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Team Dramabeans: What we’re watching (June 8, 2024)
by DB Staff
So, what are we all watching this week?
What kept you reaching for more (or agonizing when there was no more), and what made you want to throw your remote through the screen? Time to weigh in…
javabeans
Summer Strike: I’d never heard of this show before it popped up on my screen while idly browsing, and I hit play purely based on the (Korean) title: “I Don’t Want to Do Anything.” It spoke to me. There’s something very soothing and healing about this gentle slice-of-life drama, although I had to be in the right mood for it, which is why I’ve been watching this for about six months and just now finished. Which might sound like I didn’t enjoy it when I did, quite a lot — I found the story engrossing and the characters refreshingly ordinary, and appreciated the depiction of simple living and finding happiness in the little things. It’s a lovely story of growth for multiple characters, like the lonely city girl (Seolhyun) burned out from terrible work culture and backstabbing coworkers, and the sweet and brilliant country boy (Im Siwan) who’s held back by past trauma, and the cast of small-town characters who all have some work to do figuring out who they are and what they want from life. I didn’t realize until I’d finished that this was directed by Lee Yoon-jung (Coffee Prince, Cheese in the Trap), and then it all made sense. A pleasant interlude and palate cleanser of a drama.
Chicken Nugget: What the nugget? This show was a strange experience, and not just because the plot itself is strange (though it is that — a girl gets turned into a chicken nugget by a mysterious machine and mild comedy ensues). Mostly, this show confused me because I didn’t get it, and I felt like I couldn’t move on until I did. Was it aiming for slapstick, or dumb, or satirical, or…? The tone was clearly intentional, but to what end? The more perplexed I was, the more I felt a perverse need to keep going, feeling hostage to my confusion. My conclusion: This show didn’t work for me and I don’t think it fully achieved what it set out to do, either. The pedigree of the creatives likely had a negative effect on expectations — director Lee Byung-hun’s writing and directing credits are truly impressive, from Extreme Job (legitimately one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen) to Twenty, Dream, Scandal Makers, and Be Melodramatic (all a skillful mix of humor and poignancy). But it started to feel more like the emperor’s new clothes where I kept waiting for the brilliance to hit me, only it never did. I was actually in disbelief that they had spent so much money and locked so many famous actors when the content was so flimsy. I can enjoy a good absurdist comedy, and there were (fleeting) moments where I wondered if maybe this was going for the affected mannerisms of a Wes Anderson piece or an I’m a Cyborg But It’s Okay, or the stilted awkwardness of a Napoleon Dynamite, or the lowbrow hur-hur laughs of a Beavis and Butthead. Ultimately, I think Chicken Nugget suffers from being both too much and not enough. Too intentionally bizarre for a conventional Kdrama-style production, yet not distinct or stylized enough to carry the quirk. There were glimpses of potential, but it felt more like a mainstream show putting on contrived eccentricity rather than a genuinely weird gem. I didn’t really enjoy the watch, but I’m not mad about it — mostly, I’m glad I’ve made sense of it and can move on from that nagging question.
missvictrix
Dare to Love Me: I’m torn. I’m 75% fatigued by the paint-by-numbers K-drama we have on our hands here (and sorry that L’s character has gotten far less interesting than he was at the beginning), but 25% of me wants to pat the back of this drama that is happy to do its little thing and not mind the world around it. There are enough fun/cute moments to keep me watching, but really, I’m just waiting for the kiss. Hey, that’s one thing they’re doing originally: the Episode 8 ending was quite kissless.
DaebakGrits
The Atypical Family: I started watching The Atypical Family because I love stories about people with superpowers. It had a slow beginning, but it became a drama I looked forward to each week. Maybe not with the same intensity as Lovely Runner (that’s a high bar to surpass), but the time travel element really piqued my curiosity. I’m eager to see how it plays out this weekend even if I think it’s fairly obvious that Gwi-ju won’t die in the past. Is it too much to hope something bad happens to Sauna Mom, though?
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