Now, I said I would focus solely on playing Kingdom Hearts 3 these past few weeks… but that didn’t happen. You know what happened? SKY Castle. I think I mentioned a month ago that I wanted to wait until it was finished before diving in, and it did so… I couldn’t help myself! Over the span of a day (!), one episode turned into ten before I realized I’d lost my damn mind and needed to be productive lmao.
I’m usually wary of extremely hyped dramas, mostly because the quality just isn’t there, but I could sense there was something different about SKY Castle. The subject matter seemed really interesting and the fact it was a lead by a predominantly veteran cast was the icing on the cake. What I didn’t expect was a drama that would shake my spirit in such a visceral way. On the surface it’s you would think it’s just about upper class parents who will do anything to get their children the best grades and into the best schools, but more like a cautionary tale about greed and how it can destroy people from the inside out — even if it’s for “sensible” reasons.
Anyway, after finishing SKY Castle, it reminded me of two other dramas I loved that sorta tackled the same competitive/academic subject matter:
A Wife’s Credentials – this one also features Lee Tae-ran, but this time she’s the in-demand academic coach! Fortunately for us she’s nothing like Coach Kim. A stay-at-home mother tries to stay afloat in a sea of ultra competitive moms and overbearing in-laws and finds a kindred spirit in her son’s dentist. It’s a bit of a slow burn, but in the beeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssstttttttttttttt way. I wrote a little bit about it here and here (spoilers).
Heard It Through the Grapevine – another black comedy by the writer behind A Wife’s Credentials. Two high school seniors trying to get into Seoul National University (“poor” girl, rich boy) meet at a study camp, fall in love, birds… bees… and a baby. 👶🏻 IT IS HILARIOUS. (I wrote about it at length when it was still airing.)