Jess from Daebak K-Rambles on Rewatchable Kdramas plus Recs for Every Taste

S1 E7 / Jess, host of Daebak K-Rambles podcast, joins me to talk about her favorite rewatchable Kdramas.

Jess shares her encyclopedic knowledge of Kdramas and gives us recommendations for every taste. Seriously, so many recs! 

We also talk about why Kdramas hook watchers as well as the trend of multiple seasons, controversial endings, and age gaps.

If you haven’t listened to the Daebak K-Rambles podcast, where have you been? It’s one of my favorite Kdrama podcasts, so check it out if you haven’t already. 

🚨 Spoiler warning! Our wide-ranging conversation touches on the following shows: 

• A Moment to Remember
• Lie to Me
• Extraordinary Attorney Woo
• Boys Over Flowers 
• 2521
• Goblin
• Because This is My First Life
• Our Beloved Summer
• Coffee Prince 
• La La Land
• Our Beloved Summer
• The Glory
• Love Next Door
• A Killer Paradox
• The Good Bad Mother
• Alchemy of Souls
• She Would Never Know
• Vincenzo
• Snowdrop,
• What's Wrong with Secretary Kim? 
• Love Alarm
• My Secret Romance
• Cheese in the Trap 
• The Bride of Habaek
• Abyss
• Doona

Light Romance Recommendations:

• Do You Like Brahms?
• Our Beloved Summer
• Summer Strike
• Descendents of the Sun
• Because This is my First Life
• I’m Not a Robot
• True Beauty
• Hometown Cha Cha Cha
• Love All Play

Darker/Weighty Show Recommendations:

• The Glory
• Moving
• Move to Heaven
• My Mister
• Happiness

Crime 

• Cruel City
• Signal
• Squid Game
• DP 

Gateway Dramas

• Boys Over Flowers
• Coffee Prince
• Goblin
• Strong Woman Do Bong Soon
• Crash Landing on You
• Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo

Currently Watching:

• Story of Pearl Girl
• Amidst a Snowstorm of Love
• When The Phone Rings 
• The Judge From Hell
• No Gain No Love
• Spice Up Our Love
• Squid Game 2

Links:

Daebak Krambles podcast: https://daebak-krambles.com/

Transcript

Sara Rosett 0:07

This is the How I Met My K-Drama podcast, and it's all about K-drama origin stories and recommendations. I'm Sarah Rosette, and today Jess from J Bot K-Rambles Podcast is here. Hey Jess. Hey, how are you, Sarah? Good. How are you?

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Good, good. I'm really excited because I love talking about K-dramas and I love talking about my origin story. So this was perfect.

unknown 0:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

I was gonna say it's perfect because that's exactly what we're gonna talk about.

unknown 0:33

Yeah.

Sara Rosett 0:34

I think every K-drama viewer loves to talk about how they found K-dramas and what they enjoy. So Yeah. Yeah. So let's get started. Tell us a little bit about yourself, um, just whatever you'd like to share.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Right. So, like you said, I um my name is Jess, and I host and run the Tebaki Rambles podcast where we review K-dramas. It's usually just deep dives, reviews on K-dramas, and sometimes C dramas, and sometimes a Taiwanese drama. So it's really just mostly K dramas and then a couple of other uh different, you know, dramas from other countries. So it's really fun. And I think that uh I was basically just gonna tell people who I am because I feel like it's really impersonal sometimes when you listen to a podcast and you don't know who is talking, like where they're from, what their background is. So this is a little bit about me. I was born and raised in South Florida in Broward County. Most people don't recognize the names of the towns that I grew up in. So I just say I'm from Miami. And the place that I'm from is halfway between Fort Lauderdale and Miami. And I've since moved away. I live in Central Florida, in this magical city known for theme parks and bad traffic, Orlando.

Sara Rosett 1:49

And which everybody has probably visited there at least once in their life.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Literally, yes. I have so I feel like I see a lot of acquaintances and even podcast friends that are in town, and I'm like, hey, you're in my neck of the woods. And everyone always forgets that I live here in Orlando. But yeah, so I live here. The only thing I miss about Miami is the food because you cannot get good authentic Cuban food outside of Miami slash South Florida. I don't make the rules, that's a fact. Um I am I've had people ask me how old I am before. So I'm 33 years old. I'm a 33-year-old teenager, is how I feel.

Sara Rosett 2:24

I'll feel like that. No matter how old you get, you feel like you're not quite that old.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Literally. So I feel like I'm in my 20s mentally, and it's just really jarring that I pay taxes and I have a mortgage. I I'm like such an adult who left me in charge. Yeah. Uh former English major, I started my career in publishing and I worked in the intellectual property department at an entertainment company up until the pandemic. And now I work in marketing. I love movies. I love watching them and talking about them. And for about five or six years, I co-hosted a movie podcast with my good friend Rico. And although we don't do that podcast anymore, I am still stuck with the habits that I have like created during that time. So I go to the movie theater pretty much every weekend, and I still enjoy keeping abreast of what's happening in the film industry. Not to mention K dramas, which I guess we'll get into pretty, pretty soon.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

Wow.

Sara Rosett 3:20

So yeah, I knew you watched a lot of movies, but the K dramas are so time consuming.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

So you just you just juggle them both now? I just juggle them both. The film stuff. I love talking about it in my friends' groups and the group text. And uh currently TikTok is still up. So, you know, I love listening to other people's reviews and hearing the discourse and being involved in that in a very limited capacity now because I don't have a movie podcast. I don't have no stakes, no skin in the game.

Sara Rosett 3:52

That is great. But it's not that far of a lead from movies to K-dramas.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

I don't think so. And you will see when I say how I got into K dramas. You're gonna be like, oh, makes a lot of sense. Yeah.

Sara Rosett 4:04

Well, go ahead and tell us, how did you get into K-dramas? And do you remember which one your first one was?

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Yes, and yes. I so the story starts in like 2011 or 2012, and I use these years interchangeably because I have a really bad memory. There was never a point where I wrote in my journal, you know, August 20th, 2011, watched my first K drama. You know me or whatever. Exactly. Exactly. Never happened that way. It was very fluid. And so I've I'm thinking it was around 2011, 2012, especially considering the dramas that I have watched. It, those currently airing dramas from around then, that's when I started. So I had just graduated from college and I was living back home. And I had started my first full-time job, and I was like, what do I do with all my free time?

Sara Rosett 4:53

I was like time you used to spend studying.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

Exactly. I was like, there's nothing to do. I would come home and be like, now what? Because I just spent eight hours at my job. And then like there's no tests to study for, no papers to write, no classes to attend. And I didn't have the same like social events that I was going to. I was back living with my family. And so it was like, okay, we can go to the movies on the weekend, we can have dinner together on like Friday night. But what else?

Sara Rosett 5:22

You're going, is this real life? Is this what it is?

SPEAKER_01 5:25

Yeah, I was, I was just asking myself, what now? So around this time, I feel like everyone goes through this. I really broadened what I watched. I might like other any other young person, I was trying new things, very open and willing to try different experiences, whether it was food, movies, TV shows, music, you name it. I was like, okay, let's see. Let's see what this is about. Barring anything illegal, obviously.

Sara Rosett 5:48

So just a little caveat there.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Yeah, no caveat. I was not out here like, let's try cocaine. No. Um, anyway, so the TV shows, just a little bit of background of like where I was coming from with regards to television.

unknown 6:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

The TV shows that I remember watching around this time were like Glee. I I vividly remember watching the pilot episode in my freshman dorm room. Once upon a time. Do you remember that show? Yes, yeah. Yeah. So season one and a little bit of season two, and then I fell off Lost. I was watching Lost with my family. Lost that took over everyone's life every while. Yes, yeah. But we came in like around the last season, and then we binged the whole thing and got up to the the current season. Just so we could we were so excited to watch the last season with everybody. Walking dead, yeah, which premiered in 2010. And then I was fully in love with Tom Welling from Smallville. I watched, you know, I was watching a smattering of CW shows like Greek, but I can't say I was truly married to Western television.

Sara Rosett 6:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

So and this is because I dislike multiple seasons to keep coming back to finish a story. I hated how some seasons were better than others, susceptible to change, you're right, of writers changing and writer strikes and actor strikes.

Sara Rosett 7:17

Just getting canceled. Like literally the storyline. You're like, wait, you can't do that.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

I have a horrible story. So this is around this time, too, like before I started K dramas. I remember watching Kyle XY. Do you remember the show? Kyle XY?

Sara Rosett 7:32

I remember that one.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

He was a clone. Okay. Okay. Anyway, so this guy is a clone, and he gets assimilated into his families, and and he becomes like a son to this adopted family and stuff like that. But they're like, where's this belly button? Why doesn't he have a belly button? And so anyway, long story short, he's a clone. In the final season, in the final episode, there's this guy that comes in and he's like, the cliffhanger is I'm your brother. End of the season. And lo and behold, they canceled the show. Oh it was a whirlwind. I was my head was spinning. I was like, what do you mean he's the brother? It was like, but he's a clone. So, like all these questions, no answers, no resolution. That's what I mean by I was like, You know what? Yeah. So the same summer I started watching K dramas, this is the chain of events. I started by binging true blood.

unknown 8:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

You know about true blood? The racy vampire show on HBO. So I consider that time like a fever dream. Like I was like up at all hours watching True Blood. And then I watched a French movie called Heartbreaker.

Sara Rosett 8:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

On Netflix. Then I went back and bootlegged, I think. Oh no, I didn't I don't think I bootlegged it. It was also on Netflix, the BBC Robin Hood show.

Sara Rosett 8:52

Yes, yeah. So you were kind of bouncing.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

You see how I'm like all over. And Netflix was like, oh, I see her. She's watching all kinds of things from all around the world. And Netflix suggested I watch A Moment to Remember, which is a 2004 film. It's a melodrama starring Sun Ye Jin and Chang Wilson.

unknown 9:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:15

And it was heartbreaking. It broke me into little pieces. It was so sad and strange. Like the tone of it and the culture and everything was like different. And I loved it. And back then you could rate movies and shows out of five stars on Netflix. Nowadays it's just a thumbs up or thumbs down.

Sara Rosett 9:35

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

So this gave you really good suggestions from their algorithm because it was you were saying, oh, three stars, four stars, five stars, whatever.

Sara Rosett 9:43

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

I rated that movie high. Then Netflix said, and this changed my life. It suggested I watch Lie to Me, which is a 2011 K drama starring Yun Ninhe and Kang Ji Huan.

SPEAKER_02 9:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

Okay. I loved it. I was hooked. Soon after that, I watched Boys Over Flowers, which was strange, vile, addictive, tropey, toxic, all the things. I loved it. And the rest is history. I was drawn to this whole new culture, learning new things, these interesting and heartfelt stories, and of course the format of K-dramas, which are traditionally, unless it's a variety show or a weekend drama, 16 or 20 episodes, one season, you're done.

Sara Rosett 10:29

Yeah. One and done, you're out. One and done, and you're a little package. Yes, and I satisfy the ending. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

I was thriving off of the K-drama format. And so that really enticed me, and I've stayed ever since.

Sara Rosett 10:45

Then like 14, 15 years. Yeah. So it's so funny because everybody I meet who has found K-dramas, it's like you fall down this rabbit hole. And I think there's so much content and there's so much variety. You can find exactly what you like. And I well, I don't know that I'll ever go back to watching a majority of Western shows. But anyway, I think it's fascinating. The kind of the I don't know, six degrees of separation, I guess, like you do. One thing, then the algorithms pick up, and then they're like, oh, hey, try this. Because the same thing happened to me. I was watching a bunch of foreign crime dramas, but on Amazon Prime, you know, I got the subscriptions to the channels, and I was watching French detective shows and Italian and German and Scandy. And I can't remember why. Oh, a friend told me you should try Extraordinary Attorney Woo. And I was like, okay, I'll try that. And same thing. I was like, this is so interesting. Yeah. The culture and all this stuff. So it is just so compelling. It is. It's addictive. It is. Really is. All right. Well, tell us, I I know that there's like an endless variety of things. So I kind of wanted to narrow it down. So tell us like a top five list of yours, five favorites of something. It could be your all-time five favorite K dramas or some specific genre or actor, even whatever you want to do.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

Well, so I'll do top five personally. Like for me, these are really great dramas that I love and I tend to recommend, but also I feel like they touch on a lot of different things, but also they're all like sort of the same. I don't know.

Sara Rosett 12:30

These are like one of the common melodies as we talk, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:32

And my top five, my top ten changes all the time. Okay. Just depending on my mood. But this was it today. It is 2521. Okay. Goblin. Because this is my first life. Our beloved summer and coffee prints. Those are excellent.

Sara Rosett 12:53

I mean, those are like all well known.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

Yeah, they're all it. I also think they're pretty accessible for people. So sometimes I'll be like, oh, I love this drama. And they'll be like, people will ask me where to find it, and I'm like, and I look, nowhere. It's nowhere.

Sara Rosett 13:10

Yeah, things come and go. I've noticed that too. Because some things will show up and I'll think, oh, I've got to watch this now because I looked for it before and it wasn't there.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

And that's what they want you to do. That's what the streamers really want you to do.

Sara Rosett 13:21

Yeah. Yeah. Well, so go through each one of those and tell us a little bit about why you like each one.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

So 2521 is, I think, a 2022 show. Yeah, 2022, I believe. And it is about this high school fencing like girl. And she wants to pursue this dream of hers of being a professional fencer, Olympic gold medal-winning fencer. And she's trying to do this in the midst of economic turmoil when the IMF crisis is happening in Korea, which cripples the economy. And people are losing their homes, losing their jobs, losing their businesses. And if that's how the story really starts. And then it's coupled with this is all happening in basically flashback. Because her daughter in the present day is reading her diary or her journal from this era of her life, the mother's era of the life.

Sara Rosett 14:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

And I just love how it was about, you know, almost generational trauma and how each generation has something traumatic that happens to them and it shapes the way that they think and feel and how they pursue what makes them happy, or they don't pursue what makes them happy. The friends that they make and things like that, all of this, the transigence of like life and friends groups and things like that, things that were very formative for the female lead seem very far away, like in the present timeline. You feel it? What I'm saying. And so I love that about it, the the bittersweet nature of just life and growing up. It's a coming-of-age story. And of course, there's a central romance that everyone was up in arms about because unfortunately, they don't make it. Like they're not endgame. And that's fine. Like I personally love the ending of 2521. It's it's very realistic. And I know that people are like, I don't watch cage albums for realism. And I'm like, I don't know if it's where I'm at in my life or what, but I really appreciated the ending of 2521. It wasn't really about whether they made it or not. You know, it was that they affected each other's lives and they were so important to each other and their growth, and they cheered each other on. And it was a beautiful romance, but it they outgrew each other basically.

Sara Rosett 15:44

Like they it was there for each other during that certain time.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

Yeah, they're each other's it's beautiful.

Sara Rosett 15:52

Like La La Land.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

Literally, I compare it to La La Land all the time. And I love La La Land. It's got the same spirit in it. So that's 2521. Goblin, I think it's a K-drama classic. I was there when it was airing. I was watching it on drama fever, R.I.P. Drama Fever, which is an old platform that nobody cares about, nobody's heard about because it died. It's dead. Yeah. Got bought out, and just it is no more. Um so Goblin.

Sara Rosett 16:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

Kong Yu and uh I think her name is Kim Gaun, star in it. Iconic, iconic show. And I just love it, it's one of my favorite shows. I re-watched it for the podcast and to do a review, a full deep dive review on it. I appreciate it so much. Even if there are so many things that I can nitpick about it, I don't care. I love it. And the romance is romancing, and I know people are up in arms about the age gap. And I I would love to see people just run the math, the numbers on every friend, acquaintance, cousin, on their marriages and their parents' ages and things like that. It's ugly. It's ugly out here. And I I am the first one to hate an age gap, but this one, I still, I still love it. I don't know, sue me. So goblin.

Sara Rosett 17:18

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 17:18

It's a fantasy K-drama.

Sara Rosett 17:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

And I don't know. I just it soars. It soars.

Sara Rosett 17:27

Yeah, I feel like people either love that one or hate it.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

Like literally.

Sara Rosett 17:30

Yes. And I've I've tried it, but I wasn't. Fantasy isn't my thing thing. So but I have watched other K dramas that have fantasy in them. So I started it and I thought, mm, don't think I'm quite in the mood for this. If you're not a fantasy person, then it's really not gonna be. But it's one of those that everybody talks about. So it's kind of like I want to watch it just to see what it's how it how it all comes together.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if you finished it, but you should. I mean, you can.

SPEAKER_02 17:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

You know, and then because this is my first life with uh Chung Sul Min as the female lead in that story, I and uh I Minki as the male lead. Those two and that story is it's a slice of life story, and I really gravitated toward the part of life that she's going through, which is very similar to you know, where I am in life.

unknown 18:26

Right.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

And she's a creative, she's a writer, but she's very, you know, she has this thing happen to her in the first couple of episodes, and you're like, she is being beaten down by the patriarchy and life. And, you know, she's at a juncture in her life where she just needs a place to rest and a soft bed to land on, basically. And Imin Ki and his his household like is that for her. But then there's also the love story, and how does these two people make it when he's like a robot? And I it's great, it's really funny, it's it's got rom-com elements in it, but it's also like these people are figuring out life, and all of us are living this life for the first time. So there's bound to be mistakes, there's bound to be someone at fault and and things happening to you, and you don't know how to react, you don't know how to deal with it. And like this is your first time living. Like, this is your first time you're doing this. And I really appreciated that message and the relationships in it, the female relationships as well. I love when there's a trio of women and best friends. Always gets me. Love that in this in this show as well. So that's because this is my first life.

SPEAKER_02 19:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

Uh, I mentioned our beloved summer, and that is just so refreshing. I thought this show was like a breath of fresh air. It had the vibe of, you know, the juxtaposition, I guess, of the present day and then the summer, the glories of youth and the not just the innocence, but also the fun, right? Of being in school and you have this dude who doesn't care about studying, but then you're an overachiever, so then you're paired together for a reality television show, and like, ha, how is it that sparks fly between these two characters? I loved it. I think it was really funny, really um touching. And then to see the female lead and the male lead have this second chance romance in the present timeline. Love to see it. I love to see how, you know, they battle their insecurities and they rekindled this romance, which is very, they were so young, you know, when they first liked each other in high school and stuff. So it's interesting. I loved it and it was very vibey, very atmospheric. Um, I loved the cinematography on it. So, and then the OST, oh my God, I didn't even mention Oh my god, OSTs would be. Yes, 2521 Goblin, and I would say Our Beloved Summer all have amazing OSTs. I love the music that they created for these shows. And they bring me right back to watching the show for the first time and the emotions that I felt. And that is the goal of any OST is to be memorable and to also just time and place.

Sara Rosett 21:23

Yeah. Well, I think that's interesting because all of those are um some coming of age, but it's also dealing with like generational different uh things going on either in the generations or uh looking back, like parents looking back and stuff. It's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Yeah. And then my last one is Coffee Prince. And this is another iconic, iconic show. I didn't mean for a Kong Yu to be on this list twice, but he is, so we'll just run with it. It's okay. Coffee Prince is ahead of its time, really progressive. For the time period and even for today's K dramas, I would say it is the a really cool show, I think. Yeah. And I love the performances and I love the characters and how they just fall in love slowly. Like it is a very sl I I would say slow burn. I think there's 20 episodes in the show. But it it's a slice of life as well. But I like it. When when you have Kung Yu owning a coffee shop and he staffs it with just hot guys, that's where coffee prints goes.

Sara Rosett 22:38

What more could you ask for, right?

SPEAKER_01 22:39

What more could you ask for? It's like total K drama territory. So I love coffee prints.

unknown 22:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

And there's, I think there's yeah, there's episodes for all of these on the Tivok feed, which is also unintentional. Um, that's a spoiler, because our beloved summer is coming up on the on the season that's like being in the works right now. But yeah, there will be an episode on our beloved summer.

Sara Rosett 23:04

Cool. Well, yeah, that's that's a great list. And I love it because it's not just, you know, these are, you know, rom-coms or whatever. It's got they they're nuanced. It's a nuanced list. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

I well, I'd like to think so, but I didn't think about a theme for these, but I love them. I think they're re-watchable, which is a huge part of things ranking high for me personally, is that they're rewatchable.

Sara Rosett 23:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

Yeah.

unknown 23:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

And not that I rewatch these all the time, but yeah.

Sara Rosett 23:36

Well, yeah, because you get a lot of other stuff that you're checking out too, new stuff, I think. Okay. And I'm sure you're busy with the podcast, because that's like time consuming. But I think too, all of this, your list shows too that with K-dramas, you can really explore things in depth in with the 16 or 20 episodes, whereas that's harder to do in a movie and even in a TV show, even though you have kind of like a Western show unlimited time, you have constraints with yeah, you can't change things as much. Like a K-drama, you can go through the full arc and you can see everything happen. And I feel like, especially these were like the Our Beloved Summer, where you've got two different timelines, you can really explore, you can get into the richness of the story, which is I love that. Yeah. Well, um, tell us about a K-drama trope. Do you have one that you just can't resist? That if you see it, you're like done watching it.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

I think contract marriage might be up there for me, but really I have kind of let go of my notions about some of these tropes over time. Because you can write a really bad contract marriage show. Uh, you can write a really bad Nuna romance, even though you love Nuna romances and you come and you're like, what was that? So I think there's misses for every every trope. Yes, right. Yes. It's all in how it's written and how it's presented to you, who's acting in it. And, you know, if you buy in, and sometimes I just don't buy in, even if a trope is a fave. So maybe contract marriage is up there. I don't mind a rich man-poor woman trope, but I do not gravitate toward table shows anymore where it's like the son of a conglomerate or whatever. You just kind of a dime a dozen. So I don't mind if there's a wealth disparity between them, but if as soon as someone's a table, I'm like, mmm, okay.

Sara Rosett 25:40

Yeah, tables are kind of like dukes in Regency romances. Like how many dukes can there be? There's like five million if you look at romance books. How many conglomerates are there in Korea? So probably really not that many.

SPEAKER_01 25:54

So yeah. So I understand, you know, maybe being business owners, the family owns a business or something, but like an entire conglomerate where they're billionaires. Okay. All right. Yeah. That's yeah.

unknown 26:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

I can't I don't tend to touch those as so much anymore. But I trends that I like, I always like to see really strong female characters. I think over time the K-dramas have changed, right? So there used to be a lot more subservient, passive, quiet, reserved female leads who were just there to suffer. Like everything bad happened to them and they just took it. And nowadays, you might have a female character going through struggles and dealing with different issues, but she has a totally different outlook, personality on her. And so she's gonna handle it a lot tougher or be stronger in those situations, stand up for herself, you know. And that's a that's a big left turn from the old school K dramas that I came in watching.

unknown 26:58

Yeah.

Sara Rosett 26:59

But probably like if you go back and look at Western shows, it's gonna have a different type of storyline, you know, from different decades. But I feel like uh, like in because this is my first life, it's she is really beaten down in the beginning. There's like everything that goes wrong that could go wrong does go wrong. But uh part of her story is learning to deal with that and overcome that. And that's I love that one too. So I think that's yeah, that's more the the modern take on it, I guess. Yeah. I think, yeah. Well, do you have a specialty, like a a trope, a genre, an actor that um some people I know like they love this certain actor and they've watched their whole backlist, or they have a certain trope that they just watch everything? Sounds like you're kind of all over the place.

SPEAKER_01 27:49

I have, yeah, I'm all over the place now. I do I have faves, obviously. Uh I can think off the top of my head, maybe like obviously Kung Yu is up there. Yeah. I do enjoy Nanju Hyok from 2521, but I'm not gonna sit here and watch all of his shows. Sorry. Like the every actor and actress is gonna have misses, they're gonna have misfires, they're gonna have something that maybe look better on the page, and then the final product is horrible. And yeah, that's fine. That's like part of the the the biz, right? Yeah, but yeah, I would say I love Kung Yu's talents, Nam Ju Hyuk, uh Jong Hin, as well as another one that I really love, just him and his acting prowess. But for I think for females, I would say Sung He kyo is really high up there. She's a classic, you know, icon. Yeah, she's from the glory. Uh Han Yoju, I love Han Yoju, like I want to be Han Yoju, and I love her filmography. So those are a few actors and actresses that I follow, but also don't necessarily put all my stock into them either.

Sara Rosett 29:03

Yeah. Yeah, because uh a movie, K-drama, TV show, whatever it is, something like that, it's such a there's so many moving parts involved. They could give a spectacular performance, but everything else could fall apart. So I could see that too. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we talked about this a little bit, but um, do you have any insight in why we're so into K-dramas? Anything else that comes to mind? I've I think the the storytelling itself, that it's one season, usually. Usually, and you're one and done, and you get that satisfaction. Do you think can anything else that comes to mind?

SPEAKER_01 29:39

Yeah, K-dramas are really addictive. I threw that word around earlier. And I think the fact that everyone is so good looking, like true, everyone is extremely attractive. They have such good skin, too. They have such beautiful skin. It is aspirational, and you know, they have gratuitous shower scenes and and they do, yeah, you know, fan service scenes, makeover scenes for the, you know, some of these table shows where it's like a poor girl and he's like, I'll take you shopping. Right. Those scenes are always really cool to watch because it's it's female gays, female fantasy type stuff. And since K-dramas are mostly written by women, it parf it makes sense. It's partful chorus. Um, also, like I said earlier, it's a new culture. It's appealing to watch a different culture than your own, learn something new, recognize certain words and phrases in Korean over time. It's mostly clean content.

SPEAKER_02 30:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

You know, this is not the case in the last four or five years because Netflix has really changed it. They've they're the HBO of streaming, right? Yeah, yeah. Especially when it comes to K-dramas. So usually historically foul language is rare, violence is minimal, love scenes really progress past kissing. And in fact, like seeing a like French kissing in K-drama is like newsworthy. Like that's whoa. So the pretty pure nature of K-dramas is also really appealing, especially coming from Western TV shows where the joke is everyone has sex in the first episode.

Sara Rosett 31:23

So it's a completely different mindset, different viewing experience. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:30

Mm-hmm. The OSCs, like I said, very addictive, very uh memorable and just catchy, right? Like, I don't know. Like, I don't know if you've added a K-drama OST recently to your any of your playlists, but I love listening back and just being transported. And the genre hopping, I think, for K-dramas is also unique. There's a drama to suit every taste. Right. And I think in the West, it's kind of it's more like if you think of prestige television, it's always like, oh, something either an overt comedy that's winning a bunch of Emmys, or something really dark, like something really violent, like a crime show or something like that. And over in Korea, they have light romantic comedies that's popular, historicals, fantasy shows, science fiction, action, romance, and so many other drama ingredients that make some these shows really cool to see the lineup and be like, oh, I can watch this crime show, and then I can also watch this light rom com. And it's all in the same season, right?

Sara Rosett 32:43

It's almost like what mood are you in? Exactly. You could there's something for that.

SPEAKER_01 32:47

Yeah. And within the shows themselves, you might have a light rom-com, and then you might get a murder plot. Yeah. Surprise. You might surprise. And that does not happen really in the West. So these genres.

Sara Rosett 33:04

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 33:05

Mm-hmm.

unknown 33:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:06

And then I think also the accessibility of K-dramas makes it really easy to fall into a hole, which is what happens to me, right? Like on Netflix. Sites like Vicky, Netflix, Disney Plus Hulu, Amazon Prime, that makes it really easy for people to partake in these. And that's not always been the case. K-dramas were really hard to come by 15, 20 years ago. So the fact that you can just get it on your TV easily, just pay a fee and get it with all your other movies and TV shows on a streaming platform, that makes it wildly successful. Lowers the barrier.

SPEAKER_02 33:44

Right. Right.

SPEAKER_01 33:45

Yeah. Um, and then the format, right? Like I said, the one season format, oh my God. I love it even to this day. 16, 20 episodes and you're done. Now, because of Netflix, again, the format is changing. You could have seven episodes, eight episodes, nine, ten, twelve, and then very likely a season two. Like if it's successful, they will come come at you again with another season. Part ones and twos of a single season of a show, craziness out here. And I think the bottom line is that it's one season. For most things, it's still one season.

Sara Rosett 34:24

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm glad about that. I don't, I mean, I'm a more recent K drama viewer, way more recent than you, but I don't want to see all this Western influence changing it. I want it to be what it is. And I don't really like it when they're talking about season two. Even though, even though I enjoyed like extraordinary attorney woo, like it really doesn't need a second season. Doesn't need a season two.

SPEAKER_01 34:48

No. To trot these people out again for a season two. And the thing is, Korea's very small. And there are as many K-drama actors and actresses that we like. There are not that many. If you think of like Hollywood or Bollywood or something, there's so many actors and actresses that could appear on your television screen. And in Korea, the fun of watching K-dramas as well is that you could watch Kung Yu in The Silent Sea. And then a couple years later, he's out with the truck. Or he could be in Squid Game. And the fun is seeing your favorites again in something totally different.

Sara Rosett 35:29

Yeah. And you recognize them and go, Oh, I Oh my God, that's from so-and-so.

SPEAKER_01 35:33

Yeah, that's from this show. That's from that show. And I I love that the not knowing, the surprise, the Leo meme where he like snaps and you know, from Once Upon a Time. And anyway, so I love that about K-dramas, and that's getting taken away little by little because of the multi-season crap that we keep getting from Netflix. It's Netflix, it's really Netflix. I blame them.

Sara Rosett 35:58

Yeah. Well, I don't know. We'll see. Maybe they're like most like publishing does this. They throw money at something, they wring all the profit out of it that they can, and then they move on to their next thing. So it may be that like there's this big infusion of money, and that may drop off. I don't know. We'll see. It may continue.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

I think Netflix thrives on um not paying their creators. So the whole season two things, right, is very tied into does the creator, do the actors get paid fairly for the first season? And nine times out of ten, that's a no. Probably no. Yeah, if something is successful successful, Netflix is gonna be like, well, we own all of the rights to whatever property it is, and you can either return or not. We're gonna do a season two without you, with or without you. Wow. Yeah. And so it behooves these creators and these actors and actresses to come back and do a season two, not just so they can get paid, but it's great exposure because Netflix is and they have worldwide fans.

Sara Rosett 37:08

Exactly. Yeah. Huge, huge. Yeah. I don't know. We'll see. Maybe I mean there there may be a rise of like indie studios there, which because there's there's money to be made. We'll see.

SPEAKER_01 37:21

Yeah, it's hard with the distribution.

Sara Rosett 37:23

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:25

The streamers have such access to the customer, the cli, you know, the populace. Yeah. So it's hard. Yeah. Anyway.

Sara Rosett 37:35

All right, back to the main point. Did you have anything else?

SPEAKER_01 37:39

Uh no, no. I mean, uh, we already talked about characters getting developed over time, right? They're brought through trials and tribulations over time, cliffhanger endings on every episode, tension built up over so many episodes, intimacy between romantic leads ends up feeling earned. Yeah. And that's all because of, you know, this longer, short but long format of 16 to 20 episodes, usually. And you know, I think people are the writers have to be struggling with adapting their work into a shorter amount of episodes.

Sara Rosett 38:17

Yes. And we've kind of seen that, I think, this year. Some of the shows and even keeping with the same format, 16 to 20, they're struggling. Mm-hmm. Yeah. There have been a couple of shows that I watched that I was like, I don't think this was meant to be 12 episodes. It just kind of the end just felt telescoped down. Like too many things and too many subplots that just never were wrapped up. So yeah, that may be happening. Well, we talked about this a little bit. Um, but do you have anything else that makes this standout drama for you? Is there something that you're like, oh, this is this is it for me?

SPEAKER_01 38:54

I love this. It's always good writing and good pacing. That's always going to huge, huge. You could have a wonderful concept, a wonderful premise for a show, and then you start writing, and the first few episodes are great. And then all of a sudden we're down to the last two episodes, three episodes, and you're like, Where, what is this pacing?

unknown 39:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:14

It goes hand in hand. Right. Good writing and good pacing, I think, are top for me to make a drama stand out. I can be pretty forgiving on production value if it looks quote unquote old, or the cinematography is a little nuts and the white balance is all over the place. I I've watched dramas that I think are great that you can you can see like the boom mic coming into frame.

Sara Rosett 39:37

Like, I'll just ignore that.

SPEAKER_01 39:38

And I'm like, you know what? But the writing and the acting. So I think if you've got great actors working off a great script, then that's what counts.

Sara Rosett 39:48

Yeah, I agree. I agree too. Personally.

SPEAKER_01 39:51

But you know, it's great if everything is great. Like the the OST is there, the cinematography is there, the everything works. Sometimes you have terrible actors working on a really great script, and you're like, why did they cast this person? So it just depends, but generally I think good writing, good pacing, then focus on your actors.

Sara Rosett 40:15

Yeah, that's true. I agree. Um, did you have any K-drama disappointments? I have too many to list.

SPEAKER_01 40:24

Um I think from recently, Love Next Door was a big disappointment for me. I just thought it was so criminally boring. So criminally boring. It I think I got up to like episode seven. Yeah. I was really looking forward to that drama with uh Jong Han and Jungsu Min, which Jong Hin I mentioned earlier as being like one of my favorite actors.

Sara Rosett 40:48

Mine too, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:49

Uh highly anticipated show. Everyone thought it was gonna be a rom com, the rom-com of the year. I came and went. Nobody, nobody's talking about this show. And I thought it was really disappointing. I dropped it. I thought a Killer Paradox, which was early 2024, I believe. Again, I watched that whole show and I was like, what even is this? I I thought it was going to be something interesting that it was going to say something. And again, really liked the cast. Um just not good to me. The Good Bad Mother, Duna, Alchemy's Holes, She Would Never Know, Vincenzo, Snowdrop, What's Wrong with Secretary Kim, Love Alarm, My Secret Romance, She's in the Trap, The Bride of Havoc, Abyss. All of these shows have disappointed me. Yeah. Yeah.

Sara Rosett 41:39

Okay, so Secretary Kim. Uh-huh. Talk to me. Yeah, that was one that everybody said, Oh, this is the great rom com you have to watch. And I was like, okay, signed up for Vicky, watched it, and I was like, This is not really not checking the not making me happy.

SPEAKER_01 42:01

Yeah. She's perfectly fine. She's not sure. She's perfectly fine. In fact, man, let her go. Just leave her be. Let her live her baddie life because there's no reason for her to be stuck with this narcissistic dude. Mm-hmm. 100%. So I hated it. I and I have trouble swallowing workplace dramas. I just have never been interested in workplace drama. So this was a workplace drama. And I was like, okay, I'll see what I'll see what you got. If it's good, it's good. But it's not my favorite. And then the boss and employee. That's a tough relationship is hard for me. It's tough for me. Maybe I've lived more lives, more, more time than the the average K drama fan who comes in to watch What's Wrong with Secretary Kim, and they're like, oh, I love the kiss scenes. I love the chemistry. And I'm like, that does that does not make a good show to me. I need more. Sorry. And oh I was struggling with that. I was struggling with even his trauma, the the shared trauma between them.

Sara Rosett 43:05

I so off compared to the like the tone of that was so I thought they're they're going awfully dark with this. Wow. And then pretty soon we're back to the happy office funny thing. And I just yeah. But I persevered. I kept watching. Yeah, I watched the whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 43:22

There is a good uh scathing review of what's wrong with Secretary Kim on the Tabak beat. If anyone wants to go back and listen and just hurt yourself, I was very disappointed.

Sara Rosett 43:33

Well, no, maybe, maybe you'll feel seen.

SPEAKER_01 43:36

Oh, maybe like who knows? Maybe someone's like, I watched that show and I thought Paxo Jun was ugly and I didn't get it. And there's people on all sides. Yeah. What's going on?

Sara Rosett 43:48

Well, I think as much as we love K dramas, there's always something that doesn't quite hit right. So that's not uncommon to have some That's fine.

SPEAKER_01 43:56

Like you don't have to like what everybody else likes. Yeah. You don't. It's okay.

Sara Rosett 44:00

Yeah. Yeah. It's okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:02

So do you keep track of the dramas you've watched? Yeah. So I used to have this little notebook where I wrote down the names of all the shows that I watched. And I had this really weird method of noting which dramas I liked or loved. It was like, if I just wrote it down and I didn't do anything to it, it was fine. Or I didn't like it. And then I had like a blue highlighter going. And then I had stars and check marks and things next to the title. It didn't make much sense at all.

SPEAKER_02 44:33

Right.

SPEAKER_01 44:33

And I threw it out. Like when I moved, I I think when I moved out of my first apartment, I was like, why do I still have this? Like, I don't even and I threw it out. I should never have thrown it out.

SPEAKER_02 44:42

Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 44:43

Yeah. I want to, I want to keep it like for posterity. But in 2020, five years ago, who I finally signed up for my drama list. And I started backlogging all of the dramas that I watched from memory. So now I rely on MDL to track the dramas that I've completed, what I drop, what I'm currently watching. But I know that my memory sucks. So I feel like the number of dramas I've completed is very likely inaccurate. At least everything before 2020, which is a lot of years, like nine, eight or nine years, right? That I'm like just I remember watching this. This looks familiar. And just going through like that. And I was looking through my dramas today at the completed dramas. And there's some that I'm like, I don't remember. I know that I watched this show. I don't remember Jack about it.

unknown 45:39

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 45:40

So my my memory, the podcast is as much about like preserving mystery that I think about a show and the beats of the show and everything. Because man, sometimes I'm like, I know that I watch that show. I don't remember anything. There's nothing in the in the in the noggin for that.

unknown 46:00

That's funny.

SPEAKER_01 46:01

And nothing in the folder for that show.

unknown 46:03

That's funny. Yeah.

Sara Rosett 46:05

Well, yeah, I'm sure. As many it's hard to keep track of in them all and remember them all. But yeah. So if you had a friend who had never seen a K-drama and asked for a recommendation, uh, what K-drama would you recommend? Do you have like a standard or would you customize?

SPEAKER_01 46:22

I pretty much never give blind K-drama recommendations. I always ask follow-up questions to try and gauge what their watch habits, what their preferences are. What like what types of shows are you watching? Do you like romantic shows? What are your favorite movies? And things like that. Because there's no one size fits all. Sometimes I'll recommend a show that I dislike, but I know that that person will like it. So in general, I would recommend something light and fluffy. I'm not gonna recommend something that takes a lot of brain power to, you know, keep track of everybody. And like I'm not gonna put like a historical in there or even a dark, seedy crime drama. I'm not gonna give them something like that because I think usually the light and fluffy k-dramas get people interested in K-dramas, period. So some light romance K-dramas I would recommend are to you like Brahms, Our Beloved Summer, Descendants of the Sun, Because This Is My First Life, Summer Strike, I'm Not a Robot, True Beauty, Hometown Cha Cha Cha, and Love All Play if you can find it, because that's really hard to find. But the rest are, you know, either on Vicky or Netflix. Yeah.

Sara Rosett 47:50

Yeah. That's a great list. I love it. That's a great, yeah. Cause I I think you're right that most people would be more have an affinity for something light versus something dark.

SPEAKER_01 48:01

Also, like to introduce the culture and the language and things. It's way easier to just give them a light and fluffy show. But again, that's not going to work for everybody. Some people really like the dark, violent shows. And that's fine. I have wrecks for you. The glory.

unknown 48:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 48:20

Moving. Uh-huh. Move to heaven, which I I was an emotional wreck after watching that show. It's very, it's not as dark or violent, but I think it does have that those tones. It's different than a light and fluffy romance drama. My Mister and Happiness, which is a zombie K-drama.

unknown 48:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:41

But those are more weighty. Yes. They're exactly. They're way more weighty. They have emotional stakes here versus like true beauty. They yeah, like anybody can watch True Beauty and like laugh at uh Huang Ying Yop and like his boxer shorts dancing. That's easy, low-hanging fruit, I feel. But um, you know, some people like crime dramas. And I have a few recs too. So Cruel City, which is a noir.

Sara Rosett 49:16

Okay. I haven't heard of that one. Writing that one for myself.

SPEAKER_01 49:18

That's an older one. I think it's what, 2013-ish around there. Signal. That's one of the best crime dramas out there. And it has a fantastical element with their uh communicate, two sets of cops basically are communicating with each other through time via a walkie-talkie. Walkie-talkie, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Squid Game, obviously. And DP. Okay. So those are they're very heavy. Those are all very heavy. And if you like, I don't know, the killing in shows like you know, Law and Order, SVU, and like true crime, these are the shows that I think you would definitely gravitate toward. And then there's a lot of gateway dramas, right? Like Boys Over Flowers is a gateway drama. Coffee Prince was a gateway drama for a lot of people. Goblin is one, Strong Woman, Dobong Sun, Crash Landing on You. That was a huge one that got a lot of people in. Yeah. Weightlifting Fairy, King Book Ju. These are all not just iconic and popular K dramas, but a lot of people stuck around after watching these for the first time. So yeah. Those are some reps.

Sara Rosett 50:33

Yeah, thank you. That is awesome. Well, uh, are you currently watching anything right now?

SPEAKER_01 50:40

Yes. So I'm watching, and I have to pull up my drama list to get. So I just finished. Well, no, I'll just give you what I'm watching. So it's actually a C drama, Chinese drama called The Story of Pearl Girl, which came out in 2024.

Sara Rosett 50:58

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:58

Right. I'm really liking it so far. It's I'm in episode seven of that. I am also just casually watching Amidst a Snowstorm of Love, which is also a Chinese drama.

SPEAKER_02 51:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:11

I am going to watch the last two episodes of When the Phone Rings. Okay. And do a review on the podcast for it. So that'll be a lot of fun because that was really upsetting for people, I think. Yes, it was. Yeah.

Sara Rosett 51:33

Yeah. I finished that one. Okay. I loved, loved the first probably 10, 11 episodes.

SPEAKER_01 51:42

Okay.

Sara Rosett 51:42

And yeah. I don't know if what you've heard. I don't want to spoil anything.

SPEAKER_01 51:46

No, I I got spoiled already, but I'm just gonna go ahead and finish the show. I'll tell you right now, I did not like the show even before these last two episodes. So, and I'll tell you exactly when I lost interest was episode six.

Sara Rosett 52:03

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 52:04

I don't know if you remember what happened in episode six, but that was when I checked out.

Sara Rosett 52:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 52:08

And I was like, I'll just finish the show. It's only 12 episodes. And now you're stalled out at 10. Yeah. Um, and I mean, it's funny that people are writing it off on the last episode. I don't think it landed before that, but that's just me.

Sara Rosett 52:23

No. I think it it didn't, it didn't meet the expectations of where you thought the story was going or where I thought the story was going. Uh-huh. So yeah. Anyway.

SPEAKER_01 52:33

I am currently watching The Judge from Hell.

Sara Rosett 52:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 52:36

I'm on episode three. I don't really have much interest in finishing it, but I'll watch a few more episodes before I call it quits on that one. And then I just finished, completed No Gain, No Love and the accompanying Spice Up Our Love. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. Cool. So you've been busy. I've been busy. Yeah. Obviously, I finished Quid Game, Season Two.

SPEAKER_02 53:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:02

Uh God, like a couple of weeks ago. Maybe one week ago or so. Um, and that's again another podcast review coming soon for Tipok because I reviewed season one in 2021. Yeah. And now we have season two. So yeah. I feel obligated.

Sara Rosett 53:29

That is great. And you've given some great recommendations. So it's been good. So tell everybody where they can find the podcast and all that.

SPEAKER_01 53:38

So you can search on your favorite podcast app, Apple, Spotify. I don't think Google has one anymore, but Google, maybe um, Amazon. So wherever you listen to podcasts, you can find Tabak Rambles. It's D-A-E-B-A-K Rambles. Like the letter K. The letter K and then Rambles. And uh we'd love to have you over there. It's a lot of fun. I promise that it's a lot of deep dives and you know culture. And also we have a lot of fun and we poke fun a lot at the dramas because I don't think it's ever quite that serious. Um like we have a lot of fun too, I swear. And um, you can find me on all the socials at Tipok Pod D-A-E-B-A-K-P-O-D. And if TikTok is still around after the 19th of January, you can find me on TikTok. But otherwise, you know, I stick to Instagram and maybe Facebook. Really, Instagram is like the main one. Yeah. Okay. I don't have a Twitter anymore.

unknown 54:44

Okay.

Sara Rosett 54:45

Well, we will have those links in the show notes and an essay. If you haven't checked out the podcast, you should do it because it's so it is a lot of fun. It's one of my favorite ones. And I always love seeing shows that I've watched when an episode pops up, like because it's my first life.

SPEAKER_01 54:59

A lot of people tell me that. They're like, oh my God, I love the show, or I can't wait to listen because I I watched just finished the show. And so it's really uh comforting and nice to hear when people listen. Oh listen, if you're listening and you're like, oh my God, I love this podcast. I love hearing about other people's K drama journeys. Tell Sarah that you love hearing the podcast and what your favorite episode was, and so on and so forth. And that goes for any indie podcaster. Yeah. Unless the podcast is sponsored by Spotify or, you know, some big name. We are just doing this out of the goodness of our hearts, and we need all the uh ego stroking, yeah. Encouragement, uh comments and and feedback that you can give.

Sara Rosett 55:44

Yeah, yeah. We would appreciate it. Yeah, I think every podcaster, every indie podcaster feels that way. Exactly. Yeah. Is anyone listening?

SPEAKER_01 55:51

Is anyone out there respond, please? Because we are doing this like, you know, in a vacuum.

unknown 55:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:58

And then we put it out there and we just see numbers. Please put a face to the number. Yeah, we like that. Yeah, we like that. We love talking to people.

Sara Rosett 56:06

Yeah. And that's how I met you. I reached out because I enjoyed your podcast. So sweet. Thank you.

unknown 56:12

Yeah.

Sara Rosett 56:13

Well, um, if you enjoyed the episode, please take a minute to write or review it wherever you listen to podcasts. That will help K Drama fans find the podcast. And I will see you next time. Bye, everybody. Bye.