singthatsong

Getting better and better. Already in my top 5 this year. I think I'm a little fatigued by high-romance, action-spectacle dramas fraught with melodramatic emotions and overdone twists and turns. This, on the other hand, is such an uplifting, stress-free drama.

So I did some digging, and I guess in Korea, "fantasy novel" is essentially a generic term for male-centric web novels. It has to do with how the web novel market classifies them. Most works fall under one giant umbrella genre, “fantasy,” with only a couple of categories, alternate history and martial-arts fiction, carved out separately. Even if the books don’t involve any magical elements, they still get sorted into subgenres like classic, modern, fusion, or game fantasy. There are historical and commercial reasons for this, but they are also labeled “fantasy” because wish fulfillment is their core appeal. The original web novels for The Trauma Code, Reborn Rich, The Legend of Kitchen Soldier, and this drama all belong to the modern fantasy category. Interesting. But the tag still has to go.

The fantasy tag has to go.

Soooo good. No dramatics but enough drama to keep me entertained. Glad there are no cookie-cutter kdrama villains here, just ordinary people trying to live their best ordinary lives.

Korean men of the period were actually not allowed to shave off their beards for philosophical reasons. In trendy romance dramas, the beard is gone because the ML has to look pretty, but for a more accurate portrayal of the period, men past puberty should have some facial hair. I’m glad this drama chose to go the more faithful route.

200% agree. More faithful to the period.

Many critically acclaimed, objectively well-made dramas and movies barely make it to 8 here. MDL is a romance fandom echo chamber and doesn’t accurately reflect critical or public consensus.

That's probably not the main poster since the airing date is still a month away. It's usually a teaser poster when it's 30 days ahead and the main poster drops 15 days before.

And I guess what he really does with the lotto money is going to be a bit of an ongoing mystery.

Second episode, even better! The acting, production value, pacing, sound design all great. The plot is grounded and relatable yet cathartic and I'm already rooting for all these characters. So sad that it's only a ten-episode drama.

On episode one, a build up episode and so far so good. But the sound design for this drama is INCREDIBLE what the hell.

Yeah, it's ridiculous. There are barely any dramas to watch right now and then boom, what like 11 to 12 dramas in October? So many dramas are going to lose out on viewership simply because of the competition and I won't be able to watch them all because I don't have time to watch freakin' 10 dramas. 😅😅😅

October?😂 Too many dramas in October and not enough in September!

Yey, Viki!

There is no fixed date yet?

It was a great first episode but damn Song Kang's acting is god-awful. It's unfortunate since I love everything else about this drama.

God, I just love SKG ajussi!!

There is no hope here.

One demented idiot already wrote a "cheating is wrong" fire and brimstone one star review. Typical MDLister behavior.

I read a couple of review articles and they say pretty goods things. I'm excited!