(Just to clarify, this is the first of four guest reviews and is written by Dahee Fanel, whose insights you can read regularly on her own blog, Dahee’s Plastic Castle. I hope you’ll enjoy reading the guest reviews and get as much as I do out of their diverse opinions. Thanks all, especially Dahee! —javabeans)

And to think that I headed into 2009 feeling so hopeful, too.
2008 was an awful year for K-dramas. That year ended with me feeling like I’d just swum through an ocean of excrement, and I figured that I’d need to soak myself in some good dramas for at least another year before I’d manage to wash the stink off of me.
Alas, that was not to be the case.
Thinking back on which dramas I saw in 2009, it occurred to me that, goddammit, I’m a lot more resilient than I’d thought. It awed me that I’d managed to watch crap like Cain and Abel and Everybody Cha Cha Cha all the way through, without even any fastforwarding! A year ago, this would not have been possible. A year ago, my stomach would have protested three seconds in, and I’d have had to be rushed to the doctor’s, only to be told (again) by dear old Dr. C that my condition is a complete mystery to him.
But this year, I discovered the secret to watching bad dramas without ending up gagging over a toilet. That secret has been spread so thick over my digestive organs that no amount of stress or disgust can penetrate it. We’ll get to what that secret is later, but the point of all this rambling is, I’ve discovered other reasons for watching dramas besides their innate quality. Call it a survival instinct. Reasons for drama-watching are a lot more complicated than I’d once thought.
So for this year’s write-up, I’m dividing the categories into the various reasons I watched the dramas in the first place. It’s going to be kinda embarrassing, but honest. I’ve found that honesty is always best in the end, whether people like it or not. As my mom likes to say: “If I find out you’re lying to me, I’ll turn your legs black and blue.”
SONG OF THE DAY
Broccoli, You Too? – “2009년의 우리들” (Us in 2009) [ Download ]
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Warning: Long ramblings ahead
Tags:
Accidental Couple,
Boys Before Flowers,
Cain and Abel,
Everybody Cha Cha Cha,
Friend Our Legend,
guest bloggers,
Kyung Sook Kyung Sook's Father,
Queen Seon-deok,
Smile,
Style,
The Man Who Can't Get Married,
Will It Snow For Christmas,
year in review,
You're Beautiful
Filed under: Drama Reactions & Reviews by Dahee_Fanel - 228 Comments →