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 ]

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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

How should one convey bad news in writing? By creating a buffer first. Avoid traumatizing your audience with the bad news all at once, but instead cushion the blow so that you can maintain goodwill. That textbook approach (business communication, by the way) would be dandy if the crop of 2008 dramas I watched was anything like the stellar quality of 2007. But no, this was a harvest to make one downright grumpy.

This time last year, eight dramas vied to be in my Top 3. Even the ones that disappointed weren’t half bad and at least I finished them. Not this year. I picked up around twenty dramas and dropped at least fifteen. “Dropped” is putting it mildly. I ran from some of them like a kid fleeing an apparition: hands in the air and hair standing on end. As the year wore on, my patience wore thin and my grumpiness increased.

So, no, I can’t use the buffer approach when reviewing this year’s dramas. Hedging doesn’t work for this grumpy cookie. I will present to you the worst dramas first, followed by the so-so ones, and then the few gems of 2008. Even though the year was overcast and gloomy, the sun broke through the clouds occasionally and when it did the effect was glorious. Let’s get the bad news out of the way and we can enjoy the good stuff, shall we?

SONG OF THE DAY

Jin Yi-han – “This is the Moment” which he sang (live!) in Episode 3 of Who Are You. [ Download ]

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Read the rest of A Grump Reviews 2008 [Year in Review, Part 2] (4,881 words)

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Post tags: Beethoven Virus, Bulhandang/Robbers, Conspiracy in the Court, East of Eden, Gourmet, guest bloggers, Hong Gil Dong, I Love You, Kingdom of Wind, La Dolce Vita, On Air, One Mom, Rivals, Strongest Chil Woo, The Last Scandal of My Life, The Painter of Wind, The World They Live In, Three Dads, One Mom, Who Are You?, year in review

Owww.

While at work filming his current KBS series Three Dads, One Mom on May 11, Jae Hee was injured and required nine stitches. Ironically, the scene he was shooting took place in a hospital.

In the scene, Kyung Tae (Shin Sung Rok’s character) is stabbed and Jae Hee’s character rushes him to the emergency room. While waiting for his friend’s surgery results, he becomes overcome with anger and strikes a wall in frustration.

Apparently Jae Hee was a little too immersed in his work and hit the wall with too much force, “tearing his hand.” Luckily, he didn’t have to travel far to receive emergency treatment, and received nine stitches.

But rather than taking time off for his injury, Jae Hee continued with the shoot. Neither is this the first time he’s displayed his serious work ethic; previously, he’d injured an arm in a bicycle chase scene (lol) and continued filming despite it.

Jae Hee’s always seemed like an actor who takes his job extremely seriously (despite some unfortunate role selections), so I’m not too surprised to hear this, although nine stitches? In one hand? Yeesh. It’s just too bad the two actors immersing themselves into this drama can’t make up for the other two who aren’t.

Via OSEN

SONG OF THE DAY

Lexy – “Don’t Lie” [ Download ]

RELATED POSTS

• Three Dads, One Mom: Episodes 1 & 2
• On your mark…
• Jae Hee back on TV

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2008. | Permalink | 27 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Jae Hee, One Mom, Three Dads, One Mom

Three Dads, One Mom is… not a good show.

You know how sometimes you might be watching a drama, say, and something happens in the latter part of the drama that is exactly like what happened earlier in the drama? For instance, the mother of the rich hero tries to buy off her son’s poor girlfriend, or a misunderstanding causes a rift between two people. Or two people arrive at the same crowded venue looking for each other and just barely miss each other as they walk by, oblivious to the other. These are just examples of overused and super-trite occurrences that I may put up with once in a drama, but when they appear again later, it’s irritating because clearly they are out of ideas.

Anyway, it’s like that for Three Dads, only instead of occasionally, it’s every single episode, and the repetition is in triplicate form. It’s bad enough for a contrivance to push along your plot, but when that contrivance continually happens THREE TIMES in a row, it’s aggravating. There’s very little story going on (who needs story when you can just repeat stuff three times?).

Plus Eugene is really starting to get annoying — it’s partly her, and it’s partly her stupid character. (How they squandered such talents in their supporting cast I will never know.) So given that the two problematic roles are the lead female and the lead male…

I considered following along and recapping the series anyway just for the fun of it, but I can just see the initial humor of the situation degenerating into frustration. There’s a fine line between “so bad it’s fun(ny)” and “so bad I want to shoot something.”

SONG OF THE DAY

As One – “Zza Zza La!” from their latest “Sponge Remake 2008″ single.
[ Download ]

 
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Read the rest of Three Dads, One Mom: Episode 4 (1,713 words)

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Post tags: episode recaps, Eugene, Jae Hee, Jo Hyun-jae, Shin Sung-rok, Three Dads, One Mom

I wasn’t sure I’d be continuing to cover Three Dads, One Mom (and I’m still not convinced), but I had time to watch it tonight with its competition postponing its episodes for the day. (The drama received a hefty ratings bump as well, nearly tripling from its very low premiere numbers of approx 5% to somewhere in the 14% vicinity. The true test will be seeing if the upward bump sticks, or was a mere blip because of a lack of counterprogramming.)

I think I’ve also narrowed down my issues to the drama. Sorry to say, his name is Jo Hyun Jae. That’s not the only aspect that gives me pause, but it is the most prominent. I don’t hate him — I want to like him, really — and the problem isn’t that he’s a bad actor and incapable of better. It’s precisely that he IS capable of doing better that makes it seem more glaring that he’s kinda phoning it in. I know it’s just a simple romantic comedy, but Jae Hee and Shin Sung Rok are playing equally simple characters and yet they’re throwing themselves into their roles with gusto. Jo Hyun Jae seems to be coasting along.

Eugene, on the other hand, may not be the world’s most skilled actress, but she’s cute as a button and her slight overacting seems to fit with the drama, so I’m not too bothered. Yet.

SONG OF THE DAY

Three Dads, One Mom OST – “Everything” by Eve [ Download ]

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Read the rest of Three Dads, One Mom: Episode 3 (1,835 words)

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Post tags: episode recaps, Eugene, Jae Hee, Jo Hyun-jae, Shin Sung-rok, Three Dads, One Mom

Finally caught the first two episodes of the new KBS Wednesday-Thursday drama Three Dads, One Mom, and have a bit of a mixed reaction. On one hand, there’s a very cute quality to the drama, helped in no small part by its appealing cast — and while they’re not quite superstar-famous, all four main cast members are fairly established and known names.

There are some things I like about the series and the setup; there are other things I don’t. Right now, I’m not sure which way the balance tilts. Eugene is adorably gorgeous as the one mom amidst three possible dads, best-friend bachelors played by Jo Hyun Jae, Jae Hee, and Shin Sung Rok. Their interactions, laced with a healthy dose of good-natured male camaraderie, are one of the more appealing aspects of the drama for me. I’ll wait to see how things develop before making a final judgment; for now, I plan to catch a few more episodes.

SONG OF THE DAY

Instant Romantic Floor – “Same Thing (Song For Me)” [ Download ]

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Read the rest of Three Dads, One Mom: Episodes 1 & 2 (1,721 words)

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Post tags: episode recaps, Eugene, Jae Hee, Jo Hyun-jae, Shin Sung-rok, Three Dads, One Mom

Hmm. Looks like Jo Hyun Jae is in some hot water.

The actor recently starred in the film GP506 (which the above pic is from; it’s not a real army pic) and currently stars in the new drama Three Dads, One Mom (for which I’m holding off judgment till I see the second episode — I wasn’t wowed by the first, but first episodes are so unpredictable).

He recently began his military service on the 1st, but has now just been released from training after only four days. That in itself is not terribly strange:

“According to military service law, if one is found to be unfit for active duty following a physical examination, due to disease or mental or physical disorder, or requires more than fifteen days’ recovery time for said condition, said person may be dismissed.”

What IS weird, though, is the fact that is just becoming known that Jo Hyun Jae left in the middle of filming a drama to enlist in his military service — and upon his dismissal after four days, immediately returned to filming. Something’s fishy over in Three Dads territory. (I don’t know the specifics of Three Dads, but generally a drama begins filming anywhere from a month to several months in advance. A trendy drama that doesn’t require excessive preparation — unlike, say, an epic or high-budget production like Legend — may typically have about eight episodes completed when the series begins airing. It is definitely weird to have started military service in the middle of a project.)

The situation is starting to stir up lots of suspicion and criticism — if he suffers from a severe enough condition to prevent him from training, how can he be fit enough to film a drama? — which is not helped by the fact that the drama producers have offered “no explanation, and have evaded questions” about the topic. Furthermore, prior to Jo’s enlistment, the producers had been unusually hush-hush about his impending service date.

Some of Jo Hyun Jae’s fans are supporting their star, casting aspersions on the validity of the news reports, but a majority of them agree that things look suspicious.

The mandatory-military-service topic is always a source of major debate, and a definite hot-button issue. Everyone knows that effing around with draft-dodging schemes in Korea is serious, career-damaging (if not career-ending) business. Methinks he’s got some ’splainin’ to do.

Via News.Mk.co.kr, Daily Surprise

SONG OF THE DAY

Lexy – “Tonight” featuring House Rulez from her new album. I know Lexy’s more of a hip-hop and R&B girl, but I’m not really into her usual style. But you guys know I love me some House Rulez.
[ Download ]

RELATED POSTS

• It’s back to the military for Psy
• Army-bound

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2008. | Permalink | 35 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: army duty, Jo Hyun-jae, One Mom, Three Dads, One Mom