2023 K-dramas I Found Disturbing But Strangely Enjoyable

I’ve reviewed the best of the best dramas that stood out to me in 2023, so here come the ones I found disturbing to various extents, but strangely enjoyed, despite myself.

Drum rolls, please!😅🥁

I’ll be diving into the aspects I found troubling and what kept me glued regardless. Let’s go!

The Good Bad Mother

I watched this drama against my will. Yep. K-drama Instagrammers wouldn’t stop hyping it up, and despite being a fan of Lee Do Hyun since his heart grabbing performance in 18 Again, I just wasn’t interested in watching this. 

I didn’t get its synopsis; it seemed to be an age-reversal story set in a rural area, and I just wanted me a rom-com, okay?

Anyways, I finally checked out the first episode and I ain’t gonna lie, I was never bored. Its cute, piggy love story hooked me right off the bat, and before long, catastrophe upon catastrophe started to tear apart our doting, pregnant couple—so I couldn’t help but be curious about their fate.

Ra Mi Ran is one of the leads of this drama, serving as Young Soon, the mother of Kang Ho (Lee Do Hyun), the second lead. And I have to say this straight up – I didn’t like this mother and son duo, especially the mother. For a huge chunk of this drama. I just couldn’t wrap my head around her heartless and abusive discipline methods—all in the name of wanting her son to be strong and successful; all in the name of wanting him to be a respectable lawyer who avenged his father’s death.

Yes, I got that Young Soon had to lose her husband in a horrible way while pregnant. I also got that she had to struggle hard to raise her son all by herself. Not to mention, it was later revealed she had a trauma of her own from her parents dying in a similarly horrible manner to how her husband had died.

I got—get all that—but I still couldn’t fathom or excuse the terrible abuse (being cloaked as “tough love”) that she put her poor, young son through. What exactly were the writers trying to say or do with this character? I wondered in serious confusion a whole lot.

I even dropped the show as a result and only picked it back up because I was bored with all the dramas at that time, and Instagrammers still wouldn’t stop hyping it.

Let’s touch on Lee Do Hyun as Kang-ho. The stern, cold lawyer role he played at the beginning just didn’t fit him. I mean, he was supposed to be a 35-year-old lawyer with that cute, baby face of his? Seriously? Watching him try so hard to look hard and serious was painful. I wasn’t buying any of it. Furthermore, I didn’t understand what he was all about or what his thoughts were. I found him to be as confusing and unlikable as his crazy mom.

Yep. For real.

So what was the silver lining of this drama? What really made me stay?

It was Kang Ho’s romance with Mi Joo (I loved their little clips from when they lived together!) and their ridiculously cute twins. Honestly, the twins SINGLE-HANDEDLY saved this drama. The little actors were sooooooo good and hilarious as Ye Jin (Ki So Yu) and Seo Jin (Park Da On). I LOVEEEEED them with EVERY inch of my heart, especially Ki So Yu as Ye Jin! She’s so stinkin’ cute, so freakin’ talented!😍😍😍

Sam Sik is also another character that eventually infused a lot of humour and lightheartedness to the drama. Man was hilarious! Yoo In Soo is such a versatile actor. I can’t believe this is the same villain that terrified me in All of Us Are Dead.😂 

Another saving grace of this drama was Lee Do Hyun acting as a disabled seven-year-old. The acting reminded me of my special love for him. He was absolutely adorable and guileless as the much younger, innocent Kang Ho. The way he always chirpily called his twins’ names, Ye-jin ah! and Seo Jin ah! as he rolled his wheelchair, and his emotional performances whenever he was being abused by his mother (particularly the helpless and clueless ways he came across whenever this happened) – they always moved the depths of my heart.🥺

It was also during this younger version of his that I began to warm up to his mom a bit… just a little bit. To the very end, I decided not to understand this woman. As far as I’m concerned, her actions were despicable and inexcusable. But she did redeem herself to an extent. For that, I give her a little credit.

All in all, as aggravated as I was with some of this drama’s blood-boiling scenes (Looking at you, Young Soon), I was never, ever bored with the show. And although the leads (who were supposed to be likeable or at least, understandable), were rather infuriating and confusing especially at the earlier parts, the drama was always interesting to watch and there were many heart-warming moments that the show served.

Special shout-outs to the actors who played the twins. They stole the drama and mostly made it worth the watch! Ki So Yu really is a star girl. I loved her so much in Our Blues too!

Strangers Again

A bickery romance about two divorce lawyers who are divorced from each other, but now have to work in the same law firm? That sounded juicy. Just the kind of enemies-to-lovers story to tickle my fancy.

I also remember seeing the leading actor (Jang Seung Jo) in Encounter, finding him to be weirdly sexy there. But here he’s looking even sexier and hotter? SIGN. ME. UP. As for Kang So Ra, the leading actress; she is a baby faced beauty, poised to play an extremely smart divorce lawyer with a high-winning rate. Tell me, was I going to miss this show? No bloody way. 

Now, did I enjoy it? Yes. Massively. 

It sucked me in so much to the point that I found it strange. Why? Because many aspects of this drama just didn’t make sense to me. Besides, it had one extremist feminist lawyer that completely pissed me off, almost to the point of me dropping the show.

Here’s the first thing that confused me early on:

It’s our presumably good, innocent leading lady lawyer, Oh Ha Ra, agreeing to date someone who was literally like a younger brother to her ex-husband, Eun Beom. She even almost slept with him. I’m sorry, but this was so disturbing and off-putting to watch—even whilst knowing she kinda did this to make ex-hubby jealous. The whole thing was even weirder and more annoying because Eun Beom played cool with his ex-wife’s actions, continuing to drink and hang out with the “almost younger brother” in question. Was not a fan of these. At all.

Also, right from the beginning of the show, we learn that Eun Beom had asked Oh Ha Ra for a divorce because he “cheated”. But as unserious and scattered as Eun Beom seemed, you could tell that this was a good man. You could tell that he actually did not cheat on his wife; that there was more to the story. 

So I looked forward to the big reveal. I looked forward to why he had chosen to use such a hefty and scarring reason/lie such as having “cheated”, to separate from his wife. Mind you this woman was his college sweetheart; a cherished lover he’d dated FOR YEARS before marrying.

The real reason finally came and this was where my brain refused to process what I was hearing. This is where I was let down big time by the show.

Basically, he had been compromising/suffering too much for the littlest and pettiest of things that can pop up in a domestic realm. Guys, I know that little piled up issues can be frustrating and be a genuine ground for divorce, but what blew my mind was, one, from what we were shown, how come Eun Beom NEVER ONCE voiced out his frustrations and resentments about having to compromise so much?

For God’s sake, this was someone he loved, knew, and understood. And this was not a wicked woman (yes, despite my earlier bashing of her). We later observe that she’s somewhat childlike and soft. And again, they’d been together FOR YEARSSSS, but he couldn’t express how he felt???

I just couldn’t believe this.

Two, who on earth uses such heart-wrenching words as “I cheated on you” to get out of a marriage you actually were not unfaithful to? No matter how badly he wanted a divorce, couldn’t he have found a less callous and heart-stabbing reason/lie to use? Was that how little his wife’s heart mattered to him?

I couldn’t wrap my head around all these and they made me really confused about Eun Beom as a character. I even almost disliked him completely, if not for the affection I’d already developed for him.

Here’s another aspect that perplexed me. When Eun Beom and Ha Ra begin to reconcile their relationship, and Ha Ra begins to nurse the idea of having a baby she has always secretly desired – Eun Beom tells Ha Ra, to her shock, that he does not want a child. He confesses that in fact, he has never wanted one. And BOOM! This forms a new basis for why they can’t end up together.🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ Really, how come such a LONG TERM couple NEVER seriously discussed whether they wanted to have kids? It made absolutely no sense to me and didn’t feel realistic at all (what the heck, Writer-nim???).

That aside, Oh Ha Ra is supposed to be a famous, high-winning lawyer who always kicked asses in the courtroom and emerged triumphant. Instead the reverse was the case. Her husband ended up being portrayed as the competent, clever one who always found a way to win cases. 

This was not what I was promised. Not cool at all.

Finally, remember the feminist lawyer I mentioned? She bugged me so much while watching this show. Gang Bi Chwi is everything wrong with extreme feminists who have ruined what brilliant, sensible feminism is. I mean, she was just persistently, irreversibly irritating in all her myopically opinionated ways. 

Whenever she was representing her female clients, she never cared about the other gender’s side. She was so self-engulfed, impatient, and brash in her views. Always ready to fight the patriarchy, even when what was needed at hand was logic, patience, and fairness.

Perhaps what infuriated me the most about her, was the way she treated the man who wanted to devote himself to her. She treated this guy like dirt. Like an inconvenience she wanted to be rid of—when this was a rather reasonable guy who was logical, sacrificial, good-natured and responsible.  

Whew! 

Dear Writer, take another stab at writing a strong, feminist character—if that was the intention. Because, this was a very pooooor job. Gosh.

As you can see, Strangers Again was magnificently flawed for me. So why did I find it so absorbing, nonetheless?

I loved Ha Ra and Eun Beom’s relationship an unhealthy lot. Their bickering was very entertaining; right up my alley, and the history and chemistry shared between them was achingly filled with longing, tenderness and intimacy. I really, truly loved them together and rooted for their happy ending, despite some of their off-putting actions. The actors did a wonderful job.

I especially loved Kang So Ra’s nuanced interpretation of Oh Ha Ra who was so vulnerable and glass-hearted, yet acted like she could bite when she was just all bark. I wanted her to be happy so badly; but the show decided to go the healthier route.

It’s all good; copious flaws aside, they truly gave me a good show.

Doona

When Netflix released the teaser for Doona, I knew nothing was going to stop me from checking it out. An indie-like romance about a college guy who lives next door to a K-pop idol hiding from the industry?

That’s my love for college romance, artsy visuals, celebrity tales, and K-pop colliding. So, of course even with my cynicism with K-dramas based on celebs and the entertainment industry, I was sat when the drama dropped. 

And as predicted, I got addicted to this instantly; slurping it uncontrollably. However, here’s the crazy thing (that’s not so surprising)- I was immersed in this drama for reasons other than the titular character herself, Doona. 

Hmmmm.

I immediately liked the lead male character, Won Jun (Yang Se Jong). He struck me as unassuming, good-natured, and responsible. THEN, we were introduced to THE Doona, and I couldn’t decide how to feel about her. Scratch that, I didn’t know what to feel about her.

Her vehement cigarette-smoking scenes seemed like they were supposed to be some cool aesthetic. However, I found myself wondering if Bae Suzy wouldn’t get addicted to smoking by the end of the series. In fact, I was wondering if she wasn’t addicted already.

I was genuinely concerned, guys.

She smoked too many times and too needlessly. And therein lies my first big issue with this show. As if the incessant smoking scenes were not pointless enough, Doona was—I’m sorry—SOOOO useless in the show, absolutely lacking substance for a lead character—an eponymous one at that. All that Doona did in this drama was to cross her bare legs, smoke indifferently, and occasionally tease Won Jun in ways that were seriously flat and uninteresting. 

To worsen things, there was no trait of Doona’s that was likeable or lovable. Instead, this lady was depicted as dismissive, compulsive, and erratic. What’s worse, you couldn’t understand why she acted the way she did. Not even if you tried. She was just so damn confusing and bland.

Worst of all, she had no redemption. To the very end, I couldn’t breathe a sigh of relief and say, okay, at least Doona is a changed person… She has healed… I totally understand her now. Nothing of that sort. 

Now, I know that Doona’s supposed to be a character with mental health issues and all that, but I swear, I failed to grasp her. The show did a very terrible job, thanks to its very “artistic ” confusing flashbacks, and non-existent discussion about her real life (not even with her supposed love interest).

Due to the flashbacks they interspersed the show with, I’d assumed that she had been sexually groomed and abused by her manager. I’d also assumed that she’d picked up her terrible smoking habit from him. But as the show revealed more flashbacks, it didn’t seem like she had been sexually abused. Maybe controlled and suffocated? Yes. But it mostly seemed like she suffered from bad anxiety due to the K-pop mania, and needed some form of normalcy. 

Then again, I might be wrong (which proves my above point).

Whatever the case, the flashbacks did not properly explain her behaviour. At some point, they tried to use them to induce pity for her, but this feeble attempt hardly worked. It couldn’t work, no matter what, because the flashbacks still didn’t sufficiently explain her actions, and Doona herself, my God, was just NOT likeable—so I couldn’t care less.

Contrast that with Jin Joo (Shin Ha Young). The second female lead. I loved her so much. She wasn’t just angelically beautiful, but also warm, conscientious and sweet. She was totally who someone like Won Jun deserved. 

Even if you were confused by some of her actions, you eventually understood why she acted the way she did. Her background, motivations, and desires were as clear as day. 

In fact, apart from liking Won Jun right off the bat, Jin Joo’s chemistry with him is the other MAJOR reason I was absorbed with the show. The flashback to their high-school romance was sooooo heart-fluttering, cinematic, and engrossing—to the extent that I genuinely began to wonder why the entire drama was not about them.

Even Won Jun’s relationship with his childhood bully, Cho I-Ra (Park Se Wan), was so entertaining to watch. Choi I-Ra, by the way, was freakin’ full of LIFE and personality. When you contrast characters like hers and Jin Joo with a character like Doona, the difference leaves you perplexed.

Doona was just TOOOOO boring. Absolutely nothing to adore.

That’s why I can’t begin to tell you guys how lost I was when Won Jun suddenly wanted to risk it all for her. From where to where? What aspect of Doona exactly, did he fall in love with? Her body? Her seductions? That one kiss that made his heart flutter and “waver”?

Sorry, that was just lust and totally did not match the disciplined and virtuous character they presented Won Jun to be. I was really disappointed in his choice—in the writer’s choice.

Okay, let’s even say the show’s aim was to present a “toxic love story” to us. If that’s the case, couldn’t they at least make it compelling and not exceedingly flimsy? Couldn’t they make it organic, vulnerable, substantial and somehow “rootable?” Yes, even with all its toxicity. It’s a main romance for God’s sake. Yet I felt zero chemistry. Zero depth. No heart-flutters. Absolutely no conviction in this relationship. Urggh! 

And please can people stop saying that Bae Suzy has improved as an actress?😩 Because she delivered nothing in this role. I know the role was empty in itself, and that she was even critically acclaimed and nominated for a Baeksang Award for her last role, Anna, but still… Gosh.

I’m lost.

And was it with all that puzzling ending the show gave?? Being “artsy” doesn’t mean you should scatter your audience’s brain with unclear resolutions. Geeeezzzz!🤦‍♀️

Well, there you have my icks and itches with the show.  It was Won Jun,  Jin Joo, and Choi I-Ra (including her love interest, Geo Jeong Hoon), their natural chemistry and entertaining relationship with each other, as well as the show’s colourful, retro-dreamy vibe that made it the immersive treat it mostly was. 

Not the Doona of Doona. At all. How ironic.

Celebrity

There’s something about K-dramas based on the entertainment industry and celebs that end up being ironically boring (case in point: Shooting Stars, Love To Hate You, and Doona’s Doona). You’d think such a show or character would be entertaining, but when K-dramas have a go at them, whoopssss (shakes head)—they finish you with boredom. That’s why hopes were not too high when I first saw Netflix’s teaser for Celebrity.

HOWEVER, given my relentless fascination with pop culture, I couldn’t help but look forward to Celebrity. Moreover, the show was primed to explore a new type of glitzy world—the world of social media influencers—in a thriller genre, no less. Of course this wasn’t gonna pass me by.

SOOOO, imagine my delighted surprise when I found Celebrity to be instantly addictive. 

I was genuinely glued to my screen, bingeing this show almost completely in a night with a full workday ahead of me. It was fascinating to see all that happens behind the glitz and glam of the Korean influencing world. The fashion clothes, designer bags and shoes, bling-blings, cat fights, desperation to rack up followers, streaming craze, gossip, and squads – these were fun to watch amidst the dramatic, high-stakes, suspenseful monologues given by our leading character, Seo Ah Ri (Park Gyu Young).

Her edgy narrations as she stared right into the camera, into our souls, dripped with dark sarcasm and secret spills about the influencing industry, so I couldn’t wait for her to spill more and more; to reveal more and more. This aspect of the drama was thrilling. It contributed immensely to the addictive nature of the drama. 

BUT, guys, once we got to the climax of the show, it became obvious that the show didn’t have any big, brilliant reveal – it had only withheld info and used suspense from the onset, to hook its audience and keep them addicted. And honestly, I can’t fault them for this. They did an exceptionally entertaining job heightening us up to the climax. Not every thriller, let alone, entertainment-based K-drama, can pull off such baiting well, but they did—even though it caught up to them towards the end, causing feelings of underwhelm.

Anyway, this was not what really bothered me about this show. 

It was mostly its explicit drug-use scenes where one of the influencers’ eyes went awry, dark, and dilated. It was truly scary and eerie, especially when you keep in mind how much of a heinous crime and shocking scandal drug-use is deemed in Korea, particularly where celebrities are involved—careers are shattered in a blink of an eye. Not to add, I was really scared for Seo Ah Ri who was also present at the scene, but not a party to the crime. I didn’t want her burgeoning celebrity career to be ruined overnight, so this troubling scene had me terrified and gripping the edge of my seat with my heart in my throat. 

Whew!

Provocative scenes aside, I had reservations about the show falling into the “K-drama cliche” of painting celebrity characters in a cartoonish light. While I get that some celebs, not to mention, influencers, are out of touch with the world, beefing each other for the most petty reasons and acting like toddlers with no brains, I still think shows like these over exaggerate this point, taking away the levels of realism needed for their satire to be effective and impactful as a whole.

Also, am I the one only who thinks the number of followers the so-called huge celebrities and influencers had in this show were too low, almost to a laughable extent? The numbers just didn’t feel realistic, big, or “high pressure” enough. Well. What do I know?

Before I move on, I’d like to say I enjoyed Park Gyu Young’s acting. I loved the range she displayed in both the enraged and vulnerable scenes. I also loved her beauty, finding it rightly chic and classy for the role. As for Seo Ah Ri as a character,  I wasn’t in love with her—but I liked that she couldn’t be pushed around easily and always stood her ground. 

I’ve seen comments saying Park Gyu Young didn’t have any chemistry with Kang Min Hyuk (Han Jun Kyung). But I don’t think so. They had sufficient chemistry for me, and I found Jun Kyung to be pretty okay as a Chaebol character—although that creepy scene with a servant crawling behind him, in a slave-like manner, to pull off his shoes definitely made him off-putting as a person (and love interest).

I have to agree, though, that he had more chemistry with Lee Chung Ah (Yoon Si Hyeon) whose role, by the way, I didn’t really “get” —with all those sleepy, unfocused eyes and fragile ways of hers. What exactly was she supposed to add to this drama? I still don’t get🤷‍♂️. 

All in all, Celebrity was FUN for the most part. Graphic in certain scenes, underwhelming here and there, especially at its resolutions, but mostly addictive.

Deborah Bo Ra!/True To Love

Yoo In Na + Rom-coms? Perfecto!😍

Her childish-cheeky charm, babyish-gorgeous beauty, and natural comedic flair make her characters way more endearing and charming than a typical actress would, so I never miss out on her rom-coms. Ever.

Her co-star, Hyun Min Yoon, was not my cup of tea (his face, to be precise. Ooops🙊), but with my queen in this and him playing the role of a publisher who works on a book of hers, I was excited to watch.

Now, how did that fare? Well, it took me a GOOD while to get to where I wanted to be. 

Let me explain why.

So in the drama, Yoo In Na plays a confident love and relationship coach/expert, Bo Ra, who unexpectedly gets cheated on by the “beloved” (aka douchebag) boyfriend she’d thought would propose anytime soon. This obviously gets her heart seriously broken, and it is her break-up with him, that leads to a series of VERY VERY frustrating crying/wailing scenes of our heroine grieving over her unexpected loss and betrayal; doing very dramatic, desperate things to get her ex’s attention and his consistent, non-existent apology/explanations. 

These break-up stages were so prolonged, over-the-top, and aggravating to the point that I nearly dropped this series, if not for my fondness for Yoo In Na. Funny enough, I found the complexity, perpetuity and desperation of the break-up stages to be mostly realistic (in fact, they were so impressively acted by Yoo In Na), but they were just so frustrating to watch because I had no emotional investment in the relationship with her ex. I mean, I barely knew the details of their relationship or its depth and history. Not to add, the ex was a scumbag worth none of my time. Like, how was she even ever interested in him???

I just wanted the actual romance I was here for—the real one with our male lead Soo-Hyuk—but they just wouldn’t stop extending the nasty, dramatized break-up scenes, shoving them down my damn throat.

Thankfully, thankfully, we eventually got past this phase, and the relationship I was here for took off and began to bloom. And guys, I LOVEDDD the romance😊😊. I loved the teasing, enemies-to-lovers-like friendship that blossomed between Bo Ra and Soo Hyuk, and their actual romance. It was heart-fluttering and satisfying. I even got to really, really like Hyun Min Yoon as Soo Hyuk, finding him to be handsome. LOL.

This show had other side romances that had potential to be great—but writing choices were made… and that resulted in a lot of strangeness and pointlessness. Especially with the third romance (that’s the relationship between Bo-ra’s younger sister and the stalker they called a lover). I can’t begin to explain how disturbing their “romantic” development was.

Bo-ra’s sister, Bo Mi (Kim Ye Ji), was depicted as a no-nonsense girl weary of weird men. But poof! All of a sudden, for no apparent reason, she’s acquiescing to and falling in love with someone who was just a stalker a few scenes ago. Their romance was so inorganic and random; not well built and developed at allllll. And what a waste because it had the potential to be so organic, entertaining, and endearing. Instead, I found myself confused, baffled, cringing, and utterly pissed with this relationship. 

As for this second romance, the one about Bo-ra’s best friend, Yu Jung (Park So Jin) – God knows I found her marriage and husband confusing. I know that with them, the writer tried to depict how intimacy can get mundane in a long-term relationship and how a partner (the husband, in this case) can become bored and more excited about their own personal space. 

BUT STILL, I couldn’t shrug off the fact Yu Jung’s husband didn’t love or deserve her. I couldn’t shrug off the fact that he was purposely lacklustre and clueless. If he was sick of his wife’s company so much that he had to go through great lengths to hide things from her, then something is seriously wrong. They didn’t even have kids yet (which might’ve been understandably taking much of his alone time), and his wife was a perfectly normal woman who just wanted her husband’s love and affection, so what exactly was his problem?

I didn’t and still don’t get. What was the writer’s intention with his character? And why didn’t Yu Jung divorce him in the end (or even vice versa)? There was nothing to love or root for here. Nothing!🤦‍♀️

Well, in spite of it all, Bo Ra and Soo Hyuk’s romance saved this drama, making it enjoyable, and urgh, GRATEFULLY worth the watch.

Lies Hidden In My Garden

Under normal circumstances, I don’t think I would have watched this kind of thriller. It seemed starkly sinister, eerie, and dark. But something about its official poster and teaser music drew me in—I just couldn’t stop myself from checking it out, as tense as I was with its ominous energy.

That aside, Kim Tae Hee and The Glory’s Lim Ji Yeon are the leading stars of the show, and something about their femaled combination contributed to the draw of the show for me. I know Lim Ji Yeon can play evil right, but with Kim Tae Hee’s angelic, almost motherly face, I was curious to see how that contrast would play out.

The results? Full blown suspense, intrigue and intensity.

Actually, this is the only show here that’s not disturbing because of a major, peculiar flaw; it’s disturbing in and of itself because it’s orchestrated to be, and everything creepy about it brilliantly unnerved me—just as intended.

First things first, the show strongly reminded me of the Oscar winning Korean movie, Parasite. Down to the cold, foreboding staircased house used, its dark silver cinematography, and intense, theatrical music. These elements alone added a lot of spookiness, intrigue and richness to the show. 

Then we have Kim Tae Hee’s seemingly drugged out, paranoiac, frail, and sensitive character, Joo Ran. I think Kim Tae Hee did a really, really impressive job with her portrayal. Never for once, did I feel like she was acting. She seemed genuinely fragile, paranoid, and fagged out—embodying these traits in very grounded and contained manners that viscerally heightened her mental distortion and inner broils.

Lim Ji Yeon delivered as expected, as a pregnant wife brutally tortured and abused by her husband (how ironic that she’s the character being bullied and seeking revenge this time around). In all honesty, I found her acting to be obvious—but sometimes, I found it genuinely spine-chilling. Especially her devilish expressions. She has those nefarious, villainous looks locked down, for sure.

Compared to Celebrity, a much milder thriller that also relied on suspense and withholding information, The Lies Hidden in My Garden’s climax and denouements are much more substantial and engaging. I would admit that not every single action of the characters made sense to me, nor was every confusing action/scene satisfactorily explained or touched upon, but overall this show is solid.

It drew me in eerily, kept me in its mysterious and portentous suspense—despite its languid pacing—and climaxed in ways that had me intensely tense. This is a thriller I don’t regret watching. It’s an 8-episode drama, so it never overstayed its welcome. It hit the nail on the head without drilling useless holes—it was just sinisterly right. 

Great job, team.

In Conclusion

Despite wanting to drop some of these dramas and finding certain scenes and characters bothersome or downright intolerable; I was held down by other aspects that enjoyably charmed, engrossed, and intrigued me.

So if you’re interested in the ones you haven’t seen, don’t be afraid to check ‘em out!😉

Thank you for reading, guys! You can read my review of the 2023 dramas I found to be extremely disappointing here.🤦‍♀️