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

If there’s anything that Santa has taught me over the years (other than a musical mnemonic about single-malt scotches), it’s that Christmas is a time of giving. Dramaland gives us so much throughout the year, that I thought it was finally time for me to stop being a grinch and give back, out of the goodness of my heart. *waits for credit*

So this year I’ve made a Christmas list, and every drama I’ve watched this year is on it. Because everyone deserves presents. Yes, even you, Show.

 
SONG OF THE DAY

The King 2 Hearts OST – “Hang-ah’s Dream” [ Download ]

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Read the rest of Dramaland: The gift that keeps on giving [Year In Review, Part 5] (8,856 words)

© girlfriday for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 138 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: A Gentleman's Dignity, Answer Me 1997, Arang and the Magistrate, Big, Faith, featured, Gaksital, I Do I Do, I Miss You, I Need Romance 2012, King of Dramas, Nice Guy, Queen In-hyun's Man, Rooftop Prince, Shut Up: Flower Boy Band, The Chaser, The King 2 Hearts, The Moon That Embraces the Sun, To the Beautiful You, Vampire Prosecutor 2, 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

Looking at the buffet table of 2012, I’m left in awe at the vast array of possible selections before me. The sheer number of choices is growing every year and I feel like I have to taste-test the premiere and make a quick decision of whether to keep digging in or move on. Sometimes you don’t just know for sure until you’re left with the aftertaste.

And because some dramas that fall within the same genre can have unique flavors, I’m using a Taste O’Meter to assess this year’s dramas. Was it sweet, sour, bitter, salty, or savory? Maybe more than one?

Like any “Thanks to…” in a good Kpop album: My unending thanks to javabeans and girlfriday for the opportunity to let me write about what I love; to HeadsNo2 for the squee-fests and love of makgulli; to kaedejun for the laughs, hugs, and love of Oppa; and last but not least, to YOU GUYS for being awesome readers. I put in a good word for y’all with Santa but he may have used my note as a coaster instead. Or a tissue.

The series below include the ones seen in its entirety, listed chronologically(ish):

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Read the rest of A Variety of Flavors in 2012 [Year In Review, Part 3] (4,403 words)

© gummimochi for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 130 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Answer Me 1997, Arang and the Magistrate, Big, featured, Full House Take 2, Gaksital, I Do I Do, Marriage Plot, Nice Guy, Operation Proposal, Queen In-hyun's Man, Shut Up: Flower Boy Band, The King 2 Hearts, To the Beautiful You, Vampire Prosecutor 2, year in review

2012 was certainly a mixed bag: I saw plenty of action dramas and then I saw fluffy dramas that made no sense. There were dramas I loved, dramas that I liked enough, and then dramas that I hated. It was a tough year for me, and I felt I had bad luck in choosing which dramas to watch this year. But it helps to appreciate all the dramas – good or bad – because there are still plenty of life lessons to be learned from them.

One of my goals for this year was to watch a drama from every letter of the alphabet – HA! Like that really happened. But in the hopes that I did, the reviews will be in alphabetical order… with life lessons in between.

SONG OF THE DAY

“Might Gonna” from What’s Up OST [download]

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Read the rest of Life Lessons from a Mixed Bag of Dramas [Year In Review, Part 2] (6,225 words)

© kaedejun for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 147 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Answer Me 1997, Big, Faith, featured, Full House Take 2, Ghost, Haeundae Lovers, Hero (OCN), I Need Romance 2012, Love Rain, Padam Padam, Special Affairs Team TEN, The King 2 Hearts, Vampire Prosecutor 2, What's Up, Wild Romance, year in review

Podcast #12, Part 1

Running time: 58:53

In which we:

• Catch up on which new shows have premiered in the new year;
• discuss Rooftop Prince (3:05);
• Queen In-hyun’s Man and its ending (10:50);
• The King 2 Hearts with a tangent on Sohn Ji-chang and the origins of girlfriday’s Seung-gi love (19:39);
• Jang Dong-gun’s popularity and A Gentleman’s Dignity (38:45);
• and the craziness that is Dr. Jin (47:35).

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Read the rest of Dramabeans Podcast #12, Part 1 (162 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 178 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: featured, Queen In-hyun's Man, Rooftop Prince, The King 2 Hearts

War is declared. And even though you really wish they’d run for the hills, our heroes have to be heroes, and they run into the thick of it to put their lives on the line. They say love is war, but damn, have you ever met these two?

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Read the rest of The King 2 Hearts: Episode 20 (Final) (5,240 words)

© girlfriday for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 2351 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: featured, Ha Ji-won, Jo Jung-seok, Lee Seung-gi, Lee Soon-jae, Lee Yoon-ji, The King 2 Hearts

Hold onto your hats. And brains. And hearts. No one ever accused this show of doing too LITTLE, that’s for sure.

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Read the rest of The King 2 Hearts: Episode 19 (4,939 words)

© girlfriday for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 865 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: featured, Ha Ji-won, Jo Jung-seok, Lee Seung-gi, Lee Soon-jae, Lee Yoon-ji, The King 2 Hearts

I love a drama that deepens the conflict as we go. So many shows will spin their wheels in the final stretch to just prolong the inevitable, but here we launch into a whole new conflict, as the final battle begins to unfold. And I swear, it feels like a reward just for me, but bromance takes center stage, and it is awesome.

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Read the rest of The King 2 Hearts: Episode 18 (5,047 words)

© girlfriday for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 2298 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: featured, Ha Ji-won, Jo Jung-seok, Lee Seung-gi, Lee Soon-jae, Lee Yoon-ji, The King 2 Hearts

Who knew the truth could be so scary? Secrets come tumbling out, turning everyone’s lives inside out from the repercussions. It’s a good thing our heroine is as badass as they come.

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Read the rest of The King 2 Hearts: Episode 17 (4,504 words)

© girlfriday for Dramabeans, 2012. | Permalink | 762 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: featured, Ha Ji-won, Jo Jung-seok, Lee Seung-gi, Lee Soon-jae, Lee Yoon-ji, The King 2 Hearts