The Return of Playing Favorites

It’s hard for me to believe, but as of August my obsession with Korean drama will be two years old. I went looking for something to watch during the summer dead zone between American television seasons, but I came away with a whole new continent worth of dramas, culture, and history. That’s pretty impressive considering that my gateway drug was Boys over Flowers, a show so ridiculous that my attempts to recapture the magic of first love by rewatching it always fail about halfway through the first episode.

Since the fateful day we first met, I’ve watched an insane number of Asian dramas—short and long, new and old, funny and serious. Many of them have been mediocre and some have been outright bad, but I’ve also found shows that were so wonderful they were actually painful to watch.

As my list of favorite dramas was posted last July, it seems time for an update. Here are the shows I’ve loved watching most this year.

1. Answer Me 1997 (2012)

After you’ve watched a few (dozen) Korean romantic comedies, they can start to feel repetitive: they all star the same characters in the same relationships reenacting the same Drama Overlord-approved clichés—a piggyback ride by episode 4, a chaste, closed-mouth kiss by episode 14. But Answer Me 1997 is something altogether different, and never feels canned or recycled. It weaves together genuine and refreshingly original stories about friendship, family, love, celebrity, and growing up, all tinged with a rosy nostalgic glow. Based on its premise, you’d probably never guess how special this drama really is: Starting in the titular year, it traces the friendships and romances of a group of high schoolers from Busan as they grow into adulthood. But Answer Me 1997’s greatest charm is its execution. It’s cleverly written, emphatically directed, and beautifully acted. Even its voice is fresh and compelling, thanks to the dual timelines it explores. Part of each episode is a sly mystery that takes place as its characters attend their high school reunion in 2012, and the rest is dedicated to their school years in the 1990s. We’re blessed with the opportunity to join in on the time they spend following Korean boybands, fighting with their parents, crushing on people they probably shouldn’t have been crushing on, and being best friends. Each of its characters is distinct and utterly individual: from plucky, pushy fangirl Shi Won to Joon Hee with his secret love, you won’t soon forget any of them.

More about Answer Me 1997

Drama review 

Favorites: Six Scenes from Answer Me 1997

The Time Traveler’s Drama: A Chronological Map of Answer Me 1997 

2. In Time with You (2011)

Okay. You caught me on this one—In Time with You is not a Korean drama. It was made in Taiwan. But no matter what language its dialogue is spoken in, it’s a moving story of another kind of coming of age. Its characters have already earned all the complicated, scary merit badges that adolescence has to offer, and are now coming to terms with the results of all that growing up. They’ve become capable adults with careers, convoluted romantic histories, and a wide network of friends and family that play key roles in their lives. On the eve of her 30th birthday, its tightly wound female lead makes a bet with her closest friend, a laid-back guy she’s known since high school: whoever gets married last has to pay the other an exorbitant amount of money. The rest of the drama follows the pair’s romantic exploits, which naturally lead them back to each other, where they belonged all along. In Time with You admittedly has a number of third act flaws, but I love its gentle wisdom, slow pace, and everyday storytelling. Its cozy world, magnetic leads, and zingy chemistry are so wonderful they actually remind me of Coffee Prince, the ne plus ultra of Korean drama.

More about In Time with You

Drama review

3. Spring Waltz (2006)

The last in the Endless Love series of dramas, Spring Waltz tells the story of a scrappy poor girl and her adopted brother. Separated as children, they rediscover each other as adults and fall into passionate Kdrama love to a lovely classical score. The English language is lacking words strong enough to express just how cheesy this show is—or how much I loved it. I’m a sucker for pretty melodramas about star-crossed childhood loves, and this is the perfect example of the species. It’s lousy with tragic birth secrets, dramatic miscommunications, and fated love. Everything about Spring Waltz is gorgeous, from the fairytale European vistas of the first few episodes to the riotously yellow canola fields of the finale. (Also, the boys could not possibly be hotter.)

More abut Spring Waltz

Drama review 

4. Flower Boy Next Door (2013)

You shouldn’t watch this show for its plot, which is silly and not without useless cul-de-sacs. You should watch for its charming, indelible characters and central romance, which is nothing short of ovary-exploding. Especially wonderful is goofy man-child Enrique, who somehow manages to be the most emotionally mature Kdrama character of all time, in spite of a propensity toward panda hats. Unlike so many male leads, he’s a sweet and supportive foil to his love interest, the introverted, damaged Dok Mi. He encourages her without belittling her, loves her without dominating her, and makes her happy without ignoring the darker parts of her personality. Like all the entries in tvN’s flower boy series, its lead couple is surrounded by a constellation of secondary characters, all of whom are gloriously quirky. A thoughtful character study disguised as a lighthearted rom-com, Flower Boy Next Door has surprising depths.

More about Flower Boy Next Door

Drama review

Dok Mis and Me

Fic: Happy 

5. Thank You (2007)

Beyond the two sets of Hong sisters, Kdrama screenwriters aren’t that well known around the English dramaweb. But as far as I’m concerned Lee Kyung Hee is the one who’s really worth keeping an eye on: her writing is textured and nuanced and smartly conceived from beginning to end. She specializes in gritty dramas about life’s darker, unsavory aspects, but none of them exceed Thank You in their tragic power. Its male lead—a cocky, devil-may-care surgeon—is a classic Lee Kyung Hee antihero. When his fiance dies of cancer in spite of his best efforts to save her, he gives up everything and heads to the countryside. There he slowly falls into bickering love with a kind-hearted native, a single mom who’s solely responsible for both her HIV-infected daughter and her senile grandfather. The ensuing 15 episodes manage to be both life-affirming and wonderful, even though they’re filled with hurt, sadness, and the many failings of the human body and mind.

More about Thank You

Drama review

6. Wife’s Credentials (2012)

This sophisticated, realistic drama feels more like an art house movie than a Kdrama romance. Wife’s Credentials explores the realities of everyday married life and parenthood in upper-middle-class Seoul, a place where desperation for prestige and success can get in the way of happiness. Told with subdued restraint, it follows an unhappily married housewife into what some descriptions of the drama call as an “inappropriate relationship.” But as you watch the show, the inevitable conclusion is that the relationship that best fits this name is the one she has with her husband, a preening, self-absorbed newscaster who wants her to fall in line with the demanding mothers of their son’s classmates. All this makes the show sound serious and boring, but that’s not at all the case—its fast-moving plot finds as much time for humor and delight as it finds for sadness and anger.

More about Wife’s Credentials

Drama review

7. Autumn’s Concerto (2009)

When I first started watching Korean dramas, I said that I’d never watch shows from other Asian countries: there was already more than enough television for me catch to up on. I’m glad I changed my mind. Like In Time with You, this Taiwanese drama was one of my favorite series this year. It’s a deliciously over-the-top melodrama with a setup familiar to any watcher of Kdrama—a hardworking poor girl clashes with a rich playboy before falling into crazy love with him. But unlike most Kdramas, Autumn’s Concerto isn’t afraid of sex, violence, or the kind of poverty that makes your family dependent on someone who hurts you. Buried in all this gritty darkness is one of the most fiery and irresistible relationships I’ve ever seen on screen.

More about Autumn’s Concerto

Drama review 

8. Pasta (2010)
I’m no great fan of workplace dramas—They tend to get bogged down in things that I don’t really care about, like office politics and never-ending wrangling for power, and ignore the human beings behind the employees. Pasta escapes this fate by working interesting characters into the professional intrigue, thanks in no small part to the work of the always charming Lee Sun Gyun and Gong Hyo Jin. He’s the demanding (and sexist!) new executive chef at the upscale Italian restaurant where she’s the lowest-ranking employee, and the two have some of the most adorable chemistry ever seen in a Korean drama. But their budding romance is only a small part of this drama’s appeal—its cute ensemble cast and speedy plot of foodie challenges make its 20 episodes (regrettably) fly by.


Learned from the list:
• Although list items often come in groups of ten, it felt right to stop with eight here. I liked lots of other dramas last year, but these were the true standouts. Slots 9 and 10 might as well be shared by five or six shows each—or none at all.

• The three network programs on this list aired in 2010 or before; all the more recent shows originally aired on cable networks. Just like in America, cable is now where it’s at for Korean television. Its programming is innovative, brave, and targeted to a specific audience, so it doesn’t suffer from having to please all the people all the time.

• My two favorite drama genres are coming of age stories and melodramatic romances with lots of angst (but ultimately happy endings). I burned through a lot of the classics in these fields during my first year of obsession, so was left watching current releases last year. And most of those current releases weren’t fit for this favorites list, which is another reason why it’s so short. I’m pretty sure next year’s version of this post will include Monstar, and am hopeful that both I Can Hear Your Voice and Cruel City will join it when I finally get around to watching them.