Enough with the dark and thrilling dramas — that was so last week. This week, we’ve got gender-swapping comedy that might just go down in drama history, a cutesy webtoon adaptation, and a newsroom drama to remind us that there are some serious and adult dramas out there too. You know, for when you feel like adulting.
True Beauty
Time slot: Wednesday & Thursday
Broadcaster: tvN
Genre: Rom-com
Episode count: 16
Reasons to watch: Make way for another webtoon adaptation! True Beauty sounds an awful lot like the younger manhwa-flavored version of My ID is Gangnam Beauty. It tells the story of an insecure high school student (Moon Ga-young) that relies on cosmetics to be “pretty,” and the stick-in-the-mud tsundere hero (Cha Eun-woo) that she eventually bonds with. Pros: The PD here previously worked on Extraordinary You; Moon Ga-young actually plays a really great embarrassed and wacky heroine (see: EXO Next Door); this could be truly cracktastic. Cons: Moon Ga-young is 100% gorgeous and no one can convince me otherwise; Cha Eun-woo played this role four times already and I didn’t like it the first time; I already have second lead syndrome.
Hush
Time slot: Friday & Saturday
Broadcaster: JTBC
Genre: Rom-com, office
Episode count: 16
Reasons to watch: It’s been a while since we had a newsroom drama, and JTBC’s latest actually pulled in the interest of film actor Hwang Jung-min. Interesting. It’s because the script is so, so good, right? I’m hoping so! Hwang Jung-min plays our hero, a veteran reporter who was once idealistic, but is now struggling with ideals vs. reality in middle life. He then becomes the mentor of a rookie reporter played by Yoona. The way I see this, this drama can go two ways. One, a more raw and compelling slice-of-life workplace drama (like Misaeng) about what it means to seek the truth with integrity — or, a dopey workplace drama where you-know-what will happen between the leads. I’ll let you guess which direction I’m hoping this drama chooses.
Mr. Queen
Time slot: Saturday & Sunday
Broadcaster: tvN
Genre: Historical, fantasy, comedy
Episode count: 20
Reasons to watch: The more I hear, the more confused I get? What started as a “simple” time-slip fusion sageuk became a time-slip gender-bending gender-slipping fusion sageuk. The heroine of our story is actually a male chef from present-day who winds up time-slipping into the body/entity of Queen Cheorin. I really don’t know how the drama is going to pull this off, but I’m ready to find out! If anyone can sell it, it’s Shin Hye-sun and Kim Jung-hyun — both leads have proven themselves in drama and comedy alike, and if nothing else, I can’t wait to see them together on screen. It’s sure to be crazy.