2007 was a rich year for drama-land. There was something for everyone, whether your tastes ran toward dark thrillers (Devil), intense dramas (White Tower), heart-warmers (Thank You), off-the-wall eccentrics (Mixed-up Investigative Agency), trendy fare (Coffee Prince), romantic comedies (Dal Ja’s Spring), and so on.

2008, on the other hand… not so much.

Every drama has its good and bad points, but it’s a lot easier to decide how you feel about one when those qualities are expressed in the extreme — i.e., very good, or very bad. When everything is a muddle in the middle, though, it’s harder to draw the lines.

That’s why in contrast to last year’s “Best” and “The Rest” designations, this year I don’t really distinguish “good” versus “bad” — or even “favorites” and “hated dramas” — and can only grade on a spectrum. I call that spectrum “MEH” with the extreme poles representing “generally watchable” and “generally unwatchable.” It’s just been that kind of year.

SONG OF THE DAY

Painter of the Wind OST – “색” (Color) by JOO [ Download ]

(...)
Read the rest of Finding Merit in the Mediocre [Year in Review, Part 4] (4,967 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2008. | Permalink | 75 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: A Star's Lover, Beethoven Virus, Bulhandang/Robbers, East of Eden, Gourmet, Hong Gil Dong, I Love You, Iljimae, Love & Marriage, On Air, One Mom, Rivals, Strongest Chil Woo, Tazza, The Last Scandal of My Life, The World They Live In, Three Dads, One Mom, When Night Comes, Who Are You?, year in review

I knew Love & Marriage would end on a happy note, and that nothing totally unexpected would come in the last hour. But I was still pleasantly surprised with how well the drama wrapped up its romance — even managing to pull out a bit of cleverness to keep the inevitable from being totally predictable.

I’ll be the first to admit that Love & Marriage isn’t a perfect drama, or even a particularly noteworthy one. But what it did, it did well: happy romance that endeared its characters to those of us who don’t necessarily like our dramas traumatic. Also, I always want to give extra points to dramas whose finales manage to satisfy AND add a little something extra to the series, rather than ending on a disappointing note — or even just an adequate (but unexciting) one.

SONG OF THE DAY

Love & Marriage OST – “Come to Me” by J [ Download ]

(...)
Read the rest of Love & Marriage: Episode 16 (Final) (3,309 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2008. | Permalink | 60 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: episode recaps, Kim Ji-hoon, Kim Min-hee, Love & Marriage, Park Ki-woong, stuff I dig

Love & Marriage reminds me of the exchange in Clueless — Cher: “He said you gave him a toothache.” Tai: “How’d I do that?” Cher: “It’s an expression. It means he thought you were sweet.”

If this drama were a type of candy, all my teeth would have fallen out by now.

SONG OF THE DAY

Love & Marriage OST – “이젠 나를 붙잡아” (Hold onto me now) by Jung Jae-wook [ Download ]

(...)
Read the rest of Love & Marriage: Episode 15 (2,432 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2008. | Permalink | 33 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: episode recaps, Kim Ji-hoon, Kim Min-hee, Love & Marriage

This episode probably shouldn’t be taken with too much seriousness, because it felt like everyone regressed for a moment into adolescence and acted like a bunch of kids. It almost seemed like the actors were having a bit of fun — and while it wasn’t, uh, realistic, it was cute how they joked and played around more than usual. (Also, there are a lot of funny faces today.)

SONG OF THE DAY

Holladang – “Beat One” [ Download ]

(...)
Read the rest of Love & Marriage: Episode 14 (2,904 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2008. | Permalink | 33 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: episode recaps, Kim Ji-hoon, Kim Min-hee, Love & Marriage

LOL, and I mean that literally: this was a laugh-out-loud episode, with a number of unexpectedly quirky-funny moments.

A lot happened to move our stories along and close a few loops. I know that Conflict is at the heart of Drama, but I always cringe when my characters go through hell even though I know it’s necessary for story development. But there’s nothing wrong with the Love & Marriage school of thought, which is that conflict may include pain, but does not need to revel in it. You can have character development without Tragedy and OMG TEH HURTINGS.

SONG OF THE DAY

Brown Eyes – “가지마 가지마” (Don’t go, don’t go). You don’t even know how much this song made me burst into a giggle fit when it was used this episode. [ Download ]

(...)
Read the rest of Love & Marriage: Episode 13 (3,333 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2008. | Permalink | 19 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: episode recaps, Kim Ji-hoon, Kim Min-hee, Love & Marriage

(Don’t worry, it’s a faux-swoon.)

This was an interesting episode in that the tone was different, and the pacing too — and we finally got to see Hyun-soo sweat a little. It may seem mean to cheer at that, but: YAY!

SONG OF THE DAY

EZ Hyoung – “유성” (shooting star) [ Download ]

(...)
Read the rest of Love & Marriage: Episode 12 (2,981 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2008. | Permalink | 28 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: episode recaps, Kim Ji-hoon, Kim Min-hee, Love & Marriage

Sorry for the (relative) lateness of the recap! I’ve had, shall we say, a busy week. :/

SONG OF THE DAY

Lim Jeong-hee – “사랑의 반대말” (The opposite of love) [ Download ]

(...)
Read the rest of Love & Marriage: Episode 11 (3,310 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2008. | Permalink | 24 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: episode recaps, Kim Ji-hoon, Kim Min-hee, Love & Marriage