Day 20: A drama you started but can’t finish

Short answer: Too many.

How many times have you started a drama and adored it for exactly three episodes, then it suddenly changes on you and becomes this hideous thing that gives you violent thoughts and makes you think about the multiple ways the main characters can die a terrible death?

No, just us then? Muhaha.

For us, this is the most disappointing thing about being a drama fan. Your fangirl senses start tingling and you become all obsessive thinking about the drama all day and counting down the days till the next episode is out. You pin your hopes on it thinking that just maybe this is ‘the one’ or ‘the one right now’ and then wham bam – it’s over and you’re left thinking, why the hell did we waste all those hours in the first place?

Or worse, you are forced to shelve a drama because real life happens and you literally don’t have the time to watch it. The thing about returning to a shelved drama is that it’s lost that ‘in the moment’ crack factor and we can rarely bring ourselves to return to it despite loving it while tuned in. Sadly for us, we have dropped/ shelved a lot of dramas over the years for this reason alone. Damn you real life, you are a drama junkies nightmare!

A few notable dramas that fall under this category:

Office Girls:

We know what you’re thinking – weren’t they obsessing and gushing over this drama for ages? Yes we were, we admit it but honestly that drama extension killed Office Girls for us. We followed the drama through other blogger’s recaps and frankly that was more than enough for us. Some of those recaps were painful to read as it looked like the final part of the drama was dragged out to max as the television station milked this money maker for all it was worth.

At least Office Girls finally brought attention to our beloved Roy Qiu – no more love rival roles for this guy. Yay!

What’s Up:

We literally have two episodes to go but still we can’t bring ourselves to finish it and we don’t know why!! Seriously, the drama is brilliant and we’re thoroughly engrossed when we’re tuned in but as soon as we switch off, it takes a lot of effort to want to watch more.

 

Don’t look at us like that- we swear we’ll finish it soon!

Sungkyunkwan Scandal:

This was a drama that we were so utterly obsessed with and in love with for so long –(read our posts for proof – gush central!) and then subbing restrictions were applied and we were forced to go cold turkey. Trust us – we weren’t ready for that. Eventually when subs suddenly started popping up we had moved on to something else and never returned to the awesomeness that is Sungkyunkwan Scandal and all that hot bromance.

Finally there are the dramas that we started and then quickly dropped because they were frankly…crap:

Ring, Ring Bell, Drunken to love you, The Colour of a Woman, Thorn Bird (UGH).

Sadly for us this list is rather long and we could be here for a while.

What’s Up – Rambles on episodes 13 – 17

Oh drama, let us count the ways we love you…

Seriously, What’s Up is nailing it.

Our posts for this drama may be sporadic but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been hooked and totally loving it.

We’re pleased to report that we survived the mid proportion of this drama and weathered the storm of angst and suffering from our favourite characters and now we’re on the other side with only three episodes left. Sob, sniff*

The drama has maintained that balance of presenting the angst and guilt with the sweeter, happier moments really well. We don’t think we could have stuck around if we had Jae Hun/ Tae Yi angst for five episodes solid without other storylines there to keep the balance like Byun Gun finding his voice. Or Doo Ri’s mission to make Professor Sun Woo hers.

Byun Gun finding his voice was so great! We love how it was his brother who witnessed his singing and gave him the courage to continue on with his dream. His brother’s words of encouragement were so sweet and thoughtful. It’s moments like this one that really makes this drama stand out and allows you to see the quality of the script in action.

Do Sung – What a sweetheart. We adored the scene where he finally stood up to his mother. What a horrible, nasty woman! We like how thoughtful he is as a character.  How hard must it have been for him to have to point out to his own mother what real love should be like? Do Sung may be strictly a side character but we love how the drama really utilizes his role to create progress and show growth not just in his character but in others. He is often the one that highlights important matters or motivates people to change. Like the fact that Tae Yi needed to stop Jae Hun from leaving because she cared for him regardless of Jae Hun’s feelings.

Then there is obsessive, crazy Doo Ri, 17 episodes in and we may love her more now than we did at the start and frankly we didn’t think that was possible. We love how direct, loyal and yes, insane she is. She’s like a breath of fresh air in a stale drama world where characters tend to be hardworking but cheerful ect, ect. We groaned a lot when her romantic storyline was introduced with Professor Sun Woo but now we have to confess that we adore them together. It is strictly one sided but still it’s so sweet to watch. Once again, their relationship is one that you don’t often watch in dramas and so it’s nice to watch a different type love portrayed on screen. She is such an intense, obsessive character that it makes us question how  she will ever get past his death? Well unless there is some miraculous cure in the last episode? No? we thought we were getting our hopes up as well… hehe.

Between episode 13 to 17, Jae Hun and Tae Yi’s relationship has gone full circle. We witnessed their love blossom, saw their first (almost) date, which was just so cute and then we watched it spiral out of control leaving Tae Yi confused and heartbroken and Jae Hun dying inside as he realised the consequences of his actions and took responsibility for them. Only in dramaland would two people’s fates be so entwined and so bittersweet. We understand Jae Hun choosing jail over confessing his crime to Tae Yi. It’s just like his character to spare her from getting hurt even in the slightest. Can two people ever really get past something like this? We hope he avoids jail and get’s his HEA with Tae Yi but the writer has their work cut out in terms of making the conclusion to their story believable. We’ve got our fingers crossed that the writer can deliver the goods. For us, their romance was a major factor in this drama and as a result, if the conclusion falls flat on its face, it’s bound to leave a bad taste in our mouths and we don’t want that!

It’s impossible not to love this guy.

We appreciate how the writer has stayed true to these characters and avoided giving them personality transplants to get through their issues. We can totally believe that Doo Ri would stalk, steal and threaten people to get her way. Or Jae Hun would rather take the hard, difficult road than risk hurting the ones he loves.  For us, the characters have remained the best think about this drama. They are unique individuals that have come together and formed an odd friendship that manages to feel authentic and compels us to root for them to all succeed.

We were thinking about how this drama has been labelled as just one of many musical dramas out there at the moment but in our opinion it’s so much more than that. It’s less about music and more about watching these characters find their way in life… which sounds so cheesy and cliché but when it’s done with heart and a solid script nothing can compete and we are complete suckers for it!

With three episodes left to watch, what will we do without our weekly fix of What’s Up?

What’s Up – episodes 11-12

He waited for her!

Someone tell us where we can find a guy just like Jae Hun, we love him.

He waited for Tae Yi despite the fact that her reasoning for staying with a bunch of sleazy perverts was completely pathetic and no way enough of an excuse not to drag her away kicking and screaming. He waited for her because she asked him to and well he’s so smitten by her that he’d do anything she asked, regardless of how stupid it might be. 

 

Despite the fact that Jun Hae was unbelievably great, rocking up there and declaring in his cool voice ‘let’s go’, (swoon*) the whole scenario annoyed us. We don’t care how much you want something, there are ways to do things and putting yourself in a situation like that is not the right way. Yes, Tae Yi is naïve and rather sheltered from the real world but seriously, she is so frustrating to watch at times. Running over and signing a multi-year contract without someone looking it over is just stupid. UGH.

The worst thing about Tae Yi is the fact that we can’t dislike her, however much we want to. Her scenes with her father get us every time. They are always so sweet and touching. He was the person she turned to, to work out her thoughts and feelings. So you can’t help but feel for her as she tries to deal with real life without him around to protect her.  Also, the girl may be a bit silly at times, but she doesn’t have a malice bone in her, it’s like hating on Bambi.

 

Aside from being glad that there has been some resolution to Tae Yi’s storyline, we’re scared about what’s going to happen next!  We want to protect these characters that we have grown to adore from episode 1 and hope they all get their HEA. However, we fear that we might be out of luck on this occasion. Sob*

Jae Hun has finally found his place in the world and is happy but naturally this being a Kdrama, we knew it wouldn’t last long. We just can’t think of any way he can possibly get his happily ever after. He did the crime, there is clear evidence and someone died. Surely, there is no chance of him escaping jail, it’s too major right? Then there is the fact that he was indirectly responsible for killing his GF’s father which is another matter all together. We sense angst coming, a lot of it and we don’t like it one bit. We want him to be happy, damn it.

Then there is Sun Woo- they showed him with the dreaded nosebleed! Noooooo.

We guess we worked out whose funeral the gang were all going to at the start of the drama. We hope we’re so wrong about this theory.  However a nosebleed and his declaration that he wanted to live a long life all means one thing- he’s going to die.

Other thoughts:

How awesome was Byun Gun when he sang to the ghost. He’s such a great character. He never fails to make us smile in every episode. We’re glad that the writer has started to reveal more of his back story because that means we get to have more airtime with him and well that’s always a good thing.

 

Do Sung telling Soo Bin that his music was ‘too safe’ was brilliant. We doubt that anyone has ever criticised Soo Bin in his whole life. His reaction was priceless!

We can’t wait for the battle of the bands to begin. Mainly because we want to see Chae Young’s smug smile wiped off her face. Muahahah.

Who is going to be the person that Byun Gun manages to sing in front of? Doo Ri, perhaps? We love a good odd couple and they fit the bill quite nicely.

What’s Up – episodes 7-10

Having been burned way too many times last year with dramas that started off great but then slowly turned into a steaming heap of crap. We decided that maybe it was best to just go with the flow and cross our fingers that this drama remains as awesome as it has so far. Every episode has been solid. More than solid, every episode has allowed us to connect with all of the characters and really grow to love them as a group and as individuals.

Now that’s a hard task to accomplish for any drama, especially when there are so many characters, each with their own backstories and of course personal dramas. However, we’re pleased to report that What’s Up is seriously delivering in all areas.

The characters are all well fleshed out as individuals but it’s watching them as a group that keeps us tuned in. Their friendship may be at the early stages but it comes across so authentically and their chemistry together is great viewing. Also it helps when the characters are so likable…

 Take Oh Doo Ri – is it just us, or does this girl rock? We love her!

We confessed we groaned and really feared her love confession to Professor Sun Woo. That storyline had been done to death and watching a tough, cool character turn into a needy, clingy freak was the last thing we wanted to watch. However, having been hardened from last year’s offerings; we were so pleased to watch how this storyline was resolved.

It was not only a tidy, well thought out conclusion but it made us grin like fools as we watched this group of friends rally round and take care of one of their own. Plus, it was hilarious watching the photo shoot scene with Do Sung and Jae Hun.  We don’t know how they managed to get through that scene without laughing their arses off at Do Sung’s pink tracksuit.

Despite loving her dark, moody presence in earlier episodes, we really like how she has opened up and integrated herself within the group but of course in her own special way.

Episode 10 was a great example of Doo Ri in full swing. She spent the majority of the episode, being her normal indifferent self. She teased the others for being all dramatic and over thinking the Tae Hee situation but as soon as it got serious she stepped up and took charge. Her phone call to Tae Hee was so funny. The cool, brooding girl disappeared and suddenly we were presented with a hysterical mad woman.

 She so cares…J

We don’t know how we feel about the development in Tae Hee’s storyline… we’ve never been fans of watching damsels in distress be rescued by their knights in shining armour. Or watching naive characters be taken advantage of by villains. Yes, naive characters can be endearing but when it involves large chunks of a drama, we confess we find it rather frustrating and have the urge to scream– WAKE UP, YOU IDIOT. THEY’RE TAKING ADVANTAGE OF YOU! Plus, we have a serious soft spot for the tough, strong leading ladies that come to the rescue and save themselves. As well as manage to get the guy at the end of a drama. They are the reason why we love a good Kdrama.

Maybe Tae Hee will surprise us and be a worthy rival to the scheming, horrible Chae Young? We really hope so.

Random quick thoughts:

-We really liked the scene with Soo Bin and Tae Hee playing the piano together. It was cute and allowed us an insight into Soo Bin as a character. So far he has been rather mysterious but clearly he is a really perceptive character that reads people well. We love how he sees right through Chae Young’s fake charade.

-How great was the faceoff between Doo Ri and Chae Young? Chae Young confronted the wrong girl, Doo Ri doesn’t take anyone’s crap and that’s way we love her!

-Jae Hun  still owns our hearts. We love how he’s so honest and thoughtful with everyone. That Tae Hee better not break his heart or else…

Mid Week Rambles

Sherlock+ Dr. Watson = Best OTP on TV.

Sherlock returns to TV on Sunday! We are so excited; we’ve thoroughly missed this show and couldn’t be more pleased. The cliff hanger at the end of season 1 was amazing and we’ve been desperate for more ever since.

We wonder if Sherlock will get a real OTP this season. Now that would be interesting, watching someone so socially awkward handle something like romance. Although we wouldn’t be too upset if he didn’t because as we all know, he always has Dr. Watson…

Oh the bromance. Heeee.

What’s Up? : Random thoughts while we impatiently wait for episodes 7/8 to be subbed.

 We have carefully watched the beginning sequence of episode 1 and all of our main characters are accounted for, so who’s funeral are they going to???

We’re just glad that it’s not Jae Hun. We wouldn’t have been that bothered if Chae Young died but we guess we can’t always get what we want. Honestly, what a manipulative, scheming brat. Why bother going to university if you don’t plan to learn anything in the first place. We can’t wait for her to be found out for being the fake she is. We do love a healthy dose of karma in our dramas.

Also, surely it’s not just us that thinks that the actor that plays Soo Bin has the strangest face in dramaland?

Skip Beat! – first impressions

Watching Siwon and Donghae in Skip Beat is distracting. It’s like an out of body experience, it’s hard to focus on the acting or drama because we’re too busy watching Siwon’s mouth move strangely, followed swiftly by words that clearly don’t belong to him.

We knew it would be annoying but still…

Aside from the dodgy dubbing which we hear will be re-dubbed soon, the rest of the drama is moving along really nicely. As we have mentioned before Ivy Chen is brilliant as our vengeful leading lady. The story is driven solely by her and her quest for revenge and luckily for us, Ivy is great as Gong Xi. We can believe her sense of betrayal and her heartbreak, so we’re more than happy to watch her do what she has to, to get her revenge.

We know we shouldn’t but we have to admit we really like Donghae’s Shang. What is wrong with us, we always like the baddies? It’s only because Gong Xi and Shang bounce off each other really well and you can physically see their animosity. Watching them fight is going to be lots of fun throughout the season as we know she’ll occasionally get the upper hand over him and finally wipe that smug look off his face. Muhaha.     

Who doesn’t love a good underdog story, especially when the leading lady is absolutely mad!

What’s Up? – 1-6/ first impressions

We wanted to watch this drama sooo badly after watching that awesome trailer and then we wanted it even more when it was cancelled. Thankfully the cable gods stepped in and took pity on our poor drama addicted hearts and all we have to say is:

Thank you cable gods, we love you!

We’ll be honest the first couple episodes left us with a lukewarm feeling. Sure, we liked the dark vibe and the complicated characters but at the same time it didn’t impact us the way we hoped.  The characters didn’t connect with us and as a result it didn’t make us eager for more. However, we stuck it out because like we said, we wanted this drama for sooo long and it felt like it was capable of more than what we had seen so far. Then we watched episode 5 and suddenly, the build up was over and the drama clicked into place for us.

Episode 6 was even better, we love the way these characters are all so screwed up – dysfunctional but at the same time desperate to be normal or at least be who they want to be. On a basic level we can understand that desire to be your own person regardless of your parent’s expectations and so watching them all come together and try and work out their thoughts and feelings is so engaging.

Every scene with Tae Hee and her dead father breaks our hearts. She’s such an earnest, sweet character. She appears to be one of the more functional of the bunch but in reality she’s probably the most damaged.

We adore all her scenes with Jae Hun, who we have a major soft spot for. What’s not appealing about a bad boy trying to make good? We love how his mother described the university as his emergency exit, it’s so fitting for the situation and the fact that he’s trying to escape the demons of his past. Sadly for him and us as viewers, we know full well that he won’t be able to hide for long. We can’t imagine that there will be a happy ending for this character, Kdramas love to serve justice but oh how we really hope it all turns out well for him. His character may be wise to the world and all the evils in it but at the same time, we love that look on his face when he watched Team A’s musical performance or when Tae Hee sang to him. It was so innocent and care free and while we’re watching him we can’t help but be happy for him and root for him to succeed.

Plus, how cute would Tae Hee and Jae Hun be as a couple?!

The scene where Doo Ri sang to her mother to calm her down was so great. The lyrics, the moment and the broken look on Doo Ri’s face was so tragically perfect. We felt for her so much at that moment. The idea of an emergency exit couldn’t be more apt for this character and watching her regress to please/ comfort her mother was so sad to watch.

When a drama can manage to squeeze our jaded drama hearts- we know we’ve found a good one. For now, we’re thoroughly enjoying this drama and can’t wait for more!

Belated Merry Christmas to everyone

We've been MIA for the better part of a month due to real life being insanely busy but we're glad to say that we are back and as always we've got plenty to say! 

The drama season has picked up and suddenly we've found ourselves with so many good dramas to pick from. What's a girl to do with so many options…?

Our currently watching list:

What’s Up? – we’ve got our fingers crossed it’s a winner. So far soooo good!

The Color of a Woman – mindless fluff. Exactly what we need for the Christmas holidays.

Skip Beat! – we must really love Siwon and Donghae if we’re willing to put up with their awful dubbing. Aside from that, we love Ivy Chen’s leading lady and the fact that they have stayed true to the original. It’s all looking very promising.

Hold list for various reasons:

Ring Ring Bell – see bitch post below.

Office Girls – overexposed fandom is a major turn off for the Musthavesubs girls. Plus, how dare they extend this drama, when it barely had enough plot to cover its original run!?

My Love by My Side – we plan to marathon this one soon, it’s the only way we manage to get through the mid section of a long family drama.

Wish List:

Padam, Padam – everyone seems to love this drama. Plus, we’re suddenly seeing Kim Bum differently, seriously he’s looking HAWT!

Girl K – this looks ridiculously good.

Me too, Flower – we were all set to watch this one but then we read how the second half tanked. We’ve decided to leave it until we know how it all turns out at the end.

We've missed you dramaland- we're so glad to be back!

Sunday Rambles

As A Thousand’s Day Promise has had such mixed reviews, we’ve decided that maybe it’s best to leave it on the shelf for the time being and see how it plays out. Also, we confess the concept kind of scares us silly, we’re not sure if we can stomach all that angst. The news of this drama did prompt us to finish off A Scent of a Woman– our last unfinished melodrama and boy are we glad we stuck around till the end. We adored it beyond words.

If you haven’t watched A Scent of a Woman– we demand you watch it. It is THAT good.

The Musical: episode 7

Granted we haven’t watched the next episode yet but all we have to say about this episode was- seriously???? We finished the episode and turned to each other dumbfounded by the fact that absolutely nothing happened…NOTHING. It was dull. The OTP were boring together (again), Yu Jin had zero airtime with Eun Bi and yes, they happened to sing the same songs again. For a drama about the production of a musical, you’d think there would be more than one song sung across 9 episodes, just saying.

We know we’ve been generally positive about this drama and that our comments may seem random but we were sitting there and we realised that:

– What is a drama without a decent OTP? Nothing and as we’re shipping the wrong couple that really don’t have a chance of being together- why are we bothering?

What’s Up

Yay!  We’ve wanted to watch this drama forever now and it’s finally been picked up, let’s hope that:

1. it’s subbed – please, someone take pity on us. 2. It meets our expectations or else we’ll cry!

We’ve got our fingers crossed that it’s a winner. We really did think that this drama was going to be permanently shelved after everything that happened with Deasung earlier in the year and the fact that it couldn’t get a slot on one of the main TV stations. However getting aired on Cable is better than not being aired at all, so no complaints from us. Heeeeee, we’re so pleased!

Office Girls: episode 10

He’s finally realised that he loves her! Yay. Watching him come to this realisation was an absolute pleasure.  Plus, we love it when the guy falls for the girl first- we never get bored of that setup.

Ring Ring Bell: first impressions/ episodes 1-4

It’s been a long time since we tuned in to a T-drama, little lone two at once. However now that we’ve dropped The Musical for being BORING and we’re scared of A Thousand Day’s Promise, we’re only really watching Office Girls, which really isn’t enough for our greedy drama addiction.

Ring Ring Bell doesn’t hit the spot like Office Girls but we’re still charmed by how sweet and sentimental it is. Naturally the characters are all messed up and have plenty of issues between them but we love the OTP and think they are wonderful together; natural, sincere and have a healthy spark.

The premise is rather ordinary but that’s okay when we care enough about the characters and their conflicts. So far we haven’t between wowed but it’s a nice, easy watch and it’s definitely a drama worth watching if you’re looking for something pleasant to escape to between your angsty dramas or real life dilemmas.

Final thoughts:

-Me too, Flower boy promo shots are plain disturbing. What were they thinking?

-Thinking about much anticipated dramas- Is the live action version of Skip Beat! ever going to be aired? We want to watch Ren and Sho now!