More dramas, coming atcha! This week we finally have the premiere of Yoo Seung-ho’s I’m Not a Robot, after about a month hiatus in MBC’s Wednesday-Thursday slot, as well as the upbeat office comedy Jugglers and fantasy romance Black Knight on KBS. I’m still trying to catch up on the dramas that ended this past week and watch the new ones that came along, but time waits for no one!
Jugglers
Time slot: Monday & Tuesday
Broadcaster: KBS
Genre: Workplace comedy
Episode count: 16
Reasons to watch: This office comedy has a solid cast—Daniel Choi, Baek Jin-hee, Jang Hye-jung, Lee Won-geun—and a fun spin with secretaries featured as the protagonists of the story. There’s a whole army of secretaries who make the impossible happen, whether their bosses are picky, demanding, incompetent, or evil, and I think there will be a lot of vicarious satisfaction in watching them rule the workplace in their own way. I just like the setup that Baek Jin-hee is the best secretary in the universe, and her greatest challenge is in meeting a boss who doesn’t want any help. I don’t expect this drama to reinvent the wheel or anything, but I do expect to laugh a lot and cheer for the underdogs, in the vein of Chief Kim and Radiant Office that came before it.
Rude Miss Young-ae 16
Time slot: Monday & Tuesday
Broadcaster: tvN
Genre: Workplace comedy
Episode count: 16
Reasons to watch: Rude Miss Young-ae is tvN’s longest-running drama franchise, back for its 16th(!) season. I don’t know a whole lot about the series since I haven’t followed it (and starting now seems daunting, given how many seasons there are), but many of tvN’s staff directors and writers have gotten their start here. It centers around Kim Hyun-sook’s brash heroine and her everyday workplace conflicts, and this year there will be a huge change for her character as she faces marriage. Appropriately, the whole wedding theme has been turned into a war motif for the drama’s promo. The posters are pretty hilarious, I’ll give them that.
I’m Not a Robot
Time slot: Wednesday & Thursday
Broadcaster: MBC
Genre: Romantic comedy
Episode count: 32 (half-hour episodes, 16 hours in total)
Reasons to watch: This is one of the dramas I’ve been looking forward to for a while now, partly because of the interesting premise, and partly because I need a new Yoo Seung-ho drama to erase the memory of the last Yoo Seung-ho drama. Also, I just missed Yoo Seung-ho. He’s going to play a man with an allergy to humans who falls in love with a humanoid robot… or so he thinks, because he has no idea that Chae Soo-bin’s character is a human pretending to be a robot. As a girl might happen to do. Hijinks will ensue! Circuits will short! I’m also hoping to be wowed by PD Jung Dae-yoon, who directed the stylish W–Two Worlds last year, so I think it’s pretty safe to say that my expectations are high for this one.
Black Knight
Time slot: Wednesday & Thursday
Broadcaster: KBS
Genre: Fantasy romance
Episode count: 16
Reasons to watch: I’m still not sure what to expect from Black Knight, but so far based on the drama’s promo, it feels like a stab at trying to be another Goblin, with its centuries-spanning romance and mysterious but beautiful fantasy characters. It looks more melodramatic as well, but that might help to differentiate it tonally (a plus, since Shin Se-kyung very recently was wooed by a supernatural water god, and will now be wooed by a supernatural black knight). It comes from the PD-writer team behind Equator Man and Unkind Women, and so far the visuals are lush and hauntingly beautiful. Or is that just Kim Rae-won?
The Most Beautiful Goodbye in the World
Time slot: Saturday & Sunday
Broadcaster: tvN
Genre: Family melodrama
Episode count: 4
Reasons to watch: Star writer Noh Hee-kyung’s very first drama was this short 4-episode miniseries that earned her a Baeksang with her debut. It’s been remade multiple times and this year it’s getting a new life on tvN just in time for the holidays, starring Choi Ji-woo and Won Mi-kyung. It’s a heartwarming story about a mother who gets diagnosed with terminal cancer and prepares to say goodbye to her family, and how that brings everyone together. This project is famous for being a tribute to Noh Hee-kyung’s own mother who passed away, and she’ll be re-teaming with Dear My Friends PD Hong Jong-chan for this remake. Here, just have my tears.