KDRAMA SPOTLIGHT
REMARRIAGE & DESIRES
July has a dearth of new kdramas streaming in the western market, so for this month’s spotlight, I chose something outside of my usual comfort range. Remarriage & Desires is a revenge melodrama that follows one woman who has lost almost everything as she seeks revenge on another woman who caused it. To accomplish her goal, she enters into the rarefied world of elite matchmaking. The service that she joins caters to the ultrawealthy and the show revels in showing the trappings and lifestyle of the very rich. I know there is a market for escapist entertainment like this, but in today’s economy, the whole thing feels slightly tone deaf. It’s also a melodrama and really, did we need another melodrama about well-off people being awful? Didn’t we have our fill with the likes of Sky Castle or World of the Married? Also, this is a bad melodrama. It’s the kind of melodrama where people stare off into the middle distance as the background music struggles to tell the audience how they should feel and where multiple people try to storm out only to be halted by someone else aggressively grabbing their arms. At one point, the antagonist even stops to look shadily to the side after her unsuspecting victim turns away. I can’t. I just can’t. It’s also full of messy, badly paced flashbacks that are so over the top that they almost feel like parody. It’s not a good show, people. The only question is, why do I feel like watching the next episode?
Available on Netflix. Premiered June 15th. Starring Kim Hee Sun, Lee Hyun Wook, Jung Eugene, Park Hoon, and Cha Ji Yeon.
OTHER NOTABLE JULY 2022 RELEASES
Netflix
- The Good Detective (Season 2) – 16 episodes
Disney+
- Big Mouth – 16 episodes
- Release Date: July 29th
- Synopsis: A third-rate lawyer with a 10 percent success rate finds himself embroiled in a murder case.
- Main Cast: Lee Jong Suk, Im Yoon Ah
Viki Rakuten
- Dear X Who Doesn't Love Me – 16 episodes
- Release Date: July 14th
- Synopsis: An aspiring songwriter’s life is turned upside down when she finds a magical notebook with the power to make people fall in love
- Main Cast: Han Ji-hyo, Doyoung
- Miracle – 8 episodes
- Today’s Webtoon – 12 episodes
- Release Date: July 29th
- Synopsis: A comedy based on a Japanese manga series, Today's Webtoon follows the story of a former judo athlete who gives up her dreams to reach the Olympics following a career-ending injury. She makes a fresh start in life as a webtoon editor.
- Main Cast: Kim Se Jeong, Choi Daniel, Nam Yoon Su
- Bad Girlfriend – 12 episodes
- Release Date: July 5th
- Synopsis – “Bad Girlfriend” is a web drama about an ambitious woman who has to juggle her relationships with multiple men.
- Main Cast: Byeon Seo Yoon, Park Young Woon, Hyuk (Omega X)
What We're Watching
Every month I’ll be asking one person from staff or AKP users to tell us what drama (new or old) they are watching or that they are looking forward to and why.
I’ve been crazy busy the last few weeks, so I didn’t get a chance to ask anyone about what they are watching. I’m just going to suggest what I started to watch before I got swamped.
CHANGE DAYS (season 2)
You might want to avoid this show if you suffer from secondhand embarrassment, because this thing is a whole lot of awkward. Change Days is a 12-episode reality dating show that attempts to help four couples decide whether they want to continue in their relationships or break up. Of course, being a television show, it does it in the worst and yet, most entertaining way possible. It forces them all to live together in one house for two weeks while they all get set up with and date each other. And when I say it’s awkward, I don’t think I really can convey just how much cringe this show gave me. If this was a US show, it would definitely be a messy trainwreck, probably full of cheating and fights. Somehow, this show still manages to be pretty wholesome despite its premise. Several cast members are just so likeable and even the ones who aren’t totally appealing are still pretty nice and polite to each other. Also, it was enjoyable to watch two cast members really click and root for them as a couple, despite them actually being in relationships with other people. Does that make me a terrible person? Who knows. But I will ship those two until the end. Bonus: Code Kunst is one of the commenters and is pretty awesome.
Recommended. Available on Netflix.
