Humour, political intrigue and amazing acting

Mr. Queen was one of the most highly anticipated dramas on my watchlist ever since I learnt about the plot synopsis. The promos only added to the thrill. It was going to be a perfect drama to binge. After finally getting around to binging it, I can tell you that it was worth the hype and wait. It was a perfect combination of comedy and political intensity. The best part about MQ was the amazing acting skills portrayed by Shin Hye Sun and Kim Jung Hyun and the chemistry between them. If it hadn't been landed well, the drama would have ended because quite mediocre, because this combination was needed for the script to be set apart. No amount of words can be enough to the shift in characters which SHS displayed, I almost believed that there was actually Bong Hwan's soul in her body. From being wary of each other to developing great partnership while navigating through the palace's plots and betrayals, these two come a long away. It was fun to see Bong Hwan introduce many of the non existing concepts into that era.

The drama starts of quite slow paced and at points some of the scenes feel unnecessary because you want your favorites to interact more. The first eighteen episodes are nearly perfect and though the last two are good enough they aren't the best. Of course both the episodes have many of my favourite scenes from the entire series, there were a few things that felt missing. There are few plots which are wrapped up well, and few needed better work or closure. Maybe the spin off will cover it. I wanted to see a proper ending to the King and Bong Hwan's relationship, but the end is filled with too much of ambiguity. It varies from history and though the writers give us what is supposed to be a happy end, it doesn't exactly feel like one. Maybe if Kim So Yong was equally present along with Bong Hwan, though towards the last few episodes we do see more of her, I would have been more convinced.

Anyway, despite the short faults, this will remain a favourite drama. Period pieces are often filled with heartbreaks, but Mr. Queen takes a little diversion from that and sticks to its essence. I would also like to mention how epic the intro and OST of this show is, a perfect match with the emotions it was the viewers to feel.

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A makjang that doesn’t disappoint is how I would describe this drama. From the first episode, it’s ridiculously entertaining! The characters are exactly who they promise to be and the chemistry between the leads is sizzling. Who stood out to me the most was the actress who plays the main character, Yi Joo. From one moment where she was absolutely in the bits to the next moment when she was owning her revenge, so well done! I’ve seen the ML in few other dramas too and his acting could do a lot more improvement but it adds into to the genre anyway, The supporting characters are over the top and the evil ones go full on evil. It’s been a while a drama begins and ends so satisfactorily. Keeping it to twelve episodes helped immensely in not stretching the story unnecessarily. This had conflicts which got resolved very soon. And the ending? I can’t think of anything that they left without wrapping up.

One issue and a spoiler in the story is the steamy scene between the leads could have been directed well. The intentional or unintentional non consensual bed scene was an extremely uncomfortable watch. It’s 2023 and forceful initiation of physical contact really needs to end.

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Shin Hye sun simply doesn't disappoint. What an amazing actress! Thirty But Seventeen turned out to a surprisingly a healing drama. I was expecting it to be majorly comic in nature, but it was so much more than humour and that ended up elevating its level. I loved all the characters and how each of them were given backstories that made sense. At no point did it feel that the characters were acting out of expected behaviour. There is a bit of stretching and miscommunication, but it gets resolved pretty quickly. I also loved how the leads were so open about how they felt and ML opting for therapy and being consistent with it even in his happy place - very well done! The best part about this drama is the bonds between each of the characters: the friendships, the love, guardians, loved it! It also subverted every expected trope, you reach a point where you think it is going to be a typical kdrama behaviour, but surprise! it's not.

I almost wish I hadn't binged it. What a heartwarming experience and such a beautiful ending. <3

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Brilliant adaptation

If I hadn’t read the manga I would have rated it higher. This is definitely a very good closure and a pearly accurate live action adaptation of the original work. Other series in works should take this as their reference. Waiting two years for the sequel was so worth it. I ended up binging it in a day. Throughout the drama, there’s this intensity which takes hold of you, the characters are amazing as always. The games that were used from the manga were quite accrue and depicted well, especially the last game which was so engrossing that I felt that the writers would shift from the manga. There were a couple of things I didn’t like, the added material was not as clever, too many long monologues in between some games, and towards the end lots of plot armour. Anyway, one can still look past all of this because overall it was great! I also loved the cinematography and audio effects — made the whole series so much more immersive. I would love to see the cast in more such well fledged works.

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Tragic-comedy

DP is a short drama series which covers life of a newly enlisted recruit in the Korean army. This show starts off at a slow pace but picks up from the second episode. It sets off the tone right in the beginning, you as a viewer are sure to expect something somber with a bit of humour ingrained. I think my favourite episodes would be second and third. The latter episodes got a little bit too dark for my liking. It was very sad that one nice character was ruined by bullying so much that there’s a monumental shift in his personality. It was a sad ending. Each episode deals with what kind of mindset a recruit might be in to take the decision that they do. Since it’s a short watch, you can binge it at a go or watch at your pace.

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The only redeeming part of this drama is the male lead, everything else is so forced. Firstly, it has all the tropes that would make you think ‘yes I’m going to get me some cliched drama’ and cliched it is but SO badly written. The FL is basically a bunch of traits together and there’s just extremes — zero complexity. However, you can continue watching but it ends on a cliffhanger and you start wishing you hadn’t invested at all! For a show with every episode that’s about 40 mins each, they could have paced it well but it just doesn’t feel right. Even the romance, though cute is too sudden. Watch it only if you like any of the actors in this. I did like the supporting character’s arc with ML and FL though, other than that there isn’t much except for Jasper’s gentle look and smiles.

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Beautiful

What a story! There isn’t much happening except for it being real - these are real people with real problems, history and emotions and each of their relationships was so beautifully portrayed. It wasn’t all happiness but raw emotions - family doesn’t mean being happy all the time, it means fighting and hurting each other too even if you don’t intend to. Dear My Friends showed these aspects of toxic relationships that exist between a husband and wife or parents and their children, it showcased misogyny so brilliantly . Another reason I loved this show is because it didn’t take sides, it showed us these flawed characters and gave them whole-ness and asked us to decide what to make of them. It was such an enriching experience to empathise with each of them at various points in the story. Surprisingly, it does get very emotionally wrecking too. Dear My Friends is exactly the book that Wan wanted to write, tell us a story of these not always the best people and still leave us inspired. Such a refreshing watch over the other dramas and what a beautiful take of the slice of life genre. This is one of things I’ve watched in a long time. DMF is like a comforting hug telling you it knows, it’ll be okay.

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A little predictable and little not.

The Guest is a drama centered around three characters whose life goes through horrible change when they directly and indirectly encounter an infamous spirit Park Il Do. Years later, the trio end up meeting each other accidentally. This is a decadent horror drama for fans looking for some scary thriller. However, the first two episodes of this drama are the scariest. After the intro episodes, we do become familiar with which direction the story is going in. Though it seems predictable at various points, it does manage to keep you on your toes. My favourite part about the drama was the dynamics between the leads. From distrusting each other to working together, the bromance progresses well. The pace of the story varies as well — there are parts which are slow but the intense almost cliffhanger reveals keep you going. It’s a fun drama to watch in a group, to speculate and discuss the characters.

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Crime, humour, emotionally intense, all together!

The Uncanny Counter is a drama focused on a group made up of those who were previously in coma, given a chance to fight evil spirits. When So Mun gets included in the group due to special circumstances, things really begin to happen. With more than just how he joined the group being what’s mysterious about him, we’ve a lot to find out. From a political corruption arc to evil spirits being utilised by them, we see our group get pulled into setting things right.

What did I love about this show? The first half was quite well done, the pace was perfect to the story and we got to the intense parts while keeping up with the humour. I also loved the wholesome relationships the group shared. They weren’t one dimensional characters — I loved Ha Na the most. She appears closed off and could be generic cold because of how she is, but with her people we are expressing emotions and being soft. The women in the show aren’t deprived of their feminity to make them appear strong. I also loved Mun’s relationship with his friends — that was another wholesome trio! I’m looking forward to see the young actress who plays his best friend in more dramas. I enjoyed the evil spirits arc for majority of the show. Absolutely loved the dynamics between the crazy female spirit and contract killer spirit, they were the highlight for me I think! I would love to see these two actors in another drama — maybe retaining their characters a bit.

What did I dislike in the show? As the show moved into the second half, there was a certain out of pace-ness in few episodes. Some random ridiculous things happen which make you roll your eyes. I wish So Mun’s powers were more fleshed out. I didn’t get the point of Yung either — there isn’t much information on what they do or what the extent of their jurisdiction is. The way they admonish their counters felt a little stupid, like there aren’t really fixed rules. The development between counters and their yung counterparts could have been much better — especially So Mun and Wigen’s. I also didn’t like how certain characters were introduced or their conflicts were resolved only to be killed.

Overall, this is a fun show. It covers trauma to an extent, there’s bullying as well (what’s a high school oriented drama without bullying though, right?) but there’s humour which balances it. A fun show to watch if you’re in hero saves the day content.

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Frustrating, coming of age, high school drama.

I’ve not watched many j-dramas, but I think I’ve understood on lines they work on. Scum’s Wish is a drama that focuses on two teenagers in their late teens with crushes on their older tutors. They decide to start a relationship with each other under very messed up terms. The drama explores intimacy, sexual awakening, relationships between various characters. The leads explore their loneliness and try to fill it with physical intimacy.

This is a very frustrating drama to watch, there are many annoying points that make you wonder why certain things are even happening. It seems to go around in circles. But in the end, there’s some kind of realisation that intimacy can exist in many layers and one doesn’t have to be sexual with each other to attain it. The ML and FL had strong chemistry, and if you are a regular K-Drama watcher you’ll find their scenes much bolder, I felt that they could have been a good couple in the end if they sought each other from the beginning or accepted each other as themselves. Maybe they will in the future, I don’t know.

One thing that stood out to me was the concept of consent, at least with the ML. Many a times physical love is portrayed in such a problematic manner, but seems to have been done well here.

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Strange and intriguing.

Nurse Files is a drama that invites you in a world of fantasy that challenges the norms. Our lead is a young woman who sees things called “jellies” — left behind by people, or just creatures which are invisible to most. Along with her we have a Chinese teacher who’s ability is being a forcefield visible to only few and a disability visible to all. I would suggest you going into this drama with no expectations of wanting to understand the powers of our FL, or even the issues that are centric to the plot. In accordance to the FL’s life, we as viewers are expected to simply accept whatever comes our way. Strange creatures in the school built over a what was a pond with great aura? Okay. Connection between students causing them to start behaving hysterically? Okay. Mite infestation which cause a person to be born simply to eat the mites away? Okay. There are plenty such things that confuse you, but like the leads, we simply accept it and try to fix it.

Apart from the strangeness and fantastical elements, I simply loved the portrayal of characters. Loved the relationship between the FL and ML — starts of awkward and then just becomes comforting. The take away from this drama would be it’s okay to be weird as long as you are not a bad human.

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Sherlock vibes.

Hello Monster/I Remember You is a drama which revolves around a high functioning main lead — Hyeon — who’s on a mission to find out the person who killed his father and possibly find his brother. The series starts off really well, there’s a good introduction of characters and the main leads personality grows on you well. There are many crime thrillers that start of well but don’t keep up in the second half, but thankfully that isn’t the case with Hello Monster. The pace is steady and though the plot is slightly lacking, the well rounded characters make up for it. The antagonists are also revealed pretty early on so it doesn’t leave you guessing who’s the killer until the end.

This drama is a collection of flashbacks and present time. The cameos are so well done and I absolutely loved the acting of the child actors. I also enjoyed the team dynamics of the investigation team. There are characters used for comic relief, but the best thing about them is that that isn’t the only thing they are used for. That’s another reason why I loved this drama. Each character isn’t restricted to individual characteristics.

Overall, it’s an interesting drama that’s more about bromance and mystery oriented. It starts off well and ends well. I personally feel that the ending could have been less safe than what we got, but any other way would have meant that we would be left with many loopholes. Slightly disappointed with how it ended, but I’m not unhappy with it. It’s a good drama with lots of wholesome fun scenes!

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A fun, introspective watch.

Sweet and Sour is a movie about a young couple who face stress in their relationship due to the long distance romance they have to keep up with. It deals with infidelity led along the lines of emotional level as well as physical (to an extent.)

The plot isn’t exceptional, but the way it has been filmed and depicted does show an original twist. The FL is a character who needs to connect on an emotional level to feel the romance and the male lead masks the distance between them as reason why he drifts out of the relationship. Both of them represent such different kind of circumstances and reactions despite being in the same relationship.

The movie has its cute moments, some wtf moments, moments that make you introspect on the flawed nature of both the characters.

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