As they say in Jurassic Park parlance: hold onto your butts! With premieres and schedules shifting pretty frequently these days, February is set to gift us with more premieres than I can count. Here’s what we’re looking at in the first half of next week (yes, there’s more to come after that, so stay tuned!).
River Where the Moon Rises
Time slot: Monday & Tuesday
Broadcaster: KBS
Genre: Sageuk, romance
Episode count: 20
Reasons to watch: The 2024 sageuk invasion continues! Our latest drama, though, looks a little more sweeping and serious to the recent sageuks we’ve had. River Where the Moon Rises tells the story of a Goguryeo warrior princess (Kim So-hyun) and the man she meets (Ji-soo). The drama is directed by the PD from the well-received Wind and Cloud and Rain, and promises a moving tale adapted from folklore. One of the most exciting things about this drama, though, is the re-pairing of Kim So-hyun and Ji-soo after their short drama Page Turner in 2016. In short, I’m hopeful for something epic here. I want tears, clifftops, hair blowing in the wind, tragic demises — you get the idea.
Hello? It’s Me!
Time slot: Wednesday & Thursday
Broadcaster: KBS
Genre: Rom-com, fantasy, coming-of-age
Episode count: 16
Reasons to watch: Finally, a rom-com in our midst! Though this drama is a little low on buzz (compared to the big-name, big-budget productions coming up), I’m actually really excited to see what this becomes. Choi Kang-hee plays our heroine, who’s visited by her teenage self, and Kim Young-gwang (most recently great in Secret Life of My Secretary) plays the chaebol hero she encounters. The concept is cute, and I’d love to see something almost Dickensian going on here (the ghost of Christmas past, anyone?). But honestly, what piqued my interest the most was the squid costume in the show’s poster.
Sisyphus
Time slot: Wednesday & Thursday
Broadcaster: JTBC
Genre: Fantasy, science fiction, action, mystery
Episode count: 16
Reasons to watch: Sisyphus, whatever should we make of you? Entirely pre-produced, and with a big budget and a wild fantasy-action story, you are surely one of those high risk/high reward sorts of dramas. I like the cast (Jo Seung-woo, Park Shin-hye), I like the PD (Legend of the Blue Sea, City Hunter), and I really like the premise (a businessman pursuing a dangerous truth, and the warrior that protects him). But can this drama be as great as it wants to be? I sure hope so! I’m ready to dive headlong into something epic and intense, with a story logic that swallows you whole.