My wife is the real Kdrama nut, I think she’s on her way to the point where she’s literally watched everything. I’m more picky and join her when something catches my interest. And it’s turned out to be a Netflix original nearly every time, so I am, through no fault of my own, a corporate shill.
Cheesy romance wise, I probably best liked Crash Landing on You. First of all the sheer production value pulling off the concept, and second of all the drama doesn’t spend its entire run in the comfort zone of “will they? won’t they? can they? can’t they?” that 90% of dramas seem to wander around endlessly up to episode 15.9. At some point the ML and FL just… get together and do couple stuff while the crazy plot goes on around them, I say that’s a seriously underrated feature. The show’s weak point was the villain who at every point was exactly as menacing and resourceful as he needed to be: one moment he can teleport anywhere, follow anyone and summon infinite henchmen, the other moment he fumbles all his advantages and comes inches from death. It’s clear the action and intrigue weren’t the main focus for this show, and were used more as enablers for the star-crossed lovers to act out their story. Also I will never get over how the filming for this show involved two actors who were totally into each other and trying to hide it, playing two characters who were totally into each other and trying to hide it. I can just imagine the crew sitting there and thinking “wow! This is really believable acting!”
Intrigue wise – I’m tempted to say “Defendant” just because of the insane opening theme and the ML’s memetic rage (“CHA MIN-HOOOO!!!”) but the one that comes to mind is the recently-released “The Glory”. It is basically a sprawling and visceral revenge plot; a bunch of assholes being set up to destroy one another by the person who they wronged, where the lead asshole puts up a fight and you always have this suspense of “who thought X+1 steps ahead this episode”. In that respect it’s similar to the non-Korean Revenge (2015) starring Emily VanCamp (but thankfully avoids that show’s profound seasonal rot, which culminated in a final season built on the premise that the one character whose death set the entire show in motion was actually alive after all – I feel no shame in spoiling that). A similar and even grittier experience is “My Name”, also a brutal revenge story that invites you to guess the twist between one gut punch and the next.
WTF-wise I recently watched “The Interest of Love” and could not look away from it, like a terrible car accident. I don’t even know what to call it, the negative inverse of a love story maybe. When I grow old and forget every other kdrama I will still remember the FL from “The Interest of Love” and her pithy, soul-destroying one-liners. At some points I remember clapping and cheering at the particularly cruel ones as a defense mechanism. I don’t have the words to articulate the gaping hole at the core of this drama where a heart should be; maybe I can say the big emotional idea is kind of like the Basic Instinct movies – deep down the ML knows he is being slowly eaten alive but he won’t walk away, he can’t walk away, deep down in a perverse way he wants this and needs this, and so do the writers, the lord have mercy on their souls. It was certainly an experience, a piece of impossibly sour candy.
Sci-Fi wise I fondly remember “Sisyphus”. It’s the mirror image of “Crash Landing”: The love story is nothing to write home about, but the surrounding plot, wew lad. There’s time travel and an evil future at war with the present, basically like a more intelligible version of Nolan’s TENET. I can barely remember any of it now but at the time I remember being decently impressed with it, and that’s after reaching a point where I felt I’ve already seen every kind of sci-fi bullshit and nothing could impress me anymore. I particularly liked how they skirted around the whole issue of “how do the people with time travel not just stomp over all the obstacles in their path”, which to my taste was disastrously handled in e.g. “Signal”.
Okay I want you to review all the netflix kdramas from now on because your descriptions make me understand much better if I’m likely to enjoy it. Thank you for the detailed response!
Have you seen Mystic pop up bar? Or tomorrow? Both are about the after life. Mystic pop up bar is more fun and lighthearted, any romance is very much a B or even C plot.
Tomorrow definitely delves into societal problems and Japanese history more because it’s about souls trying to stop suicides. No romance.
Have you seen Mystic pop up bar? Or tomorrow? Both are about the after life.
Welp. Out with it, I guess: I have extreme fatigue with the urban fantasy “myth and legend is TRUE but in an ordinary and relatable way! What if Zeus was one of us, just a slob like one of us…” concept. I don’t know who to blame / give credit for kick-starting this ubiquitous trend; Probably the origin fission event was the early 2000s releases of Gaiman’s American Gods and Square / Disney’s Kingdom Hearts video game, and the critical threshold was crossed with Once Upon a Time. Back then the idea floored me and I couldn’t get enough of it, now I feel I’ve drunk my fill of it for a lifetime. Whatever remaining capacity for this stuff I had – “but what if it’s really funny and really clever and really profound and everything you like in a show, huh, what then?” – was taken care of by The Good Place. So, I’m sure those are very good shows, I’m just the worst person you could ask to appreciate them.
Haha I have seen those and I’m not sure I agree these kdramas really fit into that theme, I’d closer classify it to something like Supernatural than American Gods but fair enough and I trust you know enough to know what you don’t like! And I suppose Supernatural could even be in that category for you too lol. I guess what I mean is the mythos is background noise, just a setting and tool to explore the characters and their relationships. But yeah, that’s just me rambling not trying to convince you otherwise sorry.
The Good Place is fantastic and I’m glad you experienced that!
Sci-fi is a genre of K-drama I’ve never engaged with, but your description of “Sisyphus” has me intrigued! I’ll have to check it out next time I’m on Netflix.
Sisyphus is really great. You should also check out Alice (not to be confused with Alice in Borderlands) on Netflix. It’s also a time travel series but its true strength comes from its characters and all the different story threads coming together (which reminded me of the first season of Heroes).
Cool, thanks for the rec! I love when series do a good job of bringing multiple story threads together in a satisfying way.
I mean… does Squid Game count? 'cuz it’s fucking based.
I haven’t seen it yet! Was it actually good or just trendy?
The trend was safely justified
This is accurate.
I do think it was a little overblown though, in the sense I think it was so new for western audiences to enjoy anything foreign so that may have amplified some of it. Like it was good, we gotta convince others to give it a chance despite being foreign.
The creator spent I think like 10 years writing the story before it got made? It’s not like many netflix series in that regard.
It’s a shame he did not really earn that much from making it tho. One of the reasons that Korean producers of such shows don’t want to work with Netflix.
One of the main things that hyped it up was that we were on lockdown because of Covid. Nothing to do but look for some entertainment at home. Thankfully we had this show and crazy ass Tiger King.
Really good
It’s amazing. Very worth watching!
I started watching it because I wanted to see what the hype was about, but I was instantly impressed by just how good it was. The writing, acting, direction and themes are consistently strong, and while the ending was a little strange, it’s overall phenomenal.
Just trendy. Alice in Borderland (Japanese) was a million times better with a similar story but somehow less hype.
I get your point but nah, I think both of them are great. Yet I do like Alice in Borderlands more. Squid game is still a great show that is totally worth watching.
Worth watching, but only watch in English if you think you can get over the dubious dub. After a few episodes it mostly stops bothering you, but it’s probably better to watch in Korean with subtitles if you’re sensitive to that.
Crash Landing on You (2019) has like every single romantic comedy trope and it was still fun. Kingdom (2019) was also good. It was a fresh take on zombies and suspenseful, but season 2 left on a cliffhanger and season 3 is in limbo.
edit: I forgot Mad for Each Other (2021)! Another mostly romantic comedy about a guy with anger issues and woman with delusions as neighbors. It’s quirky and quick paced. (tho TW for past domestic abuse.)
The Glory really had me hooked the whole way.
I had to scroll way too far to find this. I loved this show and can’t wait for more.
Not a lot but the wife and I enjoyed Attorney Wu and Alchemy of Souls. Simple storyline and sometimes unpredictable.
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Alchemy of Souls has such a good soundtrack!
Descendants of The Sun still have a special place in my heart. Had a great soundtrack, and the chemistry was just fine wine.
Reply 1988. It’s on Netflix.
Can you explain what you liked about it or what makes it good?
I think I can relate to it personally. I am from that part of the world.
City Hunter is awesome.
What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim is probably my fave.
Witch’s Love is so cute ☺️
Train to Busan
It’s the only Korean drama I’ve watched. I guess it’s technically a zombie/horror movie but I would argue that it’s still pretty dramatic and should count as a drama.
Juvenile Justice was really great, but it’s hard to say why without getting into spoiler territory. Let’s just put it down to overall character development.
Everything that Bong Joon Ho has ever made. I’ve recently watched Mother (2009) and Memories of Murder (2003) and after watching these, including Parasite, I’ve got to say he is one of my favorite directors. He is just amazing.
Also I’ve got to say that some of my favorite movies are korean movies. They got some amazing horror movies like I Saw The Devil. I’m going to continue watching them as they are amazing at what they do.
The Glory
Pachinko was really good. Kingdom is awesome too.
I haven’t watched many but I really enjoyed Kkondae Intern. Also the Korean version of Designated Survivor which I think was better than the US.
The Man From Nowhere gets my vote.
Parasite, Train to Busan, and classic Oldboy are other great ones off the top of my head
