LIVE WATCHES
Destined with You (빤짝빤짝!!)
Loving it. Not taking it too seriously. So happy to have some joy in my drama-watching life. Not interested in being swayed from this position.

Moving (두근두근…)
Serious violence. Serious pain. Serious human connection in a seriously super-human world. Serious tragedy ahead, I fear. Would love to be wrong about this last one.

My Lovely Liar (~ 슬슬 ~)
Still so pretty. Not much content. I’m bummed, though, that we seem to be heading into something like, “Season 2: The Crime Drama.” I’d very much rather have had a transition to some sort of episodic lightness centered on the clientele of Loonie’s Tarot Café and the local townsfolk.

FROM THE RESERVES
Mad Dog
It’s incredibly telling to me that the sight of Woo Do-hwan is not keeping me glued to my screen for this one. I’m finishing episode 4 and, I don’t know, I may not actually finish this drama. As a reminder, I very much loved Joseon Attorney, so that’s a, um, data point. If anyone wants to share information about why I should push through on this one, I’m all ears.👂

ON DECK
My Liberation Notes
I’m very much on the fence about starting this recent, famous drama. I’ve been told by trusted sources that watching is a horrible thing to do to oneself, and by these same sources I have been told that I should totally watch it. Given how much I’m enjoying the lightness of DWY…I think this one’s on the back burner for a while. Folks are welcome to tell me why I’m wrong or right about this decision.

Hellooooo Beanie friends!

I binged all six episodes of Behind Your Touch the other day (or, as I affectionately call it, Touch Your Butt) and oh my goodness did I have a blast. It’s ludicrous, it’s absurd, it’s totally whacky and off-the-walls, and I was laughing MY butt off the whole day. Of course, comedy is extremely subjective and I get people not vibing with it. I went into the show knowing it would be ridiculous but unsure it would be *my* kind of ridiculous, and am happy to report that it is. My brain is empty and I got no thoughts up there while watching it, which is an extremely nice change of pace for my anxiety-riddled student brain lol. The village feels so LIVED in with the villagers getting so much screentime, which I so appreciate. No one in this town is normal! None of them! Jang-yeol coming in thinking “everyone here is crazy” and totally missing what a nutjob he is was icing on the cake, ha. Han Ji-min is cute as a button as Ye-bun and I want to put her in my pocket! After the end of ep 6 my only hope is that they manage to not let the serious crime overshadow the crazy comedy. 🤞

Also, my GOD, what business do Han Ji-min and Lee Min-ki have having all that chemistry?! Get these two a proper rom-com STAT. I’m looking at you, Chungmuro. Now that we’ve gone from “byuntae” to “Bong Bong” and him offering up his butt to her, maybe we’ll be getting some romance? I don’t expect anything big, I’ll just be here seated and watching all of their scenes with a big grin on my face. After Heartbeat I don’t have any plans to get emotionally invested in a drama for a while, so it’s nice to have one like this where I’m just here for the laughs. Also, Lee Min-ki is hot. So, like, that helps.

Sorry, sorry, I know for a fact that Beanies are already tired of me talking about this. 🫠

I’m also watching Destined With You and while I enjoy it and got a good kick out of the lines in episode 4, I came away wishing the actors were able to put just a bit more zing into the comedy for it to really come together. Jo Bo-ah and Rowoon are cute and I will definitely be here for more episodes. I really wish Yura would be able to get out of these second female lead roles. Would really like to see her break out of her comfort zone in a crime thriller or something!

Nothing else going on currently in kdramaland, as I saw the first episode of My Lovely Boxer and just could not get into it.

On the Hollywood side I’ve been keeping up with the always lovely Only Murders in the Building and loving it as always. Isn’t it so nice to have a drama with older characters who have fully formed stories and even romances? Along with a healthy dose of murder, of course.

I’ve also been rewatching Severance with @saturtledaisy and @frabbycrabsis, who both haven’t seen it, and it has been such fun!! I love this show and its just-barely-removed-from-our-reality sci-fi and this rewatch is a great way to...

ONGOING
My Dearest - The leads are so good at hurting each other and us. Gil-chae's grieving scene was so moving.

The First Responders 2 - Ep. 7 was not bad even though it was repeating tricks from Hollywood movies. Ep.8 made me yawn again with the return to the chaebol corruption arc.

The Uncanny Counter S2 - Plot holes have turned into craters. How does Pil-gwang taking over make sense? What even is the point of Yung?

Behind Your Touch - The actors are performing these absurd scenes with so much sincerity that I can't help but laugh along. The friend's death felt unnecessary.

My Lovely Liar - The leads are still very cute but I'm feeling the weight of 16 episodes now. This story could easily have been wrapped up in 12.

My Lovely Boxer - I really enjoyed this week. Kwon-sook's story is much more interesting than Tae-young's and it was great to have the focus almost entirely on her.

Moving - Ryu Seung-ryong was so good in the scene at the funeral hall. My heart hurts for both families. All the ANSP people better die gruesome, violent deaths 😤.

Destined With You - The fact that Sin-yu quickly realised he was under a spell only marginally reduced the creepiness of the love potion scheme. There were some laugh-out-loud lines this time round.

C-DRAMAS
Completed When I Fly Towards You. Stayed cute till the end though I'll never get over the lack of comeuppance for mean parents in c-dramas.

Tried the following:

The Legend of Zhuohua (till Ep. 26) - I'm all caught up! It's not doing anything new - in fact a lot of plot points overlap with Legend of Anle - but it's such a relief to see mature, sensible lead characters. The revelation about the princess was great but I'm side-eyeing the 40 episodes.

You Are Desire - Paused at Ep. 3. I thought it was okay but then I saw all the comments about the crazy mom and the ending and now I'm debating whether to continue watching.

Fake It Till You Make It (till Ep.3) - Enjoying this. Reminds me a bit of Win the Future with the witty repartee and realistic office drama.

Sunshine By My Side (till Ep. 2) - The new Xiao Zhan drama. It's a noona (jiejie?) romance and looks fun so far.

Planning to watch My Journey to You.

My Dearest - Did Yeon-jun just send them into another brief life of uncertainty? Man should have taken the ambassadoral post King Injo have him since he's all talks. I wish Eun-ae switches places with him in court.
Jang-hyun and Gil-chae will be the death of me 4 weeks in a row. Tell her it was you at Ganghwa Island? Nope.
If there's anything that happened last week that I loved which wasn't related to the romance, it's Injo acknowledging that Gwanghae was the wiser king. I don't care if that was the writers creative writing. I most definitely agreed with it.

Jang-hyun has to survive, not just in peace but in all pieces. And just for fun and a spoiler alert, I'm guessing Gil-chae will be having a competition with someone when the next half airs.

Gil-chae once again won my attention with the way she earned the respect of the forgers and became their defacto head forge. It wasn't easy but she did it. Are we having a love triangle in the final week of the first half? With a worthy opponent in my books at that.

The Flower Of Evil - Baek Hee-sung/Do Hyun-soo sends shivers down my spine. I don't know how I'll manage to meet Lee Joon-ki's stare in Arthdal Chronicles should he be playing his characters in a way that's similar to this.

The Uncanny Counter - The relationship between Kelly and Ha-na came to an end and I'm left thinking it came too suddenly. Kelly is an interesting character. She was Ha-na's kryptonite. And I found her more interesting than Pil-gwang. They could have just let her go to jail in peace. Why make her fall prey to Pil-gwang.
Pil-gwang overcame the Evil spirit by sneaking behind her back 😂😂😂. It that was a shot at comedy, they got me laughing out loud, literally. I was expecting one crazy battle inside Ju-seok's head only to be given that? Like how.
Mo-tak should really send a snack across Mun's head for letting Ju-seok go a second time when he had him. And now, the feared has occured. Pil-gwang has entered the domain of the evil spirit that possessed Ju-seok. He's only going to get more powerful thanks to the perks he'll be harnessing.
And, let me just say this. I don't know what Jeok-bong is doing here. His fighting is wack. He's more of a liability than an addition whenever a fight ensues. It's like his purpose ends once he sniffs out the evil dudes and he immediately becomes extra weight.

The Crowned Clown - A perfect drama. Just one little minus. I wished Ha-sun was more of Yi Heon whenever he was dealing with the royal court than he was more of Ha-sun. Those officials needs iron hands and Ha-sun's hands were too slapstick for most of the time. Were I the left state councilor, I'd have caught him a long time ago. However, I admit the fact we all know that I could see the power of the throne corrupting Ha-sun. The way he slipped the LSC off his feet when the latter unmasked his identity was both gratifying and scary. I enjoyed the whole process, but I had...

Current/recent:
Moving: The relentless flipping between violence and sweetness and dread is not doing my blood pressure any favors.
My Dearest: Stress! But the best, can’t-look-away, torn-between-fear-and-hope kind of stress.
Destined With You: Better once the FL stopped being 100% sad-sack doormat. Rowoon and the Red Hand are my OTP, though - the FL can have the SML, which would not be “settling” at all. And that was quite the twist at the end of ep. 4.
The Uncanny Counter 2: Paused.
My Lovely Boxer: One episode in; not sure about this yet. Gangster plots are so tiresome but it’s hard to take my eyes off either Lee Sang-yub or Kim So-hye. And any drama that gives donuts a role starts with a point in its favor.

Older shows:
Mood of the Day (2016 movie): Ewww. This is an ugly little “romantic” “comedy” about how fun it would be to be pressured into a one-night-stand with an aggressive pickup artist who corners you on public transportation. I got quite far into it assuming the ML would in the usual way slowly reveal himself to be more complex and less of a slimeball than he first appears, but instead Sex Magic causes total, unsupported personality change the instant the FL agrees (for no discernible reason, other than he's Yoo Yoon-seok) to sleep with him. I wonder: did anyone on the production team ever question what it’s like to be the target of such a jackass? Or did they all secretly think that they’re YYS, and that every woman would love it if he hit on them? I thought I might get over my previously somewhat irrational dislike for him, but this confirmed it instead.

My Lovely Liar (Episode 9-10) - Mood: D
Whether the ex was murdered or not doesn’t really matter: if she’s still alive then she’ll come back like a wrecking ball later, if not there’ll be the whole “he’s a murderer!” nonsense, and we’ll get a final result of the OTP romance disrupted like we’ve never seen before (rolls eyes). As for the cheating wife that came out of left field, well, that’s just masterclass writing right?

Destined With You (Episode 3-4) - Mood: D+
Never did I think that I would be missing the weird bloody hand from the premiere week, but here I am, just sighing at all the mess generated by the love potion nonsense. The 2ML actually had quite some good dialogue this week, but honestly what is the point of all that cohabitation when he’s getting slapped with a leeching parent trope. He’s better away from the story.

The Killing Vote (Episode 4) - Mood: D+
It does feel pitiful to see Kim Kwon playing yet another asshole because he’s clearly getting typecast and it’s kinda sad to see that it’s probably paying the bills for him. Now that the plot has become even more cliche with the past coverup, I think it is safe to turn my brain off and just watch. By process of elimination, it does seem like Ji Hoon is Gaetal? We’ll see.

Moving (Episode 12-13) - Mood: C-
I’m seeing a lot of acclaim for the show but frankly I’m confused by all the praise: this week’s episodes were basically just a rehash of the past two weeks? Even boulder-throwing guy is just a variation on Frank without a traumatic childhood arc. So much setup isn’t great when you know the payoff is going to be boring superpower brawl. And the setup isn’t even finished!

The Uncanny Counter 2 (Episode 9-10) - Mood: D-
For Kang Ki Young and Kim Hieora, this was unfortunately a step down from their previous roles: there just wasn’t any substance at all for their characters and they’ve already played brilliant villains in the past. Anyway, the show is really plagiarising from its 1st season with the formation of the perfect evil spirit. But it’s ending next week anyway so yeah.

Liar
Solhee and Doha are so adorable together! 😍❤️
Hyong, on the other hand, is projecting all his guilt on Doha and is really dangerous. Doha should get some protection.
He also needs more people supporting him, because the ones he has had around him until now are trash, even Deukchan seems to leak info to Mom on purpose (and what is this sudden cheating thread??).

Destined
I'm having so much fun with Destined!! and it's my current feel-good drama before going to sleep. 😊 I'm digging the humour and The Moving Eyebrow compensates more than enough for any lack in acting. 😁
I also love the head manager (Lee Bongryun! ❤️), though I a bit wavered after she was so harsh on Gong in front of the police station.

The Way You Shine
Oh, Taiwan, you and your weak first and last episodes...

Planning to continue with Lost You Forever and thinking whether to check Fake It Till You Make It.

MY LOVELY LIAR—this feels like a throwback in the best way. Something about it reminds me of why I began to watch Kdramas in the first place.

EVOLUTION OF OUR LOVE (CH)—remake of Ariel Lin’s IN TIME WITH YOU with Zhang Rouyun as the other half of the iconic friend pair. I have a soft spot for one-sided love that transforms into reciprocated love, particularly when they are friends first (FIGHT FOR MY WAY, I hear you). Great acting with comfortable chemistry, but the real star is the writing. Wise, thoughtful, and funny as Ai Rouman (Yes, her name is supposed to sound like Iron Man. Hahah) and Lu Fei bumble through life and relationships—as we all do. Seeing ZRY in such a restrained role is delightful because 1. it is so completely different from his other roles and 2. his expressive acting through the minutest facial expressions is a delight to watch.
And ZRY sings an ost!
(for anyone who has seen Sword Snow Stride, the actress who plays the FL is Fair Fox. )

OTHERWISE:

Finishing JOY OF LIFE rewatch. Besides the drama itself, getting to hear the transcendent opening song repeatedly is honestly a highlight of my week.
Five episodes left and I know what’s coming this time. Thank goodness season 2 is in production. I am reading the novel to bridge the gap, which is filling in fascinating details but also making my stomach turn with the blatant misogyny.

Finished ROMANCE 101, an adorable, creative, and thoughtful webtoon. It was a delightful experience from beginning to end, and I never want it to be adapted as a drama (sorry, I am still salty). And I am continuing THIS LIFE TO THE NEXT, a humorous take on the battle between life and death. The King of Hell is a clueless cinnamon roll in love with an oblivious mortician. There is a plot, and good one, but truly this is the best part. :)

It was a busy week at work, so a slow week for dramas. Most of my watches are on pause, but I'll be doing some catching up this long weekend!! 😁

Ongoing:
Destined With You: It's so fun - this week's episodes upgraded my feelings to Love for this drama!! I find Rowoon's take on Shin-yu to be hilarious, plus he's nice to look at. Win-win👍 And I really like Jo Boa - she's funny and relatable, and she cries realistically. The writing has surprised me with how quirky and funny it is. "Get a grip on yourself, Shin-yu!"

Other dramas: still taking my time with Chief Kim and Once Upon A Small Town because I enjoy them so much and don't want them to end. Moving is still on pause while I see how things shake out, but I'll be getting caught up soon. Arang and the Magistrate IS SO FLIPPIN' GOOD. I'll be finishing that this weekend.

CRICKET - ODI World Cup in 2 months and teams are playing late night T20 matches - What is all this - Money talks and money decides.

The atmosphere of a a World cup will build in October itself as now its clear there is no excitement among the host. Those who like n love cricket will make it an event what it really is - Everyone from host to participants are just thinking about making money - It all in the hands of viewers now.

Elections are coming so money has to be ready at one place or other - Let's see Biden's visiting does something or not. I still think huge advertising and campaign will pop up but not to the scale i imagined.

@emily ask beffel what real heartache that was - rarest of the rarest sports finals - and rarest of rarest test match played between New Zealand and England in 2023 Itself.

BUTT TOUCH (Ep 5-6) The extremes between comedy and violence are getting wider. The extreme end to Episode 6 is enough to put this out of the attempted wacky comedy space and into the hard core violent crime genre. The show is getting completely out of balance. It cannot stick to one lane and run with it. It is too different shows running side by side at the same time.

This week will totally lose track of the streamer - - would not anyone notice her disappearance? There is slight inference that Seon-Woo has a dark past so he is a suspect, but in my view the streamer’s overworked and berated assistant is a more likely candidate for her demise. Ok-Hui’s gang continues to impress - - - in fact, if the show was just about this crew it would be highly entertaining surreal comedy like PEGASUS MARKET.

COLD BLOODED INTERN (Ep. 5-6) Episode 5 turned an unexpected corner for me. I thought that the writer would lead us down the path where Choi’s supervisor would find Go a better director than Choi since he is cunning, behind the scenes boss who has the power in office politics. The idea that Go is now conflicted about being a “bad” person, and that Choi only hired her to be that old “bad” person (weaponizing her to clear out her team deadwood), hit a gut punch when Go was suddenly fired for being Choi’s “old self.”

The idea that work family and family family are the same: seniors just want to not feel guilty when they use you for their own benefit is how Choi feels trapped by her situation. Her father’s constant drain on her finances took away her chance for happiness. She turned ruthless to get the career she wanted but sacrificed her own family/kids to become a cold, heartless single woman. She has regrets but at this point not enough to change. The fireworks man gives her an opportunity to change but she does not realize it. This moment was to give us a sympathetic look into Choi’s life, but it did not hit as well as the Go couple hustling part time jobs together, as a team, to keep their family afloat.

The plot to return Go back to the office was clever, but the ending of Episode 6 was a strange red herring probably to infer a new set of work place rules, or perhaps my initial plot twist is correct: Go has taken the other GM position for the guy who was exiled to Busan.

ONE PIECE (Netflix Ep. 1-5) Netflix spent $144 million for an 8 episode season to adapt one of the great, epic anime from the golden era of Japanese animation (which includes NARUTO and BLEACH). The manga started in 1997 and continues to present day. The anime series has more than 1,000 episodes with numerous story arcs. In the mid-2010s I read some of the manga and watched the three year Toonami animation run so I have the premise and background down. For those who do not, Netflix’s first episode may have newbies a little lost, thinking that this is a mash up of Pirates of the Caribbean, the Avengers and cartoon characters. Clearly, the pilot episode used its $18...

Older dramas

Oh my Geumbi
This came up as a recommendation and the algorithm is spot on so far. It’s not one I have heard the Beanies mention so it’s probably just average or goes seriously makjang as the 8 year old child develops dementia. I am only on epsiode 2 and so far it’s my kind of drama.

Live watches

My lovely liar
I was travelling when this dropped and away at a work conference staying at a budget hotel that only gave 30 mins free Wi-Fi so I watched this week’s episodes over the course of a few days. So I missed out on this weeks comments section so rather than have tumbleweed rolling there I will share my thoughts here. It seems to me that I would get the random plot line screenwriter award for these as NO ONE else has come up with these but I want to share them anyway:

Was it just me wondering why people would be out digging in the woods in the middle of the night?

What if this is the body of Eomho, and Eomji’s mum as domestic abuse leading to unintended death if she tried to protect the children when they were young would fit the storyline. It could also be their dad, he probably had some serious debts so could have been killed for not paying up. It makes sense that dodgy people would bury him in the woods.

I still don’t think Emoji is dead I think she is in a unit somewhere drugged up being funded by Doha’s mum as she insisted on saying either he stays as her boyfriend or she will claim he tried to kill her. So it was the best way to shut her up and leaves an opportunity for her to be ‘brought back from the dead’ at some point to shame the politician. We saw this plot line in The Good Bad Mother where the politician happily used this approach on his own daughter.

I think Solhee’s dad has some supernatural powers too that he kept secret from his wife and child. It could be like Solhee that he was burnt when his powers revealed something and he didn’t bother to look into it but just took it on face value and left to live away from the stress of being around people. Not sure if it’s the same skill as Solhee or something else.

Cold blooded intern
They even named one of the episodes womance so my theory is on track to be proved correct that by the end of the drama we will see the women unite to turn things round. Hopefully the parachuted in attractive nephew is going to be the person with influence to make permanent effective change in the company.

I know men like a challenge when it comes to pursuing their love interest but seriously I don’t think rudeness on this scale is attractive regardless of the misunderstanding between the nephew and the workaholic manager striving for directorship. Even when they were strangers she was abrupt.

Cinderellas of midsummer - J drama
This is going K drama route of stretching things out between the main leads with only a couple of episodes to go. It definitely needs a binge watch to deal with the slow progress and challenges along the way.

The date of marriage...