☕️ LEE JE HOON is "Chief Detective 1958" | Will You Be Tuning In?

☕️ Happy Monday!

It’s a pretty light week overall in KDramaland.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to my full watchlist this week 🫤 My internet went down in the middle of the “Wonderful World” finale and stayed down for most of Saturday afternoon 🤯 and then I was traveling & visiting with family all-day Sunday. I’ll get caught up and share my thoughts next week on the ones I missed!

We have LEE JE HOON and the premiere “Chief Detective 1958” landing this week, some great new teasers in Video Village to check out, and a handful of K3 fav dudes with potential projects coming our way.

Don’t forget to download your calendar and take our premiere quiz!

And a huge thank you to our sponsor KOCOWA for the special offer for our readers🫶💖

Let’s get this KDrama Coffee Break started! ☕️

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WEEKLY LINEUP
LEE JE HOON’s “Chief Detective 1958”

PREMIERES

⭐️ 04.19 CHIEF DETECTIVE 1958

FINALES

✅ n/a

thoughts…

“Chief Detective 1958” has so many elements I enjoy: historical, crime & of course LEE JE HOON so I have high hopes for this one. Please be good 🤞🤞 

PREMIERE POLL
Chief Detective 1958

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JENN’S WATCHLIST
“Lovely Runner” Doesn’t Disappoint!

★ Lovely Runner

This started MUCH darker than I expected and should have come with TW. They went hard on the easy breezy rom-com elements in all their promos so I was not ready to open the show with a young girl lying paralyzed in a hospital bed contemplating suicide. Then ending episode 1 with the seeming suicide of her idol bias before we’re transported back to 2008.

That aside, I think I liked it quite a bit. 😜 Of course I did! Though I hope we’re not trapped in High School for too long - I like watching adults be adults ya know? And there is a juicy mystery waiting for us there right?

Highlights:

• BYEON WOO SEOK and KIM HYE YOON have some lovely chemistry in their one moment together in 2023 and I would like to see more of THAT.

• Okay, I admit, they’re adorable in High School too 🥰 

• Im Sol’s running commentary as a 34 (?) year old woman transported back to her 19-year-old body - it and she is ridiculous. 😆 

• The rules of time travel - anytime Im Sol tries to tell someone the future, time freezes and then restarts - great way to get around the argument of “why didn’t they just tell them?!”

• I laughed out loud quite a few times and that’s always a good sign!

• And ultimately, when ep 2 ended I wanted to watch more! Excited that we could have another good one here!!

★ Blood Free

This is the one I was waiting for…it was good. The first 2 episodes set up an intriguing mystery and great characters - my god THIS cast! I am looking forward to watching more. Our powerful CEO HAN HYO JOO is just trying to save the world, one cultivated food product at at time. JU JI HOON is ex-elite military officer out for revenge? retribution? an answer? after the now-former president gets blown up on his watch.

 Highlights:

• I’m already addicted to Han Hyo Joo and Ju Ji Hoon working together as a team. If they add a scandalous romance, I’ll be complete. 😈 

• Ju Ji Hoon’s BFF is here! I swear he has it in his contract that JUN SEOK HO must be cast if they want him 😆 

• Han Hyo Joo and her team: LEE MU SANG, KIM SANG HO, PARK JI YEON and Jun Seok Ho. They make even the ‘boring’ exposition scenes fun banter

• The Interview. I need Ju Ji Hoon’s Virtual Interview testing his skills to be a real thing that we commoners can try!

✔︎ Wonderful World

I’ll be back next week to share my finale thoughts!

▶︎ Escape of The Seven: Resurrection

Just bonkers. Makes no sense and needs way more LEE JOON but I still hit play every week and it makes me laugh so…a win?

▶︎ Nothing Uncovered

The mess continues! In the thick of all the murder and accusations, our love rivals (?) finally confronted each other about their feelings for Seo Jung Won [KIM HA NEUL] and it was glorious. I wish the writer had given her more of a say in all of it and not just two dudes declaring what they will do but JANG SEUNG JO & YEON WOO JIN have the best chemistry in the show, so I'll keep my Quibble Juice™️ on standby!

Listen, I know I’m supposed to be rooting for first love Kim Tae Hoon, but as we continue to learn more and more about Seol Woo Jae, I have to admit this is what keeps me here. What is with his propofol addiction? Who is the girl who died? Why is he climbing into ice baths fully clothed in a seeming fit of rage? What is the big self-destruction secret that will tear his father down? See what I mean - juicy! And Jang Seung Jo brings the tortured soul madness every week.

We’ve burned through so much story that I was surprised when I realized this week that we are only at the ½ way mark of this bat-shit crazy story! I truly have no idea where this ride is taking us & it’s really fun.

▶︎ Queen of Tears

Will share all my thoughts next week!

CASTING NEWS
ERIC NAM & The Last Airbender

🎉 CONFIRMED

• ERIC NAM cast as the voice of Adult Aang in the new 2025 animated Avatar Movie.

💬 IN TALKS

• JI CHANG WOOK reviewing an offer to join MA DONG SEOK in the Superhero series “Twelve” 

• LEE JONG SUK in discussions to lead the web-based Disney+ series “1Second”.

🤷 RUMOR

• KIM DO HOON rumored to be cast in “Your Honor”, the ENA remake of the Israel drama “Kvodo”. 

NEWS BITES
Another WIN for tvN & Park Ji Eun

📣 “Queen of Tears” climbing the charts to become one of the top-rated dramas in tvN history!

📣 GONG YOO stans gather round! Tom Ford Beauty has dropped their latest promo…

📣SON SUKKU boasting on Shin Dong-yup’s YouTube Channel that one of his proudest achievements is his top ranking among the Korean gay community 🥰 Why we Stan ❤️ 

📣 YOO TEO, JU JI HOON & NA IN WOO at Allure Korea’s BOSS 24 S/S Premium Menswear presentation

VIDEO VILLAGE
3 New Trailers

April 26
GOODBYE EARTH (Official Trailer)

May 1
FRANKLY SPEAKING (Official Trailer)

May 17
THE 8 SHOW (1st Teaser)

K3 Chats
KDrama Coffee Break LIVE Replay

What was on our watchlist THIS WEEK:

• QUEEN OF TEARS (obviously!)

• WONDERFUL WORLD

• ESCAPE OF THE SEVEN: RESURRECTION

• THE MIDNIGHT STUDIO

• NOTHING UNCOVERED

• WEDDING IMPOSSIBLE

• IMPOSSIBLE HEIR

• PARASYTE: THE GREY

• OPEN FORUM = everything else!

We had another fantastic chat with our Kdrama BFFs 🤩 

If you missed the LIVE or just want to check in on a show we discuss later, you can watch the replay with time codes! Jump straight to the kdramas you want to chat about and avoid spoilers on those you haven't gotten to yet.

Mark your calendars for the next LIVE April 28th 😎