Reviews

Soft vibes, steamy kisses, and zero drama—Shimane serves BL comfort with heat!

P and the adorable chaos twins Pan & Plai are back from Kiseki in Tokyo Chapter 2, and it honestly feels like we’re third-wheeling their Japan trip. No toxic drama, no love rivals—just wholesome vibes, good food, and a random “hey let’s all move in together” plan that somehow works. 👫👬✈️

Plot? Sure… if you count “friends hanging out, sightseeing, and convincing their Thai pals to shack up in Shimane” as a plot. But honestly? I’m not mad. Sometimes you don’t need rollercoaster drama—just soft, slice-of-life moments that feel like a warm blanket (with occasional spicy scenes to keep you awake 😉).

Speaking of spice… THIS is how you do intimacy in BL. Every kiss? Hot. Every NC scene? Steamy but not cringe. Realistic, tender, and just the right amount of “oops, did I just replay that?” energy. 🔥

Look, I get why some people say “it’s boring” or “there’s no plot.” But let’s be honest—we’re not here for Shakespeare. We’re here for pretty boys, beautiful Japan scenery, and NC scenes that actually deliver. And on that front, Season of Love in Shimane absolutely nails it. A cozy, low-stakes binge that hit the spot on my Sunday night.

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When I first heard that the Hong Sister's much-needed redemption would come in the form of a horror rom-com, I was a bit perplexed by the idea. How could these two genre collide in any sort of acceptable way? However, now that I have watched, pined for, and passionately followed Master's Sun, I can see how this crazy combination works(and works well).

Master's Sun has it all: horror, romance, a healthy bit of angst, and a touch of sunlight (or is it a beam?)that rises in the heart and fills the viewer with warm fuzzies and peals of laughter.

One of the greatest strengths of the show was it's acting. Gong Hyo Jin and So Ji Sub absolutely oozed chemistry, appeal, and gave us such balanced but fantastic performances. So Ji Sub made me fall for his acting (and him) by the first episode. Seo In Guk was great as well, and at times, had me falling for both of the leads.

Storywise, I feel that the show did its best to indicate that the ghostly world isn't as scary as it seems, which plays well into the evolution of Gong Shil, Joong Won, and even Kang Woo. However, there were times where I felt that the story forgot earlier elements or threw them away. Nevertheless, the story was fairly solid.

Overall, I really enjoyed Master's Sun. When I say "really enjoyed," I mean that I'm already having separation anxiety from the brightness that was this drama.

I will definitely be watching this again.

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God, why? Just why is this a thing?

I know that you're not supposed to write reviews for shows if you haven't completed them but honestly, I just couldn't contain my bewilderment with this one. I really truly don't understand why anyone in their right mind would watch this. (Especially a non-EXO fan) If you know the answer to that, please enlighten me.

I mean, this is just plain bad. Period. You've got to get high and lose a few brain cells in order to find this shit hilarious. Don't get me wrong, I've got no problem seeing Sehun, Chanyeol, D.O and Bacon do their thing but when you add one hell of a TSTL (too stupid to live) heroine in their midst, it just turns everything sour.

I couldn't handle Ji Yeon Hee's immaturity for a single second and her brother's cute awkwardness wasn't nearly enough to balance it out. She's cringey on a whole other level and it's not adorable in the least. Also, the way she talks with her mum is just awful. I swear the brat needs to sit the fuck down and check her priorities. Funny how, she's always being a snarky ass bish to her family but she can't utter a lone syllable in front of boys. And she's 22. Enough said.

Furthermore, let's not forget how they got Chan to play the brooding, cold, bad boy type. Like, I just can't at this moment. Chan out of all them? Chan, really?
He's like an adorable little puppy at his worst, m8. Why, oh, why must you do this to me?

Obviously, I watched it for plain ol' fanservice and wasn't expecting a plot, good acting or a consistent storyline and fairly enough, it did indeed lack on all those fronts. But what I also didn't expect was the human embodiment of complete and total aggravation that was our female lead.

It is amazing how I even managed to stand 4 episodes of this nightmare. It truly is a fete when a show is so horrible it makes a 15 minute episode feel like an hour. I repeatedly checked how much of it was left and when I realized that I had endured so much suffering and only 5 minutes had passed, I think I decomposed a little inside.

The only good thing that came out of this was that the guys were able to make money off of it. As far as I'm concerned, I'm sorry but I'm just not strong enough to bear this kind of agony.

I am in dire need of an efficient eyewasher and a mental detox after this. I'd try to come back after I heal and watch four more episodes to support the group but surely, recovery from this requires total mental rest for atleast more than 365 days.

For all those people who watched and enjoyed this, I envy you. Really, kudos to you. I don't know how you did it. Fighting!

(At this point this isn't even a review, more like an existential crisis.)

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Pasta would be an overall delightful watch if it weren't for a couple of absolutely annoying, infuriating traits.

I think it's necessary for me to premise that I have first hand experience of how a high level restaurant/kitchen works. This is why I was attracted to it in the first place.

For the most part, what happens in the kitchen of this drama is exactly the same you will find in Michelin-stars kitchen all over the world: the strict hierarchy, the arguments between kitchen chef and restaurant direction, the treatment of women (things are rapidly changing, but high level cuisine has been for a long time a male domain, where women were treated almost like slaves). Even details in this drama are absolutely realistic, from the utensils they use to the allocation of each cooking-partie.
I had a great time watching the whole kimchi debacle, as I know for a fact that this is exactly the kind of problem a chef in such a kitchen would face.

BUT. Like Beca, the female lead annoyed me. Royally. Not so much because she would say Yes Chef every second word - that's actually quite accurate - but because she was ambitious but never showed any sign of having learnt anything. If you want to succeed in the gourmet world and you have the chance to work with a great chef you don't discuss his menu decisions: you learn! She is at the same time too humble and too conceited. She bows her head when she should show pride (grrrrrrr) and fights against the chef when HE is right (double grrrrrrr)!
And please don't get me started on the way she eats spaghetti. I'm Italian and, believe me, I cringed, to say the least. She would grab a handful of oily spaghetti and thrust them in her mouth with her hands, chewing them as if it were pigswill. In front of other people. I was disgusted. I respect different customs from mine, but you don't work in a 3-star (or even a 1 star) Italian restaurant without knowing how to eat spaghetti, for Pete's sake!

Lee Sun Gyun on the other hand is amazing. He is an arrogant jerk, but he is absolutely believable. I would never fall for such a man, but nothing he does or say comes out as unrealistic. Let me be just a little spoilerish here and say that his declaration is a great one! I finished the drama because of him and the rest of the hilarious, spot-on kitchen staff.

I can't remember the music, I'm afraid. Hence the 7.

I'm not sure I'll rewatch this drama. I laughed a lot, it entertained me a lot, but there are parts I'd need to skip entirely if I wanted to go through a second watch.

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Some strange choices in last episode

I appreciated the meeting FL had with ML after their divorce, where she gave a more serious apology, admitting that she had taken him for granted, never thinking that she could lose him, and avoided gaslighting him or "both siding" the situation, or throwing in some self serving cynicism or false moral equivalency. This was quite necessary after their disastrous previous encounter. Nevertheless, I must admit that I found some of the choices in the last episode strange.

In the text below I'll add some spoilers from some other shows/movies (My Mister, Crazy Rich Asians, The Magicians, A Good Lawyer's Wife, Spring in a Small Town).

I'll point out that one's subjective preferences have really no bearing on the morality of the action in question. To illustrate why they cannot be the standard, consider the cases of, 1) someone cheating a lot but not having any intention of breaking up with their partner, and 2) Someone that breaks up with their partner before cheating. Obviously, if someone wanted their significant other not to leave them, they might think they would suffer less with 1), but obviously 2) is the more moral choice, where they are treated with honesty and respect (and reasonably the one that will lead to greater long term happiness).

I found kind of ridiculous the way FL kept underscoring, both before having unprotected sex with her ex and when talking about the event with her husband, that no feelings were involved, as if this was supposed to change everything, make what she did better or somehow make it "not count". Arguably, it made it worse in some respects (and arguably not in others), because she was essentially saying that she chose to throw away any loyalty, respect and honesty towards someone she had been married to for years in order to have meaningless and unimportant sex with someone she didn't even like. Meaning, in other words, that in terms of her priorities, a meaningless and unimportant sexual encounter ranked above (as she chose to prioritize it over) her treating her partner with loyalty, respect and honesty.

This is a bit like the stories one hears of places where men don't consider having sex with prostitutes as cheating... well, but on the other hand, the fact that they were willing to hurt, humiliate and deceive their spouses over something so futile, arguably in some ways (and arguably not in others) make it even more demeaning.

The funny thing is that I often find myself arguing against the opposite trope, where dramas will try to use "love" as a free pass, mixing issues that are really orthogonal, such as relationship issues, or feelings towards a third party, with one's decision to hurt, humiliate and deceive their partners (and/or the partner of the one they cheated with). To channel DH in My Mister, why one is unhappy and why one chose to cheat are two separate matters, and shouldn't be conflated: being unhappy (as he was) is very much not a sufficient condition to cheat, while being willing to treat your partner with no loyalty, respect and honesty is a necessary one. And that, in his words, is the crucial question: why they felt they deserved to be treated that way. As he pointed out, if you are unhappy (or, I would say, you fell for someone else), you have the option to break things off with your current partner respectfully, before pursuing a new relationship. Quite frankly, if you are at a point where you are ready to cheat, then you are at a point where you can break up with your partner instead. Another example of this notion is Astrid in the Crazy, Rich, Asian movie, where she confronts her philandering husband and when he tries to point to his insecurities, her horrible family and her faults, she tells him to not try to turn this on him, that he is the one that messed up, and that he cannot use those points, valid in isolation, as a legitimate explanation for his actions.

Anyway, TLDR, the bottom line is that while loving the third party in no way makes the decision to hurt, humiliate and deceive your partner better, certainly not having feelings for the third party doesn't make it any better, either.

Of course, there are situations like the one depicted in A Good Lawyer's Wife or The Magicians, where the wife and girlfriend, respectively, whose bf and husband slept with other women, had every right, imho, to sleep with someone else: given that their partner had not shown them loyalty, respect and honesty, they had no right to expect any from them in return, either.

Certainly, one needs a sense of proportions, and feeling attracted to someone or having a crush, spending time with someone, dating them, flirting with them, kissing them, having sex with them... these are not the same thing. I don't believe some of them even constitute a betrayal: I think that it is quite natural for people to feel attracted to various people, without it necessarily meaning that they intend to sleep with them, and I draw a clear distinction between feelings, emotions and random thoughts (or, for that matter, a physiological reaction such as arousal or lack thereof), which are not under one's control, and actions, which are. This is why we hold people accountable for their actions, but we abhor the notion of a thought crime as an Orwellian nightmare.

I think there is a distinction between working with someone, or taking care of a friend when they are sick, or liking someone that listens to our issues (all of which are imho very natural behaviors), or even having a small crush, and having full blown unprotected sex with one's ex on the hotel table. Even in the case of FL, had she walked away when her ex started flirting with her, or even when he kissed her, obviously her behavior would have had very different implications in terms of her unwillingness to cross that line (a line that, for example, her husband, who had ironically followed her out of concern for her wellbeing and ended up discovering her affair, was unwilling to cross).

I think that the notion that merely having feelings for someone, and not acting on them, would constitute cheating, is an appalling and pernicious misuse of language, because it equates a situation where one fell out of love with someone and before pursuing a relationship with someone else decided to break up with their current partner, as being the same as someone that just slept with the other person behind their partner's back, basically making it virtually impossible not to cheat, unless one only ever felt something for one person during the course of their whole life (or, I guess, for nobody).

ML's emotions are scrutinized and he is crucified over his supposed fantasies, while feeling the temptation to do something and not acting on it is treated as the same, or worse, as having full blown unprotected sex with someone behind one's partner's back. A complete moral inversion. At the same time, an impossible standard where he is crucified over any "bad" thought, and an exceedingly lose one where the thought and action are treated as indistinguisheable, or worse, where thinking something "bad" is treated as worse than doing it. In reality, everybody understands that if one merely thinks about robbing a bank, but doesn't plan to do it, they are not a thief. If thoughts were equivalent to actions, then the number of drivers being arrested every day would be much higher than the number warranted by road rage incidents. Thankfully, merely wishing to knock the snot out of someone does not translate into an intention to actually do it, let alone into an action.

I think that gaslighting him like that was completely unreasonable, and that this was also the show's take on the situation, and that the message being conveyed was that FL was being irrational and unfair when she threw that tantrum (particularly considering she had unprotected sex with her ex, something she hid from him for the last two years, until he told her he knew... here the famous rooftop scene of Ji An in My Mister comes to mind, with her telling YH that it was laughable for her to ask whether she had slept with DH, because essentially she had betrayed him first -incidentally, in a much more worst fashion than what they could ever do, at that-, and so she has no right whatsoever to complain about it even if they had done anything). I think this was acknowledged by the show when FL apologized for her behavior after their divorce.

Regarding FL's mindset when she cheated because her husband did not want to have sex, I would say that it's in some way analogous to the married guy that tries to hit on the twenty years old at a bar after his wife refuses to "put out", in order to seek validation and show that they still "got it". So, a mix of validation, insecurities, ego and horniness. I don't think it was purely a search for validation, tbh, because otherwise she would have quit once her ex showed interest in her sexually, or after he kissed her. And contrary to her hesitation and active/passive attitude when she called him, etc., when they got going she certainly seemed rather horny/passionate. I must also say that I don't really know how seriously to take her disgust for the guy versus what is kind of a play (also not sure why she kept his phone number if she was repulsed by him). I am saying this because I got the definite impression that she knew very well that this was going to be the outcome, from the time that she called the guy, and in fact that she called the guy exactly because of that.

I will note that the guy was married, and she had no hesitation in sleeping with him regardless, thereby hurting and participating in the deception of a woman she had likely never met, and that had done nothing to her, and that would have had every right not to be treated as an object and to be put in a position to make an informed decision. Then again, that's the same treatment ML gets: despite her "regret" -which barely lasted a couple of minutes before she shamelessly started gaslighting him and using her affair and his defaillance to hurt him... let's just say that their meeting after their divorce thankfully went better-, it's not as if that was enough to stop her from sleeping with her ex, or to push her to come clean with her husband in the two years afterwards, until he told her he knew.

As for the husband, I found her attitude towards him completely unfair (thankfully, she took responsibility more seriously in their follow up encounter after their divorce).

Essentially, she accused him of sleeping with the neighbor. When she learned that that was not the case, it's not as if she took a step back and acknowledged it, she pressed ahead with new accusation, and contradictory ones at that: he was either lying about not sleeping with the woman, or, once she moved past that, he was attracted to her and imagined her while masturbating, etc., or was not sexually aroused by her and didn't sleep with her only because of that (turns out this was not the case, in any case these are obviously mutually exclusive: he is either aroused by her or not).

It's hard to understand why she feels she would have any right to shamelessly attack him in such a manner, given that she had unprotected sex with her ex. To be perfectly frank, even if ML had decided to pursue a sexual or romantic relationship with someone else, it's not as if she would have any leg to stand on: she didn't show him any loyalty, so she has no right to expect any in return. A similar argument can be made about her complaints with regards to the neighbor, given that her ex she had cheated with was also married, as discussed above. So, she is essentially the very kind of person that she purports to hate (while the neighbor was by all accounts innocent -frankly, realistically paying because she didn't want to deal with a crazy stalker that followed her against her will and could have ruined her reputation with unfounded rumors-).

All things considered, FL gaslighting ML for... cleaning their apartment with his female friend, who listened to him when she refused to? Visiting for half an hour when she was sick? And so on. Imho it all felt, for lack of better words, too "innocent" or too "silly" to take seriously, particularly when compared to FL's actions. What's next, an indirect kiss being worse than sex behind a spouse's back? At least a six years old for which holding hands is the equivalent of a marriage proposal would have no double standard. It's hard to see this genuine human connection as repulsive, and even more absurd when FL had unprotected sex with her ex and hid it from ML for the past two years, and he had been living with this knowledge while pretending not to know. Overall, the notion that he should have refused to open up with someone that cared about his feelings and closed himself off to that healing experience seems masochistic, unjust and self flagellating.

As an aside, if you equated sexual fantasies with actual sexual encounters and affairs, and went on to be so invasive as to dissect people's thoughts during masturbation, equating them to an actual physical affair, any guy's body count would be in the hundreds if not thousands. Fantasies and reality are quite different things.

I believe ML when he says the neighbor was a friend he liked because she listened to him. It's not as if he ever pursues a relationship with her, even after he breaks up with his wife. But even if he had actually felt a deep passion for her, I have to say that I still fail to see how this would make him a moral monster, or worse than someone that would have unprotected sex with their ex when their partner wouldn't "put out". I mean, this is essentially the plot of the Chinese masterpiece "Spring in a Small Town", where the whole point is that the characters feel deeply attracted to each other, but decide *not to* pursue an actual affair behind her husband's back. The point is exactly that they feel a temptation, but resist it, and choose not to act on it. By the way, I don't think that, in order to be moral, they would *have* had to cut each other off their lives and not see each other again: I would see no issue with them being friends from a moral point of view, it's just that in terms of the practical situation, it was easier for them to be separated and not see each other.

In that case you would essentially have FL that chose to cross that boundary and have meaningless sex with her ex, over loyalty, respect and honesty for her partner, and ML that chose not to break that boundary and renounced to pursue a sexual or romantic relationship with someone he loved deeply as long as he was still married to FL. I frankly don't see anything wrong with the latter (well, I do see something wrong in that, given that she had not shown him any loyalty, in this specific case he really had no reason to show FL any loyalty either, though given that the neighbor was married as well he should have either waited for her to break up, or chosen someone else), in any case I really cannot equate it with, or even more outrageously see it as worse, than the former.

But we were never even close to that kind of "Spring in a Small Town" situation, the guy basically liked having a friend that listened to his problems, and didn't find her sexually repulsive. They cleaned together, and he took care of her for half an hour when she was sick, like imho any good friend would. At the very most, he had a small crush, if even that (I think not even that, tbh). Simply incomparable to anything FL did with her ex.

This honestly felt like her acknowledging some rather horrific behavior, and then grasping at straws once she discovered that what she planned to accuse him of turned out to be a fantasy. She was in disbelief for a second, and then accused him of things that were mutually contradictory, and in any case would amount to him either not being physically attracted to the neighbor (i..e. not finding her sexually arousing), or being attracted, nay, in love with her and not pursuing a sexual or romantic relationship with her while they were still married (i.e. not kissing her, not dating her, not flirting with her, etc.. not that any of those would equate to have unprotected sex with someone). The reality, more prosaically, is that he liked her because she listened to him, but never had any intention to pursue a romantic or sexual relationship with her. Which is more than okay imho, or not okay for the opposite reason: again, given FL's betrayal, if the neighbor had been unattached I would have had no hesitation to wish he would actually pursue a relationship with her.

I tried to rationalize this as a coping mechanism to reduce the guilt she felt about what she had done to him, and pretend this was more of a both-sides situation, which imho it definitely was not, in terms of the line she crossed and he didn't... but as for realism, I struggled to imagine being told your husband followed you because he was concerned for you, saw you go have sex with your ex, had to live with this for two years, and you can still gaslight him and use the affair against him? Two seconds after apologizing? But I guess I had a similar experience in My Mister or Crazy Rich Asian.

I liked that she met her ex husband after their divorce and apologized without crucifying him over his feelings and fantasies -literally what he thought when he masturbated, etc.- ... again, this from someone that actually had unprotected sex with her ex boyfriend, a married man -to use her phrasing- and who was never asked who *she* was thinking about while sleeping with the guy behind her husband's back -a missed opportunity, really, given they were in full disclosure mode ;)-. But yes, I liked her taking full responsibility for her actions and admitting she took ML for granted, without gaslighting.

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It's the same but different at the same time

Wrap up the drama in one sentence: A university student and a video game maker were stuck in a loop to survive in a bus explosion tragedy.

THIS IS NOT YOUR TYPICAL C-DRAMA
There is no unnecessary love triangles, misunderstandings and golden fingers.

WHY SHOULD YOU WATCH THIS DRAMA?
If you like mystery and thriller stories. Who is the culprit? At the first glance, everyone seems to be the culprit. However, when the drama unfolds, the background story of each character in the bus is unfolded. Suddenly, you understand the reason behind their seemingly out-of-place action.

The repetitive scenes. They're the same, yet they're not. Every time the same scene is played, it adds subtle changes, for instance, minor details, if you're a mystery geek, you can actually try to deduce the plot. The producers have made it possible throughout the drama.

Every character is this drama is the main character of their own story. They are living their own life, in real bone and flesh. The drama tells their story so articulately and beautifully that I can put myself in their shoes and feel their happiness and sorrow alongside with them.

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Well...

What more can I say? I love this series. Hands Down is JoongDunk's best bl and the more adult characters fit them perfectly. Dunk has also improved. The story itself was interesting, it's a shame PepperJJ wasn't developed more. Honestly, this series deserves a few more episodes, especially at the very beginning, madly in love was too fast which I completely understand because they had to fit everything into 12 episodes. The only thing I would change is for them not to drag out the story with the mother until the last episode, and put something else in its place.
I think it's my new comfort series.

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over-rated drama

Just finished all 40 episodes of this drama and must say that I am surprised to see all of the 10/10 and 9/10 ratings it has received.

The drama started off strongly, I really liked the first 15-20 episodes or so. The plot moved along well with a great story line, liked the actors, also some good comedic scenes helped make the first 1/2 of this drama a decent watch.

Then somewhere around episode 25 this drama goes off the rails and just gets worse and worse until the awful ending. The last 15 episodes or so were terrible. Every episode seemed to have a 4-5 minute scene with the male/female leads being all lovey-dovey, sweet-talking each other with the obligatory love song playing in the back-ground. This got tiresome and repetitive. Every character seemed to experience a near death scene and then the other characters help them miraculously pull through. This got tiresome and repetitive. Each episode seemed to have 3 or 4 song interludes, starting to think the producers were either getting royalties or really trying to push the soundtrack. This got tiresome and repetitive. Each time a character died, there would be 7-8 minute montage of flashback scenes with that character, of course, with some song playing in the background. This got repetitive and tiresome as well. In addition, the drama had the worst ending of any C-drama that I have personally watched. It was like the script writers gave up and just wrote some nonsense to get this drama over with.

Gave this drama an overall rating of 2.0 solely based on the 1/2 half of the drama. Re-watch value should be 0 but apparently 1.0 is the minimum value I can assign. It was painful watching this drama once, can't imagine that anyone would go back and re-watch this a second time. This drama won't be showing up on any top 10 best drama lists, but wouldn't be surprised at all to see this drama on a number of top 10 worst drama lists though. Starting to think that the producers must have paid an army of people to give glowing reviews.

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The undatables is an ordinary drama. It follows the cliche story of enemies falling in love, best friend falling for the girl, family objections, mommy issues and a mystery about the character's childhood. I do wish I liked this drama, but it just tried to hard to make everything cute and romantic. Half way through it didn't have anything else to say or to add and it was just a boring story that I forced myself to finish, hoping that maybe the ending will surprise me, but it didn't. It is a shame, because there were many famous and popular actors in this one and the chemistry between the two leads was strong.

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So I picked up this drama FINALLY after hearing and reading many good things about it. Romantic Doctor Kim took me through a roller coaster ride of emotions; some characters I hated up until about episode 15, other characters I truly cared for, and it was THOSE characters that kept me watching this drama. The main reason why I probably continued watching this drama even though the beginning of it was so rough for me was because I have an extremely soft spot for medical dramas. They're my closet passion, so I think deep down I wanted to see what happened all the way to the end.

What made this drama so rough in the first half for me personally was the fact that I found Master Kim to be insufferable for more than the first half of this drama. It wasn't that I disagreed with his reasons for giving such severe "tough love" to the other characters, I just didn't agree with how severe and cut throat he addressed the desired character changes of the younger doctors he was trying to inspire to change. I think there were other ways for Master Kim's character to have been written that would not have made such an extreme impression. The fact that his character was written in such a rough and sharp fashion left me feeling bitter and angry on behalf of the other characters - which some people might say is a "good" thing because the writers got me emotionally involved, but to me, his character was enough to make me want to drop the drama. What actually kept me hooked was the young doctors aspiring to learn and specialize as well as the sick patients that came into the hospital requiring treatment. Which leads me to the acting in this drama.

The acting in RDK was phenomenal. All the actors, ranging from the main cast and supporting cast all the way to the guest roles who only played in one episode were absolutely moving in their roles. I truly cried nearly every episode which I simply attribute to the expertly chosen cast paired with the swelling soundtrack. The main actors did an exceptional job demonstrating raw emotions and character growth, which I found so incredibly awesome.

Honestly, I don't think I'll rewatch this drama. It wasn't that it was bad or that I disliked it as a whole, I just struggled getting through the first half that I'm not sure I can get through it all over again. I *did* enjoy the humorous moments scattered throughout the drama, but I wouldn't call this drama a romantic comedy at all. The drama touches on very serious and emotionally charged topics in every episode that truly break your heart. The first half of this drama is really what brings down the rating of this drama for me with the second half of this drama bringing up the rating significantly.

I think the people who will enjoy this drama are those people who have a severe hankering for medical dramas with melodrama. I would not recommend this drama for someone who wants a light, fluffy, romantic comedy medical drama.
Another drama with similar tones and motifs would be Pinocchio, which I think was much more successful in portraying the moral issues and dilemmas tackled in RDK.


*****UPDATE after completing Romantic Doctor Kim Season 2*****
Season 2 was a huge improvement from season 1 - Dr. Kim was so much more balanced and well-written and the new characters were great! So glad I took a chance on watching season 2 after such a rocky experience with season 1! Definitely has me contemplating whether I should rewatch season 1 and season 2 altogether to see if my overall outlook is changed.

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a travel ad with very explicit scenes (watch suggestions)

Overall: this had very slow pacing and then some of the most explicit NSFW scenes that I have ever seen from Thailand. Note that this has nothing to do with the Taiwanese BL Kiseki Dear To Me and Love in Shimane aired in 2025. Aired on Viu (need to VPN to Thailand) and GagaOOLala. Later re-aired on 9NAA's YouTube channel (cut free to watch, uncut for channel members). The production company 9NAA also made: Venus In The Sky, Check Out, Skinship and I Am Your King.

Watch Suggestions (unless you like a lot of eating, drinking, taking pictures and singing/guitar playing)
- read the synopsis
- skip episode 1
- episode 2 watch 8-12, 16-24, 28-31 and 33:30 to the end
- episode 3 watch 19-25, 40:25-45:40, 50 minutes to the end
- skip episode 4 (unless you want to learn about Japanese bathhouses which is in the 2nd half)
- episode 5 watch 22-24:30 (very NSFW) and 27:50-31 (very NSFW)
- episode 6 watch 22-24 and 27-30:30, could also watch the last few minutes

What I Liked
- centered on 4 characters with an easy to understand premise
- twins as lead characters
- the scene where a character splashed water on his face and pretended to be happy/smile
- the actors did a good job with their explicit scenes, they used some tongue which was realistic

Room For Improvement
- slow pacing, a lot of time spent hugging trees, singing, drinking, eating and taking pictures
- an actor said that they were totally naked in their NSFW scenes which made me worry about how comfortable they were (and apparently the director said he'd go naked to make them comfortable but that sounded more like a threat than being helpful), however, we saw a cord around 1 actor's waist, I'd rather they let the actors wear underwear and use creative angles/shots because the viewer's imagination could fill in the rest; update, the cord might be something religious (let me know if anyone knows more about this)
- wanted them to move from the stairs to a bedroom and I wanted to know what the character was going to say
- toilet humor/scenes
- in episode 3 I wish they hadn't shown a character as extremely drunk before what happened
- they didn't take out the chapter 2 from the title when chapter 1 might never air or if it does it would air after chapter 2

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The cinematography is top notch. The story is endearing and sweet. Hase-kun is the nice guy everyone wants as a boyfriend. You know this nice-guy will finish first in the end. But my only beef with the story is that our nice, determined guy ran out of gumption somewhere in the middle. It still created a moving story though.

Acting - Yamazaki Kento has such a wide range of acting emotions and he does them all excellently. He played the nice, caring, hurting guy here. The earnest one with a pure heart and feelings shining from his face and eyes. His shyness is perfectly captured. The actor also plays the cold hearted mean guy in other movies or the brave action star. His range is awesome.

Music - I didn't pay much attention, but the beginning piano sequence was awesome for me.The songs here bring out the feelings the story wants to invoke.

Everything meshed well to make this a wonderful, moving movie.

Story - 9
Acting - 10
Music - 7
Rewatch - N/A
Overall - 8

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The Sageuk Returns With Bloodshed, Tragedy And Sociopolitical Themes...

Screenwriter Kim Eun-Hee first introduced us to the webtoon-based“Kingdom” ( the intriguing, bloodthirsty political cutthroat sageuk) back in 2019 , with its zombie-survival storyline and characters in order to keep audiences hooked at the edge of their seats.

Yet similar to all the best offerings in the zombie genre, Kingdom is about much more than mindlessly fighting hordes of the ravening undead. Its initial creator Kim Eun-hee has said her webcomic (as well as the series) Drama) have been inspired by chronicles in “ the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty”—accounting the medieval dynasty that lasted some 500 years (1392-1897), where hundreds of thousands of enigmatic deaths occurred possibly through mismanagement of the authorities.

Consequently, whilst Kingdom’s zombie attack in Season 1 notably highlighted some political suggestions whilst focusing on bloodthirsty scenarios , Season 2 uses the outbreak as a means of exploring broader sociopolitical themes. The general populace suffers from starvation and pestilence as their ignorant or oblivious leaders strive for political power. It is only fitting, then, that the starving commoners become the zombie horde, while the hunger for power of certain leaders results in rash decisions that could mark the end of the Joseon Dynasty.

Of course, this is nothing entirely groundbreaking for South Korean storytelling in general. However, it is refreshingly original and within its universal allegory. Regardless of culture , time or nationality, corruption exists and may (quite literally in the case of Kingdom ) turns the rivers red.

In the opening of Kingdom Season 2 is a fast-paced one but what follows is an intrinsically observant look at a struggle behind the scenes of a kingdom and country torn by bloodthirsty wars and politics. Yet with a notable heavy focus upon the political intrigue or the show, it would seem apparent that viewers can easily become a little bogged down by the heavy subject areas. Strangely, Kingdom Season 2 hits the balance just right between grappling action and driven politics behind a country. Although the subject matter of politics still weighs heavily in some scenes, it is brilliantly counteracted by its coordinated camera angles narrowing onto the swift and brilliant fight scenes of the show, whilst not losing its core to mindless violence as well.

Fortunately, there are just as many (if not more) people able to find the better angels of their nature and rise to the occasion. Whilst Prince Chang ( Ju Ji Hoon) ‘s often felt a little lacklustre in season 1, season 2 helps to solve this issue by deepening his role as the protagonist through his notable interactions and experiences with other characters and memories from the past, with a notably stronger and more intricate moral compass. Similarly, Seo-bi ( Bae Doo-Na)’s character’s transition from a plot device in season 1, becomes notably apparent within her role as an altruistic heroine in Season 2, where the character becomes a driving force within learning more about the disease. Even Yeong-shin’s characterisation since season 1 from a seemingly disdainful character to a complicated hero, is marked by helping Prince Chang complete missions including at risk of his own life in this season.

However, Season 2 also marks notant motivations and transitions from moustache twirling villains, to well-rounded antagonists such as Queen Cho ( Kim Hye Joon). Whilst nonetheless some of her actions cannot be defended by being horrifyingly ruthless , they did help to add intrinsic depth towards Cho’s motives. In addition to this, one particular character that made a strong impression is the traitor among Prince Chang's most trusted allies hinted back in Season 1 . Without any spoilers towards the identity of the turncoat , it is surprising to say that there was a notably empathic reason behind their actions.

Pacing -wise, the drama zips across the actions in double-quick time (though its zombies are definitely way too fast). This makes it perfect for binge-watching which was certainly what we ended up doing. It was nearly impossible to stop watching once you’ve started, with each episode ending on a cliff hanger that’ll make you immediately switch to the next episode for more. Each episode is over an an hour but with how action-packed each episode is, it hardly feels like any time has passed before you find the credits rolling.

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It was fine.

This was just fine.

The storyline felt really jumpy and confusing at some points, the transition between them being in high school and then being in college really through me off, I didn't really understand that that time passed. I mean I caught on eventually but it wasn't obvious. The was acting was all right, though I felt like the girl literally had no personality. I guess she really didn't need one she was there to cause conflict. The ending was not satisfying at all to me, I don't need them to love each other in the end, what I did need though was an explanation of why he slept with him. Like why would you play with your best friends heart like that?

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