Welcome to Stars in My Pocket! We’re starting this podcast with a lot of excitement, trepidation, and love. We hope you enjoy listening to us talk about Korean dramas as much as we had fun talking.
In this first episode, Saya and Festerfaster try to talk about Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo, but keep getting distracted and going off on tangents. They also often forget to mention the names of the actors/characters they’re referring to (they each have Vulcan mind-reading abilities where the other is concerned), and so the show notes below attempt to aid bemused listeners in following along with all topic-hopping and speed-talking!
Cast & Characters
Lee Sung-kyung as Kim Bok-joo
Nam Joo-hyuk as Jung Joon-hyung
Lee Jae-yoon as Jung Jae-yi
Yoo Da-in as Go Ah-young
Show Notes
00:22. An introduction to Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo by our awkward podcasters.
00:50. The difference between the narrative structures of books versus dramas, and Festerfaster has strong feelings about lazy writing. Mentioned: Cinderella and the Four Knights; in books, Catherine Gilbert Murdock’s Dairy Queen series.
05:00. We talk about Kim Bok-joo’s surprisingly well-rounded character arc, and how Festerfaster couldn’t recognise Lee Sung-kyung in the Weightlifting Fairy promos because of her haircut.
07:55. Chaos: Festerfaster’s foster puppy has a snack from her cats’ litter box, which causes some mild swearing mid-recording.
10:10. Lee Sung-kyung’s versatility and willingness to go “ugly” for Weightlifting Fairy, and how she was badly underused in Doctors.
13:50. Deliberately annoying female characters vs. unintentionally annoying. Mentioned: Kim Hee-sun in the first four episodes of Faith: The Great Doctor; Seo Hyun-jin in Another Oh Hae-young; Gong Hyo-jin in It’s Okay, It’s Love; Gong Hyo-jin again as Na-ri in Jealousy Incarnate.
22:15. The character-building experience of voicing an unpopular opinion to a wide audience. Reference to Saya’s recap of episode 14 of Jealousy Incarnate on Dramabeans.
27:40. Saya’s concern that Nam Joo-hyuk would be awful in Weightlifting Fairy because of his less than stellar work in Who Are You—School 2015.
32:20. Festerfaster agonises over her inability to pronounce Korean names correctly; Saya laughs.
34:20. Festerfaster disagrees with Saya that Nam Joo-hyuk resembles Park Hae-jin. Catfight ensues.
36:00. Back to Weightlifting Fairy, and the relief of finally finding a decent therapist in dramaland, but then the problem of hero Joon-hyung’s (Nam Joo-hyuk) issues getting pushed to the background in favour of Bok-joo’s development.
40:30. Some of the issues around live-shooting and pre-production. Mentioned: the debacle of Cheese in the Trap, the perfection of Squad 38/Police Unit 38/Taskforce 38 (the show that had fifty names…).
46:00. Segue to Solomon’s Perjury and its tight plotting, and what it’s like covering a show with very little feedback. Further segue to Superdaddy Yeol, and the drudgery of investing time in a drama that refuses to get good. We also discuss the dilemma of how much of our opinions we should share with the world.
50:15. Saya is a nerd who makes way too many notes on everything she watches. Also, Festerfaster discovers the auto-save feature of Notepad+.
54:00. Back to Weightlifting Fairy (again): how long is too long when it comes to an unrequited crush on your friend? We discuss the loveline between big brother Jae-yi (Lee Jae-yoon) and his childhood-friend-now-doctor-colleague, Ah-young (Yoo Da-in), and how scarred Saya was by Yoo Da-in’s character in Plus Nine Boys.
57:30. How wasted Ji Sung was in Entertainer, and how much we love Lee Bo-young (although Festerfaster does not love her with Park Soo-ha A.K.A Lee Jong-seok).
60:00. Saya fails at convincing her friend to watch Signal because of her appalling verbal recapping skills.
Dramas Over Flowers 