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
Dinner Mate (8/32): This drama is about a young woman going through a rough breakup with a longtime boyfriend she’s still in love with, and a man who has had a painful first love. They both meet unexpectedly in Jeju and continue their acquaintance in Seoul as well. Life has its way of bringing them together as they find themselves meeting at unexpected situations. Both have a common love for food and will cherish eating together and trying new cuisines.
So remember last week when I said that it was interesting that we didn't spend any time with the second leads? Well here they are coming out in full form this week and it's fascinating cause as much as I loved the main leads and their easy chemistry and found them relatable, the second leads are the pull your hair out annoying types. Jae Hyuk and Noh Eul are the first loves of Do Hee and Hae Kyung respectively and as it turned out Jae Hyuk just vanished after 6 years and Noh Eul dumped Hae Kyung by claiming that he was boring but now they're both back and wanting to get back together which is the most annoying cause they're seriously forcing themselves onto Do Hee and Hae Kyung when they don't want it. I was glad that by the end of the episodes this week, both held strong and refused to fall back onto old patterns and it was extra sweet that the two found this strength by thinking of each other. Do Hee and Hae Kyung have the same easy and sweet chemistry that Ha Jin and Jung Hoon had in Find Me In Your Memory and that's what I love about this show. I do wish that instead of Hae Kyung saying that Do Hee is the type of woman that makes him comfortable enough to ramble on with that the show would actually show it cause it feels like Do Hee talks the most about herself whenever they meet up. I had wondered if maybe the show would put them together through a fake dating scenario where they used each other to keep their exes away but I kind of prefer them just falling quietly instead though it's crazy that the two still don't know who each other are. It's especially interesting cause we seem to have given up on Do Hee wanting to cast Hae Kyung in her show.
Good Casting (12/16): Baek Chan Mi is a legendary agent for the National Intelligence Service. However, due to an excessive operation, one of her subordinates passes away. After this incident, she takes back all hope of returning to the field when she gets an order to go undercover. She begins working as a secretary for Ilkwang Hitech under the name, Baek Jang Mi. She is joined by a single mother, Im Ye Eun, who has the beauty of a girl group member, and Hwang Mi Soon, a housewife of 18 years whose family believes her to be an insurance salesperson. These three women begin to work together. Meanwhile, Ilkwang Hitech’s CEO, Yoon Seok Ho, knew Chan Mi as his tutor and had a crush on her. He can’t help but think that his new secretary, who looks exactly like his first love but has a different name and age, is a bit suspicious.
What was fascinating this week is that things are finally moving along and plot points that I've been waiting 10 episodes to see are happening! As it turned out Ye Eun was playing her blackmailers and had told the team the truth so they were able to follow the mole all the way back to Director Seo and were able to arrest him. Hwa Ran dumped him and turned to Director Myung but the weirdest part of all this is that we still don't know what Hwa Ran wants or what Myung wants and though that should bug me, it's not exactly the mystery that's keeping me around so I don't particularly care. Ye Eun also found out that Chan Mi was the team leader when her husband died but I was glad to see that she didn't jump to conclusions immediately and assume that Chan Mi was a traitor especially after finding out it was Director Seo himself who led her charge and that threw up red flags. Unfortunately it's one step forward two steps back with our crew so of course the minute Chan Mi got the video from Tak of Michael killing Chul Woong she lost it by being shot and Seo was murdered. I think we're supposed to assume that Ok Cheol is Michael but part of me is still like well maybe it's Min Seok after all. In other news Seok Ho found out that Chan Mi was his first love and that she's part of the NIS and I'm fairly certain both have basically accepted that they love each other and my poor heart is like but Gwan Soo! I did like the reveal though that Chan Mi actually was sent to this team to root out the NIS mole by the higher ups so from now on we will be fighting Michael, Myung, Hwa Ran and Ok Cheol with the entire might of the NIS who are officially on the good side!
Mystic Pop Up Bar (6/12): “Mystic Pop-Up Bar” is based on a popular webtoon of the same name and tells the story of a mysterious pojangmacha (outdoor drinking establishment) run by a prickly woman and an innocent part-timer who visit customers in their dreams to help resolve their problems.
We're about halfway through this drama now and I'm still waiting to find out more about the past which really is the only part of this drama that I find interesting! I said last week that Gwi might be the reincarnation of the Prince that Weol Joo was in love with and after this week I'm almost completely certain of that being the truth. We met a new character this week who went by the name Won Hyung and he was the Prince's best friend in the past but he clearly wasn't happy that the two were in love so either he was in love with Weol Joo and pissed that she loved the Prince or was pissed that a commoner would fall for the Prince but either way he definitely led to her death. In the present day it seems like he escaped from the Afterlife and is after Weol Joo again cause he was watching the trio in anger and said something about how it's been too long and he addressed it to the Prince which means that either Gwi or Kang Bae are the reincarnation but once again the relationship Weol Joo has both of these men is completely different so if I had to pick between the two it'd be Gwi. This is especially true cause it was obvious this week that Gwi is in love with Weol Joo and it's becoming clear that she's starting to feel the same way. I mean it's totally possible that we'll go the Hotel De Luna route with the whole thing and force Weol Joo to chose between her old love or her new one but just the fact that Gwi has amnesia makes me think otherwise. Kang Bae and Yeo Rin had a lot of cute moments too and she's into him though she's totally pretending she's not!
My Unfamiliar Family (2/16): Is blood thicker than water? Kim Eun Hee, is about to find out. She is the middle child in a family that is slowly starting to drift apart. Her older sister is a former patent attorney, and her younger brother is a sensitive soul. And although her father is hard-working, he is often distant – an attitude that has her mother poised to begin a new chapter in her life. While she pines for intimacy, Kim Eun Hee keeps her feelings hidden from her family. Instead, she prefers to confide in her close male college friend Park Chan Hyuk – a man who has become more like a brother to her than any of her real siblings. And it is to him that she turns for love advice as she looks to return to the dating scene after a long absence. But what happens when events take a turn? Could the family pull together in time to weather the storm? And when the going gets tough, will it be Kim Eun Hee’s family or her friends who step up to the plate?
This show seriously feels like a family drama only it's 16 episodes instead of the normal 50 or so which I think will definitely be a good thing cause that means that we'll skip all the filler and focus on all the important stuff. The Kim family is interesting cause I don't think any of them are bad people and they feel like a real family with real problems. Eun Joo is a bit of a bitch and kind of cold in general but her life is sad enough so it's understandable. She's married to a man who's family forced her to leave work and focus on taking care of him and have a baby but it's been years with no luck so the two are mostly living apart. I wondered if she was having an affair with the cafe worker at first but if there is something there it's more emotional than physical cause it's not like her husband is there for her. Eun Hee is sweet but kind of a flake and I'm already so into her future romance with Chan Hyuk who is an angel but at the same time it's like dude you've known this girl for 14 years so at some point you should have confessed! The new VP is real sketch and I'm surprised that she's thinking that there's no red flags with a VP who just met her for the first time and slept with her in the same breath! Ji Woo is the baby of the family and works with Chan Hyuk but I'm not sure if he'll get his own storyline or if he'll just end up being the comedy part of the show. The parents seem nice enough but their marriage has seriously devolved to the degree where the two basically hate each other and it's a fascinating set of circumstances in which he's regressed back to the moment that they loved each other the most and she's left in the same place hating him. I'm definitely on board with this show!
Oh My Baby (8/16): Aged 39, Jang Ha Ri is the ultimate workaholic. She hasn’t even had a boyfriend in the past decade, long ago decided to forget about looking for love, and instead has thrown her energy into her career. However, as she works as a senior reporter for a parenting magazine named “The Baby,” she is constantly reminded of the one thing she wants most in life – to have a baby of her own. She decides to cut to the chase and try for a baby but wants to skip one key stage – and resolves not to marry. But as she turns her mind to single parenthood, she suddenly realizes that she is surrounded by admirers: freelance photographer Han Yi Sang, super-smart pediatrician Yoon Jae Young, and the office newbie, the doting Choi Kang Eu Ddeum. Could any of these three love candidates help Jang Ha Ri in her quest to become a mother? And could her quest inadvertently send her on the path to true love?
As we're hitting the halfway mark in this drama, I'm honestly the most surprised about how this might be my favorite kdrama currently airing cause when it first started, I was mostly meh about this show so the fact that it shot up to the top of my list by continuously getting better is amazing!! Most of this week was spent with poor Yi Sang trying his absolute hardest to stay away from Ha Ri and not go to her like he wanted cause he knew that the thing she wanted the most was a baby and with his inability to have one, he felt like she deserved better than him. I am a little nervous about the fact that Yi Sang still hasn't told Ha Ri about his problems and that they're going to start dating without her knowing when he knows full and clear what she wants. Of course no matter how many times he told her that he doesn't want kids, she still kept coming back but maybe to her there's a big difference between I don't want and I can't have. Part of me still thinks that this show might end with the two of them in love and happily married without kids but the rest of me is looking at the episode count and being like well there's 8 hours to go and I can't imagine that it's all happily ever after. In other news I really wish the show would dial back the amount of screen time Jae Young gets cause he's just the most irritating man-baby and he would absolutely be the worst husband and it's like can you not see that Ha Ri is zero interested in you? At least little Eu Tteum is in his 20s and young so his immaturity makes sense but I also low key don't want him to get with Hyo Joo either cause she's the worst too.
Soul Mechanic/Fix You (20/32): How do you deal with anger? Where does happiness actually come from? These questions are at the heart of Fix You, a touching drama about a quirky psychiatrist on a mission to help people heal, and a rising star whose emotional wounds run deep. Lee Si Joon is an eccentric but passionate psychiatrist working in a hospital. He cares deeply for his patients, whom he tries to help through valiant, yet often unorthodox efforts. Han Woo Joo is an up and coming musical actress. Honest and principled, her efforts on the stage seem to be paying off, but she struggles with anger issues and recurring mental breakdowns that threaten to derail her career. With compassion as his tool, can Lee Si Joon help mend her soul and let the healing begin?
This week was the definition of why doctors and their patients shouldn't date! I mean forget all the ethical arguments and look at it more closely! A patient should not be afraid to tell their doctor literally anything but if you're dating the doctor then you'll hold things back in order not to look bad in front of them. Woo Joo's BPD prevents her from fully trusting a person and especially a boyfriend so the fact that she took one harsh comment from Si Joon and then a few pointed comments from others and decided that Si Joon was clearly over her is like red flags all over the place! When she should have been able to trust her doctor, she couldn't cause her doctor is her boyfriend. It also doesn't help that the one other doctor that could have helped her is low key jealous of the fact that the two like each other and isn't playing fair either. I was kinda glad that Woo Joo broke up with Si Joon at the end cause she definitely is not in the right mind frame to be dating! She needs to deal with herself and her extreme sense of abandonment before she can be a girlfriend but I can't imagine that she or Si Joon can be objective. Maybe she should try being In's patient cause he is the only doctor left that's impartial about this whole thing! Speaking of In, he keeps going back and forth about whether he trusts Si Joon or hates him cause it's like he clearly doesn't want to be in on the games that the Deputy Director is playing but he also has a pretty big inferiority complex about the whole thing too.
Sweet Munchies (4/12): Park Jin Sung runs an odd little late-night restaurant where customers only choose which drinks they want and their appetizers are chosen by Park, who customizes the dishes to match their drinks. His goal is to provide diners with warmth and comfort through delicious food and excellent customer service. Seeing customers enjoy their food also gives him a great measure of happiness. At the urging of one of his regular customers, Park becomes the host of a new variety show called Midnight Snack Couple, which shoots him to popularity and fame. Regular customer Kim Ah Jin is a passionate PD. She usually has a smile on her face and always looks on the bright side. Her optimism is only matched by her love of food and drinking. After working hard as a crew member in production teams for many years, she finally gets her break as a PD when she convinces Park Jin Sung to become the host of her TV show. Kang Tae Wan is a successful fashion designer. He hosts his own fashion TV program and comes to know Park Jin Sung and Kim Ah Jin when he’s brought onto the Midnight Snack Couple variety show as a stylist for Park. As the three work together, they eventually become involved in an atypical love triangle.
Jin Sung is really just digging a bigger and bigger hole every week isn't he?? I really want to enjoy this show cause I really do like the concept of a show where a chef helps people with their problems but more realistically than Mystic Pop Up Bar but I can't help thinking about all the horrible things that will happen in the future! The cute romance between Jin Sung and Ah Jin isn't enough to tide me over and man oh man is it cute but it also makes me feel guilty for shipping the straight couple on a show like this. I mean I really expected Jin Sung to tell his dad and his brother about what he's doing before the show aired but as it turns out his plan is really just to pretend like nothing's happening?? I mean what kind of weak ass plan is that? So he stops his brother from watching Sweet Munchies now but it's not like he can stop him forever! It's going to be so so so much worse when his poor brother finds out what's happening and that it didn't come from Jin Sung's mouth! I also can't help but keep thinking of what will happen when the world thinks that he is gay because of this highly rated show only to backfire when he is revealed to be straight. It's not even like he's bi or pan or anything! It'll definitely destroy all the relationships in his life but it'll also cause CK Productions to be under fire and let's be honest, Ah Jin is one straw away from being fired almost constantly. I do have to admit that it is a little strange how little screen time Tae Wan gets but maybe that'll grow as the show goes on? It was totally irritating that Nam stole Ah Jin's spotlight and became the head PD of a show he hates (cause we all say his low key homophobia at that dinner) and like part of me wants Ah Jin to succeed all the more cause of that but the rest of me keeps returning to Jin Sung needing to back away from all this cause it's wrong what he's doing!
The worst thing about kdrama cops is how much pressure they get from the higher ups and the public to catch a killer cause then they always end up choosing an easy target as a scapegoat after which years later they realize that they were wrong but refuse to believe so cause it'll shame the whole police institution. If everyone would only listen when evidence comes out that things aren't right, so many lives could be saved. I mean of course I don't believe that Tak is dead cause he is a main character but the fact that the cops shot two innocent men will really screw them over later. The best thing about this show is how good the investigations are cause I'm seriously so impressed by both Kang Ho and Moo Young! I love that neither is smarter than the other and that they manage to hit the mark in terms of a mystery every time. The case this week was a little hard to follow but from what I can gather, Dr Jang who died 7 years ago was the real butterfly killer which is why the killings stopped back then but the recent killing has to do with Dr Jang's brother and his current girlfriend who killed that doctor probs cause of personal reasons. Meanwhile Kang Soo was murdered by a gang and framed to look like it was the butterfly killer so that the gang who works with the Mayor can be free. Of course there's other shenanigans going on but that's the main point. I really feel for poor Min Ji who practically threw himself at a gun cause he realized that he had lost his mother years back and now he lost Tak even though we know he'll be fine!
CDRAMA
Fake Princess (6/27): So what if she loves money, don't all mountain bandits love money? For a chest full of gold, the mountain bandit offers herself up to the black-bellied prince thus marking the start to a beautiful romance. Chang Le was once a free and untamable female bandit. However, she becomes a fake bride in marriage to crown prince Li Che. Stepping into the confines of the palace, Chang Le finds it difficult to adjust after being repeatedly humiliated. Despite her situation, she learns to adapt like a feral cat showing her true stripes. Li Che who has traced every step vigilantly finds himself gradually attracted by Chang Le's liveliness. Each wearing a mask to hide their own motives, the two people find comfort in each other.
This show feels like it was tailor-made for me! You know how much I adore cdramas that start with an arranged marriage and turn into true love and that's exactly what we got here! I mean yeah there's a whole bunch of politics involved but honestly it's simple enough that I'm not struggling to follow them! It's also hilarious how quickly Li Che fell in love with Chang Le cause it's like boy did you even try to hate her? He was seduced from the moment he saw her half-dressed in his bed! I actually really love that because Chang Le is herself and not Liu Yu Yao like she's supposed to be that we won't really have to deal with her torn loyalties between the man she loves and her family though of course the Lius have her real family in bondage to blackmail her. I have a feeling that once Li Che finds out the truth, he'll actually be happier than expected and once he saves her real family, they can be happy. I don't imagine that regardless of what happens that the Lius would ever reveal that Chang Le is not their daughter in public cause that's definitely cause for the Emperor to kill them. It's also a lot of fun seeing Chang Le outwit everyone around her cause she's not the naive female lead that most of these types of dramas have so whenever someone tries to make her look bad, she's always a few steps ahead. I also love that even though Li Che was commanded to seduce Yu Yao by his grandfather that his closest friends are not convinced for a second cause the man is head over heels. The only thing that I don't particularly care about is the other romances in this show between Sun Mo and Nongying or the 5th Prince and Yan'er cause although practically every couple is set up to be the same Romeo/Juliet scenario, I can't find myself caring that much about them.
Love Is All (23/26): Tang Ling Yin is the quirky daughter of a wealthy family whose life becomes entangled with county magistrate Tang Tian Yuan. He is sought after by many for being handsome, well-mannered and having an impressive family background. The two start off on the wrong foot yet eventually join hands to solve a case.
Why does every cdrama follow the same pattern? Is there some sort of unwritten notice that they all need to have their couple go through a period of time in which one lies to the other about not loving them in order to protect them? It's exasperating cause it's like after every life/death situation they've been through, all it takes is a few short words in order to completely convince them that actually no everything was fake. It also doesn't help that I was already irritated enough with Tian Yuan's fiancé showing up and the show trying to tell me that he's struggling to set her aside. It sucks that it seems that in this world, a betrothal is all but marriage anyway and there's no way to break it up. Tian Yuan was almost charged with adultery and it's like no one's married damn! Luckily it was all solved five seconds later and our characters found out that the fiancé was a bad guy too and like I called it, Ling Yin's brother is actually the Queen's brother who accidentally overheard some evil plots which is why they've been searching for him forever. I do have to say that this whole gold hunt has been going on for way too long and like we're still nowhere closer to finding any evidence despite knowing exactly who did what.
The Romance Of Tiger And Rose (18/24): Since birth, a screenwriter finds herself becoming a character in the script of her own creation. However, she is not meant to live past three episodes! Chen Xiaoqian is a writer who poured blood, sweat and tears into creating a big female-centric drama. What could have started filming smoothly quickly turned south because of actor Han Mingxing's reservations about the script. Feeling wronged, Chen Xiaoqian vows to prove herself yet she accidentally gets stuck in a parallel world where her story has come to life. Now known as the 3rd princess Chen Qianqian, she is an insignificant side character with a horrid reputation that is not meant to live long in the story. In order to live, she starts on a road to reverse her fate. She also gets caught in between the arrogant and black-bellied prince Han Shao and the practically perfect Pei Heng.
Wow what a crazy twist of events that have led us to where we are now! Since we're coming to the end of this drama soon it's only natural that we decided to focus on advancing the plot rather than the cutesy character stuff we had earlier in this drama. It is a little sad that we spent so long with Qianqian fighting her feelings for Han Shao so when she finally accepted that she loved him and wanted him and realized that Chuchu wasn't the woman she thought she was, we didn't even get to play around in that fluff cause the plot had to move along! Even though Han Shao gave up his plans to take over the city, Chuchu basically took his place in the story though her motivations for what happened were different and Qianqian worried cause in her original story Han Shao and Chuchu die fighting each other so she thought that if the story was moving along the way it did in her writing then eventually Han Shao's death would happen too. She tried saving Chuchu's best friend and when at first glance it didn't seem like it worked, she divorced Han Shao and pretended like she never loved him in order to get him to safety but unfortunately she forgot that Han Shao was only safe cause he was acting like a kitten in love around her and once she let him go, his anger would rise. I'm not too worried in terms of plot cause I'm sure that Han Shao will figure out that she was lying to protect him and it's possible they die together like in the original writing to bring Qianqian back to the real world but part of me is hoping that this is all a fakeout in order to catch Chuchu red-handed cause we literally just had a conversation between the two before this all happened about how Qianqian and Han Shao shouldn't lie to each other and make decisions together.
xoxo Allie
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