These past months with all the events of 2020 and quarantine have been, to say the least, difficult. With all the stress and worry, and plenty of free time, I often turned to Netflix for some type of comfort and for something to help me take my mind off of everything. More specifically, I turned to K-dramas. Here are some of the K-dramas that have distracted me these past months and that I highly recommend watching to give yourself a nice little break from reality.
Hospital Playlist
This follows the lives of five friends who met in medical school and end up working in the same hospital in different fields. This K-drama follows their individual lives and friendship, as well as the lives of their patients and their interactions with them. This show came out towards the beginning of quarantine and was honestly the perfect drama at a time when we all needed something uplifting. The words that come to mind when thinking about how this drama made me feel are content and refreshed. The friendship between the characters is admirable and one that I think anyone watching hopes to have. The characters were realistic and relatable and each character had their own personality and proper story (unlike many K-dramas and shows in general where the other characters exist solely for the main characters). It was truly a well-rounded drama that became one of my favorites in no time and provided some type of comfort during these challenging times. I laughed and I cried (and also maybe relistened to the songs one too many times). Oh, did I mention that these five doctors also play as a band?
It’s Okay to Not Be Okay
Another drama that became a quick favorite is one that follows a woman, Ko Moon-Young, who is a children’s book author, and a man, Moon Kang-Tae, who is a caretaker at a psychiatric hospital. Ko Moon-Young has been diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder and lives her life only caring about herself, doing whatever she wants, while Moon Kang-Tae doesn’t ever think about himself as he takes care of his older brother who is on the autism spectrum. As it is often mentioned in descriptions of this drama, it is about personal traumas and healing. Although I will admit that there were some parts that I don’t think were portrayed too accurately in regards to mental health, this drama is still worth watching. Seeing all of the characters, not just the leads, try to confront their pasts and traumas and watching them heal together left you thinking and reflecting on your own life too, something I always appreciate in a show. Every episode had a lesson to learn that you could apply to your own life and I cried at some point during each one. I highly recommend this drama because of its range of characters and compelling plot, as well as the possibility that as you watch the characters struggle and heal, you might do some healing of your own too.
Stranger
This drama is different from the previous ones in that it is a crime thriller (not exactly an uplifting type of drama). However, it definitely helps to take your mind off of things and focus instead on the cases at hand. I was hooked from the beginning, trying to play detective and figure who the good and bad guys were and solve the cases. This follows a man, Hwang Si-Mok, who after undergoing brain surgery, lost his ability to feel emotions. He works as a prosecutor and with the help of a police lieutenant, Han Yeo-Jin, he works to solve a difficult murder case that ends up being more than just a murder. There are two seasons, but I can only comment on the first one because I didn’t finish the second one (it didn’t match in intensity and intrigue to the first season in my opinion). Right from the beginning, the drama gets going and dives fully into the plot, so there is no drag in exposition in the beginning episodes. It was nice to be able to focus on the cases and try to figure out what will happen next in a drama as opposed to guessing what will happen next in 2020. A very addicting and interesting drama that I would recommend for anyone who loves crime shows.
