I’m bad in watching series.
Whenever there are new popular series, my first question is: “Does it have a happy ending?” Yes, I haven’t watched “The Game of Thrones”, and never will.
I also can’t watch movies with a very intensive storyline. While I enjoy thriller or detective shows, there is a specific limit on when and how I can watch it. The reason? Thanks to my overthinking, I have a habit of making my life more complicated than it should be as if it’s not stressful enough. Another thing I noticed from many popular series is how the characters tend to “quip.” A character says something, and without missing a beat, another character replies, usually with a sarcastic tone and some smart-ass sentences. Not that I hate it (“hate” is such a strong word on this,) but it can be really tiring quickly. Also, there are a lot of camera movements, and hoooooo boy, my vertigo already protesting.
That said, if you are like me and you gravitate towards light, feel-good, and calming shows, you can check these series and see how it feels for you (and yes! The drawings, other than the webtoon snapshot, are from yours truly ?)
The Road to Red Restaurants List (Zetsumeshi Road)
Available on Netflix, this series tells the story of a regular Japanese salaryman, Tamio Suda, who spends his weekends driving and “camping” (well, not exactly camping. More like spending a night in a van) to different towns and cities in Japan. One day, he stumbled upon an udon restaurant on the foot of Mount Fuji and thus started his adventure of finding “endangered restaurants,”; restaurants that will be gone once the current owner/cook passed away or decided to retire.
While the focus is food, the series offers so much more: An aging community, curiosity in life, courage, freedom, and enjoying the present. All of the restaurants mentioned throughout the series exist in real-life, and I hope the series helped the restaurants to continue their business so it won’t be endangered anymore!
The Sound of Your Heart
This is a K-drama series on Netflix based on a mega-popular webtoon with the same title. The series tells the life of a webtoon creator, Cho Seok, and his family and friends. Fun fact: Cho Seok is the webtoon creator for “The Sound of Your Heart”!
Many K-drama fans commented that the webtoon is far funnier than the series, but I guess that’s how it is with live adaptation. The webtoon definitely shows a lot of slapstick comedies and outrageous humor.
Only Murders in the Building
Hands down, my favorite from Disney+. My husband enjoys movies and series, so our Disney+ subscription is definitely being spent wisely by him since I watch only this series. I love how unusual the cast is. A group of strangers connected by their love of podcasts and true crime solving, well, true crimes. This series is… Quirky. I honestly don’t know if “quirky” is the right word for it, but it’s “unusual” in its own way. This series gives me a similar feeling to “Elementary”; those small things, the props that show the characters’ personalities, somehow shine through, giving out warm and fluffy feelings whenever I watch it. Yes, the central topic of the series is murder, but it also delves into some seemingly unimportant things. Yet, it becomes “that” character, such as Oliver’s obsession with hummus dips and Mabel’s general annoyance whenever Oliver and Charles try to be “hip” and throw some Gen Z lingos.
Sister Boniface Mysteries
This series is available on BBCPlayer, and it’s just so quintessentially English (I’m sorry, I can’t help myself.) Sister Boniface Mysteries is a cozy detective series with a nun as the central character. While there are bound to be some “plot holes,” I really appreciate how soft and kind this series is. One of my favorites is when Detective Inspector Sam Gillespie shared his experience during his time serving in war — on how the hatred and the horrors of war should be a thing of the past.
And now, I just realized they have the latest episode of “Only Murders in the Building,” so I’m just going to curl myself with a cup of warm milk tea and click the play button.