by Maryam (@thecurioussffreader)

February – April Media in Review (a.k.a The Rupaul Drag Race Edition)

As you may know, I love watching things as much as I love reading and since I haven’t been reading a lot in the last few months, I ended up watching even more things (I didn’t even know that was possible!).

I will try to my best to make this post not too rambly but still, grab a drink and a snack, this is going to be a long one.

Rupaul’s Drag Race

RuPaul's Drag Race saison 13: Le cast et la date de diffusion dévoilés | Hornet, the Gay Social Network

Let’s start with my biggest obsession in the last few months: RuPaul Drag Race!

I have been watching RuPaul Drag Race on and off for years now and it’s without a doubt my favorite reality show. I usually only watch the All Stars seasons but when I stumbled upon a Youtube video by Gottmik, one of the last season participants, I decided to watch the season while it was airing and god, I fell into the rabbit hole.

In less than two months, I managed to watch not only RuPaul Drag Race US Season 13 but I also watched the 1st and 2nd season of RuPaul Drag Race UK, AND THEN, I went back and watched earlier seasons of the show (S1 to S3).

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Needless to say, for me, the UK version is superior to the U.S. version because the queens are all so loveable and goofy (and British accent makes everything a million times better) but I obviously love the show and binging it when I started my internship was one of the best decisions I could have make!

Also, since it obviously wasn’t enough Drag Race content, I started listening to the Sibling Rivalry podcast, a podcast hosted by two former participants of the show Bob the Drag Queen and Monét X Change. They have special episodes dedicated to reviewing each episode of RPDR Season 13 while it was airing. I loved the podcast episodes almost more than the show itself since both queens are hilarious and sassy. I also discovered many Youtube channels dedicated to RPDR such as Bussy Queen, Wow Presents (with its entertaining Fashion Photo Ruview) and even the official RuPaul Drag Race Youtube channel with the Pit Stop, a show hosted by one of my favorite drag queen Trixie Matell (I HIGHLY recommend this episode, I think it would still be hilarious even without watching Drag Race).

So yeah, did I spend hours and hours consuming Drag Race content? Yes. Was it worth it? HELL. YES. I’m taking a little break and I will watch RuPaul Drag Race Down Under, the new Australian version of RPDR!

Kdrama

I love reality shows but I also love my Korean dramas especially when they are very sad or very cutesy and cheesy. What can I say, my tastes are very eclictic! 😂

  • True Beauty
  • The Smile Has Left Your Eyes
  • The Secret Life of My Secretary
  • My Country: The New Age
  • Empire of Lust

True Beauty

In February, I finished watching True Beauty. I already talked about it in my January post so I won’t ramble on and on but I really liked it. It’s a very cutesy and cheesy Korean drama that still manages to deal with harder topics such as bullying, teen suicide and unattainable beauty standards. It ended in a very satisfying way and I can definitely see myself rewatching it in a few years.

My Country: The New Age

My Country: The New Age is one of the best (if not the best) historical dramas I have ever watched. Set during the transitional period between the Goryeo and the Joseon dynasty, it follows two best friends who find themselves at opposing sides during the war.

This is not a happy story so prepare tissues before watching but it’s amazing. The story, the actors, the cinematography and the music… everything is perfect. I was very excited to watch it because Woo Do Hwan, one of my favorite actors, has a lead role but I fell in love with the entire cast especially the incredible Jang Hyuk who played Yi Bang Won, one of the first king of the Joseon dynasty and a very polarizing figure in Korean history.

  • Woo Do Hwan as Nam Sun Ho
  • Jang Hyuk as Yi Bang Won

My only issue with this drama was the completely unnecessary love triangle that was pretty annoying in the first few episodes. Thankfully, the entire love story plotline quickly faded in the background when the plot started moving. I would be very, very surprised if My Country didn’t make it in the top 3 of my favorite TV series of 2021. It’s available on Netflix if you want to give it a watch!

Empire of Lust

I loved My Country so much that when I discovered that Jang Hyuk actually previously played the character of Yi Bang Won in Empire of Lust, a movie set during the same time period, I knew I HAD to watch it! I was so excited about this movie that I watched it one day after finishing My Country and sadly, it wasn’t nearly as great as I wanted it to be. While Jang Hyuk was still incredible as Yi Bang Won, the movie wasn’t really focused on the fascinating historical events, it was mostly about a tragic love story and I didn’t really care about it. I learnt after watching it that Jang Hyuk himself was disappointed by the movie hence why he chose to star in My Country as the same character.

The Smile Has Left Your Eyes

Because apparently My Country wasn’t sad enough, I decided to give a try to The Smile Has Left Your Eyes, a story about two people with tragic lives who fall in love with each other.

As the title implies, it’s not a happy tale and their relationship is actually very toxic. I watched about half of the show before dropping it and after reading spoilers about the show, I’m glad I did. The actors were amazing (I’m a huge fan of Jung So Min) but it was just too dark and messed-up for me. And that’s saying something coming from me because I usually like dark stories. Maybe I wasn’t in the right head space for this drama but it wasn’t working for me.

The Secret Life of My Secretary

After that, I needed something cute and funny so I decided to watch The Secret Life of My Secretary. The story is too convoluted for me to explain it well but it’s basically a cute romcom following the love story between a department manager of a big company and his secretary. This drama is completely over the top but it was hilarious and fun and I had a great time watching it in the span of a few days.

It reminded me quite a bit of What’s Wrong With Secretary, one of my favorite romcom kdramas but even goofier. I wouldn’t recommend it for someone who never watched a kdrama because the plot is nonsensical but if you already like cheesy and funny dramas then this is a must watch.

Peaky Blinders

I surprisingly sometimes watch things that are not set in South Korea! 😉

I finally watched Season 1 to 5 of Peaky Blinders, a historical TV show set in Birmingham after World War I and following Thomas Shelby, the leader of the Peaky Blinders gang. I have been hearing about this series for years at this point and I finally decided to watch it. I have mixed feelings about this show.

I really liked the first season because it showed how much the WWI impacted Great Britain and the people who fought for their country. I loved the cinematography, the actors and the story and I was very excited to watch the rest of the series with a friend.

Sadly, the show slowly lost me. I liked the 2nd season enough but from Season 3 to 5, everything went downhill. Season 5 was especially terrible: the actors were still amazing (Cillian Murphy and Helen McCrory are truly incredible) but the story was all over the place and all the characters have lost their appeal (especially Thomas Shelby who is acting like a paranoid and sexist asshole the entire time). If I had been watching the show on my own, I think I would have dropped it at the middle of the 3rd season when the show started to show more sex scenes than action scenes. 🙄 However it was a lot of fun to rant about it with my friend so, we watched all the episodes available together. My expectations for the final season are very low and to be honest, if my friend doesn’t want to watch it with me, I don’t think I will bother. I might just read a recap of it.

That was a long one indeed, I hope it wasn’t too boring for you but I always love talking about what I’m watching. If you have watched any of the shows I mentioned, I would love to know what you thought about them! What have you been watching recently? 😀

5 thoughts on “February – April Media in Review (a.k.a The Rupaul Drag Race Edition)”

  2. This was wonderful because I am a huge Kdrama addict. I think we’ve discussed Kdramas before? Add to that, any show which has Jang Hyuk is a must watch for me, so I’m really glad you enjoyed My Country as well. Though, of course, he’s made some really bad drama choices too, like Shine or Go Crazy….

    The Smile Has Left Your Eyes is based on a Japanese show called 100 Million Stars Falling From the Sky, which takes DARK to a whole new level. In the Kdrama version, they’ve tried to tone down things a bit, but there’s only so much you can do to the storyline. I gave up very close to end game, because I couldn’t handle all the tragedy either.

    These days I am watching Sell your Haunted House, and I recommend it highly. We are 10 episodes in, and it’s brilliant. Let’s hope it stays that way!

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    1. Yes, we did! 😀 I’m always glad to gush about dramas with another avid watcher. 😉
      My Country was so soo good and I’m glad I now know about Jang Hyuk! I definitely want to watch his other works (thanks for pointing out that Shine or Go Crazy is terrible, I will pass on that one)
      I heard good things about it, I’m going to add it to my ever-growing watchlist. 😀

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