K-dramas, the weekly "wait, what happened at the end" problem, and the Lifestyle desk whenever a story involves a video game.
I've been at Startefacts since 2024. Before that I spent two years doing subtitle QA for corporate training videos, which is why I watch everything with subtitles on, even in English, and why I notice when Netflix's subtitles say something different from its dub. I started Crash Landing on You to understand what my sister was talking about at dinner, finished it in a week, and now I'm the one talking at dinner.
What I cover: K-dramas — the new ones, the ones ranked by IMDb because you asked, the Joseon ones with the hats; ending explainers for whatever Netflix and Disney+ dropped on Friday; where a show was actually filmed, and whether it's based on a novel (usually it's a webtoon); and on the Lifestyle side, video games when they leak, get delayed, or put a rapper in Fortnite.
Things I hold firm on: the Reply 1988 ending was correct, second-lead syndrome is a real condition, and sixteen episodes is the right length for almost everything. Things I don't: any ranking of mine older than the date on it.
How I work: I watch the whole series before I explain the ending — not the last episode and a wiki. IMDb scores get pulled the day I write and the date goes in the piece. For filming locations I find the actual place, not a fan blog's guess. For "based on a book" I name the book and the author. For game leaks I say which kind it is: a studio statement, a known insider, or a guy on a red carpet.
Where else to find me: X, and a MyDramaList account with 300-odd titles watched and a plan-to-watch list I'm not going to get to. Corrections welcome. Recommendations also welcome, but I've probably seen it.
Who killed Anais's sister in A Remarkable Place to Die?
Anais Mallory came home to Queenstown for one reason, and it wasn't the scenery. Her younger sister Lynne drove off a cliff at Skipper's Canyon two years before the series starts, the death was filed away as a tragic accident, and Anais — a homicide detective with a functioning brain — never bought it for a second.
Who killed Maja in A Remarkable Place to Die? Season 1 ended on her body — season 2 returns to it nearly two years later
In November 2024, the New Zealand murder show with the most honest title on television closed its first season by killing Maja Staunton — Anais Mallory's ex-best friend, current wife of Anais's ex-fiancé, played by Indiana Evans — and dropping her body in the middle of a festival like a party favor.
How did Anna Pigeon's husband die? Episode 3 finally says
USA's Anna Pigeon gave us a park ranger with a tragic backstory, which is legally required for the genre, and then did something rude: it made us wait three weeks to learn what the backstory actually was.
Who is Sampson in Reacher? Lee Child wrote him under a different name — and the show has changed more than that
Every season of Reacher hands Alan Ritchson a fresh town, a fresh conspiracy, and a fresh gallery of people who are Definitely Hiding Something. Season 4's most interesting specimen isn't a hitman or a chemist — it's a politician with a great smile.
Picnic at Hanging Rock true story: readers once flooded the State Library of Victoria asking for records of the disappearances
There are literary hoaxes, and then there is whatever Joan Lindsay pulled off in 1967 — a novel so convincingly dressed as history that generations of Australians have marched into the State Library of Victoria demanding the police files.
How does A Remarkable Place to Die end? The family case is closed in the finale's last ten minutes
New Zealand television looked at Queenstown — adventure capital, honeymoon magnet, backdrop of a thousand bungee videos — and said: what if we made it the murder capital of the South Island? Thus A Remarkable Place to Die, which is enjoying a fresh UK run on U&Drama this September.
Who is the mole in MobLand? The season 1 finale handed Harry the name — and he kept it to himself
MobLand spent ten episodes dangling one question over the Harrigan family like a chandelier at a mob wedding: who's the rat? People died over wrong answers. Poor Archie died over a wrong answer in episode one.
The Dog Stars filming locations: Hig's hangar is a real working airfield, dressed to look abandoned
There's a specific flavor of movie magic I refuse to shut up about, and it's this: the loneliest place in Ridley Scott's The Dog Stars — the hangar where Jacob Elordi's Hig lives out the end of the world with his dog and Josh Brolin's trigger-happy roommate — is not a ruin at all.
