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 reviews, click here and if you want to see a list of my Favorite Asian OTPs and Ships, click here!
KDRAMA
Itaewon Class (8/16): On the first day of attending his new high school, Park Sae Ro Yi punches his classmate Jang Geun Won, who was bullying another classmate. The bully is the son of CEO Jang Dae Hee. The bully's father runs restaurant business Jangga where Park Sae Ro Yi’s own father works. CEO Jang Dae Hee demands to Park Sae Ro Yi that he apologizes to his son, but Park Sae Ro Yi refuses. Because of his refusal, Park Sae Ro Yi gets expelled from school and his father gets fired from his job. Soon, an accident takes place. Park Sae Ro Yi’s father dies in a motorcycle accident caused by his ex-classmate Jang Geun Won. Burning with anger, Park Sae Ro Yi viciously beats Jang Geun Won. He is soon arrested and receives prison time for violent assault. Park Sae Ro Yi decides to destroy the Jangga company and take revenge upon CEO Jang Dae Hee and his son Jang Geun Won. Once Park Sae Ro Yi is released from prison, he opens a restaurant in Itaewon, Seoul. Jo Yi Seo, who is popular on social media, joins Park Sae Ro Yi’s restaurant and works there as a manager. She has feelings for Park Sae Ro Yi.
We're halfway through this drama now and here's the thing. Neither female lead in this show acts like the typical first or second female lead and most of the time I feel like their personalities are switched but I want to like one over the other just based on how they treat Sae Ro Yi. Soo Ah is kind and sweet but it's not like she needs the money from Janggo to support her and by now she should know that Sae Ro Yi is not bluffing about who he'll become and yet she still refuses to help him. Yi Seo on the other hand I was so on board with after she cried for Sae Ro Yi (and I'm sure he felt something too cause he's had no one to worry about him since his father died) but then treats Geun Soo like garbage and dabbles in shades of racism by not thinking that Toni's Korean despite have a Korean birth father just cause he's black. In the end she did the right thing in apologizing to both boys but it still felt like she apologized cause she was told that was the right thing to do rather than actually believing it to be right. I suppose I can't exactly fault her for this cause one of the first things we learned about her is the fact that she is a medically diagnosed sociopath and most sociopaths are only mimicking emotion that they learned rather then feeling it themselves. I do like the idea of her rationalizing protecting all of the DanBum employees in her brain by being like they're all an extension of Sae Ro Yi which is why despite everything I can't help but stan whenever she's being fiercely protective. I also really liked that while we were all tricked into thinking that Sae Ro Yi was being all emotional last week but, in actuality, he's been playing 3D chess with Ho Jin and Min Jung from the start. I had a feeling that Jang would target Yi Seo but I can't imagine that he'll get anything out of that meeting unless there's some huge plot twist coming that tells us that she was his mole all along.
FINISHED Romantic Doctor, Teacher Kim Season 2 (16/16): “Romantic Doctor Kim” is a “real doctor” story set in a small, humble hospital called Doldam Hospital. It is a story about people who meet Kim Sa Bu (Han Suk Kyu), a genius doctor, and discover “real romance.” Kim Sa Bu once gained fame as a top surgeon at a huge hospital. One day, he left the industry, and now he is a chief surgeon at Doldam Hospital in the countryside. After he conducted a successful operation on Chairman Shin, he gets to improve the hospital under reliable support. But then Chairman Shin passes away. New people appear and his students had to leave the hospital. Furthermore, his wrist, which was injured three years ago, starts to act weird. After all, he goes to a huge hospital himself to solve the manpower shortage at Doldam Hospital, where he finds two people who resemble his former students but who seem much more lacking. Seo Woo Jin would do anything for money, and Cha Eun Jae runs out every time she goes into a surgery room. Will Kim Sa Bu be able to run Doldam Hospital with these two?
I'm totally sad that this show came to an end this week but I'm sure that there will be a season 3 in the future cause not only has the ratings for this show been out of this world but with a medical drama there's always more story to tell. I did really like the way everything ended though I do think that President Park was forgiven a bit too easily after all that he did but more than that I hated Dr Yang for being the worst kind of enabler so in the end I was a little more on the train of maybe Park should have dumped Yang after he went behind his back to Chairman Do. I was pretty surprised that Doldam was saved in the end cause Chairman Shin set up Doldam to be a medical foundation separate from Geodae since I expected In Beom to take over but I think I definitely like this way better cause now the hospital won't be the grounds for political maneuvering. Everyone in our main cast decided to stay at Doldam and our couples are happy. As we found out Ah Reum and In Beom were cousins (his mom was her aunt) and though I wish there had been a bit more dramatics with that whole thing, it the end Eun Tak and Ah Reum decided to date officially but it sucks that we didn't get a real kiss from them. We also found out that Kim's actual diagnosis was MS but I still don't exactly understand what that had to do with the Oddball Project that he assigned Woo Jin. Oh on that note we found out that Bae's father was the one who caused Woo Jin's father to drown in debt and commit that murder suicide as I guessed last week but sweet Woo Jin decided not to place his anger with Bae's father on Bae so everything worked out. Overall I'd give this show a 9 / 10!
Tell Me What You Saw (8/16): "Tell Me What You Saw" is a suspense thriller about a genius profiler named Oh Hyun Jae who has lost everything, and a detective with photographic memory named Cha Soo Young who work together to track down a serial killer. Other members include, team leader Hwang Ha Young who sets the plan, ambitious investigation team member Choi Hyung Pil, and veteran detective Yang Man Soo.
Every week I can't help but compare this drama to The Game: Towards Zero cause they're both cop dramas airing right now and like this one is just so much better in every way other than maybe romance cause there's none of that in this. I mean of course there are things that happen that don't make sense or shouldn't happen in a real police investigation but everything just feels more real! The cases we get each week are so much more interesting than I expected and even our cop squad is more fun to watch. I keep seeing reviews talking about what a rookie Soo Young is but I don't get that at all! She's so much smarter than I expected her to be and I'm really into her photographic memory. The first case this week was super hard to watch cause I always feel so sad when it's about a kidnapped child. I thought it was super creative of the show to fake us out multiple times about who the real kidnapper was and I totally didn't expect it to be the lawyer until they showed us it was. It also made me high key thrilled that the higher ups assigned this case to Ha Young cause they expected her to find a dead child and wanted to use it as a reason to fire her but since she not only found the child alive but also caught the murderer, it ruined all their plans. For once I would like to watch a cop drama where the higher ups aren't on the killer's payroll. Though they haven't drawn it out for us yet, it's pretty obvious that's why the Chief and his boss hate Hyun Jae cause he will not stop searching for who killed his wife.
FINISHED The Beauty Inside (16/16): 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 for one week a month. 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, every day he 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?
If you're a loyal follower of my blog you will remember back in October of 2018 when I first tried to watch this drama as it was airing but I hated the male lead so much that I ended up dropping it. Well I was rewatching Search: WWW for like the hundredth time and it made me want to watch more of Lee Da Hee and so I decided to go back and check this drama out for her and her romance with Eun Ho who was played by Ahn Jae Hyun who back in 2018 I didn't know but now I adore. I might be the worst person tbh to review this drama cause I seriously watched it for the secondary couple cause I never really warmed to the male lead who was this stoic wall for the entirety of this drama even though Se Kye was such a badass. It's one of those scenarios where I can't understand why Se Kye would ever fall for him so I just couldn't enjoy it. Eun Ho on the other hand was a literal angel and I was living for every moment with Sa Ra and how she was totally the pants in their relationship! I loved how secure he was in himself that her flashing money or even proposing before him didn't shake him one bit and in fact he was just in awe that this wonderful woman would love him. Sa Ra was so fascinating cause she started out as such a bitch but became a complete badass like Se Kye. I really enjoyed how the Seo family had each other's backs cause despite being rich and fighting amongst each other sometimes, when push came to shove, it was blood in the water for anyone who wasn't family. The friendship between Eun Ho, Se Kye, and Woo Mi was also lovely and I was all for how for once the best guy friend that the female lead grew up with didn't fall in love with her. Overall I'd give this drama a 8 / 10 which might be a little high since I didn't care for the main couple but it's my ranking so there!
The Game: Towards Zero (24/32): It tells the story of a prophet who sees the moments right before the death of someone and a homicide detective who got dragged into a series of mysterious murders and end up digging up hidden secrets. Kim Tae Pyung, a prophet who can see death, 27 years old. He has the special ability to see the moments right before the death of someone by looking into their eyes. Instead of suffering from this mysterious ability linked to the death of people, he thinks that it is a special ability of his own. He is rich, handsome and has a sexy brain. However, he cannot see the death of Joon Young and that started to scare him. Joon Young, a homicide detective who is working with Tae Pyung to solve cases. 30 years old. She has good insight and intuition. Her father who was a police officer was her hero and her whole life, however, he passed away 20 years ago. That was a huge shock for her. She was only depending on herself and no one else. However, when Tae Pyung appeared, she started to change. She wants to heal his and her wounds. Ku Do Kyung, a forensic expert, 33 years old. Tae Pyung gave him the nickname of “4 weeks left” because he gives the result 4 weeks later. He is a smart and talented employee of the National Forensic Service. He always seems relaxed. In front of Joon Young, he acts differently. He can’t stop laughing when he is with her and lets his image of a cool and cold man away.
I feel like I can only enjoy this show when I turn my brain off completely cause for the life of me I cannot understand how Tae Pyung's death visions work and I feel like the rules keep changing weekly cause the writers do not know how to deal with an OP power like his. At first I assumed that deaths were fated to be one way and any changes a person attempted would actually lead to them like self-fulfilling prophecies but then after Mi Jin's death I thought that maybe they were based on a person's will which would have been so much more simple and straight-forward only for the show to be like no actually it really is fated. If that's the case what the hell was up with Mi Jin's death?? Why could Tae Pyung only see it change after she died? If Do Kyung originally was going to kill her at 7 but then found out that the cops were patrolling at 7 and so changed his plan to 4 then as soon as he thought about killing her at 4, Tae Pyung should have seen the change! Ugh even my thoughts on this are as jumbled as the show which really goes to show you the poor writing of this drama. Honestly if I were the cops I would stop relying on Tae Pyung cause clearly his visions are not helpful! I still hate the way this show is placing blame and oddly victimizing Do Kyung cause now that Tae Pyung can't see any of his cop squad's deaths it's apparently his fault they die and I'm over here screaming that it's no one's fault except Do Kyung! Now he's decided to shift the blame to his mother but the weirder part was how he was claiming that Tae Pyung is a murderer too and I'm like dude you're alive and he's alive so at the most it's attempted murder.
FINISHED Touch (16/16): A popular make-up artist, known for his never-ending quest for perfection, Cha Jung Hyeok was at the top of his game. But destiny, it seemed, wouldn’t let him stay there for long. Now unemployed and drowning in debt, Jung Hyeok is desperate to find a way out of this most miserable of slumps; but he’s not the only one. An idol trainee for the past ten years, Han Soo Yeon is desperate to finally get her big break. Deciding it’s now or never, she agrees to participate in an idol audition program, but fails to make the cut. Booted from the program, Soo Yeon finds herself wondering if this is really the path she’s meant to take in life. Desperation and destiny come together in unexpected ways when Jung Hyeok and Soo Yeon cross paths. After finally landing a much-needed job as a make-up artist, Jung Hyeok agrees to take Soo Yeon under his wing. Noticing that his new assistant shows an incredible aptitude for the art, Jung Hyeok is happy to teach her everything he knows. As the two grow closer, they slowly learn to let go of the broken dreams of the past as they steadily walk towards a future full of bright new dreams, together.
The finale for this show aired this week and all I could think about was how excited I was about this show when it first started and how it never hit the expectations that I wanted which might be a little unfair but it just makes a show more special when it hits every note I want. It was interesting to see Soo Yeon struggle with whether she wanted to become an idol again or if she wanted to continue doing makeup and in the end she chose makeup but honestly I wasn't sure if that was the right choice after all. I felt like a lot of her decision was based on Jung Hyeok and how if she became an idol again not only would she leave Touch but she wouldn't be able to see him a lot anymore and I don't love that. We were told over and over that Soo Yeon's dream was to be an idol and even until this final episode it felt like she still had regrets but I suppose I understand that she was just too burned by the whole industry. Honestly if I was her I would have done the idol thing and if it didn't work out or when it came to an end then she could have always returned to makeup. I did like that everything came out about Cha Beauty and HD Cosmetics but the weirdest thing was how Kang Ho and Ji Yoon were basically friends in the end after everything but I guess it shows you what a big heart Ji Yoon had to forgive her abuser. Do Jin ended up making his own agency with Chae Won and Sung Soo and that was beautiful and totally made sense cause how else could he be the person he wanted when he was under someone else. Overall I'd give this show a 7 / 10 cause I did enjoy the makeup part of this show despite not seeing the main couple as anything more than a mentor/mentee relationship.
FINISHED Voice (16/16): Popular detective Moo Jin Hyuk who is filled with guilt for his wife’s death, works with professional voice profiler Kang Kwon Joo, whose father is killed, to solve a different crime, chasing for the serial killer responsible for the deaths of their family members.
I really wanted to enjoy this drama cause you know how much I love investigation dramas but I went in kinda cautious since I've never actually been a fan of Jang Hyuk's acting style so I was worried that with him being the male lead I would end up being meh about the whole show and honestly that's exactly what happened. I wanted to like this show so much cause it's basically the same concept as Tell Me What You Saw with Jang Hyuk's character being out for revenge after his wife was murdered only instead of a female lead with a photographic memory, it was a female lead with the ability to hear things others couldn't. Having said that something about this show just didn't work for me. The cases were all fairly boring and the supporting cast wasn't as strong as I would have liked. One of the best parts of cop dramas is the cop squad we get but I tend to find that OCN dramas don't have the best squads compared to other channels which sucks cause you know I'm a sucker for found families! I also figured out pretty early on who the villain was as almost immediately I recognized Kim Jae Wook's lovely voice (how could you not??) so it felt like a lot of waiting for our cast to catch up as they went in circles trying to figure out the truth. I even debated dropping this show several times if I'm being honest but I really wanted to check out season 2 after I found out that Lee Jin Wook who I loved from Nine: Nine Times Time Travel was the male lead. I didn't want to jump into that season without having seen this one so I pushed on through. In the end even catching Tae Goo was lame (and only happened cause he ended up snapping and trying to kill a cop) but I did like the idea of Kwon Joo knowing exactly how to lure him in with her words. Overall I'd give this season a 7.5 / 10.
FINISHED Voice Season 2 (12/12): Listen closely, because skilled voice profiler Kang Kwon Joo is back. Working tirelessly at the Emergency Call Center, she uses her first-rate hearing to save lives and catch culprits. When it comes to responding to emergencies within the vital “golden time,” Kang Kwon Joo is simply the best. Do Kang Woo is a mysterious man who’s able to tap into the mind of a criminal. He also hides a secret pain that he doesn’t share with anyone. When he meets Kang Kwon Joo, they reluctantly form a team. She can hear crime; he can think it. Together, they take on the most dangerous criminals their city has ever seen.
So like I said in my Voice review, I had been really looking forward to watching this season cause I adore Lee Jin Wook and like maybe it's biased or unfair of me but straight up he might have been the reason why I enjoyed this season so much more than the first! I mean with Kang Woo smoldering on screen for 12 episodes straight it was hard not to be obsessed. But like seriously I do think this season had a lot better connected story arc with almost every case relating back to the Big Bad and if the case wasn't related it had some sort of effect that was connected to Je Soo or was just plain fascinating to watch. The cop squad we got felt like a real family this time around and I think it might have been partially due to the fact that we've now seen some of these characters in two seasons. I even thought that Kang Woo and Kwon Joo had this interesting chemistry that low key made me ship them and it was obvious the show noticed as well cause we got so many more jokes about the two of them being in a relationship than in the first season. Though I never believed that Kang Woo was anything but a good man it was fun to see how Je Soo was able to convince almost everyone that Kang Woo might be a criminal and I loved the way he tied into Kang Woo's backstory and why he focused so hard on him after thinking that they might be very similar people. I do think that Kwon Joo was a little less in the forefront of this season but that was only cause Je Soo was targeting Kang Woo but despite that I never thought that she was underused. Overall I'd give this season a 8 / 10!
FINISHED XX (10/10): It tells the story of the best bartender of the industry who is working in a speakeasy bar. She solves the problems of the couples and is overcoming her past love wounds.
I didn't realize that the finale of this show was airing this week and that's mostly cause I got the episode count for this show wrong! Viki was releasing 5 episodes instead of the 10 I thought it was cause they were double length episodes so I went back and fixed the episode numbers on my previous weekly drama reviews. I do feel that despite everything the show told the story it needed to and the only thing I would say is that I kind of wish Roo Mi and Na Na's reconciliation had been given a bit more time to fix cause it felt a bit more like the show was trying to retroactively fix them rather than let it happen naturally. Roo Mi found out that Na Na stood up for her back then but if that was the case why did Na Na cut Roo Mi off without allowing her to apologize? And did all Na Na need from Roo Mi was for her to put Na Na first for once? Having said that most of me didn't entirely care about the semantics cause Tae Hyun was walking around talking about how he ruined their friendship and I was like buzz off you loser. His appearance in front of Na Na was needed in order to help her really move on and help her understand that back then she really didn't care about him cheating but the fact that it was Roo Mi who did it. I liked that she was finally able to take the plunge and tell Dan Hee that she liked him too and their kiss was so sweet. Overall I think this show was pretty cute for what it was and I'd give it a 8 / 10!
CDRAMA
Eternal Love Of Dreams/Three Lives, Three Worlds, The Pillow Book (36/56): Two thousand years of enduring love and obsession between the female monarch of Qing Qiu and the ancient god of the Heavenly Kingdom.When Feng Jiu was practicing immortal cultivation alone in the wilderness, she was attacked by a beast and rescued by Dong Hua Di Jun of the Heavenly Kingdom. The encounter becomes deeply ingrained in Feng Jiu's heart and to repay her debts, she decides to follow Dong Hua into battle. She soon realizes that her good feelings towards him have evolved into love, but Dong Hua is a god who has forgotten what love means. In order to protect Feng Jiu, Dong Hua sends her to the human realm which results in the death of a friend. Feng Jiu enters the Winged Tribe Princess Ah Lan Ruo's dream sequence in search of a sacred fruit that can bring the dead back to life but gets trapped to relive Ah Lan Ruo's life for eternity. Dong Hua finds a way to save Feng Jiu and realizes that he already reciprocates her love for him, but another hurdle crosses their path.
Ugh so I was wrong about the whole three lives thing which super sucks cause I really don't care to watch another fake world version of Dong Hua and Feng Jiu! I want my babies to be cute as they are but if only wishing it could make it so. Up to the final moment this week I was really excited to see how much Dong Hua was falling in love with Feng Jiu! I mean did you see how much he wanted to literally kill Yan cause he thought that Feng Jiu was in love with him?? Lian Song was being the ultimate shit-stirrer too by not only teasing Dong Hua about her but also at that dinner when he was all excited that Feng Jiu knew all of Yan's favorite dishes but not Dong Hua's. Like babe you have to speak up if you want her to know something about you! I am really curious about this whole fate thing that Lian Song and Si Ming talked about cause like are Feng Jiu or Dong Hua supposed to have different soulmates and that's why they're not fated to be together or is it just Dong Hua is too powerful to have one? I've also officially decided to dislike Ji Heng for her antics after the pimpon fruit debacle and I really really hope that Yan moves on from her cause he's such a good guy and she's not but it looks a bit like Dong Dong might have a crush and I'm over here like pick her instead! I am a little worried about how Dong Hua had to release 90% of his cultivation to get to Feng Jiu in this dream world cause of the whole evil Demon King trying to escape her prison thing especially since I'm fairly certain that this dream can cause Feng Jiu's cultivation to come back but not Dong Hua's which is the opposite of what happened during Dong Hua's mortal trial. In that same vein it's Feng Jiu who's lost her memories this time and it will be Dong Hua who's trying to help her in the background. I also need an explanation as to why Chen Yue and Aranaya look like Dong Hua and Feng Jiu cause they can't be past lives since the two were alive at the same time Chen Yue and Aranaya were!
FINISHED Under The Power (55/55): In the final years of the reign of Jiajing Emperor during the Ming Dynasty, Lu Yi of the Jing Yi Wei is commissioned to investigate the disappearance of funds that have been set aside for river repairs in Yangzhou. He is assisted by Yuan Jin Xia of the Liushanmen. The two accidentally become involved in a conspiracy. The talented female constable Yuan Jin Xia gets into a disagreement with the hot-tempered Jin Yi Wei Lu Yi over a case that they are both involved in. Jin Xia thought that she'd never encounter Lu Yi again in this lifetime, yet fate has its way of bringing two people back together. Government funds have been stolen and Jin Xia receives orders to assist Lu Yi in his investigation. They are unable to get along at first but learn to work together through the hardships. Eventually, they develop feelings for each other to become lovers. However, things go awry when the truth about the past comes to light. Jin Xia is the orphan of the Xia Yan case from many years ago and she bears the burdens of the bloodshed that destroyed her family.
I'm honestly so disappointed with this finale that I don't even know if I can put it into words! I was so into this show for so much of it but then all of a sudden we're left in this horrible place where Jin Xia can't forgive Lu Yi for his father's crimes and then the Emperor cannot pull his face out of Yan family's ass and then we're left to float along until the next Emperor takes power in order to fix things? What a horrible mess. I struggled so hard to get through these episodes cause not only do I hate the breakup episodes in a drama but these episodes were so filled with political maneuvering that I was exhausted. Lu Yi found proof of Yan's misdoings only for him to kidnap Jin Xia and force Lu Yi to give it up to save her so the Emperor's anger fell on Lan and he was imprisoned and tortured while Yan ran around acting like he was on top of the world. Lu Yi's father died and Jin Xia found out about his misdoings and decided that despite not wanting him dead like Lin Lang did, she couldn't forgive him either and decided that Lu Yi broke up with her cause he was amused rather than realizing that he clearly broke up with her cause he was doing the whole noble sacrifice thing. The final episode felt too rushed like the show needed to wrap everything up but also didn't want to add more episodes which left me feeling meh about the whole thing. When I would have given this show a 9 two or so weeks ago, now I can't help but feel like this show is a 8 / 10.
xoxo Allie
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