Seo Ji Hye

Review: Family By Choice

| kfangurl

THE SHORT VERDICT:

Family By Choice is a lovely, compact little family drama that manages to deliver pretty big on the feels, considering its relatively short length of just 16 episodes.

Show serves up a whole lot of feels in the found family realm, with a nice little bonus of romance, on the side.

Yes, it’s a remake of c-drama Go Ahead (review here!), but you don’t have to have seen Go Ahead, to love this one. Conversely, just because you’ve seen Go Ahead, doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy this one too.

Show does feel a little truncated in spots because of its shorter length, but the feels are strong and authentic enough, that it doesn’t really matter, in the bigger scheme of things.

Absolutely recommend, if you enjoy family dramas &/or found family stories. 🥰

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Review: Love Next Door

| kfangurl

THE SHORT VERDICT:

The drama worked out to be a pretty mixed experience for me.

In short, I thought some of the arcs dealing with familial relationships were truly excellently written, with certain beats making me feel particularly seen and understood. 🥲

Unfortunately, I felt that some arcs, including the OTP arc, were unevenly handled, and I found certain portions quite underwhelming.

Overall, I do think that this could be a pretty enjoyable watch, with some lens adjustments – which I’ll talk about next.

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Review: My Perfect Stranger

| kfangurl

THE SHORT VERDICT:

A surprisingly engaging, heartfelt time travel mystery that stays nicely consistent, from start to finish.

Yes, Show’s production values lean basic, and yes, the 80’s characters can sometimes be a bit too loud and theatrical, but once you adjust your viewing lens and expectations around these, this turns into a pretty strong watch.

Show more than makes up for its shortcomings with how much heart it has, and, importantly, manages to finish strong, instead of petering out at the end, as some time travel stories have been known to do.

Would recommend.

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Dropped: Love All Play

| kfangurl

I want to start off this post by saying that I really, really, really wanted to love this one.

As you might recall from my episode 1 notes, I liked this one right away, and had hopes that I would enjoy the rest of the show, as much as I enjoyed Show’s first episode, which I had found warm and charming in all the right ways.

Unfortunately, that was not to be. Sigh. 11 episodes into my watch, I’m calling it quits on this one. Sadness.

Still, I hope that you guys will find this post helpful, in figuring out whether this show could be for you, even though I’ve decided that it’s not for me after all.

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Dear kfangurl: Who are your favorite supporting actors – and will they ever get to play lead??

| kfangurl

Beez writes:

Dear Kfangurl, Are supporting actors too funny to ever cast as leads?

I keep waiting for my favorites – Park Jin Joo, Kim Seul Gi and my all time favorite, Kim Sung Oh to be part of an OTP or at least a single lead in their own dramas. I’ve seen all of them give snippets of really moving scenes so their acting talent is not in question. What gives?

And phl1rxd writes:

I would love to see an article on your favorite supporting actors|actresses.

There are so many that pop up in our drama world all the time, and while they are not the leads, their work is great none-the-less.

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Review: Crash Landing On You

| kfangurl

THE SHORT VERDICT:

Show really is everything that many of us have come to love in kdrama.

It’s gorgeous to look at, our actors are pretty darn capable all-around, our characters are mostly endearing, there’s amped-up, epic romance to be had between an OTP that shares solid, sparky chemistry, and, well, Hyun Bin is appealing in this, to a rather staggering degree. Flail.

As a bonus, Show possesses a cheeky sense of humor around drama tropes, even as it revels in them. In addition, the glimpse into North Korean life feels fresh and novel as well, and is a major highlight.

On the downside, there’s a bit of drag in the mid-to-late episodes, which is compounded by rather heavy-handed narrative angst, and Show’s long episodes. That can feel a bit or a lot hard-going, depending on your appetite for angst.

Overall, though, Show does a great job bringing the feels, and is well worth the watch.

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