Posts

Letter #102: My Demon

Good morning, Erin. And—as promised—welcome to Phase IV!  “But Daryl, you dashing pseudo-academic,” I hear you say, “what significance is there to marking a fourth ‘phase’ when, as was made almost comically apparent by the content of your so-called Phase III, you never stick to any of the thematic intentions you always ascribe to your K-drama epochs?” Well, dear Erin, that is the beauty of it, this time around: my theme for Phase IV…is playing catchup on the shows I was supposed to have watched during Phases II and III but didn’t (either because I’d gotten distracted by keeping up with weeklies or desperately needing to sate my unhealthy interest in dating shows). We’re talking recommendations from you, half-started shows I set aside, those actress-based “trilogies” I swore were coming—all of it. I know. I’m a genius.  But, my cleverness aside, that is why we’re starting with Letter #102 and not Letter #101, seonbae : because I promised you a Kim Yoo-jung trilogy, not a detou...

Letter #101: Captivating the King

Good morning, Erin. Now, I know what you’re thinking: having just reached our milestone 100 th (official) letter, wouldn’t this be the perfect time to announce the shift to Phase IV of my K-drama odyssey?  Why yes, Erin, it would.  But, as you are no doubt aware, I don’t make sensible decisions, so that’s not happening— yet .  No, rather than closing things out on a nice, round number, I’m going to wrap up Phase III with Letter #101, because I quite like the number 101. And also maybe starting Phase IV with Captivating the King would immediately undermine the entire point of Phase IV—the details of which (and whether they would be undermined by starting with Captivating the King ) we will save for another time—but also definitely I quite like the number 101. The question, though, is do I like Captivating the King as much as I like the number 101? Well, there’s only one way we’re gonna find out: 1. I really only watched this show because it had Jo Jung-suk, my second-fav...