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
365: Repeat The Year (4/24): A story where ten people get the chance to go back in time by one year, but unexpectedly mysterious situations start to arise when their fates are changed and twisted in the process. Ji Hyung Joo is a detective in the violent crimes division. He used to be part of the traffic police but was promoted when he arrested a wanted criminal. It's been seven years since the change, and he's a talented individual who always knows how to relax. Though he is happy at first to have the chance to go back in time by one year and "reset" his life, he begins to search for the truth when a series of mysterious events befall on the group of people he goes back in time with.
It's low key ironic how every show I watch is practically off the air here in the states but at the same time it's kdrama premiere week! This drama was one I was looking forward to for a while and it's probs super obvious why I checked this one out right? Nam Ji Hyun! I adore that woman to pieces and I've loved everything I've seen her in so far so I was pretty excited to check this drama out and now that I have, it's absolutely incredible! It might be the best thriller airing right now (not that it has much competition tbh) and I can't wait to see what happens! Even though I low key knew what this show was going to end up being based on the synopsis, as I was watching, I was totally mesmerized and forgot everything! I was sitting here like oh what a lovely fantasy and then bam death after death and plot twist after plot twist! Hyung Joo and Ga Hyeon are the main characters of this show and cause of that we spent the most time with them which is why I low key ship them already but since there's no romance tag for this show, I have a feeling they'll just be friends. Either way they're both really smart and totally badass in their own ways and like I said, I already love their dynamic duo which started with hunting down Ga Hyeon's hit-and-run killer but now will obviously shift into whoever is killing all the reset victims. I wondered if maybe one of the crew we met at the start would end up being the killer like a Missing Nine type situation and it's totally possible that's still true though it doesn't explain why two of the three currently dead died of accidents which makes me think that someone at the reset facility is doing it. Maybe this whole sending people back thing was meant to be an experiment to test some technology so they're being killed to keep it all hush hush? I also wonder if Hyung Joo's detective squad will ever be let in on the secret or if the reset crew will be the only ones to find the truth.
A Piece Of Your Mind (2/16): An innovator in the world of artificial intelligence programming, Moon Ha Won has made quite a name for himself in the AI industry. The founder and brain behind the popular portal site, M&H, Ha Won is a man everyone knows. A man devoted to his work, everyone knows he doesn’t take what he does lightly and expects his employees to follow suit, but he’s also known as a kindhearted, rational thinker, who never gets angry and never loses his cool. An ideal man, with a soft heart, Ha Won believes that when it comes to love, having even a small fraction of his love’s heart is enough to sustain him. But that theory is put to the test when Han Seo Woo wanders into his world. A classical music recording engineer, Seo Woo hasn’t had the easiest life. With no family to support her, and no place to call home, Seo Woo has spent the majority of her life wandering and alone. Despite her difficulties, Seo Woo has managed to keep an open and optimistic mindset, believing that all things happen for a reason. Wandering down the path life has laid before her, Seo Woo soon finds herself crossing paths with Ha Won. As the two begin a journey together, they come to find that sometimes two different halves really can make a whole.
I wasn't exactly sure what I was getting into when I checked this drama out cause I went in pretty much entirely cause of the main leads and how I loved them in other stuff but I was a little hesitant too cause the vibe I was getting from this show was the same as When The Weather Is Fine and I really wasn't a fan of that one. Having seen the first two episodes, I have to say that it's definitely exactly what I expected. There's this melancholic tone to the whole show and it's clear that what we're getting is a slice-of-life about healing but it's so strange to me the way the show is written. I was confused during so much of this premiere but I don't think it's the fault of this show cause it's clear it doesn't want to reveal the whole story yet so like Seo Woo, we're just getting hints and pieces of the puzzle in order to solve the mystery. So far based on what I'm gathering, it seems like Ha Won loved Ji Soo but she fell in love with In Wook and married him but then found out that In Wook did something terrible in the past which I have a feeling is related to Ha Won and his mother's death cause whatever the mistake was it was enough to not only send Ji Soo into a depressive spiral but also cause In Wook to command Ji Soo not to contact Ha Won cause they'll only hurt him. Meanwhile I think Ha Won wanted to record her voice and use it in the next AI robot he makes so that he has a version of her next to him. The whole thing just feels horrible cause the way the story played out makes Ji Soo feel like a bit of a bitch for only turning to him when things are bad in her marriage but also Ha Won is kind of an idiot for still loving her 10 years later when she's been married for so long! It makes it so much worse that I'm pretty sure Ji Soo just died in Norway and it's like Seo Woo was her last call and if that isn't enough to make a woman guilty for life, I don't know what is!
Find Me In Your Memory (8/32): The story revolves around a man with hyperthymesia, a condition that gives people the ability to remember an abnormally vast amount of their life experiences in vivid detail, and a woman who has forgotten the most important moments of her life. The two people with similar scars fatefully cross paths one day and come to love each other. Jeong Hoon is an anchor of a news show which has the highest ratings. Jeong Hoon’s handsome face and perfect body figure make him look good in a suit. Unlike his gentle appearances, he becomes a tyrant all of a sudden and starts asking aggressive questions to whoever it is. Because of hyperthymesia, he remembers every single thing happening in 365 days a year ever since his childhood. He can’t forget the memory of the woman he loved, Seo Yeon, who disappeared 8 years ago. A rising star who attracts everyone’s attention, Ha Jin, appears in front of Jeong Hoon at that moment. Despite all the attention, Ha Jin doesn’t waver and keeps her confidence. However, she has a secret that her memory is fading away. The man who cannot forget and the woman whose memory is fading away. Will they be able to overcome their difficulties, understand each other, and fall in love at the end?
Okay so I'm hardcore in love with this show which is honestly so shocking cause I didn't think this show was all the special when it started but now I'm like this is the perfect rom com for me! I was actually pretty wrong about Ha Jin's memory problems but I'm glad that I was wrong cause we don't need both leads to be ticking time bombs! As it turns out Ha Jin was so distraught by Seo Yeon's death that she was suicidal and in the end her mind wiped all of her memories of Seo Yeon. It doesn't exactly explain why the two are so similar other than I guess two people who have known each other since they were kids probs have the same interests but the suspicious part of me is still wondering if there's more drama to the story. Like what if Ha Jin saw Jeong Hoon first but Seo Yeon ended up dating him even though she knew that Ha Jin liked him so she tried to keep them apart? It's also super sketchy that the man who killed Seo Yeon is now targeting Ha Jin unless it's someone totally different and it's just really a reason for Jeong Hoon to be around Seo Yeon more cause I mean scratching out someone from photos is a pretty normal stalker creep move. I also think it's really interesting that Jeong Hoon found out so quickly about Ha Jin's memory problem but at the same time I love it cause it now gives him a reason to connect with Ha Jin and a reason to stop being so cold to her too. I think that as he helps Ha Jin remember Seo Yeon, he'll fall in love with Ha Jin and it'll be adorable! As a sidebar anyone else find Yoo Sung Hyeok aka the older doctor low key sketchy? Something about the way he scolded Tae Eun about not getting close to Jeong Hoon was just weird.
Hospital Playlist Season 1 (3/12): A drama depicting the stories of people going through their days that seemingly ordinary but actually special, at the hospital, a place known as the microcosm of life - where someone is being born and someone's life meets their ending. The five doctors are long time friends of 20 years who started their undergrad in 1999 in the same medical school, and now they are colleagues in the same hospital. The drama will also deal with a story of a band formed by the group of doctors.
I think I was right in guessing that though we get a look at all five of our main characters each week, we really only focus on one. Ik Jun that was the focus this week and it's kinda ironic cause Jo Jung Suk is the most recognizable actor in this show so I went in thinking that he would be the male lead while the others would be more of the supporting main characters but he was the one who got the least airtime until now! We knew that he was married and had a son but we hadn't seen his wife or even heard mention of her until this week where we found out so much and had our hearts broken for him! As it turned out Jung Won was the one to introduce Ik Jun to his wife but she's been living in Germany for the past year and a half which the two decided was the best course of action even though Ik Jun offered to go to Germany with her. Now that she's back, she wants a divorce and as we find out later in the episode it's because she has fallen for another man. To make things even worse Ik Jun's sister ended up arriving at the hospital in the end but hopefully she's not too hurt cause I can't see poor Ik Jun even more shattered when he's the most positive one of the group! In other news, it turns out Gyeo Wool now has a crush on Jung Won after he yelled at her last week but he's still struggling with his desire to become a priest. Romantic feelings might also be growing between Song Hwa and one of her residents which is totally sweet cause I love Ahn but also interesting cause I totally thought she'd end up with one of our men. As a sidenote I also really enjoyed Jun Wan's case this week with the baby which I thought deserved a shoutout cause even if I like the character interactions more than the cases, the cases are never boring either!
FINISHED I Need Romance Season 1 (16/16): Sunwoo In Young (Jo Yeo Jung) has been dating the same man for the past 10 years and, at 33 years old, is waiting for the big question. When she finds out he's cheated on her, she flat out breaks up with him, determined to continue her life. At the same time, her best friends Park Seo Yeon (Choi Yeo Jin) and Kang Hyun Joo (Choi Song Hyeon) face their own relationship problems. A sex-and-the-city style story about three woman who face the ups and downs of being career minded at an age where society expects them to be married.
I started this show cause I had seen recommendations that it was similar to A Gentleman's Dignity or like an older version of Age Of Youth. I adore shows about a group of friends who are looking for love without a lot of the extra kdrama craziness but something about this show just didn't work for me. I know it's been praised for treating romance like real life and everything but honestly the only thing I think this show did good was treat sex and relationships like they were normal and none of our characters (except one but that was her character which made it okay) acted as though being a 30 year old virgin who held hands for the first time was something to run away from. Having said that I think my biggest problem was that I just couldn't get into any of the romances for any of the girls. Okay look I hate cheating and everything but I never struggled with the fact that In Young got back with Sung Soo cause it was clear from the start that In Young never felt for Sung Hyeon even a fraction of what she felt for Sung Soo but seriously if the show needed one of the three main girls to end up alone, it should have been In Young. If I'm being honest, neither man was all that great with all the lying and need to change her! Seo Yeon and Hyun Joo's relationships didn't get enough screen time either and that's hilarious cause I enjoyed their storylines more. Seo Yeon taking on the normal male lead playboy storyline was everything but I hated that she ended up alone cause if she was a dude she'd have gotten the girl! Hyun Joo on the other hand was super cute with Deok Soo but we barely saw them together so much so that there's just nothing to say about them! I am planning on watching the next two in this series and I'm hoping that I'll enjoy them more. Overall I'd give this drama a 6.5 / 10.
FINISHED I Need Romance Season 2 (16/16): The plot is centered around the 10 year relationship between Yoon Seok Hyun and Joo Yeol Mae, who have been repeatedly breaking up and getting back together the entire duration of their relationship. Tired and looking for love elsewhere, Joo Yeol Mae turns her attention to Shin Ji Hoon and leaves Yoon Seok Hyun to look on with envy.
Here's the thing. I wasn't the biggest fan of season 1 of this series and cause of that it left me struggling to force myself to get to the mental place where I could watch this season. When I finally got around to it, I found myself not only enjoying this drama a ton more than the first season but also a lot more than I expected to in general which was a nice surprise. The thing that this season did so much better than the first (beyond the fact that I melted every time Seok Hyun was on screen cause Lee Jin Wook is just too sexy for this world) is the relationship between Yeol Mae and Seok Hyun. Whether they were dating or not, it felt like they loved each other more than anyone else and that love never felt it was just an obligation. The two had tons of chemistry together and though I never got SLS, I do have to admit that if I was Yeol Mae, I would have given up on Seok Hyun ages ago cause the way he was so cold all the time would exhaust me. The two were like fire and ice in terms of who they were and I really didn't love the reason why Seok Hyun kept pushing her away. After knowing each other for almost 30 years and having dated for 10 of those, you would think that he would know that regardless of whether they were dating or not, him leaving this world would kill her! I was also super pissed at the ending cause you know I hate time skips and I hate it more when a time skip is meant to solve all the problems between our main couple when it's like literally nothing changed in the circumstances that led up to the time skip! Is he no longer worried about the disease in his family? Will they never get married? On another note, I did end up loving both the side couples in this season too but I definitely loved Jae Kyung's love line more and it made me happy that they all got happy endings too. Overall I'd give this season a 8 / 10 cause I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would and here's hoping the third season is fun too!
FINISHED Itaewon Class (16/16): 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.
The finale for this show aired this week and honestly guys I'm left feeling a little bereft... Like I can't help but feel like the final arc of this show with Yi Seo being kidnapped by Geun Won was so out of nowhere and felt like it came from a different show. We've been watching a show about two businessmen outwitting each other with a dash of found family and restaurant antics but all of a sudden this became about hostages, gangs and murder? Um no thank you tonal shift. I do suppose that for someone as stubborn as Saeroyi, something like a kidnapping would be the only way to get him to realize his feelings but like at the same time he sort of figured out that he loved Yi Seo before all that happened. Having said that, I don't exactly want to let that dampen my whole experience with this show though cause I did enjoy so much of it and even in this finale there were a ton of moments I adored. My blood boiled when Saeroyi had to kneel in order to get Jang to tell him where Geun Won was but at the same time I loved that he called out Jang for being even more pathetic than how he felt at that moment for resorting to this. It made the moment later when Jang kneeled for Saeroyi as a last resort to save Jangga even more poignant! Saeroyi's declarations of love for Yi Seo were everything too and I lived for every time he did it whether it was to her or someone else! Yi Seo's mom also deserves a shoutout for being the same badass Yi Seo was cause she was hilarious. I do wish that Hyun Yi and Seung Kwon had ended up together cause the hints weren't enough for my taste and I do think Soo Ah's sudden about-face felt even more out of nowhere than the kidnapping arc cause I don't know if I believe that she had been playing Jang the whole time to get revenge after everything she did and how hard she worked for him. Overall though I did have a blast with this show and how it tackled so many difficult topics like race and being transgender so I can't help but give it a 9 / 10!
FINISHED Lie To Me (16/16): Gong Ah Jung, a level 5 Ministry of Culture official, gets entangled in a web of lies when she mistakenly lies that she's married to Hyun Ki Joon, a noble hotel manager from an affluent family. Their relationship is further complicated when Ki Joon's ex-fiance and a close friend of his brother's, Oh Yoon Joo, reappears in his life.
I started this show cause I thought the synopsis sounded funny enough even if I didn't particularly have any huge amount of love for the actors in this drama and I found myself so in love with what I experienced from start to finish! Ah Jung was the absolute best from her quirkiness to her confidence and I low key loved how she was so selfish and worried about how others saw her cause it made her feel so much more real than most kdrama female leads! Ki Joon was so much more expressive than I expected him to be as the typical cold male lead and I want to give a shoutout to Kang Ji Hwan who played him cause you could see Ki Joon's growing affection for Ah Jung in every one of his expressions and body language! I was worried at first that I might have SLS seeing as Sung Joon was playing the second male lead but surprisingly enough after the first few episodes I was 100% on Ki Joon's side cause the chemistry between our leads was out of this world! I do have to admit that the show went through this weird change during the back half of the drama where suddenly our leads went from these sizzling kisses to struggling to hold hands and it didn't help that the show felt like it low key ran out of plot after the two admitted that they loved each other. I didn't mind the love square as much as I thought I would cause I totally understood Ki Joon's struggle but the whole thing with his aunt going back and forth about the women in his life was exhausting. Having said that I do admit that my interest in this show really ramped up once the lying stopped and the feelings became real so it's a mixed bag in terms of plot! Overall I'd give this show a 8 / 10 cause two thirds of this drama were just so good that it kind of makes up for the mess of the final third!
Memorist (6/16): Dong Baek has an extraordinary ability. He can peer into the memories of whoever he touches. With his supernatural power, get it done attitude, and eye-pleasing looks, he is fervently revered worldwide as a superstar detective. However, when his punches meet with suspects before words, he can be a bit of a headache to his comrades. Starting from the age of twenty, Han Sun Mi is the youngest to have passed the bar exam, obtain a doctorate in criminal psychology, and become a senior superintendent in the police force. Having solved five cold cases that even a detective with supernatural powers couldn't do, she is a genius profiler. She has a secret that drives her to do what she does. These two highly-skilled professionals meet their match—a serial killer with abilities that transcend theirs combined. It's going to be a fight worth watching.
Something about this drama isn't working for me and I can't decide if it's cause the writing keeps making us jump from one thing to another without giving us enough time to stew in anything long enough to process it or if it's the writing of the characters or if it's cause the show won't explain what the bigger plot is. I mean last week I thought it was Park Gi Dan that we would be hunting but then it felt like it would be the Executioner but by the end of the episode it feels like we've either caught the killer or one of the accomplices. It would really be something if the Executioner is actually connected to everyone in high positions from Jo Sung Dong to Deputy Chief Lee to maybe even the head prosecutor whoever that is. It would explain why everyone keeps covering up everything and why no one has been able to catch the Executioner after all this time when Dong Baek and Sun Mi figured it out in a few minutes. I do have to admit that the whole traumatic pasts that connect our leads was totally out of nowhere and honestly not needed cause it's not like either lead can ignore a case if it's not connected to them but I'm hoping that this will be what finally gets the two to work together cause I'm tired of watching them mistrust each other and seriously things would go faster when they work together. I did low key love the reveal though that the reason everyone lost memories of the death they saw was cause they were gassed and not due to a supernatural thing so to them it felt like no time had passed but in actuality there was enough time to murder someone and leave but how Dong Baek doesn't know if he believes that cause it gives our serial killer an ace-up-his-sleeve when it really gets bad in the future.
Meow, The Secret Boy/Welcome (4/32): A graphic designer in her mid-twenties, Sol Ah harbors dreams of becoming a web-based comic author and has always had a love-hate relationship with cats. But Sol Ah’s life changes fast when she brings home a friendly feline. It turns out, however, that this is not any old cat. Named Hong Jo, he can take human form. Hong Jo becomes exceptionally fond of So Ah, and goes to great pains to hide his human identity from her. He soon proves that he will do anything that is required in order to stay near her. Will Hong Jo manage to keep his identity a secret? And what could be in store for this remarkable feline-human duo as their relationship deepens?
What a crazy creative idea for a show guys! Of course I was super excited for this drama cause L and Shin Ye Eun are the main leads and I adore both of them so I was interested to see if they would create something cute together but seriously this show is killing me in all the right ways!! I have never wanted a cat more than after I watched this drama and I've always been a cat person! The show has this warm cozy vibe to it and feels like a fun slice-of-life rather than a tragedy unlike pretty much everything else I'm currently watching though I do wonder if this show will have any Japanese vibes to it cause this sort of concept is usually a popular anime trope. L is seriously killing it with his acting picks recently cause he must know that he's one of the cutest actors out there so going from an angel to a cat is everything. I'm serious guys! I don't even care about the plot of this drama as much as I look forward to seeing Hong Jo be all cute! I do wish that the plot had Sol Ah know Hong Jo's secret from the start cause I do love when a show has a couple that share secrets from the world and not each other. With the synopsis saying that Hong Jo will try to keep Sol Ah from knowing the truth, I'm just low key going to be waiting around for the secret to come out but with Hong Jo showing up as a human in the end of this premiere I have a feeling that Sol Ah is going to think that he's the son of the woman her father wants to marry and that he lives upstairs which will give us a reason to see Hong Jo more in his human form rather than his cat one. Speaking of, I'm also really curious about what happened between Sol Ah and Jae Sun cause both seem to think that the other abandoned them and if I had to guess, I'd say Sol Ah was the one to accidentally do something that made Jae Sun think that she didn't want to be together cause something about Jae Sun feels like he was the heartbroken one.
FINISHED Tell Me What You Saw (16/16): "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.
I'm not sure how I feel about this show coming to an end this week cause it started out so strongly and ended kind of with a whimper. I really dislike when villains are at their peak badness but suddenly start doing the dumbest things as a way for the writers to give our heroes the win they need. If a show can't write a good way to catch the villain, they shouldn't be writing investigation dramas like this! I was also not thrilled with how small of a character Soo Young ended up being. I knew from the start that Hyun Jae was the male lead but I had hoped that Soo Young would have had a bigger role in this show! I mean the serial killer literally turned out to be her best friend and her reaction boiled down to a few tears and Dong Shik spent all his time trying to torture Hyun Jae without even a thought for her. Was there a point to her amazing memory if Hyun Jae and Ha Young were able to figure everything out on their own? I also really dislike the way it portrays cops. Like okay on the one hand I understand the higher ups and their corruption cause it's more common for cop kdramas to have corrupt cops and I could let Ha Young's reaction to Dong Shik being the killer in that interrogation room go cause of fear but the fact that she didn't shoot him at the end of episode 15 either when he was threatening to blow up the prison transport vehicle was ridiculous! Like damn the police higher ups clearly want to hide what happened with him so it's not like IA is going to arrest Ha Young for firing her gun! Rating this show was so hard cause like I said I really enjoyed a lot of the weekly cases and it wasn't until we focused on the overarching villain that this show became a mess so I guess in the end I'd want to give it a 8 / 10 for what most of this show was rather than the final moments.
xoxo Allie
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