Sakura of DOOM

This year was a strange TV year for me. I feel like I mostly stopped being enthusiastic about American dramas; a large part of this was because of my falling out with Heroes. While I did start watching a few new shows this year, I'm not head-over-heels in love with any of them yet, at least not in the same way I have been obsessing about kdramas.

2007 will probably also go down as the year I got sucked into Asian dramas. I managed to resist for about eight years, too, and then that little thing called Coffee Prince came along...

No spoilers in any of the below; please use <span style="color:#333,background:#333">spoiler text</span> for any spoilers in the comments.

Shows that didn't work for me

( The Collector )

( Ugly Betty )

( Dr. Who )

The only reason Heroes isn't on this list is because 2007 included some of the great S1 episodes.

Shows that I'm watching but not excited about

( Scrubs )

( Dead Like Me )

( Heroes )

( Life )

( Blood Ties )

( Fantasy Couple )

( Snow Queen )

Shows that I'm very excited about!

( Homicide: Life on the Street )

( Spooks/MI-5 )

( Pushing Daisies )

( Avatar: the Last Airbender )

( So You Think You Can Dance )

( Nobuta wo Produce )

( My Name Is Kim Sam Soon )

And now, my very favorite shows of the year! It's cheating a little, because I'm not done with either yet, but I am so filled with squee!

( Damo )

( Coffee Prince )

Huh, looking at all this, I did watch a lot this year. It just didn't feel like it, because for most of the year, I was hopping from show to show to show. I didn't fall into kdramas until Thanksgiving, but wow, I fell hard.

This started out as a fairly standard-feeling drama, but the last few episodes have actually been pretty good, even in terms of gender dynamics. I mean, it is by no means close to feminist, but it also does not have me wanting to bury my head in the sand and go "lalala." Most of this is because Sam Soon has really come into her own. She doesn't let anyone walk over her, though she continues to feel what she feels, and she sticks with her own morals and beliefs the whole way through. I really like her a lot. Also, it helps that every single time I scream something at the screen, Sam Soon basically ends up saying it or doing it. Yay! Too bad the other characters won't follow my advice.

Spoil me and die!

( Spoilers! )

This is the most of any kdrama I have watched! (I am only up to ep. 4 of Coffee Prince, though I keep meaning to finish.)

Kim Sam Soon is a pastry chef. On Christmas Eve (a big day for romance in Korea, I think?), she finds her boyfriend of three years has been cheating on her. Fast forward a year, and she ends up becoming the pastry chef for the restaurant Bon Appetit, run by young Hyun Jin Hun (his parents own a hotel chain). Jin Hun is, however, still obsessed with a girl named Hee Jin, and then there's a cute Korean-American named Henry Kim who gets thrown into the mix.

Kim Sam Soon's apparently the Bridget Jones of Korea; the descriptions of the show on sites describe her as "chubby" and "middle aged." She's 30 and skinnier than me, but still, at least she's 30. And Jin Hun is 27! The actress was also 30 while playing the part, and the guy who plays Jin Hun was 23 at the time.

So far, I am enjoying the wacky hijinks, the food porn (not enough!), and the way Kim Sam Soon yells at everyone. She has the same reactions I would have in many situations, which is a relief, because everyone else in the show is definitely from a kdrama. Also, Jin Hun gets whapped on the head a lot by his mom. This amuses me.

From this and Coffee Prince, I have now learned the following about kdramas (please let me know if I'm wrong! I am totally making this up):

• Love is best expressed via piggy-back rides. I vaguely remember rilina mentioning that this was a part of Korean wedding ceremonies?


• Tragic misunderstandings are good. Tragic misunderstandings brought about by the complete failure of people to tell the truth or say what they mean to are even better.


• Why have a love triangle when you can have even more complex shapes?


• Your childhood love will leave your for three years and never tell you why and expect you to understand this.


• The heroine must come from a poor background.


• The hero must be insanely rich.


• The old love interest will be the childhood love of the hero.


• The hero must have an overbearing mother who whaps him a lot.


• The heroine has an annoying sister.


• Everyone finds true love by getting into the restaurant business.


• If you ever hug someone of the opposite sex, your beloved will walk in on you.


• The best way to the hero's heart is to fall down clumsily in front of him, or to engage in other such embarrassing activities. If he smiles a teeny bit and hides it under immediate gruffness, you win!

I alas don't include Damo in here because I suspect historical kdramas are a different beast all together. Except the part about the love triangles, and possibly with additional swordfighting.

Please no spoilers in the comments! I'll post something with spoilers later.

Links:
- shewhohashope's write ups
- rilina's write ups