*peeks through hands* Is it over? Did I make it? Are we finally at the end of this One Road and all the puns we can possibly milk out of that name? You know, I misjudged this show. Even when it was on its continuous downward trajectory of plotlessness, I thought, But the finale can’t be that bad. Oh, guess who was wrong. I know, you think I’m exaggerating. Pull up a chair. *pat pat* You’re gonna need that whiskey and rubber hammer over to your left there…

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Read the rest of Level 7 Civil Servant: Episode 20 (Final) (3,321 words)

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Post tags: Chansung, Choi Kang-hee, featured, Joo-won, Kim Min-seo, Level 7 Civil Servant

So close to the finish! We’re in finale week, and our spies come up against some ethical and moral questions that test their commitments to the cause — wouldn’t that have been interesting introduced earlier? Ah, well there’s only so much wishful thinking we can indulge in at this late stage. Let’s just say that our hero and heroine take a stand, and find that stand challenged, setting us up for what I presume will be the final showdown: not so much a good-guy-versus-bad-guy fight, but a warring of ideals. Then again, this is Level 7 Civil Servant so the ending could just as well be about potatoes. *Shrugs*

SONG OF THE DAY

Toxic – “No More” [ Download ]

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Read the rest of Level 7 Civil Servant: Episode 19 (3,414 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2013. | Permalink | 57 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chansung, Choi Kang-hee, featured, Joo-won, Kim Min-seo, Level 7 Civil Servant

Watching this show is starting to require active mental gymnastics. I swear, my mind is doing backflips trying to understand these characters. I’m starting to wonder if the writer might have amnesia, because sure, every show has its share of recycled plot, but here it actually seems like the show forgot that it did that scene/conflict/argument already and just runs it again. Because continuity’s for suckas.

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Read the rest of Level 7 Civil Servant: Episode 18 (2,702 words)

© girlfriday for Dramabeans, 2013. | Permalink | 47 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chansung, Choi Kang-hee, featured, Joo-won, Kim Min-seo, Level 7 Civil Servant

We’re heading into our last stretch, and you know, in this episode I see nuggets of a Story That Could Have Been. I suppose that’s been the case the whole show long, though, so it’s not exactly news. But what Level 7 Civil Servant got all wrong (one of several things) is its pacing — if they’d shoved everything up front and gotten to everything a lot quicker, maybe I’d still have my head in the game. But it sorta feels like nobody’s really around anymore, not really. Twenty episodes shoulda been eight, maybe, and we’d have had a zippier ride. Woulda, coulda, shoulda.

SONG OF THE DAY

Vanilla Acoustic – “숨은 마음 찾기” (Find the hidden heart) [ Download ]

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Read the rest of Level 7 Civil Servant: Episode 17 (3,318 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2013. | Permalink | 32 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chansung, Choi Kang-hee, featured, Joo-won, Kim Min-seo, Level 7 Civil Servant

Dude, someone pop the champagne. Our spies actually FIGURE STUFF OUT. For realsies. Connecting dots and everything. Okay, so maybe it’s eons too late and we’ve been twiddling our thumbs wondering why they don’t know stuff that we’ve known for weeks, but hey, not looking a gift horse in the mouth.

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Read the rest of Level 7 Civil Servant: Episode 16 (3,054 words)

© girlfriday for Dramabeans, 2013. | Permalink | 58 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chansung, Choi Kang-hee, featured, Joo-won, Kim Min-seo, Level 7 Civil Servant

We just had too many awesome illustrations not to include more. Seriously, how great are they?

It’s more of the same for Level 7 Civil Servant, with trust stepping forward as a major thematic player and alliances shifting, sorta. The ratings are dropping, though it’s little wonder now that the big relationship plot twists are mostly over: Today’s episode hit 7.9%, while IRIS 2 swung back into double digits at 10.0% and That Winter, The Wind Blows remained in first with 14.2%.

SONG OF THE DAY

Small o – “That Will Fall” [ Download ]

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Read the rest of Level 7 Civil Servant: Episode 15 (3,343 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2013. | Permalink | 97 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chansung, Choi Kang-hee, featured, Joo-won, Kim Min-seo, Level 7 Civil Servant

So you may have been around for some stuff that happened today, and though we’ve been given the all-clear to go back to screencapping Joo-won in all his spytastic glory, we got such hilarious drawings submitted by readers (Thanks pumpkinattack and ziggystardust!) and even javabeans got in touch with her artistic side, so we thought it’d be a shame to let ‘em go to waste. So here’s today’s recap, brought to you by ye olde pen ‘n’ paper, dramaland of yesteryear, and hearty ale.

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Read the rest of Level 7 Civil Servant: Episode 14 (2,689 words)

© girlfriday for Dramabeans, 2013. | Permalink | 224 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chansung, Choi Kang-hee, featured, Joo-won, Kim Min-seo, Level 7 Civil Servant

What a morning. So stuff happened. There was a lot of emotion. And we here at Dramabeans realized once again what an awesomely supportive and fiercely loyal readership we have. We love you. ♥ Really, it was surprising and touching to see how much people care about this site and what we do. We wouldn’t be here without you.

Here’s what happened: Sites that infringe on material covered by Dramafever’s licensing agreements have been shut down in the past. The company that Dramafever hired to handle these cases saw that we covered a show they licensed. They filed the DMCA notice with our webhost, who warned us to delete or be shut down. We deleted (and replaced with lovely stick figures. You’re welcome).

We have spoken with reps from Dramafever, who have issued their official statement. They retracted the DMCA notice and have informed us we can resume screencapping. We’re a little gun-shy about that at the moment (hence the stick figures. You’re welcome), but will try easing back into normal operating procedure and bringing back the pretty.

We have to admit that the recent shakeups in the drama fan community have us uneasy, from streaming site and torrent crackdowns to fan recap sites being taken offline, and we’re not quite sure how the landscape may change in the future. We’re grateful to still be here, and we’re committed to sticking around, even if that requires evolving with the shifting sands (and maybe learning how to draw better stick figures). So thank you again for all the love and support, which is what keeps us going. Y’all rock.

-javabeans and girlfriday

RELATED POSTS

• Announcement: Level 7 Civil Servant recaps now with less Joo-won
• Level 7 Civil Servant: Episode 13
• Level 7 Civil Servant: Episode 12
• Level 7 Civil Servant: Episode 11
• Level 7 Civil Servant: Episode 10
• Level 7 Civil Servant: Episode 9
• Level 7 Civil Servant: Episode 8
• Level 7 Civil Servant: Episode 7
• Level 7 Civil Servant: Episode 6
• Level 7 Civil Servant: Episode 5
• Level 7 Civil Servant: Episode 4
• Level 7 Civil Servant: Episode 3
• Level 7 Civil Servant: Episode 2
• Level 7 Civil Servant: Episode 1

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2013. | Permalink | 302 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bloggy, featured, Level 7 Civil Servant

Okay, I have to get serious for a moment to address an issue that has just come to our attention. Dramabeans has had its very first DCMA takedown notice delivered, and sadly this is not a “Baby’s first milestone” sort of celebratory event. The notice came with scary legal lingo and accompanying threats to discontinue our hosting service if we don’t comply with the demands to take down our Level 7 Civil Service recaps.

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Read the rest of Announcement: Level 7 Civil Servant recaps now with less Joo-won (317 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2013. | Permalink | 546 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bloggy, featured, Level 7 Civil Servant

Finally the big hootenanny starts to swing into motion… albeit at a snail’s pace. Our major players all convene in on The Deal, which admittedly I still don’t understand but which is just that big MacGuffin we need to swallow for this show to make sense. Inasmuch as it makes any, that is.

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Read the rest of Level 7 Civil Servant: Episode 13 (3,370 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2013. | Permalink | 49 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chansung, Choi Kang-hee, featured, Joo-won, Kim Min-seo, Level 7 Civil Servant