loved that she thought that marrying him would be the only way to keep him by her side and though that wasn't exactly fair to Soo, I think part of him knew it and didn't care. It's the same part that makes me feel like he places her wants and needs below his. I hate the palace politics and I can't believe that he would want to force the woman he loves into the palace when he obviously can't do anything to protect anyone! Like he lost his foster father and now one of the only friends he had in the palace and yet he wants to bring poor Gae Ddong into this mess? I'm low key glad though that he overheard Gae Ddong's confession cause it's tickling all my drama joints and I can't wait to see what happens and whether Hoon steps up to fight for his love. I loved that it was Gae Ddong who confessed first cause she doesn't know all the drama that Hoon does about Soo being King so to her, she's just turning down a random noble and in nobility Hoon has the most power besides the King being the son of the regent. Besides that Hoon needed to know cause otherwise he'd be running around thinking that she loves Soo and that he needs to nobly sacrifice her. I also love that she's officially Lady Yun now and I'm low key hoping that Hoon's father will try to force Hoon to marry her cause of politics since clearly the Second State Councillor thinks Lord Yun is an important chess piece so the First State Councillor must think the same way.

Leverage (2/16): "Leverage" will tell the story of Lee Tae Joon, an elite insurance investigator turned scam strategist who recruits the best "players" in order to catch the real criminals who think they’re above the law.

I wanted to check this show out cause despite never having seen the American version, I love con artist shows since I'm super into all the scheming and plots and tricks and being able to see how a con goes down. I wasn't entirely sure what this show would be though cause it was possible that it would be something like Players with a new case every week or something more like Mad Dog with one overarching case with each week having new pieces displayed. So far it feels a bit more like Mad Dog in that whatever happened with Mirae Biomedical is possibly being what our great prize ends up being. The struggle is that I don't know what's really happening in terms of what the villain wants or even who that villain is. There's clearly some sort of rich powerful group that's pulling the strings but to what end other than money? They conned Tae Joon into thinking that he would get to save his son's life when they really just wanted him to be the scapegoat and like by the end of this week's episodes it feels like things went back to status quo with the crew stealing back Asana's recipe and I'm assuming giving it back to Mirae but at the same time Tae Joon still got arrested and his poor son died so all did not end well. I am a fan of all our main characters though especially Na Byul cause I always love the feisty acrobatic girl in a con team who does all the stunt-work though it also really helps that I loved Kim Sae Ron in Mirror Of The Witch but I do have a feeling that since she's only 19 that all the seductive stuff will happen through Soo Kyung who's there as an actress. Ray's a badass and I adore the bantering between Na Byul and Eul Sang, a duo who I definitely think might hook up by the end.

Melting Me Softly (6/16): 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.

Here's the thing. We're almost halfway through this drama this week so in terms of numbers it makes sense that the romance is starting to build up but the problem is the same problem that I've been having since this show started and that's writing and pacing. Dong Chan found Mi Ran pretty in one episode and then in the next he's swimming in jealously and saying things like don't smile at other guys! What a damn creep! It feels like he's suddenly into her out of nowhere cause the show hasn't devoted enough time to show us the two characters hanging out or going through wacky situations. I love all the funny scenes throughout the drama especially the ones with Mi Ran's friends but if the show devoted half of that time to Dong Chan and Mi Ran then I could believe what the show is trying to sell me in terms of romance. I do have to admit that this may just be a problem on Dong Chan's side cause he's coming on so strong while Mi Ran is a little more subtle about her attraction. I mean Dong Chan is handsome first of all but he's also been so caring recently that I can see why she would be fascinated. I'm still hating all the mystery stuff with Professor Hwang and that rich dude who's trying to kill him but like the thugs he hired this week were so funny. I heard that the writer for this show is the same as the writer for Strong Woman Do Bong Soon and look I'll admit there was some tonal shift problems in that show but damn they wrote a beautiful romance and I'm sitting here like where's that here?

FINISHED The Great Show (16/16): 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.

Raise your hand if you're also super disappointed in how the election ended! I didn't entirely want to start with that negative cause other than Dae Han losing the election I really enjoyed everything else in these two episodes but my utter annoyance with how he lost just low key overpowered the rest. I mean seriously what was the point of this whole show and convincing Dae Han not to drop out of the race if it was all going to mean nothing anyway? I would have enjoyed it a lot more if he dropped out on Joon Ho's blackmail/threat thing or on his own authority in order to take care of the family rather than this cause really and truly I think Dae Han would have been a better politician and it just feels so anticlimactic. He was leading the race from the start and you would think that if both candidates went through scandals that the one who was leading at the start would win cause any bump that the other got out of shame would go away! Ugh fine whatever. Despite that I really did enjoy these two episodes cause I was living for how good of a parent Dae Han was and how much he would do to keep Da Jung safe. I loved that Da Jung already knew and still thought of him as her father and that the biological father finally decided to step up and be a man and hid the truth for his family. The ending was so cute honestly with Dae Han's family and Soo Hyun's parents and the biological father all becoming one big family and I love that despite everything Dae Han still looks to be doing well cause at least he's still got jobs. Overall I'd give this show a 8 / 10!

The Running Mates: Human Rights Volunteer Team (10/16): "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.

Wow this was a hella boring weekly case so much so that I pretty much have nothing to say about what happened! Part of this is that there was nothing in the episodes that were personal and nothing in the case that could be connected to something personal so we just watched a bunch of people lying. It felt like our cast this week was just running in circles and the saddest thing is if the the witnesses had just spoken out in the start that this case would have been so much easier. I still don't entirely understand why the police was at fault cause they showed up as soon as they really could and seemingly stopped the riot cause it was between the security agency and the union. The real criminals were the company who hired the security crew to beat up the union members and the security crew who actually did the beatings. I actually called it from the start that the company definitely planned all this though without the murder I'm assuming because I've seen enough shows to know that it's always the company or the rich chaebol's fault. I am curious though about the end of this week's episodes cause I couldn't tell what was really going on cause it started in the past and I think ended in present day. Did they find Yoon Seo's dad's body in one of those barrels? Or was that a scene from the past when Yoon Seo's sister's body was found? I was pretty sure that the sister died after hanging herself so it must be the first option.

DROPPED The Tale Of Nokdu (8/32): 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.

Ugh I wanted to like this show so badly but I just can't get into it the way others have! I'm cringed through almost all of this week's episode 9 to the degree that I couldn't finish it. I have this weird thing about second hand embarrassment in which I just can't watch when characters do something truly cringeworthy and that's what this week was because to some it might have just been comedy but to me I was dying. I mean seriously that whole thing where Nok Du pretended to fall off of her horse and then pretending to like the second lead just cause his fake wife was coming to see him? Shivers. I think I'm going to drop this show and like it low key sucks cause everyone else seems to like it but I just can't get into anything from the romance to the plot.

Vagabond (8/16): 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.

Something about this show is just not hitting it for me. I mean there's like nothing wrong that I can complain about with it cause from the writing to the story to the acting everything is excellent but it just doesn't get me all excited. I struggle every week to turn on the new episodes and I struggle every week about what to write about in my reviews. I'm honestly so exhausted of watching shows where money and power can literally do anything. I cannot for the life of me understand why the goddamn President of South Korea is so into John & Mark! Like the other company's jets are cheaper and they were seriously about to win the bid until J&M did some dirty dealing but now everyone's acting like they don't have any other option other than to pick J&M. Just when I was all excited for the NIS being badasses last week, this week they're back to being idiots to the degree where Director Ahn switched sides once again and now they're framing Gang as the mole instead of Min and it's going to be ridiculous to watch cause even though we have no evidence on Min being the spy, I'm sure they're going to pull evidence against Gang out of their asses. I'm also back on the Gi is suspicious train this week cause something about how he's been acting in Morocco doesn't feel right. I totally thought Min was Shadow but he apparently isn't and as I also expected the President's secretary is a mole too and I have a feeling Gi rounds out the trio. The way he went about finding Kim was just so awkwardly laidback and even when Hae Ri brought up good points he completely ignored them. I do still love Dal Gun and Hae Ri together though and I loved that he was the one to fill her with confidence when everyone else seemed to do nothing but put her down.

xoxo Allie