What to Anticipate for 2017

The best part of the new year is a clean slate - I can leave all the disappointing shows of last year behind and look forward to all the new shows on the horizon. Here are a few I can't wait for!

Kim So-hyun, an incredibly talented child actress, graduated to main roles about two years ago, played twins in School 2015, and a cheeky ghost in Let's Fight, Ghost, but my favourite performance of hers was the broken and abused teenager Lee Su-yeon in melodrama Missing You. She, alongside Yoo Seung-ho (who also put on a fantastic performance in Missing You as the mentally unstable but somehow lovable villain) will be starring alongside each other next year in sageuk Ruler: Master of the Mask. I trust Kim So-hyun to pick a decent project, so I expect greatness.
  Yoo Seung-ho will  play Joseon's king, whilst Kim So-hyun will play a girl vowing revenge on him for causing the death of her father. Somehow they'll fall in love. 

Tomorrow With You is a drama I've been anticipating since before I heard even heard of it. After Signal ended, which was undeniably the best show of the year, Lee Je-hoon (who starred as a criminal profiler determined to change the past) mentioned in an interview that he was interested in signing on for a romantic-comedy as his next project - then he was confirmed for Tomorrow With You next to Shin Min-ah. As an actor who chose Signal, I have no doubt that he's chosen a good project once again. Shin Min-ah is talented, and the best example of this is My Girlfriend is a Gumiho. It's now one of my favourite romance dramas ever.

Tomorrow With You is about a man who time-travels by subway and for sees who he'll marry; a sunny but failing photographer. Somehow, they end up married, and Tomorrow With You will tell their backwards love story. It starts next week, and the pain of waiting is unreal.

Strong Woman Do Bong-soon starts next month. It stars Park Bo-young as a woman with herculean strength, despite her tiny size and cute face, who winds up as the bodyguard of a very weird rich guy. Also starring are Park Heung-shik, as said chaebol, and Ji Soo, who I've seen in almost everything he's done but absolutely adored in Page Turner. Several teasers and posters have been released for the show, and the image to the right is from a photo shoot with our main couple. The chemistry is already oozing between them, and the show hasn't even started yet, so I expect a sweet and bubbly romance!

School 2013 was great. School 2015 was it's own undoing. Regardless, I can't help but be excited now that I know School 2017 is in the works at KBS. I've mentioned this at length already in another post, plus there's no plot description or image yet, so there isn't a lot to say. Apparently the series will go going back to it's roots with a realistic take of school life. Since this series is known for launching rookie actors into space and making an impact, I think it deserves a place on this list no matter how KBS decides to go about it.

From Park Hye-ryun, the writer of Pinocchio, Page Turner, and my favourite drama, I Hear Your Voice, comes While You Were Sleeping. This writer has never (well, rarely, if we're counting Dream High) failed to blow me away.
  Starring Lee Jong-suk (in his third collaboration with this writer) and Suzy Bae (her second), While You Were Sleeping is about a girl who sees the future in her dreams and the prosecutor trying to stop it from coming true. Since this writer completely hooked me the last time she wrote a fantasy-romance-legal drama, it's safe to say the excitement I feel for this drama is keeping me awake at night. I'm not particularly interested in Suzy, but Lee Jong-suk is always wonderful.
  Also, ha, sorry about the picture. While You Were Sleeping is still in the casting process, there aren't any stills yet. But I guess these two shot some kind of chicken ad at some point, since I managed to find this picture!