April 13, 2022
You’ve reached the place where all the bad, but oh so satisfying, entertainment exists. Here, in the Trash Vortex, we exist to provide you with only the trashiest, most bingeworthy recommendations. It’s a little baffling. So, you click on to the next episode.
K-Drama
If you’re late to the game like me, then let this be your invite into the world of Korean dramas. You might tell yourself after finishing episode one that you won’t continue; this plotline feels too familiar. And then somehow, suddenly, you don’t know how it will play out. It’s a little baffling. So, you click on to the next episode.Start-Up
Start-up is a Korean drama set around Sandbox, the fictional place where startup companies come to play and make it big. The show’s lead, Dal-mi, helps work her grandmother’s fried corn dog stand and dreams of launching the next big tech business. When she was little, Dal-mi was close to her sister, In-jae. That all changed when her parents divorced. Then her mom married rich, her sister chose their mom while she chose their dad, and they never saw each other again for some unknown reason. That is until Dal-mi and In-jae come face to face—in a long stare down—at a Sandbox event. In-jae runs her stepfather’s successful empire, and Dal-mi, whose heels keep breaking, will not let her sister have the final laugh. So, she lies, claiming she’s now CEO of her own company, and her genius pen pal from yesteryear is her business partner. The only thing left to ensure her plan goes without a hitch is finding Do-san, her first childhood love and pen pal whom she has never met in person. What she doesn’t know is that Do-san never wrote the letters.Long ago, after Dal-mi’s mom and sister left, her grandmother decided the only way to combat Dal-mi’s loneliness was by having a friend send her a letter. Enter Ji-pyeon, an orphan in debt to the grandmother. He agrees to write a series of letters under an alias. He chooses Do-san’s name after finding it randomly in a newspaper. He could’ve never guessed that one day Dal-mi would try to track down Do-san. Thankfully, Do-san agrees to carry on the façade, pretending to be Dal-mi’s first love. Anything can happen in Start-Up—the plot is complicated, but I promise it’s worth watching! It’s charming, and once you dive in, the show is an easy ride. Available to stream on Netflix.
—Shannon Ribich, Trash Vortex Editor