Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
There is a recurring dream sequence in “Doona!” A young woman is submerged in water. From below, she can see the glitz and glamour of her life as a top star. But when our protagonist startles herself awake, we see her living a mundane life, waking up sweaty in a small apartment and taking long drags of cigarettes in the courtyard. This is how we meet Lee Doo-na, a famous K-pop idol who is hiding away in a shared house for college students.
The first episode of “My Magic Closet” accomplishes what “XO, Kitty” failed to deliver. It deftly tackles identity and what it’s like living as diaspora.
There is a lot going on in “Moving,” Disney’s most-watched K-drama to date. Initially, it appears the series will center on heroic teenagers. But as intriguing as the storylines are for the children, it’s the parents’ arcs that really piqued my interest.
A remake of the Taiwanese series “Someday or One Day,” the Korean version of this time-travel drama isn’t always easy to follow. But if you suspend your belief in reality and just go with the flow, you will find yourself immersed in a compelling plot that centers on love, while it also navigates story arcs about guilt, gaslighting and a, erm, serial killer.
On the surface, it appears that “Mask Girl” is about beauty standards and how our looks are a catalyst for who we will become. But by the end of the series, viewers will have been taken on a wild ride where subterfuge and revenge are the norm, rather than the exception, and everyone’s moral compass has been broken.
You’ve seen the cold male chaebol/warm, hardworking female combo before in many popular K-dramas (including “Business Proposal” and “Oh My Venus”). But Im Yoon-ah and Lee Jun-ho are so charismatic and easy to watch in “King the Land” that they add a fresh touch to an old concept.
“Rebound” is based on the true story of Busan’s Jungang High School basketball team. Long past its glory years, the team isn’t a priority for the school’s administration. They hire a young and inexperienced basketball coach, Yang-hyun (Ahn Jae-hong), who during his own Jungang school days was a champion athlete.
This second season of “The Uncanny Counter” is good enough. But it is also a reminder that K-dramas are traditionally made to finish after one season. With the influx of Western streaming sites that have figured out how lucrative Korean shows can be, there have been more shows going into their second (or even third seasons). And while I was one of the viewers who had hoped for a second season of this series, I acknowledge that it may have been best to just leave things as they were.
What both seasons of “D.P.” does so well is tell the important and uncomfortable stories that no one wants to believe are true. When soldiers are regularly humiliated, degraded and tortured, what right does anyone have to tell the victims that they must return to their abusers?
“See You in My 19th Life” delves into reincarnation. And as it does so, it drives home the point that even if you are assured of living more than one life, what’s important is that you live your best life, rather than muddling through and wasting time.