total flyby, what the hell

currently watching:

• Hong Gil Dong
  When a story throws an unexpected twist, okay, plot twist. What about when the story takes the entire premise and overturns it completely? Plot upheaval? This one deserves a post of its own. On the other hand, I may spend the entire post doing my best impersonation of a broken *cough*Kang*cough* record...
  
• Delightful Girl Choon Hyang
  There are some parts where I can see conservative gender roles trying to weasel into the frame, but for the most part, the protagonist has every bit of agency I'd want her to have, with heaping doses of angst because you can't have the sweet without the bitter.
  
• Sungkyunkwan Scandal
  This one has me hooked. It also has me bemoaning how spoiled I've been by anime fansub groups... kdrama fansubs seem to take forever to come out. Oh, a whole week! The agony! The suffering! ...and a cast that doesn't seem to have a bad note in there. No, really. Overall, some of the best casting not just for main parts but the entire range of secondary (and tertiary) characters. So far, only Hong Gil Dong comes close -- I love DGCH, but the tertiary cast is cardboard. Enthusiastic cardboard, but still. SKKS' entire cast is damn near as pitch-perfect as you could want.
  
• The Legend of Hyang Dan
  It's the shrekification of k-folklore. Of course, about 90% of it misses me, but I give myself a pat everytime I do get a reference. However paltry. Not too much over-acting, but then again, it's not a miniseries that takes itself seriously. Or anything else, from what I can tell. Except maybe its random Bruce Lee references.

up next to watch:

• Coffee House
  Only because of Kang Ji-hwan. Me, shallow? Hell freaking yeah.
  
• What's Up Fox
  A protagonist in her mid-thirties. Joy!
  
• Assorted Gems
  Family drama, but I hear the two grannies are the best reason to watch.
  
• Exhibition of Fireworks
  Again, Kang Ji-hwan. Shallow, shallow, shallow, and damn proud of it.
  
• Empress Chun Chu
  Anything where the protagonist is known as "the Iron Empress" sounds like a good time to me.

couldn't finish:

• Return of Iljimae
  The lead is pretty, but I like just a tad more liveliness in a protagonist. That, and I can only take so much back-story before I start to feel like the front-story's been lost... and the narration was fine until it started getting really anvilicious.
  
• Secret Investigation Record
  The production values are excellent, the mix of CSI-style and saeguk-cred is awesome... but I wasn't that big on the X-files, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that only two episodes in and I was already bored with a series nicknamed The Joseon X-Files.
  
• Queen Seodek
  Oh. A bitch-evil-prostitute as the bad guy. Hmmm. Actually, once I realized the character is supposed to be the bad guy -- and I'd been rooting for her, for the previous two episodes -- it was a sign that me and this saeguk were probably not meant to last.
  
• The Immortal Lee Soon-Shin
  Every version I could find keeps throwing errors. I stopped looking after learning this kdrama scores pretty low on the "histori" part of "historical". Sigh.