Undercover Miss Hong

 

Tags: romcom, Korean, Netflix, mystery-ish 

Every Saturday and Sunday 

Asianwiki

Set in the late 1990s, Hong Keum-Bo (Park Shin-Hye) is in her 30's and is an elite supervisor for the Financial Supervisory Service. She is a cool-headed, working woman who only thinks about her job. She goes undercover as a 20 year old high school graduate, Hong Jang-Mi, and begins to work for a securities company where suspicious flows of funds are detected. There, she meets Shin Jung-Woo (Ko Kyoung-Pyo). He is the new CEO of Hanmin Securities Company. Shin Jung-Woo is a natural-born management consultant and a corporate raider, who believes that only numbers are honest. He uses any means necessary to reach his goal. He meets Hong Jang-Mi, whose face is the same as Hong Keum-Bo, whom he once loved. They become complicatedly entangled.

Yay! Park Shin-hye is back and playing a 20 year old High School graduate who was accepted to work in a business establishment under a program for people who never went to college. Park Shin-hye is 35 years old both in real life and in the series. 

I watched episodes 1 and 2 and I like it so far. I hope there won't be a love triangle.

Agatha Christie's Seven Dials

Tags: Agatha Christie, murder mystery, Netflix 

Goose🥚

From Wiki

Agatha Christie's Seven Dials is a British miniseries based on the 1929 novel The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie. Created and written by Chris Chibnall, and directed by Chris Sweeney, the miniseries stars Mia McKenna-Bruce, Edward Bluemel, Iain Glen, Martin Freeman, and Helena Bonham Carter.

Oops, British TV did it again! Bastardizing a perfectly good mystery novel by Agatha Christie is their modus operandi. It's getting tiresome. It is an adaptation but must they butcher the characters beyond recognition? I could tolerate just one episode out of 3. I don't know how the series ended.

• First, there is NO Lady Caterham, the mother of Bundle. She was already deceased in the first book with the same characters, The Secret of Chimneys. In the Netflix 3 part mini series, she is alive and well and it was Lord Caterham who died. Helena Bonham Carter playing the mother of Bundle looks like a grocery cart pushing bag lady. I am not kidding. 
• Netflix's Bundle is an emotional train wreck, the complete opposite of the novel's. Bundle is a lively character full of enthusiasm and ideas in solving the murders and just like her friends is not sulking and crying over their dead friends because there are murderers to apprehend and no time to spare. 
• In the book, Scotland Yard Superintendent Battle is a no nonsense law officer who is big framed and tall, built like an armoire. Here he is a short puny playful character, almost like a clown. 

Avoid if you have read the book. I recommend watching instead the 1981 TV series although old is better IMO, has all the humor, and follows the book closely. It's streaming on Amazon Prime.

Untamed

tags: murder mystery, Netflix series

⭐out of 5

From IMDB

A National Parks Service agent investigates a brutal death at Yosemite National Park.

Pros

> good not great cinematography because it was mostly filmed in Canada, not Yosemite

> there are only 6 less than an hour episodes

Cons 

> lousy script and story

> really bad acting; the raspy voice of both Eric Bana and Sam Neill is hard on the ears 

> all the characters are annoying specially the male and female leads

> clichés galore: alcoholic main character, troubled ex-wife, abusive ex partner of female lead (female lead character and her story is totally unnecessary; remove the character and the narrative will move along without her), uncooperative co workers, drugs (there's always drugs snuck in every Hollywood production)

> as predictable as the sun rising from the east, I guessed early on who is the despicable one.

> items introduced that don't help with the investigations and simply abandoned without explanation, example - the gold leaf tattoo on the dead girl.

- turned into almost slapstick comedy when the lead male ran out of bullets but was saved by the belle. 🙄

Not recommended

When The Stars Gossip

 

From AsianWiki 

Gong Ryong (Lee Min-Ho) is an obstetrician and he is the prospective son-in-law of the largest chaebol group MZ. He has a secret mission that he can't tell anyone about. For his secret mission, he pays large sum of money to travel to the space station as space tourist. At the space station, Eve Kim (Kong Hyo-Jin) is stationed there. She is an elite space scientist and is currently on her first space station mission as a commander. She is a perfectionist who strictly follows rules and doesn't tolerate a single mistake in an area where dangers lurk everywhere. Her crew members including fruit fly research scientist Kang Kang-Soo (Oh Jung-Se), who is the second son of a family that runs a global financial company.

The plot sounds interesting. I will watch anything with Lee Min-Ho. I also like Kong Hyo-Jin. 

Starts streaming January 4, 2025 on Netflix.

Romance In The House

tags: favorite for 2024, Korean  family dramedy, mystery, Netflix

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From Asianwiki

Byeon Moo-Jin was married to Geum Ae-Yeon. They had a daughter, Byeon Mi-Rae and son, Byeon Hyeon-Jae, during their marriage.

Byeon Moo-Jin attempted various business ventures while married, but they all failed. His family could not take him anymore and they cut him off from them. After going through a divorce, Geum Ae-Yeon experienced difficulties raising her two children by herself.

Now, 11 years later, she works part-time at a big mart. Her daughter and son are all grown up. The daughter, Byeon Mi-Rae, wanted to become a person her mother could rely on. She works as the MD at a big mart. She is also the breadwinner of the family. The son, Byeon Hyun-Jae, has a unique charm, but he also the troublemaker of the family.

One day, Byeon Moo-Jin appears in front of his family as the owner of the villa building where they live. Byeon Moo-Jin hopes to reunite with his beloved ex-wife Geum Ae-Yeon and even tries to seduce her, but the daughter, Byeon Mi-Rae, is strongly opposed to her father's idea. Unlike his sister, Byeon Hyun-Jae supports his dad's attempt for reconciliation.

Meanwhile, Byeon Mi-Rae gets involved with Nam Tae-Pyeong (Minho). He was once a member of the national taekwondo team and now works as a security at the same mart as Byeon Mi-Rae. He hides his real identity and the fact that his father is the owner of the mart.

There are 2 Korean dramedy series currently streaming on Netflix. Romance In The House just finished airing the 12th and last episode. I love the series more than the other one, Love Next Door which I stopped watching at episode 7. It is the same old same old storyline. I might go back to it when there's nothing else to watch.

Romance In The House is somewhat different from the usual Korean drama comedy series because the main "romance" is between a couple in their late 40s. The second main romance is between the daughter and the security guard played by Minho who is still so cute with his big anime eyes. The series also has a chaebol who is kind and understanding, not the usual cruel and greedy character. The series has no evil or manipulative character. 

I also love the OST. Where can I download the songs??!!

 

The Perfect Couple

 

tags: murder mystery, Netflix series, parody-ish

⭐⭐⭐

Amelia Sacks is about to marry into one of the wealthiest families on Nantucket. Her disapproving future mother-in-law, famous novelist Greer Garrison Winbury, has spared no expense in planning what promises to be the premiere wedding of the season — until a body turns up on the beach.

As secrets come to light, the stage is set for a real-life investigation that feels plucked from the pages of one of Greer’s novels. Suddenly, everyone is a suspect.

Starring Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber.

Nicole Kidman never appealed to me but the description seemed interesting. I binge-watched it and enjoyed it a little. It is better than Knives Out IMHO because I viewed it as a parody of Hollywood produced Agatha Christie style whodunnit. I like the comedic parts with the characters of Isabelle Adjani, the butler, and the housemaid.

The series is a red herring galore: all the members of the family, the female French friend, and male Indian friend were all paraded as suspects, most of them snitching on each other, except the real murderer. 

The series is a dark comedy IMHO although almost everyone got on my nerves specially Amelia, the hypocrite holier than thou fiancée of the couple's second son.

Eric

tags: drama, Netflix series

⭐⭐

Vincent is a puppeteer in 1980s New York whose nine-year-old son, Edgar, has gone missing. Vincent's increasingly volatile behavior alienates him from his friends and family.

After issues with substance abuse, Vincent becomes convinced that he can reunite with Edgar with the help of his seven-foot-tall puppet, Eric.

Oh boy. What a disaster this series is. Almost all the characters are unlikeable except maybe for the homeless young Black man who is befriended by the missing child.. 

It is a mishmash of dysfunctional family, racial issues, corrupt police, gay people hiding their sexuality, pedophilia, the usual rich snobby parents, and annoying puppets. 

Benedict is maybe a good actor but he can only do so much with a stupid story and script. His character is an alcoholic, does drugs, constantly quarrels with his wife, and sometimes ignores his child. 

I wasted 6 hours on this series. Not recommended.