Dramas – 2026 Completed

The atmosphere of Can This Love Be Translated felt comforting. I'm a big fan of it being filmed in different countries, them speaking in multiple languages and it featuring actors from various parts of the world.

I went into this drama without reading the synopsis. Although her mental health issues would usually feel a bit out of place in a story like this, I felt like they wove it into the story in a clever way and it definitely worked for me. DID representation in film is rarely accurate, but I think that this drama at least didn't paint it in a bad light compared to other things I've seen.

Although their relationship was a slow burn with many things getting in the way, (like I already said) the drama still had this calm vibe to it. (Spoilers) My rife with this drama is only that I don't see how he is allowed to keep her mental health issues a secret from herself; I think he should've told her that Do Rami talked to him.

I just completed my first drama of the year but January is already close to ending.

I had been excited about this drama since before it was released because I really liked Han Daon (Kim Jaeyeong) from Judge from Hell. I started watching Idol I during Christmas right after the two first episodes had aired. As an idol fan (previous hardcore ARMY, currently a chill LUNÉ and low-key MOA), it was easy to relate to that part of our female lead. It becomes a bit like a self-insert story, in a way. It also shines a light on the toxic parts of idol fans. I heard that this drama got bad reviews in Korea because toxic fans of idols felt attacked by it.

Many seemed to have a difficult time liking the ML. Personally, I didn't have any strong feelings towards his character. There were actually many interesting characters in this drama. The 2ML was a good guy, and I thought that Hong Hyeju's actress played her character really well. The female lead was likeable and so were her coworkers. But I was the most pleasantly surprised by her work rival; her ex-bully; the prosecutor Kwak Byeonggyun. (Spoilers) For one, I find the relationship dynamic of your high school bully becoming your work rival super interesting. He was just a very grey character and I was second guessing my opinions of him repeatedly. Although the bullying is unforgivable and he is being a pain to her at work during the first half of the drama, he actually turns over a new leaf towards the end. It was really nice to see him learn from his mistakes. So although he isn't a fully likeable character, he was definitely very creatively crafted, which I appreciated.

(Spoilers) The ending of the case was definitely underwhelming tho. It felt like we were dragged around only for the solution to be right in front of us. Still, I enjoyed the journey of Idol I and I had fun watching the newest episodes every week!

A really cute and fun JBL~ I'm always attracted to a hidden/double identity story, and I love that it's about punk fashion and modeling! The characters were likeable and the two actors had chemistry~ Really liked the OST too :)

I went into Leaning to Love with low expectations, but it ended up being better than I thought. I really like the complexity and emotional depth of the characters! The acting was good and the story was entertaining too, of course, but it was the characters I was drawn to. Both of them are flawed people who learnt from each other. It was a very interesting relationship to witness.

I feel inspired by seeing the male lead tackle his challenges with dyslexia. I recently discovered that I might be autistic, which has deepened my understanding of myself. I now see that some of the biggest challenges in my life had a hidden cause behind them. So now, having identified the cause, the new challenge is how to do what I want to do with this in mind (I previously thought that the challenges could be overcome, but it seems like that's not the case). I have to work with it instead of against it.

It's both worse, and better than expected. With the expensive cast and interesting premise, I had high expectations for Boyfriend on Demand. But after seeing the response from the viewers soon after it aired, my expectations dropped very low. Yet I still decided to give it a shot, and although it took me over a month to complete it, it was still worth completing.

I think people were hating too much on Jisoo's acting. It wasn't that bad. But out of the very extravagant cast, Seo Kangjoon is my favourite. Although episode 3 started off cringy, I surprisingly ended up feeling quite emotional when she got help from his character, releasing some of the wounds from her ex. There was definitely much more character development than I expected.

But this drama has its flaws for sure. I cringed many times and got frustrated more than a couple of times. Especially the last conflict could just have been solved with better communication. I'm very tired of this overused/wrongly used trope.

On the other hand, I kinda wanna try creating my own boyfriend like that~ But I think that I'm more so curious what kind of avatar would come up (to learn more about myself) rather than to actually date it. Who knows, custom otome games as advanced as this might not be that far from coming to reality.

Seo Inguk did really well too.