Always a sucker for a useless routine, I’ve naturally
developed a strategy for watching Korean dramas: I only watch things that have
finished airing in Korea and are fully subbed; I complete one drama before
starting on another; and I stagger eras—for every recent drama, I watch one
that aired before 2009.
It’s unclear to even me if it’s possible for a human to be
more geeky than that, but what’s a girl to do? Kdrama is more than just an insanely entertaining watch—it‘s something I want to learn about and really understand. And to me this random routine feels
like a logical stepping stone toward this end—it allows me to fully digest a
show at my own pace and not get confused by watching a bunch of other dramas at
the same time, and also forces me to see not just where Korean drama is now,
but where it came from.
After a nearly a year of obsessive viewing, I’m starting to
get a feel for the cycle of Kdrama. Right now, for example, the late
spring batch of shows is about to wrap up airing and be replaced by the early
summer group. (Whether Korea has anything like American television seasons I
have yet to figure out—it seems that new shows are always airing, no matter
what time of year it is.) Thanks to my Dustin-Hoffman-in-Rainman level OCD, I have yet to start watching the currently airing shows, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have my eye on them.
Here’s a brief accounting of the ones I’m most excited for:
Queen In-Hyun’s Man. This
time travel romance features a Joseon-era man and a modern woman. It’s driving
online reviewers absolutely gaga with adoration, which is almost always a good
sign. I loved the male lead in his My Sweet City role, and am looking
forward to more of his gangly, easygoing charm. (Episodes 11 and 12 out of 16
will air this week.)
Equator Man. Improbably,
reading about this show is making me long for the old days of Korean drama,
before everything had to be high-concept and big budget. By all accounts, it
includes no body swapping, vampires, or time travel, and instead focuses on classic, character-driven revenge melodrama. Sign me up! (Episodes 19 and 20 out of 20 will air this week.)
King 2 Hearts. I
want to love this show, I really do. Koreans, like Americans, seem intrigued by
the concept of monarchy—probably because our countries have been without kings
for generations. The plot sounds fairly standard: a spoiled chaebol/king meets and
falls in love with a hardworking, underprivileged girl, who just happens to
have been trained to kill him. I worry, though, that viewers are falling into
distinct camps: people who loved 2011’s Secret Garden love this
show, and people who hated Secret Garden hate
King 2 Hearts. I fall squarely
into the second category, so things aren’t looking good. (Episodes 19 and 20 out of 20 will air this week.)
Rooftop Prince. Bummer for the Joseon era—all its upstanding young scholar types have been time traveling to the
modern world lately. Not that I’m complaining—the fish-out-of-water trope is
almost always good fun. Here’s hoping Park Yoochun manages to be half as cute in this show
as he was in Sungkyunkwan Scandal, one of my all-time favorites. He wasn't in the lame-tastic Miss Ripley, so the jury is definitely out on this drama, too. (Episodes 19 and 20 out of 20 will air this week.)
And then, of course, there’s the next batch of shows to look forward to:
Big. My expectations for this drama are too high, I think—I’m going to end up feeling totally let down if it’s something other than the funniest, sweetest Kdrama I’ve ever seen. It has a lot going for it: its writers are known for amusing characters and funny moments, and I couldn’t find its cast more appealing if I’d picked them myself. On the other hand, its writers are also known for less-than-spectacular follow-through and shaky plotting. Plus, this will be the first
post-Coffee Prince project I’ve seen Gong Yoo in—I worry my soulmate Choi Han Gyul will be retroactively sullied by a subpar
performance/drama. As of 5/22, Couch Kimchi has posted a boatload of teasers and previews for this show—the more I see, the more I like. (P.S. Does the above poster stolen from mysoju.com position the drama’s title right over...well...you know? Will this poor actor ever escape jokes about...cigar size?) (Currently included in Dramafever’s list of dramas coming soon; whether it will be simulcast is still unclear. Begins airing June 4.)
I Do, I Do. Korea’s
answer to Knocked Up should be tons of fun—how can you go wrong
with My Lovely Sam Soon’s Kim Sun Ah in
a steamy noona romance? She has a way of playing characters who are better than the typical ditzy female leads, whether that’s because of good script choices or her own sheer awesomeness. (Begins airing May 30.)
Bridal Mask. Most recent sageuks are set in the distant past, but this drama takes place during Japan’s occupation of Korea in the early twentieth century. It sounds like a
period version of City Hunter, complete with a masked avenger
bent on revenge for wrongs against his family. I’m hoping Bridal Mask will be less air-headed than its obvious predecessor. After all, the lead must have some depth and a social conscience—dude is an
independence fighter who regularly traffics with spies. My fingers are crossed
for a gritty, real-world vibe, rather than the shellacked gloss of that other
show. (Currently included in Dramafever’s list of dramas coming soon; whether it will be simulcast is still unclear. Begins airing May 30.)
Timeslip Dr. Jin. To
be frank, I haven’t loved a medical drama since the early days of ER.
With the addition of time travel and the lovely Kim Jaejong, though, this might
just be worth watching. (Begins airing May 26.)
(Thanks to the ever-wonderful [and better-informed than me]
Dramabeans and DramaTic for almost all this information.)
In the meanwhile, what shall we do while waiting for these
new dramas? Here are some suggestions.
