NOTE: I wrote this on May 1, where it continued to languish in my drafts until I finished Fire Emblem Fates (AGAIN) and realized that I didn’t have anything to do. And I finally started watching Japanese dramas again after not finishing any of the ones in my Winter ’16 post. Progress!
I’ll be honest. After Signal, I lost interest in watching any dramas. And how could I not? It was just… so much. SO MUCH PERFECTION! And you heard it here first — there’s nothing that will top it this year. I didn’t bother finishing any of the other ones I started either, and it probably didn’t help that I was in the middle of last minute travel prep and Fire Emblem Fates. I did watch some of Sanadamaru while I was in Japan and while it was very exciting to go to Osaka Castle (where I had a moment and realized why I kept seeing Sakai Masato’s face all over Osaka stations… lol), I wasn’t like “oh my gosh, gotta watch some dramas!”
Even now that I’m back, I wasn’t tempted by anything airing currently. Especially not by anything airing in k-dramaland. And naturally, I was/am still playing Fire Emblem. (When I say I’m in deep… I’m in deep.)
So, no dramas. That is… until I found out Yeon Jung-hoon would be making an appearance in Ms. Temper & Nam Jung-gi. That’s really all it took. Damn his face.
Fortunately for me, he is not the only thing worth watching in this show. There’s a lot to like! Lee Yo-won is just so good at being Ok Da-jung (probably my favorite character this year, maybe one of my favorites ever — she brings the noise, she brings the ruckus, etc) and I love that Yoon Sang-hyun is basically expanding upon his character in I Can Hear Your Voice. It’s really funny, probably a little over the top for some, but enjoyable enough for me swiftly catch up with aaaaallll the episodes in about a week. I can’t help but feel like this is one of those rare dramas that didn’t completely lose its steam halfway through — it does get serious and explore some very great themes (sexual harassment, misogyny, etc) but it still manages to maintain its humor. So many dramas lose what made them so exciting to begin with, and I’m happy to say Ms. Temper was not one of them. Definitely an underrated surprise and probably one of the better office dramas I’ve seen.