January 2018 New Wed-Thurs K-dramas Return and Mother Off to Strong Ratings Start

I’ve been mostly out of commission since the new year so haven’t watched any new K-drama in a few weeks. I’m trying to finish up I am Not a Robot (so nonsensical but sweet) and Hwayugi (entertaining but inconsistent) but two high profile new releases this month have both started off promising already. SBS Wed-Thurs police thriller Return with Go Hyun JungLee Jin Wook, and Shin Sung Rok has already leaped to the front of the time slot ratings, with the second week’s episodes reaching 15% in ratings in a surprising sign of strength.

The drama premiered with 6.7% and 8.5% AGB for the first two episodes (it’s a two episode a night schedule) and now in the fourth night of airing this Thursday’s episodes 7 and 8 brought in 12.7% and 15.2% AGB nationwide ratings respectively. Same time slot competition former ratings leader Black Knight hit it’s high point in ratings at 13.2% AGB in episode 8 and since then has down trended with the most recent episode 16 taking in only 8.6% ratings. Over on cable network tvN, Lee Bo Young‘s new drama Mother premiered this week at 2.952% for episode 1 and the second night garnered 3.494% for episode 2. Both Return and Mother are darker fare and with Robot done the Wed-Thurs slot will remain serious for the time being.


Comments

January 2018 New Wed-Thurs K-dramas Return and Mother Off to Strong Ratings Start — 39 Comments

  1. Black Knight has become a joke, and a boring, repetitive one at that. KRW has made a bad choice with this writer, and his performance is fast slipping from endearing to cheesy and now, almost sleazy. Making unabashed advances on your girlfriend is endearing at first, but to do that almost every episode and every scene while not backed up by decent plot or character development is like an overfeeding of soft porn. A turn-off actually. He should have been warned about this writer’s track record. When a Man Falls in Love was a hot mess, with the second male lead jumping into bed with SSK, only to be run into by the male lead SSH. If it was not for SSH’s objection, the script originally called for SSH killing SSK with his own hands. What a mess. With its impossibly silly twists and turns, at least that one had the advantage of fast pace and mind-boggling plot development, this current one is instead so slow and running in circles around what threatens to be a very underwhelming and hollow story. And it is going to be 20 episodes long.

    • Agree with what u said n this writer makes a worse script abt love triangle frm ruler master of the mask at least that drama only make kim so hyun the second lead..but black knight should be retitled as the Sharon’s tale in 200 years of her life..everything is abt her and kim rae won only hv 1 expression throughout the drama which is the one on the poster..can’t force myself to watch aftr ep 8..
      At least robot cast n crew were really gud with great chemistry even though the story doesn’t make sense but i think i got the healing drama feel frm watching it..it doesn’t strayto far frm its plot..while black knight is now all abs sharon doesn’t understand she’s bein rejected for over 200 years..its a shame that it was good at the beginning..

    • I agree with almost everything but soft porn???? What a weird way to go considering they barely make out. They just hug each other and sometime kiss on the cheek. That was turned into a weird road. It’s fluffy mushy in a too cheesy it’s disgusting way. I disagreed with their first unconsented and Unwelcomed kiss and I also disagree with how he manipulated they way she ended up living with him. However he seems to respect her space and decisions. There is barely an sexual activity. Just affection through lots of skinship. I’m curious how you could compare it to soft porn?

      • Considering how @eva said that SSK’s character ”jumped into bed” with the second male lead in When A Man Loves, it seems this eva thinks that anything beyond wide eyes ’innocent’ kiss is soft porn. Seo Mi Do didn’t jump in bed lol, she kissed the second male lead only lol. I do, however, agree that BK has too many pointless skinship scenes without any effect in them. They look forced and sleazy tbh. And I feel like SSK is showing more emotions than KRW which is a surprise since I expected KRW to be the one with more expressions

  2. I stopped Black Night and INAR. The writting was too bad. In Black Night, the romanticism is too much cringy and the story not very interesting. In INAR, the story is so stupid in the first place and I don’t like drama using cuteness hoping we will just forget that the plot is meh. For Hwayugi, I would like to know more about the fantasy part, because the ” You love me but only because of the bracelet” becomes a little bit boring… Return is interesting, there are many characters, no love story for now.

      • 16 epsiodes to see a cute ending ? No, thank you. I read review of this drama hoping it will better, I mean there is YSH in and love him. But the military part was not necessary for the story, he already felt lonely during all the drama…

      • The military was necessary if you’ve watched the drama. In the first ep, he was being detained on assumption that he’s dodging his military service because of some nonexistent human allergy thing. So it was cute for him to do his service after being cured, cuter because someone like YSH have already finished his in real life.

    • I tried to watch both Black Night, INAR, and Jugglers at the end of the year. Out of the three, the only one I kept following was Jugglers – even though it was way predictable. I think Kdramas need to move on from this fantasy theme – they either don’t make sense or they are unbelievable. I started to watch Return, but was disappointed that GHJ doesn’t have as much screen time, it’s more of an assemble casting drama. Also, the storyline is starting to get unbelievable too and you question the intelligence of some of the characters.

      I really miss the good old days of Korean historical dramas about characters overcoming hardships. There are so many modern dramas these days – are historicals too expensive to produce or something???

  3. I heard Return is very similar to the film ‘The Loft’, may watch after Prison Playbook. Black Knight is awful, KRW – why did you pick this drama?

  4. Go Hyun Jung’s star power is no joke and she is always captivating. Black Knight is one hell of a crappy drama. I dont understand why KRW wanted to do this drama in the first place. It’s tainting his impeccable resume. Thank god I dropped it early because everything about this drama just not making sense.

    • He said the director convinced him into it.. lol he should have not trusted the director because the writer is hopeless

  5. Black Knight is so bad. The man was supposed to be the black knight but he can’t even save his own a*s lol. I have no idea why KRW took this drama, he only said that he trusted the director. It was supposed to be Goblin-like but it’s even worse than Goblin, at least Goblin had good ratings and hype. This has none of that. I just finally have to drop this drama after when those thugs threw a stone at Moon Soo Ho’s head and like bunch of middle schooler bullies. Such a pointless and a waste of time drama. Better luck next time, KRW. Choose dramas like Punch. You’re too old for childish dramas like BK.

    • same here… I could not even get pass the first episode of BK… never understand the hype about this drama and now the ratings show. Nothing to watch these days except Hwayugi… K-dramaland has been very boring… Return & Mother are too heavy for my entertainment… I prolly have to wait for the two Kim’s dramas for a breathe of fresh air… sigh…

      • BK was so bad since the first episode, tried to be the copy of Goblin but it was so bad. I think kdrama writers are running out of ideas. Lets hope the Kim’s dramas will be more exciting, although I have a bad feeling about Kim Yoo Jung’s cleaning drama because of the male lead

  6. Go hyun Jung is the queen!!!!I am beginning to think Kim Rae Won is better off being paired with actresses around his own age for romance dramas.They are plenty of them.The writer of this Black Knight needs to reflect.How can she be consistently bad.

  7. Black Knight started off soo good. It gave me the feels I haven’t felt for a long time but then it went down the hill, like what the heck happened??? i stopped watching at ep 13 might continue when it finishes airing. I am just ashamed for the cast and myself too for feeling giddy and also recommending it to people and even posting it on IG…..Why writer nim? why?? why???

  8. I thought ms. Koala won’t ever mention Return lol

    Go hyun jung is no joke (she’s trending for 2 days on naver after return’s press conference)

    and all the other actors are doing great, the story is interesting, funny in some part, and crazy in most part

  9. I’m really sorry to hear that you’ve been out of commission, Koala– sending my best wishes and I hope you take good care of yourself as you recover from whatever it is you’re going through. Fighting!

  10. Black knight went downhill after that amazing flashback of the leads past life
    But it just got so stupid and the male lead is soooooo cheesy.
    The drama only cares about being pretty without any plot

    Hwayugi on the other hand is really creative. The otp is so good and the bracelet thing is purposwdly used to confuse their feelings for each other

  11. Black Knight is for when life gets too real and you need to escape with something super cheesey. It’s something my 13 year old cousin would like. I’m still watching it specifically because I’ve watched too much black mirror and I need some cheesey break.

  12. I watch kdramas to be entertained and INAR did that for me and went further and became an incredibly heartfelt and warm drama towards the end and I will always appreciate it for that.

    I realized in this new year that FOR ME, visiting forums where people who are fed up with the general state of kdramas that almost always end up criticizing what they find wrong with dramas (which is totally fine, I’m not saying it should not be done!!) have really taken the joy out of watching kdramas FOR ME. Once again its not *just* this site, I see it everywhere since the “kdramas aren’t as interesting” sentiment is quite pervasive now. I realized I’ve probably missed out on kdramas I would have genuinelyt enjoyed flaws and all because I was paying tr

    • Sorry about that, part of this comment should be in the one below together but the crappy tablet I’m using messed the posting up *sigh*

  13. I watch kdramas to be entertained (well, who doesn’t?), that’s all I’ve ever asked for and INAR did that for me and went even further and became an incredibly heartfelt and warm drama towards the end and I will always appreciate it for that. It definitely had its flaws but still, I thoroughly enjoyed watching it and really looked forward to it compared to many other dramas.

    YSH and CSB (especially YSH) hit it out the park during the emotional climax of the drama. His dramatic monologue during the last few episodes was one of the best I’ve seen in a kdrama in ages. Anyway, I hope the writer can build on the strengths in her writing here and learn from their missteps. The actors elevated their writing but the person also has potential IMO.

    I will always appreciate good quality, well rounded dramas (especially when they are enjoyable and crack status) but personally I will still fully enjoy a heartfelt kdrama with obvious flaws that still really captures me. I don’t expect or assume others will be OK with too many flaws and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, watch what you like! Anyway I’m hoping we see some good and entertaining dramas this year. Mother and Return are good so far but I hope we get a more diverse offering of genres this year.

    • Yeah INAR has been getting some comment love, I really loved it because it kept me engaged and I cared for the characters.

      Also CSB got a lot of hate here for taking this drama but her and YSH together was the best part of it, their chemistry was incredible.

  14. I’m Not A Robot might be a silly fluff drama with a weird plot but the good acting, character writing and OTP chemistry make it worth the watch. I thought it had a much more satisfying second half and conclusion than some more hyped dramas of the last year, in this case ratings are really no reflection on quality.

  15. mother is a good drama, but unfortunately I’ve seen the Japanese version, which I think I prefer the Japanese version, probably because the japanese version is simpler and darker

  16. Return until now is good Shin Sung Rok is so good when he plays the villain. I’ve always love GHJ since “Foxy lady” in 2006. But i want to know how Lee Jin Wook ( an actor that i like) can take a role after his sex scandal, when some in this blog still commenting about the end of the carreer of Yoon Eun Hye after a pseudo scandal that even didn’t reach the court ? Hollywood actresses can always wait for sex equality !!!

    • I think YEH can come back any time she wants and does appear to be getting offers but haters are gonna hate. I remember LJW’s situation and it did appear to be a pretty believable he said/she said. I know that is still a scandal and am a little surprised he rebounded so quickly.

    • @cahill, don’t take it into your heart sis. There are always “people” who want to give impression that YEH career is done despite they know nothing about her more than her fans. If YEH turns down some acting offers it doesn’t mean she couldn’t come back but because it’s HER CHOICE. On her interview in “Dear My Human” she said that she didn’t intend to make any acting come back yet. I think if she’s ready she will announce it soon.
      It seems that she’s still enjoying her time behind the camera more as she’s involved in a youth award event as a judge recently.
      Btw, happy year 2018 too 😉

  17. return get high rating cuz of GHJ SSR. LJW char so boring. they should just give GHJ SSR more screen time. they both bring the drama to life.
    LJW char on the other hand make you want to take a nap.

    LBY drama could get higher rating if they didnt show ex con abuse his gf kid. dude look like a child molester with the way he hurt the poor kid. while her mom just sit by.

    YEH cant come back korean still witch hunt her. if she a man they would forget what she did. just look at that rapist PSH the man caught taking the woman to his house yet he can come back.

  18. I am not a robot was so enjoyable and cute, perfect as a simple rom com for some simple but oh so sweet entertainment. I loved every bit of it and it’s really funny. The only problem is that yoo seung ho’s cuteness was sometime too much to handle for me hhh

  19. Black Knight started off with creepy but interesting vibes. But then it just went stale all the way down ep after ep. How long have I not been able to stick with a Kdrama from very beginning to the end? I’m actually asking for recommendation of some Chinese drama as an alternative.

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