A series from abroad that I really enjoyed was a Korean family drama about four neighbours who grew up together in a small district of Seoul in the late nineteen-eighties. I'm a bank officer in Kathmandu, and I watched it last year on a streaming platform.
I discovered it through my cousin Anisha, who's a huge fan of Korean dramas. I'd always assumed they were all romantic comedies with very good-looking actors, so I wasn't interested, but she insisted this one was different and made me watch the first episode with her. The series follows the families on one narrow street, mainly through the eyes of a teenage girl who's the middle child and feels ignored. There's some romance, but mostly it's about ordinary things: parents struggling with money, neighbours sharing food, kids preparing for university entrance exams, and friends growing up and drifting apart. There's one episode about the father's retirement that is surprisingly emotional.
I enjoyed it for a few reasons. Firstly, it felt incredibly familiar, even though it's set in another country. The way the neighbours walk into each other's houses without knocking and the mothers send dishes over the wall is exactly like my childhood in Lalitpur. Secondly, it's very funny. The friends are constantly teasing each other, and I laughed out loud a lot. And thirdly, it made me think about my own parents. Watching them on screen sacrifice so much made me appreciate mine more, and I actually called my father after one episode. Since then I've become a bit of a fan myself, so I suppose my cousin won.