Annnnnnnd another year comes to a close.

Big thanks to our recap minions HeadsNo2, gummimochi, and kaedejun for sharing their reviews with us and joining the spirited discussion for the Editors’ Picks this year. There wasn’t even any hair-pulling, and only one person lost an eye! It’s been a great year for K-dramas and an even better one at Dramabeans because of all our readers, so thanks to you guys for making this community what it is. Okay, enough mushy stuff.

And the winners are…

SONG OF THE DAY

Queen In-hyun’s Man OST – “내 남자, 김붕도” (My Man, Kim Boong-do) [ Download ]

(...)
Read the rest of 2012 Editors’ Picks [Year In Review, Part 6] (4,080 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 315 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Answer Me 1997, Arang and the Magistrate, Big, Dr. Jin, Fashion King, featured, Gaksital, History of the Salaryman, Nice Guy, Padam Padam, Queen In-hyun's Man, Rooftop Prince, Shut Up: Flower Boy Band, The King 2 Hearts, The Moon That Embraces the Sun, year in review

If there’s anything that Santa has taught me over the years (other than a musical mnemonic about single-malt scotches), it’s that Christmas is a time of giving. Dramaland gives us so much throughout the year, that I thought it was finally time for me to stop being a grinch and give back, out of the goodness of my heart. *waits for credit*

So this year I’ve made a Christmas list, and every drama I’ve watched this year is on it. Because everyone deserves presents. Yes, even you, Show.

 
SONG OF THE DAY

The King 2 Hearts OST – “Hang-ah’s Dream” [ Download ]

(...)
Read the rest of Dramaland: The gift that keeps on giving [Year In Review, Part 5] (8,856 words)

© girlfriday for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 138 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: A Gentleman's Dignity, Answer Me 1997, Arang and the Magistrate, Big, Faith, featured, Gaksital, I Do I Do, I Miss You, I Need Romance 2012, King of Dramas, Nice Guy, Queen In-hyun's Man, Rooftop Prince, Shut Up: Flower Boy Band, The Chaser, The King 2 Hearts, The Moon That Embraces the Sun, To the Beautiful You, Vampire Prosecutor 2, year in review

My first year-end review!

I was so excited for this opportunity that I decided to watch as many dramas as I could in preparation this year, and all but forced myself to doggedly stick with obvious train wrecks because I figured, “Hey, at least it’ll give me something to write about.”

If I learned anything, it was that I should never do that again. That’s a life lesson every drama viewer should learn early in their infancy, so I’ll just chalk it up to some late blooming on my part. Ergo, take some of these review choices with a grain of salt and (hopefully) not as a pure representation of taste.

This was the year for time traveling heroes, questionably nice guys, single-minded kings, guardian angels, reapers, rockers, brothers, heroes, and hanbok-wearing chickens. Not every year has a bandwagon, but 2012 sure did; there was more time traveling than you could shake a stick at. And for most of those offerings, you’d be shaking that stick pretty angrily.

Since hindsight is 20/20, I’m riding out this year’s trend by posing this question to each drama: If I could turn back time, what would I do differently?

(...)
Read the rest of If I Could Turn Back Time [Year In Review, Part 4] (7,565 words)

© HeadsNo2 for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 154 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Arang and the Magistrate, Big, Dr. Jin, Equator Man, Fashion King, featured, Gaksital, History of the Salaryman, Love Rain, Nice Guy, Oohlala Spouses, Operation Proposal, Padam Padam, Queen In-hyun's Man, The King 2 Hearts, The Moon That Embraces the Sun, To the Beautiful You, year in review

Looking at the buffet table of 2012, I’m left in awe at the vast array of possible selections before me. The sheer number of choices is growing every year and I feel like I have to taste-test the premiere and make a quick decision of whether to keep digging in or move on. Sometimes you don’t just know for sure until you’re left with the aftertaste.

And because some dramas that fall within the same genre can have unique flavors, I’m using a Taste O’Meter to assess this year’s dramas. Was it sweet, sour, bitter, salty, or savory? Maybe more than one?

Like any “Thanks to…” in a good Kpop album: My unending thanks to javabeans and girlfriday for the opportunity to let me write about what I love; to HeadsNo2 for the squee-fests and love of makgulli; to kaedejun for the laughs, hugs, and love of Oppa; and last but not least, to YOU GUYS for being awesome readers. I put in a good word for y’all with Santa but he may have used my note as a coaster instead. Or a tissue.

The series below include the ones seen in its entirety, listed chronologically(ish):

(...)
Read the rest of A Variety of Flavors in 2012 [Year In Review, Part 3] (4,403 words)

© gummimochi for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 130 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Answer Me 1997, Arang and the Magistrate, Big, featured, Full House Take 2, Gaksital, I Do I Do, Marriage Plot, Nice Guy, Operation Proposal, Queen In-hyun's Man, Shut Up: Flower Boy Band, The King 2 Hearts, To the Beautiful You, Vampire Prosecutor 2, year in review

2012 was certainly a mixed bag: I saw plenty of action dramas and then I saw fluffy dramas that made no sense. There were dramas I loved, dramas that I liked enough, and then dramas that I hated. It was a tough year for me, and I felt I had bad luck in choosing which dramas to watch this year. But it helps to appreciate all the dramas – good or bad – because there are still plenty of life lessons to be learned from them.

One of my goals for this year was to watch a drama from every letter of the alphabet – HA! Like that really happened. But in the hopes that I did, the reviews will be in alphabetical order… with life lessons in between.

SONG OF THE DAY

“Might Gonna” from What’s Up OST [download]

(...)
Read the rest of Life Lessons from a Mixed Bag of Dramas [Year In Review, Part 2] (6,225 words)

© kaedejun for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 147 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Answer Me 1997, Big, Faith, featured, Full House Take 2, Ghost, Haeundae Lovers, Hero (OCN), I Need Romance 2012, Love Rain, Padam Padam, Special Affairs Team TEN, The King 2 Hearts, Vampire Prosecutor 2, What's Up, Wild Romance, year in review

Review extravaganza time!

I know: Already? It feels like just the other day I was killing myself to corral all my thoughts in coherent fashion in a monster review of 2011′s dramas, and already it’s time to lose sleep wrangling my thoughts together for 2012. Time sure flies when you’re having fun, or old. Guess which one I am?

These days I shy away from blanket statements like “This was an awesome year” or “This was a terrible year.” Dramaland has been putting out so much material that all the nuance gets sucked out of a flattening statement like that. If anything, 2012 was the year it overflowed with variety—so yes, there were terrible shows, and there were awesome shows, and there were shows every step in between. But thanks to the explosion of cable programming—aided by the launching of not one, not two, but four new cable stations boasting big drama lineups—there was just about something for everyone.

 
SONG OF THE DAY

Shut Up Flower Boy Band OST – “Jaywalking” [ Download ]

(...)
Read the rest of 2012: Something for everyone? [Year In Review, Part 1] (9,584 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 260 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Answer Me 1997, Arang and the Magistrate, Big, Color of Woman, Dr. Jin, Dream High 2, Faith, featured, Gaksital, History of the Salaryman, I Do I Do, Ma Boy, Nice Guy, Oohlala Spouses, Queen In-hyun's Man, Rooftop Prince, Shut Up: Flower Boy Band, Standby, The Moon That Embraces the Sun, Vampire Idol, Vampire Prosecutor 2, year in review, You're Here You're Here You're Really Here

We’re a bit overdue for a podcast, which means that this one’s super long. In our defense, there was a ton of ground to cover. And yeah, so maybe we just had a lot to say about Gaksital. I was SO determined to make this podcast fit into one reasonably-lengthed entry… but who was I kidding? It was over with ‘reasonable.’ Two parts it is! And we weren’t even drunkin’ it.

Podcast #14, Part 1

Running time: 67:40

In which we:

• talk about the disappointment that was Big and why the Hong Sisters didn’t deliver (3:10);
• begin the very long discussion on Gaksital, beginning with overall impressions and how we rate the show (9:53);
• discuss Gaksital’s dealing of historical events and people, with a brief mention of The Princess’s Man (16:40);
• still Gaksital: its technical merits, why the director rocks, why the action scenes are meaningful, and how it went dark (20:35);
• move on, finally, to Answer Me 1997, why we loved it, and where it faltered (32:35);
• wonder about To the Beautiful You, where characters act like aliens (43:50);
• puzzle out the dichotomy of Faith of its potential versus execution (49:19);
• and discuss its lead stars Kim Hee-sun and Lee Min-ho (60:06).

(...)
Read the rest of Dramabeans Podcast #14, Part 1 (140 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 118 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Answer Me 1997, Big, Faith, featured, Gaksital, To the Beautiful You

javabeans: With Big recently over, A Gentleman’s Dignity coming to a close, and a slew of noona romances both on the horizon and on the shelf in dramaland, we’ve been wondering: What, specifically, is the deal with cradle-robbing teachers?

girlfriday: You mean besides being every high-schooler’s fantasy at some point?

javabeans: You clearly did not go to my high school. Shudders. The median age must’ve been past retirement and the median hair color white.

girlfriday: Well that’s depressing. But most people have ONE young hot teacher in their lives, right?

(...)
Read the rest of Thing vs. Thing: Cradle-robbing Teachers (1,119 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 173 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Big, conversation post, featured, Flower Boy Ramyun Shop, Gong Yoo, Jung Il-woo, Thing vs. Thing, Unstoppable High Kick

Well, it ends. Listen, my mother said that if I don’t have nice things to say… waitaminute, my mother never said that. Let the ragefest begin!

This show is basically a lesson in math. Turns out you can have great parts, but the sum can add up to less than those parts. I know! I didn’t know it worked that way either! But math is wily like that. And apparently, so are dramas.

(...)
Read the rest of Big: Episode 16 (Final) (4,341 words)

© girlfriday for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 827 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Baek Sung-hyun, Big, featured, Gong Yoo, Lee Min-jung, Shin, Suzy

Oy, my head hurts. This wasn’t a straight-up bad episode, which I might have even been fine with, given the entertainment value of bad. (See: Dr. Jin.) Instead, it was outright incomprehensible, leaving me scratching my head in confusion and wondering if I suddenly lost a few brain cells in the story comprehension department, because I felt like everyone in the drama was acting like stuff made sense… only IT MADE NO SENSE. I don’t understand. I don’t understand. I don’t understand.

SONG OF THE DAY

Hey – “Une Dance” [ Download ]

(...)
Read the rest of Big: Episode 15 (4,237 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 241 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Baek Sung-hyun, Big, featured, Gong Yoo, Lee Min-jung, Shin, Suzy