Drama Special Season 13: Do You Know Ashtanga? (2022)

Letting go of expectations and embracing flexibility

Do you know Ashtanga is a hit with me. It delivers everything you want from a young adult story: it's funny, sexy and has some really well done classic rom-com moments.

Nara, our leading lady, is best described as a complainer. She's at a point of her life where things seem to have stuck: her personal and work life are not good, she compares herself to others and and even judges them.

I really appreciate a drama special centering around a young woman, in her thirties, still trying to figure out things. After quitting a well paid job and following her passion, Nara is not even close to have an answers about life and has to deal with her own insecurities, which are mostly what's holding her back, and that feels true to life. Nara goes through a journey of accepting life as it is and learning to change what she doesn't like about it. Letting go of her expectations might be the hardest part, especially when society has programmed you to be a certain way and have certain things, at certain age.

To say she's at a low point emotionally it's an understatement. That's when she experiences an adorable meet-cute with Tae-joon, the son of the wealthy family from whom Nara rents the studio where she teaches yoga.

Tae-joon likes Nara immediately, thinking of her as the perfect combination of cute and cool. He is polite, nerdy, eager to help and respectful. His attraction to Nara is based on the fact he likes how she holds herself trough life... he might be one of the greenest flags I have seen in Dramaland.

He also deals with his own insecurities about his economic status, being self-conscious about people seeing him as a spoiled rich guy having grown up with a family that it's rather snobby and not a fan of his views on life. For example, his mother berates him for collecting items to donate for the needy and insist for him to start wearing luxury brands instead of buying clothes at the smaller shops at the neighbourhood. It's clear people have misjudged him before because of his money.

The story might be full of tropes but is in the performances where this story shines. Both leads deliver their lines with such an easy chemistry, dry humor and comedic timing that's impossible not to smile at every interaction they share. The story is so well written that it feels well rounded and the world lived in, the characters full of colour.

I absolutely recommend this sweet and fun rom-com that might give you some food for thought.

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