Season 1
[Spoiler Alert] In this episode of K-Drama School, Grace discusses the show Now, We Are Breaking Up (2021, SBS) starring Song Hye-kyo and Jang Ki-yong. Grace examines this show’s modernist take on female sexuality which conflicts awkwardly with the reality of romantic/sexual expectations and politics. Grace analyzes how this show does not overly fetishize white countries as much as some of the earlier K-dramas by placing Korea’s domestic pride at the forefront. Grace also notices that the building that Mr. J uses as his studio is the same building that Mi-do’s family’s bookstore ran out of from When a Man Loves (2013, MBC). You heard it here first! Grace’s guest is LA-based comedian Julia Stone (@akajuliastone on Instagram). They discuss feeling like a loser whether one is employed or unemployed, being a twin, being an expectant aunt, being from New Zealand, conspiracy theories around the war in the Ukraine and the US’s involvement, dreams of writing for late night TV, and coming up with an entirely new game show. Follow @KDramaSchool on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. Visit kdramachool.com to learn more.
[Spoiler Alert] In this episode of K-Drama School, Grace discusses the show Dinner Mate (2020, MBC) starring Song Seung-hun and Seo Ji-hye. Grace wonders if Seo Ji-hye has the qualities of a lead actress and debates what sets apart a lead from a supporting actor using the metaphor of power divas versus pop singers. Grace’s guest is LA-based comedian, actor and filmmaker Tatenda Mbduzi (@tatendambudzion Instagram). They discuss their favorite super heroes, why Batman is better than Superman, meeting Ben Affleck, love for Jennifer Garner, growing up in Zimbabwe, London and Upstate New York, doing a one-man show, growing up with a hybrid-Christian religion, indigenous religions, witch hunt, and how comedy helps us or hurts us. Follow @KDramaSchool on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. Visit kdramachool.com to learn more.
[Spoiler Alert] In this episode of K-Drama School, Grace discusses the show Truth (2000, MBC) starring Choi Ji-woo, Ryu Si-won and Park Sun-young. Grace sees the show from a new perspective with greater empathy for the villain’s character whose qualities are spoken for by her abusive father and fiancée. Grace’s guest is LA-based comedian Kevin Chu (@kevichu on Instagram). They discuss overcompensation, the art of slurping noodles, dating profiles, Chinese school, and Asian community disciplinarians. Follow @KDramaSchool on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. Visit kdramachool.com to learn more.
[Spoiler Alert] In this episode of K-Drama School, Grace discusses the show Producers (2015, KBS), and the K-drama-hits-churning writer Park Ji-eun (My Love From the Star, Legend of the Blue Sea, and Crash Landing on You) whose writing career includes sit-coms, variety shows and talk radio before dramas. Grace gets into how Producers is self-reflexive in its critique of the music industry’s treatment of K-pop stars and its intense work hours behind the scenes of a variety show. Grace’s guest is London-based comedian Kate Cheka (@katecheka on Instagram). They discuss growing as comedians, the Woke Panties Show in Berlin, managers, vision boards, burning out, education, writing a book, and crystal dildos. Follow @KDramaSchool on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. Visit kdramachool.com to learn more.
[Spoiler Alert] In this episode of K-Drama School, Grace discusses the show Misaeng (2014, tvN), and how it exhibits a poor man’s vision of capitalism, and how Yoon Tae-ho struggled in his early years as an artist. This was recorded on Grace’s birthday, and she talks about how she feels being in her mid-thirties, reflecting on her past and present, and how she feels about herself today. Grace’s guest is LA-based comedian Olivia Hill (@freesampleolivia on Instagram). They discuss comedy and COVID-19, makeup tutorials, content creation, being intentional, singing karoke while tone-deaf, not drinking alcohol, the private funny memories we carry in our own minds, confidence, creating an oracle deck, The Artist’s Way, and the catharsis of taking a friend out to a fancy dinner each month. Follow @KDramaSchool on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. Visit kdramachool.com to learn more.
[Spoiler Alert] In this episode of K-Drama School, Grace discusses the show Winter Sonata (2002, KBS) and how it catapulted Bae Yong-joon and Choi Ji-woo into hallyu fame. Grace wonders how it was possible for Bae Yong-joon to retire from acting. Is there such a thing as retiring from art? Is that possible? Where does the love for that art form go when one retires their career? Grace’s guest is LA-based comedian Willie Simon (@williesimon_ on Instagram). They discuss growing up in Maui, college and comedy in Seattle, witnessing aging, Louie Anderson, witnessing comics who bomb but are oblivious to it, and how to write a K-drama like Stars Wars. Follow @KDramaSchool on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. Visit kdramachool.com to learn more.
[Spoiler Alert] In this episode of K-Drama School, Grace discusses the show Our Beloved Summer (SBS, 2021-2022). Grace talks about Kim Dami and Choi Woo-shik’s acting careers, their awkward romantic chemistry on the small screen, and how K-dramas today are exhibiting “first” world problems as opposed to more developing-nation problems seen in dramas from 20+ years ago. Grace’s guest is LA-based comedian Mike Rose (@themikerose on Instagram), and their discussion is a deep textual analysis of Sean Baker’s latest film Red Rocket (2021), Santa Clause and reindeers’ pagan mythology being associated with amanita mushrooms’ hallucinogenic properties, how Red Rocket is comparable to Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria, the time Mike corresponded with Sean Baker, how marginalized people live off the “edge of industry,” Simon Rex’s Hollywood history as a teen movie celebrity with a past in porn, Rex’s gorgeous penis, his past as an MTV VJ, male body image issues, how Red Rocket exposes useless masculinity that justifies its presence by emphasizing stereotypical female weakness, the stigmatization of sex workers, the extent of Mikey Saber’s rationalizing for his own survival, the “nerve” of the filmmaker to use NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye” in the opening of the film, and their great love for the performances and explorations in this film. Follow @KDramaSchool on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. Visit kdramachool.com to learn more.
[Spoiler Alert] In this episode of K-Drama School, Grace discusses the show The Lady in Dignity (JTBC, 2017), which as of January 2022, is in the top 20 highest viewed cable K-drama series of all time. Grace talks about Kim Hee-sun’s second wave in her post-marriage/child birth acting career, Kim Sun-a as the anti-heroine and how K-dramas need to make more anti-heroine shows without killing them off or punishing them. Grace’s guest is LA-based comedian David Ayala (@davidayalasok on Instagram). They talk about David’s auteurship on his new variety series which is currently in production, how one should always get fired or laid off from a job—never quit, prioritizing play for creativity, almost throwing up in midst of positive affirmations, wetting the bed, edging, how Pineapple Express made David want to be a comedian, anime and manga fandom, how our bodies renew completely every 10 years, and doing stand-up as a thirteen-year-old at a jazz club to dead silence. This episode has cameo appearances made by Bing Bong (Sofia Coppola) the cat and Cammy the dog. Follow @KDramaSchool on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. Visit kdramachool.com to learn more.
[Spoiler Alert] In this episode of K-Drama School, Grace discusses the show When a Man Loves (MBC, 2013) and the show writer Kim In-young’s zany, bold and risk-taking choices in her career. Grace also admires Song Seung-hun’s radical choices as an actor to play bizarre, complicated, and camp characters on TV and film. Grace’s guest is LA-based comedian JP Puthenveetil (@jpputhenveetil on Instagram). They discuss comedy writing, working for the Disney Channel, how production companies and networks trap artists in one lane, growing up in North Carolina as Indian but without racism, a cat named Baz, shock-value comedy, some jokes that age better with time, performing in Nashville and doing Zoom comedy shows during the height of the pandemic. Follow @KDramaSchool on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. Visit kdramachool.com to learn more.
[Spoiler Alert] In this episode of K-Drama School, Grace discusses the show Hospital Playlist (tvN, 2020-2021) and the writer Lee Woo-jung’s career as a variety show writer into a K-drama writer, and how hospital dramas tend to write themselves because death and disease always keep the episodes’ stakes high. Grace’s guest is France-based Romanian comedian Magda Mihaila (@magdulicious on Instagram). They discuss being born into communist Romania to elderly parents in the countryside, being raised by her older sister, abortion rights, doctor-patient relationships and their ethicality in the context of human rights, doctors who sexually assault young girls, the myth of globalization, and getting her video shown on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Follow @KDramaSchool on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. Visit kdramachool.com to learn more.