Letter #165: The Drop List (or, Frowns & Miscellany)

Good morning, Erin.

So…I think I need to start with an apology.

No, not for taking so long to write to you (I mean, of course I’m sorry about that—though the why of the delay is the point of the letter, as you will see) but for breaking the promise I made earlier in the year: I did not totally devote my heart to Yoojung from Weki Meki.

I know, I know…I should be ashamed. And I can feel your disappointment from here. 

But, in my defense, matters of the heart are rarely as simple as we want them to be. Which still isn’t an excuse, of course—and I’m not trying to make excuses.

…though, if I were, I feel like this would be a good one. I mean, Erin, if you saw her…it’s just that she’s very, very pretty. 

I am, of course, talking about Rina from Weki Meki. 

Because we are penpals.

…

No, seriously: we email back and forth.

Okay, well, technically, I emailed her (because she posted on instagram that she created an email account for people to reach out to her), and she emailed me back—but she emailed me back TWICE: once with a little heart emoji (presumably her standard “I have gotten your email!” response), which sent me over the moon…and then, a few hours later, she sent me a message about how much my email meant to her. She read my email, responded, and then RESPONDED AGAIN—personally. Specifically. Not generic but clearly directly in response to what I had written.

So, I’m just saying…can I really be considered guilty of something, here? I’d be a fool not to stray!

…

Okay, fine, we’re not really penpals. It was just that one email exchange. But, still, this is right up there with my appendectomy for the most exciting thing to happen to me in 2025. 

BUT…though you’re very impressed with me and my new celebrity best friend (...in a way), you want to know what we’re talking about today and how it explains the sudden gap in my letter writing. Well, seonbae, it’s really quite simple: today we’re here to explain how everything I’ve watched in the last two months has absolutely sucked—which means I didn’t have anything to write to you about. 

Trust me, I had a huuuuuuuuuge schedule drawn up for chaining together shows that would fit into thematic blocs and then transition into the next thematic bloc, but…well…I just couldn’t find anything worth watching. Like, I started shows, watched a few episodes, and then found I was having the worst time as I watched them. So I figured it was time to tweak how I did my thematic bloc, gave up on shows that would transition from one to the other…and then I tried to simply abandon the whole thematic bloc thing altogether—but nothing I tried to pivot to did anything but annoy me. Not just fail to entertain me or be poorly made—annoy me. It wasn’t just a slump: it was almost a betrayal.

Now, the good news is that there’s still a whole load of shows I’ll be digging into before too long, most (all?) of which seem very much to be in my wheelhouse. (“So…romcoms starring actresses you think are hot?” Yes, Erin. Exactly yes.) So, once I get going with those, I’m sure we’ll be back on track. I mean, the thematic bloc theme is out the window, but letter-writing will be back on track. To what I’m sure is your great relief. 

But, before that presumed reclamation of viewing happiness, I thought you might like a light shone on the series that made me want to set my television on fire. And thus I bring you: 

The Drop List!

…that is, a list of shows I dropped. And a bit of why I couldn’t be f***ed to finish them. 

Which is a somewhat inauspicious way to end Phase V, I admit, but…such is the price of ambition. (Though I will leave it to you to decide just whose responsibility the failure actually is.)

Nevertheless—we are here, and here we are. 

I hope you brought something to drink.

I. Queen Mantis (7 of 8 episodes completed)

A police detective is forced to work with his serial killer mother when a copycat starts reenacting her murders. 

1. Jiminy Christmas, this show was a f***ing disaster.

1A. No, seriously: this might be the worst-written cop show I’ve ever seen. I cannot remember watching another series that so thoroughly depended on its police detectives being so unceasingly incompetent, nor had its core villain-as-consultant premise be so irrelevant (while SIMULTANEOUSLY INSISTING it is utterly essential, mind you) to the progress of the story, nor so brazenly tethered its dramatic core to narrative ephemera. This is a 30-minute concept stretched out to 8 hours, with all of its homicide detective characters being willfully incompetent, unintelligent, unobservant, and blindingly self-endageringly stupid just so that the next story beat can happen. I can’t believe someone was allowed to write this script. It’s an affront to storytelling. 

2. And, for good measure: the acting is totally unimpressive. I don’t know what people were gushing over. 

3. There’s also the issue of the serial killer mother: while I am not at all opposed to the familiar conceit of a killer only killing objectively bad people (Dexter, The Punisher, Light Yagami, the guy from the Death Wish movies) and the struggle between the catharsis they bring the audience by punishing the wicked and the menace they represent by believing their judgments to be cause enough to end the lives of others, I start to roll my eyes when the story loses sight of the fact that the killers are, y’know, killers. In this case, however much of an “avenging angel” people could contrive her to be, she didn’t merely kill some bad men: she slaughtered them in horrifying and cruel ways, delighting all the while in the horror and cruelty. Sorry, show, I have no sympathy for her or what she did. I don’t find catharsis in her actions. I don’t care if she’s sad that she doesn’t get to see her son. (And, again, I really don’t care about her because she NEVER F***ING HELPS THE INVESTIGATION. Which the cops seem never to realize. Because they are—collectively and individually—dumber than a box of hammers.) She’s a monster. 

3A. And don’t get me started on why she’s a killer.

3B. …because I’m going to get into a broader discussion of it later, and I don’t want to spoil my soapbox speech. 

4. Yes, I recognized some of the actors—but f*** this show; I’m not wasting time writing them down. 

II. Melo Movie (4 of 10 episodes completed)

A famous movie critic and an up-and-coming screenwriter cross paths—and also turn out to be old flames, much to the delight of one and the consternation of the other.

1. Booooooooooooring. 

2. This is a story I should really enjoy, but the timeskip kills the early momentum, the female lead is unlikeable, and the male lead’s inability to admit why he and the female lead stopped speaking is unforgivably stupid. I don’t know what I was supposed to enjoy about the story, and it was in no rush to tell me. 

2A. I’m just not as patient as I used to be, K-dramas. Do better. 

3. The secondary romance subplot seemed like it was going to be good, and it sucks that I didn’t get to see that play out. 

4. What extra-sucks is that they do the “suddenly neighbors!” trope with our leads. And I love the “suddenly neighbors!” trope. 

5. Yes, I recognized some of the actors—but f*** this show; I’m not wasting time writing them down. 

III. Karma (2 of 6 episodes completed)

A bunch of strangers get tangled in a crime or series of crimes or something. I dunno. It’s been a long time since I watched, and I don’t think the plot had technically kicked in by the time I stopped.

1. This show could not have started off with a less interesting, less likeable first strand in our web of connected characters, and it never recovered, as far as I could see—even with how little I saw and with how much I knew that the characters were all probably going to be jerks. Like, you can be awful, but you can’t be awful and boring. 

2. Also, this was another show where people acted less like people and more like characters in a show that needs characters to act a certain way so that the story can unfold. Which, if I have not said this explicitly before, sucks. 

3. Yes, I recognized some of the actors—but f*** this show; I’m not wasting time writing them down. 

3A. …except to say that the friend from Squid Game was in this. And he completely outclassed the other actors the moment he opened his mouth. Like, seriously, he wasn’t even doing much, and he was clearly head-and-shoulders above what we’d seen from everyone else to that point. Good for him. (I mean, apart from me not at all caring to continue the show, of course.)

IV. Money Heist: Korea (1 of 12 episodes completed)

An elaborate heist pulled on the Treasury that is a cover for…I dunno, anti-capitalist something something something. At least, that’s the theme. I think. I mean, I have no idea what the story is actually about. 

1. I was barely interested in the story as we meandered—contextless—througout the first episode…but I got angry when the plan for what the heist was really about (or, perhaps, the first layer of what it was really about). Because it was ridiculous. Like, worthy of scorn, that’s how stupid the show would have to assume I was not to immediately notice how ludicrous the plan was. 

2. And I was in no mood to sit through lecturing about blah blah blah social commentary—no matter how hot Sun from Lost and the main girl from Be My Boyfriend are. 

3. Uh…which is to say, yes, I obviously recognized some of the actors—but f*** this show; I’m not wasting time writing more of them down. 

3A. …except to say the friend from Squid Game was in this one, too, funny enough. 

V. The Price of Confession (3 of 12 episodes completed)

A woman convicted of murdering her husband is offered a deal by a mysterious other murderer: she’ll take the wrap for the first woman’s murder…if she does her a favor when she gets released from prison. 

1. Daryl, circa the Netflix menu when the recommendation comes up: “Kim Go-eun?! Oh, I am so there!”

2. Daryl, circa the start of Episode 3: “...why can’t I have nice things?”

3. This show is a mess. Or, more specifically, it is lazy—not in its execution but its writing: this is a story that does the routine, boring, safe thing and presents it as though it is surprising and subversive. 

3A. We are presented with a mystery about whether one protagonist is innocent or guilty of murder, though she is found guilty and sent to prison…and another protagonist who is obviously guilty of murder and may or may not be a cunning psychopath. And—SPOILER ALERT—the show handles this in the least interesting way possible: the first woman is totally innocent, and the second woman was only a killer because she was getting revenge for the rape of her sister. It’s so boring. There is absolutely no complexity to the characters or the situation. 

3B. In the case of the innocent woman, she’s…well, innocent, so there’s no ambiguity about her or her motives or her feelings or her actions—because she’s innocent. There are no questions to ask or facts to interrogate. There are no judgments to make or philosophies to examine. (As opposed to the storytelling opportunities presented if she’s ultimately revealed to be guilty of the murder but treated in-world as though she is wrongly convicted.) And, of course, her husband turned out to be a cad, so it would have been totally fine if she did murder him, the show winks to us. 

3C. In the case of the guilty woman who could be a psychopath…sigh. I don’t know how much more bland and cliche and safe you get than “revenge for my raped sister” you could get in one of these stories. (Well, I guess she could have been the one who was attacked, right? That would have been even more cliche and boring.)

3D. My greater point is that, sure, these are not interesting choices, but that there’s something worse about this—and about the serial killer mom (or the way the story treats her, at least) in Queen Mantis: that these women are not allowed to simply do bad things. They must first be made victims (specifically victims of cartoonishly vile men), and, in so doing, they are pre-absolved of any sins they may commit thereafter. Victimization becomes not merely a factual explanation for their actions but a justification that insulates them from any moral culpability within the storytelling (and, as such, is designed to insulate them from the audience’s judgment, as well). Which is boring, insulting, and…honestly, potentially dangerous. 

4. Also, at one point, the show expects me to think that a highly intelligent and motivated prosecutor would mistake dried rice paste for concrete. F*** off, show. 

5. Yes, I recognized some of the actors—but f*** this show; I’m not wasting time writing them down. 

5A. …except to say that the friend from Squid Game was in this one, as well. Which…that’s weird, isn’t it? Poor guy. He didn’t suck in any of these shows. It’s not his fault. #JusticForSquidGameFriend

VI. Transit Love 4 (ongoing, but only 15 of 17 episodes completed)

The fourth official season of the dating reality show where folks enter a house with their exes…but no one else knows who those exes are.

1. This is more of an honorable mention than anything else—at least, it is for now. But I am not having fun with this season. I don’t think we’ve hit Single’s Inferno 3-levels of disaster. But this isn’t giving me any of the good times I had during the previous two seasons. The cast isn’t great, all the ex-couples are furious at each other, and the one “awww, these two are totes endgame!” couple we have makes me furious when I see them. 

1A. …yes, because the girl I would be most interested in is with the guy I viscerally dislike, Erin. Happy? I literally shout “I HATE THIS” every time the two of them are on screen together. 

1B. Point is: it’s been an exhausting run up to this point. The editing is trying its darnedest, but there’s no framing this to be anything other than messy. EVERYONE was in a foul mood almost immediately. 

1C. No, literally: my favorite participant is the first male gamechanger, who showed up and immediately twigged the tension in the house. Poor guy wondered if he’d ruined everyone’s fun. 

1D. I haven’t given up on it—yet. But, if I fall too much further behind, I might. I just don’t care enough about what’s going on or the people involved. I even stopped taking notes, like, six episodes ago. Unless there’s a dramatic turnaround (assuming I finish the season), I’m probably not even going to write you a letter about it. It just wouldn’t be worth the time and effort. 

2. What sucks about this turn of events is that—finally!—we had someone come into the house with two exes!!!

3. And what extra-sucks about this turn of events is that the girl with the two exes is always in little shorts. And not finishing the season means not seeing as much of that as I can. 

4. Relatedly: Se-seung and Jae-hyung, everyone’s favorite siblings from My Sibling’s Romance (along with co-#bestgirl Ju-yeon), were doing reaction videos for Transit Love 4…and they quit a couple of weeks ago because this season was, as the kids say, just not it.

VII. Crime Scene Zero (10 of 10 episodes completed)

Celebrities play five sprawling murder mystery dinner-style games where they are all simultaneously suspects and detectives—and one is secretly the killer.  

1. So, as you can see, I didn’t drop this series. But I’m listing it here because…there isn’t much to say about it. It’s fine. Entertaining enough. Watchable, certainly. In small bursts, preferably. But, again, there’s not much to it. 

2. The episodes are too long. Which is especially a problem because it’s impossible to play along with the participants. Between the audience’s inability to experience the discovery of information as it happens and the editing which deliberately prevents the audience from discovering information that would help us play along with the participants (so that the story can be told through a series of revelations the players make to each other as they go along), there’s a lot of dead air. Which is, obviously, boring. Like watching a YouTube video of people you don’t know playing a board game. 

3. Also, there’s this thing at the end of each game where they do a 10-minute animated explanation of what happened and why, and…it is dark, too serious, and far too long. I skipped it every time. 

4. I really only wanted to watch it because Yujin from IVE was one of the participants. And, in that regard, I was quite satisfied with the series. So, if you too think Yujin is hot charming, maybe you might enjoy it. It’s on Netflix. 

5. And, yes, I recognized almost all of the guest participants—but also none of them was the friend from Squid Game, so I feel like there isn’t any need to write any of them down. 

VIII. When Life Hands You Tangerines (4 out of 16 episodes completed)

1. Okay—technically, I haven’t dropped this one. And I don’t think I’m going to.

1A. …if only because I know Kim Seon-ho is in the second half, and I want very much to see him in a romance story with IU. 

1B. But I’d also be lying if I didn’t say that the first four episodes bored me nearly to death, they were such a slog. I haven’t been able to build up the strength to sit through what I assume (perhaps incorrectly) will be the continuation of the languid pacing, cringey “and everyone clapped” breaks with the story’s overall tone, and unearned emotional story beats. It cheats, Erin. It cheats, and I don’t appreciate it.

1C. That is, it shows you things that are objectively sad apart from the context of the story, and it assumes you will bring the sadness of that thing into the story with you so that it doesn’t have to do anything to make the emotional moments earn your emotional responses. 

2. Yes, I know a whole bunch of the actors. But we’ll get to that when we get to this one.

3. …which was supposed to be part of the “period piece” bloc—and bonus points if you can name any of the other shows that were going to be in that group! 

4. But speaking of IU:

IX. Hotel Del Luna

In many ways, our origin story. In that this is kind of where our relationship started. Not in that you are a nigh-immortal hotelier who roped me into doing your bidding. 

1. Don’t worry—I haven’t included this because I’m suddenly annoyed with Hotel Del Luna. I’m not. I still love it. (In fact, I wanted to rewatch it about 15 times over the course of the year but kept stopping myself.) But I do think it’s worth noting that Netflix will be letting it leave in a couple of days. And that’s just not right. 

2. And, of course, IU is still the prettiest girl in the world (probably).

3. But…what the hell, Netflix?! Sure, I’ve got my pirated copy tucked away just in case, but…I’m used to your translation. Why are you doing this to me? HAVEN’T I SUFFERED ENOUGH?!?!?!

…and that is why you haven’t heard from me in a while. Mostly.

There are a couple of other shows that I started and put aside in the hopes of looping back to them later in the thematic bloc I was working on. But, alas, as I became more downcast with what I was watching, I simply did not go back. Yet. I will, though. Probably. (I mean, one of them has So-e in it. So, you know I’m going back eventually.)

The good news is that I’ve already started the shows that will help us usher in 2026’s slate of letters—and I don’t hate them! I mean, I’m not promising that I’ll like them, but none is boring or aggravating, as yet, so…things are already looking up. 

Anyway.

I hope you were able to have a very warm and merry Christmas, Erin. And I hope you have an even happier New Year. 

I mean, Netflix is getting rid of Hotel Del Luna, so how happy can any of us really be. But, still…I hope you can manage it. 

More soon.

—Daryl