It is mostly Korean dramas and the genres vary, so I hope everyone can get some good recommendations. I still stand by my choices, 16yo me had exquisite taste it seems.
We are the sum of the things that we go through in our lives. The way we perceive them is different, but they reside inside our souls until the day we die. I hardly forget anything, especially something that impressed me.
These shows formed me as a writer and made me look at the world differently. Feel free to try them out and I hope you will enjoy them as much as I did back in the day!
So here we go: Four Shows to Know Me Better
1. Strangers from Hell
It’s been years since I finished this drama and I never found anything quite like it. Strangers from Hell is the story of a struggling writer/office worker who moves to a different city for work. He is struck by different issues and we slowly discover that our narrator is not as reliable as we would have liked him to be.
The small studio room he rents is part of a complex called “Eden” (funny enough) and all the other tenants are… let’s say questionable.
Each and every one of them is terrifying and the atmosphere is very unsettling. It is frightening without the suspenseful music and the jump scares; it’s scary in themes. The mind of someone on the verge of collapsing is a dangerous place. And our main character seems to be trying to hold onto his last strand of reasoning with all his might.
I rated it a 10/10. It was what I needed at the time and it helped me with my character building and with inducing certain feelings to the mind of my reader.
2. One Spring Night
I should start by saying that I REALLY don’t do romance. Not in books, not in movies, not in tv series, because it always seems so out of our world.
But One Spring Night is just a story of two people who happen to enjoy each other’s company. They are just humans who are not perfect; adults with hearts and minds and financial struggles. Adults whose lives aren’t put together, but despite all that, they are able to love.
She is a librarian, he is a pharmacist. She is almost married, he has a child from a previous marriage. This show manages to display in such a harsh way prejudice and frustration, and how both these things, even if they hurt and humiliate them, don't make them give up.
There’s no dramatic crying and yelling, no death, no crazy ex, no car crash. Just their everyday life. And their everyday love.
The dialogue is witty and engaging and the setting is gorgeous. It’s not something you binge, but something you savor.
I also rated it a 10/10.
3. My mister
This show will make you feel the loneliest you’ve ever felt before. It’s dark and heavy and tells the story of a middle-aged man and how his life gets tangled in something bigger than him.
It tackles the issues that come with being an adult in a competitive city, Seoul. DongHoon is still unhappy despite having had a decent life. He works at a construction company.
Jian, who lives with her sick grandmother and is hunted by creditors, gets a job at the same company. She is stuck with a debt left by her parents. She is caged by the faults of others and her life was never hers.
What came next is their journey to healing. She starts to trust him as he tries to help her earn her freedom. This is not something you watch to escape your reality, but something that appeals to it.
All the characters are trying to cure their own loneliness; they all have their emotional stories and troubles and the end doesn’t always please you.
But that is life. It’s never nice for everyone and that’s alright. We fight and lose and try again, break down and cry, then wipe our faces and smile again. Again and again and again.
“Even if we meet by chance, I will still greet you with a smile!”
I also rated this one with a 10/10
4. Sky Castle
SKY Castle was the highest-rated South Korean tv series at the time of its airing. SKY stands for the three most prestigious universities of South Korea: Seoul, Korea, and Yonsei. Completing your studies in one of these schools determines one successful career and high status.
This show has a satirical plot. The four families that live in this complex are always grinding teeth and chewing nails behind each other’s backs since they keep a friendly facade, yet are always competing with each other.
It presents us with a group of students under huge educational pressure since their parents use them to maintain their social status; with a group of adults hungry for power and money.
Power is the best thing in the world for these people. It focuses on the extreme measures the wealthy take to ensure that their children come on top. And the way this kind of behavior shapes their children. Some become overachievers and try to fulfill their parents’ expectations and some collapse under the stress.
They are all spoiled and entitled, but there’s a cure to it. All these families hide things that could destroy them, things they think of as “shameful”, but as soon as they accept them, they may change. But who knows…
I rated it 9/10.
These are my 16yo’s picks for the best shows ever and I hope you can enjoy them as much as I did!
