King Maker: The Change of Destiny (Korean Drama, Viki)
Park Si Hoo’s new historical political thriller + a dash fantasy + romance. After being warned by her mother her whole life that she must not reveal the fact that she can see people’s future, our heroine eventually broke the cardinal rule to save her mother. As her mother feared, our heroine soon falls into the clutches of those who would imprison her to exploit her “gift/curse”. With seemingly no way out of her imprisonment, our heroine’s only hope shows up in the form of her first love who will team up with her to put the rightful king on the throne. Our hero also has a special ability of his own in that he is the empire’s best face reader (as in he can tell who should be the next king).
The first episode was well paced and I thought the younger actor did a great job as well. The cast and the story seem pretty solid for now but I am not really in the mood for epic political thrillers so I am not sure if I will follow this one.
The Romance of Tiger and Rose (Chinese Drama, Viki)
Waking up to find herself in the very story she wrote as a scriptwriter, our poor heroine is speechless to find that she has become the spoiled princess minor character she penned that will not live past the third episode. Determined to live until the story runs its full course so she can go back to her world, our heroine decides the best thing to do is to get on the hero’s good side…the hero who was supposed to kill her with poison on their wedding night!
This one is hilarious! Obviously, the story doesn’t take itself very seriously at all and the acting could be uneven at times but I am loving the wacky humor so this one is definitely going on my watch list.
Love Designer (Chinese Drama, Viki)
Dilraba Dilmurat new city romance where she plays an aspiring designer who ended up getting sued by our hero thanks to her no good two timing ex-boyfriend. Believing at first our heroine to be someone who is just out to make a quick buck from plagiarizing other people’s design, our hero, the CEO of a successful clothing company soon realizes our heroine has plenty of talent of her own and she might just be the person to help his company go to the next level.
Not exactly a refreshing premise as far as a city romance go but I am really liking that while our heroine is a damsel in distress she is not one who needs a man to come to her rescue. It is difficult to not be charmed by a heroine who is vulnerable but doesn’t waste too much time blaming others. Instead, she accepts the situation she has found herself in and tries to do the best she can going forward.
The chemistry between our two leads is quite good. Not exactly the sizzling sort…yet, but it is the kind that just feels right and natural. All in all, I was happy with the first three episodes I checked out and am planning to put this one on my watch list.
Khondae Intern (Korean Drama, Viki)
Achieving impressive success at a young age, our hero is the chief of the sales and marketing department at a ramen company. Enjoying the challenge and the financial rewards his job brings him, our hero’s seemingly perfect life suddenly gets even more interesting when one of the interns coming into his department turns out to be his old manager at his first job who tormented him. In a dramatic reversal of roles, the man who was his nightmare just five short years ago has now become a lowly intern working under him.
I went into this one expecting it to be a wacky comedy…and it was totally not, at least the first episode was not. In fact, the first episode had a very serious tone with nary a comedic moment insight. The second episode definitely got lighter and I imagine the third episode on is when the comedy will finally kick in but the set up of the story in the first episode was so serious I am not sure as an audience I am willing to give our hero’s old boss a chance to be funny. I am assuming there must be some hidden explanations of the jerk things the old boss did in the first episode that would redeem his character eventually… Anyhow, the trailer, the poster and the synopsis all promised this show is a comedy so hopefully the first episode was just an exception.
The Twin Flower Legend (Chinese Drama, Youtube Eng Sub)
Their once happy family destroyed when their parents sacrificed their lives to save them from evil villains who wanted their dad’s brilliant talent as a strategist, two twin sisters ended up becoming slaves to the powerful Yuan family. Relying on her intelligence and the skills she learned from her father, our heroine (the oldest of the twin) saves herself along with her friends from various dangerous situations and eventually help propel the Yuan family to a glorious position.
I checked this one out thanks to reader Ann’s recommendation and thankfully she did warn me about the huge cast or I probably would’ve chickened out after the first two episodes. While I did like the first four episodes of the show and the story seemed solid, Ann, I am afraid I still chickened out once I did some reading on the novel the drama is based on. I will just say based on the bits I read of the novel and a few online reader summaries, the novel is definitely the sort of wild ride I would stay far far away from. In fact, the novel’s plot sounded so crazy that it gave me hope the drama will make some big changes to save the story. Still, I am too afraid to follow this one for now until the show ends and we see how much the drama detracted from the novel.
Fake Princess (Chinese Drama, Youtube Eng Sub)
As a carefree female bandit, our heroine spends her day inventing useful little gadgets…and robbing unsuspecting travelers passing through her part of the mountain. After robbing an envoy escorted by the crown prince, our heroine ended up getting pulled into a political intrigue where she was forced by the crown prince’s enemy to assume the identity of the crown prince’s fiancée. Clueless that his new wife is actually the daring female bandit who had beat him up previously, our hero begins a surprised filled life of a newlywed.
The actor playing the hero comes off a tad bit awkward for me but the plot is fun and the two leads have decent enough chemistry that I can overlook it. The heroine’s character is very mischievous so her interaction with the somewhat uptight crown prince should be a fun watch.
Team Bulldog: Off-Duty Investigation (Korean Drama, Viki)
I am not sure what to think of this one. The vibe is wacky and hilarious yet this IS a crime thriller so the cases are brutal when you really give yourself time to think about it. The story focuses on the unlikely crime busting team of a rich detective, a bar owner who is a super fighter with two stoic underlings, a struggling PD of a crime reality show and a profiler who used to work for the police. The cast is obviously fairly big but the show did an awesome job introducing all the characters and showing off their great chemistry right from the start. Like I said, I really love the hilarious comedy when the “team” is on screen but once the story turns to the grizzly crimes then I get jerked out of my laughing mood with the stark realization that this is a crime thriller after all. I can’t quite decide if I am going to follow this one yet since I don’t usually like crime thrillers but definitely check this one out if you are the type that likes them but is in the mood for some hilarious comedy at the same time.
Sweet Munchies (Korean Drama, Viki)
The chef owner of a late night restaurant, our hero (Jung Il Woo) has a special talent for cooking up just the right dish to match his customer’s drink and mood. A regular at our hero’s restaurant, our heroine is a struggling newbie TV producer who is given a seemingly impossible task of finding a gay chef in one day. Desperate to not give up the one chance she has to prove herself, our heroine turns to our hero in hopes that he might know of a chef who is also gay. In a bit of conundrum himself to come up with a large sum of money right away, our hero shows up at the TV station to try for our heroine’s new TV program himself.
The new TV show will of course end up being a success but that also means things will get complicated when our hero who has publically declares himself to be gay begins to develop feelings for our heroine. As if the situation is not crazy enough, the male second lead is a fashion designer who instead of fighting our hero for the heroine might just be trying to fight the girl for the man.
I went into this one expecting it to be like Let’s Eat. Unfortunately, while the show makes a good attempt on giving us food porn, it almost tries too hard and falls short in the first episode. Now, unlike Let’s Eat, Sweet Munchies is obviously one that has plenty of storylines to support it even without the food porn and thankfully the show seems to realize that once the story gets going.
The other thing I do have to mention is that there seems to be a concerning lack of chemistry between the two leads. In contrast, Jung Il Woo’s character has awesome sizzling chemistry with the second male lead. Perhaps for once, the second male lead will get…um…the boy? Despite some of the things I pointed out, I did enjoy the first two episodes so I hope if our hero really will get the girl in the end, our two leads’ chemistry will dramatically improve…soon.
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Try the Twin Flowers Legend… I love it. It is a complicated plot with a huge cast of characters, a long time line, and a FL whose only fault might be because she is too righteous and always thinks of others before herself, and tries to help people too much.
Thanks for the recommendation! I will check it out.
I’m one of these who loves TigerRose. Even though you can predict the entire story from the beginning it is just incredible fun to watch.
LuSi’s timing for comedy is just awesome and I always forget in her Dramas how young she really is. And she never seem to be uncomfortable in BTS with her male co-stars, probably that is why she has chemistry with all of them despite how ridicoulous the stories are. Dunno why she never made it big yet.