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(via Review: ‘Teach You a Lesson’ K-drama (2026)

"If a doctor is afraid of their patients, they can't treat them properly. If a lawyer is afraid of their clients, they can't defend them properly. So, if a teacher is afraid of their students, can they teach them properly? If adults become afraid of children…the world is doomed." - Na Hwa Jin

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I've been thinking about why Filing for Love stayed with me long after finishing it.

It wasn't because of the grand romantic moments. It wasn't because the male lead was rich, powerful, or impossibly perfect.

It was because of Ki-jun.

For years, people have argued about what women want in relationships. Some say women want dominance. Others say they want a provider. Some think romance is about winning someone over.

But what struck me about Ki-jun is that he never treated love as something to conquer.

He listened.

He adjusted.

He understood.

When In-ah's past resurfaced, he didn't immediately turn possessive. When she wasn't the picture of a traditional wife, he didn't try to reshape her into one. When she struggled, he didn't make her carry the burden alone.

He simply met her where she was.

And somehow, that felt more romantic than a hundred dramatic declarations.

What I appreciate most is that the story seems to understand women from the inside. In-ah is allowed to be flawed, ambitious, guarded, confused, and independent. She isn't rewarded only when she becomes softer or more convenient. She remains herself.

And Ki-jun loves her as herself.

Not as a project.

Not as an ideal.

Not as a future version he hopes to create.

Just her.

Maybe that's why the relationship feels refreshing. It isn't built on control. It isn't built on ego. It's built on understanding.

Women are often accused of asking for too much, but dramas like Filing for Love remind me that many women aren't asking for perfection.

They're asking for partnership.

For someone who listens without judgment.

For someone who respects their freedom.

For someone emotionally mature enough to love without needing to possess.

The older I get, the more I realize that the greenest flag isn't a man who leads every room.

It's a man who makes the person he loves feel safe enough to be fully herself.

And that's what Ki-jun gave In-ah.

Maybe that's why this drama felt so different.

LAW AND THE CITY

GENRES: Drama, Legal Procedural

SUMMARY: Five associate attorneys navigate terrible bosses, life’s ups and downs, and where to go for lunch.

THIS SHOW HAS EVERYTHING: Sweater vests, reluctant motherhood, stolen land, scholarships, late nights, green flag husbands, Hong Kong romances, divorces, murder, inheritance, bean sprout stew, dream fulfillment, family businesses, iced Americanos, and too many Kopiko product placements.

HOT TAKE: It's rare these days to see a show like this where so little drama actually happens and yet each episode is time well-spent. Is that one character upset about getting pregnant? Sort of, but she deals with it because her husband is so caring. Is that other character fed up with the arrogance of his boss? He is, but he quits on good terms. Was there some kind of scandal with the firms' Legal Advisor? Maybe, but she figured it out off screen.

Bagus banget, asli. Drama 12-eps yang ngga plotnya nggak bertele-tele, premisnya unik (tentang keluarga dengan superpower macam The Incredibles, tapi semuanya lagi kehilangan kekuatan karena 'modern diseases').

Jang Kiyong ganteng banget deh asli. Di sini tetep ganteng walaupun di first half episode kayanya dia gapernah mandi. Rambut lepek banget asli mengingatkan pada tokoh L di Death Note #ytta. Cuma mulai episode keberapa gitu, si Gwiju (tokoh utama yang diperankan oleh Kiyong) udah mulai bisa overcome kedepresian doi dan mulai "hidup kembali".

Zuzur w paling males nonton drakor genre fantasi sih, kaya Goblin aja sampe detik ini w ga nonton. My roommate is a Gumiho juga ngga. W merasa genre ini terlalu aneh aja dan kaya gapunya batasan mana yang mungkin dan ngga, jadi ya males aja deh intinya. Tapi Atypical Family ini beda, mungkin karena ada touches of manusia biasanya kali ya - manusia-manusia dengan superpowers yang merasa tak berdaya ketika kekuatan mereka dicabut. Jadi jauh lebih relatable aja.

Plot utamanya lumayan ga ketebak sih, juga resolusi yang mereka pilih untuk mengakhiri kisah ini. Tapi solid banget sih storyline-nya w salut. Poin plus lainnya adalah scoringnya yang bagusssss banget, w rasa bener-bener masuk banget sama scenes-nya, vibenya agak dreamy-dreamy ringan gitu. Scoring ya, jadi emang mostly instrumental, kayanya gaada soundtrack berlirik deh.

Pokoknya drama ini opsi menarik banget untuk rehat dari plot romcom standar kokoreaan.

rating: 9.5/10

The drama is amazing and shines a light on mental health while making a cute love story. I love a cheesy love story myself but this one has a whole other layer to it. It's made me cry, laugh, anxious. The kind of anxious that makes you take a couple laps around your room worried about what may happen next. There's one flaw that I would like to point out about this drama. The story itself is amazing, the plot is amazing, the whole drama is great, but some of the conditions are very stereotypical. Specifically with the Sangtae, the older brother with autism. He's very stereotypical autistic, but honestly I'm not shocked with this seeing that autism in most shows are already extremely stereotypical along with mental health not really being talked about much in Korea.

Would I recommend this drama?: 100% it's probably my favorite drama at this point. The actors did an amazing job and portrayed their characters very well. I very much would recommend this to watch if you love a sappy love story as much as I do with a deep back story

after such long and tiresome quarter from college, now i am FINALLY able to take a break. 

because for me, taking a break is literally just watching tv shows and movies. so i decided to catch up on juvenile justice i started few months ago that i forgot to finish. 

tldr; contains right amount of suspense, melodrama, crime, and significance. definitely a huge tw for the mention of r*pe, child tr*ffi*king, and blood. just a lot of crimes that are very explicit. i do think there were some element of notable unrealisticness, but because it’s a fictional show, i didn’t really mind it. overall a great show. 9.5/10

juvenile justice made me cry like 5 times, especially during the last few episodes when everything started to become a bit more realistic, when things weren’t ending the way i thought it would, it made me much sadder knowing that this is what actually happens in court. regardless of what the truth is, the court decide upon evidence...

one way for me to describe juvenile justice is this: a must-see drama for everyone to watch. 

with the rise of true-crime content everywhere, there has been a rise of concerns towards the victims and the family of victims as they are often belittled by those who rather victim-blame or support the same perpetrators who essentially took away their life from the victims. 

this show shows from the perspective of the victims, perpetrators, the families, the court, the police, and the public to see how everything interacts together to make a case. while it doesn’t shy away from giving the fresh perspective of the perpetrator by trying to find the motive behind their crimes (as the *main* criminals are all teens in this movie), it still holds them responsible for their actions, as the court understands that being young is not an excuse for the crimes they committed. i liked how the narrative of this film is to hold the perpetrators responsible for the victims, while also trying to find a way to prevent the perpetrators from committing crimes ever again and go back to society with knowledge and empathy. 

before i watched this drama, i had some concerns after seeing the overall plot. i was worried that people were going to cry for another ban of juvie law, and advocate for making teens trial as adults. that was, and still is one of the most popular narrative these days, and i didn’t want to watch a drama that just repeated what everyone says without digging dipper to the actual problem: the society and structure that FAILS the children- both victims and the perpetrators. because many crimes can be prevented through active search and prevention nation-wide! 

so props to this show for bringing this new perspective. 

i don’t really have much to comment on the characters, they all had their flaws but all also had their strengths to their character. but most importantly, i loved how every adult in this show was able to take some responsibility and character growth- because for the teens to get better, the adults need to as well. 

my favorite characters definitely were shim eun-seok and cha tae-joo. their dynamics were very unique and polar-opposites in some ways, but i love how they were able to become partners in crime as the story developed. 

overall, i give this drama 9.5/10- the 0.5 points are knocked off due to the unnecessary violence in the last few episodes. but overall, i don’t really have anything i particularly disliked about this show. the flaws of this show were realistic, and that’s what made me love this show even more! 

Joyously Utterly Ridiculous with a dash of Politics

Synopsis

So there's this outspoken Blue House head chef, Jang Bong Hwan, who gets in some trouble and is running away from the police when he has a near-death experience. But instead of regaining consciousness in the 21st century, he wakes up in the body of softspoken Kim So Yong, the Queen Cheorin in the Joseon period (19th century). Here he gets thrown into marriage preparations to King Cheol Jong, and swept up in the secrets of the palace.

AC Overall: 9/10, just good fun at first...and then I really got into the plot

Lord Jesus when I tell you I CACKLED at the mere premise of this womanizing man waking up in a Joseon woman's body--and a Queen much less! So I watched the first few eps just out of sheer awe of the plot and hilarious shenanigans that ensued. And honestly didn't pay the rest of the plot much attention...

But then it became something worth paying attention to, and it grasped me until the end of the drama. Very thoughtful. This is a comedy with some political undertones, and a romance (or 4) to die for (lol).

Favorite things about the drama: the silly comedy, the plot, the character development, the list goes on. And kudos to the team for not making the gender swap too weird, I've seen other dramas do it less tastefully. It's a step.

AC Review (spoilers)

Let's face it, Bong Hwan as So Yeon was the best thing that happened to that palace, to Cheol Jong, Bong Hwan himself, to So Yeon herself, to the country...etc. The ~growth~ Bong Hwan went through as a result was *chef's kiss*. From the jumping-into-any-body-of-water-to-get-back-home, to establishing the "no touch" rule between him and the King, to being willing to further ~explore~ romance, sex , pregnancy as a woman, was beautiful, thoughtful, even intriguing to watch, and didn't seem abrupt or distasteful. Do wish we could've seen So Yeon in 21st century Korea as a man more too, though we did get glimpses of her trying to unsuccessfully bag some men at a club and then engaging with a woman in the kitchen's storage room as Bong Hwan himself used to do. I suppose Mr. Queen's developing attraction to Cheol Jong could be imagined as being from/because of So Yeon's co-habitating yearning soul but, I prefer to believe he organically developed that soul-soul attraction while So Yeon's soul was galavanting around Seoul.

Now, I'm a fan of Welcome to Waikiki (S1...couldn't watch S2 it was so...not Waikiki) so it was hard for me to see Kim Jung Hyun as anyone other than goofy ass Kang Dong Gu. And honestly, his acting here was...aight. His way of portraying the King as comely-in the agreeable sense only imo-was by lowering his eyelids and looking like a zombie. Forgive me, but i. wanted. more. nuance. They had a hard time convincing me he was pretending to be meek around the palace and was truly a force beyond. Shin Hye Sun's acting carried the drama, she was a star in portraying Bong Hwan's soul and So Yeon's soul at the right moments. A little extreme at times...but the drama called for it.

And I can't not shout-out the side characters here too. Court Lady Choi and the Royal head Chef need a spinoff, they were so cute together, and maid Hong Yeon deserves the man of her dreams--maybe the King's best friend Hong, maybe not. I was so proud of her for turning down Kim Hwan so beautifully...and let's be real, he deserves someone too, such a sweetheart! Both Prince Yeongpyeong and Byeong In needed a happy ending too...why was it that both these men looked like they had been crying in every scene??

Speaking of my Byeong In...in every drama I have a "man", which is usually the one who could do no wrong because he's so good to look at (both inside and out, thankyouverymuch). Most of the time it's the second lead, and that held true here too. My man...I know his character's a little gross for romantically loving his (adoptive?) cousin the Queen, but I kept rooting for him, even when he became a bad apple and tried to force her to be the Kim family's puppet. And I must admit Mr. Queen had a point when he accused Byeong In of not noticing the change in his loved one after the soul switch. How could he still believe that was his So Yeon?? But I forgive him, he redeemed himself by letting the Queen live, get away, and ultimately find her King and make it back to the palace for some sweet revenge.

(Not gonna mention the family drama or Eui Bin here, it was exhausting enough to watch. But Eui Bin redeemed herself too, I guess.)

All in all I really loved this drama, and it's something I know I wouldn't have appreciated before this year, honestly. Lots of laughter, good chemistry between the King and Queen, and the storyline wasn't bad either. Give it a watch if you need some silly laughs with a dash of romance and substance.

P.S.: Kinda mad that in the end, the real So Yeon got to ride the wave of love from the King that had developed for Bong Hwan's soul...So Yeon didn't earn his love! And I felt bad for the King too, having lost Bong Hwan and his ~energy~ without so much as a goodbye. (And it would've been cool to see Mr. Queen give birth...) But hey, they all needed a happy ending after everything they went through those last few eps.

MZ Overall: 6/10, i needed to know how this whole thing would end

AC described this as a "comedy with some political undertones" but I would say the opposite: a political show with some comedic undertones. WAY too much plot. I was not trying to follow all that. AC also said to me that this romance was a "slow burn" which was JUST A STRAIGHT UP LIE. I was struggling at the end. There is a lot to like about this show if you like physical comedy and politics. I'm very whatever about this show though.

MZ Review (spoilers)

As usual, AC and I have disagreed completely on a drama. Firstly, this show did NOT need to be 20 episodes. After 10 I was truly asking myself if I was going to invest another 10 hours of my life in seeing it through. That was when I decided to watch it while crafting, so I'll see the major plot points (dramatic background music is a universal language!) without feeling like I had to have my eyes peeled.

By the end, I was staying to figure out how they were going to resolve the whole thing with Jang Bong Hwan. Would he go back? Would he stay and somehow fuse with So Yong? I don't know what I wanted but what happened was.... not it.

Ok, so I wasn't staying only to see how it ended... I was also there for Lady in Waiting Choi. She had the absolute best bit in the whole show, with the smutty kaleidoscope. Why was I ROLLING when she brought it out? The writers did not have to do her like that but there it was and I loved it. The side characters are generally good in this show overall, which also made it fun to watch.

I would use the rest of this time to complain about how Lady Uibin and Kim Byung In were terrible love rivals, but that is quite frankly my most boring take. Instead, I'd like to talk about queerbaiting. I am from the era of fandom tumblr that was held in a chokehold by gay ships such as Merthur, Destiel, and Johnlock, so I am no stranger to this concept. What I haven't made up my mind on is how queerbaiting shows up (or not) within k-dramas. And while I'm completely comfortable with accusing white people of the global west in engaging in this sort of practice, I would not extend this lens to cultures I only know through slivers of the media they produce. Which is to say that I can't speak to one of the hallmarks of queerbaiting: trying to "lure in" queer/ally audiences using these suggestions of representation.

So for the purposes of this blog, when I say "queerbaiting," I'm referring to how showrunners write/create visuals/otherwise hint at romantic relationships between people of the same gender, but who are ostensibly straight. I'd say this is part of the undercurrent of Mr. Queen, and particularly the relationship between Bong Hwan (as So Yong) and Cheol Jong. It is usually played for laughs: So Yong's body has physical responses to Cheol Jong, that Bong Hwan mentally fights off. Bong Hwan still has his urges, leading him to seek out courtesans, pick out the concubines for Cheol Jong, and TRY TO KISS HONG YEON AS SO YONG. The writers go through great pains to establish Bong Hwan as a Straight Man (TM), which begins to crumble after he and Cheol Jong have sex (but he's drunk and in a woman's body and thinks he is having sex with a woman, so it's not gay, just lowkey sexual assault!!!). What begins to dissolve is how much Bong Hwan is portrayed as pushing back against the affections of So Yong towards Cheol Jong. Especially towards the end, how much of the kissing, affection, and care was Bong Hwan? This is a question that is up for the viewer to decide, even up to the end.

When Bong Hwan wakes up in his body back in the 21st century, the first thing he does is attempt to find out what happened to Cheoljong. He then figures out that their lives changed forever because they met each other. He learned that he can ~fight injustice~ in any era blah, blah, blah. No addressing how he was about to die for Cheol Jong, or how he had fully even stopped trying to get back to his body, or how Cheol Jong felt like he "lost something" after the fight.... No, just Cheol Jong being straight with So Yong and Bong Hwan getting to go back to his life as a Man.

Listen, I know this show was not supposed to be a rom-com, but am I so wrong for still wanting some kind of resolution for this? They really wrote themselves in circles trying to make sure we know they are straight, and yet they throw in just enough doubt... In my view, classic sign of queerbaiting.

That entire scene of the rainy date is just one of the most heartwarming things I’ve ever seen in kdramas. 🥰🥰🥰🥰