What the ever-lovin’ reindeer feculence? I get home from my overnight trans-earthian sleigh odyssey, settle back with my hard-earned fifths of whiskey to read up on what I’ve missed in dramaland, and find that they’ve finished the year-end reviews without me? This is an outrage! I know who’s getting their presents revoked this year! Goddamn naughty candy cane stuffers. How could those glumdrops possibly consider a year complete without my gleaming snowballs of wisdom? They can shut me out, but they can’t shut me up! I will be heard, even if I have to bribe my hacker elf and actually watch some dramas to do it.

Here’s the Year-End Review you’ve REALLY been waiting for… *Hic!*

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Read the rest of Santa Strikes Back! [Year In Review, Part 6] (676 words)

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Post tags: 49 Days, Athena, Baby-Faced Beauty, Best Love, Birdie Buddy, Can You Hear My Heart, Can't Lose, City Hunter, Crime Squad, Dream High, featured, Girl K, High Kick: Counterattack of the Short Legs, I Need Romance, Lie To Me, Man of Honor, Manny, Me Too Flower, My Princess, Myung-wol the Spy, Paradise Ranch, Poseidon, President, Protect the Boss, Royal Family, Scent of a Woman, Sign, The Duo, The Musical, The Princess's Man, Thorn Birds, Tree With Deep Roots, Vampire Prosecutor, Warrior Baek Dong-soo, What's Up, You've Fallen For Me

 
Wow, another year of dramas, come and gone. Where does the sanity go? I decided that for this year’s review, I would learn to be impartial and precise, and give systematic mathematical ratings for every show. Because numbers are fun. But then, I found that trying to rate a year’s worth of dramas was a lot like comparing apples and oranges and giraffes. It made my brain hurt and then I was all sleepy. So I did what anyone would do. I built a machine to do it for me.

Meet… the DramaMeter (patent pending): a highly scientific, totally foolproof system of computation, fine-tuned to measure any drama in any circumstance. It uses complex algorithms, longitudinal matrices, and other mathy things, to calculate a drama’s rating with exact precision, every time, without fail. I know. It’s likely to blow your mind. So without further ado, the dramas of 2011:

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Read the rest of The DramaMeter: highly scientific and foolproof [Year in Review, Part 4] (8,317 words)

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Post tags: Best Love, Can't Lose, City Hunter, Dream High, featured, Flower Boy Ramyun Shop, Girl K, High Kick: Counterattack of the Short Legs, I Need Romance, Lie To Me, Man of Honor, Miss Ripley, My Princess, Myung-wol the Spy, Scent of a Woman, Thousand Day Promise, Vampire Prosecutor, Warrior Baek Dong-soo, year in review, You've Fallen For Me

Time for another Year In Review series! How did a year pass by so quickly? I guess when you’re busy watching dramas, time flies.

This is my fifth year (eek) doing this series, which means you basically know the drill by now. (You can refer to the year-ender tag to catch up on past posts.) You had a chance to vote for your favorites of 2011, and now it’s our turn to weigh in on the dramas we’ve seen.

This year I’ve tacked on a little stickymeter to my reviews, based on the discussion girlfriday and I had in our last podcast about “drama stickiness.” Which is to say, regardless of a drama’s quality, how much of an impression does it leave three, six, twelve months down the line?

As in past years, you’ll notice I didn’t watch every series that aired this year, despite my best attempts to swap sleep for dramas. Also, I’m not reviewing shows that I haven’t seen fully (with the exception of those that are still airing). However, looking over the series that’ll be covered in the upcoming Parts 2 through 5 of the review series, I can assure you that we’ve got a pretty good spread covered, so please keep an eye out for the posts to come.

SONG OF THE DAY

Me Too, Flower OST – “Sunset Street” [ Download ]

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Read the rest of Measuring 2011 on the Sticky Scale [Year In Review, Part 1] (9,317 words)

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Post tags: 49 Days, Baby-Faced Beauty, Best Love, Can't Lose, City Hunter, Dream High, featured, Flower Boy Ramyun Shop, Girl K, High Kick: Counterattack of the Short Legs, Lie To Me, Manny, Me Too Flower, Miss Ripley, My Princess, Myung-wol the Spy, Poseidon, Scent of a Woman, The Princess's Man, Thousand Day Promise, Tree With Deep Roots, Vampire Prosecutor, year in review

What a heartwarming, funny, adorable finale for a heartwarming, funny, adorable series. You know what I love about this show? It’s just simple, steadfast, and best of all, it’s earnest. No fancy tricks, not even many surprises. But I walk away from it feeling like every character was worth meeting, and that love – real, everyday kind of love – is worth the risk.

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Read the rest of Can’t Lose: Episode 18 (Final) (2,371 words)

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Post tags: Can't Lose, Choi Ji-woo, Eom Ki-joon, featured, Ha Suk-jin, Kim Jung-tae, Yoon Sang-hyun

As we head into the finale, ends are tied, realizations are come upon, and decisions made. It’s funny to think of how many times this couple has circled around each other, almost reuniting but the pulled back by some badly timed reminder that they’re just not ready for it yet. Normally these forces keeping a couple apart are just narrative devices pacing us for the eventual realization of love, but in this drama they’re relevant to these characters’ development, proving why they’re just not there yet. It may be a bit roundabout, but it gives me more faith that once they finally get it right again, it’ll really stick.

SONG OF THE DAY

Can’t Lose OST – “돌아와줘요” (Please Come Back) [ Download ]

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Read the rest of Can’t Lose: Episode 17 (3,488 words)

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Post tags: Can't Lose, Choi Ji-woo, Eom Ki-joon, featured, Ha Suk-jin, Kim Jung-tae, Yoon Sang-hyun

What’s better than romance? Why, bromance of course. In the best episode yet, we get the height of both funny and sad, all in one go. The rivalry heats up, an unexpected friendship emerges, and it comes time for Eun-jae to face some harsh consequences for the choices she’s made. There’s only one word for this episode: DAEBAK.

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Read the rest of Can’t Lose: Episode 16 (3,608 words)

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Post tags: Can't Lose, Choi Ji-woo, Eom Ki-joon, featured, Ha Suk-jin, Kim Jung-tae, Yoon Sang-hyun

The love triangle is set and the men’s jealousies start to assert themselves, although it’s kind of a lopsided fight, with Hot (Hyung-woo) facing off versus Cold (Seok-hoon). Maybe this is where the we should be welcoming the extension, since it’ll give us more time to delve into Eom Ki-joon’s character instead of trotting him out as a token late-game obstacle. And I’m all for delving into Eom Ki-joon.

SONG OF THE DAY

Standing Egg – “Little Star” [ Download ]

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Read the rest of Can’t Lose: Episode 15 (2,785 words)

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Post tags: Can't Lose, Choi Ji-woo, Eom Ki-joon, featured, Ha Suk-jin, Kim Jung-tae, Yoon Sang-hyun

Eom. Ki. Joon. Need I say more? I dunno what happens in this episode, because Eom Ki-joon stops by, and I lose all sense of reason. What? What’s that you say? Eom Ki-joon isn’t the star of this drama? It’s just a cameo? Lalalalala. I can’t hear you!

 
EPISODE 14 RECAP

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Read the rest of Can’t Lose: Episode 14 (3,008 words)

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Post tags: Can't Lose, Choi Ji-woo, Eom Ki-joon, featured, Ha Suk-jin, Kim Jung-tae, Yoon Sang-hyun

Ahh, so this is how they’re going to introduce conflict for Can’t Lose’s extension.

Eom Ki-joon (Scent of a Woman, Dream High) is making a recurring appearance on the drama starting from today’s Episode 14 through Episode 17, playing Eun-jae’s (Choi Ji-woo) ex-boyfriend. That means he’ll probably mess with the couple’s budding reconciliation in the same way that Lee Soo-kyung‘s guest appearance as Hyung-woo’s (Yoon Sang-hyun) ex-girlfriend rocked the boat in the drama’s early episodes.

On the one hand: Manufactured conflict, boooooo. On the other hand: Eom Ki-joon!

I love him, and think he has a wonderful presence no matter what role he’s playing, whether it’s cold and collected (Hero), dorky and bumbling (Dream High), or my favorite, cold-on-the-outside and dorky-on-the-inside (Scent of a Woman). I miss my Dr. Poopy. Eom’s always a nice bonus, even if the appearance is as unremarkable as his cameo in Miss Ripley earlier this year (he was fine, his prosecutor character was fine — it just seemed like a waste of his talent for a role that could’ve been played by any no-name rookie).

But since the bottom line is more Eom Ki-joon, I guess I’m onboard.

Via Yonhap News

RELATED POSTS

• Can’t Lose bargains its way to extension
• Can’t Lose can’t agree on extension
• Can’t Lose: Episode 1
• Eom Ki-joon loses driver’s license, keeps drama role
• Eom Ki-joon in danger of being cut from Scent of a Woman
• Scent of a Woman: Episode 1
• Moon Geun-young and Eom Ki-joon cuddle up in rehearsals

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Post tags: Can't Lose, Eom Ki-joon

Aw, what a cute episode. With our couple now able to admit to themselves how they really feel, we’re one step closer to them admitting it to each other. It’s pretty adorable watching them act like teenagers with a crush, using a third party as an excuse to keep talking to each other — they’re just one step up from shuttling messages back and forth with boxes and checkmarks indicating DO YOU LIKE ME? YES OR NO — which makes for some cute moments, as well as more pointed comments about how this divorced couple sure isn’t acting divorced.

SONG OF THE DAY

Milk Tea – “Couple Ring” [ Download ]

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Read the rest of Can’t Lose: Episode 13 (2,818 words)

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Post tags: Can't Lose, Choi Ji-woo, featured, Ha Suk-jin, Kim Jung-tae, Yoon Sang-hyun