My friends!

It’s that time of year again — when we take a deep breath, look back on our 2025 drama adventures, and realize… wow, we really did have a lot of feelings™. 😂

Welcome to this year’s End-of-Year Patreon Awards! This tradition began years ago with a casual suggestion in our chat corner, and it’s since grown into one of the warmest, most spirited things we do together. 🥲

Each entry is written by a member of our lovely Patreon community, sharing their drama year in their own voice — with heart, humor, honesty, and plenty of feels.

If you missed our earlier posts, you can check them out as follows: Natalia, Kumari, Ele, MC.

Today, Diasporic Chick is sharing her drama year

Diasporic Chick’s been a part of our little Patreon community for several years now, but rarely has time to hang out with us, due to her hectic schedule.

And so, just like in previous years, this EOY post feels like a nice chance to catch up with what’s been going on with her. 🥰

Thanks Diasporic Chick, for taking the time to share your drama year! 😘

If you like Diasporic Chick’s style and want to know what she thought about dramas last year, you can check out her post here!

I hope you guys enjoy!

~ KFG ❤️

Diasporic Chick’s 2025 Retrospective

My 2025 line up of favorite Asian dramas and actors/actresses was full of romance and comedy, with some elements of action and suspense and my top favorites skewed heavily towards Chinese dramas.

I started my own consulting practice this past year, so pacing and discipline was a goal, and yet, there were occasional binge watches, especially on weekends.

As a compromise to sitting on the couch, I started downloading episodes to watch on the cardio machines at my local gym, landing me a double dose of adrenaline and dopamine.

There was a lot of incredible content that was available this year, so my top 6 or 7 series were a product of my inability to see everything I had hoped to watch this year.

Top Drama Picks of 2025

Flourished Peony and In the Name of Blossom (Chinese)

Though branded as two separate series, they are the same drama-verse starring my favorite couple from Go Go Squid! yet this time, dressed in Chinese period costume.

Yang Zi and Li Xian (of Will Love in Spring) are outstanding in this series, which has themes of royal court intrigue, corruption scandals, a fake-turned real marriage/romance, martial arts, suspense, comedy, and the slowest burn romance imaginable.

But once the OTP confessed to one another that their feelings were beyond mere mutually beneficial investor/business sponsor and business owner relationship, the sparks really begin to fly.

I always learn a fair amount of technical content from watching Chinese dramas, and in this case, my peony knowledge went from 0 to 100, don’t sleep on the gardening tips.

When Life Gives You Tangerines (Korean)

IU and Park Bo Gum are FL and ML neighborhood childhood friends turned lovers. The show features daily life across two generations in a mostly poor fishing and abalone diver village on Jeju Island and the determination to overcome terrible life circumstances dealt to the female protagonist.

Go to Costco and get thee a 3-pack box of tissues – I dare you to watch a few episodes without crying or telling your family member you have something caught in your eye. Kim Seon-Ho makes a pleasantly surprising guest appearance.

Love’s Ambition (Chinese)

I chose this series for Zhao Lusi and left with a mild obsession with the performance by William Chen, who played his role well.

Every script Lusi chooses is a drama homerun, and this story was extremely well crafted, with unexpected plot twists.

[SPOILER ALERT]

Though the main FL is at fault for using deception to get her inlaw’s approval in order for the wedding to occur, the ML is also guilty of hiding his past from her. To her, it was a love marriage, but for him it was a marriage of convenience, as he had hardened his heart to ever entirely giving his heart to a woman.

FL decides enough is enough and lives her authentic values, giving up a life of luxury and all the trappings of being married to a top exec by filing for divorce. Realizing what he actually lost, ML tries to win back his wife’s love during their divorce proceedings “cooling off” period, and boy do the sparks begin to fly!

Their witty banter and chemistry is amazing and humorous to watch, and I slurped this show up. Also, Lusi’s hair and outfits were divine – she really made that regretful man earn back her love, as the one-that-got-away girl.

[END SPOILER]

Speed and Love (Chinese)

I needed to finish in early January before I could deliver my authoritative and definitive line up for this year end review.

The appeal of a Chinese-style Fast and Furious also drew me in, as I have been a consumer of the FF franchise. Watching this in parallel with Shine on Me (see Razzie section), made me appreciate how utterly captivated I was by each episode of Speed and Love for its on screen OTP chemistry.

I get the criticism about the adopted siblings into lovers trope (faux-cest) and how too easy it appeared that it was for Mu Mu to see Zhao Zhao in a romantic light after years of yearning to rekindle their childhood family bond.

For me, I was able to get past this by the second episode and focus on the present-day of their love and concern for each other’s happiness and their mutual consenting adult attraction.

Everything about this series was artistic and tastefully thought out – the beautifully curated soundtrack (Away, Waiting, and a few other hits), the camera shots and rich color palette, and of course, there’s the acting.

This series introduced me to He Yu, who has a calm and quiet charisma/sex appeal, non-verbally worshiping the FL with his eyes, a gaze which lights up a room. He exercises quiet restraint, being six years older than the ML, until he just can’t be stoic in dodging her affection anymore and then the fireworks, both metaphorically and literally begin to glow.

Esther Yu rose to the occasion in this drama. To be real, I have seen Esther in two other dramas and was at first hesitant to watch this series because of her young, baby-ish voice, but she redeemed herself in this.

[BROAD SPOILERS]

She’s able to transform into a FL who goes after what she wants, has unwavering love and devotion to the ML, and her love is unconditional even though she is shocked to witness his new life in Bangkok as an underground fighter and car speed racer.

I think the script also cleverly weaves together the sun and moon metaphors, the key chain as a representation of that longing, and the speech at the observation deck about why the sun and the moon always shine brightly together. In other words, ZhaoZhao and MuMu and Lightning 4-eva.

[END SPOILERS]

Dynamite Kiss (Korean)

This was a fun watch and deployed all the K-drama tropes. I had a better appreciation for Jang Ki-Yong and Ahn Eun-Jin, who together as ML and FL were phenomenal, each episode was packed, humorous, and gorgeously shot in various outdoor settings – artsy neighborhood corners, mountains, coastlines, lush gardens, etc.

Of course, as per usual, our OTP is foiled by poor communication and misunderstanding, but that gets sorted out and is justified by economic necessity of the FL. I love the non-toxic and supportive mothers who gave their blessing.

If you enjoyed Jang Ki-Yong in My Roommate is a Gumiho, you’ll love his performance and his abs on full display in this one.

K-Pop Demon Hunters (global/Korean/Canadian)

An animated 90-minute story about how a k-pop girl band defeats and defends Korean society against demons by protecting the honmoon or magical soul gate, activated and intensified by k-pop demon hunter music.

Every parent of a school-aged kid dressed their child up as Rumi for Halloween here on the West Coast or has been forced to learn the lyrics to Golden. My street cred with my daughters is that I found this show on Netflix before my kids picked up on how cool the show was from their peer groups and then learned mom was with it.

Best Actor

Jang Ki-Yong or He Yu

Both are on screen eye candy; my huge props to He Yu who does many of his own action stunts and is finally getting his big break in 2025.

Best One True Pair

ZhaoZhao MuMu, go back to my Speed and Love synopsis. Off screen and behind the scenes, these two seem like they enjoy each other’s company.

Razzie Award

This is not going to be a popular opinion, but I hesitantly finished Shine On Me to see what the hype was.

I enjoy the FL Zhao Jin Mai (Amidst a Snowstorm of Love)and ML Song Wei Long (Find Yourself), independently, but their on screen chemistry felt a bit forced. One gets the sense that they are over-performing their extraordinarily cheesy romantic dialogue with each other.

For 36 episodes, I get the sense that some scenes were Chinese solar panel industry promos. The metaphor of “shining” was very much on the nose throughout the script.

This was an easy watch, but I went into this with high expectations and felt like the show dragged on.

And for being a rich, intelligent, and handsome second male lead, the disgruntled and resentful character who didn’t get the girl should have owned up to his own fault for missing the window of opportunity when he had it in the bag. How annoying.

There were other shows this year that I dropped without finishing, so in that regard this one kept my attention.

J-dramas with Takeru Satoh

This was the year that Takeru Satoh became my other obsession. I started with Case of Incurable Love, then First Love, and finally worked my way towards Glass Heart.

I have to confess, Japanese dramas hit the sweet spot for me in terms of a visual aesthetic, brooding existential angst, and quiet longing and nostalgia for what might have been. I fit the audience demographic.

My Year Appreciating Cha Eun Woo

This year I also went down a rabbit hole with Cha Eun Woo dramas including True Beauty, My ID is Gangnam Beauty (uncannily similar in plot about a young woman who is unhappy with her looks who goes to great lengths in changing her appearance), A Good Day to Be a Dog (much better than the title alludes to), and fits and starts of Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung. I really enjoy his musical performances in boy bands and as a solo artist and learned he is also an accomplished instrumentalist. Some people have all the looks and the talent!

For 2026, I am looking forward to going down my list of more series including Prisoner of Beauty because of my admiration for Liu Yu Ning, seeing more work come from He Yu, and the January Netflix release of Can This Love Be Translated? starring Kim Seon-Ho.

~Diasporic Chick

✨ About the End-Of-Year Patreon Awards

This post is part of our annual community tradition, where Patreon members share their drama year — favorites, surprises, disappointments, discoveries, and everything in between. 💛

These EOY reflections are one of my favorite parts of the year, because they show just how thoughtful, funny, and passionate our little community is.

If you’d like to join us for watch discussions, episode notes, voice notes, and next year’s EOY Awards, you’re very welcome to check out Patreon! 🥰

KFG ❤️