Remembering 2015: The Meh, the Ugh, and the Yay

This week bunch of nice ladies joined me again for some year-end reviews—and what do we say? Thank you!  Anywhoo, I resolve to watch more Kdrama. Looking at my 2015 of dramas finished, frankly, I should have my Kdrama fanatic status stripped from me.

If you know me personally, you’ll know 2015 was a fairly shit year for me—almost as if I were a poor girl and 2015 was a big bad Kdrama mama who thought I was chasing after her only chaebol son. Think I’m kidding? Hmmm…anyone remember a little blog called Crazy for Kdrama? Yeah. And that was February.  I still had the rest of the year to go.

Good Lord. I can’t believe it’s almost been a year since Crazy for Kdrama was shut down.

Gah! So in the terms of that, perhaps it’s a little more acceptable or understandable my list is a pitiable, pitiable few. No, never mind! Do not excuse or understand me! Only your censure and condemnation will point me into the right and drama-ier path.

Looking at my list of dramas I’m not sure if it was a sad year for dramas or if I just had the bad luck to pick some hum-dingers. Since there are so few, let’s check in on all of them shall we? (However, for the sake of almost brevity,  I’m only including dramas I gave an honest chance to. There are some like, Orange Marmalade and Warm and Cozy that, while I meant to go back, I never did, so that has to say something bad about the drama, but since I can’t tell you exactly what that is? Out it stays.)

Meh

 

The Producers

Depending on week to week, this drama could have been on any of these lists. The first week, I really liked the set up (despite my absolute dislike of the guy who plays the hero), the unique (for kdrama) premise, and, in particular, Kim Soo Hyun’s derp face. Second week, when they  started to change the format, it sank right down to the ‘UGH, I hate this’ list. By the third week where, honestly, I stopped watching, It had worked it’s way back up to Meh. So, by the law of averages, here it stays. Usually, I love Gong Hyo Jin, but this drama? I really disliked her and it’s beginning to make me wonder if she actually plays the same character in every drama. Or if she acts different characters the same way in every drama. Whatever it is, this drama made me think twice about my love of Gong Hyo Jin and for that I will never forgive it. Also, I had a hard time buying IU as a dissolutioned idol, she just came off as bratty. I wish the production had stuck it out and kept the style of the first two episodes rather than caving, but alas, they did not. So here we are, on the meh list.

Late Night Restaurant

There was nothing wrong with this drama. Nothing at all. There just wasn’t anything really super good about it. It was one of those dramas you watched because, well, you just did. Nothing really happened, either good or bad, the food was good but never quite reached the level of food porn of dramas like Let’s Eat or Kimchi Family, and in the end left us with more questions than answers. If they do a second season of this drama, I will watch because, well, I just will.

EXO Next Door

Cherry tricked me into watching this one. Not sure how she did it, but there it is. Chanyeol as a hero? Ummm….did DO turn it down for some reason? Was there even a screen test? Probably not. But the girl was cute and the part where the guys decided to pretend to all make out with each other to trick her was funny. Not to mention the little bromance between the brother and…uhhhh…some member of EXO (I’m sure Cherry will fill in. 😉 ) was just adorable.

 

Ugh

 

Prince’s Prince

What. The. Fudge. This thing was terrible. It was nothing but a bunch of nonsensical gay-baiting. Unless there is a season 2 somewhere out there in the mix where everything is brought together to magically make these bits of nothing make sense. I’m guessing though, probably not.

I Order You

If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know exactly how I felt about this mini-drama. Yeah, I hated it. I hate-hate-hated it. The heroine (ugh, I choked just a little bit calling her that) was awful. I literally wondered why she had not one but two guys chasing her. And she was cruel to the hero after that last stupid plot twist. And let’s talk about those plot twists. The the writer just decide to toss one angsty bit after another at this to see what stuck? And that would be nothing. Nothing stuck. Except for me. I watched this entire crappy drama.

The Village

Oh The Village, we went into with such high expectations! We were lured in by your spooky posters, your mystery,  your who dun it premise, and the promise of the possible super natural. An interesting mix we don’t usually get to see. What we got was a limp heroine, storytelling that, with it’s attempt to out do itself with a whodunit, was uneven and badly done. There was a point where I thought the drama was cool because it seemed smarter than I was, when I had no idea who the killer was, but then sadly by the end, I realized I just gave the show more credit than it deserved.

The Lovers

Okay, this was a hate watch. A drama like the others on the list where friends would ask me, well, if you dislike it so much, why do you keep watching? Well, unlike the others on this list, there were enough things in this show that kept me coming back, that, if I pretended the other storylines (dude, why were the engaged couple even there?) didn’t exist I could enjoy it. I liked the two boys storyline, the rocker and his Noona, and sometimes, sometimes, the main couple. But the drama was part irritating, gross out, boring, and funny. I guess 1 out of four ain’t bad?

Hidden Identity

I don’t think I’m going to do Drama Clubs for Dramafever anymore. Why? Since, with a Kdrama, you never know what you’re gonna get, you could find yourself stuck watching and talking about a drama which bored and irritated you. For the sheer force of Kim Bum and his gruff heart-hurt brooding, not to mention his ability to take out an entire room of gangsters single handedly by the thickness of his skull, I almost put this drama in the meh list. But who am I kidding? The clumsy storytelling sank this Hidden Identity despite the humina-humina lure of Kim Bum. Kim Bum, come back and be all angsty again, just not in this drama.

Someone Like You

When you have a drama about a blind hero who, turns out is only blind because he refuses to get a surgery out of guilt for his dead girlfriend, only to fall for the possible (as I may have given up half way through) twin sister of dead fiancé except for that time he’s lured in by the girl who received dead fiance’s heart, there comes a moment where you might actually fear your eyeballs will pop out from all of the rolling that occurs. Once I get internet back (ugh, don’t ask, stupid cable company!) I may continue on with the drama to see what happens, but for some reason, I’m pretty sure I can guess exactly what goes down.

 

Yay

Noble My Love

Jacqueline harranged me into watching this one, and while it doesn’t make up for her suggestion of Someone Like You, this drama was suuuuper cute. I loved the heroine who fought the hero at every turn, perplexing him to no end, until he had no choice but to (obviously) fall in love with her. This drama is not without it’s issues as the last three episodes almost sank the whole thing for me. Why, why, why did they think they needed to bring angst in? Some dramas don’t need angst and this was obviously one of them.

D-Day

Honestly, I’ve only seen half of this drama. Due to that damn cable outage, my plans to finish this have unfortunately been put on hold. This drama was soooo good it sucked me in and I watched until 5 am, eating up the 10 episodes in almost one sitting. The story is compelling and the effects are top-notch. While I worry the direction the story can take in the last half, this show gets huge points for the movie like quality of its destruction of Seoul.

Splash Splash Love

Who didn’t know, right from the beginning, that this drama short was going to be off the charges awesome? Luckily, it did not fail us. The story and the acting were delightful balancing humor, heart, and romance. While I could watch these two act for a full length drama, I’m glad this drama was just two episodes, as it was perfect the way it was, and sometimes more is just too much. I hope that these two get paired again, or if not, I hope that this shows producers that these two actors have the chops to pull of more lead roles.

Healer

Was there anyone who didn’t like Healer? Someone who didn’t have it in their top dramas of the year? Wait. If there was, don’t tell me, because I don’t want to know them. Cherry and I watched this one in a long drama weekend, stopping only when we had to for sleep. And pizza. The characters in this drama were fresh and fun. Hacker Ajumma? Was just a hoot. I think Healer was one of those dramas which deservedly became an instant classic. It deserved that for the cute-cute-cute-skinship lovin’- OTP alone.

LoveSick: Season 2

Hot fudge how I love this show. If you follow the podcast with Cherry and I, you’ll know exactly how much. This year could be the Love Sick Memorial Year as, while many will always remember Healer as being the biggest and brightest, for me, it was Love Sick. And that’s not to say there wasn’t anything wrong with the drama. There was. Lots of it. Uhhh….Jeed? Trying to kill that guy? Earn and Pete? Mick and Creepy Turned Not So Creepy Gym Teacher? Win and his creepy stalker boyfriend? But you know what? I don’t care. I love the progression of Noh and Phun’s relationship so much, I’m willing to overlook a lot. I thought the drama couldn’t get better than the beginning part of their relationship in season 1, but you know what? Building up towards their real relationship in season 2 was just beautiful. Not to mention tons of cute cuddles. PhunNoh4Life!

Again, great thanks to Molly, Jacqueline, Regina and Jess for joining me for these end of the year reviews. Thanks everyone reading and let’s all resolve to watch lots of great new dramas in this new year.