Dear Dramaland,

I’m sending feedback on a couple of your programs I finished and liked this year. Please use it to improve v.2018 of your Non-productivity Suite.

Your loyal customer,
mary

This program was as creepy as advertised.

I felt Sang-mi’s desperation to overturn this cult that’s holding her family and a village’s worth of people mentally hostage. But I was also awed at how Father Baek worked your fear on a gut level, making you wonder why you want to torch him when he’s just serving you a friendly cuppa.

Actually, everyone in this program was great, right down to the cult members who drank the Almighty Father’s leg wash.

There’s only a minor problem. In the preview material, we were told that Taecyeon is one of the main features. In reality, something called Woo Do-hwan took over a majority of this program, sneaking around in dangerous places and giving me stress-induced ulcers. Is this a bug? Please advise.

Look, I’m glad you increased the focus on Ji-won for v.2017, but you only fixed half of last year’s major bug! The Ji-won/Sung-min connection is still incomplete. AND you dropped some well-loved features from last year like Kang Yi-na and Chef. Even if the new characters made v.2017 a good stand-alone program, it would’ve been great to see all the old faces, since we love everyone from v.2016 and now v.2017 too!

But the biggest issue for v.2017 is the announcement regarding Song Ji-won’s sudden end-of-life. Why are you phasing out the most popular part of the program? Please fix this critical issue in v.2018 as I would like to enjoy Age of Youth every year until v.2050, if possible.

Dear Dramaland,

I hate you.

P.S. We all noticed you switch your supplier for Eun-jae.

I like that you had a lot of programs in this year’s Non-productivity Suite where the lady is the one calmly solving problems while everyone panics around her. Out of them all, Mystery Queen’s Seol-ok is my favorite: a busybody ajumma solving crimes and burning dinners (but never friendships!) using nothing but her obsession love of mystery novels. Plus, she isn’t anti-social at all. Not all geniuses are assholes that need to learn how to be human. Who knew?

I love the rest of the gang too. The exasperated grumpypants Wan-seung who can’t help but acknowledge Seol-ok’s genius, the moody Inspector Woo who treats Seol-ok as his equal in sleuthing, bestie Kyung-mi who’s a capable businesswoman and great at covering for our ajumma instead of just an excuse for spilling the heroine’s secrets, and Detective Crinkles McPuppy: Pioneer Member of Seol-ok Support Squad.

I’m glad you’re making a v.2018. Please bring back the adorable Scooby Gang and I’ll thank you forever, Dramaland!

See: I hate you.

I didn’t open this right away as it looked like a recycled version of last year’s Signal. But it differentiated itself by dialing down the time-jumpy tricks and building more emotional connections in the present time.

It’s a pity though, because those connections were also the reason why the ending depressed me. All the friendships Kwang-ho built in the present were erased when he changed the past. Sure, you left hints that the two families remained close and the kids grew up together, but we’ll never know if Kwang-ho was still the grumpy dad-in-law, or if Sun-jae ever became a smartass detective with a chip on his shoulder, or if Dr. Shin became an expert in criminal psychology.

Can you tell us what happened in the new “present”?

I found this program called Unknown Woman in this year’s Non-productivity Suite. It has the program type .mkjng. Did you send it to me for a free trial?

I don’t normally use this type of program as most reviews say it’s unwieldy. But I found Unknown Woman very robust. You can come back to it after skipping a few episodes and be entertained without missing much. It’s like a lot of things are happening every episode and yet… it doesn’t matter because a lot more things will still happen anyway, so there’s no pressure about missing one “major” twist out of a hundred.

Anyway, thank you for adding Unknown Woman to this year’s Non-productivity Suite. I might check out other .mkjng programs in 2018.

Kwon-joo is my second-favorite supergirl from you this year, Dramaland. A cool-as-beans police officer with superhearing, saving the world while giving whiny men her best poker face? Yes, yes, and yes! But there’s a bug similar to Rescue Me, where Kwon-joo and her powers didn’t get enough focus as promised.

I’m not angry. I’m just curious. Was there a point in her life where she rejected her talent? Did having superhearing make her over-reliant on it and cause blindness in other areas? I need to know!

You obviously have to make a v.2018 of this program. Give her the full superhero treatment. And write her a villain with more tricks other than being terribly handsome and gory. Someone who will use knowledge of her superpowers against her. Someone who’s as good as Kim Jae-wook at being creepy and ambiguous. Actually, I know a guy…

Hi Dramaland,

I like this program so much. Just a suggestion: can you send a copy of this program to Kim Nam-gil and tell him there’s a way to satisfy a revenge and NOT die?

I know there is a lot of love for Shi-mok Bot and Mother Hen Yeo-jin, especially with news about your upcoming v.2018 (v.2019?) But I think what also made this program great is all the secondary features you added. They made Forest of Secrets a real forest of… uhm… secrets, where you’re alternating between wanting to hug someone and handcuff them because you can’t tell who’s good or bad anymore. Except for my favorite Weasel a.k.a. Seo Dong-jae.

In this program where everyone is shady, Seo Dong-jae is the only one you can trust. You can trust him to backstab you. Always. There’s something refreshing about his honest duplicity. It’s not personal. He’s just trying to survive. He’s the best weasel that ever weaseled its way out of such a tangled mess.

Please make sure that in v.2027, when Shi-mok has 3+1 emotions and Yeo-jin has moved up to doing still-life sketches, the Weasel is still there to remain our constant in this twisted show.

I am a composer sending you my original work for use with Weasel’s character in v.2018 of Forest of Secrets. You don’t have to pay me anything.

WEASEL IS OUR KING

Weasel is our King,
Weasel is our King,
He didn’t die or get locked in (jail)
Weasel is our King

Weasel can hear anything
He’s by your door, just eavesdropping
That’s why drama fans all sing
Weasel is our King!

-not mary