Kdrama Character Growth Arcs with Brian Meeks

S1 E5 / Brian Meeks, who is an author as well as a fan of 3-D printing and pickleball, joins me to talk about his favorite Kdramas this week. 

We delve into his top recommendations and explore character growth arcs, especially redemption arcs. Plus, he sells me on Vincenzo and I sell him on Good Manager/Chief Kim.  

⚠️ Mild spoilers for the show mentioned below.  

• Alice in Borderland
• Extraordinary Attorney Woo
• Because This is My First Life
• Crash Landing on You
• Vincenzo
• Good Manager/Chief Kim
• Chief Detective 1958
• Flex x Cop
• What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim
• The Fall Guy
• Hotel del Luna
• Tail of the Nine Tailed Fox
• Midnight Dinner

Brian’s books:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0073XZH78

Transcript

Sara Rosett 0:10

This is how I met my K-Drama, a podcast all about K-drama origin stories and recommendations. I'm Sarah Rosette, and today Brian Meeks is here. Hi, Brian. How are you?

SPEAKER_01 0:20

I'm wonderful. There are a few things I enjoy more than talking about K-drama.

Sara Rosett 0:25

Me too. So this is perfect. So tell us a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Well, I'm an author. I mostly write fiction. I've written across six genres. It started in 2010 with writing one chapter for a mystery series just as a blog post. It was an idea to do something different for my blog. I didn't intend on writing a second chapter. I was being clever with this one blog post, and my readers loved it. And now I've written 19 novels, six nonfiction books. I coach authors and have that's been kind of my life since 2010.

Sara Rosett 1:04

You're the accidental novelist.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

I am the accidental novelist. That is correct. And I love I love the written word. Obviously, most authors, I think in general, read a lot. Well, I don't enjoy what comes out of Hollywood. I don't think the writing is very good. And for K dramas, the first one I ever watched, and I I don't, it was Alice in Borderland. And I was it was a little darker than I wanted because I I don't like dark, but the writing was so good, I couldn't stop watching it. And when I got to the end, and there is, I believe, in Alice in Borderland 2, which I've not watched. Yes, I haven't watched the second season. At the end of the first season, I was just so blown away by the writing, and that was it. It only takes one K drama for you to become an addict.

Sara Rosett 2:03

I think it's true. Yes. And they're so different from what we're used to. And I think for me, part of it was the writing. Part of it was I really enjoy rom-coms. And in Hollywood really doesn't make light, funny rom-coms anymore. They have gone into this kind of raunchy rom-com. And so that's really not my thing. And so I found a couple of rom coms. I'm just like loving life. And then, you know, then you're down the rabbit hole and just gone. So tell me a little bit about Alice in Borderland. Because I've heard of that, but I don't know exactly like Borderland is a post-apocalyptic survival story.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

And one of the things I've always liked about British TV, well, liked slash hated, is that they're not afraid to kill off a character. I don't remember the mystery detective series I was watching, but the main detective in episode like four, I mean, it was it was early on, and the serial killer comes up, grabs his wife's breast in the uh grocery store. He's just down the aisle, sees him. The the killer waits until they make eye contact and then runs away. And of course, he chases him because he just assaulted his wife. And it's it's his running chase, it doesn't go on too long, but it ends in this abandoned house, and the guy comes out from behind a door and stabs him a bunch of times, and he falls over and he dies. And it's shocking, yeah. It it was the I mean, he was the main character of the show, and they killed him on episode four. And I I never googled to find out why that happened. Maybe he had a different job. I don't know. But but it was it was shocking, and then Lost in Paradise.

Sara Rosett 3:56

It's not what you signed up for, right?

SPEAKER_01 3:58

It's like you wanted the story about him and whatever, and but it it makes it great too, because well, people talk about it in the US Hollywood movies, you know which characters are gonna die based on whether they're on the A list. If they're being paid $20 million, they're gonna survive till the end.

Sara Rosett 4:17

No matter what, right?

SPEAKER_01 4:18

No matter what. And I'm so tired of the Transformer 45-minute chase scene. Yes, both the guy and the pretty girl are gonna survive and they're gonna kiss, and that's all we care about. I don't want to watch 45 minutes of just ridiculous explosions. And so again, too.

Sara Rosett 4:37

A lot of Hollywood is we've seen these stories. They're rebooting everything. And with K-dramas, they're fresh, they're new stories and they blend genres in interesting ways. So, anyway, let's talk about your some some like five of your favorite K-dramas.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

Okay, well, the one that I always put at the top of the list because I enjoy attorney shows. I like lawyer shows, lawyer dramas, and extraordinary attorney woo is the most delightful show ever. I agree, I agree. She's on the spectrum, has Asbergers, and she really likes whales. Yeah. It's if you haven't watched it, that her friends and her family will tell her when she's going in a new situation and don't talk about whales. And then she always says, Well, what if the situation requires that I talk about whales? And it always does. Yeah, she she there's always a reason for her to work a whale reference in.

Sara Rosett 5:38

Yeah, because it's how she processes the world, right? Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

And it's much like I always figure out a way to work pickleball into a conversation. There you go.

Sara Rosett 5:48

We all have our own whales slash pickleball subject, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:52

And then it's it's just so delightful because I I've always found that people with Asperger's, I don't think of them as having a disability as much as having a superpower because I am more impressed with the things they can do than the fact that they don't like small talk.

Sara Rosett 6:13

I think if you could trade not liking small talk for some of these awesome things they can do, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Yeah. I I think I think they're evolutionally higher level, and so it's just so well written. And like all of the K-dramas, they start fairly slow, and you have to start to get to know the characters, but you do, and by the end of a series, they have told you who the friend is, the father, the co-workers, the evil co-workers, evil people in K-dramas. Sometimes they have a good reason, and you don't know. So nothing is black and white, it's all shades of gray, which is the real world.

Sara Rosett 6:59

And so uh yeah, that was my first K-drama with an extraordinary attorney woo.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

And I believe it's this year that season two comes out.

Sara Rosett 7:10

Yes, supposedly. We will see. I'm not sure on this season two thing. I I feel I really enjoy K dramas because they have the complete storyline and you get it in 16 or 12 or 16 episodes. So I it'll be interesting to see what they do, but there is more story they could tell.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

Well, you know, it's a lawyer's, it's a it's a lawyer's show. So lawyer shows can run for years and years. They're more episodic. Yeah. Part of the brilliance is that they can the the payoff in most episodes is the clever interpretation of the law to win at the end of the day. And so they could make it go 60 or 100 more episodes. You look at, I don't know if you were you're quite a bit younger than me, but there was a show, LA Law, many years ago that went on for years. Boston Legal, I think, went six seasons. So I will watch Extraordinary Attorney Woman for as many episodes as you can make.

Sara Rosett 8:07

Yeah, I will too.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

I will see that was your first one. What was your second one?

Sara Rosett 8:11

I think it was because this is my first life. I mean, I remember I bounced around, I tried a bunch of different shows, and then I landed on that, and I was like, oh, this is really good. It's more a slice of life, but it's very well written. It has some great dialogue. The first six episodes, I just couldn't stop watching. I think I watched six in one evening, you know, until staying at two in the morning. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Well, that I have not watched yet. The beautiful thing for those who are watching the podcast that have never tried a K-drama is they've been making K-dramas for a long time.

Sara Rosett 8:45

So there's a huge backlist.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

So that's the backlist is massive. And yeah, and I binge them constantly. And so you've talked about um extraordinary attorney woo. Oh, yeah. Yes, extraordinary attorney Wu is number one. Crash Landing on You, yes, is is number two on my list. Now, Crash Landing on You is the story of this billionaire, young, attractive CEO, a little bit of a narcissist, not huge, but but she's successful and very much likes herself. For her birthday, she goes parasailing. And so the story begins when a tornado comes along and blows her into North Korea. And so it's a tale of fish out of water, but it is unlike anything I've ever seen. Again, the character development, everything from the the little ladies in the village that we think are a bunch of evil Karen's.

Sara Rosett 9:47

But maybe they're not. You don't want their story. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

Yes. And then there's the the evil protagonist, and there's several of them, but even a couple of them, you find out have some redeeming qualities, yeah. Yeah, it's just so brilliant. And the the four sidekicks for the captain are delightful. And one of them is then in my number three, which is Vincenzo.

Sara Rosett 10:14

Okay, yeah. So tell me about Vincenzo.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

So so you you've not you've seen Crash Lightning on you.

Sara Rosett 10:19

I have, yeah. And I've started Vincenzo, but didn't really get into it. So tell me, so sell me on Vincenzo.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

Vincenzo, you gotta get about six episodes deep because the brilliant payoff for Vincenzo, and and I don't want to give too much details, but it goes 24 episodes. So you get to about uh okay, like episode six, and you really are hooked. But then like episodes 20 through 24, you start to see that all these minor characters, and there's a ton of them, have these uh incredibly bizarre backstories that all of a sudden all their backstories come to fruition in the most glorious ways, where the thing that they that made that put them in this place in life and was sort of a curse is now a blessing, and it is spectacular. It is so good, and it just gets better and better and better. And again, probably the slowest one I've ever started watching as far as number of episodes where I was like, this is okay, and I'm gonna keep watching. And then all of a sudden, oh my god, this is one of my favorites. So Vincenzo is is worth getting at least six deep, but the real payoffs are north of episodes 20.

Sara Rosett 11:47

Well, a lot of times that's how it is, yeah. It takes a while to get into it because they are slower paced. And I do remember that I the section that I watched, I was like, okay, I get it. One of the themes of this is you need a bad guy to defend against a bad guy. You you need someone kind of on the gray, grayish side to deal with some of these issues. And um that I think the people who some of the creators of Vincenzo also did um Chief Kim or Good Manager, then I love that one. Um it's a older one and it's kind of got that same kind of morally gray character. It's uh you could have to watch those. I mean, you would love it. It it and it's funny, but it's like that too. It's kind of slow in the beginning, kind of silly in the beginning, but then once you get into it, the story picks up. It's about a guy who is an accountant for a mob boss. Okay, and so he knows how to cook the books so beautifully that everybody wants him to work for them. And he decides, I'm gonna go work in Seoul. He was out in the country. He's like, I'm gonna go work in Seoul for a big company and I'm gonna cook their books. They'll never know. This is how I'm gonna make money. And but he has a redemption story, and he gets in this accounting office and they make accounting interesting. And yeah, I mean, it's it's really it's really good. So I'm sure that if I get into Vincenzo, I will like it. So I'll keep I'll go back to that.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

And so uh, what was the the accountant one called again?

Sara Rosett 13:21

It's called um, it's on Vicky as good manager because he becomes a manager at this company, but the old title is Chief Kim. Like Chief Kim, okay, like chief, like section chief.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

Like section chief, sure. Yeah, I will add that to my list. I just finished a K K drama yesterday. So I haven't start I haven't started a new binge. I well, I think that will be it. And okay, perfect.

Sara Rosett 13:48

Yeah, you'll have I can't wait to hear what you think.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Absolutely.

Sara Rosett 13:51

Yeah. So uh I think we've got four of your favorites. What about your fifth?

SPEAKER_01 13:57

Well, at the time that we started chatting about doing this podcast, I I don't remember what my answer was. I know what my answer is now, and that's the one I just finished. It's called uh Chief Detective 1958.

Sara Rosett 14:15

Okay, so that's on my list. Tell me about that one.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

It is very well done. It's a cop drama. It moves, it is probably of all of the K-dramas I've watched, moves along the quickest. It it I was hooked like 10 minutes in. And so the they they add characters, it's not as massive as some of the other ones. It's only 10 or 12 episodes. I don't remember because I was I was benching at the end. Yeah. And one of the components of K dramas that I love is that when you get to the end of a US show, a series, that last episode, there's uh the the dramatic conclusion, the big question is tied up in a nice bow, and then you've got about 90 seconds of post stuff. Yeah, but K dramas give you about 20 minutes, and those 20 minutes are going through and just revisiting all of the people and their lives now, and you it ties it up better than they do in US shows. And this was the same. There was it ended, and I looked, and there was maybe 20 minutes left, and it was it was great, it was just enjoyable, right? That last enjoyable, and then the last it it was like 15 minutes of that, and then there was five minutes back in present day because it starts off the first two minutes or so in present day, okay, and then jumps back to 1958, and then there's maybe another minute somewhere in the series of present day, and then they come back to present day, and it's it's wonderful. There will be tears that last three minutes because you just yeah, I mean, 1958 was a long time ago, and you know it life life changes, and so it's yeah, it's it's wonderful though. They they they give you the best laughs and they give you the best tears. So that's my new number five.

Sara Rosett 16:30

Okay, all right. Well, that's good, and I haven't seen that, but that is on my list too. So we're filling each other's to watch list. Absolutely. Yeah, so tell me about is there a trope, uh K drama trope that you just love that you're just gonna watch no questions asked? Do you have like a go-to trope?

SPEAKER_01 16:47

Well, I I like the fish out of water stories. So whether it's whether it's romance or uh legal or a detective, the it's uh because again 1958, chief detective 1958, he is a small uh town detective who has uh been promoted to a position in Seoul because he has caught 1,000 cow thieves in his province, right? Which is a big deal. He he's caught more cow thieves than anyone in the history of being a detective, and so because of that, he goes to the big city. Well, the big city doesn't have cow thieves, they have different things, and so it's the fish out of water. I also like their take on the billionaire romance. Now I'm not a reader of romance novels, but if there are any authors listening, we all know that that is a huge genre. The billionaire romance, and oh yeah, there's um one that I am in the middle of. Uh I believe the title is What's What's Wrong with Secretary Kim? Have you seen that one?

SPEAKER_02 18:04

I have.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

Okay. So I I'm only maybe six episodes in. Okay. But that's a great example. The CEO is our, he's, I don't know if he's all narcissistic, right? Yeah, yeah. He more than a little redefines narcissistic in such an amazing way. And his secretary of 10 years has decided she just wants to move on, and he can't function without her. And it's it's wonderful. And uh early on, he decides, and again, they have never had any sort of romantic things, and and he's just trying to talk her out of what you know, of leaving. And so he just over lunch or dinner, he just says, Fine, you can marry me. Just because the assumption is every woman.

Sara Rosett 18:53

She wants to marry somebody, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

Yeah, and every woman in the world would want to marry him, right?

Sara Rosett 18:59

So but not her.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

But but but but and she's just are you serious? It's it's delightful. That's not the problem. That's not the problem. And crash landing on you, it was the female protagonist who was the billionaire. And I that is my favorite trope, and I'm a I'm an old softy. That's what I like. What about you? What's your what's your favorite trope?

Sara Rosett 19:20

Um, I love the fish out of water trope too. That's one of my favorites. And then I love like the odd couple pairing, um, especially in um cop shows where you've got the you know, the buy the book and then the freewheeling, usually rookie, you know, and you put them together. And there's a new one out, Flex X cop. I don't know if you've seen that one. It's it's a new spin. Yeah, I think that before. Yes. Yeah. I love that one. So that's kind of a new spin on the buddy cop thing, and also maybe a little fish out of water because he's not used to being a police officer. So but he doesn't really, he's not really trying to become a police officer like them. But yeah, I love those too. Those are those are great. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 20:04

So how long ago was it that you first started watching K dramas? Do you remember which year?

Sara Rosett 20:09

I think it's been, I think it's about a year and a half ago. Okay. So I have I haven't watched as many as some people, but I I am plowing through as many older ones as I can find.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

They're so delightful. And I find TV in English to be unwatchable now.

Sara Rosett 20:30

I don't have any shows in English that I really keep up with anymore. Yeah. Well, let's go back and talk a little bit about characters because we've talked about this a little bit about why we think K-dramas are so addictive. And you mentioned character development is like a huge part of it for you. So uh how do they do that so well, I guess, or what is your favorite part of the character development in K dramas?

SPEAKER_01 20:54

What they seem to do is they introduce a character in Crash Landing on you in this North Korean village that is a stark contrast from Seoul, South Korea. Fish out of water again. Fish out of water. There's these ladies who are sort of the Karens of the group. And there's there's five or six of them, and there's one in particular that is sort of within that group, she kind of doesn't fit in. They all look down on her, but they let her in, and it's it starts off, it's just all the Karens gathering to sort of poke their nose in the business of the captain who is hiding this person from South Korea, and they're trying to figure out what's going on, and they're really annoying. And when you're watching at the beginning, it's like, oh, don't let the Karens get her because they're bad news. Yeah, and and then there's a but that that's all you get at the beginning. It's just that, and there's one character that they're they're just a little more rude to for whatever reason, but she's one of their friends, so. You don't think anything of it. And then a few episodes later, you get a little bit more. And then you get backstory on that character. And then you get backstory on all of them. And then they change their whole outlook on life. It's it's it's just it's that that redemption arc that these antagonists go through that makes it so delightful. Because I think we all have flaws and things we can work on to improve. And so I like seeing people, especially with the big ones. You you're a narcissist and you realize it and you start to try to work on it. That that's a great trope. And that they just do it with with such a deft touch that you never see it coming. And then all of a sudden you're like, oh my God, I hated that character. She's my favorite now.

Sara Rosett 22:58

Yes, they're they're very good at giving you just little glimpses into people's lives that make you feel sympathetic to them, you know, or maybe, but you didn't at all before. It's very well done.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

I I had my own experience with in either my second or third Henry Wood book. I think it was the second one. Uh uh uh I don't remember the titles of my novels. Uh well, you've got so many. Yeah, I do. Uh, but it's the second Henry Wood book, and I'm a Panther, which for those that are listening that are not writers, you can either be a pantster where you write from the seat of your pants, or a plotter where you you plan things out and you organize the book before you start to write the prose. I am a pantster. And in my second Henry Wood book, which was my second novel ever, I'm pantering my way through. Don't have any idea who the bad guy was. Who did it? Yeah. But I'm thinking it's this French guy who's fat and rude and mean. I wrote one chapter, gave some backstory, and I didn't mean for it to happen. But by the end of the backstory, I've written 1700 words and I love that character. So he couldn't, he couldn't meet it. He can't be it, right? He can't be it. I had to be, I had to find a different killer. And so it's that same level of wow, wow, shock. It catches you off guard because I don't think anything that's made out of Hollywood or the UK gives you that feeling anymore. It's just tired and predictable and preachy. And yeah, they they don't do any of that.

Sara Rosett 24:35

Yeah, yeah. So one of the questions that I ask writers is, you know, how has it impacted your writing? We've kind of jumped into that. So is there any other ways you can think of besides character development or well?

SPEAKER_01 24:47

Character development is such a big part of writing. I've always tried to do a good job of character writing. And so my ever since early on, I wrote characters with the idea of revealing more later on and giving you insights.

Sara Rosett 25:06

So I've kind of Because you write in series, right? So maybe not so much in book one, but more later down the line. Later down the line.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

And I will I always have that in mind as I'm creating characters. What has changed is I would say I went from doing it like a carpenter building a frame and all, to a more polished artisan approach to the characters. So right now I'm writing a novel. I haven't written really since COVID. And I just started writing a novel that I'm doing on Twitter, and I put the chapters up there and the uh so I've got nine chapters up. I think I've written through chapter 12, and every few days I will put up a new chapter on Twitter, and so people can read it as I'm writing it, which is the way I began back in 2010 as I was writing the Henry Wood Detective series in a serial as individual blog posts. And I felt that to get my passion back for writing, I needed to do that again, but I didn't want to blog. I like Twitter or well, it's X now. And so that's where I put the the posts and the characters as I'm developing them, I'm doing a much better job. I use Scrivener as my tool of building the character sheets out and spending a lot of time thinking about how I can, with better nuance, work characters in so that in three or four books it it will be a different cast. It'll be the same, same people, right, but there will be people that have switched sides.

Sara Rosett 26:55

And so yeah, you will understand them much better too. Like by the time your reader will will get that as they read through the series, which I think is important because if the characters never change, it becomes kind of boring to a series reader.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

It does, it does. And so I think it has made me better at that. Much like whenever talking with somebody who is new to writing, experienced authors always say, Well, you need to read a lot because that is the fuel, not that you're gonna necessarily copy someone's prose, but stylistically, the ideas, other more experienced authors will do things you never considered. One example for me was when I started reading Elmore Leonard. He passed away a few years ago in his 80s, was the greatest American writer of dialogue in the last hundred years, no question. He the there are movies made from his books. Uh Jackie Brown is uh from one of his books. Then uh the the TV series Justified. That character had a couple books. Most of Elmore Leonard's, I think 48 novels. I don't don't quote me on that list because I may be off by one or two. But there are several novels with the justified character in it, and he doesn't typically do that. Most of his are one novel and then that's standalone. But yeah the the movie uh uh with Sylvester Stallone plays he's uh he plays a gangster that wants to be in the movie business. That one had two books and they made movies about both of them. But in Jackie Brown, there's uh a scene, and Elmore Leonard was always invited to watch uh the production of the movies because he's had maybe, like I say, the TV show and probably four or five movies made from his books. And he's watching one once, and they're doing a scene, and this one character is talking to a bartender in a CD bar, and they keep redoing it and redoing it, and it's just not landing. And so and uh Elmore Leonard, who would never offer until he was asked, they said, Do you have any ideas? And he went up and he he whispered to the character playing the bartender, and he and he said, He is telling a racist joke, but you're a racist, you don't get that it's racist. Oh he needed that extra little and so instead of the guy cringing at the the off-color joke in that bar in that crowd, they're all racists. So the joke lands differently now that the the bartender understands who he is, and that one little thing, and and they then they got it on the next take. And so it's it's little perspective, you know.

Sara Rosett 30:04

We need to understand that people look at any situation through their own lens, but you can change that lens, and so and then yeah, and incorporating that into your characters, yeah. Yeah, very interesting. Well, um thank you. Have you had any K-drama disappointments? Any that you were like weren't for you I am trying to think.

SPEAKER_01 30:30

I I was wondering that the other night, and there was one a couple years ago that I only made it maybe two episodes in and stopped, but it wasn't necessarily that I had not enjoyed it because again, my expectation is three to six episodes before you're into it. Before you make a judgment call. Before I make a judgment call. Yeah, but the reason I got away from it is I started Vincenzo, and so I went, I was watching it, and and I can't remember what it was. I I remember the characters and kind of what they were doing, and I wanted to it there, it was a guy like Hotel Luna, Hotel Moon, something and Hotel de Luna or something like that. Yeah, I haven't seen that one, but I've heard the name, yeah. And so I was a couple episodes in when I found Vincenzo, started watching Vincenzo, and then didn't get back to it. I I just need to figure out the name. What did you say, Hotel de Luna? Hotel de Luna, I think. Okay, I think I think I think that is the name. Yeah, and I do think I would enjoy it. I just that's the only one I've just got distracted, given up on.

Sara Rosett 31:44

Yeah. Okay. And you said you don't really keep track of what you watch, you just kind of I just go wander around in the backlist.

SPEAKER_01 31:52

And I I wander around and I I kind of uh one thing that will make me want to watch something and pick it over the other, because like we said earlier, there the backlist is massive. And you can watch them on Netflix, you can watch them on Amazon. Do you do you watch any of the ones on Amazon? Yeah, yeah.

Sara Rosett 32:13

And is if I see a an actor or actress that I liked from a previous show, and so you know you're really getting into K dramas when you start to recognize the uh the actors, actors, especially the supporting actors, when you start going, Oh, I remember this person from this show that I watched a month ago or whatever. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:37

One of my favorite sidekicks from Crash Landing on You is in Vincenzo. And that's part of the reason I hung around for so long because again, it takes five or six episodes to really be hooked. But once once the hook gets you, you're you're in Vincenzo. Vincenzo, Crash Landing on You, and Extraordinary Attorney Woo are in a league where I will be into the drama and then at some point check how many episodes there are, and then I will begin rationing. Okay. Where I stop then a little bit, I go the other direction, and I and I go every three days or something before I watch the next episode because I know it's coming to an end. I know that 90% or more of K-dramas never have a season two, and so I start to ration them. Um, you know, uh the the detective one was very good, but I didn't ration it. I just benched it all the way through uh Detective 1958. It was excellent, but I didn't feel I needed to drag it out for another three or four weeks. So that is my sort of litmus test when I see that we're coming near the end. Oh no, I need I need to make this cheesecake last a little longer. A little bit longer, yeah.

Sara Rosett 33:55

Ration it out. That's a good way to describe it. Yeah. Well, if you had a friend who had never seen a K-drama and asked for recommendations, would it be one of those your top three that you would recommend?

SPEAKER_01 34:04

One of the top three. Because all of those, the payoff down the road is so satisfying, and it's unlike anything you've ever seen on a US show.

Sara Rosett 34:17

Yeah, I would agree. I would probably recommend Extraordinary Attorney Woo because that seems that appealed to my husband, and he's not a K-drama watcher, and he was into that. We got into the first episode, and he was interested.

SPEAKER_01 34:31

Yeah, yeah, so freaking adorable.

Sara Rosett 34:34

Yeah, and all the people in the office, you get to meet them all, and you mostly root for them all, and you're invested in their stories and stuff. So yeah, I can't you can't go wrong with those.

SPEAKER_01 34:45

That extraordinary attorney woo, I think, would get anyone. And and if you know that they like a good love story, crash landing on you is spectacular. Because for those of you who have not watched it, and this is not a spoiler in any way, but the main the captain, the main male protagonist and the female CEO, after the show finished, they married each other in real life, in real life, in real life, which is just the best thing ever because their performance, wow, this is so good. I don't I think they just fell in love and then went with it and made a great show.

Sara Rosett 35:23

Yeah, and it that adds that extra in like if you know that, yeah, it adds an extra layer of enjoyment to the show. But if you don't, then when you get done and you find it out later, you're like, oh, of course, that makes total sense.

SPEAKER_01 35:37

It makes total sense. And um the I'm so bad with actor names, but the okay the the in the office, uh the the the actor who played the guy that messed with Dwight Schroot. Okay. Um and so, you know, like he put his his stapler in the jello and he was always messing with him, and then he would look over at Pam, who was his girlfriend in the show. That actor married a British actress originally, Emily Blunt. That's him. And so uh the he married Emily Blunt, and there's he was on a chat show, maybe Graham Norton or something, and he's telling the story of coming to the UK and going through customs, and the guy passed checking his passport, like, are you on business or pleasure? He's like, Well, I'm I'm my wife is shooting a movie here, and he goes, Oh, would I have heard of her? I I don't know. Uh Emily Blunt. And he said, The guy looked at me and he goes, You married Emily Blunt? Or no, like he was disgusting. He goes, she married you? That's what it was. And then and then he handed the passport back and just said, Go. Disgusting. He was so disgusted that Emily Blunt had fallen for uh a guy.

Sara Rosett 37:04

Probably first for an American and then for him.

SPEAKER_01 37:07

Well, but the the the point is the movie I mentioned earlier that I couldn't can't remember the title, and it's relatively new, but Emily Blunt is in it, and her her her love interest is in the in the movie. It's a great little love story. It's it's adorable. It's it's about the fall guy. Yes, yes, the fall guy is adorable, but I so love knowing about her and her husband, and they have this wonderful relationship that I couldn't get that out of my head during the whole movie. It's like, oh yeah, yeah, it's Emily Blunt. She really likes the guy from the office. I I didn't mean to get off on the slightly gossip there, but I couldn't get myself.

Sara Rosett 37:49

That's okay. Well, we need to wrap up anyway, because this has been great. Um tell me, um, do you have we talked a little bit about what you're watching right now? Do you have any other? Sounds like you have a couple maybe going. So you're watching um you just finished Detective 1958.

SPEAKER_01 38:06

That was yesterday. And then the Hotel del Luna, which I'm gonna go re find because I it was, I think, worth giving a shot. I'm also in the middle of uh the nine-tailed fox.

Sara Rosett 38:21

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 38:22

Which it which is good. It is it's not going to be one of my top five, but it's good enough that I'll finish it. There is a Chinese drama about a video game cafe that I cannot remember the name, or I would have talked to it about it at length because typically I stay with the K dramas, but I love I love that, and I think they're going to make a season two, so I'm I'm gonna look for it. And then I gotta throw out the one other show that's a Japanese show, and it's uh the Midnight Diner. And the Midnight Diner is it's a little diner in Tokyo that opens at midnight. Okay, and it's every there's there's this cast of characters that show up every week that are the regulars that come to this diner to eat, and it's a tiny little thing. It may be seats eight to ten people all in a view. And then every episode, other one or two other people will come in and it will be about their story, and so you it's it's mostly just them talking in the diner where you hear most where you hear the majority of what's going on, but then they will cut away to some outside stuff, and there's three or four years of that. It's absolutely delightful, and I always eat Asian food while watching. I I can't that that they're they're always eating, they're they're making stuff, and at the end, yeah. It does at the end, after sort of the final scene, when it would be the commercial break, they come back and the actors who were the guests come in and explain the recipe that was that episode's main dish. Because every episode has a theme dish that goes with the story, and there's backstory like oh, how interesting. These can you make such and such pancakes? And his he only has one thing on his menu. Uh-huh. And but if you bring the ingredients or if he has them, he will make anything. And they will say, Oh, oh, it tastes just like my mom used to make. And so you get backstory through the love of food. Oh, and the actors just being themselves show how you make the dish. So it's it's got a lot of levels to it.

Sara Rosett 40:46

It sounds like it's almost a combination of like a fictional story with a little reality TV show tacked on the end.

SPEAKER_01 40:53

Yeah, it that's exactly it. You get the the reality of how to make the recipe, and everything they do looks good. I've never made one of those recipes, but one day I will. They're lovely. Wow. Well, thank you so much. This has been so much fun. I hope down the road maybe you'll invite me back because I would talk to you guys.

Sara Rosett 41:11

We can do an update and see what you're watching then. Yeah, and what you've discovered since then. So thank you so much for doing this. I really appreciate it. And thank you for all your recommendations. I think people will really get some good ideas. So, and you are the first guy we've had on. And yeah, uh, Christy Rose, I just interviewed her. She's another author. She she said she gets a lot of her recommendations from you. So I think it's she sees your posts and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 41:37

I do. I I'm not on Facebook as much anymore, but I love getting on and talking about my K dramas.

Sara Rosett 41:44

Okay. All right. Well, thank you. And we will see everybody next week. Have a good week of drama watching, everyone. Bye, everyone.