3.5.21 :: Feels You Didn’t Know You Needed
Almost a year ago, I met a girl. My mom set us up. (They work together at the library.) One night in the kitchen, Mom gave me her phone number and said, “Abby is just the nicest.” Thus began one of the sweetest friendships I’ve formed in my 30s.
You know how they say you can count your true friends on one
hand? I’m the lucky bitch who needs two—plus a foot. I’ve got an incredible,
widespread quilt of girlfriends, and Abby has seamlessly stitched her way into
my heart. Usually the first person to greet me when I wake up. Often the last
person I chat with before bed. Definitely someone who would notice if I choked
on a Beyond Burger and died in the apartment. We’ve celebrated her pregnancy
and, soon, the birth of her second child. She’s directed me to some of the
yummiest vegan food in Boston. She makes me scream laugh and spit out my dinner,
think twice about politics and social “norms”, and blink real hard at certain shirtless social media posts. With her, I can
be my silliest, most perverted, random self.
And we’ve never met in real life.
I don’t think I’m the only person to have made a close
virtual friend in the pandemic, and I feel so lucky to have fallen into this
special club of texting, Instagramming pen pals. Like modern day Julia Childs
and Avis DeVotos, we joke that "someday" we’ll meet IRL. And with vaccines and warmer
weather and our budding podcast on the horizon, I know we will. I can just see
us now…racing toward one another from across a crowd of food truck stalls. She
pushing a stroller. Me stumbling forward, overloaded with French breads and Mr.
Buckwheat stuffies…
Who’s Mr. Buckwheat? Why, just the goblin who introduced us,
bonded us, and brings great comfort on dark quarantine days. For Abby and I,
you see, are two white girls (well, 1 ½ white girls) who are obsessed with
Korean drama.
Talk about feels you didn’t know you needed in the pandemic.
If you like Jane Austen even
a thimble-full…if you burn for romantic tension, smoldering gazes, physical
glances that could shake the trees, plus nerve-wracking mysteries, hilarious
virgin ghosts, eye-crossing time travel, and characters that feel like childhood
friends, you need to set your Netflix search to Korean drama. A swell of
choices will appear, and I urge you to dive in. But if the tide’s too rough,
dip your toe into one of the beauties below to get started. I’m no expert by a long shot, but I've got about a
thousand hours, Duo Lingo lessons, and 4 a.m. messages to Abby to back me up!
Crash Landing on You
Netflix
A South Korean heiress is literally swept up in a freak
tornado that drops her—and a cow?—into North Korea, where she meets her future
real-life boyfriend (#BinJin): a North Korean soldier. You’ll gasp
at the unfairness of it all, cry at the push and pull, belly laugh at the men and women on
either side of the DMZ, and crave fried chicken and beer. (Sigh.) This was the
show that popped my K-drama cherry and changed my idea of television forever.
Mom gives it two thumbs up, too!
Viki
Home of Mr. Buckwheat, this drama is unlike almost anything
else I’ve seen on television in its concept and execution. Gong Yoo, aka torso and
oversized sweater goals, is a cursed goblin out of time. Things
come to a head when a beautiful student reenters his life and he reluctantly befriends
a grim reaper. Enjoy the notes of John Williams’ Harry Potter in the score, watching time travelers use FaceTime,
and a bromance for the ages.
Netflix
A strong theme in the Reply series is family—chosen and blood.
Following five families over a decade from their small corner of Seoul, this
drama had me so emotional by the end that I immediately restarted it, just so I
could continue living in their sweet, playful, tightly bonded world. If you
know nothing of Korean history (which I didn’t when watching), the plot revolves around cultural touchstones that defined a generation; be sure to
have Wikipedia on hand! Above all, you’ll swoon for an almost unmatched love
triangle.
If you like Reply 1998, check out Go Ara’s
enchanting troll cheeks, Yoo Yeon Seok’s gratuitous shirtless scenes in the
name of baseball, and the second-best love triangle on record in Reply 1994 (Netflix). I also really enjoyed the NSYNC fashion realness of Reply 1997 (Netflix) and the theme song, which I sing in the shower.
Viki
Oh. My. God. Do I love a high school drama. And a makeover.
And a love triangle. And a revenge fight with hot dogs on a stick. Did I fall
head over heels for our leading lady? Did I want to put our leading man in my
pocket like a baby turtle and carry him around all day? Did I cry for our beautiful,
sensitive second lead? You bet your bottom dollar.
Mr. Queen
Viki
I can’t even with a smart and funny score—let alone when it
supports a great drama. Can you say 70s funk in historic Korea? That’s just the
icing on the cake of Mr. Queen which puts a modern-day male chef in the body of
a Joseon-era queen who is martial arts fighting to keep her king alive. It
sounds insane, but, man, this was such a fun ride—if only for the cooking
scenes and our leading lady doing double duty as a man in a woman…and sometimes
just a woman. Kim Jung-Hyun of Crash Landing on You does it again!
Viki
I will just say it here: Park Seo Joon is my original oppa
and it’s all because of Secretary Kim. He plays an incredibly un-self-aware CEO, who, like every demi-god, doesn’t realize how good he has it with an
admin/slave like Park Min Young. When she gives her notice,
he sets out on a comically misguided path to woo her, and, like all K-dramas,
their relationship and past come full circle.
If you love PSJ like I
do, check out Fight For My Way (Viki): he is absolutely ripped in the ring, his
romance with Kim Ji Won is adorable, and the second couple will steal your
heart.
Netflix
For every oblivious moment our heroine sails through, there is a very caring, calculated move by our hero. I'll just say, this one destroyed me to the point that I made a video reaction of the end and sent it to Abby late one night because I just couldn't handle the feels. Plus: Mimi the dog in a red apple hoodie!
Netflix
Created by the makers of the Reply series, HP also centers
around a family, this time of college friends. You like Grey’s Anatomy?
Awesome. You like eternal bonds and antics and garage bands and little boys
with pumpkin-head haircuts? Even better. This one really stole my heart, and
the theme song beat BTS in the Korean
charts! Bonus: Season two is almost upon us!!
Viki
Tiny but mighty Park Bo Young has been gifted with a
magical, generational strength (think lifting a truck with one hand) that snags
her a job as a personal bodyguard to Hyungsik, a young tech CEO. She
single-handedly takes down a warehouse full of thugs and an arch nemesis she
didn’t know she had, while also tracking down a sexual predator in her
neighborhood. How could her new boss not
fall hard and fast? (Note: Don't feel too bad for our second lead, as he was recently dropped from his latest drama after a history of school bullying was revealed. #wompwomp)
If you love PBY like I
do, you’ll want to check out Oh My Ghost! (Netflix) in which she and Jo Jung Suk of Hospital Playlist spark romance in the kitchen after PBY is possessed
by a wily virgin ghost.
Viki
The wooing of college weight lifter Kim Bok Joo by divine
being on earth Nam Joo Hyuk is absolutely priceless. (Bonus points for watching
him do tricep curls in a swimsuit.) That they then dated in real life after
filming makes watching them fall in love on set and pal around with their silly
sidekicks even better. #swaaaaag
If you’re like Abby and NJH is your new oppa, check out Start-Up (Netflix) in which he and Suzy get their hopes, grand ideas, and love off the ground. Featuring one of my anthems for 2020: Future by Red Velvet.
Above all, please note this is, often, family-friendly television: Most don't go beyond an American PG rating, so don't expect much skin (save Secretary Kim which made me ah-oooooh-ga!). Destiny brings everything full circle. And there's always a happy ending.
Enjoy! And let me know how you get on. xo
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