Hi KFG!!!! My top three are Healer, My Mister and SLA in that order even though they are all really tied for first place in my mine because they are all stellar for different reasons to me 🙂

I want to second, third, fourth, fifth, to infinity and beyond Merij1 suggestion of Search:WWW!!!! Love that Show so much because for once three female leads carry that show excellently! And of course, the music is awesome 🙂

And Someone also suggested for the second choice to be shorter dramas, I forgot who and cannot find that post. I like that idea as well 🙂

Thanks, KFG for making the decision for us 🙂

I liked other shows mentioned here, but, to be honest, the only shows I would be interested in discussing are My Mister and Secret Love Affair.

Ooh, kfangurl, you really do spoil us with these group watches! I love them. They literally make me smile, watching, then reading your insights, then everyone else’s in the chat. It’s such a happy experience for me 😁

So, I only just watched My Mister – and I have to say, it felt like such an intimate, quiet, beautiful show, I’m not sure how that would translate to a group watch. I feel like it’s too fragile somehow! I don’t think I could join in with it because that show for me was just perfection.

Stranger and Healer are cool. I probably wouldn’t rewatch but I’d join in the comments each week as the shows are still fresh in my mind.

As for the others, happy with any. But it would be nice to have a romance. I do love a romance 🥰

I’ve been reading your reviews for quite a while now and would love to try a group watch now that I’ve caught one that’s just about to start.

Stranger is one of my all time faves, but I haven’t seen it in awhile and I would absolutely be up for watching it again with a group. That would probably be my top pick.

Loved Healer, but just finished it like 2 weeks ago. Haven’t tried My Mister, but it’s on by to be watched list as is Sky Castle, Mother and Coffee Prince.

i just finished “nirvana in fire” for the 4th time. never did i dream that i can re watch anything a second time, but 3,4, 6 times? until i started watching chinese and korean dramas, and at first i thought that i am just crazy, or something of this sort, because in my life when i was done with something, it was done and move on to another project. once i discovered that many of you re watch these dramas, it made me feel much more at ease, i am not alone. so thank you all for that.
now back to the nirvana. although i was not very impressed while watching it the first time, (but it was due to starting it right after “the rise of phoenixes”, and my heart and mind were full with chen kun, nini and just the whole experience of this incredible drama. i simply had no space in me to let in anything else.) but after a while i returned to NIF, I became more and more fascinated by it’s amazingly smart and intricate story, it’s impressive cinematography, it’s actors highly professional portrayal of the characters… and many more aspects of this production. after i finished, i thought where do i go now, i’ll never find anything equivalent to NIF andTROP, it was sort of depressing. and i must admit that i discovered those dramas quite recently, and grateful for kfangirl’s and other people’s direction – it helped a lot. so after i finished NIF, I was missing to see again on the screen the chiseled face, the penetrating eyes of mei changsu, the booming warm voice of prince xiao jingian, the quiet strength and wisdom of mama jing…
i turned to “secret of the desert”, just to see hu ge – and he was as good as it gets but the drama itself was such a poor cousin to the other dramas, it was just not my cup of tea, but i am not going to talk about it now. i saw somewhere that “the disguiser” would have some of the same actors as in NIF. so i tried , and boy was i surprised and delighted to feel a kind of sensation that i am “home”, and am meeting “old friends”… here is the list of whom i discovered so far (i am only at the beginning, episode 6 and it is NOT disappointing!):
hu ge (mei changsu) in the role of ming tai
wang kai (prince xiao jingyan) in the role of ming cheng
jin dong (lin chen master of langya hall) in the role of ming lou
liu min tao (consort mama jing) in the role of older sister ming jing
wang ou also known as angel wang (qin banruo) in the role of wang manchu
liu yi jun (the evil marquis xie yu) in the role of wang tianfeng (not less evil, but very different and interesting)
gao xin (the crown prince xiao jing xuan)
zhang yan yan (grand princess liyang)
li gang (from jiangzuo alliance, mei changsu’s guard and ex chiyan captain)
feng hui (minister shen zhui)
gao zheng (the designated rapist of princess nihung -sima lei)
sun meng jia (xiao xin – consort jing’s maid of court, the traitor)
and even sun meng jia -( the bride and later wife of prince jingyan)

i might have missed some others, but isn’t that enough to entice anyone who loved NIF? and let me tell you, they are all GOOD, LIKE REAL GOOD. in addition, it is the same director li xue, assistant director wang hong, even the music department meng ke is the same for both dramas.
so you know what to expect from this talented wonderful crew. so far, it has the same vibe, energy, feeling as in NIF, even the music makes you relive NIF. but don’t get me wrong, it is not NIF by any stretch of the imagination, it is a totally different animal, and a wonderful one at that. for that reason my recommendation would be we all watch “disguiser” it’s on viki.
and there will be some people that simply do not want to watch war movies, but in order to avoid repeating past mistakes, the pain and suffering, we must watch the blood, cruelty and horrors of wars, regardless of what time period or what geographical place it would be. apart from human suffering, there is also the uplifting elements of human courage and sacrifice. even when it is historically not very accurate, and even if the logic is warped, we can connect and respond to raw emotions. i saw a lot of movies of world war II and the nazi regime, not that i like it, but my own close family experienced those horrors in the most direct way. through my own incredible pain i had to see it. suffering is the greatest teacher of all. i personally knew very little of the sino-japanese war, but getting to learn about it introduced another dimension to my perception of the fate, struggles, strength, determination of the chinese people.
and may be , just may be some of the viewers can become kinder to humanity in general through such an experience, and cultivate more compassion in their hearts, as there is so much pain on this planet earth.

Forgot to mention that Healer rewatch is always welcome.

I enjoy group watches that provide the support and encouragement to watch dramas that I really want to watch but would struggle to stick with without the weekly posts. NIF is a good example of that; I ended up loving it but needed a helping hand and a structure to view it. So I’d favour My Mister or Sky Castle.

The weather is getting colder, so the time is perfect for some serious sageuk! I have been wanting to rewatch Tree With Deep Roots and Six Flying Dragons, but the availability and the length may be an issue. I have never seen Mother, so I am intrigued. My Mister and Secret Love Affair are classics. The latter has the best OST (seriously!) and the best ever piano playing scenes. I am also open to The Princess’ Man and The Moon Embracing The Sun.

Did you hear about the c drama You are my hero? I think it’s one of the best I’ve seen so far, with very likeable leads and also a nice plot and a healthy relationship. The second leads are also good, especially the third leads, I was totally charmed by them.
The drama is a bit long and there were too many special force moments in the second half, but because of the great acting and likeable leads it didn’t matter for me. It’s the second c drama I liked so far after The Rational Life and I did try a few, but they did not work for me.
If you have time just try the first episode and you may be hooked (I think it’s one of the best first episodes I’ve seen).

I do not want to gainsay other folks’ faves, but while I thought Bae Doona was terrific in Stranger, and generally thought show was an okay, B level mystery procedural, I found the initial hook as to why ML thinks and behaves the way he does utterly unnecessary & the kind of the typical gimmickry I tend to dislike in Korean dramas, and while I suppose the whodunit and why might be worth discussing, though that seemed pedestrian to me, in a group, along with the nuts and bolts of South Korean admin of justice system if folks find that interesting, for me, I just do not see it as being in the league with some of the other shows mentioned insofar as inspiring much discussion, nor did I find its characters especially at the heart of the mystery itself, being memorable. But that is just me, and I should admit to finding mysteries, procedural, etc. one of the lesser entertaining genres in K drama land.

I would say also I do tend to like the tension in shows like My Mister, Secret Love Affair, Dear My Friends in part because the dramatic payoff in each for such is substantial. And they are the kinds of shows one does not see coming from different parts of the world. And characters all these shows were quite memorable.

Insofar as pure genre entertainment goes Healer strikes me as having more to it, and while the logistics might be difficult because of episode length for pure comfort food watching, hard to beat Reply 1988.

Even more difficult logistically because of show’s unwieldy length would be the great classic Queen Seondeok which for me can only be rivaled among sageuks by Chuno for epic greatness. For folks who like sageuks, truly a classic, and given its age fortunate that it is still available on Viki.

If we are watching 2, I did like having one be a fluffy piece like Gummybear, so that watching 2 did not require the same amount of heavy lifting for both. And I did suggest to K perhaps for a 2nd watch a KFG Specials festival, which might allow different folks with different likes and interests to drop in and out and only require an hour per week for group and considerably less writing work —though scouting might cost K some time—for KFG.

Mother is beautiful. It will make you cry hard.

Forgot to say what about ” You are beautiful” to balance out a serious pick? Super campy but sooo much fun!And great music as well.

I have to say “The Bond” don’t I !!!! I would highly recommend that one. Otherwise would love to watch My Mister and because I probably wouldn’t give it ago by myself Hikaru No Go as I am sure I have heard good things about it as well.

My vote for Secret Love Affair, since that’s been on my list and group accountability would help me actually watch it!!

Stranger is my fave kdrama so it has my vote. I have also watched Healer, Secret Love Affair, and My Mister, but not really keen to watch them again. The others I would consider.

Everything looks good (some I’ve watched, some I’m curious about) but I’m raring for Hikaru no Go. I love, love, love the manga it’s based on and when I checked the first two episodes of this drama adaptation, it felt fresh (they tweaked some parts) and the production seems pretty high quality. I hope this gets considered~

Wow! I didn’t manage to finish the previous one but I really would love to join one for Stranger/ Secret Forest, My Mister (love this show too much) and Secret Love Affair. Healer is great but I watched it too recently! But happy to join in the threads.

Alternatively.. Signal??

I would vote for My Mister, a show that you all say is great hoping a group watch will push me into watching it, just like NIF, which had also been on my watch list forever.
Also, Secret Love Affair that I have half watched and dropped because I couldn’t handle the stress. A group watch could help with that!
And finally, Stranger is also on my list.
But I am willing to try the other shows too!

Ooh I think Stranger would be a good one for sure! I would also be down for Healer or My Mister – all A+ dramas for me, and definitely lots of room for thought & discussion.

I kind of agree with your mom on the Disguiser potentially being too nationalistic. I think depending on where you grew up / the context in which you undersand the Chinese civil war (i.e., the Nationalist party v. Communist party), it can be kind of jarring to watch this, given that it is a spy drama centered on this conflict, and told from the perspective of one specific side. I always find it kind of whiplash-y to watch Chinese spy dramas for this reason and generally refrain, although I do hear that the Disguiser is almost as good as NIF!

Hi there! Looks like clearing the cache helped, and I can actually comment now. Yay!

As noted on Twitter, my vote is for either Healer or Mother. If those don’t make it through this poll, I’d be up for a rewatch of either My Mister or Stranger. I love both dramas so so much.

Secret Love Affair. A classic!
My 2 cents:
Yoo Ah In and Kim Hee Ae each in one of their most, if not the most, dramatic roles of both their entire prestigious careers. A romance that is entirely an adult romance, with adult and real stakes. Enough issues about what is transgressive, the nature of love, of art, of music, of what constitutes a life worth living, as good as anything I have seen concerning cheobol corruption, concerning elite privilege especially vis a vis university admission, again about love across generations, across the vast gap of class, about coming to terms with one’s own falling away from the way as someone middle aged, about real, not cliched, anxieties over lost youth, lost attractiveness. Spectacular OST. So much to chew on in this classic, and again above all a breathtakingly great master class in acting by two of Korea’s premier actors, twenty nine year old Yoo Ah In as a lower class son of a single working mother, naive nineteen year old self taught piano prodigy and genius, ass over teakettle with 40 year old (49 at the time of show) Kim Hee Ae’s all but ruined Hye Won, elegant, wealthy, corrupted, passionate married piano teacher destiny and cheobol fixer forced by his love to confront the sins of her life. Really. One of the great all time dramas of K Drama land. Music (art, passion, life lived to its most passionate truths, artistically) is King! And oh, the passionate embrace!

I was actually thinking of Healer as well! My second vote would be for Stranger – I’ve been meaning to watch that for a long time.

Wow, you’ve queued up a murder’s row of great options.

I’ve actually seen three of them (My Mister, Healer, Dr. Romantic 2), but all three are good enough that I’d be cool with doing a group (re)watch. Even though I just finished My Mister a few weeks ago, it’s so powerful that yeah, no problem seeing it again…

I’ve had Secret Love Affair near the top of my “intense dramas that I need to gather the space and emotional fortitude before I start them” list for awhile now, so I would totally be into seeing that…the only downside is that if it’s as good as everyone says it is, I’ll inevitably want to start bingeing it.

And I’m kind of in your boat on Stranger. I’ve been meaning to see it, I just keep putting it off until the “right” time, whenever that is. I’d definitely be up for a group watch.

I don’t think I’ve heard of Mother before this, but now that I check it out and read the description…that looks like it could be pretty intense and dramatic. Tough to watch? Probably, but could be good, nevertheless.

Additional possibilities:

I don’t tend to love sageuk, but I do have several on my list I want to see, so…if we wanted to go all epic again I’d put Six Flying Dragons out there, except it’s geo-restricted on viki.com in the U.S. You can get it via VPN if you connect through a UK server, though. Other sageuk on the list: Deep Rooted Tree (it was on the last couple polls and didn’t make the cut, obviously); The Princess’s Man (newly available on U.S. viki.com); Moon Embracing the Sun.