K-Drama

There’s an easy charm to The Potato Lab that feels like alchemy; narrative gold from leaden rom-com tropes.

I get it. I get why The Potato Lab works, and it’s a surprisingly obvious realization, highlighted really capably by Episode 3.

Ever proving that there’s more than one way to skin a cat – or, in this case, air a K-Drama – Netflix elected to release When Life Gives You Tangerines, the expensively-produced IU-starring drama doubling as a love letter to Jeju Island, in four four-part volumes.

Oddly, my concern with The Potato Lab is now that the weirdness of it might put people off. And that’s an interesting position to be in as early as Episode 2, since I’m still making a few assumptions about where it might all be heading.

What is it with K-Dramas these days? The concepts seem to be getting more and more bonkers. Now seems an odd time to suddenly decide that a good old rom-com isn’t enough anymore; there needs to be some kind of unique qualifying gimmick.

Look, it was virtually a given that When the Stars Gossip was going to have a lackluster ending given how increasingly bad it has become...

Like many people, I can’t wait for When the Stars Gossip to end. And while that might sound a little harsh, don’t worry about it, since I firmly believe that the show itself can’t wait to end either.

I’m not exactly a soothsayer, but as soon as When the Stars Gossip returned to Earth, I just knew it had nowhere else to really go.

Given I’m professionally obligated to persist with shows long beyond their expiration dates, it isn’t a new feeling to be almost resentful of the time I spend with When the Stars Gossip.

Remarkably, as of Episode 11, there are still five episodes of When the Stars Gossip remaining. What on earth are they going to be about?

Unmasked continues to be a confounding show in Episodes 7 & 8, and it remains difficult to know what to make of it

As of Episode 9, When the Stars Gossip has pretty much lost me. It’s a shame, really, since there have been so many glimmers of potential that the fact the K-Drama doesn’t seem to be cohering into anything feels like a waste.

I haven’t exactly been coy about not knowing quite what to make of Unmasked, and I was more undecided than ever throughout most of Episodes 5 and 6 until a late twist at the end of the latter gave the Disney+ K-Drama a jolt of energy.

Well, Ryong’s extraterrestrial isolation didn’t last long, did it? There I was thinking that When the Stars Gossip might improve a little after taking a fairly major swerve.

When the Stars Gossip needs a turning point, I think. If Episode 5 proves anything, it’s that the status quo isn’t quite enough, despite the novelty of the setting.

If you’ve seen Season 1, I’m sure you know the base story of Jenny Hans’ Netflix Series, XO Kitty. If you haven’t, however, here’s a...

I have no idea what to make of Unmasked, which after two episodes feels like a comedy tripped and fell into a crime drama and nobody knew how to separate them.

A question that occurred to me midway through When the Stars Gossip Episode 4 – what, exactly are we supposed to be latching onto here? It’s a worthwhile question.

When the Stars Gossip has been, thus far, a very strange and silly show, with a far-out premise about fertilizing eggs in space and a lot of low-stakes slapstick to pad out the episode runtime.

Stick with me here as this is a slightly weird thing to say on just Episode 2, but When the Stars Gossip is almost like the anti-K-Drama.