2024 Watch List

I think I just came too late to this drama or maybe it's just the wrong time this year- loved Namgoong Min here, who's really one of the most versatile actors out there- but my mind kept wandering too much and I kept ffwding, and at some point, I had to admit that I had no idea what was going on. I can tell that beneath the tomfoolery, the show was pretty serious about many things, but I just didn't have the patience. Dropped with ( some) regrets.

This turned out to be every bit as charming and sweet as I was promised: both Gong Yoo and Yoon Eun-hye really embodied their characters in ways that you very rarely see in this genre. The only sour note for me was the workplace romance/ power dynamic between Han Gyeol and Eun-chan- it made the bits post the gender reveal extremely difficult for me to sit through. The writing and direction were both so sensitive on the whole, though, that I want to forgive them this.  The three most magical moments for me in this series: Eun-chan curling up to her mother on the night before she plans to tell Han-gyeol about her gender; the entire beach sequence, starting with him turning up at her gate and just- hanging there, PINING; and THE CHESTNUT TRAIL reunion after they break up over the deception/ reveal. The sub plots and the second love track weren't interesting to me at all- I ffwded through most of it. I'm going to park the question about what I feel about the queerness of this show and revisit it after some time has passed, I think. But, on the whole, I see why so many people hold this up as the gold standard in kdrama romance, and you know what? I think they might be right.

ASMR video with the handsomest man in the world; guaranteed to give you a a  good 16 hrs + of sleep. (I watched about 5 episodes and then dropped it, no regrets)

ps. Shin Hyun-been, for the love of GOD, pick a role that doesn't require you to be a wilting wallflower.

I'm not heterosexual enough for the sizzle between Lee Young-ae and Lee Mu-saeng to keep me watching this less than mediocre makjang. Hope they made bank, though. 

This is a series which has something to say rather than something to sell, and that makes all the difference.  While the last two episodes of this mini series didn't blow me away like the first four, the cinematic sensibilities of  screenwriter-directors Jeon Go-woon (Microhabitat, Persona) and Im Dae-hyung (Moonlit Winter)  carry the day- a wickedly funny script that's devastatingly tender in many places, and lovely, intimate and expressive cinematography- these are not people who care much for convention or commercial success, one suspects. Instead, they are just there to make cinema they care about- and hope you do too. 

The script requires the actors to be fearless, and that's exactly what Ahn Jae-hong and Esom are, in their portrayals of these deeply flawed humans, struggling with life, love and intimacy in a cruel world. In the wake of celebrity sex scandals and intense public shaming of individuals who cross a socially conservative society's moral lines, this show feels both like a call out of collective hypocrisy as well as a call-in- to be more compassionate to each other, to accept the imperfect. And nothing is more imperfect than sex, in this series;  it takes desire & sex out of the pristine, sanctified bedroom of love and poreless, hairless, gym-perfected bodies and instead lets it be awkward, messy , often uncontrollable and ultimately- ordinary.  Absolutely unmatched in my memory of recent tv offerings. 

I don't know what sorcery allowed TVing to allow something like this in their line up- they had to know it would NOT be a ratings bonanza-but whatever it is, I'm glad it happened, and cross my fingers that it will happen again.

I was looking forward to this mostly because both leads love playing twisted characters and are good at it- but the first two episodes gave me nothing but third rate action flick vibes. Life is too short to spend it watching boring shows. Dropped with no regrets.

Dull and hopelessly miscast: neither Jo Jung-seok nor Shin Se-kyung are dewy twenty somethings- and with material like this? Dear God. Dropped with no regrets.

ps. Somebody cast Choi Dae hoon & Park Sung-woong in a sageuk together and then come talk to me.

This is not the year for me and Lee Ha nee to connect, unfortunately. I couldn't even make it halfway through the first episode. Might come back to it after a while, but more realistically- probably not. Love that she's taken it to 18% plus ratings without having to starve herself to half her weight. Park Min-young, take notes. 

A funny, smart, surprisingly thoughtful show that exceeded all my expectations and then some. It has amazingly good female characters, a rollicking pace, plenty of Wodehousian shenanigans wrapped in the feel-good glossy aesthetics of a fusion sageuk. While not being radical, I thought it had enough to say about women and love and liberation that makes it stand out from other shows in its genre. There are some genuinely lovely romantic moments in its love story- which is quieter and more wistful and grounded than you'd expect at the start; there's a lot of laugh-out-loud moments; but my most favourite thing about this show is its VILLAIN. Watch it for Park Ji young, if nothing else- you will not be disappointed. 

10/10 , no notes. 

Incredible to me that it's Jung Woo-sung who regularly gets asked to do the "If you drink this..." dialogue, when that scene clearly belongs to Son Ye-jin's kitten-sexiness. Anyway- the first half of this was charming in a raw, unselfconsciously horny way - much like Coffee Prince-  until I hit the Alzheimer's part, after which I struggle-watched the makjang until it drifted to its predictably saccharine-end.

Sorry, but there's one Sejong for me and that's Han Suk-kyu in Tree with Deep Roots. This film took itself too seriously, I thought, which dimmed its enjoyment value for me. Park Hae-il as a stern, snarky, monk was very sexy though- and I know I'm not the only one who thought that- the king and queen did too, FIGHT ME. 

When I heard about the cast, I was hoping for something more than the flat, cheap looking thing that eventually hit the screen. For a brief stretch between episodes 3-6, I thought this might lift itself into something more, but that wasn't how it turned out. Ffwded my way through the last three episodes, and I don't regret it.

That white guy annoyed the HECK out of me.  Dropped with no regrets.

10/10 no notes.

Not as clever as it thinks it is or wants to be. 

Absolutely terrible, and the unfortunate drug scandal-blackmail subplot involving LSK's character did not help.

I loved Bae Doona in this so MUCH, but I found the movie a tad tiresome- there's something about this SPECIFIC genre of movies- women as magical dolls- that inevitably leaves one with an icky aftertaste. Someone make a movie about a magical male sex doll (someone NOT Greta Gerwig, thanks) and then let's talk. On the other hand, Yorgos L, maybe you should take notes. 

Since  I'd watched "City of the Rising Sun" first, part of me was always thinking about that movie as I was watching this one. Jung woo-sung puts in a raw, untrained performance in Beat- but there's something so lovely, so heart wrenching about Min- his directionless fear, his sadness and  vulnerability, his fierce love for his friends- that it carries the movie through, to its predictably bleak ending.   Beat is the story where love doesn't save you and maybe, instead destroys you, CoTRS is the story where it does. Beat ends with Tae-soo and Min discarded  in the night ;  CoTRS ends with Hong-gi and Do-chul watching an imperfect, smoggy sunrise together.  My one complaint with the movie- other than the weird stylistic choice to blur/ slow down the fight scenes in a headache inducing way- is that it's obvious that Kim Sang-su has no idea what to do with women beyond certain character notes- there's a sense of tokenism in  the depiction of both Beat's Romy (Ko So Young) and CoTRS' Mimi (Han Go-eun)- though their struggles and triumphs as "youth"- aren't any less meaningful or urgent than those of the male characters. Romy, actually, gets more screen time in Beat than Mimi in CoTRS, but not much more in terms of a character arc- the last we see of her is waiting for Min, unaware that he's dead. That said, I can see why this movie catapulted Jung Woo-sung to stardom- it's the perfect vehicle to market his intense likeability , only partly related to his undeniable gorgeousness. You can't help the way your eyes are drawn to him when he's on screen.  No wonder he's spent the latter part of his career trying to disappear into his roles- but he's not the actor for that, I think. He will always first be Jung woo-sung, and then the character, and you know what- *I'm * not complaining. 

The enshittification of Lee Soo yeon. 

Goregous to look at , but lacking something- or perhaps I'm just tired of lesbian misery. 

A perfect Hwang Jung-min performance, but oh, Jung woo-sung, I do love you.

Feel good copaganda that I wish had been cleverer; carried by the charm of its cast, especially Lee Je-hoon, whose face the camera loves. Idk- I have mixed feelings about it- I think it's very good at reaching its goals- but those goals seem...uninspiring. I'm also actively suspicious of any kind of nostalgia, however slickly packaged and 'progressive' it seems to be; the show is very convenient about the targets it picks, and what it chooses to draw our attention to, and it does so sweetly, that you find yourself forgiving its lukewarm politics, until after. 

This should have been a slam dunk given the cast and theme-instead when I found myself mid episode 8 and realized that I hadn't even been looking at the screen, it became obvious that I couldn't continue the struggle-watch. Next time, Song Kang-ho and Byun Yo-han!

Loved the quirky premise and thought they might go somewhere interesting with it. But even Go Kyung-pyo and Kang Hanna's incredible comedy chops couldn't save this schizo show for me. Life is too short to  spend it struggle watching Netflix.