Things are looking good for Vampire Idol, which is one of the first wave of new cable shows on the newly launched general-programming cable channels (which include JTBC, MBN, and Channel A).

The daily sitcom has had positive buzz from the start; there was enthusiasm mixed with critique about the awkwardness of the weird concept, but now that the show is settling into its groove I think those reactions are fading out. Ratings are doing pretty well, and last Thursday’s rerun episode, for instance, was the Number 1 ranked show among all the general-programming channels. Funny that the rerun did better than the new episode that aired afterward, but perhaps there’s less competition earlier in the evening than with all the prime-time offerings.

They show has been pretty amusing thus far; I’ve been tuning in periodically since we covered Episodes 1-3 and find it an easy, funny watch. The premise is utterly zany (a Hallyu-loving, 200-year-old vampire prince crash-lands on Earth with his bodyguards, and they’re taken in as an idol trainee group), but once you get past the setup, it’s pretty easy to follow.

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Read the rest of Interview with the Vampire (Idols) (1,292 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 70 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cable programs, drama ratings, Hong Jong-hyun, Kim Hyun-joong (2), Kim Woo-bin, Lee Jung, Lee Soo-hyuk, Vampire Idol

Another new show! We’ve been keeping an eye on Vampire Idol, eager to see if the reality would prove to be as wacky and fun as it sounded. And based on the first few installments that premiered this week on cable channel MBN, I think I can safely say: It doesn’t suck. In fact, it’s pretty much just as hilariously random as I was hoping it would be.

 
EPISODES 1-3

javabeans: This show is amazing. And by amazing I mean completely and utterly ridiculous, but 100% entertaining.

girlfriday: It might have cost about 2 cents to make, but that adds to the camp factor by about 1000%.

javabeans: Really? I thought the outer-space and vampire planet effects were pretty good — but maybe it’s because I just watched MBN’s other daily sitcom, You’re Here (cubed), and that show has the production budget of a kindergarten play. It’s funny, because here I’m thinking, “Wow, so Vampire Idol took all of You’re Here’s money.”

girlfriday: I think you have to be at either end of the spectrum — Vampire Prosecutor, or Vampire Idol — in terms of production budget. Because anywhere in the middle is just half-assed. Vampidol is so shoestring that it’s endearing.

javabeans: So the premise: Vampires live on a planet called (what else?) Vampirutus. They’ve managed to tamp down their instinct to drink blood from living people, and now subsist on bottled blood. Now, this is a case where the writing totally worked with the recasting of the vampire prince. So you swap out pretty-boy hottie Noh Min-woo for older, shorter, tanner Lee Jung, right? And what do you do? Hang a lantern, of course.

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Read the rest of Vampire Idol: Episodes 1-3 (1,715 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2011. | Permalink | 79 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cable programs, featured, first episodes, Hong Jong-hyun, Kim Hyun-joong (2), Kim Sumi, Lee Jung, Lee Soo-hyuk, Shin Dong-yup, Vampire Idol

girlfriday: Omg.

javabeans: So. This looks amazing. In one sense of the word amazing.

girlfriday: Like scrape-your-jaw-off-the-floor amazing? Wonder-if-you’re-sober amazing?

javabeans: I-guess-the-description-really-was-accurate amazing?

girlfriday: I’m not sure WHAT I imagined for alien vampire prince who travels to Earth to become an idol star, but this is definitely BETTER.

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Read the rest of The Vampire Boys, idols, and managers of Vampire Idol (513 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2011. | Permalink | 91 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cable programs, conversation post, Hong Jong-hyun, Kim Hyun-joong (2), Kim Sumi, Lee Jung, Lee Soo-hyuk, Shin Dong-yup, Vampire Idol

Once actors go off to fulfill their two years of military service, it’s not often that we get to see them in the public eye until their discharge. So it’s nice to see a few of the currently enlisted entertainers together onstage for the 2009 Army Concert, which took place in Seoul on the evening of October 31.

Some of the celebrities who participated were actors Jae Hee (Three Dads One Mom), Jo In-sung (Frozen Flower), Lee Dong-wook (Partner), Kim Jae-won (Hwang Jini), and Ohn Joo-wan (Chosun Police). On the kpop side, there were singer-actors Yang Dong-geun (I Am Sam), Lee Jung (Hometown of Legends), and Kim Jung-hoon (Goong), as well as singers Sung Shi-kyung, Tony An.

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Read the rest of Enlisted celebrities participate in Army concert (99 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 57 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: army duty, Jae Hee, Jo In-sung, Kim Jung-hoon, Lee Dong-wook, Lee Jung, Ohn Joo-wan, Sung Shi-kyung, Yang Dong-geun

Summer is the season for chilly gothic and horror entertainment, so KBS takes the post-Women in the Sun time slot to launch its new horror series, Hometown of Legends, as its Wednesday-Thursday programming for the month of August.

Or, should I say, new OLD series. There was an earlier version that aired in the late ’90s, which had approximately 70 episodes. (I think there may have been another version in the 1980s, but I don’t know that for sure.) The stories spanned different topics (with some overlaps) but was based on the same conceit. A film of the same name — albeit translated into English as The Evil Twin — was also released in 2007 and featured Park Shin-hye and Jae Hee, the latter of whom also appears in this new series.

What sets this drama apart from others is in the episodic, anthology nature of the storytelling. Each episode is written and directed by a different team, and stars different actors in its installments. Think of it as fusion sageuk meets the Twilight Zone, or a collection of old ghost tales.

Hometown of Legends kicks off with the first episode today, “Nine-tailed Fox,” followed by others bearing titles like “Curse of the Sajin Sword” and “Demon’s Story.”

SONG OF THE DAY

Green Cheese – “Black Bird Dies” [ Download ]

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© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2008. | Permalink | 29 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Choi Su-jong, Hometown of Legends, Jae Hee, Lee Jin, Lee Jung, Park Min-young, Sa Kang