Ep 17-18: I almost forgot what a fine actor Ji Hyun Woo is. He was excellent in these episodes. The pacing is also still going surprisingly well and she is cute as the "country bumpkin".

This drama has a 9.8 rating on Viki, and I just don't understand why. I dropped it after 2 episodes because I dislike the FL's mannerisms. It's just not a prototype I enjoy watching. I also thought it was a cop out on the whole "FL is handicapped" story, as it almost immediately "fixed" the FL's handicap, and it seemed that the "redo" would fix things for both leads.

The one thing I did really like, which almost tempted me to keep watching - the ML and the 2nd ML. Really liked both of their characters and the actors. Oh that this were a BL drama! I'd watch it for sure.

This site only reviews Kdramas, which is too bad because among the churned out same-old-same-old mediocre crap, there have been some excellent Cdramas this year, including Will Love in Spring, which actually has a handicapped FL who is strong, smart, independent and very likeable - both she and the ML are flawed individuals, but the drama does a wonderful job exploring their imperfections and making them sympathetic, understandable, relatable and likeable.

Then there was Blossoms in Adversity, another drama with a powerful and highly likable FL, and - gasp - constant communication between her and the ML!! Every potential misunderstanding was immediately brought up and discussed. If a separation followed, it was a deliberate, understandable decision made after communication, and lasted until they realized by a subsequent event that the fault/flaw was forgivable compared to life without the other. And THAT was also immediately communicated to the other. Refreshing!

Not only was the FL powerful, but it was a drama about an entire family of women who had to become strong and independent after the men of the family were banished.

This year has been a weak one for Kdramas so far, though. In My Opinion, of course. I haven't been impressed with anything in 2024, and have dropped almost everything I've started. Some were good until the very end, when - the fatal flaw of Kdramas - the writers just couldn't "stick the landing." Too many last-minute crises that detracted from the main storyline and caused a rushed ending, and/or too many unresolved, unexplained and/or inconsistent storylines at the end (The Midnight Studio). Or - for me personally - unlikable and/or boring lead characters (Queen of Tears) or bad acting (ML in Doctor Slump). Or so many repetitions of the same scenarios that I am SMH over why they didn't make an interesting and non-repetitive drama with fewer episodes (Missing Crown Prince - seriously, how many times have we seen the catch-escape-recatch-re-escape scenario repeated now?? And I heard it's 20 episodes. Should have been 10).

I think this is just going to be a mediocre year of Kdramas.

That's how I've gotten a lot of my recs! I somehow hadn't even heard of "Like Flowers in the Sand" before running this tally, and it's currently in our top 25 (the 3rd most popular new drama). It's getting added to my watch list!

This is such a cute cast. I remember Bong Jae Hyun as Eun Ho, Eun Gyeol's adorable hyung. Lots of goodwill from his role on that drama.

I wonder the same too

I'm gonna try this one more time.

@dncingemma @oldawyer @al118 @marysadanaga @Nefret @michelleb @Gremlich @stove @Mjcsfla1 @dorotka

For sure. It surprised me how much I hated it. I just didn’t expect it from him but should have guessed that in KDs, that’s a lazy way to signal irritation and impatience (but also entitlement and general jerk behaviour).

His tone of voice was shocking wasn't it!!

Hmm...while waiting for my other comment to come out of moderation, I would like to express my continuing affection for this drama!!

Episode 15-16 Notes
I'm sorry, but Im Soo-hyang was simply adorable chanting and hawking her wares on the street during Ji-young's "acting debut." I wanted to find it horrible and cheesy, but she was clearly having so much fun that I couldn't help but get swept up in it!! Also, when Ji-young couldn't decide between helping a very drunk Pil-seung and her tteokbokki...priceless.

Also, 우리 Do-jun is in all the dramas right now, it turns out! He's playing Ki-baek's younger self in Frankly Speaking and I see that he's gonna be in Chase and Connection!! So nice.

Also, with the original title of Beauty and the Devoted I can't say how happy that (a) the "full amnesia" plot has actually ended with the alacrity we have come to expect from our writer-NIM; and (b) that Pil-seung's desire to fully dote on Do-ra is simply aggressively adorable. I look forward to him taking care of her from a distance--even though I know the plot will move on sooner rather than later.

Lastly, Do-sik and Myeong-dong are back in the same orbit!! And now how they'll have to get to know each other again...oh, and he's a fallen man. I just hope the script she ends up writing isn't the script of BMR. That's a tired trope to me, I'm afraid.

PS: We have a new set! Ma-ri's mom's clothing store! I am looking forward to any/all hair-pulling that may happen there.

PPS: I wouldn't mind if Linda Kim becomes a new, spicy-salty character for Jin-dan, someone who doesn't get dropped suddenly like that lady newscaster in LYOL...

Haha, Prince Flight Attendant. Definitely not a reason for me watch, but Lee Chae-min - who stole the early scenes in AoS 2. And Sun-jae was the only character I cared about in Crash Course. It releases all at once, so it should be easy to figure out how watchable it is quickly.