It’s officially EOY season, which is when we look back on our drama years, and decide which dramas were worthy of our love, and which dramas we maybe shouldn’t have spent as much time on, as we did. 😁

As before, we’ll be seeing up to 2 guest posts per week, and this will unfold into January 2025, and my annual year-in-review will come out in early 2025, after all the guest posts have been published.

This way, by putting all our experiences together, we get a more wholistic view of Dramaland in 2024. Pretty great, yes? 🤩

If you missed our earlier posts, you can check it out here: Sean, Deni+JJ, Natalia, Ele, j3ffc.

Today, I’m pleased to announce that MC’s sharing her drama year!

MC’s a busy lady, what with working full time, and being a mom, so I’m always grateful that she consistently makes time, not just for dramas, but for all of us friends over on Patreon.

MC doesn’t manage to hang out with us all the time, but when she does, she always brings a great note of cheer and positivity with her, and we all love her for it. 🥰

If you’d like to read more of MC’s writing, you might like to check out her EOY post from last year here, &/or her fun fangirl account of her trip to Korea (fresh from recovering from a broken toe, as I recall! 😱), which you can check out here.

I hope you guys enjoy!

~ KFG ❤️

Hi there!

Happy new year and may 2025 be a wonderful year for all of us!

If you’re interested, my full drama origin story can be found here, but the TL;DR version is that in 2013 when I lived with my in-laws, my mother in law was watching those 100+ episode dramas and I’d accompany her… then I found myself drawn into the story and after a while I would watch them with her and discuss shows together.

I took a break after I moved out of their house, but I came back in 2017 (I think) thanks to the hits that are Descendants of the Sun/ Love 020 and Guardian: the Lonely and Great God and I haven’t looked back since.

Looking back at 2024, my realization is:

1. I used to solely watch slice of life and romance/ rom-coms but I think my membership in the <puppies/ unicorns/ sweet and fluffy show club> might be revoked, because I found that I actually do love – gasp – thrillers! And I particularly love crime thrillers.

2. I should just refer to Patreon folks’ recommendations – I watched so many good shows thanks to peoples’ recommendations. I honestly had a great drama year and I’m here to tell you ALL about it!

3. I watched more shows than ever, thanks to the magic of being able to download episodes and watch on the go (the benefits of public transport!)

Do note that I tend to watch a mix of current-year and older shows so my best of 2024 might not be actual 2024 shows…

Ok, let’s cut to the chase, shall we?

The Big One – Best Drama

Let’s start with a bang and award the biggest prize of all, shall we? *drumroll…*
– the winner is… Beyond Evil.

Yup, this is The Very Best Show I Watched in 2024 and possibly in a long time.

I mean, it also won Best Drama in the 57^th Baeksang Awards (and so many other awards too!)  I knew it would be good, but the synopsis sounded so grim, and the poster looked so intimidating. I’m so glad I did give this show a shot – it ended up stealing my entire heart.

Smartly written without dumbing anything down for the audience, well-paced, great production, masterfully acted, well-paced – not a single moment was wasted.

It started strong and stayed strong all the way which is no mean feat.

Many thrillers tend to err on the cerebral side of things, but this one had my heart too especially when it explored the impact of the deaths/ missing victims on the survivors and the community. While I watched this show early in 2024, I still feel like a Manyang resident…

I do think this show also has great re-watch value, because you want to see the hints they dropped along the way…

Special Mentions/ Almost Winners:

• Stranger/ Forest of Secrets season 1 and 2

• Through the Darkness

• Shining for One Thing (I did really enjoy Lovely Runner and it’s similar in some ways to SFOT; I just prefer SFOT over Lovely Runner. Please love Lovely Runner more for me!)

• Regeneration (this was very well done, pity the ending wasn’t as strong (probably for censorship as Natalia says, but the show was generally good!)

Best Actor/ Actress

Do you really need to ask? It has to be Shin Ha Kyun in Beyond Evil.

While the entire cast was great, this could be one of his lifetime performances. He portrayed the eccentric yet deeply tortured sergeant Lee Dong Shik to perfection.

Props also to Yeo Jin Goo, who matched him in intensity and ability as Han Joo Won, just that Shin Ha Kyun is the only winner in this category.

Special Mentions/ Almost Winners:

• Jing Bo Ran (Regeneration)

• Kim Nam Gil (Through the Darkness)

• Uhm Tae Goo (My Sweet Mobster)

Best Supporting Actor/ Actress

I’m afraid I’m doing it again, friends. I have to award this to the entire supporting cast of Beyond Evil, in particular Choi Dae Hoon as Park Jeong Je.

When we get to his backstory and he reveals the ghosts he is plagued with…. Very intense stuff.

Special Mentions/ Almost Winners:

• Seon Geon Hee (Lovely Runner)

• Lee Joon Hyuk (Stranger/ Forest of Secrets season 1 and 2)

Best OTP

I’ve watched so many great OTPs this year so it was really hard to cut down to just 1… but… this one, hands down, is the winner because it has ALL of love, angst and longing over literal millennia’s.

Friends, my OTP for 2024 could only be our couple from Three Lives, Three Worlds: Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms / Eternal Love.

While Bai Qian & Ye Hua were my favourite, their love (be it as Si Yin & Mo Yuan, Susu & Ye Hua) was the stuff of LEGENDS.

While we all love the swoony melt-into-a-puddle moments, I’ve come to understand that truly great romances need the angst to deepen the emotions of the eventual reunion and this show, my friends, brings ALL the angst in spades and then some.

There were moments I was so legit angry I was so close to rage quitting, but Fangirl advised me to hang in there and I’m so glad I did.

Also, this show is not shy about bringing the heat. Whew. This blog has a lot of gifs of some of the swoony scenes – DO NOT open if you haven’t watched the show, as spoilers abound aplenty.

Special Mentions/ Almost Winners:

• Lin Bei Xing & Zhang Wansen (Shining for One Thing – another OTP with angst and love, they were my almost best OTP, just that they couldn’t compete with actual millennias in TMoPB!)

• Liu Mian Tang & Cui Xingzhou (Are You The One – a great pairing of equals, after you get over the initial gaslighting which is the set up for the story)

• And if you prefer less angsty loves, I really liked our sweet wholesome Tu Xiao Ning & Ji Yu Heng in You Are My Secret

Could it have been Beyond Evil:

I know you must be thinking “Omg, are you for real…” – no, I can’t, I’m sorry.

While there’s no romance in Beyond Evil, I would say that the chemistry between Lee Dong Shik and Han Joo Won was really electrifying. And they were pretty obsessed with each other anyway 😀 which eventually matured to such a deep partnership and bromance.

I actually also liked the very extremely subtle connection between Jae Yi and Joo Won.

Not Beyond Evil, but another one with great bromance was Through the Darkness’ Song Ha Yeong and Kook Yeong Soo.

Best Villain

I have 2 winners in this category:

1. Su Jin in Three Lives, Three Worlds: Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms / Eternal Love. IYKYK… and if you don’t know, she does many terrible things but there was this ONE unforgiveable thing she did.

I won’t say more to avoid spoilers but just thinking of it makes my blood boil!

(she looks calm here… DON’T BE DECEIVED)

2. All the killers in Through the Darkness. Because the show is both an investigative process & a deep dive into criminal profiling, they do feature our killers. Some of them have sad backstories and some were plain evil.

Could it have been Beyond Evil:

Yes, what the killer did was pretty heinous. I won’t say more!

Best Twist

I watched many thrillers this year so there were many twists, but the very best twist was when a particular something happens in Regeneration.

I won’t tell you what it is, or when it happens, to avoid spoilers, but let’s just say that I was watching it in bed and when THAT thing happened, I screamed out loud in my room.

And I’m not the screaming sort – if I’m afraid I’m more likely to freeze than to flee. Then I had to calm myself down with some cute videos so I could sleep!

Special Mentions/ Almost Winners:

• Stranger/ Forest of Secrets 1 and 2 had some incredible twists!

• I liked an early twist in When the Phone Rings, too.

Could it have been Beyond Evil:

Of course – there were so many twists in the show. I just didn’t award it to Beyond Evil so that you guys wouldn’t come after me. Haha!

Best OST

I really loved the OSTs for Lovely Runner and Queen of Tears. I didn’t finish QoT (I know right, gasp!) but both had fantastic OSTs that amplified the feels.

Special Mentions/ Almost Winners:

• Shining for One Thing. While I wasn’t a fan of the way the English words were weaved into the songs on the OST, I must give a shoutout to SFOT, where the songs were performed by a female and a male artiste with lyrics designed specifically for the characters which gives a weight to the scenes.

Could it have been Beyond Evil:

I actually really like Timeless by BIBI and Empty by Car, The Garden… ok, ok, I’ll stop here.

Best Ensemble

This one HAS to go to the sweet Deerling gang in My Sweet Mobster.

I really loved the Deerlings even if they did such silly things. While the OTP was so sweet, seeing how FL became part of their family was icing on the cake.

They also had this series of adorable “click like and subscribe” woven into each episode – here’s a compilation of these scenes!

And extra points to the production team for dressing their dog up!

Could it be Beyond Evil?

Apparently, the woman cannot be stopped! Yes, for all the Manyang residents…

Underrated Gem

I honestly really, really, loved Seoul Busters.

I was first drawn to the nonstop gags in the first episode and was mildly disappointed by the slowing down of gags as they settled into the crime solving proper.

This is not a perfect show by far – the tonal shifts between funny jokes and (more) serious crime investigation was a bit too abrupt, and some people online didn’t like the sentimental parts.

But I came to love this charming Violent Crimes team 2 filled with silly yet earnest teammates.

And Captain Dongbang Yubin was a great team leader – encouraging individual members, standing up for his team with management, but firmly disciplining members when they did wrong things. I also loved how they showed his thought processes at crime scenes.

I wished there was a love line between Captain and Seo Minseo but I was happy with how things worked out.

This show worked out to be a comfort watch – you know they would eventually solve it, while being funny and silly along the way. I could watch another 20 episodes of this team working together.

It seems like I recommend a Singaporean movie every year and this year is no different. Wonderland was a 2023 Singapore movie (but since when have I ever been stopped by year of release? :D)

I’ve been recommending this show to everyone I know including you, dear reader. (it’s on Netflix Singapore- may not be available to you, but I hope it is!)

If you’ve ever wondered about Singapore life, especially in the 80s (and you know that most of us Singaporeans do not live the Crazy Rich Asian life), you can get a glimpse of it here.

This show is set in 1989 and the title refers to an amusement park that was demolished in 1989 (kinda reflecting our main characters’ lives).

The show is about an illiterate old man who enlists his neighbour’s help to write letters to his daughter who is studying in the US but its really about love – family, parental, friendships in old age and community kinship, the lies we tell in the name of love, ageing and loneliness.

I’ll admit it made me cry a lot but it’s the good kind of tears, you know? If you do have access to it, do give it a try.

Could it be Beyond Evil?

I’ll give you guys a break – NO, because Beyond Evil is quite well known for being good. HAHA!

Razzie

This one’s quite easy – the crowning champ would be The Impossible Heir for its terrible writing. I wrote an entire rant post about it! You can read it here.

On top of my rant, I’m also sad to nominate Blood Free for this award.

This one is honestly such a pity, it had such interesting things to say. It felt like it was meant to be a 16-ep show and the writer had planned out a coherent story for 16 eps. Then someone decided to chop it to a 10-ep show and the writer had to scramble to try to end things… and it showed.

The last two episodes were basically a mess. I hope there’ll be a season 2, just to wrap things up properly, but I’m not holding my breath for it.

OK folks that’s finally all, I hope you enjoyed this!

I apologise if you don’t like / didn’t watch Beyond Evil though 😀

If you’re interested, I have listed all the shows I watched/ tried to watch below – feel free to ask me/ share with me your thoughts on any of these shows, as well as your thoughts on my awards. Or just chat with me on anything.

Once again, have a wonderful year ahead! And as always, thank you Fangirl for sharing this space with us 😊

Signing off

~MC

A full list of shows I watched

2024:

1. A-List to Playlist (ok this is not a drama but so many drama stars appeared that I kinda had to count it in)
2. Blood Free
3. Chicken Nugget
4. Dare To Love Me
5. Dreaming Of A Freaking Fairytale
6. Extreme Job (K-movie)
7. Love Next Door
8. Lovely Runner
9. Men of Plastic (K-movie)
10. My Sweet Mobster
11. Seoul Busters
12. Single in Seoul (K-movie)
13. Soundtrack #2
14. The Impossible Heir
15. The Story of Park’s Marriage Contract —> started in 2023 but finished in 2024
16. Eye Love You (Japanese)
17. Are You the One (Chinese)
18. Regeneration (Chinese)
19. Wonderland (Singapore movie)
20. You Are My Secret (Chinese)

Non-2024:

1. Be Positive (web drama)
2. Beyond Evil
3. Happiness
4. Perfect Marriage Revenge
5. Shining For One Thing
6. Stranger / Forest of Secrets season 1 (rewatch)
7. Stranger / Forest of Secrets season 2
8. Through the Darkness
9. Three Lives, Three Worlds: Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms (Chinese)
10. You Are My Glory (Chinese)

Currently Watching:

1. When The Phone Rings
2. Flex x Cop

Dropped:

1. Don’t Dream It’s Over / Jealousy Incarnate
2. Exo Next Door
3. Fox Bride Star (Where Stars Land)
4. Light Shop
5. Queen of Tears
6. The Trunk
7. The Tyrant
8. While You Were Sleeping
9. My Fated Boy (Chinese)