November-December 2025: Found Family

I took a little pause in drama watching in November for a big trip to Spain for my birthday. 

It had been a WHILE since I had traveled to Europe. I started off in Barcelona with a focus on 20th century architecture. 

Then took the train to Zaragoza to see some Mudéjar architecture.  

We traveled to Belchite to learn more about the Spanish Civil War and do some olive oil tasting. 

Then we took a newly restored train line into the Pyranees to visit an Art Deco train station converted into a hotel. 

We were blessed with a snowy ascent into the mountains and a gorgeous day of snow in Canfranc. 

Now back to work and reality. 

And the couple of dramas I finally managed to finish.

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The Murky Stream

I truly wasn't sure what exactly The Murky Stream wanted to be. It feels mostly like a historical drama (prepare ye for sadness) and then a bit of a revenge tale. But at nine episodes with an abrupt ending it's unclear if it's supposed to be one season or leaving the door open for a second one. 

Truly I am baffled by the Disney+ K-drama offerings. 

In this one, Rowoon plays Jang Si-yul who has righteous beliefs but has been living on the fringe of society. He has been separated from a man who was like a brother to him, Jeong-cheon (Park Seo-ham). But he finds Jeong-cheon has become a police officer trying to rid the world of corruption. He fears people will attack Jeong-cheon if they find out their connection. So Si-yul ends up protecting his brother by agreeing to work with group of bandits who corruptly control the waterfront. He compromises his values in a way, but then finds this family among the bandits. 

Rowoon is definitely at his dirtiest and smelliest in this role. But such grime does not all make for great drama. There are tender moments as these men become closer.  The system of honor among the bandits makes for a mildly interesting setting. But it is a tough one to watch because there is just trickle down abuse that keeps this system running. 

And with a historical setting, you know things are just going to keep getting sadder. And they do. 

I just found this one a bit of a slog. And it was frustrating with only nine episodes. Basially half a season of sad and smelly.

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Typhoon Family

This drama set during the IMF crisis also reflected a found family of sorts. But a repetitive and extreme conflict dynamic with a rival company ends up dragging the drama down. 

Kang Tae-poong (Lee Junho) is a party boy who spends more time tending his greenhouse than finding a job. His father is frustrated with him but when his father dies suddenly in the middle of the IMF crisis he steps up to run his father's trading business to try to keep it from going under. He and his mother lose everything and most of the employees have left the company. But Oh Mi-seon (Kim Min-ha) the bookeeper agrees to stay on in the hopes of becoming a trader herself. Tae-poong does not have a clue what he is doing but he refuses to let his father's company fall into the hands of his long time rival Pyo Merchant Marine. Eventually the old employees come back to the firm to help Tae-poong and bit by nit he tries to rebuild while he seems to also run into problems at every turn. 

While a sweet romance grows between Tae-poong and Mi-seon it also feels super inappropriate with him as her boss as she's trying to prove herself in the workplace. It is lightly addressed but also glossed over. 

And I just found the drama frustrating because of the frequent conflict with Pyo Merchant Marine. There were some nonsensical and strained setbacks Typhoon Trading experienced due to Pyo's interference. When the company's struggles were grounded in more realistic situations (a bribery situation gone awry in Thailand) it was more engaging. 

Certainly the struggles of the Korean people during this time (also as depicted through Tae-poong's best friend Na-mo and his mother who gets taken in by a pyramid scheme) illustrates the extreme circumstances people experienced. And the instability and fear at issue in that era. 

But the machinations of the plot start to lose sight of that and get more tied into a ridiculous situation with the Pyo family.  It just jumped the shark for me. 

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Ms. Incognito

K-Dramas love a mixed genre. This dark revenge tale turns quickly into a quirky small town romance and then back into a revenge drama, escalating into more violence than one might expect. While the local romance is darling, the shifting narrative and intentions of the leading character get murky and confusing. 

Kim Young-ran ( Jeon Yeo-been) gets hired as a bodyguard for an ill Chairman, Ga Seung-ho. In an unexpected twist, he asks her to marry him and then kill him. He wants to disinherit his former wife's adult children,  Ga Seon-yeong (Jang Yoon-ju) and Ga Seon-woo, who have always been after his money. Young-ran agrees to this plan in her desperate poverty and perhaps because she understood his feelings of revenge on people who had wronged her. But the plan changes and now Young-ran as the rich widow set to inherit everything must hideout for a time to avoid being killed by the stepchildren. She goes to her lawyer's hometown and pretends to be a kindergarten teacher. But single father Jeon Dong-min (Jung Jinyoung) is suspicuous of her.  She pretends to be this rich woman but her mother, a criminal who has been neglectful and abusive, comes looking for her a threatens to blow it all up. 

Young-ran is supposed to be so many different people in this series. A physically strong bodyguard, a fragile child of abuse, a bubbly kindergarten teacher, a diva and rich bitch who will bury her enemies. In the end, it's hard to even know who Young-ran really is. And therefore she becomes hard to root for. It's easy to root against the evil step-daughter who is cartoonishly bloodthirsty. 

But in the middle of it all this sweet little romance blossoms and that aspect is surprisingly effective. 

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The Watcher

This serial killer hiding in the police force drama was interminable and though I watched 13 episodes I could not get through it all.  I will never know who did it. Or why.