January ‘21 Dramas — wine and a kdrama

I can’t believe we’re already at the end of January. This month was spent watching a lot of stuff for a Certified Noona’s podcast and the new podcast I’m on, Good Time With Crime, so I didn’t get to much outside of that.

This month also starts a three month project for me. Voice 4 is scheduled to air May of this year, and as I have never seen any of the previous seasons, I thought I would change that. I’ll be watching one season each month until the drama airs, starting this month.

+ Completed

Cherry Magic - 30歳まで童貞だと魔法使いになれるらしい: As I mentioned before, a lot of the dramas I watched (or attempted to watch) were for an episode of the Certified Noonas where we featured Machida Keita and Akaso Eiji. We also specifically watched this one for the episode to discuss a little bit more. I hadn’t watched it when all the craze was happening cause I was watching other things, and if I’m going to forgo dramas it’s usually ones like these. I didn’t like it as much as everyone, I’m sorry. I did find some aspects really nice about it, just felt a lot of the plot development and writing was off. I know it’s not the intention for a drama like this, but still was bummed it didn’t have the same magic that everyone had told me it would.
Alice in Borderland - 今際の国のアリス: Battle Royale + escape rooms. I really liked Alice in Borderland for the most part. I do think it got bogged down in the middle section and really tanked some of the thrilling aspects from the first third and made it hard to get back to that height for the last third, but all-in-all it was fun ride.
Parallel Tokyo - パラレル東京: I picked this drama special up because of Machida, and while he wasn’t in it very much I’m glad I watched it. It’s about a news station after a massive earthquake has hit Tokyo. Was it perfect? No. But I did like that it was heightened and dramatic from the first second it started.
Gap Dong - 갑동이: The last drama I watched this month, and again for a podcast episode, was Gap Dong. I go over a bit of a review on the episode and am going to link it here so you can listen to it (please, we just launched. Help us out with listens) but I will say that I overall didn’t really enjoy my time watching it. I though the plot was messy and the characters inconstant and was too much focused on being a makjang than a crime drama. Lee Joon was great though.

+ Currently Watching

+ New Dramas/Movies
February has an enormous amount of dramas premiering that I’m excited for. Probably the most in one month I’ve ever experienced. The way my viewing habits work out the chance of watching and keeping up with all of these may be slim but I really want to at least start all of these. Most of this starts towards the middle of the month and am hoping to get through some of my currently watching above beforehand.

Jan 1 L.U.C.A: The Beginning - 루카: 더 비기닝 // tvN (Viki)
I love Lee Da Hee. Love her. The trailers and pictures look really good for this one so I’m excited for it’s premiere. It’s a thriller, it’s got supernatural aspects - it looks intense. Great way to start the month.

Jan 5 Little Big Women - 孤味 // Netflix
I saw the trailer for this when Netflix first released it, and it looks like a solid multi-generational family drama.

Jan 5 Space Sweepers - 승리호 // Netflix
Do I really need to explain to you why I want to watch this?

Jan 10 Sisyphus the Myth - 시지프스: The Myth // jTBC (Netflix)
Another sci-fi/fantasy/mystery that I don’t know much about in fear of spoilers but the cast looks incredible and the stills have looked really cool.

Jan 11 Nishiogikubo Mitsuboshi Yoshudo - 西荻窪三ツ星洋酒堂 // MBS
Machida’s new drama, and it looks like a really good slice of life drama. I may end up waiting till this one fully airs since it is only 6 - half hour episodes, but also might keep it because of that. We’ll see.

Jan 12 Beyond Evil - 괴물 // jTBC
If there is one drama on this list that I can definitively say that I will most likely love and keep up with, it’s this one. Serial killer. Pychological thriller. Yeo Jin Goo. I really can’t wait for this one.

Jan 20 Times - 타임즈 // OCN
Times is a political drama, so I might end up not falling in love with it, but it does have some sci-fi time travel elements and is an OCN drama…so we are giving it a chance. I’ve also really liked Lee Joo Young in all that I’ve seen her do.

Jan 20 Vincenzo - 빈센조 // tvN (Netflix)
I am cautiously hopeful for this drama, but I think it might have a little too much going against it as something I would like for it to pan out. Not always into mafia stories…and as of right now even after all of these serious trailers it still has romance comedy tags. And I really, really don’t want that. But I’m going to try. I have to. For Taec.

Jan 24 Mouse - 마우스 // tvN
Ok. I might have lied. Beyond Evil isn’t the only drama on this list that I’m pretty sure I’m going to be into, and yet again it is the serial killer one. This one looks like it’s going to focus more on the psychology behind the serial killer, which is something I’m super interested. It also has Lee Seung Gi in it. Will this be my first complete drama from him?

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