bromance, nine tails without doubt but now you made me think about Rang again and I sad! what will you do
i miss them

It has been a slow 2023. I started 7 series and dropped 2. It has mostly been catching up on k-movies and a few old series. However, this week I started three new dramas.

I think you mean, Beanie Polls: The Ongoing 2023 Drama Drought.
Or that's what the first 6 months have felt like for me anyway. 😅

I think it's unfair that this beanie poll pitted Call It Love? against Crash Course In Romance for the romance categories.
I had a very hard time deciding what would be my alternative forgone.

So many shows I couldn’t see thanks to Disney🙄

It is crazy the number of dramas that air in one year that we need to do a mid-year poll. If the same number were to air in the second half of the year, we would have over 100 dramas.

Wow, the only memorable drama for me was One Day Off.

Justice for The Interest of Love 🥲

I was torn between Call it Love and Crash Course in Romance for both romantic categories because the main couple was perfect in both, so I split the difference. Call it Love ended up being a better drama overall for me whereas Crash Course had really excellent highs but some meandering that let it down a bit near the end, but I feel like both of them definitely made my year in kdrama already nice.

Glory was my unexpected big enjoyment drama. I'd only seen Song Hye Kyo in Descendants of the Sun and I started to watch and dropped a couple of older ones of hers, but she was stunning in Glory. I hope she chooses more dark roles, she doesn't need to be a villain but her face is so serenely beautiful that her character having a darker agenda works really well with it.

Good Bad Mother was my biggest disappointment, I didn't finish it. I didn't expect much from Joseon Attorney and didn't get much except Dohwan being really pretty, didn't expect much from Bloodhounds but was quite entertained by the basic but watchable plot and well done characters that got me invested.

My Drama watching has been so limited this year that in some categories I simply voted for the only one that I had watched! Call It Love is still on my watchlist, as is Nine Tails. I didn't finish Crash Course in Romance even though it was one of my most anticipated dramas this year, and revenge dramas aren't really my thing. They have to be really compelling or have an actor I absolutely love and will watch in anything.

I think there should have been a 'top 3' option for the category - I'm so frustrated by the plot I actually broke something- because this year has been exceptionally high for shows being frustrating, starting out promising/ showing glimpses along the way then crashing and burning.

This was fun!! It really reinforced what my favourite dramas of the year so far have been (Call It Love, Tale of the Nine Tailed 2, and Secret Romantic Guesthouse). Gotta say though for all my whinging about how barren the dramalands have been this year - although it's only three that I've actually really enjoyed, at least they've been three that I really enjoyed to the max while watching. I'd take that over having just lightly enjoyed 20 dramas! PLUS, not having many kdramas to watch meant exploring new language catalogues and finding a lot of new gems, which I might not have found otherwise. Silver lining to every cloud ☁️

Lee Min-Jae 💙

Fun to read results, gave me ideas for what I might want to watch next!

This was fun! It's been a good year for dramas for me so far; two have even made their way into my top-ten list: Unlock My Boss and Call it Love.

It took me a while to answer the poll, either I did not watch or complete watching the choices, or nothing stood out. The only fadt answer I did was the question on gem of a drama (am still waiting).

While the 1st half had good shows, nothing stood out as great to me. Maybe it is out there, waiting for me to binge watch , or only being released this 2nd half.

What? Only one standout drama for me? Call It Love. However, I haven’t seen a few of the others people loved so that gives me hope. So yay!

And, there were many dramas that entertained me even if they won’t win any awards: Race, CCIR, Dr Cha etc. So I am not as disappointed as other beanies seem to be.

Should there be categories such as flawed but good, not-bad, fun mindless watch, etc?

I felt I didnt watch a lot of the popular kdramas that I cant vote objectively.

( I am glad I picked up and currently watching Race because you guys seems to like it a lot )

Gee, I can't vote. I don't give a fig about any category you have tried to drum up. So sorry.
K-drama midyear for me is Nobody, Nowhere, Never At Anytime .

The one I have seen and loved is BRAIN WORKS and it is in the I Forgot You Even Happened Already. 😢 Brain Works was lovely, folks.

I have also seen CALL IT LOVE which is in all the wrong categories for me.

I did vote in some categories, but it looks like a popularity contest because only few watched "Oasis" and it wasn't bad at all, so I do not understand why it is in the "I forgot you even happened already".

Just like the last question, there should have been an option to choose (none of the above), to see how many of us have divergent perspectives compared to the poll creators. I think some of us who have different are not represented in this poll at all.

I feel like I've watched a good amount of dramas in this first half (haven't counted..), but then I couldn't vote in most of these polls.

The fact that I didn't know what to answer in most of the questions because I've dropped almost all those shows and the five I actually watched (finished) were not mention in most categories... 😂

The only truthful answers I could give are:
—I had fun: TSRGuesthouse
—I was so frustrated by the plot I *actually* broke something: CCIRomamce (why wasn't it an option?).
—Revenge: Payback.

Something really sad though it's that Trolley wasn't mention. I mean, even The Fabulous had a nomination and the show is from last year. :(

Out of all the dramas in the list the only one I really finished is The Glory so of course my answers are only from that drama. I dropped most on the list like Race, The Good Bad Mother and Joseon Attorney

Thanks for the pool, the questions are always fun.
With 4 dramas fully watched I could think that it's difficult to answer but with the recaps and discussions I have what I believe quite a good idea of most of the others dramas.

There is no drama that I am really expecting for the rest of the year. However, experience show that it is better to come with low expectation than to have your romantic hopes crushed with a steel ball.

The only seven dramas (2023) which I have watched so far are:

_ Alchemy of Souls 2 (but that is not in the list).
_ Unlock my boss.
_ Duty after school.
_ Secret Romantic Guesthouse.
_ Bora Deborah.
_ Finland Papa.
_ All that we loved.

(And Meet Yourself, but it's from China).

My favorite among those: Secret Romantic Guesthouse and Bora Deborah. And I really enjoyed Duty after school's pace, but that ending... 🤦🏻‍♀️

This WHOLE season can be summed up with "I was so frustrated I *actually* broke something" lol. With said something often leaving me extra frustrated that I cannot break at least fingers of the people who wrote these shows so they'll never ever do this again... I'm nicer than that usually, I swear, but this has been a rough year so far and we are only barely halfway done with it(((

TOTNT38 was the only really good thing in all polls, KKOKDU was the worst EVER and I apparently don't even have an OTP to vote for *pulls out hair in despair*

I wish Doctor Cha had been listed under "So frustrated I almost broke something." I put it as a hidden gem but man that last episode ruined it for me.

"Alchemy of Souls 2" (which finished right at the start of 2023, so I'm still counting it as this year's drama), and "Call it Love" (definitely the hidden gem of the year for me) are the only two dramas so far this year that I unequivocally loved to the point where I didn't want them to end. I really liked "The Good Bad Mother" and "The Secret Romantic Guesthouse" as well, but not as fervently as the first two. Finally, "Hate to Love You," "Unlock the Boss," and "Nine-Tailed 1938" were much better than I thought they would be, and I'm thankful for that, as so many dramas I *thought* I'd love ("Finland Papa," "Joseon Attorney," "Forbidden Marriage," "Oasis," "Oh! Young-Sim") were either very mediocre, very boring, or very forgettable, sometimes all three.

I'm honestly unsure whether the problem here is that this year's dramas are weaker overall or if I've simply reached the point where I've seen so many that my standards are (impossibly?) high. I'm certainly much, much quicker to drop something than I used to be, and I'm also infinitely less patient with various tropes, so perhaps the problem is me.

OK! I was inspired. Here’s what I’d have said given the complete list offered by our leaders. It has 52 dramas on it, and I’ve seen (or thoroughly skimmed) 20 of them [PLUS Jinny’s Kitchen, so 21 :)].

Definitely my ride-or-die OTP: Call It Love, but I gotta say, Love to Hate You is a close second.

It was worth it because I had fun: BRAIN WORKS

Best revenge story so far: I’m going to give this one to Delivery Man, actually

I squeed so hard I broke something: Crash Course in Romance, to Lee Sun-jae’s reaction to being “chosen”

I was so frustrated I actually broke something: I usually drop before this happens, but the closest I came was Kkokdu. I did finish, but kept wanting it to GET BETTER.

Rising stars of 2023: Lee Chae-min AND Roh Yoon-seo (see the squee)

I forgot you even happened already: The Fabulous

One bromance to rule them all: Bloodhounds

You did bad so good: Noh Susanna in Divorce Attorney Shin!

Unexpected gem: Unlock the Boss

Kim Hieora, you'll always be famous!

"Best revenge story so far... because it's not 2023 if you're not planning payback in some capacity" --- *spittake* And it's only halfway through the year!

Wow the "I forgot you even happened already" category. Feels too real. Also a good reminder that we are now inundated with more dramas than ever and are likely watching more things than ever, so more chances of adding not-very-memorable or just terrible dramas to the list of watched-content.

OFF to see Call it LOVE

Wait just realize there's no One Day Off here?
Love that drama, it is like The Liberation Note from the year 2022 for me. Should get Baeksang at least being nominated.

I haven't yet completed a single 2023 kdrama but this poll got me to narrow my ever expanding might-watch list down.

Here goes my list:
Agency
Queenmaker
One Day Off
Dr Romantic 3
Recipe for Farewell
Call It Love
Divorce Attorney Shin
Crash Course in Romance
Oasis
Love to Hate You
Bora Deborah

The bromance and best villian were hardest for me. I don't care for romance so I just realized I didn't watch a bunch of the dramas listed.

Why why why it’s always romcom in any DB polls? Kdramas have diversified so much in terms of genres with varying degree of experimentations over the past decade - but DB remains a predominantly romcom-focused community. Not that I’m not enjoying romcoms but there are so many other dramas people can try and enjoy. In a drought year like this, good romcom is almost extinct - what’s there to poll at all?

Sorry for the rant. I read this post yesterday and thought I should hold my tongue - but can’t help it when reading this poll again today.