KDrama Addicts Anonymous (#7)

[boatyardblues]

A quiet corner of MN for serious addicts of Kdrama, or the Kdrama-curious. Most of our viewing is drawn from Netflix and Viki, but there other sources, including Dramabus (non subscription, possibly dodgy) and AmazonPrime.

The previous thread is linked below, but our ‘Addicts Recommend’ list is cumulative so includes recommendations and favourites from all of the previous threads:

Thread 6

Shows marked with asterisk(s) are more uniformly loved or admired. In categorising series, its important to note most Korean dramas have multiple strands - e.g. romance and thriller; supernatural, romance and a thriller, crime series with blossoming relationship aspects. Genre-busting mash-ups are normal. Series that are tagged as dark may also have moments of comedy or the absurd, likewise fluff can have heavier elements. View the categories below as best approximate & ask if you need guidance, eg about suitability for younger teens.

Comedy (with a side order of absurd)
I picked up a celebrity on the street (Viki)
My Fellow Citizens (Viki)

Crime/Thriller
Healer (Netflix)*
Heartless City (Viki)
He is Psychometric (Viki)
I Hear Your Voice (Netflix /Viki)
Life on Mars (classy remake of BBC series, Dramafast)
Live (Netflix)
Pride & Prejudice (Netflix)*
Prison Playbook (Netflix)*
Suspicious Partner (Netflix)*

Historical/Period drama (“sageuk”)
Crowned Clown (Viki)
Mr Sunshine (Netflix)

Romance - lighter & fluffier
Beating Again (Netflix)
Coffee Prince (Netflix)
Don’t Dare to Dream (Netflix, or as Jealousy Incarnate on Viki)*
Happy Once Again (Netflix)
Her Private Life (Viki)*
His Master’s Sun (Netflix)
Love from a Star (Netflix)*
Pinocchio (Netflix)
Radio Romance (Netflix)
Romance is the Bonus Book (Netflix)**
She Was Pretty (Dramabus/Netflix)*
The Beauty Inside (Viki/Netflix)
Thirty Not Seventeen (Viki)
Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo (Netflix/Viki)
What’s Up With Secretary Kim (Viki)**
You are my Destiny (Netflix)

Romance - heavier weight/more grown up themes
Because This Is My First Life (Viki)*
Chicago Typewriter (Viki)*
Descendants of the Sun (Viki/Netflix)
Fight For My Way (Viki/Drama bus)*
Just Between Lovers (Viki)**
My Strange Hero (Viki)
One Spring Night (Netflix)
Red Carpet - film (Netflix, very adult content)
Search: WWW (Viki)*
Something in the Rain (Netflix)
The Package (Viki)

Supernatural/fantasy/sci-fi - fluffier
Goblin (Viki)*
I am not a Robot (Netflix)
Legend of the Blue Sea (Viki/Netflix)
While You Were Sleeping (Viki)*

Supernatural/fantasy/sci-fi - darker
Black (Netflix)*
The Guest (Dramafast)
W (Viki & Netflix)*

Zombies
Kingdom (Netflix)*
Train to Busan - film (Amazon Prime)

Mad as a box of frogs/uncategorisable
Strong Girl Bong Soon (Netflix)
The Last Empress (Viki)

Not Korean but just try it
Regulars occasionally branch out into Japanese, Taiwanese and Chinese drama. The Chinese & Taiwanese stuff is much more variable quality-wise, so we’ve noted anything decent here:

Love O2O (Viki - Chinese)
Morning Call (Netflix - Japanese)

We have some lovely occasional posters who have lived in Korea, are Korean or have Korean partners/family members who pop in from time to time to provide the context for some of the more baffling cultural references. (Although its possible we have scared them all away since our early threads with the fangirling. If you’re still reading, please say hi.)

We are generally fans of all things Korean, so equally happy to talk about Korean food/cookery, film and kpop when the mood takes us. To get to grips with the lingo, try dramaloveaddicts.proboards.com/thread/24/korean-word-day?page=1

We have a few frequently used acronyms:
FL/2FL = female lead/2nd female lead
ML/2ML = male lead/2nd male lead
SLS = Second Lead Syndrome (where the FL/MLis too dense to realise how much better the 2ML/2FL is)

We also abbreviate titles if they’re long, but usually only after using the full title & acronym together or an obvious shortening. Some of the regular favourite actors & actresses have been abbreviated too for speed/efficiency, eg Lee Jong-Suk (LJS), Park Min Young (PMY), Ji Chang Wook (JCW) and his hotness Kim Jae Wook (HH KJW). Don’t be afraid to ask for help/clues if we’re not making sense or have descended into acronym soup.

If you want to join us down the kdrama rabbit hole, welcome! Pull up a chair, say goodbye to early nights and get stuck in…

OMG!!! Song Ga Gyeongs parents are the worst EVER!!!!! They are soooo Awful!!!

I think Sacrlett is my favourite Female character in a Kdrama!

still watching... sneaking ep15 in before the hoards declare they're hungry!!!

You're so close Bea! Isn't WWW just wonderful? Her parents are some terrible human beings. I know people do strange things for money, but I could never use my own child to get money and abandon them to try keep it.

Hello everyone, I have been lurking for a few months having got into subtitled drama through Love O2O, and now totally hooked and spent the weekend binge watching Black Knight on Netflix, DH thinks I have gone slightly mad...

Hi Cassini, Love O2O is wonderful isn't it. I'm glad you're joining us. Don't worry my DP doesn't get it either, that's why I come to this lovely thread. Have you watched any other dramas?

Quite a lot...
When I see you again
Descendants of the sun
Well intended love
I hear you
Oh my Venus

I think I prefer the k dramas to the Taiwanese ones but liked the mainland Mandarin ones.

Can I ask what the cultural obsession with Prosecutors is in k drama?

And thanks for the welcome

Welcome Cassini! Oh No! You've found the bliss that is Kdrama... you'll soon have only kdrama content on your netflix and the start subscribing to Viki!
It's a joy! and you soon learn to function with just 4 hours sleep!!!!

Disappointing jajangmyeon sounds like a weird high fantasy concept prog rock band.
That made laugh out loud like a complete loon while walking the dog 😱🤣😎

Hi Cassini join in with the chats you know you want to! I liked Love O2O too

Bea I want to be Scarlett!! And I was OMG at the dastardly parents too, her ex husband is so lovely

Maybe it's because they're well paid, well educated and in most cases just and honest. I've noticed a love of doctors too, probably for similar reasons.

I should add, there was a woman at the table across from us in the Korean restaurant earlier regaling her two lunch companions (looked like colleagues) with her love of kdrama and showing them photos of oppas on her ‘phone, saying they were all a bit young for her & she needed to find more age appropriate idols. I idly wondered if she was one of you lot, but I felt an immediate kinship. I think there are more of us about than we realise, based on turnout for an event I attended earlier this year (being deliberately vague).

Oh and welcome Cassini!

DH thinks I have gone slightly mad...

This is not uncommon in our nearest and dearest. I just point my DSs to the many, many hours of overwatch/Fortnite/Minecraft/obscure hobby YouTube content they have consumed & told them people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

Yes boatyard if my DP starts on about not understanding dramas or why I like them, I mention the hours I've sat and watched him play video games (including at least half the time I was in labour) and the amount of videos he just had to watch because they are in some way important to the game?

I agree that the MLs can be a bit young (and I couldn't fancy any man who spends more on face creams than me!). So I enjoyed black knight as Kim Rae-Won is older.

Trying something out here, as I can see in threads I’m on that Hello and Cassini have replied but I can’t read their posts in the thread. 🙄

I agree that the MLs can be a bit young (and I couldn't fancy any man who spends more on face creams than me!). So I enjoyed black knight as Kim Rae-Won is older.

Every now and then I think one of the actors/actresses are much, much older but still attractive. I look them up & find we’re of a similar vintage or I’m older. In my mind I’m somewhere between 28 and 35 so that Park Morgan guy and Kim Jae Wook are viable dating options.

Well it wasn't me in the restaurant as i was waiting in all day for someone to come and fix a black box in ds's car then was out with the go.

But i am now v curious as to your deliberately vague activity boatyard.......?

I can’t post more without it being outing. But it wasn’t a fan meet or a BTS gig.

Out with the DOG that should've said.

In my mind I’m somewhere between 28 and 35 so that Park Morgan guy and Kim Jae Wook are viable dating options

Oh sigh......me tooo! Anyone younger than 28 I just view as a beautiful creature in an art gallery.

I was shocked to learn how young Yeo Jin Goon (Crowned Clown) is: 21!!!! 😮 But it hopefully means he has a long & successful career ahead of him.

Well that's the thing, he is very close in age to ds so he is in my gorgeous young things gallery - he is very beautiful - not my oppas list.

I feel maternal towards him too and appreciate his lovely skin, but agree he is not an oppa.

On account of me not being a 17 year old girl. 😄

Cassini is Black Knight worth a go? I've read mixed reviews.

I spent the last week binge-watching When I See You Again & Sweet Stranger & Me and need another one while waiting for on-air dramas.

Have caught up with Hotel del Luna and it is quality