Harder still that it wasn’t just the writers imagination, but inspired by reality. 😢

Very true starting off one didn’t expect the chemistry to be this electrifying. ⚡😀 Of course the heightened emotions increased the impact.

I used the ffwd button a lot on that as well until I eventually dropped it.

What a great pick!! She’s definitely one of my favorite FLs of the year, too. I really like your analysis of her character.

#2023 Roundup

Here are the dramas that I watched in 2023!

Before making the list, I thought I wasn’t going to have a lot of dramas because I couldn’t really recall what came out this year besides my fave Call It Love, but I guess it’s due to the fact that I rewatched a lot of dramas this year and watched more Cdramas as well.

2023 K-dramas:

-Love To Hate You ⭐️
-Crash Course in Romance ⭐️
-The Glory with my dad ❤️
-Call It Love ❤️❤️
-See You In My 19th Life ⭐️
-King The Land ⭐️
-Black Knight (w/Dad) ⭐️
-D.P. Season 2 ⭐️

-My Lovely Liar ⭐️
-My Dearest ❤️



Past K-dramas:
-Shooting Stars ❤️
-Romance Is A Bonus Book ❤️
-Recipe For Farewell ❤️
-If You Wish Upon Me ⭐️

-Dali and the Cocky Prince ❤️❤️
-Anna ⭐️

Rewatched:

-When The Weather Is Nice ❤️❤️
-Business Proposal ❤️
-While You Were Sleeping ❤️
-Into the Ring ❤️
-Once Upon A Small Town ❤️
-My Holo Love ❤️



C-dramas:

-Hi Venus ❤️

-Meet Yourself ❤️❤️
-The Love You Give Me ⭐️
-Lighter and Princess ⭐️
-Hidden Love ❤️
-Here We Meet Again ⭐️
-Under The Skin ❤️
-Fake It Till You Make It ⭐️
– When I Fly Towards You ❤️
-Unforgettable Love ❤️
-Forever Love ⭐️


J-dramas:
-From Me To You ⭐️

-Hold My Hand At Twilight ❤️


I really struggled this month to watch anything! I started a bunch of things as it was easier to start dramas, but I wasn’t good at finishing them. I still have like 2 dramas that I need to finish, but I haven’t pressed play on them in a while. I also have some that I want to start, but it’s been tough this month so hopefully I’ll get excited to watch something when I started reading all the Beanie’s Roundup posts!

-Unforgettable Love: So I totally forgot what this was about until I looked it on MDL, lol. It’s about this CEO who has a child that had a traumatic past and won’t talk or go to school because he is wary of people, but the boy takes to liking a physiologist who, of course, the dad falls in love with and starts a contract relationship with. Honestly, this is like the 3rd drama that has a cute kid in it and I feel that it’s cheating because who doesn’t fall for the cute “look how cute we look as a family” trap.

-Once Upon A Small Town (Rewatch): I really needed something cute in the middle of the month, so I decided to rewatch this drama and I think I liked it more the second time around. It’s short, doesn’t stray that much from the main couple, and feels cozy (and also suffocating) in the small town that I don’t mind the parts I didn’t like the first time round, which weren’t a lot, but included the mean aunties always calling her an orphan and the return of the ex.

-My Holo Love (Rewatch): I saw on DB that someone had recently watched this or was recommending it and I remember that I liked this the first time round. I needed something familiar so I decided to rewatch it, except I forgot everything about it so it felt like the first time, lol. I really enjoyed it, but the story on how she fell for the main lead could’ve been explored a little more, imho.


-Forever Love (Cdrama): I think I saw a reel about this drama and then forgot about it until I heard about it on a podcast. It’s like 30 episodes on YouTube around 10 mins each, so super bingeable. It is not a masterpiece or incredibly good, but you know what it was really entertaining while I did watch it.


-My Dearest: I haven’t watched a sageuk in a while, but I saw the cast and decided to give it a try after the good reviews from Beanies on the first part. I really enjoyed it! I think towards the end, I just wanted it to be over because I needed the answers quickly, but still I enjoyed the ride. For my first sageuk in a while, I liked it a lot. The acting was so good!

I felt like I really didn’t watch much in October, but it was also a busy month! I watched One Piece and loved it! I also started like 3 dramas which I’ll finish in November. I’m excited to deep dive into the dramas I watched this year in December!

– While scrolling through Netflix, I found the variety show Siren and decided to give it a chance just because I liked the premise. I used to be a big Survivor and Amazing Race fan, so a capture the flag show is up my alley. But what I really liked was that they were all lady groups. It’s a contest between ladies from different professions (police officers, firefighters, stunt people, athletes, army, and guards) that need to guard their flag in their base. It got a little rough at times, but these are all strong women so it was entertaining to watch. 

– When in the mood for something cute, I turn to Cdramas because somehow they always have a new high school/college drama that has the cute I’m looking for. When I Fly Towards You is a drama that fit the category of cute enough and had likable characters that I really enjoyed it and was not overwhelmed by the sweetness (because sometimes they are too cute that bleh I can’t take it lol). 

– Instead of watching Doona (which I guess was a good idea), I opted to watch Anna because I heard it mentioned on DB. It was definitely an interesting story and I thought Suzy did a good job, but I still can’t decide if I liked it or not. I was entertained, so I guessed I enjoyed it, but it’s still hard for me to fully commit to admitting to liking it when I’m not sure if I did. Also, I just found out there was a director’s cut, and I can’t tell if I watched that version or not.

I can’t believe that it’s almost the middle of the month and I’m barely writing about the dramas I watched last month. I don’t think I would remember them if I hadn’t written them down! I always write these drama reviews mostly for myself, so that I can look back at my year quickly in my fan wall. This time I’ll leave a note for myself: Future me, please tell me you exercised and moved! I’m currently laying in bed not feeling well, not new, but still, please tell me you made an effort. Not all things can be controlled, but your attitude can make the difference. Fighting!

-D.P. Season 2 was a hard watch just like Season 1. I watched it with my dad and I guess we can say that it was well made. Somehow it feels hard to say that something is good or that you liked it, when it was really sad and violent. The acting was top notch as was the cinematography and such, but I don’t think I’ll be rewatching.

-Hold My Hand At Twilight is a Japanese Drama someone in DB recommended to me. I really liked this drama! I don’t watch a lot of Japanese dramas only because I don’t really hear of them, but this one was lovely. The ending was rushed, but I forgive it.

-My Lovely Liar was okay. At first, I liked the premise and where I thought the story was going to go. Yeah, they were cute, but then I got bored and I just finished it because there was nothing else to watch. And this is why I don’t live watch lately, lol. The finale was okay, like I’m totally down for a supportive couple that communicates, but the way they wrapped up some of the threads, like the parents, made me shake my head.

-Fake It Till You Make It is a modern Cdrama that got recommended in DB which I really liked. It was hitting a little to close to home in a really far out way though. I am currently struggling at work and just the work life balance, so it was hard to see them pull all nighters and risk their health with their job, which is the total opposite of me because I clock off when my time is done, but I just keep thinking about it afterwards and at night, but still could totally relate, hehe. Anyways, I don’t have to dress up to work, it’s very casual, so at least I don’t have to wear makeup everyday like she does in the drama. Putting that outside, it was a very good drama on the modern ways of young, single people.

I always write about my dramas at the end of the month, and sometimes it’s been so long that I don’t even remember what they were about, lol.

—King The Land was alright and just that for me. I watched it at a fast speed just to get it over with towards the final episodes. I hardly drop dramas and I just like finishing them, so that’s why I kept watching this one. The ending was lovely, but yeah it was kind of boring. I kind of want a little bit more from my poor girl with chaebol pairings.
-I am blanking on Here We Meet Again.. okay I looked it up. This one was also alright. It had some moments, but I was so frustrated on how much they didn’t talk things through. They always got jealous and misunderstood things and just got mad at each other like that was going to solve everything. At the end, it was obviously a drama ppl for the gps system they created, lol. I think I would’ve liked it more if they just had more communication, humans need it too and not just the satellites, haha. -Black Knight was a quick drama that I watched with my dad, so watching it with him made it even more fun. I couldn’t get over the fact that they were smoking in a land that was lacking oxygen, my lungs hurt just watching them! But 5-8 was a looker which is why I started this drama, and he had some good scenes. Overall, it was okay for the dystopia genre.
-I haven’t watched a procedural drama in a while and Under the Skin did a good job at keeping me entertained and wanting to watch it more. I was so amazed at the drawings and police sketches that the main lead created. I kept thinking how they solved previous cases without him, haha. I would watch another season if it came out!

– Hidden Love came highly recommended as cute drama which was what I wanted and received! I really liked the progression of their relationship. I’m always ready for a drama of two people that talk things through and lift each other up which I think this did exactly that. Dating the younger sister of your best friend is a little weird, okay a lot weird if I really stay on this thought, but I feel that towards the end I got over it and just saw them as a 20 something year old dating a college student. Maybe I’m blind or maybe just too tolerant, but I didn’t really see anything too bad. Lol it sounds like I’m defending myself, oh well haha. I can see both sides, but for now I’ll just say I enjoyed the love story without the background nonsense lol.

– Lighter and Princess was a pretty interesting drama which I started seeing as it was highly rated on mdl. To be honest, I didn’t like it as much as the other ones in this list. I think Lighter was too much of a bad boy, lol. I think bad boys are fun, as long as they are kind to their girls, but he was also just kind of mean to her. Princess had like 2 emotions which bugged me because I really couldn’t understand why she was so attached to Lighter. In the end, it was a different kind of drama so I still enjoyed it, but I think I could rant a while on why I wished it was more and better lol.

– Dali and the Cocky Prince was the drama of the month for me! I loved it! I had so much fun watching it and I found that I really liked the romance in it too! People do need humor in their life and it’s way more than finding someone that is exactly like you with the same likes! It can also be about someone that challenges you and lets you be who you are. Thanks to beanie who recommended it!!)

– See You In My 19th Life was pretty fun especially when it was heading towards the end, but sigh that ending. Out of KTL and this one, I always reached for this one first because the premise was more interesting. I always say it, but some dramas that are 12 episodes need at least one more episode to be tied up well. I liked the vibe of the story, music, and pace, but that last episode just made me pull my hair. Why does it seem so obvious to the whole world that she could’ve just forgotten her lives, but still be in the same place and same job, but the writer was like nope, she goes back to her old life and no one questions her and we neither find out where she all of sudden got a house because she doesn’t live with her niece anymore. So many dumb things like that don’t make sense.

Tell us more: what did you love about your July dramas? Which one(s) made you want to stay awake all night to keep on watching? Which one(s) felt like a soft and gentle hug to your heart? Which one(s) made you forget the July gloom momentarily?

Sorry to hear about the loneliness, hope that this is a temporary problem and next month is better. Happy drama watching in the meantime.

Since May was such a busy month, I thought I was going to have a lot of time to watch dramas in June, but I don’t know, maybe it was my state of mind or maybe it’s the state of dramas at the moment that I really didn’t want to watch anything. I watched If You Wish Upon Me because it’s been a while since I saw Ji Chang-wook in a drama. I liked it for like five seconds and then it was just a hassle to watch the next episode. Like overall I thought the drama was good, I liked the actors, and acting, and the writing got a little more interesting towards the end when they started resolving threads, but I was just not eager to keep watching. Like I said, I liked the drama so maybe it was just me not being in the mood for a kind of sad drama! I also rewatched While You Were Sleeping, which I remember liking, but not loving. I totally forgot the minor (and some major) plot lines, so I was really interested in watching because I genuinely liked Suzi, Lee Jong-suk, and Jung Hae-in in this drama. The OST was so good too, but it was 2016 and OSTs just hit back then. I enjoyed my rewatch and had a good time with the drama! Still not in my top top faves, but definitely one I can recommend to others. I also rewatched Into the Ring, thanks to the Beanies who posted about it on the Fan Wall. It’s in my top 10 dramas, and I’ve rewatched before already so this rewatch was just me skipping around to my favorite scenes and letting the drama play in the background while I folded laundry. I really like this drama and will probably rewatch again next year:)

I struggled with If You Wish Upon Me. Mostly because I was worried I’d die of dehydration on the spot after emptying myself of all my tears throughout every single episodes I watched!

From Me To You:
I don’t really see many Jdramas, maybe because I don’t hear a lot about them. I think I might’ve heard someone talk about this one, but to be honest, the only reason I picked it up was because I wanted to watch something while I ate and since Viki doesn’t work on my kindle, I scrolled Netflix and this was recommended to me. I liked it, the friendships were great, but it doesn’t really stand out to me. Even now as I try to recall it, I just get the feeling that I was satisfied with the ending, and I guess that is good enough for me since I’ve decided to erase everything else.

The Love You Give Me:
I really like Cdramas because I can go through them very quickly and I don’t feel bad skipping around, I’m just there for the fluff. I don’t think this one had a lot of fluff, but it did have a cute family story of being parents to an adorable child! I think I enjoyed watching it because it wasn’t bad, it just isn’t one I want to rewatch. I liked how everything wrapped up, and I was also satisfied by the ending!

Business Proposal:
I remembered loving and waiting impatiently for new episodes to drop when I live-watched this that when I was in the mood to rewatch a short drama with no stakes (since I already knew what was going to happen) I thought of this drama. I guess I totally forgot everything about it or I was just in the mood for it because what was supposed to be a background show while I was catching up on chores over the weekend, turned into me carrying my laptop around for three days attached to my hip. Not sure if I just wanted to avoid everything going on in my life or it was really good even on a second watch, but I hadn’t binged like that in a while, lol. The archaeopteryx joke does not get old though!! 😂

This time I took notes right after the drama ended, so apparently I have a lot to say, hehe.

The Glory: Watched it with my dad and totally had a blast doing so (we totally skipped the inappropriate parts! lol) (plus I love the fact that my dad doesn’t get annoyed that I’m constantly making comments throughout or laughing out loud). Not big into revenge, but I like how this one was handled. Even before it was mentioned, my dad and I were talking about how she just moved and prodded the pieces (people) a bit, but their fallout was their own. Can’t believe that people can be so cruel. It’s scary to think that we all sort of put a facade on how we want people to see us. I saw the dating news right before the last two episodes, but even before that I didn’t really feel the chemistry, but still it was well done and sometimes that is all you can ask for in a drama hehe

Hi Venus: Sometimes you just need a cute Cdrama and that’s what this was! 24 episodes at like 40 mins each are easy to binge watch especially if the stakes are low and their is a lot of cute thrown in there. With the best friend of the female lead being a romance writer, there were plenty of explanations on tropes and such which made it fun because they also didn’t take themselves too seriously and had fun with the relationship, which honestly was well done and natural. My only question is: why the title? Maybe I missed it but I didn’t see in drama though they are usually so good at pointing out, lol.

Call It Love: Love, Love, Love! This totally made its way into my top ten dramas! I love how everything was handled and I thought the end was satisfying! I hate time skips, but I felt this one was needed. Yeah, I wanted to see them being lovey dovey, but they really needed that time on their own to figure out themselves. Maybe not a year, but they definitely needed to find themselves outside of the hate of her dad and the burden of his mom. And also for their feelings to settle, theirs and their families. Yeah, they loved each other so deeply, but constantly being on edge because of their families connection would put a strain into their relationship, especially all the things they had done for each other at that point. Time away would allow their families to cool down. Not much was needed though which just makes me happy: mom was quick to separate the sins of the parents and child, Jigu was back to being hyung’s bestie, and Hyesung didn’t need that much time either but respected WooJoo’s decision and time. Should they have talked about it before, probably? But that’s what I like about this drama, yeah it’s a drama, but it’s real in that’s how families are. I have the privilege of having both a brother and a sister and though we have a close relationship, we very rarely open up about each other’s relationships. We bicker and fight and laugh together and talk and talk, but it takes a lot for us to go deep deep. Anyways, all that talk to say that I really loved this drama! It hurt good!

Meet Yourself: I loved this Cdrama! It was highly recommended by Beanies and I can see why. The story was full, rich, and ended so well! It made me want to travel somewhere and find out the rich history of a small place, but I would rather just see it on tv, lol. It was a story of friendships, family, and love and it was heart warming as well. I will definitely be looking out for the leads in other dramas if they are highly praised as this one!

Note to self: Write your thoughts right after you finish the drama, movie, or show because your memory is not what it used to be lol😂

-Crash Course in Romance ⭐️- I was excitedly watching this drama and then I said something in DB along the lines of, “No, I trust it. It won’t let me down” so of course it went all whomp, whomp, whomp on me and my excitement dwindled as we got closer to the end. I guess it was so bad that I’ve erased it from my head because I cannot remember how it ended at all…I thought about it a little more on why I didn’t like it: the brother with the best friend big no from me, the villain being the assistant (which we always saw a mile away) that went off the rails and committed suicide..like what?! Also, the daughter/niece plot with her real mom was just so ehhhh and out of character that I didn’t really enjoy the last couple of episodes. I just don’t remember what happened in the drama anymore. Oh well!

-Recipe For Farewell 💕- This one was beautiful and it hit a little too close to home in a couple of ways that it was hard to watch back to back. I would put on one episode every couple of days because I was just curious how the story was going to be told since we already knew the ending. It was lovely and I really enjoyed watching it.

-The Name (K-movie) ⭐️- Viki scrolling for movies led me to this one and I only clicked play because I was curious about Jeon So-min since her Running Man persona is what I always associate her with. I forget that she is an actress that I really enjoy watching and now I kind of want to rewatch Top Star Yoo Baek! I remember that I loved it when I first watched it! The movie was okay for an afternoon when I had nothing to do. It does have a nice ending, but, spoiler, it’s also pretty sad, the usual in a kmovie, right?!

-In the Soop: Seventeen S1 💚💚- I totally have gone down a rabbit hole in the last year of Seventeen content, but only their YouTube channel because I had no idea they had made their own In the Soop (I only found out because the second season just came out!). Never did I think that I would know all 13 members by name, let alone their personality, but here I am enjoying their content.

-Going Seventeen (2020) 💚💚- I have already finished their 2022 and 2021 seasons of their YouTube content so now I am down to the last ones that are subtitled in English. I always put an episode during lunch so I get through them pretty quickly. The boys are funny, and the farther I go back the more I realize that I am staying older while they are getting younger, so pretty soon I’ll go back to rewatching the 2022 season so that we feel the same age, lol. Can never have enough of “Don’t Lie” and I’m so excited for the recent episodes they have been releasing.

Love to Hate You was a quick watch because it had that old school quality, but it wasn’t until it ended and saw comments that I was like, “Oh, yeah huh!”. It was a fun watch, but something did seem off about the tone and “message”. I didn’t pay close attention while watching it though. I wanted something light and this fit the bill at the time. I don’t have really strong opinions about it now, but I would recommend it to my friends, if only to start a conversation on the themes, it would be interesting.

I remember hearing that a movie was made for the Jdrama We Married As A Job, but I finally found it while scrolling Viki. Now, this one I loved because it definitely dealt with gender norm expectations and breaking them in household well. It also talked about marriage, jobs, parenthood, and Covid. All the themes were covered and handled well. It was also a great watch for in between dramas.

I watched so little this month, maybe because February is short, but I also finished a lot in the first week of March.

Shooting Stars was one of last year’s dramas I heard some Beanies talk about, so I decided to check out. I was in the mood for something light and this fit the bill. For me, it was light in the sense that I could pick it up and put down throughout this busy month. I watched it at a good pace and enjoyed the characters a lot. It was a workplace drama with lots of romance, literally everyone had coupled off at the end, but I enjoyed it! It was funny at times and had way too much drama behind one star, but I guess that’s what happens when you are the top star of the country, or so the drama tells us, lol. I’ve never paid that much attention to celebrity news, but now every time something big reaches my ears, I can’t help but think about the PR team behind that star, hehe.

Romance Is A Bonus Book was a drama my cousin recommended to me saying that I would love it, and I did. I liked the the pace and the office friendships and they way they talked about books! I liked the romance, but it wasn’t what kept me in the drama, somehow I could totally see him heads over heels for her, but not so much her. Also, she talked about her daughter like twice and didn’t really mention her so that was kind of odd, but also a good way to not have the child butt in her love lifer right (wow, that was kind of mean of me, but why else have it a plot point that the daughter was shipped off to another country). Either way, I really enjoyed it! I was going through a tough time at work while watching, so in a way I felt sympathetic to Da-ni’s struggles. It was a nice winter drama for me.

This is like my third time rewatching When The Weather Is Nice and that’s a lot since I usually don’t rewatch anything. The vibe is definitely winter, which is probably one of the reasons I rewatch it especially during this time. But also because I really love Eun-seob! His loneliness seems really real. Like having lots of people around you that you love and they love you, but still feel like something is off. I think this time round, I learned to appreciate Hae-won a little. When she left, I finally understood that she needed that space and that Eun-seob always knew that it was going to happen, that she had run away to begin with and it wasn’t were she belonged. I wasn’t that that annoyed by the Bo-young storyline this time, but I still think she is so annoying. This drama has a love for books and writing that makes me happy and how I wish for a family-like book club like in the drama. Glad that I watched it and enjoyed it again!

All fun choices, jellybn!

♥️

So true 5 min of reflection can recharge the batteries. A lot of the busyness of life won’t be remembered or account for much when you look back on this time in a years time. I hope you have something that brings joy come into your life every day.

I think I’m on Dramabeans almost everyday! It’s probably the only other place aside from Insta where I have an online presence, and most of my Insta friends are just family. On Dramabeans, I like to check the fan wall and see what people are loving since most of my drama recs come from Beanies! After a while, I recognized the tastes of certain people and how it totally matches mine, so I tend to look out for what they are enjoying. We also talk about other things and that’s fun as well! I always like the year end Roundup because it challenges me to actually go onto my fan wall and post something. I still consider myself a lurker, but I come out from lurking in December because of a challenge, I love it! I am a very talkative person, once I get to know you of course, but I always find it hard to post anything here and everywhere else. I get so into my head: why am I posting this, will anyone read this, do I want them to read this..etc. I actually started posting on the fan wall as a challenge to put myself out there and make friends online since I was feeling lonely and what a better way than to make friends with people with the same hobby and likes as you, but it’s hard, then and now even though I’m a different person from then. I don’t think it’s hard because of lack of words, but more of time! I am a slow typer and over thinker, so it takes me forever to write out what I want. Lately, I mostly use my fan wall as a drama list of what I’ve watched that year. I like to go back and read where I was a year ago and such. If you randomly see me in the comments and such, it’s probably because I finally had time to sit down and type something out, or I finally bought a laptop and I can comfortably type things out on a big screen and not my phone (I really hope its the latter! ‘Cause this is taking forever to type and I’m cramping up!😅).