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dangermousieOtherwise known as 2010 Dangermousie KDrama Awards - Come one, come all!
Very personal, you have been warned. I don’t like to claim that my opinion is paramount but I am of course very fond of it. As I am sure you know by now if you read this livejournal with any regularity, I adore period dramas, not too fond of fluffy dramas etc. Any drama that aired even part of its run in 2010 is eligible.
FAVORITE DRAMA: Chuno/Slave Hunters. In a year which had a number of kdramas I liked, Chuno stands head-and-shoulders over its competitors – brutal, gritty, and grim, this is the first period drama I’ve seen which actually gets down in the dirt with societal outcasts (slaves, courtesans, slave hunters) instead of drooling over royalty. Gorgeously shot, fiercely acted, emotionally hypnotic, and with many things to say about society and honor and survival and prejudice, this is the one drama from 2010 that entered my All Time Top 10 Kdramas list. If you haven’t seen this 24-episode marvel, what are you waiting for?
ALSO-RANS: Secret Garden, Giant, Pick the Stars, Prosecutor Princess, Will It Snow on Christmas, Sungkyunkwan Scandal, Gloria, Baker King
MOST DISAPPOINTING DRAMA: Road N. 1 – I was so excited for a drama about Korean War with A-list cast but this was insanely written and awfully acted. I’ve never seen anything quite this bad.
WORST DRAMA: RN1. See above.
DRAMA WHICH WASTED ITS CAST THE MOST: A Man Called God. You get Song Il Gook, Han Chae Young and the rest and you do something that is badly directed, awfully written, and asks from its actors all the subtlety of a pantomime show. Shame on you!
BEST MALE PERFORMANCE: Jang Hyuk, Chuno. His tormented, intense, coarse, brutal and brutalized Daegil was heart and soul of Chuno. I cried and laughed and longed with him even as I was appalled by him and terrified of him as well. Daegil may not have been my favorite character in the drama (that honor goes to Tae Ha) but he was the most unforgettable and the best acted.
WORST MALE PERFORMANCE: So Ji Sub, RN1. I have always found SJS very uneven (excellent in Misa, dead-eyed and wooden in Bali), but his one-note, over the top yet flat performance in RN1 seems to have come from another actor entirely. In a drama full of awful acting he stands out. Unless he meant to play a hyper tree, in which case, congrats!
BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE: Go Hyun Jung, Daemul. The powerhouse actress delivers yet another wonderful performance as the smart and tough yet human and vulnerable first female President of Korea.
WORST FEMALE PERFORMANCE: Kim Haneul, RN1. See what I said about SJS and apply here.
BEST MALE NEWCOMER – Micky Yoochun, Sungkyunkwan Scandal. I was terrified to check out SKKS because we all know how well idols-turned-actors do – I’ve seen the horror that was Heading to the Ground. But Yoochun embodied his role perfectly – I loved him to bits, laughing with and crying with his character. I hope he has many more dramas to come in his pipeline.
Runner Up: Joo Won, Baker King. Playing the most complex and controversial main character in BK, Joo Won with his charisma and chops blew me away. Imagine my shock when I learned this was his very first drama!
BEST FEMALE NEWCOMER –Jung So Min - Bad Guy, Playful Kiss. Playing two very different characters – the spoiled and flawed rich girl in BG and the sweet and dim student in PK, JSM came out of nowhere but she blew me away. She lives and breathes her characters and was the best thing about PK. I hope she has a long and successful career ahead of her.
COOLEST MALE CHARACTER: Song Tae Ha, Chuno. My fate was written a long time ago – since I wrote a love letter to Spartacus (19th century Italian novel version) when I was eight, I have been a goner for the honorable rebel. And oh – how could I not fall madly and irrevocably in love with Song Tae Ha? Formerly an uber-aristocratic general and best friend of the Crown Prince and now wrongly punished government slave, Tae Ha is both larger than life and so very human – he is a man who is intensely honorable and yet who struggles with his very ingrained notions of Confusian rightness. He is unbroken from all the horrors inflicted on him but only barely so – his pride is hanging by shreds even if his conscience is intact. Actually Tae Ha has replaced Damduk of Legend as my favorite kdrama character. This is all the more impressive because while I have always found Oh Ji Ho a good-looking man (I am not blind!), I have always viewed him as pleasant scenery. I don’t know what happened during Chuno but that scenery came alive and blew me away with his fierce yet vulnerable performance.
COOLEST FEMALE CHARACTER: Yoon Hee, Sungkyunkwan Scandal. Smart, mistrustful, tough, loyal, amazing. There are not enough cool adjectives to describe Yoon Hee who not only cross-dresses to get into Korea’s institute of higher learning (risking death and dishonor) but is one of the best scholars out there and a woman with nerves of steel.
Runner-up: Lee Ji Ah, Athena. Hardcore, kickass spy played by LJA? Sign me up.
CHARACTER WHO SHOULD HAVE HIS OWN SPIN-OFF – Jae Shin, Sungkyunkwan Scandal. Come on – I want to watch him fight the King’s enemies as a palace guard and fall for the cool rebel chick.
CHARACTER WHO SHOULD HAVE HER OWN SPIN-OFF – Chosun, Sungkyunkwan Scandal. A famous courtesan with deadly fighting skills, messed up family history and a potential OTP with the bad guy’s son? Oh hell, I wish I was watching this already.
FAVORITE SECONDARY CHARACTER - Tae Sung (Kim Jae Wook), Bad Guy. The tormented, brittle Tae Sung was THE character in BG for me. KJW quietly but efficiently stole the show from everyone else and every episode I wished more and more he was the protagonist. I wanted to heal him and make everything better even as I wanted to break every bone in his body. I wanted to look away from watching someone’s personal hell and yet I couldn’t tear my eyes away. Tae Sung is one of my Top 3 male characters this year (others being Tae Ha from Chuno and Sun Joon from SKKS) so he is in excellent company.
Runner-up: the tough, kind, hurt, uncertain, hopeless, amazing Dong Ah, Gloria.
FAVORITE OTP: Song Tae Ha/Un Nyun, Chuno. I never even expected to ship them, yet they became my drama couple of the year. The aristocratic warrior turned slave and a brutalized slavewoman turned aristocratic bride just swept me off my feet. I spent the first two episodes shipping Un Nyun with Daegil, I confess, but then Tae Ha and Un Nyun met and I found myself chanting at the screen “love him, love him, love him.” Luckily for me, she did. They were and are and always will be perfection.
I love them enough to post this shippy MV, even:
Runners-up: Sun Joon/Yoon Hee, Sungkyunkwan Scandal. A smart, unworldly, studious scholar with a spine of steel and a tough, clever, principled young woman who cross-dressed to get into University? And they become best friends? And he believes he is harboring feelings for a man while she agonizes about his sudden coldness? YES PLS.
Also, both OTPs of Gloria. I can’t breathe watching them sometimes.
FAVORITE SECONDARY OTP: Min Woo/Miju, Giant. By the end of this 60 ep drama I was watching solely for them. She is the hero’s tough yet sunny little sister, he is the shades-of-grey, screwed-up, ruthless son of her family’s biggest enemy . Neither knows of the family connection and they fall in love. He gives her confidence and she gives him happiness. He saves her life and she redeems him. They are perfect.
FAVORITE UNCANON OTP: Tae Sung/Jae In, Bad Guy. Oh, how I shipped the fragile rich boy and the wounded golddigger with the heart of gold. The actors had insane chemistry and the pairing made so much sense. But ultimately the maker went insane and it was not to be.
FAVORITE UNEXPECTED OTP: Ma Jun/Yu Kyung, Baker King. Who would have ever thought I’d ship hero’s poor and fierce first love and his rival/unbrother? But they became ‘the’ OTP of Baker King for me – dysfunctional, hot, and somehow right for each other as they could allow the other to see and understand the darkness in them. Their hope and happiness at the end made me sniffly.
MOST ROMANTIC DRAMA: Tie (1) Will It Snow At Christmas – the whole thing is one long cinematic swoon. Tie (2) Secret Garden. Ditto.
FUNNIEST DRAMA: Secret Garden. I laugh out loud with this drama. I rest my case.
CHARACTER YOU'D TAKE HOME TO MOTHER: Kang Suk, Gloria. Smart, (by now) well-adjusted, loyal, awesome. There are no words for how much I love problem-solver Kang Suk. OK, his family is evil and/or insane, but it can’t be helped.
BEST SECONDARY GUY - Jae Shin, Sungkyunkwan Scandal. Never clingy or evil or martyr-like, Jae Shin the secret rebel is all around cool. (Did I mention my thing for rebels? I did).
BEST VILLAIN: Chul Woong, Chuno. Tae Ha’s former second-in-command and friend and now ruthless nemesis, Lee Jong Hyuk is mesmerizing in the role as a man who does great evil at the bidding of his demons, trying to prove his superiority to Tae Ha and Tae Ha’s ‘fakeness’ but is ripping his own soul more and more with every action. At once repellent and pitiable monster (with the subtext of being romantically obsessed with Tae Ha), you may hate Chul Woong, but you can’t tear your eyes away.
Runner up: Ji Suk, Gloria. While feeling he’s the wronged martyr here, the man kills and torments and hurts our leads in every way possible. His slimy look is enough to give me hives at his mere appearance by now.
NICEST HERO: Lee Sun Joon, Sungkyunkwan Scandal. Principled, smart, genuinely kind, willing to sacrifice himself to save his friend and do what is right, LSJ is just amazing.
ANGSTIEST/MOST TORTURED HERO: Song Tae Ha, Chuno. I don’t even want to go into all the horrific things that happened to him. If I were in his place, I would have either offed myself or, more likely, have been sitting somewhere rocking myself as I went insane. The one scene in all of Chuno I, angst junkie supreme, can’t bear to rewatch involves him, enough said.
BEST ROMANTIC SCENE: Five-way tie, I am afraid: (1) Min Woo and Miju make love after she’s been nursing him from the horrible beating his father gave him, Giant (2) Daegil believes he is seeing Un Nyun again in ep 2, Chuno (3) Tae Ha banaging wounded Un Nyun’s shoulder and holding her hand when she, unconsciously, is seeking his, Chuno; (4) Dong Ah helps Yoon Seo to throw up her liquor and piggybacks her as they whisper they want this to be forever, Gloria (5) Sun Joon confesses his love to Yoon Hee in the marketplace even though he believes she is a man, Sungkyunkwan Scandal.
BEST KISS: Personal Taste - "game over" in ep 10. A wildly uneven drama but when it was on, it was on! Runner-up: Coffee House train kiss – oh, it sizzled.
WORST KISS: Oh My Lady. No chemistry between the leads whatsoever.
MOST UNDERRATED DRAMA: Prosecutor Princess. Funny, romantic, twisty, with great chemistry between the leads. More people needed to see this.
MOST OVERRATED DRAMA: Cinderella Unni. Good first four eps, complete static idiocy for the other 16. Someone needed to put this drama out of its misery yet its ratings kept rising. Don’t even get me started on its sin of getting but then utterly wasting an actor of Chun Jung Myung’ intensity.
BIGGEST PLEASANT SURPRISE: Pick the Stars. I had no expectations at all and thought it would be a boring family drama but what a sweet, funny, romantic delight it turned out to be.
BIGGEST UNPLEASANT SURPRISE: Road N. 1 – I was so excited for a Korean War epic with such cast. Instead it turned out to be the worst kdrama I’ve ever seen – cartoonishly acted and written by a lunatic.
DRAMA WHICH FELL APART THE MOST: Bad Guy – such a perfect gem the first 2/3, then it’s as if the monkeys took over the typing of the script. Still worth checking out though. Runner up: Mary Stayed Out All Night – it started out cute and quirky and ended up as something that made neither logical nor emotional sense.
PRETTIEST DRAMA: Chuno – have you seen that cinematography? It’s glorious. Every shot is like a painting. Runner up: Secret Garden. Ditto.
BEST NON-ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP: Foursome, Gloria – I love the friendship between Kang Suk, Jin Jin, Dong Ah and Yoon Seo – they are so funny and warm and real together. This is the first time KS and YS have had friends and this is the first time JJ and DA had this much fun. They support each other, tease each other and are just wonderful.
DRAMA THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN LONGER: Pick the Stars – I loved the 20 ep version but after seeing this writer’s 50 ep wonder Gloria, I wish this was longer so we’d get in deeper and spend more time with Pal Kang, Kang Ha and the brood.
DRAMA THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN SHORTER: Giant – the extension really killed the momentum and the second half was much inferior to the first; Runner-up: Dong Yi – would have been a much better drama at 30 eps
BEST FIRST EPISODE: Chuno – I find first episodes crucial – a bad one can make me drop the drama and a good one can make me its slave. Chuno did the latter. I was breathless and desperate by the end.
WORST FIRST EPISODE: Daddy’s Girl – what an incoherent mess – introducing about a million new characters, murky story, and utter lack of narrative drive, this one was so bad it made me drop it and not come back.
MOST SURPRISING ENDING: Bad Guy – just because by then it ceased to make any sense and nothing was developed.
MOST MISSED: Bae Yong Joon – come back to dramas, darling Damduk!
LEAST MISSED: Gu Hye Sun – her The Musical was supposed to come out but seems in limbo. Since I think she’s a horrible overactress, I am glad.
BEST DRAMA OPENING SCENE: Will It Snow At Christmas – it dragged me in into its pale-colored, emotional world – the truck, the alienated boy, the angry girl.
BEST FIGHT SCENE: Tae Ha and Dae Gil, ep 3, Chuno – the fluid, fast, brutal fight in the reeds – the first time the two men meet and measure each other.
MOST ANTICIPATED 2010 DRAMA: The Duo – Chun Jung Myung in a period drama about a nobleman and slave children switched at birth? I am salivating already. Runner up: Midas – because Jang Hyuk is amazing enough to watch in anything.
If you read this through, you get a medal!
Very personal, you have been warned. I don’t like to claim that my opinion is paramount but I am of course very fond of it. As I am sure you know by now if you read this livejournal with any regularity, I adore period dramas, not too fond of fluffy dramas etc. Any drama that aired even part of its run in 2010 is eligible.
FAVORITE DRAMA: Chuno/Slave Hunters. In a year which had a number of kdramas I liked, Chuno stands head-and-shoulders over its competitors – brutal, gritty, and grim, this is the first period drama I’ve seen which actually gets down in the dirt with societal outcasts (slaves, courtesans, slave hunters) instead of drooling over royalty. Gorgeously shot, fiercely acted, emotionally hypnotic, and with many things to say about society and honor and survival and prejudice, this is the one drama from 2010 that entered my All Time Top 10 Kdramas list. If you haven’t seen this 24-episode marvel, what are you waiting for?
ALSO-RANS: Secret Garden, Giant, Pick the Stars, Prosecutor Princess, Will It Snow on Christmas, Sungkyunkwan Scandal, Gloria, Baker King
MOST DISAPPOINTING DRAMA: Road N. 1 – I was so excited for a drama about Korean War with A-list cast but this was insanely written and awfully acted. I’ve never seen anything quite this bad.
WORST DRAMA: RN1. See above.
DRAMA WHICH WASTED ITS CAST THE MOST: A Man Called God. You get Song Il Gook, Han Chae Young and the rest and you do something that is badly directed, awfully written, and asks from its actors all the subtlety of a pantomime show. Shame on you!
BEST MALE PERFORMANCE: Jang Hyuk, Chuno. His tormented, intense, coarse, brutal and brutalized Daegil was heart and soul of Chuno. I cried and laughed and longed with him even as I was appalled by him and terrified of him as well. Daegil may not have been my favorite character in the drama (that honor goes to Tae Ha) but he was the most unforgettable and the best acted.
WORST MALE PERFORMANCE: So Ji Sub, RN1. I have always found SJS very uneven (excellent in Misa, dead-eyed and wooden in Bali), but his one-note, over the top yet flat performance in RN1 seems to have come from another actor entirely. In a drama full of awful acting he stands out. Unless he meant to play a hyper tree, in which case, congrats!
BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE: Go Hyun Jung, Daemul. The powerhouse actress delivers yet another wonderful performance as the smart and tough yet human and vulnerable first female President of Korea.
WORST FEMALE PERFORMANCE: Kim Haneul, RN1. See what I said about SJS and apply here.
BEST MALE NEWCOMER – Micky Yoochun, Sungkyunkwan Scandal. I was terrified to check out SKKS because we all know how well idols-turned-actors do – I’ve seen the horror that was Heading to the Ground. But Yoochun embodied his role perfectly – I loved him to bits, laughing with and crying with his character. I hope he has many more dramas to come in his pipeline.
Runner Up: Joo Won, Baker King. Playing the most complex and controversial main character in BK, Joo Won with his charisma and chops blew me away. Imagine my shock when I learned this was his very first drama!
BEST FEMALE NEWCOMER –Jung So Min - Bad Guy, Playful Kiss. Playing two very different characters – the spoiled and flawed rich girl in BG and the sweet and dim student in PK, JSM came out of nowhere but she blew me away. She lives and breathes her characters and was the best thing about PK. I hope she has a long and successful career ahead of her.
COOLEST MALE CHARACTER: Song Tae Ha, Chuno. My fate was written a long time ago – since I wrote a love letter to Spartacus (19th century Italian novel version) when I was eight, I have been a goner for the honorable rebel. And oh – how could I not fall madly and irrevocably in love with Song Tae Ha? Formerly an uber-aristocratic general and best friend of the Crown Prince and now wrongly punished government slave, Tae Ha is both larger than life and so very human – he is a man who is intensely honorable and yet who struggles with his very ingrained notions of Confusian rightness. He is unbroken from all the horrors inflicted on him but only barely so – his pride is hanging by shreds even if his conscience is intact. Actually Tae Ha has replaced Damduk of Legend as my favorite kdrama character. This is all the more impressive because while I have always found Oh Ji Ho a good-looking man (I am not blind!), I have always viewed him as pleasant scenery. I don’t know what happened during Chuno but that scenery came alive and blew me away with his fierce yet vulnerable performance.
COOLEST FEMALE CHARACTER: Yoon Hee, Sungkyunkwan Scandal. Smart, mistrustful, tough, loyal, amazing. There are not enough cool adjectives to describe Yoon Hee who not only cross-dresses to get into Korea’s institute of higher learning (risking death and dishonor) but is one of the best scholars out there and a woman with nerves of steel.
Runner-up: Lee Ji Ah, Athena. Hardcore, kickass spy played by LJA? Sign me up.
CHARACTER WHO SHOULD HAVE HIS OWN SPIN-OFF – Jae Shin, Sungkyunkwan Scandal. Come on – I want to watch him fight the King’s enemies as a palace guard and fall for the cool rebel chick.
CHARACTER WHO SHOULD HAVE HER OWN SPIN-OFF – Chosun, Sungkyunkwan Scandal. A famous courtesan with deadly fighting skills, messed up family history and a potential OTP with the bad guy’s son? Oh hell, I wish I was watching this already.
FAVORITE SECONDARY CHARACTER - Tae Sung (Kim Jae Wook), Bad Guy. The tormented, brittle Tae Sung was THE character in BG for me. KJW quietly but efficiently stole the show from everyone else and every episode I wished more and more he was the protagonist. I wanted to heal him and make everything better even as I wanted to break every bone in his body. I wanted to look away from watching someone’s personal hell and yet I couldn’t tear my eyes away. Tae Sung is one of my Top 3 male characters this year (others being Tae Ha from Chuno and Sun Joon from SKKS) so he is in excellent company.
Runner-up: the tough, kind, hurt, uncertain, hopeless, amazing Dong Ah, Gloria.
FAVORITE OTP: Song Tae Ha/Un Nyun, Chuno. I never even expected to ship them, yet they became my drama couple of the year. The aristocratic warrior turned slave and a brutalized slavewoman turned aristocratic bride just swept me off my feet. I spent the first two episodes shipping Un Nyun with Daegil, I confess, but then Tae Ha and Un Nyun met and I found myself chanting at the screen “love him, love him, love him.” Luckily for me, she did. They were and are and always will be perfection.
I love them enough to post this shippy MV, even:
Runners-up: Sun Joon/Yoon Hee, Sungkyunkwan Scandal. A smart, unworldly, studious scholar with a spine of steel and a tough, clever, principled young woman who cross-dressed to get into University? And they become best friends? And he believes he is harboring feelings for a man while she agonizes about his sudden coldness? YES PLS.
Also, both OTPs of Gloria. I can’t breathe watching them sometimes.
FAVORITE SECONDARY OTP: Min Woo/Miju, Giant. By the end of this 60 ep drama I was watching solely for them. She is the hero’s tough yet sunny little sister, he is the shades-of-grey, screwed-up, ruthless son of her family’s biggest enemy . Neither knows of the family connection and they fall in love. He gives her confidence and she gives him happiness. He saves her life and she redeems him. They are perfect.
FAVORITE UNCANON OTP: Tae Sung/Jae In, Bad Guy. Oh, how I shipped the fragile rich boy and the wounded golddigger with the heart of gold. The actors had insane chemistry and the pairing made so much sense. But ultimately the maker went insane and it was not to be.
FAVORITE UNEXPECTED OTP: Ma Jun/Yu Kyung, Baker King. Who would have ever thought I’d ship hero’s poor and fierce first love and his rival/unbrother? But they became ‘the’ OTP of Baker King for me – dysfunctional, hot, and somehow right for each other as they could allow the other to see and understand the darkness in them. Their hope and happiness at the end made me sniffly.
MOST ROMANTIC DRAMA: Tie (1) Will It Snow At Christmas – the whole thing is one long cinematic swoon. Tie (2) Secret Garden. Ditto.
FUNNIEST DRAMA: Secret Garden. I laugh out loud with this drama. I rest my case.
CHARACTER YOU'D TAKE HOME TO MOTHER: Kang Suk, Gloria. Smart, (by now) well-adjusted, loyal, awesome. There are no words for how much I love problem-solver Kang Suk. OK, his family is evil and/or insane, but it can’t be helped.
BEST SECONDARY GUY - Jae Shin, Sungkyunkwan Scandal. Never clingy or evil or martyr-like, Jae Shin the secret rebel is all around cool. (Did I mention my thing for rebels? I did).
BEST VILLAIN: Chul Woong, Chuno. Tae Ha’s former second-in-command and friend and now ruthless nemesis, Lee Jong Hyuk is mesmerizing in the role as a man who does great evil at the bidding of his demons, trying to prove his superiority to Tae Ha and Tae Ha’s ‘fakeness’ but is ripping his own soul more and more with every action. At once repellent and pitiable monster (with the subtext of being romantically obsessed with Tae Ha), you may hate Chul Woong, but you can’t tear your eyes away.
Runner up: Ji Suk, Gloria. While feeling he’s the wronged martyr here, the man kills and torments and hurts our leads in every way possible. His slimy look is enough to give me hives at his mere appearance by now.
NICEST HERO: Lee Sun Joon, Sungkyunkwan Scandal. Principled, smart, genuinely kind, willing to sacrifice himself to save his friend and do what is right, LSJ is just amazing.
ANGSTIEST/MOST TORTURED HERO: Song Tae Ha, Chuno. I don’t even want to go into all the horrific things that happened to him. If I were in his place, I would have either offed myself or, more likely, have been sitting somewhere rocking myself as I went insane. The one scene in all of Chuno I, angst junkie supreme, can’t bear to rewatch involves him, enough said.
BEST ROMANTIC SCENE: Five-way tie, I am afraid: (1) Min Woo and Miju make love after she’s been nursing him from the horrible beating his father gave him, Giant (2) Daegil believes he is seeing Un Nyun again in ep 2, Chuno (3) Tae Ha banaging wounded Un Nyun’s shoulder and holding her hand when she, unconsciously, is seeking his, Chuno; (4) Dong Ah helps Yoon Seo to throw up her liquor and piggybacks her as they whisper they want this to be forever, Gloria (5) Sun Joon confesses his love to Yoon Hee in the marketplace even though he believes she is a man, Sungkyunkwan Scandal.
BEST KISS: Personal Taste - "game over" in ep 10. A wildly uneven drama but when it was on, it was on! Runner-up: Coffee House train kiss – oh, it sizzled.
WORST KISS: Oh My Lady. No chemistry between the leads whatsoever.
MOST UNDERRATED DRAMA: Prosecutor Princess. Funny, romantic, twisty, with great chemistry between the leads. More people needed to see this.
MOST OVERRATED DRAMA: Cinderella Unni. Good first four eps, complete static idiocy for the other 16. Someone needed to put this drama out of its misery yet its ratings kept rising. Don’t even get me started on its sin of getting but then utterly wasting an actor of Chun Jung Myung’ intensity.
BIGGEST PLEASANT SURPRISE: Pick the Stars. I had no expectations at all and thought it would be a boring family drama but what a sweet, funny, romantic delight it turned out to be.
BIGGEST UNPLEASANT SURPRISE: Road N. 1 – I was so excited for a Korean War epic with such cast. Instead it turned out to be the worst kdrama I’ve ever seen – cartoonishly acted and written by a lunatic.
DRAMA WHICH FELL APART THE MOST: Bad Guy – such a perfect gem the first 2/3, then it’s as if the monkeys took over the typing of the script. Still worth checking out though. Runner up: Mary Stayed Out All Night – it started out cute and quirky and ended up as something that made neither logical nor emotional sense.
PRETTIEST DRAMA: Chuno – have you seen that cinematography? It’s glorious. Every shot is like a painting. Runner up: Secret Garden. Ditto.
BEST NON-ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP: Foursome, Gloria – I love the friendship between Kang Suk, Jin Jin, Dong Ah and Yoon Seo – they are so funny and warm and real together. This is the first time KS and YS have had friends and this is the first time JJ and DA had this much fun. They support each other, tease each other and are just wonderful.
DRAMA THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN LONGER: Pick the Stars – I loved the 20 ep version but after seeing this writer’s 50 ep wonder Gloria, I wish this was longer so we’d get in deeper and spend more time with Pal Kang, Kang Ha and the brood.
DRAMA THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN SHORTER: Giant – the extension really killed the momentum and the second half was much inferior to the first; Runner-up: Dong Yi – would have been a much better drama at 30 eps
BEST FIRST EPISODE: Chuno – I find first episodes crucial – a bad one can make me drop the drama and a good one can make me its slave. Chuno did the latter. I was breathless and desperate by the end.
WORST FIRST EPISODE: Daddy’s Girl – what an incoherent mess – introducing about a million new characters, murky story, and utter lack of narrative drive, this one was so bad it made me drop it and not come back.
MOST SURPRISING ENDING: Bad Guy – just because by then it ceased to make any sense and nothing was developed.
MOST MISSED: Bae Yong Joon – come back to dramas, darling Damduk!
LEAST MISSED: Gu Hye Sun – her The Musical was supposed to come out but seems in limbo. Since I think she’s a horrible overactress, I am glad.
BEST DRAMA OPENING SCENE: Will It Snow At Christmas – it dragged me in into its pale-colored, emotional world – the truck, the alienated boy, the angry girl.
BEST FIGHT SCENE: Tae Ha and Dae Gil, ep 3, Chuno – the fluid, fast, brutal fight in the reeds – the first time the two men meet and measure each other.
MOST ANTICIPATED 2010 DRAMA: The Duo – Chun Jung Myung in a period drama about a nobleman and slave children switched at birth? I am salivating already. Runner up: Midas – because Jang Hyuk is amazing enough to watch in anything.
If you read this through, you get a medal!
