Family by Choice Episodes 1 and 2 Recap | Reactions Summary

1. Poor little Sanha He had to hear his mother blame him for the de4th of his sister as well as disliking him for eating and smiling with their neighbor. I'm like... to his mom.

I know she's hurting but how can be so cru3l to her other child.

2. It's nice to see Hwang In Yeop again 

Currently enjoying his latest drama 

3. Two dads in a household, nope, they are both straight. They're just a family by choice.

 Hae Joon wanted a dad, he now has 2 dads. 

4. Only Kang Hae Jun would think he could wipe Yoon Ju Won dry with his sweaty jersey. 

5. This is going to be tough. Two handsome young men around one girl. 🤭 Haven't seen the Chinese version of this but I think I already know where this is going. 🤩

6. Don't worry, Ju Won, you can still be family when you ended up together later on. 

 You can start a family with him. 

7. Hae Jun was looking for his mom, but another dad came. That makes it 3 dads for Hae Jun. 

8. My new favorite trio. 
Sanha, Juwon and Hae Jun. 

Under The Queen's Umbrella Soars To 16.9% Nationwide Viewership Rating With Its Finale Episode

Under The Queen's umbrella has ended and I feel like I'm all lost again. lol But seriously, while watching the last episode 16, I already know to myself that I'm gonna miss this drama once it rolls the ending credits. It's really a good historical drama, that explains how it garnered 16.9% nationwide viewership rating on its finale. It started with a 7.64% nationwide viewership rating with its pilot episode and ends with double digits, just showed how the drama smoothly attracted a lot of viewers along the way. The actors, the plot as well as the exciting fight between Queen (Kim Hye Soo) and Queen Dowager (Kim Hae Sook) really made us all hooked. 

The dark time has passed and now the palace became a safe place for everyone. The roles of the King and Queen of a kingdom really was stressed out, depicting what it really meant to have wonderful and competitive leaders to a nation. The serenity can be felt, after all the sacrifices of both the King and Queen. Truthfully, I doubted the King whether he's really gonna punish his own mother, but after the persuasion that the Queen did with him, he finally did what was right and now he has earned my trust and respect. Yes, the Queen did a wonderful role in this successful mission but if the King doesn't possess true wisdom and good heart for a leader, all of it would've went straight down the drain. 

Moon Sang Min Becomes The Crowned Prince + Kim Hye Soo Shocked About Royal Physician's True Identity

A few weeks and episodes passed already since my last blog post/quick recap about Under The Queen's Umbrella and finally I have the energy to write another. No, I did not abandon this drama. I just made a break from blogging for a short while as I've become very busy with work but that did not mean that I stopped watching the drama actually. In fact, this drama gave me so much excitement in my dull and tiring work life in a week. lol Especially when Grand Prince Seongnam won the crown and the entrance of the crowned princess in his life. Seriously, they really have great dynamics together. Grand Prince Seongnam is such a serious, quiet, mysterious but innocent type of person while the crowned princess is a playful, bold but has golden heart type of person. The Queen sees these personalities in her and so she chose her for own son. At first, I didn't like the girl but after she stayed and supported Seongnam in the competition (taekhyeon) and after she entered the palace, I truly see that this woman is the support that the new crowned prince would need by his side. Plus, they are very cute together and I am very sure that the crowned princess would be able to teach the crowned prince how to be naughty once in a while in his life. lol You go, girl! 

Kim Hye Soo Is A Queen With A Golden Heart In Under The Queen's Umbrella Episode 9

I can't help but get amazed by this drama every week. It's serving not only of a great plot and wonderful acting performances but also heartwarming scenes that could make you feel human, again. lol I mean, we've been busy being tough to overcome daily trials in each of our own realities so we chose not to feel emotions that could make us weak, so watching good and heartfelt kdramas like this is a good help to pour our emotions that's good for our well being. Say, thank you Kdramas! lol 

Anyways, episode 9 displayed the goodness of the heart of the Queen. Dang, this woman is such a blessing to the whole palace and knowing that she's there could make everyone feel relieved. Being surrounded by hungry souls yearning for power, there's a golden heart that remains in the form of the Queen. Just look at how she looked after Prince Simso! She not only offered him food, shelter and time, she provided her love through her words of wisdom. She stayed by his side until he regained consciousness as well as confidence in himself. Seriously, the ambitions of these royal consorts to achieve power put their own child to danger. Royal consort Ko is the true example of that person who got blinded by her own ambitions and greed that deprived Prince Simso of love. I really pity Prince Simso when he was neglected by her own mother when he seek food to regain his strength. I honestly expected that he'll die in front of the palace if not by the Queen's court maid finding him. Thankfully she did and brought him to the Queen. My heart aches for him when her mother pushed him away by saying awful things such as calling him a disgrace/embarrassment to her family in front of the Queen. And I completely broke down when he tried to take his own life due to the pain he's feeling from those words. Sigh.

Kim Hye Soo Threatens Kim Hae Sook In Under The Queen's Umbrella Episode 8

Competition between the princes automatically means competition between the Queen and the royal consorts and so cheating will be inevitable. Of course, the Queen having a huge trust in the capabilities of her own sons, she won't resolve to cheating but these royal consorts will do. The winner shouldn't really come from the results of cheating or else the whole nation will definitely suffer. With this competition alone, we already know who's worthy to become the next crowned prince. 

Anyways, despite the Queen's efforts of preventing cheating, some royal consorts really prepared beforehand out of desperation. They used and dispersed people to find and provide information about the person their sons were looking for in their mission. And we all thought these tactics of the royal consorts were enough to make us annoyed and angry, however Queen Dowager really has no inhibitions when it comes to making our blood boil the fastest. Sigh. Queen Dowager really wanted the crown for Bogeum and tried to eliminate Grand Prince Seongnam by assassinating him. We've been briefed about her grave acts before through the deposed Queen Yoon but witnessing it myself just makes me speechless. She's pure evil, I know that she has conflict with the current Queen Hwaryeong but Grand Prince Seongnam is still her grandson!! Like, WTF?! 

Kim Hye Soo Is A Clever Queen In Under The Queen's Umbrella Episode 7

My admiration towards the Queen leveled up after witnessing her cleverness and bravery she displayed in episode 7. She's a perfect woman in handling her power as the Queen. During the interrogation about who brought the medicine inside the palace, I didn't doubt her intentions when she pointed at the crowned princess as the suspect. I knew instantly that she's only doing that to grant the crowned princess' wishes to exit the palace in order to protect her son, the grand heir's life. The crowned princess begged her after all. And it was clever of the Queen because she saved them without suspicions from her enemies, chief state councilor and Queen Dowager. The Queen knew that they wouldn't doubt her intentions when she says that she wanted to protect her position only because the chief state councilor and Queen Dowager are those kind of selfish people who would do the same. It's funny looking at them believing that, really. 

Kim Hye Soo Shows Her Authority Against Her Enemies In Under The Queen's Umbrella Episode 6

Now that the crowned prince has died, everyone who desires for the open position starts moving without subtlety anymore. It's not only the Queen Dowager that's ruthless here but also her poons. Damn, no one in the palace can be trusted except the Queen, her sons and her people. They even desire for the son of the late crowned prince to be dead. It's insane! However, I think I'm seeing hope in the palace after seeing the King making decisions in episodes 5 & 6. Maybe, just maybe, the King is actually someone different from his mother. I think he really is wise and has his own integrity when it comes to making decisions. First, he did not listen to his mother and court's demand to depose the ill crowned prince during his treatment, he also did not give in quickly picking the new heir to the crown just short after the crowned prince's death and lastly he genuinely has love and care for his sons and to his Queen. He may be a horny womanizer but actually has wisdom and golden heart. Wait, I won't regret saying that this early right? I hope not. 

Bae In Hyuk Collapsed In Front Of Kim Hye Soo And The King In Under The Queen's Umbrella Episode 4

Under The Queen's Umbrella is slowly becoming my favorite on-going kdrama right now. First episode showed us clearly where the whole problem lies in the story which is the Queen's situation with Queen Dowager. Queen already has conflict with the Queen Dowager due to her problematic sons. It was only the crowned prince that's protecting the Queen and her sons from severe punishments but now that the crowned prince has life-threatening illness, the Queen's status and life in general is now in danger. It just so happen that the Queen has menacing sons left and so she cannot protect the crown/future King's throne easily and that there has a lot of rivals considering that the current King is a playboy and horny AF. lol Seriously, the King is the main cause of this whole problem in the drama. He has what? Almost 10 concubines? and still counting!! kkk 

Yook Sungjae Accused By Jung Chae Yeon As Suspect For Her Father's Death In The Golden Spoon Episode 8

We're already halfway through the series and it's instantly becoming a headache for me. lol WTH did just happen? I'm so confused with the ending! It was going so smoothly (or not) and then the ending and the preview for the next episode flashed before my eyes making me frustrated severely. kkk I'm really so close in abandoning this show. Sigh...

Anyways, I'm here to do recap of the episode 8 only so that'll I do so. Basically, Na Ju Hee and the real Hwang Taeyong are both experiencing financial crisis. They are the characters that saw money as not that important or to put it simply, they haven't realized how important until now that there's no one giving nor helping them out in difficult times. Na Ju Hee had always been rich and her father was always backing her up against her step brothers while Hwang Taeyong was no longer getting any help or protection from Seungcheol. Hwang Taeyong finally witnessed how essential the presence of money in his life thru his poor family and Na Ju Hee losing the 500 million won. 

Yook Sungjae Got Arrested Over Lee Jong Won's Own Crime? In The Golden Spoon Episode 7

Okay, after this episode, I can now understand the essence of the golden spoon in Seungcheon's life. Before, I completely despises it since it makes everything so easy for him and thought that he would just laze around become boastful and abusive using the wealth of another person but I guess that's not the full picture. Now I see the usage of golden spoon by Seungcheon could serve a much bigger purpose and that's to reveal the whole truth behind all the dirty rich people abusing their powers to get whatever they wanted. Clearly, I see that the main villain here remains the father and son, Hwang Hyeon Do and Hwang Taeyong. 

Yook Sungjae Once Again Abandoned His Parents For Wealth In The Golden Spoon Episode 6

I'm having this huge disappointment in Seungcheon after this episode. I do get it, fate if not the old lady selling the golden spoon, that Seungcheon's tolerance is being challenged with all the unfortunate events that's happening to his family. And he actually gave in to that challenge and once again swapped his parents for wealth. Sigh. When will you ever learn, Seungcheon? 

It's awful 'coz this drama really is showing the real comparison of the life of the poor and the rich. It's really provoking me to get irritated everytime this drama is pressing on the stupidity, desperation as well as laziness of Seungcheon's family. It's really irritating to watch but this is just what reality is. There are a lot of uneducated poor population and so whenever they are in a difficult situation where their brains couldn't handle, their desperation to survive is surfacing and they instantly clings to a knife without thinking of the future consequences. The mother is like that and the laziness comes and lack of responsibility comes from the father. Actually, these traits are really applicable to all of them. 

Yook Sung Jae Confesses To Jung Chae Yeon But Yeon Woo Hinders Their Love Form Blooming

My emotions really took a rollercoaster ride because of this episode. It felt like a lot of things happened in just one episode. Seungcheon finally got back to his old life, however, they once again face another debt due to his father's accident of falling to his boss' car. The boss asked for 100 million won to repair the car and the whole family just conformed to it after the boss took down their request of making the repair payment smaller. Hmmm... I am not really judging the whole population of the poor but some truly lacks knowledge here. I mean, 100 million won for a car repair? Anyone could already buy a new car with that money! Also, ain't he the boss? Seungcheon's family could at least get a public attorney and settle this with that goon! Seungcheon's father got hospitalized for such a dangerous job and that goon being his employer, he should at least be responsible of what happened. What is their labor code for? Does labor code not apply to part timers? Hmmm... 

Sung Jae's Pretense Get Busted By Yeon Woo In The Golden Spoon Episode 4

All along I thought I'm gonna watch Seung Cheon boast the wealth that wasn't his the entire drama. Thankfully there's some twists and turns too. Some things really aren't for forever and some things are really good to be true. Seung Cheon is finally waking up from his false perception that anybody would swap their parents to accumulate wealth. He didn't know, Hwang Taeyong had long wished to have such warm family that would love and care for him. So his questions turned accusations that Taeyong would do the same thing as he did to achieve wealth went down the drain quickly. It hurt his pride and guilt overwhelmed him. Sigh. 

It's saddening that when Seung Cheon was treated unfairly by Taeyong's uncle, he ran automatically to his real parents only to find out that his original family is already happy without him. His father also took the initiative to abandon his dream and work outside that field to earn money for his family. That was definitely a slap to Seung Cheon's face. That served him right for swapping his parents so easily like that for wealth. He did a wrong move and now he's seeing these changes before his eyes. And now that his father got into an accident it'll be difficult for him to show his emotions and care for him just because he isn't Seung Cheon in their eyes. In everyone's eyes Taeyong is their son and not him. 

Yook Seung Jae Gets Threatened By An Anonymous Text Message In The Golden Spoon Episode 3

I'm starting to get irritated by Lee Seung Cheon (Yook Seung Jae) already and we're only at episode 3. lol After his life and identity got swapped with Hwang Taeyong (Lee Jong Won), my reaction was already "he sure knows how to act rich". He has long dreamed to be a rich person but I didn't expect that he'll transform 360 degrees in just a few days or weeks. I really like him a lot when he was the passionate and hard working Lee Seung Cheon but when he became rich and started giving off the boastful vibe, it was a turn off for me. I know that these rich people did him wrong, but if continues to punish them.. a lot of people would definitely go against him. Hate begets hate after all and so I wish he would humble down a bit.

Well, when he swapped his parents to Taeyong's, that was already the beginning of me disliking him. Although I did say in my previous blog post that I'm curious about that changing incompetent and awful parents to a deserving ones but after seeing how lovable Seung Cheon's mother and sister, it breaks my heart that he did that to him. Though in this episode, Seung Cheon really was pushed to do the swap thing because of his undignified father. Damn that man only knows how to beg on his knees. That's really awful especially for a man. 

Yook Sung Jae Switched Lives With Lee Jong Won In The Golden Spoon | Episodes 1 & 2 Recap

I recently watched the first 2 episodes out of the new on-going drama The Golden Spoon and wow I'm totally hooked with it after. Since I've watched several Kdramas that have those annoying parents who aren't competitive enough to provide well for their family, I've been thinking of the chances wherein a Kdrama would be open to a concept of children abandoning their parents and be rewarded... then this drama came out with that kind of scenario. Mostly. lol 

So basically, Lee Seung Cheon (Yook Sung Jae) was born in a poor family where his father is an aspiring webtoon artist, his mother is a waitress while he and his sister do part time jobs. I really have nothing against the 2 female of the family but the father. Seeing him hiding from the goons collecting rent/money, that really irritated me the most. I mean, he's the head of the family after all and yet he stooped so low in making his family face the debt collectors instead of him. I really hate incompetent and coward parent/person like him. Being a manga or webtoon artist is a decent job, but at least he could do something else to pay the debt of his family and be courageous to stand up for them. All he did was hide behind them. Sigh. He seemed really kind person but reality check it's not enough to survive this cruel world especially when you have a family to feed.