Drama Recs #10
2022-01-29 03:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rodo1. Bossam: Steal the Fate: In the 17th century, down on his luck single father Ba Wu accidentally abducts (as part of a remarriage custom) a widowed princess, whose father-in-law promptly fakes her death to avoid a scandal. That leaves Ba Wu and the princess stuck in an impossible place between two opposing political factions and the king, all of whom would benefit from her actual death… This drama stays pretty even in quality all the way through, and I really enjoyed Ba Wu and the princess coming to respect each other and slowly falling in love, even if I would have preferred their romance to be less tame (it’s very tame). I also thought Kwon Yuri made an excellent princess, and I enjoyed her character’s poise and good manners, which hide a will of steel and a sharp mind.
2. The Crowned Clown: A king who is slowly descending into madness gets paranoid, and so his minister conscripts a street entertainer named Ha-sun who looks exactly like the king to take his place. Things go relatively smoothly, until Ha-sun begins to fall for the queen… so, what makes this drama stand out is Yeo Jin-goo, whose performance as the king/clown is just superb. He really managed to get all the nuances of both characters – from madness to naiveté, and Ha-sun was also written in a way that makes you believe why everyone keeps falling for him, queen obviously included.
3. Happiness: Anti-terror specialist Sae-bom and police detective Yi-hyun have been friends forever. Then Sae-bom suggests faking a marriage to get her hands on a great apartment, and Yi-hyun agrees. It just so happens that that’s when the zombie apocalypse starts… I really like this series because of two things: the lovable main characters who love each other very much and are a great team, and what it does with zombies. I don’t think I’ve seen a take yet where zombies don’t just stay zombies once they’re turned, but instead return to being people. Often enough in zombie series, you see people treat zombies as if they’re still people, and in this one, it makes sense, actually. A warning, though: Covid is mentioned repeatedly as the last big pandemic the characters have experienced.
4. The King’s Affection: Prince Lee Hwi has a secret twin sister. When he gets murdered while they exchange places, his twin sister has to keep living his life or risk getting killed herself. Then, years later, her first love steps back into her life… This series shines mostly because of the many, many lovely characters, first of all the female main character. It takes the actress a bit, and she’ll never really look the part, but she definitely does a good job pretending to be a man. And the men in her life love her just as she is – we rarely see her wear a dress, and if she does, it’s as a disguise. Plus, her love interest falls in love while still thinking she’s a man and he’s the romantic one who loves picking flowers and being “girly”. It’s rare to get that dynamic in a historical drama, and I love it!
5. L.U.C.A.: The Beginning: So, I’m going to do something I don’t usually do and spoil the ending, since that’s what makes this series stand out from other Korean dramas. If you don’t want to know, stop reading. Anyway, this series is a villain origin story, which was done in a very believable way. It has a really sympathetic main character whom you really want a happy end for, but who then gets twisted through loss and pain into something else, and it’s only too understandable that he ends up the way he does. If villain origin stories are your jam, watch this series.
2. The Crowned Clown: A king who is slowly descending into madness gets paranoid, and so his minister conscripts a street entertainer named Ha-sun who looks exactly like the king to take his place. Things go relatively smoothly, until Ha-sun begins to fall for the queen… so, what makes this drama stand out is Yeo Jin-goo, whose performance as the king/clown is just superb. He really managed to get all the nuances of both characters – from madness to naiveté, and Ha-sun was also written in a way that makes you believe why everyone keeps falling for him, queen obviously included.
3. Happiness: Anti-terror specialist Sae-bom and police detective Yi-hyun have been friends forever. Then Sae-bom suggests faking a marriage to get her hands on a great apartment, and Yi-hyun agrees. It just so happens that that’s when the zombie apocalypse starts… I really like this series because of two things: the lovable main characters who love each other very much and are a great team, and what it does with zombies. I don’t think I’ve seen a take yet where zombies don’t just stay zombies once they’re turned, but instead return to being people. Often enough in zombie series, you see people treat zombies as if they’re still people, and in this one, it makes sense, actually. A warning, though: Covid is mentioned repeatedly as the last big pandemic the characters have experienced.
4. The King’s Affection: Prince Lee Hwi has a secret twin sister. When he gets murdered while they exchange places, his twin sister has to keep living his life or risk getting killed herself. Then, years later, her first love steps back into her life… This series shines mostly because of the many, many lovely characters, first of all the female main character. It takes the actress a bit, and she’ll never really look the part, but she definitely does a good job pretending to be a man. And the men in her life love her just as she is – we rarely see her wear a dress, and if she does, it’s as a disguise. Plus, her love interest falls in love while still thinking she’s a man and he’s the romantic one who loves picking flowers and being “girly”. It’s rare to get that dynamic in a historical drama, and I love it!
5. L.U.C.A.: The Beginning: So, I’m going to do something I don’t usually do and spoil the ending, since that’s what makes this series stand out from other Korean dramas. If you don’t want to know, stop reading. Anyway, this series is a villain origin story, which was done in a very believable way. It has a really sympathetic main character whom you really want a happy end for, but who then gets twisted through loss and pain into something else, and it’s only too understandable that he ends up the way he does. If villain origin stories are your jam, watch this series.
