Some interesting dramas are afoot! After a few weeks of pretty straight-forward crime thrillers and melodramas (and their love child, crime-melos), we have two dramas premiering this weekend with the more atypical themes of time travel and dead souls. Both dramas are high on concept, so it seems like a high risk/high reward situation to me. Let us hope we are rewarded.
Alice
Time slot: Friday & Saturday
Broadcaster: SBS
Genre: Fantasy, sci-fi
Episode count: 16
Reasons to watch: It’s always exciting when a new sci-fi show hits dramaland, but that excitement also comes with a moment of pause, since the majority of sci-fi themed dramas have been less than they ought. *Moment of pause* Back to the excitement factor, though, SBS’s drama Alice premieres this weekend, and here are the top three reasons to tune in: Joo-won, Kim Hee-sun, and time travel. The drama’s premise sounds like a complex and multi-dimensional time travel construct, and we have Kim Hee-sun playing two different characters from two different times, Joo-won as her son (sort of, it’s complicated), and a whole lot of playing with fate, time, and the mysteries of physics. I’m not expecting Alice to be the tightest time travel story around, but it’s got enough to intrigue me — and if the characters, emotions, and basic time travel logic is there, and I am good with the details being a glorious tangle.
Missing: The Other Side
Time slot: Saturday & Sunday
Broadcaster: OCN
Genre: Mystery, fantasy
Episode count: 12
Reasons to watch: I’m not shy about my feelings on OCN dramas, but every now and then one comes around that surprises me. Could Missing: The Other Side be that drama? It’s being promoted as an interesting blend of fantasy and mystery, though the premise sounds more occult to me — our lead, played by Go Soo, is a con-man who can see the souls of the dead. This leads to crime-y things happening, a village of lost souls that looks as quirky as it does creepy, and basically, a set-up that has a lot of potential to be suspenseful and strange. It also seems particularly ripe for a few good plot twists, but don’t quote me on that.