🥂Happy New Year | 2024 KDramas Are Starting With A Bang!

☕️ HAPPY 2024!

So excited to get this new energy going - it feels different already, doesn't it?!

Let’s not waste any time!

Y’all it is time for our first KDrama Coffee Break of 2024!

Tweaked the formatting a bit - I hope you like it 🤩

Twice a week, on Fridays & Mondays we land in your inbox with news & casting highlights, trailers from around the internet plus our kdrama weekly & monthly calendars and thoughts.

Whether you’re one of our Ko-fi Crew, YouTube friend, or a brand new arrival we are thrilled to have you as part of our kdrama community!

PREMIERE CALENDAR
13 January Premieres Coming Our Way

SO. MANY. KDRAMAS.

Get ready for a beefy month of A-Lister led kdramas.

We kick off the New Year with PARK MIN YOUNG’s revenge tale “Marry My Husband”, PARK SEO JOON’s “Gyeongseong Creature Part 2” and PARK SO DAM, SEO IN GUK’s “Death’s Game Part 2”. Plus we are getting kdramas from LEE HA NEE, LEE DONG WOOK, JO JUNG SUK & SHIN SE KYUNG, AHN BO HYUN & PARK JI HYUN, PARK HYUN SIK & PARK SHIN HYE and so many more!

My top picks for January:

• DEATH’S GAME & GYEONGSEONG CREATURE PART 2 - I will be spending all day Friday on my couch thank you very much! Loved both Part 1s. Excited to see if they stick their respective landings.

• KNIGHT FLOWER - LEE HA NEE widower by day, Korean Robin Hood by night? Please. All In.

• A SHOP FOR KILLERS - You had me at LEE DONG WOOK, secret assassin.

• LONG TIME NO SEX - ESOM & AHN JAE HONG’s loveless marriage gets reignited by exposing cheating couples? OMG Yes Please.

• FLEX X COP - I am a simple creature. AHN BO HYUN is a spoiled chaebol cop, teamed up with a spicy detective PARK JI HYUN. It’s like they wrote it just for me!

PREMIERE POLL
Which Premiere Is Calling To You The Most?
they would only let me list 11 so the Part 2s were left off…

WEEKLY LINEUP
What Are We Watching This Week?

PREMIERES

⭐️ 01.01
LOVE FOR LOVE’S SAKE
LOVE SONG FOR ILLUSION
MARRY MY HUSBAND

⭐️ 01.05
DEATH’S GAME PART 2
GYEONGSEONG CREATURE PART 2

FINALES

☑️ 01.05
DEATH’S GAME PART 2
GYEONGSEONG CREATURE PART 2

☑️ 01.06
SECRET PLAYLIST
THE STORY OF PARK’S MARRIAGE CONTRACT

Our 2024 Kdrama Calendar is starting with a BANG with 17 dramas on the docket this week to choose from!

I’m definitely tuning in for Monday’s Premieres to at least check them out and I will finish “The Story of Park’s Contract Marriage”.

But what I’m really looking forward to is the Part 2 “Gyeongseong Creature” & “Death’s Game” doubleheader on Friday!

JENN’S WATCHLIST
Clearing the Deck for January!

▶︎ A Good Day To Be A Dog 
Thankfully we’ve moved past the Mountain God back story being the focus and we’re back with our adorable (and sexy) couple. Unfortunately, the Mountain God is now wreaking vengeance and has wiped everyone’s memories back to the start of the drama - except CHA EUN WOO & our reincarnated shaman. And while I still don’t fully understand or enjoy the Mountain God storyline watching our two cursed lovers fall in love all over again will totally be worth it.

✔︎ Soundtrack #2
Decent concept. Terrible execution. This series was only 6 episodes! Why spend so much time on a ‘love triangle’ that we all knew was going nowhere?! The real story was her not being able to…accept help? love herself? rely on anyone? Sure, her issues were hazy but I appreciated the sentiment of finding and liking yourself before you are truly ready for a relationship. It was such a waste of the bangin’ chemistry between NOH SANG HYUN & GEUM SAE ROK.

▶︎ The Story of Park’s Marriage Contract 
Whew. I’m ready to put this one on the completed list. Enjoy the characters but we’ve been endlessly circling the same story point - who will run SH Corp?! for weeks now. LEE SE YOUNG has been a delight and her chemistry with BAE IN HYUK is simply lovely - I just hope we do something with it! (the teaser for the final eps seems to indicate we just might 🤞) And her friendship with bestie JOO HYUN YOUNG is a lot of fun. But the story overall is kinda a mess and I’m not anywhere near as invested as I want to be with only 2 episodes to go.

▶︎ Welcome To Samdalri
Sadly I might not even make it to the end of this one. I want to love it. I love many of the characters. I adore SHIN HAE SUN and JI CHANG WOOK and believe that their Cho Samdal and Cho Youngpil are the only ones for each other! But I don’t know if I have the patience to wait out his dad’s mismanaged grief, their buddy Sangdo’s unrealistic unrequited love, mom’s bad heart, Samdal giving up her photography career, all of them getting black-out drunk every night…suffice it to say, it might just be time to say ‘this one is not for me’ and move on.

X My Man Is Cupid
Unless I hear that everyone is loving the finale - I’m letting Cupid gooooooo. My suspension of disbelief has reached its max.

★✔︎ Gyeongseon Creature Part 1
This was a surprising bright spot in my watchlist last week. Evil, dark and suspenseful this fantasy Netflix kdrama had some money behind it. The production value is top-notch. Special Effects believable. Story is solid. And honestly, I have never enjoyed PARK SEO JOON more. I always enjoy HAN SO HEE when she is in badass mode and her match-up here with Park Seo Joon just works. Really looking forward to the final 3 episodes this Friday.

★✔︎ The Matchmakers
Super random addition but on a recommendation from my friend Michaela from The Kpopcast I binged the hell out of “The Matchmakers” with ROWOON and CHO YI HYUN. And you know what? I really enjoyed it! Rowoon playing a book-smart but real-world-dumb Joseon man was a highlight. And Cho Yi Hyun’s duel role of noblewoman and matchmaker made me a fan. Highly recommend if you want a fun, romantic, and surprisingly smart historical romance.

NEWS BITES
RIP Lee Sun Kyun 😢

📣 Unfortunately, the biggest news item heading into 2024 was the news that broke here in the States on the evening of December 26th: LEE SUN KYUN had passed away. Shocking everyone around the internet & globe. This came after months of being under investigation for possible drug use.

Trying to wrap my head around it all I found this post from Jae-Ha Kim to be one of the most comprehensive in discussing the Korean culture around drugs, shame and mental health. TikToker Your Funny Unni, speaks to a lot of what I was curious about re: fame and the fall from grace, and how his family moves forward in the aftermath. There was also this post from David A. Gizzard at The Korea Times ‘Drugs and Korea’ to help shed some cultural light.

Lee Sun Kyun was a bright talent who will be missed by so many. I hope that this unnecessary tragedy, may in some way, change the harsh pressure celebrities are under. And ultimately our thoughts go out to Jeon Hye Jin and her family who now have to navigate life without their husband and father.

📣 And in typical Entertainment industry fashion…the show must go on. So they did, with all the terrestrial stations - SBS, MBC, KBS - rolling out their awards without missing a beat. Plus APAN Star Awards.

📣 If you’ve been hanging with The KThree for any amount of time you know I love a good KDrama Thriller (and occasional Horror). This list of the Best Horror and Thriller of 2023 over at The Wrap from Regina Kim is a solid list!

📣 JANG NARA has revealed who her husband is in her latest interview with “You Quiz On The Block”. Seems He was the DP/Cinematographer from her 2019 drama “VIP” - which means I got to see a behind the scenes fan edit that included LEE SANG YOON all over Twitter this week. Win. Win.

📣 If you’re enjoying “Death’s Game” and “Gyeonseong Creature” like I am you may enjoy these interivews with their Stars before we hit play on Part 2 Friday!

• PARK SO DAM & SEO IN GUK 

• HAN SO HEE & PARK SEO JOON

VIDEO VILLAGE
We’re Getting A New CHA EUN WOO in 2024

I am so excited to see what CHA EUN WOO does in this role. Love watching him break out of the Idol-approved roles lately with “Island”, “A Good Day To Be A Dog” and now “Wonderful World”.

Pairing up with KIM NAM JOO - my god our girl “Misty”?! Now I really can’t wait - the synopsis sounds like they will be working through their grief by punishing those responsible.

Cha Eun Woo is in a dark revenge drama y’all. It’s a whole new kdrama world!

K3 KDRAMA HANGOUT
Kicking Off 2024 LIVE

What a perfect way to say SEE YA to 2023!

We had a great time chatting with everyone about our Favorite Kdramas from 2023, Marisa’s Korea Trip & Tips, what the January calendar has in store for us, and in general hanging out with all our Kdrama Bffs ❤️🫰

Happy New Year 🥂 

We can’t wait to share 2024 with you!