GBRB: reap what you sow (tvN)

Bae Jiahn: GBRB: reap what you sow has its genesis in actor Lee Kwang Soo asking producer Nah Yung Suk to come up with a show about Lee and three of his friends just having fun. The show revolves around Lee, Doh Kyungsoo (aka D.O. from EXO), and actors Kim Woo Bin and Kim Ki Bang farming on the weekends. They’re already good friends, so they don’t need any additional time to get to know each other. The show doesn’t even fully get through its first episode before producer Nah’s signature line from New Journey to the West pops up on screen: “Please don’t get them wrong — they’re arguing for real.” In one scene, they use the timer on the phone to decide who gets to pay for everyone, every single time they need to spend money; in another, it takes ages for them to decide how to till the field. They eat, bicker, stretch, and bicker some more, making it seem like they might never actually get around to farming. But soon they solve several problems just by turning to the tractor, and turn to the locals for help learning how to farm. Even though they’ve never worked the earth before in their lives, they want to set up a scenic farm, plant different kinds of crops, and it will make you laugh out loud when you see them diving headfirst to create a circular patch. But the four of them really get into farming life as they try out a number of things viewers have surely wondered themselves, like about spitting out watermelon seeds and planting them (which, it turns out, really works). D.O., who’s dreamed of being a farmer ever since seeing the movie Little Forest, buys and installs his own camera to keep watch over the field from Seoul, while Kim Ki Bang—who, on his own admission, previously couldn’t even take care of a cactus at home—learns of his latent talents, and Kim Woo Bin presents his goofy side by showing up wearing a stylish straw hat. Lee’s loquaciousness keeps any Little Forest sentiment at bay, but Nah effortlessly works the town of Girin in Gangwon Province into the backdrop as the four stars farm. Girin, typically a quiet little town, starts to bustle with midsummer chicken soup parties, with rice dealers selling work clothes and butchers selling shoes. The four friends finding an affinity for farming helps them to integrate themselves within the town community. They might drive each other a little crazy at times, but they give viewers a glimpse into a friendly little place.

Songs Without Words (Apple Music)

Seo Seongdeok (Music Critic): Does K-pop’s current affinity for sampling and interpolating classical music sometimes feel like a fad? On the flip side, what about classical covers of pop songs? Although classical and jazz versions of K-pop songs get their share of flak for being elevator music, there are certainly diamonds to be found in the rough. And you can find the fruits of that treasure hunt in the Apple Music playlist Songs Without Words. The playlist includes “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen as performed on double bass and a Portuguese guitar cover of “Here Comes the Sun” by the Beatles. There are at least 1,500 different cover versions of “Both Sides Now” by Joni Mitchell in existence; you can find one fantastic recent version on this Apple playlist. And Songs Without Words isn’t limited to pop songs, either, with tracks like “Ah, je veux vivre” from the opera Roméo et Juliette, Stölzel’s aria “Bist du bei mir,” and “Vois sur ton chemin” from the 2004 film The Chorus. So take a moment to relax before diving into the holiday season and give this playlist a spin.