Drama Purgatory: Shows on Hold

Alone in Love

• Episode 1. After an ambivalent phase that coincided with the airing of Jang Ok Jung, I’m back in love with Kdramas. There are about thirty of them that I’d like to be watching right now, but I’m following my personal rule and watching only two shows at a time—one that's currently airing and one that's completed. I've been putting off this particular drama for a long time, at least partially because its reviews are so spectacular. It has a reputation for being serious and meaningful, and grappling with meaty, real-world dramatic topics, like the loss of a child. Go figure, but I find all that goodness a little off-putting. So far, Alone in Love is a low-key, human drama with an indie feel, like a downer version of the Korean sitcom Soul Mates. Even from the first few scenes you can tell that the writing is better and more genuine than many Kdramas, but I'm not totally sold yet.

• Episode 1. Son Ye Jin looked so much better when this drama was made—nowadays she’s become just another (alleged) plastic surgery monster.

• Episode 2. If I were to die today and a crack team of CSI types searched my house they would think I'm a spy or hunting for pirate booty or something. After all, there's a notebook filled with cryptic writings next to my couch: 2:33:29, 45:11:1, 8:5:53, etc. Of course, these are time counts of drama episodes I was only able to watch partway in a sitting. But still, I bet they'd look exciting to someone who didn't know better.

• Episode 2. If someone had told me that Ha Jae Sook was in this show as a hefty female wrestler nicknamed “The demon,” I would have watched it much, much sooner. I loved her in both Pasta and Protect the Boss, and am hopeful she'll also be a character in this show, not a just joke. (In my perfect world she’d end up with the male lead, who would fall head-over-heels for her nontraditional charms, while the female lead would end up with Lee Jin Wook’s character. Too bad neither seems likely to happen in the actual world.) I would love to see a show that Ha Jae Sook played lead in, rather than being relegated to friend-of-the-lead status. She could be a real Sam Soon, not a skinny pretender like Kim Sun Ah.

• Episode 2. As someone who speaks only English, I always wonder about subbing accuracy in the dramas I watch. I know this description of Lee Jin Wook in a bathing suit is 100 percent spot on, though: “His natural muscles were impressive. I couldn't keep my eyes off. All the women nearly fainted.” Yup.

• Episode 3. I love that The Demon has a select group of obsessed fanboys who mimic her scary makeup at her wrestling matches. (I've dated the grown up version of those boys, and they're lots of fun.)

• Episode 3. Dare I hope that I chose to watch two shows in a row in which the second lead gets the girl? As much as I like nuanced characters, the male lead is just too much of a human being for me to root for him. He's hapless, thoughtless, and obsessed with boobs. There's no mystery or charm to him--he's just a guy, not a hero. Gimme the handsome young stalker any day.

• Episode 3. I recently heard a professor say he used to teach the book Peyton Place as an example of a narrative that was just one thing happening after another, not a plot. This show feels a little like that; it's shaping up to be many slice-of-life events casually gathered together, not a story that has a clear beginning, middle, and end. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

• Episode 3. It's interesting to see how dressed-down Kdramas used to be back in the mid-oughts. Most of the people in this show—including the girls—wear comfy looking jeans and sweaters, in contrast to today's preference for the skin-tight, sky-high, and indecently short.

• Episode 4. I get that Dunkin' Donuts is one of this show's sponsors, but I just don't believe that its size 2 female lead eats three donuts for breakfast. Yet here we are, iced coffee and all.

• Episode 5. So far my two favorite characters aren't so much secondary as they're tertiary. First is the female wrestler, who hasn't appeared in episodes, and second is the little girl. In some ways she reminds me of Dok Mi from Flower Boy Next Door--she's taciturn and precocious and seems to have a soul that's not quite like everyone else's, but she's still doing everything she can to make the best of a bad situation. I'd love for the male lead to end up with her mom, because he and the little girl have the best chemistry of anyone in this show.

• Episode 5. At the gym where this show's female lead works, all the members wear matching uniforms. I can't decide if this would make working out worse or better—you wouldn't have to worry about what to wear, but it would be all the easier for everyone to see your physical shortcomings.

• Episode 5. Just when I was trying to figure out why every woman on the Korean peninsula is lining up for the nebbishy male lead, the show steps in with some answers. (1) He still has hair, (2) he doesn't hit women, (3) he likes kids, and (4) he was once kind to a fat girl. On the one hand, I appreciate that these things do make him something of a catch. On the other hand, I wish this show had a cadre of flower boys up its sleeve.

• Episode 6. This episode is torture to watch—all along, you know that the little girl's heart is going to be collateral damage. I find it interesting that the female lead is so much motivated by her relationship with her parents and her own child, yet has no idea how to really relate to Eun Sol. Eun Ho talks cutesy to her and treats her like a baby, while the show's men are actually better at relating to the little girl as a person. That's not something you see much on television shows—no matter where they're filmed.




Monster
• Episode 1. Well. That's a memorable opening scene—but maybe not in a good way. What's with the slimy slugs? (And the way the script conflates them with lips? Does somebody actually get tongue in this drama?)

• Episode 1. It’s too early to say for sure, but I have a sneaking suspicion this is the drama I’ve been waiting for over the past few months: It's a little realistic, a little moody, a little coming-of-agey. The group of misfits that’s starting to emerge are all being treated with sympathy and respect, and they have fully formed lives outside of the classroom—something School 2013, this spring’s only other high school show, lacked for me. I worry that the female lead went to the Suzy School of Anti-Acting, but the male lead is doing fine work in spite of his idol roots. (And is way cuter than I thought based on this drama’s poster. Added bonus!)

• Episode 1. Just as I thought to myself, “How did that stray sheep get on your head, female lead?” the drama filled in her background—as a shepherd. Fitting, and a bit Mean-Girls-esque. They’re doing a good job making her seem guileless and unprepared for the nastiness of regular teenagers, but I hope she gets less 4D as the show goes on.

• Episode 1. So maybe it's just me, but the word “twat” doesn't seem like a very good fit for a drama for teens. In American English, anyway, it’s a pretty serious swear.

• Episode 2. Nobody in the class plays the gayageum? What is this, Peoria?

• Episode 2. That rainstorm really caught this show's production team unawares. First they leave the poor girl playing her guitar in the middle of a downpour, and then her soaked hair messes with the continuance of the rest of the scene.

• Episode 2. I can’t believe it—I actually recognized a song in this episode: Yiruma’s “River Flows in You,” which comes up all the time in the study mixes on 8Tracks that I like to listen to at work. (I may be obsessed with Korean drama, but I don’t listen to Korean music much.)

• Episode 2. This one hits the sweet spot, all right. Funny but not silly, serious but not boring, angsty but makjangy. Twelve episodes might not be enough.

• Episode 3. I’m glad Drama Fever took over subbing this show—the first two episodes were subbed by its distributor, and they were distinctly subpar. Also: twat.

• Episode 3. A while back an American politician suggested that one way to cut school budgets was to dispense with janitors and instead have the students do the cleaning. This was met with hysteria—Children? Handling dangerous cleaning chemicals? And working? People wouldn't have it. Which is pretty silly—it clearly happens all the time in Asia, just like in this episode that finds our young heroes off cleaning a national monument with toothbrushes. We Americans really do have a tough time realizing the way we’ve always done things isn’t the only way possible.

• Episode 3. The tear getting in his eye thing? That was kind of gross. I suppose the swapping of boldily fluids is key in some kinds of relationships, but I don’t think that's how it’s supposed to work.

• Episode 3. My love for this show just keeps growing. Everything about it is better than it needs to be, from the writing and acting all the way to the set decoration ans singing. It’s the perfect mix of lighthearted silliness, teenage angst, and rock ’n’ roll high school. It’s as if the dramas Shut Up: Flower Boy Bad and What’s Up mated.

• Episode 3. I know how veggie-centric Korean diets are, but exactly how much fiber must it take to make poo look like soft-serve ice cream?

• Episode 4. This show has officially entered become too good for Drama Fever: I can’t wait for the subs to be posted there, so I've defected to Viki for this week’s ep.

• Episode 4. I love that ever since You’re Beautiful, hardcore Pop fandom in dramas is represented by people who write slash about band members hooking up with other band members. It’s sweet that this show is humanizing the trend by giving a reason for it other than actual insanity, and I’d love to see it become a plot point going forward. How great would it be if Eun Ha was a big-name fan who suddenly had conflicting loyalties to the actual human being in her life and the fic subject she’d created?

• Episode 4. Interesting that the show keeps cutting to dream-sequence performances as imagined by the two male leads. Every time, they make unassuming Se Yi over as a vampy femme fatale. It reminds me a little of Inception: whenever the movie was in the dream world, Leonardo DiCaprio’s wife was all dressed up in super fancy clothes, but in real life scenes she was dressed in everyday pants and a t-shirt. Here’s hoping that Monstar will eventually let us see Se Yi’s own dream performance—and that she has something more interesting to offer than a slinky dress and heavy eye makeup.

• Episode 4. It’s a pity that this show’s weak link is the actress who plays Se Yi. She has a nice voice and a china-doll prettiness, but she’s just not capable enough to handle the emotional heavy-lifting this role requires. I keep finding myself thinking how great her scenes would be, if only they’d cast someone less brittle and vacant—say Kim So Hyun from I Miss You.

• Episode 4. Man, Korea really loves this Josh Groban song. This makes two dramas in a row I’ve heard it in—Ojakgyo Brothers, and now Monstar.

• Episode 4. I don’t know enough about Asian music to recognize any of the guest stars in shows like this, but I know enough about Korean dramas to recognize when one appears. I guess that guy playing the Josh Groban song is actually famous? I wonder if he’ll be back for other episodes—his appearance sort of reminds me of how Coffee Prince picked up Sun Ki.

• Episode 4. These little end-of-day montages are so quiet and lovely. Especially wonderful was Eun Ha’s moment at her keyboard—even without knowing Korean, I can tell you exactly what she writing: Men in Black smut. Show, I love you.

• Episode 4. And now, when I’m at my most vulnerable, they go in for the kill with the early stirrings of bromance. Have mercy, Monstar! If I’m dead from the happy, I can’t watch the rest of your episodes!

• Episode 5. I love that the teacher is slightly bitter and jaded about her work, not to mention a little on the lazy side. Usually teachers on TV are either so noble and long-suffering they make you want to barf (e.g., School 2013) or gruff meanies who are biding their time before contracting a terrible disease and die in some inspiring way (e.g., What’s Up). This teacher is just a woman going about her job, which is actually refreshing. I’m sure she”ll have some transformative experience that turns her into a better person, but mostly I’m just enjoying that she actually is a person.

• Episode 5. I could die a happy woman if this show had a finale that flashed forward to show its characters as adults, like Dream High. Eun Ha’s dream sequence in this episode would be a great jumping-off point...

• Episode 5. For a Korean drama, there are actually a lot of different body types represented in this show. Not everyone is super skinny—and in Eun Ha's case, it’s totally unremarked upon that she’s probably outright fat by Korean standards. (By American standards, of course, this makes her pleasantly plump.) Until this episode, the big guy got away with being heavy, too. I wasn’t crazy about the male lead making such a big deal about him loving to eat, but at least he left Eun Ha alone. It’s sort of flipping a double standard—in this case, nobody seems to care that the girl is heavy, but they comment on the boy’s size.

• Episode 5. There are only 7 episodes left, but there's still so much ground for this show to cover--the band battle, the big show, the female lead's family backstory, Kim Na Na's entire identity, etc. I feel like we're in good hands, though: the story is progressing smoothly, with the characters being enriched all the while.

• Episode 6. Wait. Did I just see a teenage boy chastise a girl for opening her mouth when he intended to kiss her? Things really are different in Korea.

• Episode 6. Is it wrong of me to think that Kim Na Na’s secret hobby of fashion design with paper dolls is utterly lame? I'd like to go ahead and strike this boring, traditional scene and insert one of her doing a killer ollie on her skateboard or deftly shading the newest panel of her steampunk manga. Not all girls need to be obsessed with clothes, Korea :b

• Episode 8. As much as I love shows with supportive mother/daughter relationships, it's sort of refreshing to see Se Yi and her mom fighting like hellcats. That's the way adolescence goes for a lot of people, and their troubles make Monstar all the easier to relate to.

• Episode 8. Se Yi is not the girl to have around in an emergency, it would seem. Don’t just cry...do something.

• Episode 8. I can think of worse things than watching Werewolf Boy twice in one day, actually.

• Episode 9. When a girl struggles against your mouth, how about you stop kissing her, you thug?

• Episode 9. Well, the slugs from episode 1 are back. But why...? Are they trying to make a statement about carrying comfort wherever we go—like the snail’s shells, their own portable homes? Or just that kissing can be kind of gross and slimy if you really think about it?

Dating Agency: Cyrano
• Episode 1. A trendy rom-com told with glossy, heist movie flair, Cyrano delivers an amusing intro with lots of potential for growth. The agency's clients and crack team of techno-cupids would probably be enough to carry a drama on their own, but factor in the contrasting personalities of the leads--he's a brusque, Sherlock Holmes-style genius, she's a hopeless romantic--and you've got a sure winner. While it doesn't seem headed for the surprising depths of Flower Boy Next Door, Cyrano sure knows how to make a grand entrance.

• Episode 2. Congratulations on casting the first black person I've ever seen in a Kdrama, show. Maybe next time you can try casting him for some reason other than providing a sense of authenticity to a supposed drug deal.

• Episode 2. I find it difficult to like a heroine (and show) that stands between a sick animal and the medical attention it needs. And you know what would make that stray cat healthy? FINDING IT A HOME.

• Episode 2. I guess it was pretty easy to cast Lee Chun Hee in this drama. They couldn't have questioned his ability, after all—he played practically the same character in The Thousandth Man last year.

• Episode 2. Is that guy playing solitaire on his computer? Didn't somebody invent the Internet so we didn’t have to do that ever again?

Cruel Palace 

• Episode 1. I’ve been feeling lukewarm about the new crop of Kdramas, so I thought I’d sample this traditional sageuk that's just a few episodes into its run. The show is epic and lavishly staged with a number of impressive set pieces, and you’ve got to love a heroine who spends a good chunk of an episode killing and burying a barbarian invader. TV death is usually abstract and uncomplicated, so it’s a nice touch to actually hold a character so physically responsible for the crime she’s committed. I’m not so crazy about the rest of the show, though—it amounts to a bunch of scenes of old guys talking about politics, punctuated by shorthand character introductions that propel the plot but don’t grace anyone with much of a soul. Also in the negative column is Cruel Palace’s extreme length—at fifty episodes, it won't be done until sometime in October. I thought watching a show like this as it aired might cut down on the hassle of watching it in one go, but I'm not convinced I have what it takes to be faithful to one drama for the next 25 weeks. Consider this one tabled until it has completed its run. (Paused March 30, 2013)

Playful Kiss
• Episode 1. Slick and stylish, but ultimately soulless. Many Kdrama rom-coms pack whimsical tangents in the first episode or two, but this candy-colored intro to the world of Playful Kiss has so many sidelines going on—OMG!!! Ponies!!!—that it forgets to have forward momentum. I like that they’re trying to make the female lead imaginative and artsy, which is a welcome change from the lovable but useless stalker at the helm of It Started with a Kiss, the earlier Taiwanese take on this show’s source material. Ultimately, though, it feels like the Korean version added lots of money to the budget, but subtracted most of the heart from the story.

• Episode 1. As it’s been more than a year since I originally watched this show, I thought it would be fun to rewatch it now that I’ve seen It Started with a Kiss. Clearly, I was wrong. In spite of its charms, it turns out that once was more than enough.


I Love Lee Tae Ri

• Episode 1. A lighthearted story of magically granted adulthood, I Love Lee Tae Ri is much more like the original Tom Hanks movie than the Hong sisters' Big, which aired at about the same time. Here's hoping its quality is a closer match for the American movie, too.

• Episode 3. Ah! There's even a nod to the body-swap movie Big in the opening credits—the male lead is shown jumping around on a piano keyboard superimposed over the floor, a classier version of the original’s most famous scene.

• Episode 4. The male lead is clearly a stellar actor—how else could he look down at his beautifully sculpted chocolate abs with such a look of disgust on his face?

• Episode 6. As always, Park Ye Jin's performance runs the gamut of emotions, from A to B. (Thank you, Dorothy Parker, for that line. It just never gets old.) She's only got one facial expression—an uppity look of mild surprise. I bet you could bounce a quarter off her forehead.

• Episode 6. Sorry, kiddo—you’ve been benched. I may come back and watch the rest, but this show just isn't doing it for me right now. The plot is clogged with busyness and I'm not finding the characters to be particularly interesting. Did tvN have a dud this year after all?

History of a Salaryman

• Episode 1. Light and funny corporate espionage that's irrefutably well made. And yet...I think I'm going to drop this show. It feels like the same TV for men by men I could be watching on American networks.