My K-Drama Journey
BRIEF REVIEWS OF THE SHOWS I’VE SEEN, LISTED SEQUENTIALLY
the journey started with Extraordinary Attorney Woo.
k-drama fans call this journey a ‘rabbit hole,’ and i’m here for it!
Woo Young-woo is an autistic female rookie attorney hired by a major law firm in Seoul. Park Sun-bin, in the title role, is absolutely fantastic. Each of the 16 episodes largely stands on its own, focusing on a legal case that Woo tackles in her own brilliant and extraordinary way.
An office drama about Kang Hyo-min, a rookie lawyer at Yullim Law Firm, who is upright and confident but awkward in social life. With the help of her partner, the cold but experienced and talented lawyer Yoon Seok-hoon, she flourishes into a full-fledged lawyer. Episode 5, dealing with a potentially forged painting, is magnificent. The relationship between these two characters nicely evolves to a point where you’re certain a second season is coming.
Cho Seung-woo plays Shin Sung-han, a professor at a music college in Germany until he receives shocking news, and consequently becomes a lawyer specializing in divorce litigation. This 12-episode series has a wonderful ensemble cast of characters that I came to love immediately.
Probably the best I’ve yet seen. This 16-episode series tells the magnificent story of a successful entrepreneur from South Korea who accidentally finds herself in North Korea. The story is intricately woven with side stories and a cast of characters who (for the most part) you’ll love. Just when you think you know where this story is going, you don’t.
I’m not into ‘fantasy’ or ‘mystical’ themes that much; there were things I didn’t really ‘get’ while watching this one. Nonetheless, this 30-part series captivated me as the episodes progressed. There were characters I really liked (and would have noodles with), and one villain I despised. Set in a fictional country called Daeho, I would have liked to have seen a map of the various locations. It was somewhat difficult for me to understand who was from where, and the distances between the cities.
A young school girl (Moon Dong-eun, played by Song Hye-kyo) is physically tortured by older classmates and then plots revenge against them…one girl in particular…nearly two decades later. The girl is aided in her plot by others (including Joo Yeo-jeong, played by Lim Dong-hyun). The intricate and strategic board game GO is used as a plot device by Moon as she plots against her tormenters. This series was rather difficult to watch, with characters who were largely unlikeable to a greater or lesser degree. The performances, while all very good, couldn’t overcome a sad story overall.
I simply could get no traction with this and gave up after Ep. 9. A meandering, somewhat disjointed story involving two young adults growing up in a seaside fishing village, where commerce is measured in abalone and conches.
I would have preferred a more ‘linear’ approach to the storytelling. Instead, there was no continuity. Moving from one episode to the next felt like watching a whole different show.
After laboring to reach the halfway point of the 16-episode ‘When Life Gives You Tangerines,’ I decided to tackle a show much shorter than that. ‘CA$HERO’ is only eight episodes long and it tells the story of three superheroes, each with unique strengths.
One of them—our protagonist—becomes powerful in the midst of money (‘CA$HERO’); another gets his through consuming alcohol; the third gets her strength from chowing down on carbohydrates. There are villains, obviously, who are trying to extract these powers for nefarious purposes.
‘CA$HERO’ isn’t award-winning stuff, and the characters aren’t the kind you’d necessarily pick as friends. Nonetheless, it’s light, fanciful fun where good versus evil goes the way you’d want it to.
