Flash Review: Rookie Historian Goo Hae Ryung

In a drama landscape where characters have been traditionally subscribed to a patriarchal way of thinking, and where women – especially women in sageuks – have often been relegated to being pushed around by men who believe they know better, Rookie Historian stands out for daring not only to present a different perspective, but for presenting it as the better way.

Say, what?

Make no mistake, Rookie Historian is not a perfect drama by any means.

I’ll talk more about why that was the case for me, shortly, but really, for its bold stand alone, I feel like Show deserves some acknowledgement and praise.

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Review: Romance Is A Bonus Book

THE SHORT VERDICT:

A noona romance that isn’t actually all about the romance, and yet, it works, and so well too.

While I don’t think that this would sit as well with a younger audience, I do feel like this would resonate well with a slightly older audience, particularly if said audience is female.

Show takes the premise of a divorcee’s struggle to re-enter the workforce, and makes it come alive with poignance and heart, while managing to slip a charming noona romance in there, to sweeten the whole experience.

A capable cast and a lovely OST round out this drama’s strengths, and I also wanted to say, Lee Na Young is extra incandescent to my eyes, as our female protagonist.

Not a show that would work for everyone, but if it works for you, it works so well. <3

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Dropped: Radio Romance

In the spirit of making better use of my drama hours – and making better use of time in general – I’m calling it quits earlier on this show than I would, normally.

Usually, if I can make it past the first episode or two of a show, I like to give it another couple of episodes at least, y’know, to give Show a chance to pull me into its story properly.

Lately, though, my drama hours have been much more limited than before, because I’ve been in the thick of getting ready to move (houses, not countries).

And, I’ve also learned a lesson with the moving; when you have very little space to accommodate all your stuff, you quickly learn to set the bar a lot higher, and become a lot more ruthless about culling stuff.

Turns out it works the exact same way with drama hours; because my drama hours are so much fewer now, I find myself setting the bar a lot higher, and becoming a lot more ruthless about dropping dramas.

Who knew, that moving house would teach me such an important lesson about managing my drama hours, and honing my Dropping Reflex? Heh.

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Flash Review: Romance Full Of Life [Three Colors Of Fantasies: Green]

Real Life’s been pretty hectic for me lately, and I find that with so many things competing for my attention, I have less time for dramas than ever before. I also find that when I do have the time, I often don’t have the mental bandwidth for full hour-plus episodes.

(Don’t panic; I’m still watching regular dramas. Just.. much slower than usual.)

This little show fit in nicely with my current challenged drama capacity. Not only were the half-hour episodes easy to make time for, the light tone and uncomplicated treatment of the subject matter made this one easy to digest as well.

Sure, it wasn’t as good as I thought it could’ve been, but it was still a pleasant and easy drama fix.

Since some of you guys might be similarly drama-challenged right now, I thought that I’d share this one with you too.

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Flash Review: Rich Man, Poor Woman [Japan]

I conclude that I might be one of maybe 3 people in the entire dramaverse who doesn’t love this drama to bits.

I really wanted to like this one, especially after long-time drama pal DDee told me that she loved this so much that she felt like going right back to the beginning of this show, once she got to the end.

In my experience, that’s serious high praise for any drama, and not to be taken lightly. So I promptly moved Rich Man, Poor Woman to the top of my watch list and dived right in.

Sadly, I never felt the same kind of love for this show that just about everyone else seems to have. I do concede that Oguri Shun can be very sexy, though.

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Review: Rooftop Prince

THE SHORT VERDICT:

Starts out as a cute rom-com peppered with physical comedy gags, and turns into a sweet, epic romance.

I was expecting this to stay in comedic territory all the way, so the epic-ness of the romance took me completely by surprise.

It was a little uneven here and there, but overall, I have to say that I liked this drama a lot.

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