Miss Sherlock (Japanese Drama, New)
J-drama’s take on Sherlock! Episode one was pretty good, and I liked the female versions of Sherlock and Watson. My only hesitation is that the Sherlock character here seems crazier…at least right off the bat. I am used to Sherlocks that are eccentric, rude, and full of himself, but this particular one comes off a bit more mentally unstable than usual. However, episode one still looked pretty good. I am not holding out hope that it could rival Robert Downey Jr. or Benedict Cumberbatch’s version but I think it should be entertaining anyway.
The Legend of Jade Sword (Chinese Drama, New)
Hawick Lau’s new 65 episode Chinese fantasy where our hero will have to embark on an epic journey in a world where mythical gods and folklore are all real. I only had time to check out the first episode…so really didn’t see much other then enough to say the CGI looks decent and the story certainly feels epic.
Here to Heart (Chinese Drama, New)
Zhang Han and Janine Chang star as two lovers who after a traumatic breakup in their youth are still unable to forget each other seven years later. Gathering up all her courage to come back to China after living overseas, our heroine ignores her sister’s plea that our hero is no longer the man she remembers from the past but is now a CEO of a very successful company. Getting a job in our hero’s company, our heroine is surprised when she is unexpectedly promoted to become the CEO’s personal secretary.
C-drama sure has been on a first love reunion kick lately. What set this particular one apart is that the story starts off right away with our two leads’ reunion instead of wading through all the innocent love school days. Judging by the first couple episode, I think the story will focus mostly on the “now” instead of the past. Of course I am also assuming we will still get plenty of flashbacks since there is a big mystery of what caused our two leads’ to break up in the first place. Here to Heart looks pretty solid all around, from the cast to story and the comfortable chemistry between our two leads. (Zhang Han and Janine Chang have been in three dramas together. The second time as the leads.) My only concern…a minor one, is that the tone of the show feels sad. The plot itself is not sad per se and none of our lead characters is the melodramatic type, but the whole time I am watching the show I just feel sorry for our two leads and almost wish the show would end quickly so those two poor souls could have their happy ending. Don’t let me put you off from checking this one out though…especially since I myself is totally planning on following it. The show does look very promising and it is a fun premise to have two leads who are set on getting each other back but neither know what the other is up to.
She Is Beautiful (Chinese Drama, New)
Born with a birthmark on her face, our heroine refuses to live her life like she has something to hide even if she is resigned that no one would love her as she is. Forced by her little brother to join a dating service after putting on makeup to hide her birthmark, our heroine has a rather unpleasant first meeting with our hero. Dismayed when she returns to work to discover the pervert she met at the dating service is her newest co-worker, our heroine purposefully shows her birthmark in hopes that our hero would believe she is not the same woman he met earlier that day.
This one started off really fun then kinda got slow with all the secondary plot. I think the love line between our two leads will still be plenty fun but I will most likely be watching it while fast-forwarding through the secondary plotlines.
Single Wife (Korean Drama)
Confident she is on the verge of getting a proposal from her chaebol boyfriend, our heroine is horrified when she finds out that her 1st husband had never finalized their divorce due to a car accident that left him without any memory of their marriage troubles. Determined to not let her past spoil her lovely future, our heroine is forced to live two lives with her hopefully soon to be “ex” and her hopefully soon to be “husband”.
I might’ve been in the wrong sort of mood when I watched this one but the first episode felt super slow for some reason. To be fair, the hero (the “ex” husband) didn’t show up until the last few minutes of the episode so that was probably why the story felt slow.
Mistress (Korean Drama, New)
This one is a remake of a British series of the same name (US did its own version as well). As the name suggests, morals and fidelity are not exactly high priorities in this show. The show IS 19+ rating so expect plenty of nudity and bed scenes. I have not watched the original or the US version but it looks like the K-version starring Han Ga In will differ from the original quite a bit, since the K-version starts off with a dead body and our four female characters calmly discussing what they should do with it. (I don’t believe that’s in the original…is it?) The writers have done an impressive job in giving very interesting backgrounds and stories to each of our four female characters. Unfortunately, this type of story is really not my sort of thing so I will not be following it.
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I really enjoy reading your wonderful and insightful overviews of new dramas. Thank you so much!
Me too. An absolutely must-visit blog every week. Definitely will have to check out Miss Sherlock 🙂
The story line for Single Wife sounds similar to the Hollywood movie Sweet Home Alabama with a slight twist!
Miss Sherlock sounds interesting. If I can now find it somewhere with decent subtitles then maybe I can give it a watch.
Much Thanks for the recaps, summaries, book translations, & the drama round-ups!