media rants: When The Phone Rings

I was never one to start an unfinished drama as I couldn't stand the thought of impatiently waiting for the next episodes to release. Yet, when my friend was raving about When The Phone Rings, I couldn't resist the temptation and followed along the journey whilst the episodes were being released.

Before I deep dive into my thoughts, I do want to address my unhappiness with what happened in the last episode where MBC showed a pro-Israel in one of the scenes. This line was absolutely unnecessary towards the whole plot of the drama and is insensitive towards the oppression and genocide that the Palestinian people are experiencing. Free Palestine!

Moving on.

The 3 things that really got me hooked to the drama were 

1. The plot was layered and complicated but was still easy to follow. For those who don't know, When The Phone Rings was originally a web novel turned kdrama. What I love about web novels is that beginner writers have this imagination where every single character has a complicated backstory. Yet somehow, audiences are easily able to follow the plot line and everything comes together so nicely in the end.
2. The chemistry between the main leads made you feel invested in their story. No wonder why the main leads won best on-screen couple because if you had told me that they were dating in real life, I wouldn't have batted an eyelid at that. Recently, I've been watching a few kdramas where the chemistry between the leads has been off putting or you don't become invested into their story. I don't think I've watched any of their work before, but Chae Soobin and Yoo Yeonseok did an amazing job in their acting and I can't wait to watch more of their projects!
3. The community, I really enjoyed scrolling on reddit and reading everyone's theories about the character backstories. One perk about watching an unfinished drama is being part of the community, waiting in anticipation for the new episode to come out. Everyone's talking about the details they've noticed, their theories and general love for the drama which is so heartwarming. I always scroll reddit when watching a show but being part of the conversation live is a totally different feeling.

My main takeaway from the drama is that to live life to the fullest, it requires courage and honesty. The scene that had the biggest impact on me is the parallel universe one where the main leads were both imagining what would've happened if they had been honest about their feelings from the start. What would've happened if they were courageous and honest with each other, but most importantly, themselves. I'm someone who does not want to live a life of regret yet, in the past year I've been a coward when it came to certain aspects of my life. This drama in a way, inspired my word of the year to be audacity. I want to be honest about what I want in life, and have the audacity to take risks in my life, so that I can have no regret and live life to the fullest.