Happy New Year, Lovelies. We survived 2020, so I figure it’s time to take stock of what I’ve seen this year, and perhaps extend a hopeful “resolution” to the universe in 2021.

Covid made sure I stayed home for most of 2020. Once the first couple of months of cabin fever wears off, I started on what could only be called a drama binge that lasts the rest of the year, spanning through three different countries style of storytelling. Take a look at the list below, do you see which country I’ve been camping in the most? And what is sorely lacking?

Thailand was not short of lakorns this year by any means, but not many drew my attention. This is why I have only finished four lakorns. Four! That is very unlike me, lakorns are my bread and butter. I promise to do better this year, starting with Duangjai Nai Monthra starring Tono and Nychaa when it airs. It is one of the lakorns that I’ve been anticipating since their collab in Cupid series. They’re so cute, even the behind the scenes are adorable. I can’t wait to do an episode 1 recap.

Payakorn Sorn Rak featured James Ji and Ice Preechaya, while the story was predictable, I did enjoy this pairing. Roy Leh Marnya – the highly anticipated Pope-Bella pairing after their big hit Love Destiny – was sadly disappointing. The best part about the show is watching the second pairing and realizing how much I did enjoy seeing Bua and Phet together. Bua has such a leading lady vibe that she deserves her own primetime lakorn, when she comes on screen, one simply cannot look away. I would watch the heck out of her story with Phet.

I then decided to go back and finish Neung Nai Suang because I miss Yaya and I didn’t give this show enough credit when I initially tuned in. Ah.. it had my fangirl imaginations running wild. Yaya and James Ji are so compatible on screen, it was too much eye candy for my heart. The enemy to lovers storyline is one I grew to like because of how the story was told, even Neung warmed up to me (after wanting to slap him a few times). I hope Yaya and JJ do another lakorn together in the future.

Lastly in the lakorn realm, I watched Spark Jai Nai Jomying, and you already know how I feel about that in my recent post – which is to say that I sure liked Nine Naphat.

Kdramas! I had a nice soaking with Kdramas, mainly because they’re readily available to me – thanks to Netflix. While I do like to binge, most of the kdramas I did watch were weekly releases. My favorites among the list (in watching order) are Crash Landing, Itaewon Class, Hospital Playlist, and It’s Okay Not To Be Okay. Hospital Playlist came as a huge surprise to me, these weren’t typical hospital plot storytelling, but it followed doctors who love to doctor and are actually good at their jobs. Plus, I loved the friendship among them. It was a weekly treat to watch this show. Record of Youth was my least favorite among the list, I liked Park Bo Bum, but the story lacked direction.

Cdramas oh cdramas! I literally live here. Who knew cdramas are churning out dramas like hotcakes? This is my first year to watch this many cdramas, holy cow, how do I even get out of this hole? And do I even want to get out? My favorite this year (though it was a 2019 show) was The Untamed. Some of you may know how obsessed I was about this show – though it’s hard to tell because I haven’t actually written anything about it. It hit me hard like Nirvana in Fire days, only worst! I loved The Untamed to pieces, from the storytelling, to the acting and the directing. But Covid had me in a lazy phase, where I literally watched it over and over, read the translations of the books, listened to the audio translations, watched the chibis and anime on YouTube- but I simply could not write about it. The same goes for anything I watched this year, I was on survival mode and anything more was just too much for my brain.

As you can tell from my list, I mindlessly watched a lot of romcoms or fluffy dramas. My favorites among them (in watching order) are Romance of Tiger and Rose, Love is Sweet, My Unicorn (not Uniform!) Girl, and Romance of Hua Rong (which I just finished and not listed here). Love is Sweet would be my second fave after The Untamed this year. This is an enemy turned lover story plot, and what I loved most is the journey we (as viewers) share with the female lead, Jiang Jun. Although Jiang Jun grew up with Yuan Shuai (male lead), she has mostly bad memories of him, and completely justified. Then as they reunite as grownups, at a potential company Jiang Jun wants to work at no less, their rivalry kicks up. I loved that Yuan Shuai is a flawed male lead and is proven wrong by Jiang Jun many times, but what I loved most about him is that he owns up to his mistakes. We also get to see his perspective and side of the story. Best of all, Leo Luo and Bai Lu have amazing chemistry and it’s fun to watch them tackle the finance world together.

So how did you do in 2020 dramaland? Did I miss anything you dearly loved? While I will continue to watch some kdramas and cdramas this year (2021 – how weird is it to write this?!) my goal is to watch more lakorns. It is a year that some of my anticipated pairings will air. What are you looking forward to this year? Whatever they are, whichever countries they’re from, I hope it brings you joy, relieve some stress, and bring you much renewed hope for a better year. Cheers to 2021, Lovelies.