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

Catch The Ghost (8/16): "Catch the Ghost” is a romantic investigative drama about a woman named Yoo Ryung who solves cases with her overflowing sense of justice and exceptional spatial perception but always gets herself into trouble because of her rash actions. She meets the Wangsimni station constabulary chief, a man who avoids cases and seeks stability. However, he always ends up cleaning up after the problems caused by Yoo Ryung and holds the key to solving the cases.

We're halfway through this drama now and I do have to say that I'm finally starting to really enjoy this show. There are still some things I don't love but overall it's working for me. I want to start with the romance in this show cause it's one half of what this show is about. Here's the thing. I do love Yoo Ryung and Ji Seok working as a team and their best moments (and the show's) are when they investigate together like the scene where they caught the serial rapist and while the other two from Metro were still stunned about what just happened, Yoo Ryung and Ji Seok were cuffing the dude and taking pictures cause Ji Seok is used to this craziness by now. Having said that, I just can't get behind their romance cause I low key ship Ji Seok with Ma Ri which I know I know she doesn't seem like that good of a person and she's such a bitch to Yoo Ryung for no reason but still part of me finds their relationship just so romantic. It also super sucks that cause of Yoo Ryung one of the Grasshoppers escaped cause Ji Seok had him but once again we're back to Yoo Ryung's fatal flaw and that's her tunnel vision. She's so focused on one victim that she forgets all the others but I get that she sees this kidnapping as saving her sister which she couldn't do before. I do wonder if next week will be when Yoo Ryung finally tells Ji Seok the truth. On another note was anyone else terrified when Woo Hyuk and Yoo Ryung were down in the tunnels by themselves cause I do wonder if maybe Woo Hyuk is the Ghost since his interest in Yoo Ryung seems so strange but we saw Ghost on the other side of the door in the tunnel so maybe not?

Chief Of Staff Season 2 (2/10): The second season of Chief of Staff. The real political players behind the spotlight take a dangerous gamble. Super Adviser Jang Tae Joon heads towards the peak of power and fiercely struggles for survival. Jang Tae Joon worked as the chief aide to Lawmaker Lawmaker Song Hee Sub. He now returns as a lawmaker and achieves the height of his power.

Well here I am back again for more of this show after having just binged the first season two weeks ago. I said I wasn't sure if I wanted more from this world cause the ending of season 1 made me so sad but I think I was just curious to know what would happen cause season 1 didn't feel like the finale. At the start I was pretty into what I was watching cause it seemed to be bringing back Tae Joon's badassness from the start of season 1 and I was so looking forward to seeing him pretend to be the bad guy and Minister Song's right hand while actually doing all that he could behind the scenes to destroy him. Yes it did suck that Sun Young and Do Kyung mistrusted him now but ultimately it felt worth it. Unfortunately by episode 2, everything feels like we're returning to what I didn't like about the second half of season 1 where Tae Joon instead of coming off as sly and competent is actually just flying by on the seat of his pants. I do suppose the new chief prosecutor is interesting and fresh and though he doesn't exactly feel like he's been bought by either Minister Song or Assemblyman Jo, the way he's laser-focused on Tae Joon doesn't feel right cause with all the mess of corruption going on with Minister Song and Chairman Lee, he decides that Tae Joon is the real target. I also have to say that for all that Minister Song and Assemblyman Jo talk about how much they hate each other, when push comes to shove, they turn to one another first. Like seriously Assemblyman Jo, how many times does Minister Song have to betray you before you say enough is enough? Why not take Tae Joon's hand instead cause not only do you know that he's competent but he also doesn't seem to have any personal problems with you so you'll be free from being targeted.

FINISHED Emergency Couple (21/21): Jin-Hee led a satisfying life as a dietitian. She then met medical school student Chang-Min. Despite his wealthy family's strong opposition, Jin-Hee and Chang-Min decided to get married. Chang-Min's family is full of doctors. Chang-Min though gave up his medical internship and began working as a pharmaceutical salesman. Their marriage life was not happy. Chang-Min's family looked down on Jin-Hee and even Chang-Min seemed to change. Chang-Min began to think terribly of Jin-Hee and they finally divorced. After their divorce, Jin-Hee became a medical student and now works as an intern. Chang-Min also graduated from medical school and begins to work as an intern. One day, they meet in the emergency room for a hospital where they will both work together.

I have such a love for kdramas set around the medical field and I was kinda excited for this one cause not only was Choi Jin Hyuk the male lead but I had never watched a drama where a broken-up couple got back together so I was curious to see what would happen. I do have to admit that this show did have a rough start for me cause not only was the medical stuff totally unbelievable more than any other drama I had watched but Jin Hee was so much less competent than I expected her to be which was totally my fault cause I'm just used to genius doctors in dramas. Chang Min was also SUCH an asshole that I was sitting here annoyed that the two would get back together and low key hoping that the second male lead would get the girl but as the show progressed, the characters grew and everything I hated at the start actually worked. For once the arcs the characters went on made sense from Jin Hee being mostly a textbook problem solver to being good in the field while Chang Min grew a heart and learned how to be a better doctor and a man. I loved the chemistry between the two whether they were bickering or in love and though I do wish the show would have ended with them getting remarried, I like how they ended too. I also really loved the way Chang Min's mom grew as a person cause it totally made sense that after her husband died that she would change and back off of Jin Hee and even find appreciation for her. I loved that there was no hospital politics in this drama too and I loved how every female character in this was so kind including the second and possibly third female leads cause they acted the way normal humans would instead of the insane drama way. Overall I'd give this show a 9 / 10 cause it wasn't my favorite medical kdrama but it was definitely fun!

Extraordinary You (28/32): 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 sort of sitting here in a bit of a daze staring at the screen not sure what to write or say cause I don't know if I truly understand what we learned this week. Supposedly as the characters change their stages, it causes the writer to get furious and decide to kill them off. In Trumpet Creeper it was Squid Fairy who wanted to run away with the palace maid he loved which led to her death and then Kyung killing Dan Oh through Haru in revenge. In Secret it's Haru and Dan Oh changing the romantic subplot with Kyung that caused Dan Oh's death to come quicker though once again Haru changed it so she's healthy on stage making me wonder if we basically went in a giant circle in terms of the manga plot line as well as Nam Ju going from the only son of a rich family to the second son of the second wife making his position less stable. Kyung was really making me furious this week and I think that's a lot of why I wasn't the biggest fan of this week's episodes cause he's just so damn selfish and if I had to hear another lecture from him about why Haru should back off I was going to scream. He barely knew the story of Trumpet Creeper where he was clearly the villain and yet he went around pretending like he was the hero. It's also ridiculous that he calls Haru and Dan Oh extras cause it's not like he's a main character either! I do suppose good on him for not actually going through with the shadow murder of Dan Oh cause I was waiting for him to do something like that from the moment he found out that a shadow death leads to the character reverting to their stage persona only though in the end it happened anyway and my heart broke for Haru. What are the odds that this show ends tragically in the finale next week??

Melting Me Softly (14/16): 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.

Ha remember when I mentioned last week that there didn't seem to be enough story to fill up four more episodes? Well I was about half right and half wrong. As it turned out the shots that Dong Chan and Mi Ran took weren't the cures to their temperature problem but actually just something to keep them stable longer so we still had content about the temperature shots. I do think it's high key hilarious that the show wants me to think that Dong Chan might actually end up dying due to the shot cause duh he's the main character but straight up I will die of laughter if Dong Chan and Mi Ran end up back in the capsules. How ironic would it be if they had to wait another 20 years or something until they were okay again? It's just as funny that we're stretching out this story about the evil CEO's right hand man being on the loose. We also left this show this week with Mi Ran seeing him as a cop and it's once again hilarious that the show wants me to think that maybe she'll die. On another note I don't love how the comedy took center stage once again in terms of Dong Chan and his career. It makes me uncomfortable and feels totally out of character for him to have gone so long unemployed cause you know the boy is getting job offers left and right and instead of literally doing anything including YouTube videos, he just lounged around the house. Oh and Dong Chan and Mi Ran had some relationship stuff but I'm so meh about them that I low key found myself finding Dong Chan and Ha Young more compelling. I mean can you imagine if this show was about a love like there's finding their way back to each other? Of course I still hate her as a character but I had that thought as I was watching them hug this week.

Vagabond (14/16): 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.

Raise your hand if you're completely shocked that Dynamic really and truly might be as innocent as Edward claims! Last week I mentioned that the politicking was not over yet and that Dynamic might be behind it all but this week I'm surprised to say that it doesn't look like that's the case. Don't get me wrong I'm pretty sure that the Prime Minister is just another pawn the way Secretary Yun and Chief Min were but the man behind the curtain doesn't seem to be Edward quite yet. Everything is tying back to Jerome and Samuel and whatever mercenary group they are a part of. Samuel seems to be the one who probs sent Michael's girlfriend to plant the idea of the terror attack in his mind, connected Jerome to Woo Gi, killed Michael to keep it all hush hush, sent fake Reporter Jo to get Dal Gun onto a different trail after he wouldn't give up, and is holding Woo Gi to prevent anything from coming out. They probs also decided that since the President is screwed to switch over to the PM's side by allowing him to get Sang Mi out of jail or maybe they were always on the PM's side from the start. The only thing that prevents me from saying Edward is 100% in the clear is the fact that all this having been said and done still places him and Dynamic in the winning seat and I still can't get Lily's comment out of my mind. He could be Samuel after all cause according to the PM and Jessica's secretary, no one has seen Samuel in person and the one puzzle piece that's missing is what Samuel gains from all of this. Money? But from who? Power? Doesn't he already control everything? 

CDRAMA

Dive (18/30): A story that revolves around a diving team in the brink of disbandment. Coach Yu Feng grooms four athletes to represent the school and turn the tide for the diving team. He finds Jiang Bai Long, a former star of tomorrow in the diving world, Wei Te, an exchange student from Thailand, the newly-enrolled star athlete Lu Hao Ran and his partner Tian Lin.

Wow talk about shocking! I totally didn't expect the show to go the way it did this week. I mean it's a sports drama and in most dramas with some sort of competition, you'd expect our team to get to at least the finals but oddly enough this week it looks like we lost in the Top 6 which sucks and dudes it's super weird that only one team gets booted. What sucks and makes even less sense is the fact that someone from the audience literally shone a laser into the eyes of a diver and cheated so hard and he was caught but apparently that wasn't enough for the judges to be like okay Bailong gets a redo. I also don't understand the scoring cause I'm pretty sure we never scored anything lower than a 7ish and one team literally scored 5s if I remember and yet we were the ones booted? I expect that somehow something will happen next week that puts us back in the competition but I suppose it's a good thing that our rivals were so terrified of our team doing good that they changed the diving location, refused to allow the two best divers to practice beforehand, gave them a shitty locker room, locked all the doors in the hallway and even shone a laser into one of the diver's eyes. On another note I complained last week that Weite and Caiyi's relationship went from friends to into each other way too quickly cause I was pretty sure that they all but made their feelings known to one another but I guess I was reading the situation wrong cause it feels like Weite is trying to pretend that he only sees her as a best friend (comrade-in-arms as he called her) making Caiyi feel out of sorts.

No Secrets (24/45): A story about a young man who can read people's minds and a worthless lawyer who come to protect each other. A tragic case from the past revolving around a car accident connects the lives of Lin Xing Ran and Jiang Xia. After 10 years, the young man who can read minds and the impulsive public defender meet again. Meanwhile, Zhang Xiao Quan is Lin Xing Ran's boss who has a reputation for never having lost a single case while Gu Si Yu is a colleague who becomes a bitter rival.

This week was interesting cause we went through one of my favorite arcs and started one of my least favorite arcs of this show. I loved the one where Xiaoquan defended the killer cause low key I'm a savage and I loved the idea that the second lead destroyed his chances of getting the girl cause no matter how professional you are, if you do something that's going to hurt the girl you're in love with, you screwed up. It was the same thing in D-Day when the male lead did surgery on someone else rather than the female lead's dad cause though it was the professional decision, you can't do that to a girlfriend! I do have to admit though that once again I do think the Korean version did it better cause in that one the second lead actually felt like he really and truly believed that the killer was innocent while here it feels more like Xiaoquan didn't care one way or another cause professionally a lawyer shouldn't care if his client is guilty or innocent cause it's not a defense lawyer's place to judge. Of course this arc was followed by the amnesia one which as I mentioned was one of my most hated. Amnesia is the worst storytelling trope out there in my opinion and when it's used I tend to zone out and start to dislike a story. I mean I get it for some people it's romantic to fall in love with someone all over again but it just ruins character development for me. 

xoxo Allie