Recap Review 2020: Looking Back on a Year of KDramas

Taking a look back at the dramas I recapped this year. Which ones did I finish? Which ones did I drop? Looking for some wintertime binging? Check out my suggestions from this past year.

Touch

Touch follows the stories of two people who are passionate about make-up. One is an aspiring kpop idol who is finally earning her chance to debut through a kpop survival challenge show. The other is a famous stylist to the stars. Their paths cross on the final night of the challenge and they do not hit it off. Through a series of unfortunate events, they wind up working together as the former idol-trainee attempts to pursue a new career as a make-up artist.

This show was fun enough to watch. I enjoyed all of the characters pretty well and the story moved well. I think I watched 2 or 3 more episodes. Unfortunately, as I continued with the drama it became clear that they were setting it up as a romcom and not an office mentoring relationship. I have no issue with an age gap romance between adults, but this one just didn’t work for me. I liked her same age bestie better for her and just didn’t want to invest any more time in something I knew I would find unsatisfying.

Verdict: Dropped due to disinterest

How Are You Bread?

How Are You Bread? tells the story of struggling PD who works at a small TV station. She is chosen to head the new baking competition show and charged with getting the elusive owner of a mystical bake shop to join the show. The show touches on the baker’s troubled relationship with his father and former friends. The office politics at the TV station provide comedy and plot for the female lead.

This drama was short and sweet, just like the daily specials served at the bakery. I polished it off quite quickly. While it was not high quality in production values, it wasn’t so bad that it became unwatchable in any way. The story was cute and easy and the side characters provided extra depth and dynamic to an otherwise cliche concept.

Verdict: Completed quickly like a delightful dessert

I’ll Go To You When The Weather Is Fine

When The Weather Is Fine is a slow, warm drama about a young woman who comes back home to her sleepy town for the holidays. The young man who owns the bookstore near her family’s home has been carrying a torch for her since high school. Through flashbacks and current interactions we gradually get a picture of the village the two grew up in and the type of relationship that they have with each other.

This is one of my top dramas for the year. The tone and style of it exactly suits the coziness of curling up with a book by the fire in the dark of a winter evening. I’m already planning to rewatch it when the dark cold of Canadian February hits next year. Definitely highly recommend it to anyone who has yet to watch it.

Verdict: Completed, and I’ll do it again

Memorist

Memorist tells the exciting tale of a psychic detective who can read the memories of people he touches. He teams up with a police profiler in order to find a serial killer and save a young woman who has gone missing. The story is fast-paced and stylistically very well put together. The scene transitions especially are done really well. The leads are both very good and portray their characters in a believable way.

This drama is a lot of fun at times. It’s also pretty creepy and intense at times. I was much more in for lighter fare this year, but even if I wasn’t the themes of cults and murdered women were too dark for me to stick with. I heard really good things about it from the people who did watch it though. I should probably ask one of them how it all ended 😆

Verdict: Dropped cuz I’m a scaredy-pants

Train

Train is a dark story about murder and the multiverse. A train comes through an abandoned station and dead bodies are buried on the station grounds. The leads are a prosecutor and a police officer who were both orphaned and raised by the police chief. The cases of their parents’ deaths are interconnected. As the story of oddly supernatural serial killings unfolds, it becomes clear that the stepfamily of the prosecutor is also involved.

This story had so many twists and turns in the first episode alone. It was clear that the story would not be boring. Yoon Shi Yoon is always a delight to watch but the story was too dark for my mood this year. This is another one that I should ask someone how it ended.

Verdict: Dropped because I’m still a scaredy-pants

The Spies Who Loved Me

The Spies Who Loved Me is a fun spy romp reminiscent of western movies like True Lies. The action scenes were fun to watch, the romance was romantic. The story follows a dress designer who is married to one spy and divorced from another one. She doesn’t know anything about either man’s secret lives though. On a trip to the wedding of a close friend, the two men’s spy worlds collide with her’s and mystery and hilarity ensue.

This show was pretty fun to watch. The leads were all very good and worked well together. I’m not really into cheating, and I have no idea if it ever becomes a cheating story, but it is very clear from the first episode who we are supposed to root for romantically. Hint: it’s not her current husband. Unfortunately there wasn’t much of the husband in the first episode, and what there was made him seem like a really nice dude, so it was pretty hard for me to jump on board the romance they were giving me.

Verdict: Dropped despite the leads and the fun concept

Birthcare Center

Birthcare Center is a comedy about the trials of becoming a new mom. It follows the life of a top executive who finally becomes pregnant a little later in life. The story of giving birth for the first time and the way becoming a parent changes one’s life completely is humorously and truthfully told. The relationship between the new parents is solid and realistic. While not every detail is quite right, the spirit of the different stresses a new parent faces are spot on.

I loved this series more than I expected to. I didn’t binge through it very quickly because even 9 years removed from the experience, some of the raw emotions still hit a little too hard for me. Over all though, it was a delightful drama that filled my heart in unexpected ways. This is another one that went on to find a home in my top ten dramas of the year list.

Verdict: Completed and recommended

Final Thoughts:

2020 was a weird year and it definitely had an effect on my drama watching. Things that might have flown for me in another year were quickly discarded this year. I had no patience for dramas that I could sense were going in a direction I had no desire to follow. I had a record number of drops on MyDramaList.com this year. On the downside, I’m sure it means I missed out on some great dramas just because of my mood. On the plus side, I really enjoyed pretty much everything that I did complete and there were very, very few endings that made me rage.

How was your drama watching this year? Did I drop something that you think I should give a second chance? Let me know!

See you in the New Year with some new recaps!