July-August 2025: Summer Blur

First Night With the Duke briefly embracing the silly novel aesthetic

I was so fidgety and unhappy with dramas this summer that I hardly have notes on any of them. So bear with me this month even remembering why I was grumpy about these.

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First Night With the Duke

As a fan of Taecyeon doing comedy, I was intrigued by this frothy concept of a miserable modern woman falling into the romance book she was reading and falling straight into bed with a dark, mysterious swordsman (pun intended). But somehow that fun dissipates and we have a trudging political story I was not invested in at all.  And there was very questionable logic about the universe we were in. 

Cha Seon-chaek (Seohyun) finds herself as a minor background character in the book she's been reading. But by the choices she makes she ends up becoming the main character when she is rescued by Lee Beon (Ok Taecyeon)  the murderous duke the King depends on to do his dirty work.  By usurping the story from the original heroine  Jo Eun-ae (Kwon Han-sol) she has upset the plot and that character who was a down on her luck orphan taken in by a rich merchant as his daughter. Love triangles are thrown into chaos. And she somehow teaches the whole town about cocktails. 

While it starts out with her being clearly a modern woman that kind of disappears. And also it’s not quite Joseon. It’s book-Joseon? Then there are confusing moments where we "flash forward" or it appears she is reading the book.  Basically, there was some body-switching but we don't know that until late in the series in a very tacked on way. 

All the romance and sex appeal peters out and it's murder and mayhem and mean girls in the end. Boo. 

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Dear Hongrang

This was the kind of show I immediately recommended to others and then absolutely retracted when it decided to be gratuitous in sex and violence in a way that was unearned and ridic. Like someone's dog ate the script and they just started throwing anything and everything at it. 

Beloved child of a rich merchant, Hongrang, went missing as a child. His half sister Jae-yi (Jo Bo-ah) never stopped hoping he would be found and has secretly been looking for him ever since. She is also aware other children have gone missing and she is trying to get to the bottom of that mystery. 

When a man appears claiming to be Hongrang (Lee Jae-wook) she does not trust him. He is readily embraced by the household, especially Hongrang's mother. Jae-yi, was the product of an affair, is mistreated by Hongrang's mother and the lady of the house. She has led a difficult life and this adult Hongrang is drawn to her because of their mutual suffering. At the same time, the adopted son of the household, Mu-jin (Jung Ga-ram) has always protected her and loved her thinking one day he would take over the merchant guild and make her his wife. 

Obviously, a lot of the characters in this series have secrets. BUT at some point Hongrang starts romancing his sister. While it is clear to us, the audience, that he is not actually her brother in the moment he is lasciviously touching her lips, it is NOT clear to her.  And she is suffering a whole new level of confusion, pain etc with this. This poor woman has been through a lot and now you want her to commit incest in her mind?

And then the adopted brother also loves her--which she's been sort of able to handle and keep him at arms length. I mean...is there anyone not related to her in some way that she could have a relationship with?

The plot becomes more about the merchant and his wife fighting over the power of this guild. There's some other ex-lover of the merchant who is mad at him, counterfeit art, and a full on sex scene in a cave. Let's not get into the ritualistic violence that also happens. By then it was just spin the wheel of plot and see where the needle lands. 

I feel like they could not quite bridge the emotional turmoil, psychological trauma, and actual plot points to make any of this work in the end. 

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Yumi's Cells: Series 2

I think I fast forwarded through the end of Yumi Cells: Series 1, but since I was on a Jinyoung kick I thought I would try Series 2. And I hated the cells less this time. At times, I did find it a kind of cute romance.  But I also found her so incredibly immature for a 30-something, again.

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Branding in Seongsu

I thought this was going to be a workplace romance, but it was a body-swapping, evil revenge story. I was not prepared and also didn't like anyone. But it did make me think about the pop-ups in Seongsu-dong in a new light.