The Korean drama to keep an eye on this season: Netflix’s Little Women
You guys know I watch a lot of Korean dramas. You, on the other hand, might only watch them occasionally, like Squid Game or Mr. Sunshine – basically, something on that level. Though it may be a bit early to tell, there may be one such series this season: Little Women, currently streaming weekly on Netflix.
I have no idea why it’s called Little Women. Maybe it is a weird translation of the original Korean title. In any case, it is a drama centered on the lives of three sisters – an accountant, a reporter, and a talented artist who’s still in high-school – who are scraping by due to their familial situation. Basically, they are poor. Somehow, they each get tangled in a complicated web of events and circumstances that will either change their lives, or destroy them.
In the beginning of the series – basically the whole first episode – we see the lives of the sisters (all familiar faces, if you’ve watched recent k-dramas on Netflix) as they try to live their lives without drowning. However, they love their youngest sister so much that they are willing to sacrifice anything for her, even if it means adding to their already heavy burdens. This whole set-up, as K-dramas often do, is long and winding. In this case, much like the beginning of Squid Game, is pretty much, as my cousin would call it, “poverty porn”. But some of the scenes that depict the sisters’ lives will merit a re-watch once the real intrigue and mystery comes into play. All this is to say that we see that their current lives are miserable, despite trying so hard, and shows us that they have all the reason to want to have and be more.
I hate the drip-feed method of showing episodes every week instead of just dumping it all for me to binge at my leisure, and I especially hated it here. I’m not usually expressive in person, but I actually made disgruntled noises (I don’t know what to call them okay!) in frustration when the next episode was not available. They show two episodes a week: one on Saturday and one on Sunday. However, it didn't show up at midnight on the dot. It didn't even show up several hours later at 5 or 6 am. Why am I up waiting for these episodes? Because sometimes I’m a little crazy. Okay, the real reason is sometimes I’m just up at that time. But there are times when I’m actually waiting for episodes to drop. Thankfully, this wasn’t one of those times, but it still frustrated me enough for me to dream about it when I went to bed.
Right now, it is only 4 episodes in (out of a total of 12), and I’m not sure if the depth and layers of the intrigue and mystery will hold up throughout the entire season. The pacing seemed to be a bit off in the 4th episode though there were points where the story recovered and drew me back in. For those uneven moments, I was hesitant to fast forward through them in case it held something… some clue… for a future answer. I am cautiously optimistic that they will keep the intensity up through the series.
It is, of course, very difficult to write too much about it without going into spoilers, and you know we don’t like spoilers on here (unlike some sites that will blatantly put spoilers in their article titles). But this one is definitely one to watch, whether you’re a fan of K-dramas or just an occasional viewer. Do not miss out on this.
And for those of you in Singapore, you’ll be in for a treat as it is featured quite heavily throughout the series.
I know I said we hate spoilers here, and we do, but we will occasionally add them when needed but with a healthy spoiler warning. But I am adding one here, at the very bottom, because I selfishly want to call out something… possibly something outlandish… before the real, obvious clues start pointing to it and making it… well, obvious.
Fair warning! No more article after this. It ended 2 paragraphs ago. Only attempt to read them if you’ve seen up to episode 4. However, I don’t recommend reading it until end of the series... just to see if I’m right.
The rich family is trying to steal the youngest sister to add to their family… maybe even going so far to replace their daughter (who they see as less capable) with the youngest sister. They do this by sending them both overseas for a spell, having them live close together, and then only bringing one back (the youngest sister) and claiming that it is their daughter. Sounds crazy, but I’m seeing clues from the series that this is possible. And no, they aren’t trying to get the girl for some sick fantasy for the rich guy (the father).
Also, one more theory: the rich wife is the mastermind behind everything. She is manipulating everyone, including the husband who thinks he is in charge. This one is a more obvious one, to me at least.
If you’ve read this far before the series has ended, then let’s see how these theories stand up when we get closer to the end of the series.
