New K-dramas to watch in January 2021: Be a Meal, She Would Never Know, Marriage Lyrics and Divorce Music
- Be a Meal charts the life of a young woman with a special gift for cooking, while She Would Never Know is about a workaholic who is too busy for love
- Marriage Lyrics and Divorce Music depicts the turbulent lives and loves of three married women of varying ages and their complicated relationships
After a banner year for K-dramas, it’s time to see which new shows will sweep viewers off their feet in the new year.
Hit series such as The Uncanny Counter , Mr. Queen and The Penthouse all still on the air, but as most of those shows will wrap up in the first month of 2021, we may get a bit of breathing room, with a pretty light release calendar before some heavy hitters fill up the schedule.
Whereas last January got off to a strong start with Itaewon Class , next year looks a little quieter, particularly as Hello? It’s Me!, starring Choi Gang-hee and Kim Young-kwang, has been pushed back to early February, and some tent-pole series are preparing to launch later in the first quarter.
Nevertheless, a few exciting new shows are waiting to usher us into 2021.
Be a Meal
Taking over the Monday-to-Friday slot from My Wonderful Life will be the new half-hour series Be a Meal. Based on the novel Fantastic Girl by Kim Hye-jung, this comedy-drama focuses on Young-shin, a young woman with a special gift for cooking Korean traditional royal cuisine. Before long, she crosses paths with people who will have a major impact on her life and career, including Kyung-su, who cares about her.
Playing Young-shin is Jung Woo-yeon, a former member of the K-pop outfit 5dolls who last appeared three years ago in the drama Grand Prince, on which she was credited by her birth name, Ryu Hyo-young. (January 11, MBC)
She Would Never Know
Also based on a novel about a young woman excelling at her career (this time Sunbae, Don’t Put on That Lipstick by Elise), She Would Never Know features Won Jin-ah playing Yoon Song-a, a marketer for a cosmetics brand who is passionate about her job and dreams of one day starting her own brand.
Working in the same company as a marketer with Song-a is Chae Hyun-seung (Ro Woon). He falls for Song and tries to woo her but she does not take kindly to his advances, particularly as she wouldn’t entertain the thought of dating a younger guy.
Last seen in the time-slip drama Melting Me Softly and the films Money and Long Live the King, Won returns as a driven career woman facing a choice between her work and romance in this new Monday and Tuesday drama. (January 18, JTBC)
Marriage Lyrics and Divorce Music
Rounding out this month’s picks is Marriage Lyrics and Divorce Music, a series depicting the turbulent lives and loves of three married women, in their 30s, 40s and 50s, who all work in radio, and their partners.
The eldest is Lee Shi-eun (Jeon Soo-kyung), the main writer of a radio show who has suffered at work and helped her husband of 30 years, Park Hae-ryun (Jeon No-min), become a professor. In the middle is Sa Pi-young (Park Joo-mi), a radio producer who has a stable and happy life as a mother and wife to neuropsychiatrist Shin Yoo-shin (Lee Tae-gon), who runs his own practice.
The youngest is Bu Hye-ryeong (Lee Ga-ryung), a radio DJ who tries to balance her life and work. She and her husband Pan Sa-hyun (Sung Hoon), who works as a judge, have been married for three years and have decided not to have children. (January, TV Chosun)
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