On Loving Bad Guys and Bad Boys

I haven't written a regular post in a while, mostly because I've been moving and starting a new job, and big life changes and all that. Also I'm lazy and hate taking screenshots, so a full post is sometimes intimidating to me. But the other day on the social media, a friend of mine shared this meme, and it immediately made me think of me, because if anyone loves the villains, it is me.

I used to struggle with Labyrinth because I don't particularly love Sarah, or any of her companions, but I super love Jareth, the Goblin King, aka David Bowie. It was actually my love of David Bowie and Queen and glam rock that got me into K-pop, because is there much of a difference between this and this?

via Hollywood Reporter

I think not.

Momance: Sometimes the Mom-Drama is actually the best part of the drama

When we think of Kdrama mothers, we usually think of those evil moms, like in Boys Over Flowers or Secret Garden who will stop at nothing to get rid of our heroine by whatever means.  We think of those moms that are just another plot device to tear the couple apart.  Or we might think of the mom drama moms.  The ones who throw a spanner in the works while trying to protect our protagonists, or themselves, or just make everything overly dramatic.  When the drama becomes a battle between the moms or the mom and children for what is best.  Like You're the Best, Lee Soon Shin, which I watched for Jo Jung Suk who was barely in it, which isn't really about Lee Soon Shin but her mothers.  Every single mother in the entire show was annoying and made me want to scream.

Moms are an important part of dramas, because moms are super important in real life.  But what I love and want to celebrate now is those mothers who actually made the dramas better.  Sometimes, they are the best part of the dramas, or at least so enjoyable to watch that they made it better.

Jung Hwan Syndrome: Why I'm Done With Love Triangles

I've never actually liked love triangles.  Why would I like that level of uncertainty in a show that I came to see a romance in?  Love triangles aren't romance, they are lame.  I suppose I tolerated them as a necessary evil in all K-dramas, but there are different types of love triangles.

The kind that is most tolerable for me is the one where even though there is a second male lead, you know that he never really had a chance and that he really isn't an issue, but is a bit annoying or makes the male lead actually act instead of being a scaredy cat bum or whatever.  The type I hate the most is the one who for some reason gets way too much screen time and makes the love story plot weak and disconnected.  I'm all about a reasonable build and flow that makes sense and allows me to build the right kind of feels instead of last minute forcing them down my throat.  Does this make it a little formulaic?  Maybe, but at least I am seeing the romance I want blossoming.

179. Reply 1988 응답하라 1988 (2015) Korean

Lee Hyeri, Ryu Jun Yeol, Go Kyung Po, Park Bo Gum, Lee Dong Hwi

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A

Well that was a perfectly wonderful drama that fell flat on its face in the end.  Everything was wonderful until they finally did a time jump.  Then all the sudden they tried too hard to wraps things up too suddenly.  You know, the things they'd been neglecting while they spent more time on the gloriously awesome other things.  I mean neglecting all the romance in favor of family and community matters.  Don't get me wrong, I loved the family and community matters.  This show was one big neighborhood romance as opposed to a romance or love triangle.  Well that's what I thought it was until they forced it back into a love triangle husband hunt in the last few episodes.  Narratively, the romance didn't make sense.  I have no idea why they wrote it that way.  Why would they make us care about one person so much that they completely neglected building up the person who was actually going to end up married to her?  Mmmm, no.  Not okay with it.  I cared about every single character in this drama.  I was absolutely in love with Jung Bong, and Samcheonpo (Kim Sung Kyun), and Cheetah Ahjumma, and Jin Joo.  All five of the kids.  Literally everyone was compelling.  Their stories together, the little mundane things.  All of it was so good.  The only thing that wasn't good was the way they handled the romance.  It was like the battle of the 2nd male leads.  They made us care about Jung Hwan by showing us his feelings from episode 1, and then they made both him and Taek do nothing... for the rest of the series.  We never knew what Deok Sun was thinking.  She ended up being an impressionable girl who married the only guy who ever actually did something, after 6 years of doing nothing because the writers are lame, and we never knew what she was feeling the whole time.  I might have given this show a 9 or a 10 if the ending hadn't been so lame, but that really leaves the last impression, doesn't it?  I was actually so angry at the way they played so mercilessly with my emotions that I didn't even want to finish episode 19, and if it wasn't for Jung Bong's scenes being next I probably wouldn't have.  They literally spent so much time making me hurt for Jung Hwan that I literally didn't care about anything else.  That's just messed up.  Literally the only good thing that happened after the time jump to 94 was Sseuregi Oppa.  The end.  They needed to balance the romance with the neighborhood love so we actually have time to care about the couple.  We needed to see the couple grow, not have their love force fed to us in the last two episodes.  Like, they literally rammed it down our throats in such a way that even if I was team Taek I wouldn't have been satisfied.  Like seriously no.  Very badly done.  Narratively, it was a huge slap to the face to all characters involved.  I mean, Cheetah Ahjumma going through menopause was more compelling than the love story, and that is a fact.  So the ending gets a 1 or a 2.  The rest of the series gets a 9 or a 10 (because they made me love them) so that evens out to a 7 or 8.  Since I want to be generous and try to not let the bad aftertaste taint how fun the rest of the show was, I will make it an 8, but that is being very generous on my part.  (She's not even sitting next to him in this poster!)