I Watched More K-Dramas

I’m back! I know I said I was going to make a monthly list but I ended up getting too distracted with other things so I never got around to actually finishing ten dramas within one month. It took me four months – mostly because some of the dramas I watched dragged I lost the will to continue them. I have some dramas that are waiting for me to finish them… and I will. Someday. But I managed to get ten more to share with you!

I feel like the list will be a bit controversial because some of my least-liked dramas are the ones that people have praised a lot. I don’t know if it’s because my go-to genres are more in the realms of fantasy, but I feel like I judge and dissect dramas the same way I would a fantasy drama. Anyway, hopefully, I don’t enrage the K-drama community with this…

A/N: Reminder that when I talk negatively about a character, in no way I am criticizing the actors. They all did their job to bring to life these characters that the writers created. Thus, everything said in this article should not be taken as an attack on actors – there’s a difference between the character and the actor who plays them.

*Heavy Spoilers Ahead*

#10 Backstreet Rookie (3/5)

Brief intro taken from Google: "A former troublemaker applies for a job at a convenience store owned by the same man who ran errands for her a few years ago."

I will start by saying that the main leads were characters that I enjoyed watching for the most part, they did hold concrete personalities that helped me sit through this particular drama that barely told a story that could keep me hooked. The series looked interesting from the clip it offered, but I ended up finding myself making a list of the things I disliked rather than the things I liked – the latter being the shortest of the two.

I’ll start with what I did like: Jung Saet-Byul (played by Kim Yoo-jung) is the oldest of two orphan sisters who are trying to get by in life. She’s a fierce person and doesn’t let people diminish her in any way. She’s a bit prone to violence, especially to those who deserve it or get on her nerves. I did enjoy her resilience because I doubt anyone else could have managed to survive the life her – very annoying – younger sister was putting her through. Though I was able to understand why Saet-byul’s sister was the way she was, I still couldn’t ignore the fact that the kid was a total ungrateful brat. She kinda ended up being less of a nuisance toward the end, but that’s beside the point. Now, Choi Dae-hyun (played by Ji Chang-wook) was also an interesting lead. From how we meet him, the viewer understands that this man cannot ignore someone in need of help. He literally gets broken up with because he was late to a date – he was busy saving a kitten’s life. He’s too nice. This is kinda how the main leads end up having a connection: he tells a young Saet-byul to not smoke when she asks him to buy some for her and her friends. This is what causes Saet-byul to literally work at the market Dae-hyun works at. She’s hell-bent on dating him. Though the age gap was a little weird at first because when we first meet them, Saet-byul is still in school and he was about college senior age.

This leads me to the things I disliked about the show. I already mentioned the age gap, but as the main plot takes place years later, I don’t mind it much. But I did not like the over-exaggerated action scenes. I don’t enjoy when a show, with no fantasy storyline, gives a normal person a trait that seems beyond realistically possible. This isn’t Matrix, no one is hovering in the air long enough to throw multiple quicks at a leisure pace.

On a more serious note, I was a little confused about the plot at first, the drama felt like it had no real goal or plot aside from getting the main characters together. Halfway into the show, it sorta picked up on that area, but even then it was hardly a well-written plot. It felt like the side characters were the ones helping build the story. That’s one of the main reasons I almost gave up on the show, but as you already know, I don’t like leaving things unfinished.

One big ick the show has from beginning to end is the character of Han Dal-sik (played by Eum Moon-suk). Dal-sik is a man who has embraced the “reggae life.” The character, who is the only dark-skinned person in the drama, is seen wearing dreadlocks and participating in portraying harmful stereotypes such as being lazy and dirty. I disliked this bit a lot as I found it to be very offensive and unnecessary, so that’s my only big warning with this show. Please, don’t watch this if this could upset you.

To close up on this drama, it is something I probably won’t watch again. Maybe put it as background noise, but it will hardly grab my attention.

#9 The King’s Affection (3/5)

Brief intro taken from Google: During the Joseon Dynasty, the Crown Princess Consort gives birth to twins but sends the girl away to spare her life. Years later, the twin son dies in an accident and his sister must assume his identity and throne, all while hiding her true self.

This one was a big letdown. I liked it better than Backstreet Rookie, but they could share the last spot if it wasn’t for the fact that it managed to keep me hooked for the first half before the spell wore off. The trailer made it out to be a silly little romantic comedy, but I ended up sobbing through the first two episodes (I did not read the intro I offered you before watching the drama). I was a little overwhelmed when suddenly I was supposed to be well and dandy by the later scenes. The shift between those emotions left me unable to quite enjoy the introduction of the characters during the present time for at least ten minutes. I thought the show would entail misunderstanding as two siblings constantly switched places…boy was I wrong. While the actual plot was still interesting, it became rather dull the more complicated when Crown Prince Lee Hwi’s (played by Park Eun-bin) life found itself coming apart after Dam-I’s past came back. Let me explain myself, Dam-I and Lee Hwi are the same person in the present while in the past they were a set of twins that were separated at birth. The real Lee Hwi gets murdered under the belief that he was his supposedly dead sister Dam-I who was meant to have died as a baby. This is what causes Dam-I to take the role of Prince, all to cover up the fact that she was alive all along and that the real Prince had been murdered under the order of their maternal grandfather. Very messy, I know.

As I said before, the plot wasn’t bad, it just became uninteresting when things began to fall apart in Dam-I/Hwi’s life. Even the romance – which becomes a pseudo tale of queer romance – felt lackluster. It was funny at first as Jung Ji-woon (played by Rowoon) became conflicted about his ever-growing feelings toward the Prince whom he tutored under royal command. Had it been an actual romance between two men, the drama would have felt less lackluster but as the audience is aware that the Prince’s secret will come out (no pun intended), the queer tone of the drama doesn’t do anything to carry the drama. And this was what they were selling to the audience and it ended up being the reason I lost some interest. I even skipped most of their romantic scenes because I wasn’t interested in their conflicts. After all, they were both in different realms of complexity.

But the one thing the drama succeeded with was telling a captivating story of corruption, treason, and greed during Joseon times. Everything outside the romantic plot was interesting, the only reason I sat to watch twenty (20) episodes of it. It makes you realize that the show could have carried without a romantic plot – actually having Dam-I and her cousin cause chaos by liking each other would have been slightly more entertaining just for the sake of chaos. Anyway, romance was unnecessary and if you’re expecting an out-of-this-world-fluttery-feeling with this romance, lower your expectations.

In conclusion, I liked it enough to think about the historical aspect but not based on its romance.

#8 Reply 1988 (3/5)

Brief intro taken from Google: Follows the lives of 5 families living on the same street in a [neighborhood] called Ssangmundong in Seoul. A nostalgic look back at the year 1988.

This drama was recommended to me by every single K-drama lover I know. It is considered one of the dramas every beginner needs to watch. While the reviews are a bit mixed, everyone agrees that this is basically part of the intro to K-dramas. So I gave it a go.

I almost quit it within the first ten minutes.

To begin with, I hate characters like Sung Bo-ra (played by Ryu Hye-young). The first and eldest daughter of the Sung family, Bo-ra has a strong personality and literally terrorizes everyone in her family with her awful temper and violent outbursts. She’s a bully if I’m allowed to be blunt. She was very hard to like, and having her be part of the opening for the show was definitely a decision I wouldn’t have made. But it makes sense as she is the older sister to the main character and narrator of the show, Sung Deok-sun (played by Lee Hye-ri). Compared to her sister, Deok-sun is a little…eh…silly. She’s the middle child and second daughter – the youngest sibling being the only boy in the family. She feels like an outsider and doesn’t get to have many things that are hers as her older sister gets most things first. Deok-sun was also hard to like at first, I felt she was too much. Too loud, too bright, too childish. But it grew on me after a while. The first episode was kinda hard to get through at first, not everyone was likable if I'm honest, and I feel like the first episode is a whole different entity compared to how the rest of the episodes feel connected. The first one was very much an introduction to what was to come and how the characters were.

The show follows the life of five (5) families that live in the same neighborhood – two of them technically live in the same house, just happens that is their basement. The show is your typical learn-a-life-lesson-every-episode thing. Which why I did skip over a lot of the grown-up storyplots as they were predictable. There wasn’t a single one I didn't predict. If you like those types of shows, this is your drama. You have everything: a poor family trying to get by, a once-poor-now-rich family that encounters typical family issues, a widowed mother trying to get by with limited resources, a neglected child whose parents seem to care little about family and always work, and a family consisting of father and son that seem to lack the knowledge of the word ‘communication’.

But going back to our main character, Deok-sun narrates the story of her last year of high school and how it was the year her life changed to shape her future. This includes the driving plot of romance. Deok-sun finds herself in a love triangle (though I don’t think she ever realized it). Initially, the audience finds out that she has found her first love: Sung Sun-woo (played by Go Kyung-pyo) who is one of her four best friends, and it is also thought that he likes her back but has never confessed. But as it turns out, he likes Bo-ra and not Deok-sun whom he was using as an excuse to see and talk to Bo-ra. While Deok-sun finds this news utterly heartbreaking, Kim Jung-hwan (played by Ryu Jun-yeol) finds this to be great news as he no longer has competition to win Deok-sun’s affection... not like any of his friends know this. But he soon finds out that another one of his friends also likes Deok-sun. Choi Taek (played by Park Bo-gum) fesses up to his friends that he likes Deok-sun, much to everyone’s amusement. And this is where the real love triangle forms.

At first, I rooted for either of the boys. I liked Jung-hwan’s bickering with Deok-sun which was both his way to cover for his feelings for her and his natural form of communication with those who he cared about. But I also liked Deok-sun’s sweet demeanor with quiet and naive Taek who always smiled brightly around her. But as the drama continued with the story, I definitely leaned toward a specific pair, and I won’t tell you which one I ended up rooting for. I might end up writing a whole article about how cheated I felt at the end if I do.

Another romance that I felt cheated with was Sun-woo and Bo-ra. Yeah, they happen. I liked it at first, I thought it was kinda of cute of Sun-woo, the cutest and sweetest boy, to have the biggest crush on the mean girl next door. Of course, we find out there’s more to her than insults and strict personality, but I was not ready to realize that they get together while she’s a senior in college and he a senior in high school. It took me about three (3) business days to get around that fact.

The ending was, in a way, satisfactory. It wrapped up nicely, every plot met an ending in its own way. Whether it leaves you feeling disappointed or not, it doesn’t matter as it does give closure. I recommend it to anyone who likes feel-good family stories and coming-of-age narratives. If I watch it again I’ll probably get pissed though… he should’ve ended with Deok-sun…

#7 Abyss (3/5)

Brief intro taken from Google: After meeting an untimely demise in separate incidents, Cha Min and Go Se-yeon discover they've come back to life in new bodies they don't recognize.

This drama looked interesting from the clip alone (not to mention both Ahn Hyo Seop and Park Bo Young star as Chan Min and Go Se Yeon respectively). But I must admit that the first episode is very confusing. I don’t think we ever got a proper explanation, we were as clueless as Cha Min and Go Se Yeon. It wasn’t until the last episode that we got a little more information about what the Abyss really was, and honestly, it wasn’t much information. This is why the show, to me, was never a sci-fi but rather a romantic comedy and a murder mystery with a touch of sci-fi. I didn’t think the show would be a murder mystery if I’m completely honest, that was something of a shocker to me, especially when the killer(s) was obvious from the get-go. I knew who it was, I just didn’t know how it all connected. That was the only thing looking forward to as the show progressed because not even the romance pulled me in. The actors had the chemistry, and their moments were cute, but it wasn’t anything outwardly. Cha Min, who used to be “ugly”, ends up dying and gets brought back to life but he now looks like his soul’s face – he’s now “hot”. Then Se Yeon, who has always been a “beauty” amongst “average” women, gets murdered and ends up being reborn with her soul’s face. She is now “average” and has to deal with that. She slowly falls in love with Cha Min (mostly because of his new looks) and he too comes to accept the face of the woman he's always loved. It's not exactly my cup of tea, but it worked in their favor that the actors they bagged were some of my faves; so I sat through it.

Regarding the show’s overall feel, I enjoyed it for the most part. The mystery was still enjoyable no matter how predictable it was. Like I said before, the “how” of things was interesting to see unfold. There was also good comedy that did not feel forced, it came at the right moments and it wasn’t over-the-top. The romance wasn't the strongest with any of the pairings the drama offered.

I recommend it to anyone who just wants to expand their K-drama knowledge, but nothing in particular stands out with this drama seeing that the sci-fi aspect took the effect similar to adding glitter to something for the sake of making it a little more interesting.

In the end is just a murder mystery.

#6 Vincenzo (3.5/5)

Brief intro taken from Google: During a visit to his motherland, a Korean-Italian mafia lawyer gives a conglomerate a taste of its own medicine with a side of justice.

This one was highly praised by a lot of people, I don’t think I’ve seen a single online review that didn’t praise this drama. So you can bet my expectations were high, especially because my parents were also praising it non-stop (they watched it before me). Hate to say that this was one of the dramas that took me the longest to watch. This is the reason I ended up taking forever to get the October list. I just couldn’t get into it. At first, it had me, the dark tone with the mafia scene and the rivalry between Vincenzo (played by Song Joong-ki) and his “brother” worked on me. But I was left disappointed when Vincenzo travelled back to Korea and the following scene was him getting robbed. I paused it and didn’t watch it again until I realized a month had gone by since I watched a drama. I dislike it when a series looks out to be suspenseful and dark only to be filled with way too much humor and irrelevant side plots. This drama had a lot of them, and even if they connected to the main plot of the series, they had too many that I lost interest in any “new” information we got. The good thing I’ll say is that the series is well-written as it wasn't hard to understand, it made sense at the end, and the characters were not boring but I wasn’t particularly interested in any of them but one person.

The main characters and pairing, Vincenzo and Hong Cha-young (played by Jeon Yeo-been), did not intrigue me. It was hard to like Cha-young at first, but while she grew on me, the romance between her and Vincenzo wasn’t interesting to me. It was another drama where I was a lot more keen to figure out who the bad guy was rather than following the romance plotline. Oh! That reminds me, the big bad villain wasn’t at all who we expected it to be. That was something that finally managed to catch my interest because it connected to the only person/character that I liked – Jang Han Seo (played by Kwak Dong-yeon). Don’t get me started on how cheated I feel by the way his story got wrapped up, I’m still fuming. I’ll be honest, I watched that last episode with absolutely no feeling. I just wanted it to be over because I don’t like leaving things unfinished.

Before I go on one of the many rants I could have gone by this point in the list, my final thoughts on this beloved drama are simple: Watch it if you like to see suspense and gore with a lot of silliness in between. That or you can just watch it to see Song Joong-ki and 2PM’s Taecyeon in suits.

#5 Mr. Queen (4/5)

Brief intro taken from Google: A modern chef suddenly becomes trapped inside the body of a queen from the Joseon era, which causes chaos for everyone involved.

I knew I was going to like this one just by how silly the trailer was. I did enjoy it quite a lot. I don’t think I have much to complain about. The only thing could be that I thought the story would talk about both Jang Bong-hwan (played by Choi Jin-hyuk) and Kim So-yong (played by Shin Hye-sun) as they were in each other’s bodies. It turned out to be solely about Bong-hawn being inside So-yong’s body as we hear everything from his voice. That didn’t last long either as a near-death experience (which is the link that would allow them back into each other’s body) forced them to intertwine their “essences”. Instead of hearing Bong-hwan’s voice, we hear So-yong’s voice (still Bong-hwan in control though) as now both of them are inside the same body.

While the show is mostly a comedy, it does offer an amazing tale of a thought-dumb King who tries his best to avenge the Joseon people and take revenge on those who killed his family. The appealing thing is that the King was never in love with his Queen, while she was. But Bong-hwan, who is trying to go back to his time, manages to steal King Cheoljong’s (played by Kim Jung-hyun) heart as this new So-yong turns intriguing under his eyes. There are also a lot of things in So-yong’s life that Bong-hwan fixes as he realizes just how sad she had lived to the point she tried to end her life. After a while, Bong-hwan realizes there is no way back to his time, and he decides to live as So-yong to the best of his ability, especially after unexpected circumstances force him into survival mode.

The romance plot, as mentioned before, is interesting, to say the least. While King Cheoljong falls in love with So-yong as Bong-hwan brings out a new side to the once cold Queen, when So-yong and Bong-hwan intertwine, Bong-hwan begins to both fall in love with the King and remember So-yong’s life before the incident. While his feelings are manipulated by the mere presence of the rightful owner of the body, he is the one mostly in charge. This offered the funniest identity crisis moment I’ve watched.

By the time the series ended, I was left a little upset because, during the most crucial moment, Bong-hwan went back to his time. Thus, So-yong was fully herself once again, leaving Bong-hwan unaware of what came next in history. That is until he runs to a library and looks up Cheonljong’s name on the internet.

In conclusion, I enjoyed this drama a lot. It was interesting in many areas, and while some moments felt lackluster with the side characters, there were few so they hardly affected the drama’s flow. I recommend it if you want to watch a silly period drama with a well-written tale of Joseon times.

#4 Destined with You (4/5)

Brief intro taken from Google: A lawyer bound by a centuries-old curse becomes entangled with a civil servant who holds the key to his freedom.

This drama caught my eye from the trailer alone. It didn’t matter that Rowoon starred in it as Jang Sin-yu, but the creepy bloody hand trying to touch him was what made me click on it. I hate horror but I couldn’t stop thinking about it which is why I finished watching the trailer to see whether or not it was full horror. It is not. It’s mostly comedy as the premise of the drama is spell gone wrong. Lee Hong-jo (played by Jo Bo-ah) ends up with a box with a book of spells that supposedly belongs to her, given to her by the indifferent Sin-yu. Little did they know that the box belonged to Hong-jo’s past life self and that the box had been buried by Sin-yu’s past life self. In other words, they had met in their past life, creating a bond not only by destiny but by a curse put on the Jang lineage (only men if I’m correct).

When Hong-jo, rejected by her work crush, decides to try a love spell on her crush. That goes wrong when her intended target ends up not drinking it but Sin-yu (among other people). As they try to find an out of the very uncomfortable situation, a lot more than a spell is what causes chaos in both their lives.

I’ll admit that the characters felt a little rough at first like I wasn’t sure if I was going to like them but they grew on me rather quickly. The side characters, who usually grow on me first, didn’t this time around. If anything, Sin-yu’s mother and his best friend did have an interesting dynamic that I’m still a little annoyed it didn’t turn out like I wanted. But I guess that means the main couple was a lot more interesting like I expect every drama to be like. Funny how not that many have actually managed to wow me like this one.

What I disliked about this drama are two things I feel I’m mostly nitpicking. The first one is how much the Korean “beauty” standards were highlighted in the drama. While most times this is done to raise awareness of how ridiculous beauty standards are in Korea, this drama did not criticize it. I feel like it rather agreed with it. Hong-jo has two co-workers whom I totally detest, both of them played the roles of your typical insecure, beauty, and loved-obsessed people. They constantly made rude comments about Hong-jo when they felt jealous at the attention she was getting from Sin-yu and Kwon Jae-kyung (played by Ha Jun), there were instances where they voiced how if “ugly” and “average-looking” people could date, so could they. That didn’t sit right with me. It honestly bugged me, and I have always felt annoyed when actors who don’t fit the high beauty standards of the industry get cast for the sole purpose of being the end of a joke. The second thing was the stalker. I feel like the show didn’t need it, and it just added it for the sake of having Sin-yu be Hong-jo’s savior. While I still think the stalker must’ve drank some of the love potion, I think we could have just not had that in. But that’s how I feel about that. You could find it a lot more suspenseful to have that added to the drama.

My final thoughts still remain mostly positive, I enjoyed the ending and it offer a satisfactory wrap-up to all its storyplots. I will say I’m glad I watched it after it had ended because I finished it within a day. I don’t think I would have been able to wait a week for a single episode. I might’ve committed crimes had I been forced to wait.

#3 Tale of the Nine-Tailed (4.5/5)

Brief intro taken from Google: A nine-tailed fox abdicates his position as the guardian mountain spirit of Baekdudaegan to search for the reincarnation of his one true love.

I finally got around to watching this drama – one that a lot of people loved as well. Happy to say that I enjoyed it a lot as well! As some may know, I love fantasy and this drama was literally what I’d been craving. Lee Yeon (played by Lee Dong-wook), a former mountain god, is a Gumiho who has lived over a thousand years awaiting for his former lover to be reincarnated with a gift that would allow him to recognize the correct reincarnation of her. In the meantime, he works for the Afterline Immigration Office (basically the nexus to the afterlife) as he hunts down supernatural beings that harm humans. But his mundane life comes to unravel when a girl he saved when younger ends up discovering a connection between him and a supposed runaway bride (Lee Yeon hunted her down for eating humans). Thus, Nam Ji-ah (played by Jo Bo-ah) discovers that Lee Yeon is a nine-tailed fox. Obsessed with the supernatural after her parents disappeared and doubles attempted to kill her, Ji-ah blackmails Lee Yeon into helping her find her parents as she remembers him from the time he saved her life. Ji-ah, who not only looks like Lee Yeon’s first and only love, is the correct reincarnation of Ah-eum. So it’s very hard for Lee Yeon not to fall in love with her, and with Lee Yeon showing his sweet side to contrast his cool and cocky personality, Ji-ah ends up falling for him as well. Not to say that there aren’t some ups and downs as an old supernatural being gets awoken… and who happens to want to take revenge on Lee Yeon.

Lee Yeon and Ji-ah’s relationship was incredibly romantic and heart-fluttery, but its magic did wear off after a while. I think is because I realized that nothing was going to happen to either of them in the long run. I know that I shouldn’t assume anything, but sometimes is so obvious that even if something does happen, somehow they get brought back to life. But I’m not crediting my disinterest on that alone, I just happened to love the side characters a lot more. For example, Lee Yeon’s half-brother, Lee Rang (played by Kim Bum). Aside from giving us the best I-hate-that-I-love-my-bother dynamic, Lee Rang’s character arc was the most interesting to me. Without getting into too much detail, he starts as the reason behind why the big bad guy was awoken but ends up being the one who saves his older brother.

…it’s concerning how long my list of tragic heroes I wish would have lived gets longer by tv show/movie I watch…

Anyway, my final thoughts on the show are that I wish Lee Rang hadn’t been a victim of redemption-and-atonement-by-death trope. One day maybe I won’t have to cry for a fictional man who just deserved unconditional love and words of affirmation…

There is a season two that came out last year (2023) available on Prime Video but I honestly didn’t have the strength to see Lee Rang again… I might’ve not made it past the first episode without a crying-induced migraine...

#2 Hotel Del Luna (4/5)

Brief intro taken from Google: Located in the middle of Seoul, Hotel del Luna is the eponymous hotel that caters only to ghosts; the beautiful but ill-tempered CEO is cursed to manage the hotel due to a terrible crime she committed, but cannot remember.

I have no idea why I decided to watch this drama when I can hardly watch a silly scary video without having to sleep with the lights on… but I managed to watch it. Although it took me a while to get the hang of it, I ended up liking it a lot by the end of it. I’ll admit that having another ‘past life’ drama on my plate almost made me want to turn off the TV, but this particular drama didn’t mix that with the main romance… much.

Goo Chang-sung (played by Yeo Jin-goo) ends up being sold by his dying father to Jang Man-wol (played by IU) who is the owner of a hotel catering to ghosts. This causes Chang-sung to be thrown into the world of the supernatural much to his dismay. As a man who graduated to work at the best hotels in the world, he initially refuses to work for a hotel that only those who have died and have grudges can see. In all fairness, I wouldn’t want to either, I might end up becoming a guest the minute a gruesome-looking ghost looks at me… which almost happened… Anyway, the drama presents us with the romantic development between boss and employee as Chang-sung decides to work for Man-wol – a soul stuck as the owner of Hotel Del Luna because of her deep grudges and a dark past she can't quite remember. Man-wol needs to confront her past and heal her grudges to not end up vanishing like ghosts who turn malignant and hurt humans. Chang-sung ends up warming her cold heart causing Man-wol’s and the viewer’s hearts to skip a beat. But as a romance between a ghost and a human is hardly something to end up with a happy ending, there are ups and downs they both will have to face. Yet those issues feel momentarily smaller as their feelings toward each other only seem to bloom like flowers.

Funnily enough, Man-wol and Chang-sung wasn’t my first choice of main couple romance… I wanted Man-wol to face the man she had loved in her past… but honestly, that was a ride on its own without the love part. There was also another little romance on the side with two other characters, and that one left me breathless from how much I cried for them. I’m not going to say anything else, I might start crying if I even write their names ㅠㅠ

The ending did leave me a bit confused but I have my theory about it that makes me feel slightly better about having spent two days watching this drama. I recommend it to anyone who wants some spooky vibes with romance in the mix.

#1 Cafe Minamdang (4.8/5)

Brief intro taken from Google: Mysterious events unfold at a café.

Ah, yes. My highest-rated drama on this list. This is, hands down, one of my favorite dramas and is constantly playing in the background when I’m cleaning or just want to watch TV when I’m working on my computer. Nam Han-joon (played by Seo In-guk) is a popular Shaman and owner of a cafe where he works his magic as a Shaman. But he is no real Shaman – though his luck at times makes you wonder if a spirit is guiding him – Nam Han-joon is a criminal profiler whose career got destroyed when he was wrongfully accused of having a hand in the murder of a prosecutor. Nam Han-joon’s best friend at that. After completing his sentence, he sets forth to avenge his best friend as well as clean his name by finding the real murderer, and a misunderstanding leads him to take the role of shaman. It does take him where he needs to be so he can catch the real murderer.

This drama has both an intense mystery and perfect comedic timing that made me love it so much. It was like watching Scooby-Doo; it had the over-the-top reactions and fighting scenes. Not to mention the fact that the unveiling of the criminal is always not who you think it is… But even in between giggles and knee-slapping jokes, the drama managed to deliver a well-paced plot and powerful twist. For someone who tends to guess who the killer is right away, this one took me to the very last piece of evidence to get it right.

As you can see, this drama didn’t get a perfect score (and knowing me none ever will hehe). My only issue was with the main romantic pairing – I did not like it. Han-joon and Han Jae-hui (played by Oh Yeon-seo) did very little to interest me. It was sorta amusing seeing Han-joon be completely smitten with Jea-hui because she’s fierce and can protect him – it’s literally the funniest thing that he likes being babied. But I feel like it would have been a lot more interesting to see Jae-hui and Cha Do-won (played by Kwon Soo-hyun) get together as they worked to find the killer. I mean, I have my reasons and once you watch this drama – or if you have seen it – you’ll understand why I think it would have been interesting. Other than that, I was pleased.

In the very last scene that we get to see Nam Han-joon, it is hinted that there is another serial killer on the loose ready to be caught by the Minamdang gang, but as the show was released in 2022 I have little hope. There haven’t been any announcements either as far as I know, so I’ll just have to settle with rewatching this until I get sick and bored lol.

There you have it! My supposed October 2023 list that ended up extending up to February 2024. Hopefully, my next list won’t take me that long to complete, but I can’t make any promises. Just know that I will be coming back with a next round of dramas to watch!