2015 Year in Review

2015 Year in Review – Korean Dramas

First post of 2016, and it will be a look back at the dramas I have watched this past year. Most of these were released prior to 2015, but like I do with most things in life I procrastinate my Kdrama watching, it's part of my charm. I watched most of these dramas in the first quarter of the year and then I took a very, very long break before I started up again when Oh, My Venus, starring Shin Min Ah and So Ji Sub, started in mid November. Apparently, my girl crush on Shin Min Ah is alive and strong and I must of missed how incredibly sexy So Ji Sub was when I watched Master's Sun because damn that boy man is all kinds of steamy.

I watched twenty-one dramas in 2015 not counting the two web dramas I threw in there just for shits and giggles. Seventeen of those I watched from January to April, and then my hiatus from Kdramas began. During this time, I watched some American television. Caught up on some old favorites, Teen Wolf and Supernatural, and realized that American shows don't hold the same appeal as Asian dramas. I mean who in the holy hell has 10 years to devote to a show, well almost 12 now with Supernatural. I got so spoiled by dramas that were all neatly told and finished with one season that waiting to see will or won't they just no longer appeals to me. Sure, I'll still catch a show here and there, mostly once they've been canceled, so I can marathon that shit on Netflix, but I'm no longer excited or looking forward to shows that air in the U.S.

So, with a giddy heart I began watching Oh, My Venus, and promptly remembered how much I fucking hate waiting for new episodes. To fill the time between new episodes I watched some dramas that were already finished and easily available, hello Hulu. Starting from the beginning, in 2015 I watched:

1. A Witch's Romance

Cute and entertaining, older woman, younger man. Not too many cliches and a very satisfying ending.

2. Pinocchio

Park Shin Hye finally learned how to kiss. A very enjoyable drama starring one of my all time favorites, and a new one.

3. School 2013

Speaking of new favorites, Lee Jong Suk along with Kim Won Bin make this bromance drama.

4. Healer

This drama was everything I wanted City Hunter to be.

5. Master's Sun

Way better than I thought it was going to be; the only downside is that fact that So Ji Sub doesn't have black here in this one.

6. Full House (Thai)

Dare I say, better than the original.

7. King 2 Hearts

I loved everything about this drama except for the fucking villain. I wish M would go choke on some donkey balls.

8. Heart to Heart

This might just be my favorite drama of 2015. I found the first episode annoying, but it pulls you into the story and by the end you want just one more episode of the two protagonists.

9. It's Okay, That's Love

A drama that dealt with heavy issues without getting weighed down.

10. Good Doctor and 11. Emergency Couple

Two medical dramas, both of which were meh.

12. I Need Romance

A drama so bad that I couldn't make myself watch the next two installments, although they feature completely different casts.

13. Let's Eat

Yummy food and zany characters. I still can't make myself watch the second one.

                                     

14. Marriage Not Dating

Entertaining without ever becoming boring.

15. I Hear Your Voice

Another older woman, younger man drama. There might be hope for me yet.

16. Love Myself or You

The only Taiwanese drama I finished in 2015, although I tend to enjoy them, for some odd reason I have really hard time getting into Taiwanese dramas.

17. Cunning Single Lady (Sly and Single Again)

Regardless of what you call it, this drama was pretty entertaining, but just boring enough that it started my almost nine month break from Asian dramas. So, maybe it wasn't all that entertaining.

And then, came November with the start of Oh, My Venus, and I was hooked again.

18. My Love from Another Star

Why??? Why did I wait so long to watch this wonderful drama. Yeah, it was everyone was fucking saying how wonderful it was and I didn't want to me disappointed, Kill Me, Heal Me.

19. High School; King of Savvy

This would have been an okay drama if it wasn't for the characters. I don't understand why they had to give the main heroine the brain and emotional maturity of an elementary student. She was such a weak ass person I just wanted to slap her.

20. She Was Pretty

She gave me the biggest second lead boner. Seriously, who wouldn't pick Choi Siwon???

21. Oh, My Ghostess

Funny, and romantic and at time suspenseful; this drama was such a great watch.

So, there are the twenty-one dramas I watched in 2015. I also watched Dream Knights featuring GOT7 and EXO Next Door. This were shorter web dramas less than 15 minutes per episode, so like a movie just divided into chapters. I really enjoyed both of those because they were light and fun, and because both GOT7 and EXO are a bunch of cuties. And, I may have become a bit obsessed with So Ji Sub, but look at him. Can you blame me?

Where Have I Been? Well, Watching Dramas, Of Course.

I've spent the last three months watching dramas, and enjoying every single minute of it.  I've watched romantic comedies, and more romantic comedies, and that one action one that was both funny and romantic. In the past three months, I've started and finished a total of seventeen dramas. Yes, 17...Are those a lot of dramas??? Probably, but who's judging. Not me that's for sure.  And that is not counting the two dramas I re-watched, the two movies I watched on the few dramas I'm currently making my way through.
In the last three months I've watched the following dramas:
Healer
Pinnochio
Witch's Romance
Cunning Single Lady
Emergency Couple
Dream Knight
Good Doctor
I Need Romance
School 2013
Master's Sun
Full House(Thai re-make)
King 2 Hearts
Heart to Heart
It's Okay, That's Love
Let's Eat
Marriage Not Dating
Love Myself or You(Taiwanese)
Whew, I need to catch my breathe.  I've also re-watched Coffee Prince and Lie to Me.

I've also seen a couple of movies. Both of which I highly recommend.  Especially Greatly Secretly, although The Technicians was enjoyable as well.

And, I'm currently trying to get through:

I Need Romance 2012, It Started With a Kiss(Taiwanese), Surplus Princess, I Hear Your Voice

2014 Year in Kdrama or What Exactly Did I Miss?????

 

 

 

After not having watched a single Korean drama in more than a year, I am more than ready to catch up with everything I’ve missed and watch some new and some favorites from past years.  Currently I’m watching “A Witch’s Romance,” which I am enjoying much more than I thought I would.  So, here’s to a New Year filled with drama, romance, bro-mance, friendships, and heartaches all in Korean, of course.

Flower Boy Next Door Series Review

  I adored this drama.  I thought it was so cute and it never failed to make me smile.  It is the Seinfeld of rom-coms.  Nothing really happened, there were no evil mothers, long lost loves coming back, nor amnesia,  and yet the characters were able to grow and develop and become complete and beautiful people at the end.  Having given myself a week so as to not gush all over this drama, I can honestly say that I still feel like gushing.  From beginning to end it was one of my favorite dramas, it might even replace one of my top four or maybe I’ll just bend to the masses and make it a top five.  Now, I’m not blind to the shortcomings of the drama, but I loved this drama so much I am able to gloss over the shortcomings like the ones I talk about here, and the lack of romantic scenes.  Now the lack of romantic scenes is one of my personal gripes with kdramas but I’ll leave that for another post.
    For those who haven’t watched, you could go do that now, or for those who haven’t made it to the finale, I must warn you there will be spoilers.
  The drama starts with what I think is one of the cutest openings I’ve seen.  We see our main female lead Go Dok Mi waking up from where she had been asleep in a sleeping bag on the floor and then we see her spy on her neighbor across the way and imitate his daily routine in a completely cute, stalkery, creepy way.

  Go Dok Mi is a modern day Rapunzel, she, however, is locked up in her tower by choice.  She doesn't like to venture out into the outside world and wants to have a little interaction with others as humanly possible.  Her little world is her apartment, the travel shows she watches on t.v., and the neighbor she spies on with her funky yellow binoculars.  This little world is about to be turned upside down by the arrival of our male lead Enrique Geum.

Enrique is a game designer who is ruled by his inner child.  He's as happy go lucky as it comes, talking a mile a minute, always smiling, and enjoying life or the polar opposite of Go Dok Mi.  He arrives from Spain to play "cupid," and along the way he stumbles upon Dok Mi and decides that it is his responsibility to make sure she goes out and starts experiencing the real world.  He may not have sequestered himself inside an apartment, but Enrique is just as lonely as Dok Mi except he hides it under a layer of laughter and words.
The third side of our love triangle is Jin Rak.  I have to admit that at first I wanted Dok Mi to end up with him because they are so similar, but as time went by I realized that with Jin Rak Dok Mi would never grow as a person.  Where Enrique wants Dok Mi to go out and experience the real world, Jin Rak is content to have her continue to live in her own world; he just wants to be able to step into it with her.  Which seems ahhh, how romantic, but really is just fear that holds him back and would hold her back as well.

 I truthfully really did enjoy this drama I didn't fast forward through any of if which is nothing short of miraculous.  I think the whole drama had a very mellow feel to it.  It wasn't exciting or edge of your seat worry about what would happen next, and to me that was the beauty of it.  I didn't have to worry about a big misunderstanding breaking up the main couple because believe it or not these characters actually talked to each other.  There were no ungrounded accusations flying, no crying over hurt feelings and refusing to communicate clearly people said what they were thinking and what they felt, with the exception of Do Hwi, and that was a breath of fresh air.  
This drama was extremely entertaining, as I've come to expect from TVN.  It was heartfelt with well rounded characters that drove the story forward without the contrived issues  that other dramas throw at their main couple.  
And most importantly, this drama provided the mostly entertaining secondary pairing ever.

And the main couple wasn't so bad either.

.

Flower Boy Next Door - The Most Perfect Imperfect Drama - The Bad

*************SPOILERS***************

*Disclaimer: My view of this drama may be slightly skewed due to my long standing infatuation with Park Shin Hye and my new found gay girl crush on Yoon Shi Yoon.

They're adorable, right??

    A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I love all dramas equally, well that was all right lie because truth be told I love Flower Boy Next Door(FBND) more than all the rest.  At the time I wrote that post, this one, I already had twinges of favoritism toward FBND, but I tried to ignore it because I was afraid of being disappointed.  But now that the drama is over, I can honestly say that I was not disappointed and I enjoyed every single one of the sixteen episodes.  They each added to the overall drama and showcased the growth of the characters.  Now, I’m not say that this was the perfect drama, came close though, but it was a damn good one.  

There being no such thing as perfect FBND did have a couple of flaws.  Such as Do Hwi, the whole issue with who the owner of the building was, and the stalker panda hat girl/fanclub losers.

I never really gave a rat's ass about the whole building issue or who the owner was.  I must admit that I kinda thought it was the security guard because he was just a little too involved in the what happened in the building with the demonstration and what not.  I think I would have preferred if they fleshed out the relationship between the security guard and the older lady rather than spend any time with the mystery of the owner.

Although, I do see the importance of having Do Hwi as a character, she is the key to explaining why Dok Mi hides herself away, I think the last we should of seen of her is when she tried to hurt Dok Mi by inviting the scumbag teacher to her party.  Since then she's just been wasting airtime that could have been taken up by one of my favorite side characters, Kim Seul-gi the webtoon editor.

The other waste of time and space was the whole panda hat girl stalker, fan club idiots.  They truly served no purpose other than to give me a minute to go refill my water bottle.  They just were not needed.  I was kinda okay with the older stalker lady mostly because that developed into something that kinda sorta dealt with Enrique's work the game addiction angle, but the panda hat girl should have maybe had one appearance and that is stretching it.  It was just not needed.  Dok Mi had enough issues with Enrique leaving or even being able to ask him to stay without added the outside interference. 

Flower Boy Next Door Episode 1 in Pictures