Korean Drama Update for April 2020

My Little Baby Korean Drama - Oh Ji Ho and Lee Soo Kyung

I got in another two dramas for April. They were both easy watches that provided some much needed laughter. It was the comedy dramas My Little Baby and I Picked Up a Celebrity on the Street that I enjoyed for the month:

My Little Baby

My Little Baby a classic situational style comedy of a man in over his head trying to care for a baby. The plot is pretty basic and slow moving since the comedy is what takes the front seat. There is plenty of fun to be had though.

We see Jung Han settle into parenting, there’s a bit of friendship, and some romance that adds some heart. There’s nothing revolutionary about My Little Baby, but it was a very easy watch that was fun with lots to laugh at. It fit what I was looking for, and I enjoyed it. (My Little Baby Review)

I Picked Up a Celebrity on the Street

I Picked Up a Celebrity on the Street is a dark comedy with the humor involving some more serious subjects like kidnapping and murder. It’a also a check your brain at the door kind of drama with an absurd plot that is far from believable. All of this is pretty crazy and fun though.

Despite the dark humor, the show is light and silly. The drama progresses into more of a rom-com thriller which added an interesting change to the dynamic. Overall, I liked the comedy, and really enjoyed Kim Ga Eun and Sung Hoon here. It was a pretty fun series.
(I Picked Up a Celebrity on the Street Review)

So how was April for you?

Happy drama watching to everyone!

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10 responses to “Korean Drama Update for April 2020”

Snow Flower

April 30, 2020

April 2020 drama update

Dramas finished: Kingdom Season 2 – Wow. One of the best dramas of the year. Yes, there is a lot of blood. And zombies. And more blood. But there is also a sharp criticism of social inequality, obsession with bloodlines, and lust for power. Well done, show!

Currently watching:
Hospital Playlist – I am not a medical drama person, but this is good. The acting is excellent. I am curious about who is going to end up with whom (this was written by the writer of the Reply series after all), but I know that the writer and the director are playing a long game, so anything is possible…

The King: Eternal Monarch – I am confused but curious about this one, so I continue to watch. Comments and analyses by many viewers on various fan sites have been very helpful.

At Eighteen – Such a wonderful drama so far. I like the realistic exploration of teen life. The acting is great, and the writing is mature and subtle.

Gu Family Book – very good so far. Lee Seung Gi is very charming in this role.

Kay
April 30, 2020
You’re staying busy with dramas 🙂
I’ll definitely be checking out Kingdom 2 eventually. Glad to hear it was good. I’m also planning to watch The King: Eternal Monarch (very excited for that one!) and At Eighteen.
And Gu Family Book is one of my all time favorites. It was my second historical and my second time watching Lee Seung Gi. Absolutely loved that drama! 🙂
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MyKDramaticLife

April 30, 2020

-Very very long post alert-

My April 2020 K-Dramatic Review:
(WHEN IN APRIL BLOOMS)

*The Light in Your Eyes (Dazzling)
Hmmm.. I’m gonna watch mainly because it’s a time-travel drama. 😄 And also for hearing too many good things bout it from the kdrama blogs I frequently visit. I heard many good and nice comments about it.
At first I don’t really know what to feel about it. Second episode, then I said okay I’ll be giving this drama a chance. It’s fun. 😀
I’m seeing a new level of Han Ji Min in this drama, so different from her sweet and innocent roles in her previous dramas like Rooftop Prince (10/10) and Hyde Jekyll Me (10/10). In here she’s quite one loud and perservere woman that is always determined to get what she wanted unfortunately things never go her ways. And I commend Nam Joo Hyuk for his improved acting skills in this drama since Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo (10/10). Well he’s undeniably handsome but I don’t like him enough here. 😁 Even more his character in this drama. He’s not a type of kdrama character I’d love to remember. In short, I did not feel any connections to his character. 😑
Story wise, it’s good. Hmm. I think? 😀 (hahaha doubtful? 😀) Well I’m a sucker for time travel dramas so I’ll confidently say it has a decent story. Couldn’t find memorable comedy scenes, but I do have memories when I wanted to cry for some of its scenes.
Nonetheless I’d say it has great concept for a time travel themed drama. Except! (SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT) for its last two episodes. I kept on trying to find the logic behind everything that happened in the whole ten episodes. Well you couldn’t expect a logical reasoning for it’s a fantasy drama, but I at least wanted to know why the writer of the drama decided to shift the story from a time travel fantasy to pure melodrama (in just a blink – and in the climatic moment where I enjoyed the drama most). (SPOILER ENDS)
Tsk tsk I was a bit, no no, not only a bit. I was truly disappointed to its last two episodes. (but remember that my disappointment ain’t because what happened is not so acceptable or not satisfying, but because what I expected didn’t really happen).
Nonetheless again, I still have many good memories about the 1-10 episodes of the drama. There is that friendship of the three girls, the loser BJ and his lovestory, grandmas and grandpas (which I was not very comfortable of at first). I also want to remember that Kim Hye Ja’s Secret Plan to save Joon Ha and the other grandmas and pas in the Hall. That was very very fun. 😁

So overall, it’s a mixture of one-of-a-kind fantasy with so little cute comedies and fills of warm melos.

Overall Rating: 7.5/10

*Graceful Family
Maybe every drama really has the right mood to binge watch it. I’ve been seeing the first fourths of Something in the Rain, and The Fiery Priest and even half of Kingdom season 2, but none of it seemed fit to my mood these days (or those days when I decided to watch this). Until I watched Graceful Family and it fit. HAHAHA.
Anyways this drama is OTT (over the top) on high level.
I am now a fan of Im Soo Hyang after her amazing performance here. And first time seeing Lee Jang Woo and I love him at first sight. 😍
So talking about romance in the drama, very minimal, like 5%? 😑 I could have enjoyed them more if they at least focused on their romance maybe a bit more, because they look cute together, really. Many antagonists and as-if antagonists. And that TOP Team is really one-of-the-top. One of the uniquest plot I’ve seen in a conglomerate/heir/chaebol settings. Director Han is so hard to read and very stonehearted, but I didn’t really mind her much so I won’t get stressed . 😂
Overall Graceful Family is gracefully a nice watch. I might have a boring/slow-paced moments on the second part of the drama, but it never affected the drama and my feels to it. Every beginning of the episode introduced stories and highlights of each character while every end of the episode had me intrigued with its bombshell revelations and secret unfoldings.
So overall I did enjoy Graceful Family, and I loved it.
(special mention to the finale revelation: It broke my heart. Waeyo, Writer-nim? 😭😭😭)

Overall Rating: 9/10

*Kingdom season 2
So let’s talk about this phenomenal k-drama that captured every viewer’s soul. Hmm.. I would have to say I like the season 1 a little bit more, because it never rested its suspense and its thrill. While season 2 is a whole lot more historical and more dramatic rather than action and suspenseful. But still there were lots of breathtaking and fearful and gory moments. It also had many major revelations to it that left us flabbergasted. Characters like Beom Pal and that prolific hunter (that I forgot the name) made this drama more memorable to me. I kept on hoping them to survive each episode while watching. Seo Bi, on the other hand, for me just became a ‘decorational’ character. (just purely subjective opinion huh) Well she has very important role but I did not like her enough (she did not shine in portraying her character here) while I had to commend our one-of-a-kind Crown Prince Chang, he’s outstanding here. 😃

So overall, second season of Kingdom still heart-wrenching, breathtaking, and very dramatic, with many thrills and suspenses and twists you’d actually like.
And here’s me and everyone getting all ready for the third season.

Overall Rating: 8/10

*The Fiery Priest
Story about a priest who has an anger management issue who tries to uncover truth about his mentor senior priest’s murder case, by also trying to pull down corrupt and bad guy politicians and high ranked officials. Together with a push-over male detective and a rookie female police, they will uncover the crimes and bad deeds of those evildoers. Hmm.. Sounds interesting and unique, right?
Well, my main reason for watching it is its male lead, Kim Nam Gil, whose acting I admired in Deserving of the Name (10/10). Well, I still adore him in Fiery Priest but I badly need him in my melo or romcom next time.
Story wise, while it has a solid storyline, the investigative department is too much to handle for me. How should I put it huh? The political side of the drama is not my type. And mixed with comedies, hmm.. There were only few times that I laughed, but I laughed sincerely. 😀 (my comments for the 1-11th episode of the drama)
But it felt very good and so amazing on the next episode till it’s finale. It’s quite fascinating to say that I felt like I was watching two different dramas in one drama. It actually felt a 6.5 on the first half, then suddenly became a 9-er on the second half.
First half of the drama felt like so-so. It felt as if I was almost ‘wasting’ my precious ten hours. But I did survive it because of my adoration of Kim Nam Gil (and maybe because of some pretty laughs it offered me too)
The crime/murder mystery is quite simple too. The drama used too many characters and thus not everyone really shines. But there were many that shine and characters I’d love to reminisce.
I did have a pretty hard time trying to like Dectective Koo’s and Prosecutor Park’s characters. But when I finally get to like them (took me a long 12 episodes), I did like them till end, and just wished them happy endings.
While starting episode 13 it gave a Waikiki laughter vibes, I have to be pretty honest to my review. To be fair, I averaged my ratings for it. First half felt very so-so investigative/action/political with very few comedies and characters so hard to be liked, second half is quite amazing with plenty of laughs and tearjerking moments, with awesome actions.
And it probably might have a second season. Wow! I’ll be more than happy to see them once again, especially my Kim Nam Gil. 😍

Overall Rating: 7.5/10

*When the Camellia Blooms
Dong Baek’s story and journey as a single mother is quite unusual to see in the Dramaland – especially as a romcom. While I love Gong Hyo Jin – the main reason why I watched this, having read the plot of the drama saying ‘A single mother running a bar meets a good guy, a bad guy and a cheap guy’ sounds very unique to my ears. So I definitely looked forward to it for a very long time since its announcement. But watching its first few episodes got me bored – for some unknown reasons. So I temporarily put it on hold.
Months after, my friend who also love K-Dramas recommended this, so I took a second look. And so glad I did, because it was so much fun.
We got to see how Dong Baek grew in this drama. My favorite character is Hwang Yong Sik, of course. I love how he sincerely showed his feelings to Dong Baek unconditionally. And having him around her and Dong Baek’s kid is cute indeed. (And his voice sounds music to my ears eeeehhh cute 😍) Even the neighborhood ensemble in the town who I found very irritating at times became very likeable characters later on. Though they criticized Dong Baek so much, their care for her is still transparent.
Having the thrill and mystery mixed in a romcom is either a hit or a miss for me. And gladly it hit me. 😊 Though it took me few episodes to finally warm up to it. And when I did it never stopped intriguing and keeping me interested. It gave clear and satisfactory answers to its mystery. While the drama exerted effort for the love triangle going on in the drama, I definitely did not like Kang Jung Ryeol here. At times I got irritated by him for his actions and choices of words especially when having conversed with Dong Baek. I did not see any sparks of him being a second lead, unfortunately. And some characters too that at first dislikeable became likeable on the process.
All in all, if I could have liked this drama on my first try, I could have given it a straight 9. Though it took me a while, it was still very fun, very interesting, and definitely gave me sparks on its cute little romance with mixture of a well-thought mystery. 😊

Overall Rating: 8.5/10

This month’s favorite watches are When the Camellia Blooms (8.5) and Graceful Family (9).

Kay
May 1, 2020
Well, you did have a solid (and busy!) month 🙂
I didn’t read The Light in Your Eyes section since I plan to watch that one, so I’ll have to come back and read it later, hehe.
I too enjoyed Graceful Family and especially When the Camellia Blooms. When the Camellia Blooms really just hit all of the right spots for me and I loved it!
I’ll probably give The Fiery Priest a try. It’s supposed to be really funny, but I too am not sure how I will like the investigative stuff. Just not my thing usually. Will definitely be watching Kingdom 2 also. Have to see how everything plays out from season 1 🙂
I hope you find many more great dramas to watch in May! 🙂
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1. MyKDramaticLife
  May 3, 2020
  Yeah thanks. Here’s us hoping for a more productive May. Hehehe.
  And sorry by the way for a long long post. 😁
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  1. Kay
    May 3, 2020
    Well, you’re usually pretty productive with dramas each month, so I’ll anticipate more of that for May, hehe
    And don’t worry at all, I always enjoy reading your mini reviews on dramas 🙂
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Kate

May 1, 2020

This seems like a good place to add my updates 🙂
Finished:
Hi, Bye Mama – touching and okay but the way some things were handled just irritated me too much for me to find the drama enjoyable. I jumped from ep 7 to final 4 eps just to see how they resolved things.
Hyena – I finished this and it was VERY good but it’s not my favorite genre so a lot of the legal stuff just went over my head/ or didn’t interest me. Thankfully it wasn’t fully episodic i.e. a different case each episode. There were a few episodes like that but there were a few over arching story lines that took up the bulk of the series so that made it more worth while to follow. The chemistry between the leads was amazing but totally underutilized. There was 2% romance in the series which was a damn shame! Otherwise it was a well done series. Fast paced, high production value, great acting/cast, smart, sleek, and stylish.

Started:
The King, Eternal Monarch – Just a couple episodes into but definitely worthwhile to keep going. Very high production value, too much use of slo mo but pretty to watch. Just enough serious story and comic timing to make it enjoyable. Like the chemistry between the leads and the cast is stellar.

Slogging through:
I’ll Go to You When the Weather is Nice AND A Piece of your Mind – I love the leads so I plan to keep watching but I’m expecting a long slog because these are way too slow.

Kay
May 1, 2020
A good place it is 🙂
It’s too bad you didn’t love Hi, Bye Mama. Maybe I’ll have better luck when I get to it. Hyena really isn’t my genre, so that’s one I just don’t know about. It sounds really promising.
Definitely looking forward to The King: Eternal Monarch. I want to check out I’ll Go to You When the Weather is Nice and A Piece of Your Mind, both for the cast and romance stories, but I consider them high drop risks since I’ve heard how slow they are, which is disappointing. Hoping I get swept up in the mood of them. That’s a tall order though, lol
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May 2, 2020

Hi Kay – looks like you had a quiet month once again. I on the other hand had another big drama watching month. 🙂 Here are the ones I finished this month:
1. Find Yourself (CDrama) – I really really liked this one. OTP chemistry was awesome in this one.
2. Chocolate – I was really looking forward to this one. I didn’t end up liking it as much considering I had high expectations for it. I felt like it was trying to be a bit like Dr Romantic and it was nowhere near as good as Dr Romantic. I found those side stories particularly boring. It was trying to be too many things in one drama in my opinion and I did not like it.
3. Extraordinary You – I enjoyed this one despite the fact I got a little bored in the middle/later stretch with nothing happening much and they kept repeating the same thing. In any case, I enjoyed this drama. The concept was interesting and it was enjoyable for most of the episodes.
4. I’ll go to you when the weather is nice – I loved this one. I know people are saying it was slow but I never felt it slow. The drama was so poetic. It was beautifully written and well acted with some dark themes. I love the ensemble cast and some great acting by the cast. I found that this was based on a book. I really wanted to read the book after watching this. It would be such a good book to read.

Kay
May 2, 2020
Definitely a bit more quiet the last couple months, but still chugging away 🙂
You got in a nice variety of dramas. It’s always good to find a drama with a great OTP like you did in Find Yourself. Chocolate looks right up my alley except for the medical stuff, so still not jumping into that one, hehe. Extraordinary You was very cute, and I quite liked that one. I just love meta stuff 🙂
I’m glad to hear you enjoyed I’ll Go to You When the Weather is nice so much. I’ll definitely be giving it a look since I’m a huge Park Min Young fan and also really like Seo Kang Joon. I’m for sure worried about the slow factor though. That’s my biggest negative in a drama since 99% percent of the time I prefer swift pacing. But every so often one will come along where I get into the mood and atmosphere enough when combined with a nice story that I don’t mind. It’s a rare feat though, so we’ll see if it can achieve it! It really does look beautiful 🙂
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