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I love this for the same reasons I loved Rocky. It's a mythic hero's journey set in life today. The two heroes face challenges and monsters that test their resolve as they fight to conquer a life-or-death challenge.

The two leads are exceptional as highly trained boxers furloughed from prize fights by the COVID pandemic. Woo Do-Hwan plays an idealistic, honorable former elite Marine and good son trying to help his widowed mother get out of crushing debt. A boxer and fellow Marine, played by Lee Sang-Yi, befriends Won. Their brotherly bond grows by each episode. They find themselves at odds with a vicious crime lord from S. Korea's dark corporate-gang loan shark world.

They find gainful employment with a reformed loanshark and his adopted grand daughter. She is focused on making bank by bringing down the crime boss' billion-won stolen ID fraud scheme that steals from loan sharks - and the boxers agree to help her because the fraud puts more pressure on small business owners who have crushing loans from these swindled loan sharks. So they become her bodyguards and investigators.

Good vs. Evil plays out in furious, realistically bloody fight scenes. And it seems likely all is lost. Advances, savage reversals and the ultimate showdown all follow the mythic struggle of heroes.

Loved the cast, production, gut-wrenching fights, classic heroic character arc, it's all fantastic. So glad to hear a season 2 is planned.

An outstanding police procedural series that bends spacetime like Beckham - or Einstein. The lead female detective, played by Kim Hye-su, is the heart of the drama with an authenticity that reminds me of why I rewatch Law&Order SVU over and over for Mariska Hargitay. I also loved Kim's performance as moral/emotional center of Under the Queen's Umbrella. She is just as compelling in this contemporary drama.

The other lead in today-time is an intense young profiler played by Lee Johoon. He's found a battery-less walkie talkie that reaches back in time to speak with a detective who died mysteriously 15 years prior trying to solve a serial killer case. Their communication alters history in unpredictable ways. He's as mystified as we are at this turn of events. And the profiler ends up the only one of the investigators aware of the changes in the history of the cases as past and present cross-pollinate leads.

Finally the detective in the past, played by Cho Jin Woong, performs as a rookie cop and a seasoned detective depending on when in the past he contacts the profiler in today-time. He is excellent in his role.

The plot is intricate and very, very fresh. And while I had suspicions about the type of person the perp was, it wasn't obvious to me who done it. This is remarkable TV.

If there is a Supreme Being, there must be a Season 2. Hint, hint, Netflix. It will never be too late. Time bends for excellence.

Typically, Korean historical dramas feature conniving ministers, court intrigue and betrayal, poisonings and more betrayals, concubines vying for supremacy betraying each other and a queen whose husband or crown prince son dies mysteriously...

The Queen's Umbrella has all this, in the evil queen dowager and an uppity consort, but the titular queen has a strong sense of principle and a maternal instinct that encompasses not only her own children but other members of the royal court and results in plot twists that veer away from the usual. Compassion and love, as well as a chess master's strategic mind, are her super powers.

I welcome the writer's wishful thinking that a gracious, strong minded strategist of a queen can seek the highest good and achieve it despite the typical forces against her. She opts to help consort rivals and their sons in times of need, rather than stomp the court intrigue losers into the dirt. This magnanimity earns her allies in critical situations. In other words, her good triumphs over evil.

The queen's lackadaisical sons are forced by circumstance and her to grow into worthy men (and adventurous woman) after many twists and turns. Each of the surviving sons has his own character arc and the stories are engaging.

The cast is very good, esp. The queen, the production value very high. The negative reviews have legitimate complaints but as an entertainment, I enjoyed this as a refreshing change of pace for the genre.

Just a charming, lighthearted series about young men and women navigating hardships, friendship, infatuations and sincere affection in their college years.

After happenstance leaves three friends of Tae-O (Ji Soo) in need of a place to live, they all end up crashing with him in his childhood home, where he lives on his own apart from his wealthy family. It's not all fun and games as some of the housemates have nothing much to worry about and the others are abandoned by parents or must watch them struggle to survive financially.

The vibe and easy camaraderie among the 5 housemates reminds me of the chemistry of "Friends." Each character has a wonderful, well developed personality and set of goals. The chaebol heiress wants live a normal, less stifled life. The childhood friend, Song-I, wants to be an architect and is falling for a serious student studying for the civil service exam. Kang Tae Oh plays a free-spirited aspiring actor.

Of course, they start to pair off and hijinks happen. There's a slightly sour hot girl Ji Soo's character pines for but she dates rich boys in expensive cars and, so far, it's not clear she's anything but his unobtainable fantasy girl.

Just charming.

On Amazon, it's "Extraordinary You." Overall, this is full of capable actors and is a high quality production. It's a high school angst romantic drama with a fundamentally different, self-aware angle. Everyone exists in the world of a comic book, "Secret," and the action and their reactions and dialogue are preordained by an unseen God-like "writer."

The log line might be: what if screenwriter Charlie Kaufman wrote Beverly Hills 90210?

The main characters we watch slowly gain self-awareness and realize they are only bit players in the comic book's two main characters' story. One "extra" or insignificant character is Dan Oh, a resilient chaebol heiress with a congenital heart condition that threatens her life and frustrates her rat-scatty boyfriend. They are engaged to be married in a corporate merger kind of way his father is desperate for and he resents. So, of course, Rat Scat takes it out on her, as the writer intended.

She, however, is determined to alter her fate and works to change it with the growing support of an even less significant extra she names Haru. In this role, Rowoon manages to evolve before our eyes though he says nothing for the first several episodes. Very impressive.

This is a high school kdrama with the obligatory bullying and cliques but it is also sooo different, it's very engaging.

This is a typical Hallmark romcom. It's a stilted, mostly unfunny romantic comedy with a spider situation that is an excuse to strip whathisname naked and make him demand she examine him for other spiders. It was much funnier in The Lost City when leeches attach themselves to Channing Tatum. Whatshername is no Sandra Bullock either.

Essentially, most of this is derived from better-known, better-written, better-acted movies. The dialogue is cringey and awful for a Hollywood studio production. I'm mystified at its mediocrity. The male lead has been a stand-out in major action movies (Top Gun Maverick comes to mind.) And who is she? What, if anything, has she done? This will not be her breakout role so I hope she's already had it and can keep working to pay her bills. Utterly, abjectly meh.

Derivative. Disappointing. Dud.

You may regret the time wasted watching it unless you are stuck home sick in bed. Expand your horizons and watch a romantic kdramas for fresh humor in human relations. Or rewatch the originals from which this is plagiarized.

The female lead makes or breaks this series. She broke it. Good grief what a one-note character! The FL played by Jun is irredeemably awful, selfish, superficial, stupid, entitled, self-pitying, unapologetic, irresponsible, immature...need I go on? Wench.

Obviously, the character is written to be thoroughly unsympathetic and I find no reason to watch to the end. She's a garbage person with some cosmic karmic connection to the otherworldly alien played by Kim Soo Hyun, who was wonderful in Queen of Tears. Here I dunno why he still wants to connect with the famous actress/utter wench before catching an approaching comet back to his own planet. But he does after he realizes she's the child he once rescued--who was being a willful petulant snot running heedlessly into traffic back then, btw. Yup, she had just rejected the affections of an earnest boy and ran off only to end up in front of a truck. This near miss introduces the least appealing trope in kdramas: the mopey, clingy, never-gonna-happen unrequited lover. The crushed boy matures to a lovesick man who puts himself at Selfish Wench's beck 'n' call. And she treats him like chewed gum on her shoe.

Hate her. HATE. HER.

Actually Out-of-This-World Kim saved her in a number of her previous incarnations during his 400 years on earth. (Why, oh why?) But imo this version of her belongs at the bottom of an outhouse pit and he shouldn't stop time or bother to look back. Maybe at some point the writers will offer up some wrenching trauma to justify her pathological personality, but no thank you.

E. T. Go home and let the next truck splat her the way she deserves. (If there were any hope of that, I might watch to the end...)

I am mystified by the enthusiasm for this, but then I don't love the whole psychopath children's book author decides to torment a caregiver who's cute and who's haunted by his own dark, childhood traumas as a promising premise for a romance. Just ick.

He's a deeply empathetic man and she's a grown up version of a butterfly-tearing girl any parent would feel the urge to drown in a tub. Sometimes it's not just nurture, it's twisted, sick nature, people, and this wench as written is unredeemable.

As a consequence I vomit a little in my mouth every time she appears on screen. Wednesday Addams, this hellhound ain't. The character's psychopathy makes this a horror series for me, not "quirky and swoonworthy." More accurately: dark, dysfunctional and disturbing.

I cannot and will not force myself to watch more than 3 episodes. True, the soundtrack is a cut above and the production is excellent. I take issue with the basic premise of a deeply sick woman set upon a vulnerable man in a 'romance.' I am clearly not the audience for this. I gave this less than a star for each episode I suffered through but finished.

Believe the raves, this is about as great as I've seen. Witty writing, fresh premise, twisty plot with gratifying moments of beat or blow 'em up excitement. The entire cast is terrific with charismatic leads, a Jekyl/Hyde villain, assorted thuggish idiots and supporting actors.

And I love the Italian opera music in the soundtrack. It is a perfect choice.

Vincenzo is outstanding, a suave Italian Korean adopted into a mafia connection that dies with the head of the family he served like a trusted son. He returns to Korea to retrieve a fortune in gold left in a hidden room below a decrepit building in Seoul. Corrupt lawyers, hidden ruthless corporate CEOs, collusion, intimidation, this has it all and a hero who is far from innocent but still admirable and very appealing.

The death of a crusading lawyer Vincenzo meets at the building built over the gold vault inspires the building's tenants, lawyer daughter and Vincenzo to wreak havoc on the sleazeballs and stymie a Purdue-like drug company from distributing a lethal painkiller like OxyContin. The plot is intricate and yet inevitable as it plays out. There are sleazy lawyers and one vicious attorney who has no moral boundaries. Everything about this is top drawer. Netflix is killing it if you enjoy kdramas.

The fun of this series is to watch the grim art museum director Ryan Gold (hottie Kim Jae-wook) go from glaring lion to slow-blinking pussycat after the charm offensive of his subordinate, Curator Seong (Park Min-young), who is a secret fangirl of a kpop idol. Cringy Fangirl fanaticism in adulthood aside, the basic antagonists-to-lovers romcom story is enjoyable mostly for the relaxing of the tightly-wound Director as he allows himself to trust then fall for her. Kim Jae-wook has tons of star power and charm in the performance. And Park Min-young is a wonderfully grounded, if fanatical idol worshipper, who has the feisty but forgiving nature to open his heart.

What gives the series its structure is the search for a lost artist's 9 existing works to be exhibited for the museum's 5th anniversary and the Director's obsession with finding them. There's a more personal reason for his efforts that relate to the artist's disappearance. The significance of this pursuit tie many loose threads together in a lovely way by the end.

There is a cast of odd-lot eccentrics and devious rival fangirls to round out the plot but frankly I only watched the episodes for "Lion" and his delighted, cat-like slow blink at Curator Seong. Their connection was far more hot blooded than typical 'awkward collision of pursed lips" that pass for kissing in most kromcoms. Here, the leads really kiss in a passionate way that makes viewers happy voyeurs.

Not since the epically awful pageboy hair style of Javier Bardem in No Country For Old Men has an actor's freakish hair style distracted me to this degree.

But I loved JH in The Killer. He has such a commanding presence on screen...and someone gives him a decent style more than halfway through, thank heavens.

So, truly Bad Hair notwithstanding this is an entertaining story that zags from the usual stuff with an unromantic premise for romcom. A lost weekend, a hazy night of mistaken passion lands a rich executive in Daddyland with a self-effacing young woman. He resents a compelled marriage to babymomma and she can't help apologizing for everything all the time because she has an unusual amount of empathy toward others. How they navigate their disappointments, hopes and growing feelings for each other is fun to watch. There's a hunky neighbor she confides in to create a love triangle and there are very funny moments of male competition throughout between these two men.

As with most Kdramas, this takes us to visit all the emotions as things go awry in heart wrenching ways. There's personal growth, second chances, gentle rejections, the works. There's also my least favorite kdrama trope, the clingy, mopey, lying ex-girlfriend who afflicts the FL at every opportunity. Hated her, as I was supposed to, but she gets a happy ending of her own after a fashion. Pretty soapy overall but Jang Hyuk commands attention, bad hair and braying laugh aside.

Production is almost as awful as his hair with 70's style made for TV lighting. Sound recording had so much ambient noise, locusts, traffic, rain, their voices were drowned out on outdoor scenes and indoors the levels vary wildly. Why no ADR? It's not like I can understand what's said in Korean but I still found it distracting.

On the other hand, Jang Hyuk.

N'uf said.

Too many other reviews will have recapped the story and detailed performances of the wonderful cast so I'll just add that there is nothing I have watched in any language that has begun with a premise so profoundly difficult as two people meeting by chance in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea and falling deeply in love with no simple, romantic solution possible to their dilemma. In the hands of a skilled writer, Park Ji Eun, that premise carries with it intrigue, comedy, danger, betrayal and courage as the story moves from one side of the border to the other. The overall theme, for me, was that people divided by ism's are essentially the same. They value their families and hope for love. Some are weak, some are brave, some are venal and some are altruistic, but most are well-meaning and have good hearts. This series features actors so consistently excellent in their work, I was charmed, angered, moved and hopeful for us all. Just a wonderful experience to watch the leads, Hyun Bin and Son Ye-jin, play off each other as they fall in love. Their on-screen chemistry was obviously real as they married IRL afterward.

Robert Van Gulik first translated historical records about a righteous magistrate in T'ang China, surname Dee, then wrote more than a dozen excellent fictional mysteries featuring Dee Ren Jie, that were set specifically in the time of notorious Empress Wu Tzu Tian. As someone who studied Chinese History, the stories were wonderfully detailed about daily life, government administration and common superstitions of the time. And the mysteries were unique. (Dee is often described in the West as China's Sherlock Holmes. Deduction plays a big part of Dee's method, too.)

This current iteration of Judge or Detective Dee for TV has excellent storylines from these novels, outstanding production value, and stars one of the best actors in China today imo, Zhou Yi Wei. His performance is simply mesmerizing. He is quiet, watchful and still, but when roused, he explodes with frustration at the failures of government to fulfill its obligations to provide justice. There is wushu fighting and some flying to rooftops but for the most part the action is reality based.

Unlike the novels, Dee's loyal retainers are a former soldier and a reformed female thief. Their abilities and friends in low places assist Dee investigate murders in spite of local official corruption. And the thief is an abrasive presence to add zest.

Another recent set of movies about Detective Dee star Andy Lau and are fun to watch despite a lot of so-so CGI. But for me, Zhou Yi Wei is Judge Dee.

Three male high school friends graduate and spin their wheels trying to figure out how "to adult" and have sex with girls in this light comedy. Reminds me of Dazed & Confused. The guys are immature idiots, guided by poor impulse control and hormones and go through some things to grow up a little bit. There are some VERY funny scenes, one set to the 1970's Harry Nilsson hit: "I Can't Live Without You" that left me weeping with laughter.

Cultural differences aside, the humor is easily appreciated here in America for universal reasons: aimless young men failing to launch and living at home to the frustration of parents, ex-girlfriends of one finding a sincere partner in another which causes hissy fits of impotent jealousy, over-drinking, over-sharing, nosy, snarky younger siblings, and zero ability to brawl.

Short. Lots of fun. Good cast, including Lee jun Ho. HIghly recommend.

This is a grown-up romance about gray areas in life, upsetting norms, and the difficult decisions we must make to find our happiness in life.

Started strong, with devastating news for a 39 year-old, single professional woman, played by Jang Na Ra. Her fertile days are numbered so she may never realize her dream to become a mother. She decides to have a baby without marriage. She examines her options. Her first, find a willing semen donor online, who expects payment, which ends badly. In Korea, it's illegal. Oops. Her misstep becomes tabloid fodder. Online mothers troll her for selfishly wanting to raise a fatherless child and that uproar threatens her job. Her next option, seek discretely a free, 'natural insemination' by one of the following men she knows:

1) Like-a-Brother-to-Her Doctor. He's a mess--divorced with an infant to raise on his own. Park Byeung Eun plays him with his usual sense of comic timing. Sadly, though, he has the mopey, clingy dingleberry role common in too many Kdramas. I loved him in "Because It's My First Life," but there his subtle comedy is at the forefront and he's charming. Here, he's just Dr. Dingleberry hanging around where he's least wanted.

2) A sweet, clueless Millenial junior account exec. At the magazine, who turns out to be a "Sperm King," with 10 times the average man's l'il swimmers. Being so mild-mannered, he's a dark horse virility-wise who considers a donation to her cause. But becomes too infatuated with her.

3) Hunky Photog, left by his bride-to-be years ago and has been a walls-up grump ever since. Joon Go is a g-d hunk of a man. Seriously. Studly. He starts out a human Moai (Easter Island Head) when meeting her. Stone faced. Arrogant. Off putting. Cracks appear over time and he reveals his sensitivity, emotional honesty and strength as well as a silly side. What he's hiding from her is a big deal but the writers have given him maturity and grace to deal head on with it once he realizes he must come clean.

When the story is cooking, the rivals discover her intention and compete in all possible chest-puffing ways with each other to be her baby daddy. She must decide what and who really matters to her.

When the story bogs down, Dr. Dingleberry makes a nuisance of himself and the choices she must make become melodramatic. Should she judge her potential lover/partner for his ability to knock her up? So a man's fertility is at issue; meanwhile, her uterus has been seriously scarred by endometriosis and may not support any pregnancy--even if the Sperm King gives her the old college try.

The subject of parenthood vs. Childlessness, marriage vs. Single life are explored in ways that feel like real life. I liked the main characters and the rest of the cast well enough to spend all that time with them but I suspect I'd've liked this series better if it had been 12 episodes.

On the other hand, Joon Go was so fine, I'd watch whatever he did.

This centers on the two main characters, one a flawed no-goodnik who uses his athlete half-brother's sudden blindness to scam his way into compassionate parole from prison. He returns home to find his judo champion sibling curled up, malnourished, apathetic and smelly.

And he complains, a full-fledged turd muttering and hissing his disgust. But old habits die hard and he sets out to scam again.

How the two estranged brothers reconnect and heal is the point here and both actors portray their characters beautifully. The mutual muttered profanity and insults, the goading and impatience seems to snap the younger blind judo wrestler out of his funk and is hilarious. His older brother comes to terms with his past choices to leave the family and makes a remarkable decision to help his brother return to competitive sport.

I cried a lot in the last half hour. It was a wonderful, simple story played with finesse by both actors. Highly recommend.

I've enjoyed Oh Yeon Seo in everything I've seen, here she plays a rebellious royal on a personal mission to learn the fate of her mother. Joo Won is an effete-seeming, Chinese-educated elite scholar destined for a distinguished position in government who has just returned home to much fanfare.

The romantic meet-cute is hilarious thanks to the deft physical humor of the oil-meet-water pair. But the resulting misunderstanding that occurs ends up with her publicly labeling him a pervert and him avoiding her as a crazed stalker. Their chemistry makes it work.

Reviews positive and negative are justified, so watch a half dozen episodes to form your own opinion about watching to the end.

It has typical features of good Kdramas, unique supporting cast/ friends, several flavors of antagonists (including mean girls in a snotty clique), real historical bases for plot lines (here, an epidemic is unique), court machinations and danger, pressures to marry or the threat of being married off, and a personal mystery at the heart of a character's rash behavior. It is true that plot developments rely on tropes. That's what happens in genre storytelling. More examples of historical series to consider: 100 Days My Prince- my favorite of all, Rookie Historian..., Secret Royal Inspector & Joy, Flower Crew. But I will be re-watching this, it's just so much fun.

So far, all the kdramas I've watched have their unique charm but use tropes and cliches. Like British cozy mysteries, that's the point after all. Wrists will be grabbed and heroines will spin to collide chest to chest with the hero, she will trip and fall into his arms, he will gently sweep loose strands of hair into place as she watches wide eyed and breathless. How well writers play with the expected adds spice but the ingredients remain the same, no? I love the genre and enjoy the many variations there are! For me, the cast makes this a fun one to watch.

So. Unique.

This is definitely not the typical Krom com. The writing is outstanding. The hero must be on the spectrum and is described by a business partner and friend as having the charm of sandpaper. He needs a housemate to help pay off his mortgage, and has calculated the cost of rent and drafted a contract to define responsibilities.

Before meeting by text a desperate assistant writer in sudden need of housing, he kicks out the housemate he had, detailing dispassionately all his infractions: "You came home totally drunk, forgot the passcode and kicked the door for 10 minutes, ate five cans of cat food thinking they were cans of tuna and you opened the refrigerator and did your business in it."

All this was said as dry statements of fact. He is oddly direct, rarely blinking, and is only fact based in analyzing any problem. He has no affect, his lizard stare simply observes phenomena. Lee Min-ki is perfect in this unusual role.

His colleagues at their startup took bets on his sexuality, something he brings up at a meeting to announce his plans to marry "How many of you bet homosexuality," he asks blandly. A show of hands. "Heterosexuality?" One hand. "Asexuality?" His best friend raises his hand. He turns to the one hetero vote and says, "You won. I'm getting married." And everyone still demands clarification.

I am crying laughing trying to type this out. Good heavens, even subtitles kill me. Such a surprising delight.

She is winsome, kind and empathetic but down on her luck and pushing past the shelf life of women for marriage. Her friends are also dealing with careers and male expectations and glass ceilings. She becomes his housemate by mistake, his name sounds feminine, hers could be a man's. When they finally meet face to face, her ability to take him as he is and find common ground is as valuable to him as his directness and lack of guile is to her.

They agree to a marriage of convenience.

This is so different and so wonderful it is in the top one tenth of one percent for me. The only similar storyline I can think of is "As Good As It Gets," but I'm enjoying the performances and comedy in this series far more. Love this, it's very, very special. On Netflix.

Just. Wonderful. Writing, production, cast, which is numerous and consistently outstanding, plot full of nail-biting, unexpected developments, genuinely funny moments and heartbreak that moved me to tears. I saw it on Netflix but must BUY it asap to be sure I can rewatch it forever. SO. GOOD. Seriously.

The intricate plot begins in the past and informs the present for the main characters, so that I felt empathy and found myself invested from the beginning. In the series' present, an adult crown prince (the velvet voiced DO Kyung-soo from Kpop group EXO*) ) is deeply, bitterly wounded by his early life and faces treacherous ministers who want him out of the way, and a queen (not his mother) intent upon replacing him with her own son.

Court astrologers say the country's drought can only be resolved by yang energy, which the prince refuses to provide by having conjugal relations with his princess (foisted on him by the worst of the ministers). Instead, he orders all unmarried men and women to pair off to restore balance in the world and bring rain. And he's sent off to perform rituals on a mountain. On the way, his entourage is set upon by assassins who did their best to kill them all.

He ends up tumbling down a hillside injured but alive.

At this time, there's a plucky, can-do spinster (a noble-born girl in hiding) who chooses punishment rather than agree to a random marriage. The only other option seems to be forced concubinage with an unctuous local official. So to buy some time, her adoptive father tells a fib about a fiancé due back from military service any moment. As luck would have it, he happens upon an injured man in the forest who doesn't know who he is. Yipeee skipee, Dad rescues him, dresses him simply et voilà, "Won-duek," the missing fiance, reappears in the nick of time.

They marry unenthusiastically. She tries to make the best of it. Won deuk doesn't. He is oddly arrogant and easily offended by overfamiliarity, "Whoaho!" how dare you...and often mutters, "This makes me uncomfortable." She grows more and more exasperated with his expensive taste and impracticality. Still, the villagers embrace him and root for her. Over time, his refinement proves useful and she grows fond of him. He makes more of an effort to ease her burdens and loosens up a bit. This thawing is a joy to watch.

Also a joy are the performances of Do Kyung-soo and Nam Ji-hyun. D. O. As he is known in Kpopland, is unbelievably good as the dignified but lost Won-deuk/prince and Nam Ji-hyun is the most appealing kind of heroine. Once wellborn now reduced to commoner, she is clever, tough, capable, uncomplaining, generous of spirit and blessed with a wonderful sense of humor. I love them both.

Thanks to great writing throughout the series, there are no dull moments or two-dimensional characters. Simply delightful.

* Give a listen to D. O.'s song, 'Roses' (english version) to hear what I mean.

Honestly, K dramas don't have to do much to entertain me. It's about comforting cliches. But I hand it to the writers in this one.

After a misunderstanding at an event, I found the FL/Reporter's rush to judgement and reluctance to accept any responsibility for her behavior or its consequences infuriating, much as the ML/K-pop idol did after he was subjected to vomit and shoe-chucking. And I found the artificial saintliness the K-pop idol presents to his fans in public utterly cloying and disingenuous, just as she did. So I believed their reactions to one another because I had the same reactions myself. I was annoyed by them both.

So there's that.

I have no idea if the kpop industrial complex actually cranks out highly disciplined homogenized pop stars the way it's presented here, but it may be trainees do put up with a lot of 'handling' and reinvention on their way up. Additional characters include two friends and trainees who failed. One is the mandatory mopey pop wannabe ex-girlfriend who's with the other frenemy, a rich washed up K-pop wannabe now running his own talent agency. He's the jealous antagonist who seeks every chance to attack his former friend now major star.

Shoechucker gets fired after pressure from K-pop idol's people and so she goes on a social media rant to slag him off. This creates a backlash against her which inspires fan retaliation, a smarmy rescue by K-pop idol and a TV show "So I married my Anti-Fan." It's a fake 'reality' show putting enemies under one roof to see what happens.

Well, enemies let down their guards, learn about each other and fall in lurvvvvv, which causes all kinds of trouble for kpop idol, whose fans hate her.

As I say, not Dostoyevsky but a cozy K-romcom.

An uptight rich hotel heir, played by Jun Ho, meets genuinely kind concierge working at the property and the emotional walls come tumbling down.

The mystery behind his wariness has to do with the unexplained disappearance of his mother from his childhood and learning to detest false smiles and blank stares that kept him from knowing what had happened at the time. But she must smile as part of her job. The luxe hotel his family owns has a fanatically 'friendly' brand image trained into new staff - with the reminder to smile by saying, "Hermes!" Not cheese.

For him, it's hate at first sight of her wide grin and for her it's the surreptitious side-eye at him because she doesn't dare come across unpleasant to upper family management no matter what.

The genre tropes are all here but what is especially enjoyable was the real charm, chemistry and star power of the leads and the skillful weaving in of subplots. All her friends get fully developed stories involving conniving senior managers and satisfying resolutions romantically. He has few friends beyond his quirky personal secretary but he's lots of fun for comic relief. And the struggle for corporate control between witchy half-sis and him gives him an opportunity to redefine the hotel in a way that values its employees and elevates the brand.

Meh ensemble series with some outstanding performances good and bad.

The good: Park So-dam is a grounded, sincere young Cinderella. She works multiple part-time jobs and has a horrid stepmother, sisters and home life per the fairy tale. She somehow manages to keep her optimism intact as an unloved, bullied high school senior. She must always be on the lookout for a well-paid job because she's contributing to her own college fund. But she chooses to empty the account to pay arrears on her late mother's memorial instead. At one weird gig as faux girlfriend for a rude, rich chaebol, her integrity impresses the chaebol's Grampa, the head of a major conglomerate, who's trying to whip his bunch of fractious grandsons/heirs into shape as humans before he dies. He offers her the job to accomplish this Herculean task for him. The jobs involve missions to bring the half-brothers together. Fail and she's fired. Succeed at one, she's paid a bonus. Succeed at all of them and her entire education is paid for.

Also good, Jung Il-woo plays the 'Rebel' grandson raised poor but recently extorted to join the other heirs by Gramps. The three plus a 'butler' and full staff co-exist in an extraordinary modernist estate, tho' Rebel insists on shacking up in the tool shed with a vintage vehicle. Also endearing is the KPop star 3rd grandson who goes along to get along. KPop retires from the chaos caused by his brothers and their resentments. An observant, sensitive soul, he is first to cooperate with and open up to Cinderella. The fan girl frenzy over KPop adds some wonderfully funny scenes, too.

The bad: Jung Li-woo plays eldest grandson and heir apparent, I'll call Snark. Again the role makes this actor a toad. Or prickly cactus. He demeans and insults Cinderella at every opportunity. Snark and Rebel clash throughout identical their character arcs from opposite ends of the anger- entitlement spectrum. Thanks to the influence of the plucky and genuinely kind Cinderella, they redeem themselves eventually. Perhaps it's to the actor's credit that he plays Awful so well, but ick. Hard to watch.

The worst: actress Son Na-eum cannot redeem her dreary role as weepy, clingy Mope, ex-girlfriend of the above mentioned oldest heir and utter jerk, Snark. She just won't go away. Or stop blubbering. True, she believes her first love isn't the consummate jerk he seems to be. Okay. He does redeem himself but only after so much pouting, threats and misbehavior. I just don't care. Too many Kdramas feature one weepy, sulky, clingy ex-girlfriend and it's a real shame. (May I Help You, for instance.)

There are also subplots of corporate raiding by insiders and a health crisis that brings the boys together--a miracle only possible thanks to Cinderella who broke a rule and got fired...

Watched it for Cinderella's story because after so much, she gets her deserved Happily Ever After.

Ensemble series I've enjoyed more: King the Land, Heirs/Inheritors, Love with Flaws...

This is a pastiche of all women-driven revenge action movie tropes that feels like a sketchy outline; however, the affectless physical fearlessness of Jeon is impressive. She plays a steampunk stye elite bodyguard on a break who discovers her only friend, a ballerina mixed up with the wrong crowd, has killed herself. Via post-it suicide note she asks for revenge on those who drove her to it. And off we go.

GIven her background, she has the steely will, tech and connections to carry out a very splattery comeuppance for the baddies.

Some tropes are subverted in ways worthy of Tarantino: the 'stocking up on weapons' scene is perfect satire of what we expect; how long the crime boss smirks and talks down to her is another lmao moment.

The first baddie we meet, played to the max by Kim Joon Ho, is a smug, kinky, almost impossibly handsome human trafficker -- even fellow cronies comment on his prettiness. (Kim obviously relishes playing against his leading man looks and really goes for it. He creeped me out convincingly. There's even a bit of danger he brings to his second ML role in "Love to Hate You.")

She tracks him down, lets him seduce her, "drug" her and take her to his sleazy sex motel. Once there, she goes from limp human sex doll to killer and after a serious fight, he's treated to a Joker smile with awful, deliberate effort we see. (Urp!) She mows through most of the gang in old school style.

The actors make this enjoyable thanks to their commitment to and the physical demands of their roles. The plot is just an outline for every movie of this type ever made.

A vampire falls in love, loses his love and dedicates his eternity to searching for her reincarnation and a way to become human and experience with her the flutter of a heartbeat when in love.

As the alpha vampire, his crew is dubious but loyal. And very very funny. The method involves an excruciating century-long stay in a caustic wooden coffin that burns the eternal out of him. But he gets the coffin, climbs inside and says bye bye till the end of 100 years to the day he starts.

His mansion persists over time managed by a human butler and his descendants, the last of whom is a down-on-her-luck girl in need of a crash pad in an emergency. One day short of a century, she discovers the coffin, flips the lid and wakes Taecyeon before the utransformation is complete.

Neither fish nor fowl, he discovers his powers are not what they were, his existence is uncertain and the girl refuses to leave his pad.

Frankly, I watched the whole series to see OT, and his interactions with veteran comic actors. The premise and the actors are quite funny. And the ending, while not the usual, is very satisfying given the vampire's desire to be human. What is more humane than altruism?

It takes a quirky village to nurture the vulnerable, accept the newcomers, raise the young, and heal the traumatized in this multi-plot line story that gives everyone an opportunity to grow, heal, forgive and find or rediscover love. The newcomer, a lovely dentist from the big city, steps in it at every turn, having decided to start fresh in a seaside village she recalls in happy memories. The village 'chief,' played by a stellar Kim Seon Ho, is her polar opposite, non-professional, multi-parttimer gig worker who helps everyone in town and insists on being paid a modest fee. (Ghosts from his past haunt him.) They clash, sparks denied fly and we're off to the races in this fish-out-of-water love story.

It's an anthology series weaving many storylines together, but the theme throughout is that emotional honesty and unconditional love when offered work wonders.

The dentist sets out to redress her initial faux pas with grace and finds her way slowly but surely, helped by her dental hygienist/office manager best friend who relocates to join her (and find her own love). Episode by episode we meet all the townspeople and learn about their relationships, divorces, strained marriages, single parenthood and dreams deferred. A K-pop TV production comes to town to rock the village's equilibrium and introduces an earnest college friend and rival for the Dr.'s affection. The cast is to the youngest member outstanding but for me, Kim Seon Ho is the heart of the show, his nuanced portrayal and genuine chemistry with the rest of the cast sets this apart.