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 ]

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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

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?

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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

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 ]

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

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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

After extensions and preemptions, weekend suckstravaganza Dr. Jin has finally come to an end. Some would say twenty-two episodes too late. Okay, I said it.

Shows as spectacularly awful as this don’t come around too often, and they aren’t a palate cleanser as much as a sledgehammer to the teeth. To the production team’s credit, I’m all for this kind of mildly forgettable bad (as opposed to completely forgettable blandness). I’ll certainly remember the clown car operating rooms, that time Hyuk cured cancer, and that time Song Seung-heon was so woefully miscast that he became the butt of every joke for the past three(-ish) months.

I’ll miss you, Inexcusably Terrible Show. I’ll miss you for five whole minutes.

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Read the rest of Dr. Jin: Episode 22 (Final) (4,416 words)

© HeadsNo2 for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 199 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dr. Jin, featured, Jaejoong, Lee Beom-soo, Lee So-yeon, Park Min-young, Song Seung-heon

There’s a strange dichotomy about Song Seung-heon that occasionally crops up, and this interview is another example of it.

Essentially, he’ll act in a project and be mediocre in it despite incredible hype, and occasionally even be terrible. I’ll wonder how on earth he got to be as famous as he is, then remember The Pretty, which in his case possesses so much force of its own that it practically has its own entity. There are also the occasional stories hinting at a sizable ego and star demands, and you’ll wonder if he’s some kind of diva.

But then I’ll see or read an interview with him like this one, or the one following My Princess, and he’ll be so self-aware that I find myself confused and reevaluating. You mean Dr. Jin… makes sense? (The person, I mean, sadly not the drama.)

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Read the rest of Song Seung-heon on acting, ratings, and Dr. Jin (1,517 words)

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Post tags: Dr. Jin, interviews, Song Seung-heon

You wanted answers? You don’t get them.

No, seriously. You don’t. Luckily it’s not the worst thing that ever happened, since the majority of the episode focuses on things that are Not Hyuk, and I’m not one to look a gift jar in the fetus. Or is it a gift fetus in the jar? Either way, Kyung-tak has a lot of feelings and Ha-eung loses some scheming points in a densely packed episode which proves that there’s always time for noble idiocy, even when there’s not enough time for the stuff we’re actually maybe slightly interested in. Onward, to victory!

Note: Or not! Due to an Olympic preemption, Episode 21 aired on Sunday, and the finale will air this coming Saturday. I must have wronged Song Seung-heon in a past life.

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Read the rest of Dr. Jin: Episode 21 (3,969 words)

© HeadsNo2 for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 94 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dr. Jin, featured, Jaejoong, Lee Beom-soo, Lee So-yeon, Park Min-young, Song Seung-heon

If there’s one good thing to be said about Dr. Jin, it’s that Stuff Always Happens. On the flip side, most of it doesn’t make a lick of sense. History is royally screwed and there’s only one man and his brain fetus to save it… Or is there? We definitely get a lot more questions than answers (as usual), so if there’s one thing to look forward to as we head into the final stretch, it’s that all this nonsense must have some explanation, right? I mean, it’s not like Hyuk chose to dive off the hospital roof for that fet-… Oh, crap.

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Read the rest of Dr. Jin: Episode 20 (3,807 words)

© HeadsNo2 for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 114 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dr. Jin, featured, Jaejoong, Lee Beom-soo, Lee So-yeon, Park Min-young, Song Seung-heon

This episode takes us for a ride as far as the time travel/time slip/parallel universe mechanics go, as Hyuk puts his all into saving the entire Catholic population in Joseon with some pretty questionable aftereffects. When will this boy ever learn? Is even posing that question too much wishful thinking on my part?

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Read the rest of Dr. Jin: Episode 19 (4,014 words)

© HeadsNo2 for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 145 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dr. Jin, featured, Jaejoong, Lee Beom-soo, Lee So-yeon, Park Min-young, Song Seung-heon

So there’s good news and bad news this time. Or, perhaps bad news wrapped in a delicious candy coating? Um… absence makes the heart grow fonder? Is this working? I hear that patience and fortitude are character-building. Or so they say. Obviously I wouldn’t know. You’d think the broadcasters would’ve planned ahead, given that the Olympics gives you like, the gestation period of two elephants in succession to plan, but we’re flying by the seat of our pants, ya hear?

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Read the rest of Olympics-preempted drama schedule update (317 words)

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Post tags: 1N2D, A Gentleman's Dignity, Dr. Jin, Running Man

Leave it to Dr. Jin to show us the miracle of childbirth via C-section in all its horrifying high-definition glory, because, why not? Young-rae spanks babies back from the brink and Hyuk finds something he actually cares about in an episode that nosedives into its political plots and plans, and one that finally gives Hyuk a problem he can’t immediately solve through surgery. Well, not yet, anyway.

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Read the rest of Dr. Jin: Episode 18 (4,090 words)

© HeadsNo2 for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 151 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dr. Jin, featured, Jaejoong, Lee Beom-soo, Lee So-yeon, Park Min-young, Song Seung-heon