Looking Ahead: What Will You Be Watching?

Confession: I started five different dramas this cycle, and I didn't end up sticking with any of them. For some reason, the only one that stuck was Heart to Heart, and even with that one, I'm still four episodes behind. Do you ever have drama cycles like that?

The upside of suddenly becoming insanely fickle is that skipping out on a full round of dramas almost acts like a palate cleanser, and it makes me even more excited for the upcoming shows. Since it feels like every drama for the rest of the year is in the middle of casting right now, I'm extra excited, and I want to know what dramas have caught your eye.

Let's weigh some of our options, shall we?

1. Angry Mom

Premise: A feisty mom (Kim Hee Sun) discovers that her daughter is being bullied, so she goes undercover as a student to get back at the bullies.

Premiere date: March 18 (Next week!)

Impressions: In no universe would Kim Hee Sun ever pass as a teenager. Also, I'm not sure how I feel about what appears to be a loveline between her and Ji Hyun Woo. So he gets to feel icky for the first half of the series for having a crush on his student, and then he gets to feel icky for the second half of the series when that student turns out to be a married ahjumma? Poor guy.

But then. This trailer.

Ok, so maybe Kim Hee Sun still doesn't look like a teen, but holy moly, she did pretty well. And I have a soft spot in my heart for female leads who love to swear.

Verdict: Probably yes, but only because it premieres two weeks ahead of anything else I want to watch.

2. Falling for Innocence

Premise: A cold corporate headhunter (Jung Kyung Ho) gets a heart transplant and then finds himself falling for his secretary (Kim So Yeon). They're also in a love triangle with her lifelong best friend (Yoon Hyun Min).

Premiere date: April 3

Impressions: I'm in love with the posters and teasers. They're playful and sexy and have Jung Kyung Ho and Yoon Hyun Min on them. What could possibly deter me?

Oh, yeah. The whole "the organ I got from a dead person is still in love with you" thing, which might be my least favorite thing of all the things.

Verdict: Sigh. My heart says yes, but is it only saying that because it came from the dead boyfriend of this drama? This one reeks of "fun romcom turned into a cryfest" from a mile away.

3. Divorce Lawyer in Love

Premise: A cutthroat divorce lawyer (Cho Yeo Jeong) has a prickly relationship with her office manager (Yeon Woo Jin). The tables turn when she loses her job and has to become an office manager for a new lawyer, who happens to be none other than her former employee.

Premiere date: It was going to be March 14, but rumor on the streets has it that it's been pushed back to April?

Impressions: Typical opposites attract romcom, which are always fun.

Verdict: Did I mention that Yeon Woo Jin's last role was in one of my favorite opposites attract romcoms?

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Yep, count me in!

4. Ex-Girlfriend Club

Premise: A webtoon artist (Byun Yo Han) writes a story about his four ex-girlfriends. When the webtoon gets picked up by a movie studio, he has to work with a producer (Song Ji Hyo) who just so happens to be one of those exes. Awk-ward!

Premiere date: May 

Initial impressions: Song Ji Hyo and I are going to be best friends someday. In order to make that happen, I have to watch this. You know—to prove my friendship.

You see that smile? She's totally laughing at a hilarious joke I made.

5. Descendants of the Sun

Premise: A UN peacekeeping officer (almost 100% certainly played by Song Joong Ki) and a doctor from Doctors Without Borders (Song Hye Gyo is considering) initially don't get along, but then the fall in love because of danger or something.

Premiere: Fall-ish

Initial impressions: I know this is really far away, but I already feel so conflicted. On the one hand, remember how I started my Song Joong Ki obsession right around the time he left for military service? Siggggggh I luff him.

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On the other hand, it's written by Kim Eun Sook. The same Kim Eun Sook who wrote Heirs.

I actually find the premise kind of interesting, and who knows? Kim Eun Sook tends to do better with bigger plots (body swapping in Secret Garden) than she does with basic ones (rich kids go to school in Heirs), so maybe having a background of war will force her to do more than end every episode with a wide-eyed love triangle formation.

Surely you all remember this. It was, after all, 40% of what happened in Heirs.

My biggest fear, though, is that this potentially intriguing plot will end up with Song Joong Ki and Song Hye Gyo doing a wrist grab stare-down at each other for five minutes while some poor guy's artery is gushing blood right next to them as I shout "MOVE IT, YOU IDIOTS! THAT MAN DOESN'T HAVE TIME FOR YOUR LOVE" at my laptop.

...not that I have ever shouted that at a show before. 

I guess we'll just have to wait and see, won't we?

Okay, now it's your turn. What shows are all of you anticipating? I know I missed a bunch of upcoming ones, like Sensory Couple aka Girl Who Sees Smells aka Shin Se Kyung's Got a Fetish for Bizarre Superpowers, but the ones I covered are the ones tugging at my heart (for good or for ill) at the moment. What about you? If there's something else I should consider, by all means, convince me so that we can watch together!

K-drama Dream Casting: Who Would You Choose?

A while back, Kathryn, one of our readers, sent me an email asking who our "dream cast" would be. Her ideal was a romcom staring Ha Ji Won, Gong Yoo, SSH (Song Seung Hun?), and Hee Ji Jin with a Yoon Eun Hye cameo where she plays a professional woman for a change of pace.

I have to admit that Kathryn's  selection sounds pretty enticing, and I'm not sure if I can top it. I almost emailed her back right away saying it was too hard and I could never decide with all of my favorites, but now, after spending way, way too much time imagining different pairings, I have come up with the...wait for it...


ULTIMATE K-DRAMA DREAM CAST OF ALL TIME 
(according to the completely biased Vivi)


Are you ready for this?

Here we go...

Since this is my hypothetical dream cast and I can do whatever I want, I'm going to have two main pairings because I can't choose. Think of it as interconnected stories with separate romances instead of a love square with two losers who get dumped and then pick each other as a consolation prize. No consolation prizes here! In fact, there are NO SECOND LEADS ALLOWED in my dream cast scenario. You Are All Surrounded is an example of what we're going for here. Some bromance and friendship between Cha Seung Won and Lee Seung Gi, but ultimately they're involved in their own individual romantic stories.

My two leading men would be Song Joong Ki and Ji Chang Wook. Why those two? Song Joong Ki has been a favorite of mine for a while, and Ji Chang Wook...well, let's just say I've caught a little case of Healer fever these days....

Really, I chose these two because even though they're relatively young, they both have an incredible ability to express volumes with a tiny facial expression or gesture. If you want to see what I mean, watch Nice Guy again. Half of the time, Song Joong Ki is saying one thing, but he'll do the tiniest little things with his face to express how he really feels. I don't necessarily want my dream K-drama to be a super soapy melodrama or anything (NO PEOPLE FALLING IN LOVE WITH SIBLINGS ALLOWED), but I would want to give them roles that allow both actors to stretch a full range of emotions, even if it's under the broader romcom genre umbrella. Oh, and this K-drama might become a musical where Ji Chang Wook belts some songs. I'm just tossing that in there for good measure while we're dreaming big.

So who are the lucky leading ladies? I went back and forth on this a lot, but I thiiiiiink I finally settled on Han Groo with Song Joong Ki and Song Ji Hyo with Ji Chang Wook.

Both of those actresses have an on-screen presence that pushes past the typical wide-eyed Candy girl, and I would love to see more of them. Plus, I secretly want to be best friends with both of them, so casting them in my K-drama is the first step in that secret plan (mwahahahahahahaa).

Now, because I can't just quit at 4 characters and my imaginary K-drama pocketbook is limitless and my script is so amazing that no one would ever say no, I would use Park Seo Joon as Song Joong Ki's wild younger brother (don't they seem perfect as brothers?), and Yoo Ah In and Jung Ryeo Won would be antagonists.

Notice I didn't say "villains" because they would be funny at times, terribly tragic at others, and always magnificently nuanced. You would probably walk away from the show crying buckets of tears over them and still not being sure if they're good or bad.


Add in at least one adorable little child actor who you wish you could kidnap and keep forever in real life.

 Oh, and Lee Min Ho as a murderer. A terrible, irredeemable serial killer who haunts your dreams at night. Just because it's my drama and I can. And I would like to see the fangirls squirm a little.

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But he also doesn't have a very big part because we're too busy focused on the other, more interesting and awesome, characters.

So that's my dream cast. I would absolutely and completely watch the crap out of that show. What's yours?

Emergency Couple Korean Drama Review

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Warning: This review is pretty spoiler-y. We can't keep our mouths shut. You've been warned!

Vivi: I’m really glad that Coco and I both watched Emergency Couple because I was waaaaay more invested in it than I had any right to be, and I needed someone to text about it in the middle of the night.

Coco: And I needed someone to talk to about how cute baby Gook was! Seriously, was he not the CUTEST baby in the world?

Vivi: YES. But I thought you were going to say you needed to text someone about how cute Chief Gook was. Because that happened too.

Coco: I’m pretty sure that was YOU. Although I do agree that he was very cute, it was you who did most of the second male lead pining.

This happened every week. Multiple times a week.

Vivi: Yeah, I did. I don’t understand how you were able to watch it without rooting for the second male lead. Are you even human? 

I’m serious. Are you a robot?

Coco: A Choi Jin Hyuk-loving robot!!! I admit that I was on on the first male lead’s side the whole time. That largely had to do with the behind the scenes footage I saw of him laughing and joking with Ji Hyo. They were so freakin adorable together (as cute as the Monday Couple comprised of Ji Hyo and Kang Gary on Running Man, I dare say!) So I was patiently waiting for his character to grow up and act like a man and for her character to finally settle into her confident self.

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Vivi: And my love of Chief Gook was mostly tied to his scruff and the fact that he was socially awkward and emotionally constipated. In other words, if I had a Kdrama patronus, it would be him. You’re right about the character growth, though. A lot of people complained about the leads at first, but I appreciated that they had plenty of time for gradual growth.

Coco: Yes, I was pleased with the growth of these characters. It felt natural, and they all became legitimately awesome people.

Vivi: Yeah, everything felt pretty natural, except for the last few episodes. Song Ji Hyo suddenly baking fortune cookies from scratch and throwing herself at the man made me throw up in my mouth. (And if you run up multiple flights of stairs, of course your heart will be beating hard. You're a doctor! Pull it together!) Also, “I hate divorced people?” It’s like they suddenly realized they only had three episodes left and finally noticed that all sane people loved the second lead.

You know what else was a well-developed character? This cat poster. Behold its glory.

Coco: My complaint at the beginning of the drama was that the female lead was too passive and incompetent for me to love her, but she quickly proved herself and developed the self confidence that had been drained out of her after her terrible divorce. The male lead also gradually stood up for her and came to respect and admire her for real reasons, unlike many other Kdrama characters where I continually ask myself, “Why does he/she like him/her?” (Kim Tan and Eun Sang in Heirs, I’m talking to you).

Vivi: Completely agreed about the respect. I was thrilled that she didn’t stand for it when he tried to force himself onto her, and they included a few episodes where he had to learn to take the relationship on her terms. Unlike you, I liked her from the beginning. She wasn’t really incompetent. From the very beginning, she would do things right, but no one else took her seriously. I think the fact that the character was played by Song Ji Hyo also helped. She as a person doesn’t really strike me as a wilting flower, so I was willing to wait for plot development. I don’t watch Running Man, but I might start.

Coco: Running Man is the best btw. But yes, I love that he had to figure out how to have a mature relationship, and it was too bad that she went over the top in trying to convince him that she truly loved him back at the end. It is sad that they kind of threw the “I hate divorced people” at the Chief as a device to make him less of a good match, but I did really like him with Ji Hye. I just loved her from the beginning with her cool and collected demeanor. I was happy that they alluded to them ending up together, although I wish they would have done more with it than the awkward airport scene. I mean, if I were her I’d be like, “That’s it? A ‘come back sometime’ is the best you can muster during a dramatic airport scene?”

Vivi: I actually kind of loved that. It was so fitting to his entire personality. If the writers had done more with that relationship earlier, I might have expected more, but if he had run to the airport and suddenly started making out with her, it would have been weird. Like sexytimes CPR weird. Or clown music during a hostage scene weird.

Coco: Sexytimes CPR was one of the most awkward scenes of any Kdrama ever. Especially since it fell on a commercial break so it immediately repeated and made it twice as long. Eww.

Vivi: Seriously. It was like I couldn’t stand to watch it, but I couldn’t look away, either. MAKE IT STOP! Speaking of that scene, this show wins for most fakeouts ever. I’m not happy about it, show! If you show someone moving in for a kiss, you’d better mean it!

Coco: But wouldn’t it have been sadder if he actually did kiss her and then she rejected him? At least their relationship didn’t progress that far. But why did she go visit him at his cabin? That was kind of a mean trick when she already knew she wasn’t done with her ex-husband.

Vivi: That was a big complaint for me. It was like the show wanted to pretend that he never even confessed his feelings. Every time I thought they might let the relationship go, they just kept adding in something heartbreaking like that stupid cabin and stabbing me in the heart. And hello, letting him see them making out at the bus stop???? I hate them.

Coco: Ok, can we talk about the side characters for a minute? I totally love her sister and brother -in-law. Yes, she was a total pain in the butt at first, but the way they kept intervening with their relationship was really funny. And they spawned the cutest, funniest creation on God’s green earth, Gook.

Vivi: I wasn’t crazy about any of the parents, but I did enjoy the sister and her bumbling husband (Except for her terrible advice at the end. "Your body knew you were in love"? Nope. Your body was drunk.), and the other people in the hospital were fine. I mean, I can’t say that I was hanging on to every word Ah Reum said, but it was okay.

Coco: Yeah, I didn’t know what to do with Ah Reum. I hated her smug face so much at the beginning that even though she turned into a good person surprisingly quickly, I could never sincerely wish for her happiness. I’m glad that Yong Gyu ended up getting the girl because he was sooo adorable and sweet, but they’re kind of an odd match.

Vivi: They are a perfect match because Ah Reum’s only job was to look hot and smile, and Yong Gyu just wanted a hot girlfriend. Boom. Match made in heaven.

Coco: That’s true. Plus, she really did show that she was a good person many times over. What about the newly married couple and the pregnancy plotline? Something that did strike me over and over again in this drama was the theme of female empowerment. It was fantastic to see so many strong women in typically male positions in this drama.

Vivi: Absolutely. That storyline felt a little underdeveloped and thrown together, but between that, the double standard for divorce, and Ji Hye as a single working mother, it was a show that largely revolved around the problems women face. And at the end of the day, none of the women had ideal lives, and none of them were pushovers.

Coco: It’s so nice to see a Kdrama, or a show in general, that addresses those issues realistically and doesn’t primarily focus on the issues surrounding modern women and sex and romance like in I Need Romance and Sex and the City. Yes, sex and romance are struggles for modern women, but there’s much more than that in their struggle for equality.

Vivi: I Need Romance 3 also had an unwed pregnancy plotline, which was probably the most interesting part of the whole show (which I still need to review someday). I do like to see the emergence of more nuanced shows, though. Wait, did I just call Emergency Couple nuanced? Scratch that. There were definitely rough patches, too. Some of the tone was bizarre. Some of the plot elements jumped forward at the end. The mother drove me insane. But even with the stuff I didn’t like, I was waiting for each new episode, which is something that hasn’t happened in a while.

Coco: True, is had its struggles, and sometimes it seemed a little slow (mostly because I don’t love medical dramas so I would rather fast forward through those scenes), but I was also waiting for new episodes and sometimes got way too excited and then sad when I realized it was actually Thursday and not Friday like I thought. Overall, I highly recommend this drama for its talented and fun cast and their great chemistry, not only as couples but as an overall ensemble as well.

What did you guys think of this show? Did you stick with it past the rough start? Comment below!

Where to watch Emergency Couple

DramaFever

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