Dramas whose concepts do not work for you (and an unrelated bit on Aoi Tori)

[dangermousie]

So, are there dramas you don't want to watch, even if people on your flist are praising them or they star actors/actresses you love? What are they? I don't mean dramas that sound good but are bad when you check them out, I mean dramas where you read the synopsis and something in it just rubs you the wrong way...

For me, oddly, it's not that a storyline is ever too dark or disturbing, it's a lot more nebulous than that, this feeling of 'oh no, bad/wrong' (whether storywise, attitude-wise, or just shipping-wise:P) I used to try to watch the dramas despite this vibe and once I ended up loving it (Forbidden Love) but in all the other times, the bad/wrong vibe is indeed there and blocks any enjoyment and leaves me faintly icked out.

So now I just trust my radar and avoid those altogether. My watch list is much too huge as is.

I was thinking about mine today:

Person I love [kdrama]: it seems to have been well-received, but I really do not want to watch a drama about someone who stupidly cheats on his wife who is a good woman (and it's not as if he has a star-crossed love with the other girl, no, he is just selfish). It's not the darkness of the storyline (this sort of thing happens every day, unfortunately) but the skeezy/pathetic vibe of it all.

And speaking of skeezy. Fated to Love You [twdrama]. I know it's enjoying gonzo ratings and people on my flist who have good taste like it, but I am sorry. Any drama where the premise is 'the heroine is so drunk, she ends up sleeping with a wrong guy instead of her fiance' is not just bordering sleaze but has fully moved into sleazeland. There is no way I can like her after this bit of unprovoked drunken cheating. And when you add in the fact that she went on this cruise specifically to do the deed with her bf (who the heck needs to go on a cruise for that, btw? WTF?) it just screams 'pathetic.' Oh, and of course she gets pregnant. *rolls eyes*

1 Litre of Tears [jdrama]. I am sure it's excellent. Half my flist adores it. However, a drama which seems to be designed to show slow descent into illness and death is my idea of Gitmo torture, not a good time (not to mention it seems rather exploitative). I do not like dramas about terminal illness. There is a difference between a terminal illness drama, and a drama that just has terminal illness in it but is actually about something else (Snow Queen, Beautiful Life, Silence). The same reasoning applies to that Kame drama where he has 83 diseases at once, or whatever.

Gokusen 2/3/4/5/6/187 [jdrama]. I loved the first Gokusen (it's in my top 10 jdramas). This doesn't mean I want to see it all over again, only with different cast. Repetition might be the mother of learning, but it ain't the mother of either creativity or entertainment.

Magicians of Love [twdrama]. I started it, actually, but my bad/wrong radar was going off, at notion of four macho hairdressers who seem to be saviors of Taiwan, and I should have listened to it. My eyes, or my brain, will never recover.

14-year old mother [jdrama]: no thank you. I am not a social worker.

Last Friends [jdrama]: it just screams 'trashily trendy' to me. Or is it 'trendily trashy?' The 'look, look, aren't we cool, we have a real life lesbian' thing. The whole 'social worker abusive boyfriend' thing (what is this, Lifetime channel). Etc! Ugh. It makes me think of Fated to Love You.

Anything with Akanishi Jin. I am sure he is a lovely actor and what not, but he freaks me out, looks-wise. He looks like a girl in a disturbing fashion, and I am not exactly someone who requires manliness in my leads (I love Kame) and he still crosses the border beyond which I feel comfortable...

As I said, all of the above is very subjective. I know some of the above are undoubtedly excellent dramas, and there are many objectively awful dramas (Jotei, anyone) which do not make it on the list because they don't 'ping' that vibe for me.

And the odd thing is I can't really make a hard-and-fast rule about what will ping it or not. After all, I have started watching and fell in love with Mawang, a kdrama about a serial killer. I fully intend to watch both Kyo Kyo Kyushi 2003 (a jdrama about a terminally ill teacher who lies to a female student she is ill too, so as to get her to join him) and Byaukuyu (a jdrama which has murder and child prostitution). On the very short list of the dramas for me to get is Aoi Tori, a jdrama starring Toyokawa Etsushi (who I have fallen madly for after AtIK), which has repeated jailtime, depressingness, and the story that reminds me a bit of Bollywood movie Lamhe (ask and I shall spoil you as to what I mean).

Plus, while I have never truly warmed up to Kimi Wa Petto, I was able to appreciate what it had to say despite the bad/wrong vibe I was getting throughout.

So...it just has to either work or not, and it's very subjective. So, which are your dramas which ping the bad/wrong meter?

And, because I mentioned Aoi Tori (the protagonist is a station master who falls in love with a married woman and goes on the run with her and her daughter), here is the opening scene. It is so incredibly Bollywood, I almost gasped. And so beautiful. Rain, and red umbrellas, and love at first sight.

Comments

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I have that reaction to about 3 out of 4 kdramas, actually. I've seen enough to become really fond of several actors and actresses, but most of the plots turn me off, even though I enjoy posts on them. Something Happened in Bali is probably the big one, there. Why Why Love, I think, is one with twdramas, ProDai, 1 litre of Tears and Last Friends stand out w/ jdramas, though there have been others(jdramas stand out to me more, because, except for the few I've bounced off of hard, I can get into most of them.)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yay, am not the only one on Last friends.

Why WWL, btw?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Last Friends I MIGHT check out if it starts going a way I could watch, but if it continues w/ the abuse angle the whole time(I'm fine with the f/f angle) I couldn't watch it.

WWL because, while it sounds fun and I adore Kingone, I don't care for Mike He and often find Rainie Yang to be trying too hard in cutesy-ness. It's another I might watch eventually, but it isn't high on the list.

[(Anonymous)]

I really enjoy your writing style which is very engaging and you have a healthy appetite for books and culture in general which I appreciate. So you are correct in the subjectivity of it all. I still enjoy reading your comments. Yet, I tend not to trust your meter since it's a combination of hits and misses (Goong?, My girl? --talk about being contrived?) and you loved dramas that sounded trash to me from the get go (Romantic Princess???). So please don't be offended, just voicing out an opinion. Keep writing, it is entertaining.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Hi Anonymous :)

Not offended at all. If I survived people not liking Mars, I can survive anything :P

loved dramas that sounded trash to me from the get go (Romantic Princess???).

Heh. I need to update my list, I ended up disliking it quite a lot (my braincells died by the end, by dozens). It did sound rather silly from the start, but it was rather pretty and I am a sucker for anything visually cute. That wasn't enough for 13 eps however, and my rant on RP could be quite another thing :)

Goong?, My girl? --talk about being contrived

You do not like Goong and My Girl? *is slain and weeps* :) Ah well, to each their own. I have certainly not liked dramas loved by everyone before (Long Vacation, Devil Beside You), so yes, taste is very subjective.

I think the thing is, I don't particularly care about external realism (i.e. that the drama world resemble the real world) or whether the initial set-up is contrived, as long as the characters and emotions feel real, the dialogues feel sharp, and the world is internally consistent within the drama. This applies both to a very 'real world' drama like Aishiteiru to Itte Kure and a clear fantasy like Goong. I think my LJ is proof that, as long as those criteria are met, I like my plots a bit outlandish (though honestly, how many kdramas have non-outlandish set-ups, really? That is why some people don't care for them).

But by all means, it's obviously underastandable that you don't trust my meter. Most people have very different tastes. With the exception of kitsune714, who largely seems to be my drama twin, most of my LJ friends aren't very good barometers for what I would like and vice-versa. We might like a lot of same dramas, and yet have different opinions on fair number of others. That is why I find pure lists of recs largely worthless (i.e. someone just listing their top 10 without explanations), and much prefer lists with reasons, pictures and meta. Because one person's favorite drama is another's trash. Just look at the wonderful and thoughtful winterspel. She has excellent taste, but she hates my favorite jdrama (Pride) like poison. Or my visceral dislike for Kim Sam Soon, which a number of my flisters adore. So you never know, even if you agree on 90% of dramas with someone, the next one will fall into that 10& difference (miss_dian and I have very similar tastes, but she loves KSS and dislikes My Girl, and for me it's the other way around).

ETA:

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Because I keep thinking on the topic.

I think for me, dramas are like any other type of fiction (or nonfiction). I enjoy different ones for different reasons. For example, I loved Itoshi Kimi E or Mawang, which would be considered good works of fiction by any standard: delicately written, perfectly acted, reflecting on some rather interesting things.

But I also enjoyed the first couple of eps of Jotei (before I got bored with too much a concentrated doze of OTT) which is, by most definitions, an uncontestably trashy and bad drama. I enjoyed it for the silliness and the OTT melodrama. I am sure I will enjoy Bad Love exactly the same way (I'd say it's a guilty pleasure, but I feel no guilt :P)

Different reasons and different likes.

Of course, this is all a tangent to the topic of 'vibe meter' isn't it? I don't think I defined it well, because it's not something that determines whether the drama in question is good or entertaining. It refers to my instinctive 'eeeek' reaction on hearing/finding out about it. The drama in question may well be excellent (1 Liter is considered great by most people) but it might still hit that vibe with me. OTOH, with a drama like the Taiwanese version of Peach Girl: atrociously written, poorly acted, and not entertaining in the least (whether in Itoshi Kimi E or Jotei way, or anything in between), its story doesn't ping my 'instinctive yikes' meter in the least. It's boring, but it doesn't irrationally pre-annoy me.

Of course, sometimes the fact that the drama is well-written and acted would overcome my initial squick (Forbidden Love). I think this vibe reflects more on one's inherent preferences than quality of the drama, really...

[fivil.livejournal.com]

Person I love .. I tried it but def agree with you. Now, somebody said that the main focus is basically the hero sorting out his family dilemmas and blah blah money issues, enter Evil Rich Girl. I watched like 30 mins of the first ep and while I adoooore the main actor (from Shinhwa as you might know), I could not see a way they could portray him basically fucking up his life while trying to do the right thing and yet doing some VERY bad things (like cheating on his wife). That just, ugh. It pained me just to watch Evil Rich Girl enter the scene because it was like, wow, trouble. So yeah. No thanks.

Fated to Love You .. I could somewhat swallow the premise but it's a twdrama and would probably opt for cutesy light approach which is a bit weird considering the premise/subject.

I can't deal with fatal diseases or dramas where people die/don't end up together. But that's not really so much that it feels 'wrong' to me as much as it's my own drama close-mindedness. :D

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

FtLY just sounds so...trashy. And not in an entertaining Jotei kind of way. I think it's a particular pret-peeve of mine.

I used to be able to adore unhappy endings when I was younger, but now it really has to be someone that truly caught my attention, to make me watch a drama with an unhappy ending.

[fivil.livejournal.com]

For me it's more about sacrifice of free time. A four hour Bollywood film that ends unhappily? If it's good, sure why not. A standard American/European/Asian feature film? Not a problem. But if I know a tv-show or a drama ends on a sour note, I'm not sure if I want to bother. Not just unhappy endings but frustratingly open ones, too.

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

I've never seen Snow Queen because of the terminal illness aspect. And I was put off kdramas in general because of all the stuff I heard about terminal illnesses/sibling incest.

Really? Jin? I find Kame much more oddly effeminate, but I came to love him because of my early love for Nobuta wo Produce.

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

And something has put me off Mars and Pride. Too much praise? Who knows.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

How about 90 Days then? It is a kdrama that has both terminal illness and cousin-cest :) Do they cancel each other out? :P

Re: too much praise putting you off a drama. That has happened to me before with recced things (not with dramas though). I was lucky and discovered both as a total newbie.

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

I don't regard cousin-love as incest, and to be honest, it's the terminal illness more than the incest. The only thing I've stopped reading/watching due the incest is The Rose. And that was mostly because of boredom.

I'm planning to try both Pride and Mars eventually. It's partly the thought that they'll always be there for when I decide to give them a shot that puts me off watching straight away.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

regard cousin-love as incest,

I don't either actually, though I know kdramas do. Maybe because I grew up in Europe and there is was a bit not too cool, btu hardly taboo.

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

It's a tad embarassing, but that's really all I have to say against it.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

But they are going to save on family presents :)

[ilanala]

Akanishi Jin is not, in fact, a lovely actor, so you're not missing much by avoiding his dramas.

I don't have a problem with dark or depressing dramas, but the biggest thing I have issues with are shows that center around characters being put in horribly embarrassing situations or doing really embarrassing things. Even when the characters themselves are too dumb to realize it, it really bothers me. This would explain, for example, why I don't find Doumyouji's stupidity endearing (yes, I know, sacrilege), or why I only made it through Gokusen because my friends made me.

I also have a visceral dislike of the "girl gets pregnant and decides to keep the baby despite very good reasons not to" plotline, although in some cases I can tolerate it. I was okay with Kamisama, Mou Sukoshi Dake until they pulled that out, for example, but if that's the main focus of the drama I probably wouldn't watch it even if I might wind up liking it.

Interestingly, three of the dramas you mention here are some of my favorites (if Last Friends continues to be good), so obviously we have very different taste...

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Last Friends, 1 Liter and what is the third?

The thing is, I might like 1 Liter (don't think I will like Last Friends) if I tried, but seeing how emo overwrought I get even over angst which has a happy ending.

Re: Kamisama. Oh, the baby thing made me roll my eyes. Talk about irresponsible, even if I could understand her. But KMDS was so emo, they could have done anything and I wouldn't have been truly phased :)

[ilanala]

14 Year-old Mother. It's maybe not one of my favorites, but I did like it. I would never have touched it, given the premise, but a friend showed it to me and I was surprised to find it was pretty good. I can definitely understand not wanting to watch it, though, since it's hard to get past the weirdness of the basic premise.

[boycottbananas.livejournal.com]

I'm definitely gonna watch Gokusen 3, yes, and surprisingly, it's all because of an actor in 14 Sai no Haha! XD;;

1 Litre of Tears is definitely a drama that I will probably never watch, along with ProDai, Last Friends [seriously, abuse, just, no.], Goong again, or really any Kdrama nowadays [well i have been watching MISA], etc. etc. Devil Beside You, Why Why Love. Although a few of those are for totally stupid reasons. XD

I'm okay with a lot of things, but what I dislike are older women/younger male [meaning like, a million years][excluding ShinKumi. XD;;] relationships. Just, no. Angstangstangst every episode is also a complete no [again, excluding MISA, since it is really angsty. But I'm only watching for Im Soo Jung. ^^], and unnecessary deaths or illnesses. Which, those three, pretty much rule out Korean dramas in general. Tbh, I have not fully finished even one Korean drama. Each one that I claimed to have, I probably skipped a few episodes. x_x

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

rule out Korean dramas in general.

LOL, basically, yes :)

[boycottbananas.livejournal.com]

XDDDDDDDDD;; I've been sucked too far into the Japanese fandom. Lol.

But hey, I do want to check out Hong Gil Dong, since the main heroine is so pretty, and a lot of people love it. ^^

...that drama doesn't have unnecessary angst or death in it, does it? o_O

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Ummm...are you sure you want me to spoil you for HGD? Because it's a huge spoiler.

[boycottbananas.livejournal.com]

...no, please don't. o_o

...well. will it make me cry?

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Made me cry.

[boycottbananas.livejournal.com]

Oh no. x_x

Well, I'll have to toughen up.

[ficchica.livejournal.com]

I like Fated to Love You, I'll probably go off it though. I don't think she was just drunk, she had some kind of sickness as well. I think she was drinking because she was nervous. The hero had his drink spiked so it doesn't make it as bad as if one of them was 'sober'.
I don't like:
1 Litre of Tears - too depressing
Anego - goes nowhere, nothing is resolved. What was the point.
Full House - why does she like that guy? His best friend was much better hero material.
The Kiss Again - I'm really trying to like it but she's just too stupid. Maybe if I read the manga I would like it.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

The Kiss Again - I'm really trying to like it but she's just too stupid. Maybe if I read the manga I would like it.

I like it, but yes, she is incredibly dim.

i know

[callmeaznaddct.livejournal.com]

i was just so disappointed. I mean she was stupid in ISWAK but did they have to make her RETARDED in they kiss again...it made me not want to watch it but i just finished it because of zhishu. He makes up for her dim-witted self

[kikintae.livejournal.com]

i mostly agree with most of your choice
the person i love - i was interested until i read how the main guy cheated on his wife, then there happy ending for both of them. I totally can't stand that kind of story. If the story goes with how his wife revenge on him and dump his ass at the end, then i might watch it. the whole adultery is not my thing.
fate to love you. i don't watch twdrama so i don't know about it but it doesn't sound that great from what you wrote.
1lot - i tend to stay from this drama too. i watch a little bit of it, and it so depressing.
last friend - is good but the abusive social worker kind tick me. It seem so hypocrite. i will continued to watch it cause i find it interesting.
14 no ha sai - kind of disturbing. since the main actress look like she was 10 than 14.
gokusen. yeah not that interest it unless sawada comeback and begin shinkumi relationship like it was in the manga. other than that. no way. I endure gokusen 2 hoping to see sawada or mentioning of him. the drama suck in general.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

there happy ending for both of them

Really? Ugh.

[lenabean.livejournal.com]

re: Fated to Love You -- Maybe I didn't watch it carefully enough, but I don't recall heroine being being drunk, she just took a some sort of pill that ended up making her drowsy. And I agree that trying to sleep with your bf to secure him does not exactly win you any awards for Best Feminist/Strong Female Heroine, but the whole point of the drama was that she was a nobody--a plain Jane who came into the world unwanted--and later on discovered that she had worth. It's that aspect of character evolution that I like enough to enough the OTT premise.

[lenabean.livejournal.com]

*that I liked enough to overlook the OTT premise of accidental sex and pregnancy.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but it's just one of those 'sleazy' sounding premises for me. But then I am generally not a fan of pregnancy stories :)

[lenabean.livejournal.com]

I'm not a fan of the pregnancy stories, either, but this one addresses it in terms of abortion and what that means. Not the typical and simplified 'oh no, she's pregnant, now we have to marry' plotline.

[prettierdanpink.livejournal.com]

i loved 1 litre of tears because of the amazing cast but I have no plans of watching it AGAIN. TOO DEPRESSING T_T I cried every episode.

Gokusen 2/3/4/5/6/187 LOL! I agree I agree. Gokusen 1 is one of my favorites ♥ I watched Gokusen 2 and I DIDN'T LIKE IT even though Kame and Jin's there T_T;

Erm, yeah, 14-year-old mother is quite disturbing T_T

Anything with Akanishi Jin. HAHAHAHA. =)) Did you know that he won a best actor award recently? That man CAN'T ACT in my opinion XD I love him and everything but.. he's just not as good as Kame when it comes to acting :) Kame is waaaaaaaay better =)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Did you know that he won a best actor award recently?

LOL, for what?

[prettierdanpink.livejournal.com]

..for Yukan Club XD LOL.

[joonni.livejournal.com]

I can't think of any specific dramas but I hate plots that have cheating in it. Especially if someone is married. I can understand if the spouse sucks and is abusive but otherwise, I hate the lack of responsibility that portrays. And if someone married does cheat, they have to agonize and suffer for it.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, cheating is a huge thing. Ugh.

[december-clouds.livejournal.com]

I don't watch most Korean dramas because I don't like the terminal illness aspect either. Sometimes I can look at a drama (like Dal Ja or Kim Sam Soon) and tell no one is going to die so I watch it, otherwise I wait until it's over and ask someone if anyone died before watching it. :/

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Makes sense :)

i was just wondering

[callmeaznaddct.livejournal.com]

if you have any idea where i could watch the drama aoi tori

Re: i was just wondering

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I know where to get the dvds but not dls. Have you tried mysoju.com?