#5 Sunday Morning Love You

A list of the best K-Dramas to watch

Sunday Morning Love You (SMLY) is a list of things I have loved during the week delivered to you hot and fresh with your Sunday morning breakfast. 

Good Morning!

Did you sleep well? What was for breakfast today? 

As I take a well deserved departure from K-Dramas to begin “Becoming Elizabeth” (a period drama about Elizabeth I), I thought, why not round up the K-Dramas that have given me joy and a tinge of tingling in my ovaries. Granted, I was quite the hesitant audience member when it came to these. My friends who had gotten onto this train a while ago still chide me for my hypocrisy. But now, 2 years in, I feel a touch qualified enough to write this list. If you were waiting for a sign to begin watching, here it is. 

1. The first K-Drama I watched was “Start Up.” A love story/coming of age story about a group of friends trying to launch their own business, fall in love and achieve their dreams. It honestly sounds like something that should be based out of Bangalore but thank the lords it wasn’t for if it were, I would not have experienced the ovarian tingling I did when I saw the male lead Nam Joo Hyuk. It stars Bae Suzy and Nam Joo Hyuk with heavy dose of Kim Seon Ho. Yes, there is a love triangle, and if you are fragile, do not indulge yourself further than this description. (Available on Netflix)

2. Speaking of heart breaking love triangles is a show that just grabbed and obliterated my heart. Reply 1988, a part of the Reply series by the director Shin Won Ho, is a story about 5 galli friends who grow up together in the Seoul of the 80s and 90s. It is this show that proves to me that nostalgia has no bounds. There are so many Korean references that made absolutely no sense to me but I felt a longing for. I watched the last episode of the series sitting in my bed at like 1am at night and wept till my heart was content. You don’t believe me? I have proof. (watch from 7:37) (Available on Netflix)

3. For the thrill you should definitely watch Vagabond starring Suzy (I sense a pattern here) and Lee Seung gi. It is about a stuntman (Lee Seung gi) who gets stuck in a plane crash that unravels his life and the life of the biggest public office in Korea, the Blue House. In my humble opinion this show deserves a season 2. There is no other way this show has the end that it does. Espionage, martial arts, Suzy being a badass and Lee Seung Gi being the king of action scenes – what else do you need? (Available on Netflix)

4. The K-Drama genre involves quite a large chunk of melodrama; which is exactly to Indian tastes to be honest. But K-shows, now those are a different ball game. My favourite is My Name starring Han So Hee who acts like an absolute goddess. I mean &#%$. She is magnificent, brave, stunning and just so brilliant in the show. She acts across some of the best. The show is about an intelligence officer’s daughter who tries to avenge her father’s death by secretly joining the mafia while still being an officer in the police force. Han So Hee, bloody hell. (Available on Netflix)

5. Vincenzo deserves an essay on its own. A dark comedy about a Korean-Italian consigliere who fights crime in the day and feeds pigeons at night. The women on this show are all, intentionally, badasses. The K-Drama trope is that of a woman standing like a statue as the male lead kisses her on the lips. In this drama, there is no idle standing, oh no, there is assertion, there is passion, there is pure badassery. (Available on Netflix)

6. I feel like I’m going to miss out on so many so now here’s a rapid fire: 

7. Yumi Cells (if you want your heart shattered to pieces) (Available on Rakuten Viki or pirate that shit)

8. Suspicious Partner (If you want to become a lawyer) (Available on Netflix)

9. Dr. Romantic (If you want to become a surgeon) (Available on Netflix AND a new season is coming (!!!))

10. Extraordinary Attorney Woo (if you still want to become a lawyer after watching Dr. Romantic) (Available on Netflix) 

11. Our Beloved Summer (If you want to marry Choi Woo Sik like I do. And if he seems familiar it's because he was in Parasite.) (Available on Netflix)

12. And finally Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo (If after watching all of this you still can’t stop thinking about Nam Joo Hyuk) (Netflix)

13. Oh one second, but he is even lovelier, I would say the loveliest in Twenty Five, Twenty One. This one, will always have my heart. (Yaar, Netflix only yaar.) 

And finally ending this essay with the etymological source for this series “Sunday Morning Love You” by the epitome of entertainment and roses Bhim Niroula. 

Hope you have a warm, cuddly Sunday. 

Don’t think about Monday. 

“I’m gonna love you every day.”

Saranghae.