Comfort Watches and Palette Cleansers with Shannon from Banchan: Bite-Size K-Drama Podcast

S2 E 23 / Shannon Bloom, children’s librarian, knitter, cat lover, and host of Banchan: Bite-size Kdrama Reviews podcast, joins me to talk about manga Kdrama adaptations, unforgettable friend groups, and watching challenges.

🪭 Shannon shares her Kdrama origin story (including a roommate’s historical drama obsession) and how her love of fantasy and romance books interplays with her for Kdrama addiction.

🫖 Then we list comfort watches and share under-the-radar favorites that deserve more love—plus, what Kdrama made us do in real life!

⏱️Timestamps:

[00:00:34] Meet Shannon

[00:01:35] Currently Watching

[00:06:36] Shannon's First Kdrama 

[00:12:21] Drama Recommendations

💚 Mild spoiler for some dramas, be we give you a warning within the episode

• Tastefully Yours
• Haunted Palace
• Good Boy
• Flex X Cop
• Boys over Flowers 
• Jewel in the Palace
• The Hiers
• W: 2 Worlds 
• Descendants of the Sun
• Parasite
• Squid Game
• Lovely Runner
• Reply 1988
• Hometown Cha Cha Cha
• Business Proposal
• Red Sleeve
• Hospital Playlist
• Twenty Five Twenty One
• Our Blues
• Empress Ki
• When the Stars Gossip
• Wok of Love
• Yumi’s Cells
• Just Between Lovers
• I’m Not a Robot
• A Time Called You
• Mellow Movie
• Shopaholic Louie
• It’s Okay That’s Love

Links: 

Shannon’s Podcast: https://pod.link/1839465628

Shannon’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/banchankdramapod/?g=5

Kdrama subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/KDRAMA/comments/1hqdoix/rkdrama_challenge_2025_introduction_post/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

This is the How I Met My K-Drama podcast, and it's all about K-drama origin stories and recommendations. I'm Sarah Rosette, and today Shannon Bloom is here with me. Hi Shannon, how are you?

SPEAKER_00 0:17

I'm good, Sarah. Thanks for having me on. I'm so excited to talk to you. We've been chatting quite a bit before.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

We were like, okay, we gotta start recording. Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

We don't want to say we don't want to waste all the good stuff beforehand.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Yeah. So tell everybody a little bit about yourself and just a little bit of background

Meet Shannon

SPEAKER_01 0:34

on you.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

All right. So I am a wife and mother living in the state of Rhode Island, which for people not from the U.S. or maybe even some Americans who are bad at geography, that's the smallest state in the country in the Northeast. We're below Massachusetts, next to Connecticut. We're known for nice beaches, good seafood, and corrupt politicians.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

It's a trend across the country.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

We I think we originated it though. Um I'm a children's librarian. I work at a small city library. I'm a cat lover, I knit, and I'm a big reader, but primarily fantasy and romance books. Cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

And I didn't know that you're a librarian.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Children's librarian, so I can't promote your books, but to write a children's mystery, and I totally will.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

I think that libraries are just the best. I've I grew up at libraries going every other week to check out books with my mom is like such a part of my identity. Yeah. They're awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

That's one of my favorite things as a children's librarian is getting to foster that love in kids to keep

Currently Watching

SPEAKER_00 1:35

that going.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Yeah. Let's talk about what we're currently watching. So why don't you go first and tell us what's on your list right now?

SPEAKER_00 1:41

Since I know this will come out a couple months after we record it, my my currently watching might seem old, but mine too. There's uh two shows I'm watching that are actually wrapping up soon: Tastefully Yours and Haunted Palace, which I think finishes up this current weekend. And uh I started the first two episodes dropped last weekend of Good Boy, which is the one with uh Pakbo Gum and some other Sang Yi and Kim So-hyun is how you say her name. So I started that last weekend, and it's looking good so far. I'm excited to keep watching it.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

Okay, so what genre is that one? Because I don't know much about it.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

That is a police drama.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

What sets it apart, I think, from other kind of police dramas is they're all former athletes, like national athletes, a former boxer, a fencer, a sharpshooter, and there's a former wrestler and some other athletes in there. Kind of how a lot of these police dramas star is the team forms. Like there are teams made up of athletes. It's got a lot of humor in it. It's not like slapsticky type humor, it's just there are some funny moments in it. And I would say it's pretty high on the action level, but it's it seems really well choreographed. That's what gets me with these dramas. Like I really liked Flex X Cop that came out last year. Yeah, I loved that one because the characters were good, the choreography was really good. It just went beyond just being a police drama. It was more than a mystery.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Yeah, because it was all about him and his growth and found family.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Yes, I love a found family. Yeah, it's on Amazon. It was on Prime.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

All right, that's good. Yeah. There's so many streaming sites, so it's good to say where stuff where you're because it not everything is released around the world at the same time, so it can make it challenging.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

But right, yeah, I guess I should say that's Amazon Prime in the US.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

That's interesting because I had seen the title Good Boy, and I didn't know what it was, but for a second I thought, wait, are they doing a sequel to Startup? Because remember Good Boy and Startup? Yep. That was the white name. And I was like, I don't think they are, but so it's not, it's totally different, but it sounds really good.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

I would watch a sequel to Startup for sure.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Especially this called Good Boy House. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

I didn't know actually going into it how much of a police drama it was because all the promotional stuff was showing Pakbokum in like his athlete's uniform, like holding a medal. And I was like, oh, okay, so it's gonna be focusing on the more athletics. And it does because it shows a lot of when he was in competitions. I don't know anything about boxing. Are they called matches? I don't know. But anyway, fights, bouts, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

No help.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

I don't know. Yeah. Well, they'll show like flashbacks of when he was a professional athlete. So there is a bit of that thrown in. It's not just him as a police officer.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

Okay. So I've taken a break on Tastefully Yours because it looked like it was gonna get super dramatic. And I just wasn't in the mood for that. So I I'll wait until it's near closer to the end. So I'm watching that. I just finished Nine Puzzles, and I really loved the beginning of that. But the end of it, I felt like it turned into more of a spoiler. More of a give a warning if you don't want to know the end of Nine Puzzles. But by the time this show comes out, it will have been out for a long time. It turns into more of a revenge drama at the end. Oh. And I didn't realize I was signing up for that, so I wasn't quite on board for that. But it was still entertaining. I still enjoyed it overall, but the ending, I was disappointed with it.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

I literally know nothing about that drama other than I saw an article on my drama list where the director said something like, It's divorced from reality.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Yeah, it definitely is. A lot of the things that happen, I was like, that would never happen. But it's a fun ride if you're there for that. And then I finished up a drama that I mentioned mentioned in the last interview I did, which at this time has not come out yet, called Mr. Bride. It's a J drama. I started it because I've really liked the actress that's in it. And she's been in some other shows that I've really enjoyed. Her name is Haru. And this one, it's one of those that I picked up because she was in it, and it just wasn't right for me. It has some characters that are very over the top, like so exaggerated all the time.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

That's irritating.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Too much for me, yeah. But it had a lot of humor in it, and it was funny, but I just ended up skipping through some scenes because they were just way too much for me. But it had some really funny things and some really good social commentary about what a man's expectations are with work and a woman's expectations and how women's expectations at work are still linked to, oh, you're a woman, so therefore you're good at cooking. And if you're not, then you know what does that mean? And should you improve yourself to become better cook? Given that you're excellent at your job. So it had some really interesting things, but at the end I was like, okay, yeah, it's not one of my top dramas, but still fun. So let's see, let's get into the questions. How did you get into K-dramas and what was your first K-drama, if you remember?

Shannon's First Kdrama 

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Oh, I do. So when I sat down to really think about it, I realized that my K-drama journey started further back in my past than I had originally thought. So around 2003, and I'm gonna date myself with this, I had a college roommate who she usually went home over the weekend, but would occasionally stay in our dorm room. And I remember for part of that year, she would want to watch an episode from the show that she was watching with her dad when she went home. I could be wrong, but I think maybe it aired on our local PBS station that was around the Philadelphia area, if anyone remembers this. But I do remember that it was Korean and it was a historical because I very like clearly remember the costuming. So I've tried to do some research and figure out what show it could have been. And I think it might have been Jewel in the Palace, okay, which came out around that time. But at that time I had no interest in watching it. Like she would watch it and I would do whatever. But then fast forward to around 2012, and a friend I knew through the Wheel of Time online fan community, Wheel of Time is a series of fantasy books, and she was talking a lot about K-dramas and what she was watching, and she would give descriptions. And the first I had really ever learned the term K-drama, learned what they were. And they sounded great. Like the show she was talking about sounded fantastic. But at the time when I watched TV, it was with my husband, who he doesn't have a big interest in watching K-dramas, or I would have the TV on in the background while I was playing a game on my computer. So it wasn't until 2018 that I actually watched my first K-drama. I was working as a young adult librarian at the time, and my teens were really into anime and manga. Like we had an anime club. Yeah, it's super popular. It still is with them. And my husband, who is into anime and manga, mentioned that Boys Over Flowers had been adapted into the live action series of it.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

And he's the one that told you about this. That's I know.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

It's so random. So I was like, all right, it's on Netflix. I'll just I'll give it a try. I want to be able to like connect with my teens. And I don't hate anime. I will watch when my husband finds a show he really wants to share with me. But it's not like my go-to. So I was like, I'll watch a live action. Yeah. And oh man, but I immediately was sucked in. Like, I did not want to stop watching. So after Boys Over Flowers, I was on the E Min Ho bandwagon. I was like, what else has this guy done? So that led me to down the rabbit hole. That led me to the Airs. Loved that. And then after that, I was like, all right, I'm gonna branch out a little bit. And I watched W2 Worlds. And I had just started Descendants of the Sun with a website I was using was purchased by Warner Brothers, and Warner Brothers shut it down, which was super annoying. And I didn't I just didn't want to pay for Vicky at the time, and they weren't like a lot on Netflix at that time. So I would say between 2019 to 2023, I would just watch a K drama every once in a while, like when I one popped up on Netflix for me. But something just clicked in 2023. I think I just watched like one great drama after another. And since then, it's just been I primarily watch Asian dramas and occasionally watch a Western show, usually with my husband. I don't think I've watched a Western show on my own since 2023. I think anytime I watch a Western show, and that's and even then we're sticking to like the big shows like Severance, Yellow Jackets, like Last of Us, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

But yeah, it's I think that's pretty common. I I I've gone back to watch a couple of shows that I'm watched the earlier seasons, but most of the time I'm just much more enjoying the Asian content. Do any of your husband's anime or manga does any of that transfer over where he's oh, this is coming out? Do you want to watch this?

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Yes, actually it has. So there's a manga series called Parasite, and it has been adapted into an anime, but Korea last year, last spring, made their own drama. It was a very short drama. I think they either eight or ten episodes, based in the same world. So it wasn't the story, the same story. It was a different story just with the same premise, which is these like alien parasites fall to earth and they go into humans and they like take over their bodies, and it's yeah, it's hard. It's not it's not great. Like it's not, we definitely don't want to see this happen in real life. But then so he was excited when he found out about it, and he was like, Oh, we gotta watch this because he loves the we own it. We own the whole manga series, and he's watched the anime, so he was very excited to watch that. And I was like, All right, it's not my genre, but you know, I will say the special effects I thought were excellent, really well done special effects. The story isn't my normal typical thing I go for. Car is not normally my thing, but it was all right.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Yeah, that is interesting.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

Yeah, and he's watched like Squid Game, so we watched the season two and we'll watch season three when it comes up.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Yeah, now that I've gotten into J-dramas, I am seeing titles that are the shows are country specific. Some of them are remade. I think Suspicious Partner is one that it was a K-drama, now it's a J-drama. And I think they say I think it goes the same way some J dramas are made into K-dramas or the story idea. I'll read a description and think, wow, I think that's very similar to this K-drama that I watched, and I don't know if what the timeline is on it. But anyway, it's very interesting how things cross back and forth.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

So yeah, I think they borrow from each other's stories,

Drama Recommendations

SPEAKER_00 12:21

yeah, inspiration stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

Which K-drama has a special place in your heart and why does it resonate with you?

SPEAKER_00 12:27

Oh, this is such a hard question to answer. Sorry. Narrow it down to one. I know, narrow it down to one because I have a top 10 list, but I have three top 10 lists because I do like my top 10 absolute favorites, and then I have a top 10 list of gateway dramas that I would recommend. And then I have just top 10 recommended in general, but not necessarily top my list. But if I had to narrow it down to one, I would have to say lovely runner. Okay. It's probably my number one favorite, and I get it. People have criticisms of it. They don't like the female lead, they think it's too tropey. I get it. It's fine. But for me, I don't know. It just made its way into my heart and it just stays there. It's got one of my favorite tropes, which is time travel. It's got He Falls First, which I'm always a fan of. They're just like such faded mates, and their story just hugged at my heartstring. There's longing, there's just, I don't know. I something about it just it appealed to me and I love it so much. Um no amount of criticism is gonna change that for me.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Yeah, there's another podcast, the TN Soju, one of her writing categories is I love this no matter what. I forgot how she phrases it, but basically, like no matter what criticism there is, you're still gonna love the drama. And that's we all have those that they're oh yeah, they're just the ones that resonate, and it may be hard to figure out exactly why, but they just they're perfect, and even though they have flaws, we're okay with it.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

Yeah, that's there are some dramas where the flaws are just too much for you, and you just you're like, all right, I can't deal with this. But there's other dramas where it's just I accept this, I don't care about its flaws. I don't think there's a way to properly I don't know. I don't think there's a way to put it into words, like how to know what the difference is, like when, what is that thing that's gonna change it for you? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

Yeah, I guess we all have deal breakers that they're probably very specific or individualized. So what may be a deal breaker for one person may not be for another. Yeah. Yeah, but so we don't have to stop at just one. So let's talk about some other things. Do you have a go-to comfort watch that and what makes it rewatchable for you if you do have one?

SPEAKER_00 14:37

I don't have just a number one, but I will say earlier in the year I did, I was in need of a comfort rewatch. And so I ended up re-watching Reply 1988, which I feel like might be a comfort watch for a lot of people, but I just felt this need to be back on that street with those neighborhood families. I like the nostalgic feel of it, even though it's not my nostalgic. I didn't grow up in Korea at that time, the late 80s, early 90s. But I can understand it. I can understand the nostalgia for the things you knew when you were a teen, the people you used to hang out with, you know, how your family was at the time. Like I can definitely relate with that. For that show in particular, it's the dynamics between the friends and their families, I think, that it's heartwarming. It's nice to watch them. It's a just a really nice thing to see kids and their families and how they are growing and coming together. And I'm I just really feel like a sense of peace watching that drama. I've I have also watched Hometown Cha Chach as a comfort rewatch too, which is, I think, because it's a light-hearted drama. Most of it is lighthearted. There is some, yeah, it does take a turn somewhere in there. But I guess because I know it's coming now, yeah, it's not as hard to watch. And I have also rewatched uh business proposal sometimes after watching a particular I remember specifically after watching Red Sleeve, I was like, I need something just light heart. I need something where I don't have to worry about the characters. I just want it was like a nice light palette cleanser, something to watch after watching a particularly heavy show before jumping into something else that is going to give me immense feels.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

Yeah, that's nice. Sometimes I'll watch a heavy show and then I'm like, okay, let's do something fun. I watched a whole bunch of crime shows recently, and I was like, okay, I need comedy, I need laughter.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

Because there were some of them were pretty dark, which are good, but then at the same time, I'm like, okay, time for a change.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

Sure, absolutely. I watched recently a bunch of kind of dramas heavy on the violence, and so now I'm definitely in the mood for something where no one is getting punched.

SPEAKER_01 16:55

There's a low bar, no punching.

SPEAKER_00 16:56

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

What K-drama trope is just one of your favorites that you just can't resist?

SPEAKER_00 17:01

For me, I would say I love time travel, which is probably why Lugly Runners, top of my list. I love a good enemies to lovers trope. I am a fan of fantasy, so if it has some kind of magical element to it, and sometimes I was time travel falls into that because you know, not all time travel is explained by scientific reasons, it's more magical. I'm fine with that. You don't have to explain your time travel to me. And I also can't resist some good longing. Like that always gets me. If there's a character longing for another character, that's yeah, that's gonna get to me.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

I especially like unrequited love. Yeah, if you've if it's gonna work out in the end. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

I like a good dose of that too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

What character or couple just lives rent-free in your head that you continue to think about even though the story's over?

SPEAKER_00 17:51

Msul and Sunjay, but if we're talking non-romantic couple, then I would say Kim Shin and Reaper in Goblin. Like their romance is just top tier for me. I love the two of them in that drama. It they're the two actors, I mean, they're friends in real life, so that probably helped add a little bit of their chemistry on screen, but they just worked so well off of each other. It was truly just delightful to watch them together. I like romantic leads are great, and I love rom-coms, I love romances, but a lot of friend groups stick in my mind a lot. Yeah. Hospital playlist, the friend groups and that 25-21, that friend group sticks out in my mind. So there were and there were romances in each of those shows. But for me, it's just the group of friends that really I really remember.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

Yeah, I have that too. Like I really like a good ensemble cast. I love the three friends. When you have the three friends and they're all going through life together, that kind of seems to come up a lot. And then I love the ones where there's the team aspect, like you were talking about, good boy, where there's team, and you may have one or two that are like the primary focus, but then you've got all the other stories. I love that too. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

Yeah, I like that too. I love a good ensemble.

unknown 19:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

Is there a drama that you were surprised you like?

SPEAKER_00 19:11

Yeah, so there have been a couple that have really surprised me. I really expected our blues to be super depressing, and I kept putting it off thinking it was gonna be sad and boring. But it does look dark.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

It does look, has a heavy tone to it.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

Yeah, I was like, all right, this drama's gonna be heavy. I'm gonna have to be in the right mood for it. But I decided to give it a chance on a whim, and I absolutely loved it. It does tackle some difficult subjects, but the characters, it's just the characters that make the story so touching and not in a sad, bawling my eyes out kind of way. There is a little bit of that, but they just have these great character arcs that are told. And again, it's an ensemble, so we get lots of different characters and their stories, which I think really helps to sell that drama. And I similarly avoided Empress Key, not because I thought it was gonna be sad, but because it's 51 episodes long. Like 50, I know, 51 hour long episodes. Like, this isn't one of those half-hour ones, and it's historical. So I was like, all right, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to stomach 51 episodes of a historical but I was totally wrong. I did this as part of the K-drama subreddits yearly challenge. One of the challenges is to watch a long-form drama that's 20 hours or longer, and you get extra credit being over 50 hours, and you should. I was like, extra credit, K-dramas, I'm all for it. So I was like, all right. I've seen this one recommended a bunch, and I was completely just swept away by it. I love it so much. It doesn't drag at all. Before you know it, you're 20 episodes in and you're like, I need more. So every episode just moves the plot along. There is political intrigue, but it's in a way that's really easy to grasp. It's and it's partly because the characters are so distinct and look so distinct. In a lot of sagucks, they it's a lot of old men with beards in the same robes. They have a little kind of yeah, just talking. They all blend together, and I lose track of who is on whose side. But Empress Key was totally different. It's it can get a little ridiculous with how far it takes things sometimes. Like at one point, this is a little spoiler, but a baby falls off of a cliff and actually survives.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

We've had that happen in other dramas very recently, too, and that's not surprising.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

Oh my god, yeah. And there's lots of backstabbing, lots of fighting, but it has a love triangle that hurts, or at least it hurt me. Like I was rooting for one side of the triangle. The costuming is super rich. It stars Ji Chang Wuk, yeah, that's true. Who adds a great visual element to the drama. It's just it had a blend of great humor, great mystery, great suspense, uh in a very nice looking package, I would say. So I was very surprised till something that went on for so long. Cause how many dramas have we watched where you're like, okay, that didn't need to be even 16 episodes long?

SPEAKER_01 22:18

Yeah, or it feels like very draggy at 12 or something. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

Saggy middle or something. But no, I felt nothing dragged in that drama.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

Okay, good. That's good to know. Okay. How do you pick what you're going to watch next?

SPEAKER_00 22:31

So I mentioned the K drama subreddits challenge. For the past, this is my second year participating in it. So for part of that year, I picked dramas that fit the challenge. So the goal is to watch 36 dramas that fit each of the challenges, one drama per challenge. So for example, some of the challenges this year were things like a drama where a character eats or drinks at a poing matcha, a character or a drama where a character watches a K drama, a drama featuring the truck of doom. That one's easy to get.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_00 23:03

You could just put that any drama in pretty much all the drama. Yeah, exactly. So what I do, I also keep a two-watch list. So I'll go through my two-watch list and pick dramas that kind of fulfill each challenge. And then once I'm done with the challenge, I just basically pick from my two-watch list or I'll start a drama that's currently airing. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

That's fun. I'll find a link to the subreddit and put it in the notes in case anyone's interested. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. I drop in there and just read and see what people are talking about just because it's a good place to recommendations and information and stuff. So yeah, cool.

SPEAKER_00 23:37

I find the challenge fun. And there's different levels to it. You can do all 36. You could do, I forget how they break it down. I think if you do six and then 12 or something. Honestly, like it's just for your own enjoyment because you don't get anything for even anything. But you get your own sense of accomplishment, right?

SPEAKER_01 23:55

That's important.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

I did get a nice adorable certificate because I also watched 50 episodes of a long form drama last year. Last year I did Jewel in the Palace. Okay. Nice. That's a long one.

SPEAKER_01 24:05

Yeah. Do you have any K-drama disappointments or shows that just didn't work for you personally? Then might love. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:13

And the big one for 2025 has to be When the Stars Gossip, right? Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_01 24:17

That's yeah. I don't think that one person who listened to the podcast was saying Lovely Runner or not Lovely Run Love Next Door and Queen of Tears. Everybody is mentioned. But this is the first one for When the Stars Gossip, I think that somebody's mentioned because probably because most people dropped it and I didn't drop it.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

I because I was watching with other people. I watched the whole thing. What a waste of money that drama was. Like it because it was a big budget, and at the time they were promoting it, like talking about how much money was set. And yeah, the scenes in space looked cool, but oh god, the story just let it down. And I was so sad because it had such great actors, Iman Ho, um Gong Jin, I think her name is. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, just like really big names. And I don't know, it's that was such a letdown. But you hung in there. I'm sure they'll all bounce back. I yeah, I only hung in there because I was watching it with other people.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:14

So we gathered and watched it once a week. We watched one episode together. And I liked talking with other people about that drama, although most of us were pretty much hating on it at that point. I think a few people were trying to find redeeming factors about it, but yeah, it was a bummer. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:30

Yeah, I haven't heard very many people who love that one. A lot of dramas are controversial. They'll have two camps, for and against, and that one just doesn't seem to have many people that are completely on board and love it and will defend it.

SPEAKER_00 25:41

I think I've seen anyone who's like, I will defend this to the death.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

Yeah, that one was I watched one episode and I was like, yeah, come out. I just went into it.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

So the beginning it it had a zany kind of out there sense of humor to it. And I didn't mind that. I liked that. I like quirky sometimes in my dramas. I'm fine with that. But first of all, they didn't really keep that level of quirk up at all. I don't know. It tonally, I feel like the drama was all over the place. It started out different than how the middle was, than how the end was. The story was just not great. I could eloquently explain why it was not great. It just was not good.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

Yeah, I think there's a lot going on there that a lot to unpack. But yeah, the screenwriter for that also wrote Walk of Love, and it had that same really quirky, odd beginning. And then that kind of dropped off, and it just became almost a different type of story. It was very strange. And when I saw that it was the same screenwriter, I was like, and I didn't enjoy episode one. I was like, yeah, I think I'm done now.

SPEAKER_00 26:40

But yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:41

Anyway, maybe I'll come across somebody someday who's that's my favorite drama. Do you keep track of dramas you've watched?

SPEAKER_00 26:47

So yes, I am a giant nerd. I do. I have a spreadsheet, one for each year.

SPEAKER_01 26:54

Smart.

SPEAKER_00 26:55

Where I track dates, titles, directors, screenwriters, year-released actors, supporting actors, the station it aired on, uh, which streaming service I watched it on, the genres, the tropes, character tri character types, and how I rate it. Um and then all of that gets turned into charts and graphs for me to look at the end of the year. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 27:18

Are you a librarian? Do you like data? No, I might be, I might like statistics, I might like organizing information. That is so awesome. And do you see trends when you put all your data together at the end of the year?

SPEAKER_00 27:29

I'm really interested. So I didn't track in 2023, but I did track 2024. And I'm really interested to see how that's gonna compare to 2025. I can already make some predictions. Romance is gonna be a huge trope that I watch, comedy is gonna be a huge trope that I watch. But the directors have been different so far this year. The actors that I've seen in the most dramas have been different so far this year. Yeah, it's uh this is also the first year that I've watched non-Korean Asian drama. I will look and see at the end of the year how many non-Korean dramas that I've watched. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:06

Interesting. Interesting. I've I have a list of things, but nothing that detailed. But I think it would be really interesting to look and see and compare year to year. So that's very cool.

SPEAKER_00 28:15

Yeah. I used to do that with my reading a lot. I've been tracking my reading since, I don't know, 2013 or something like that. And I like looking at what I've read during the different years. So when I started getting heavily into K dramas, I was like, you know what? I want to do the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 28:30

Of course. Yeah. And you were probably all set up. You just needed to create a new spreadsheet.

SPEAKER_00 28:34

Pretty much. I did base my spreadsheet off of someone else's. The blog doesn't exist anymore. I adapted that and then I got really granular with it. Like now, when I select the country that the drama is from, it'll automatically change the next drop down to select the station it aired on for stations just from that country. Yeah. That's it. Yeah, so you're a spreadsheet. No, I had to Google a lot of it. I will say that. I Googled a lot for how to do this. I had an idea of how I wanted it to go. And I was like, all right, now I just have to Google it and figure out how to actually make that happen.

SPEAKER_01 29:06

That's cool. I didn't even know you could do that with the the cascading, changing the dropdowns and stuff. Is there something that you've done that K Drama made you do? Did you eat a certain food or try some skincare or do something like that?

SPEAKER_00 29:20

Oh, definitely. It's so weird because I don't think I'm particularly susceptible to advertising like on American television. Commercials just they don't get me. And also now I stream. Like I they won't, I'm not like, oh, I want to buy that car. I stream everything now, so I barely even see commercials. But yeah, is there something about product placement where I'm like, now I actually drink maxim mocha gold coffee? It's like my little treat in the afternoon on days when I get an hour-long lunch. Just like to finish my lunch and have a nice cup of maximum gold. And I like it because I'm not normally a coffee drinker because I'm sensitive to caffeine, but this coffee doesn't seem strong or have much caffeine in it at all.

SPEAKER_01 30:02

Maybe that's why they're constantly drinking it in the K Drum. The one thing in the office. Like me saying they were in the constantly making coffee.

SPEAKER_00 30:10

Yeah, you can go and have four cups of it a day and be totally fine. Yeah. I've also I went to an H Mart. It's about an hour away from my house. I don't have one nearby, but I did buy a jar of citron tea, which is basically, I think it's like just citron peels with some sugar, I don't know, maybe something else. But for anyone that's seen Yumi Cell Season One, it's a plot point in it, actually. So I did buy a jar of that and I used it when I had the flu this past winter, and it made my throat feel better. I've also tried some other Korean snacks. There's a very small Korean market near my mom's house that I'll stop by sometimes after coming from her house. There's one snack that my husband and I like. It's like a honey flavored, like not a corn chip, but I don't probably made from rice. It's called Wang Chong Gu. I don't know if it's popular in Korea or what, but they have it at this market and I love it. So I'll stop and buy some snacks from there. And yeah, and I do use Korean skincare now too. Which is great because I have sensitive skin. So all their skincare seems to be like really gentle and nice, but I got into it because I was watching these actresses on my screen, and I'm like, they have such flawless, beautiful skin. So that led me down the rabbit hole of researching K skincare. And I was like, all right, if I can get a fraction of that great skin, I'm willing to give it a try.

SPEAKER_01 31:31

Yeah, their skin is amazing. And that's another thing that I find jarring when I go back to Western shows. I'm like, oh my goodness, people look so different. Like the and I think that they don't try to cover up the wrinkles or prevent wrinkles as much as like people, it's just very jarring. I'm like, wow, this is definitely not an Asian show.

SPEAKER_00 31:49

So we're watching. Wow, you actually look your age. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 31:52

Yeah, because some of the people I look up their ages and I'm amazed they do not look like they're in their 30s or 40s or 50s. Amazing. Yeah. Definitely, I definitely need to check out the skincare thing just to see.

SPEAKER_00 32:03

I'm a little worried things might get a little more expensive shipping from Asian, but so I stocked up a little bit. There you go. Yeah. So someday I'll get to go to Korea and just stop by a big Olive Young store and try things out in person. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:18

We talked a lot about K-dramas and why you like them. Is there any other thing to add to why they're special to you?

SPEAKER_00 32:24

I really think that K-dramas like they satisfy the part of me that used to be a soap opera watcher. Like I watch soap operas from middle school through college. And then there's the part of me that loves romance novels. I really like that a lot of K-dramas are written by women. So there's themes and characters that really appeal to me just as a woman. And a big part of why I like K-dramas is I just really enjoy getting to know another culture through their media. Of course, it also makes me look at our American media and I'm like, what do other countries take away from what we put in our television and movies?

SPEAKER_01 33:06

And it's so different from daily life. Most of the time, it's so exaggerated. It's just yeah. Yeah. But I feel like Korean dramas try to do, they do the slice of life every day or like the work life, the office. I see that a lot in Japanese dramas. It's very realistic. If like or it feels realistic, or what I would feel like what I think an office culture would feel like. And I don't know that American shows focus on that type of thing. We seem to go for the bigger, more dramatic, yeah, type.

SPEAKER_00 33:37

Yeah, I would agree with that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:39

I'm doing like jazz hands, I don't know how to describe it.

SPEAKER_00 33:41

Just the over-the-topness sometimes. Yeah. You think like The Office, which I know was originally a British show taken by Americans and turned into kind of its own thing. But that's set in an office, but at the same time, it's not really about them being in the office.

SPEAKER_01 33:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:56

Even in later seasons, we see them not even in their office or at we follow them doing other stuff. I think you're right. A drama that's set in an office is gonna be give us a real glimpse into obviously it has to be taken with a grain of salt because not everything in a K drama is reflecting reality. It's definitely a idealized version. You know, we're not gonna see miserable office workers all the time with our dramas, like, but they may probably are in real life. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

Yeah. Because then that would be a really boring drama. It would just be too sad and depressing, not have enough conflict and stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:31

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 34:32

Do you have a drama that you feel is overlooked or that you wished more people knew about?

SPEAKER_00 34:38

I feel like I watch pretty popular stuff. I mentioned Empress Key because the of the 51 episodes, it sounds overwhelming. So like I get that. I don't know. A lot of my favorites, I think, are a lot of other people's favorites, but there are some that I think fall out of popular conversation. Like I would really, I would love to mention like Just Between Lovers, which is also sometimes called Rain or Shine. I think that's a fantastic drama. I know I Jun Ho won the Bexang for the Red Sleeve, but I feel like his performance in Just Between Lovers was even better. Like he was just so good. And I don't really see people mention that one a lot. That's one of my favorites.

SPEAKER_01 35:18

That's one of my favorites that I watched. And I know a lot of people don't like it because they feel like there's a lot of angst, I guess. There is. But I'm okay with for some reason. I'm this is one of those that I'm okay with it. I it has things that are not perfect, but I think I was really into just the storytelling between those two characters, and I just loved it.

SPEAKER_00 35:40

Yeah, I really loved it too. It just yeah, it does there is one plot point towards the end where it was, oh god, really? Ugh. But and I don't want to give any spoilers for it, but No, I know what you're talking about. Yeah, it didn't ruin the show for me at all.

SPEAKER_01 35:54

That didn't ruin the show for me either. And that was mentioned the I don't know how to say this without spoiling, the thing that happens in the end was mentioned in the beginning, like in the first episode. Because I rewatched it later and I was like, oh, this does come up really early.

SPEAKER_00 36:08

It was foreshadowed a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 36:09

Yeah. So anyway, all right, keep going.

SPEAKER_00 36:12

Yeah, I don't gosh. I'm looking at my list of favorites, but I think everyone knows most of mine. Like, I am not a robot. I mean, I don't see that mentioned a ton right now, but I know it is recommended a lot, especially to people who really like rom-com because there's a lot of comedic elements in it. But that's a really good one. It is so good. Yeah. I also really love a time called you. And I know that can be, I don't know if I want to say controversial, but it can bring up discussion because the original, I believe it was Taiwanese. The original people really liked. I've never seen the original. I've only seen the Korean version, and they were like, oh, the acting was better in the original, blah, blah, blah. But you know what? I love the story. It is complicated. The story, like, sometimes you might feel like you need to keep notes to remember who's who and what time it is and who's doing what. And but overall, I would categorize that one as like epic and beautiful. Like the story was so great. And honestly, I thought the acting was pretty good too. Yeah. Trying to think of anything that came out in the last year, maybe. Yeah, I feel like I stick to pretty popular stuff. I know Mellow movie came out earlier this year, and some people didn't like it. I don't remember if you were one of the ones who watched it. I'm that was technically on hold for me.

unknown 37:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 37:30

I really enjoyed it. I liked it. Yeah. Uh I really I thought it was lovely. I thought it was maybe the romances in it wasn't my favorite part. I didn't dislike it. I liked it, but the brothers, the two brothers were huge. They were definitely a great part of that story for me. An older one that I watched this year that I really enjoyed was Shopaholic Louie, or sometimes called Shopping King Louie. Yeah. That has a Song Guk in it. And it's the basic premise is he's a Che-ball who loses his memory. He has amnesia. And so he finds this woman who is searching for her brother. She's from like deep in the country, like backwoods, living where there's no running water, no electricity. So she comes to Seoul to look for her brother, and he like clings onto her. They end up living together, and she's like trying to help him find who he is while at the same time, they're gonna find her brother. And he plays this absolute himbo of a character, just he, oh man, he just you're wondering sometimes is it just air? That's what he's so charming. That's the thing, like he's so good-hearted, he's so good to the female lead, although sometimes takes advantage of her because she has a job and he doesn't. So he's obviously by the title, he is very addicted to shopping. That's what he did as a table. All he did was shop. Very good at picking out things and like finding rare items and stuff. That has made its way through his amnesia. And so all he wants to do is spend money, which he doesn't have because he's broke. And there's a little bit of workplace stuff going on there, a little bit of family stuff going on. It's just it was funny, it was heartwarming, just Songbook's himbo character was just a joy to watch. But it was a lot of fun to watch. I and I don't really see that one recommended a lot. So I'll definitely throw that one out there too.

SPEAKER_01 39:30

Yeah, that one's on my list. And I it's one, and you're right, there are certain dramas that people talk about a lot, and then there are certain ones that you hear mentioned, and then they drop off the conversation. So it's good to kind of bring a couple up every once in a while.

SPEAKER_00 39:43

And yeah, some of it's not as well known. Some of the because so many dramas come out every year. So some of the older ones fall off being recommended. I also recently watched It's Okay, that's Love, which is a little bit of an older one. I forget what year that came out, but I greatly enjoyed that. Oh, it was 2014, that's when it came out. I greatly enjoyed that. I thought the story was really interesting. Not it since it deals with mental health and mental illness, it doesn't get everything right, I would say. But I think they tried very hard by people who do suffer from mental illness. Um the romance in that was good.

SPEAKER_01 40:21

Well, I mean, it is a drama, and so you have to allow some space for things not to be exactly like they should be in real life, versus especially like mental illness. You it's really hard to be exactly perfect with everything. So I'm willing to give a little space for that.

SPEAKER_00 40:37

I am too, yeah. Like I don't I do not expect anything in my chemist to be absolutely 100% true to life. Thank goodness. I don't watch it because I want to be immersed in more reality.

SPEAKER_01 40:50

Yeah. Well, this has been so fun, and I think you've given some great shows that people will really enjoy. So is there any link you want to share? Like where do people can find you?

SPEAKER_00 41:00

So I do have an Instagram where I post K-drama thoughts.

SPEAKER_01 41:06

Hey, this is Sarah popping in from the future to let you know that since we've recorded this episode, Shannon has started her own podcast, and it's called Bonchon Bite-sized reviews for K-dramas. And it's really fun. They're quick little summaries of what the show's about, who's in it, and who she thinks would like it. So I'll put a link to that in the show notes so you can check it out.

SPEAKER_00 41:31

But more importantly, what I would like from everyone is to support your local library, write to your representatives and let them know how important a free public library is to your community, and let them know that you support everyone's freedom to read.

SPEAKER_01 41:44

Good reminder. And I will have the Instagram link in the show notes. So thanks for being here and chatting with me.

SPEAKER_00 41:51

I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. This was so much fun. It was fun for me, too.

SPEAKER_01 41:55

Well, if you enjoyed the episode, please take a few minutes to write or review it wherever you listen to podcasts. That will help KRM fans find the podcast. And we'll see you next time. Bye, everyone. Bye.