Hey everyone!

Like what we did for the past couple of years, we’re having guest posts from the lovely folks on Patreon, to help us take stock of our drama years, yay! 🥳

We’ll be seeing about 2 guest posts per week, and this will unfold into January 2023, and that’s perfectly ok.

My annual year-in-review, which usually comes out in December, will also come out in January (or thereabouts 😅), after all the guest posts have been published.

If you missed our earlier posts, you can check them out as follows: Ele, Natalia, JJ, Sean.

Today, I’m pleased to announce that j3ffc is sharing his drama year.

Don’t be fooled by j3ffc’s trademark self-deprecating humor, you guys; the more I get to know him, the more I feel that j3ffc’s more imaginative, insightful and wise than he might want you to think.

Plus, he’s thoughtful, kind, and really funny too. Very often I find myself giggling out loud at j3ffc’s witty comments. Thank you j3ffc, for just being you. 🥰

If you missed it, I highly recommend checking out j3ffc’s dream drama post, where he took a real-life incident featured in a news article, and turned it into a kdrama for us, complete with casting picks. 🤩 You can check it out here!

I hope you guys enjoy!

~ KFG ❤️

J3ffc’s Year in Drama 2023

WHERE I STARTED AND WHERE I ENDED UP THIS YEAR

I started my first Korean drama on 2/2/2018; it was “Strong Girl Bong-soon” starring Park Bo-young (currently in “Daily Dose of Sunshine”) and Park Hyung-sik (“Soundtrack #1”).

A long-time fan of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, I dug the goofy vibe and the romcom ´ supernatural thriller genre mashup and thought I’d check out more.

My next shows were “Oh My Ghost” (also with PBY), “Age of Youth” (where a young Park Eun-bin (“Castaway Diva”) stood out in the ensemble cast – still my favorite role she’s ever done), “Descendants of the Sun” (with Song Hye-kyo, in this year’s “The Glory”), and “Let’s Eat” (starring Lee Soo-kyung, which sounds like Lee Sung-kyung, who’s in “Call It Love” and “Dr. Romantic” seasons 2 and 3).

By the time LE E 16 rolled around on Christmas eve of that year, I was a full-on K-drama enthusiast, with a bias for slice-of-life and romcom stories.

And about a year after that I stopped telling people that I liked “Korean soap operas.”

With time, I have branched out to sample all genres. I take a lot of suggestions from the KFG community here and at Patreon (come on over!) but am not immune to FOMO (“Descendants” was an early example).

I tend to watch dramas wedged in between work and family, interrupted by numerous 3-4-second naps.

I am a researcher and teacher in the US. I trained as a chemist but do lots of collaborative work with medical researchers as well.

I also work as a journal editor and write stuff (my standard line is that I write so many research proposals I’m really a science fiction writer).

So, I’m basically this guy:

MY YEAR IN DRAMA

The 2023 shows I watched were: A Time Called You | Alchemy of Souls, Part 2 | Call It Love | Castaway Diva | Crash Course in Romance | Doona! | My Lovely Liar | One Day Off | See You in My 19th Life | Silent (J-drama) | Soundtrack #1 | Strong Girl Nam-Soon | The Glory | The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House (J-drama)

And am still watching, also from this year: Daily Dose of Sunshine | Moving | Welcome to Samdal-ri

And older shows that I finished were:

Business Proposal |Romance is a Bonus Book | Cheers to Me (rewatch) | Dr. Romantic 2 | Goblin | Hospital Playlist | I Am Not a Robot (informal group watch, rewatch) | Love Like the Galaxy | Move to Heaven (group watch) | Our Beloved Summer | Soulmate |The Princess’s Man (group watch) | Uncanny Counter | Winter Sonata (group watch)

And there were movies too: 20^th Century Girl | Ajooma | Kill Bok-soon | Someday or One Day | The Revenge | The Villainess | The Witch: Subversion | The Witch: The Other One (ff-ed with eyes mostly shut).

Don’t know why I tilted so hard toward horror and violence here; maybe the bad example of Mr. Merij Lewis (yes, I am kicking a man while he’s down –  feel better soon, Merij!).

So, inspired by the truly dedicated among us, I watched a personal best of 27 full dramas this year!! That’s an increase of 450% over last year.

Unfortunately, my academic output went down by 42% as well, which is another reason I can’t talk about K-dramas at work.

On the other hand, relatively few of the shows made a strong visceral impact on me.

There were just enough innovative shows to keep me going, but then again there was a good number that I found entertaining but lacked the special feeling that I associate with my early drama-watching days.

My tastes haven’t changed that much – that’s one reason I cited actors from my formative dramas who made appearances this year. So, I tend to ascribe it to differences in writing and production.

Interestingly, during my “Goblin” watch, there was something about the melancholic feel of the show, plus its odd humor, and the fact that it starred one of the all-time K-drama great leading men, Gong Yoo, that made me feel as though it was 2018 all over again.

It would be in my top 3 if I included older shows in the group, being very much along the lines of what drew me to K-drama’s as well. As a group I enjoyed the older dramas more than the 2023 slate.

Another one that bears comment on is “Strong Girl Nam-soon”, starring Emmy winner Lee Yoo-mi, since it is a direct sequel to my first show, “Bong-soon”, same writer and all.

This time around, I could recognize the tropes, which somehow made the viewing less novel.

To its credit, while the show was still full of cringey humor, it was not as bad as the first time around and the production was much lighter on horrific stereotypes. I still watched it – had to! – but this time I recognized it for what it was.

Around Patreon, there was a lot of love for “Alchemy of Souls” and, oh-my-goodness for “Love Like the Galaxy”. I did enjoy “Alchemy” quite a bit but the mythology got the best of me at times. I’ll let Seo Yul speak for me here:

And while I do appreciate the Pretty and Epic-ocity and Sheer Godforsaken Length of C-dramas, I really do, but am not quite on the train with the outpouring of love for, well, “Love.”

It kept my attention, I did enjoy the story and cast (especially thought that Zhao Lusi made for an awesomely spunky heroine), but never did get to the point where I was emotionally invested in the show.

And when it, ended, I got all Peggy Lee about it.

But I’ll take another running start at one – inspired by Ele’s wonderful post – and who knows? Maybe someday my inner Wuxia Fanboy will come pouring out.

DRAMAS OF THE YEAR 

1. Call It Love
2. The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House
3. One Day Off

Of these, CIL is the only traditional K-drama in my top three, but it hit all of the buttons for me.

A great cast, slice of life presentation, and just enough humor to leaven a serious story about revenge and forgiveness.

I enjoyed the family interplay and, with only a few minor missteps, thought that the characters were believable as real people (this show has by far the most reasonable version of noble idiocy that I can remember).

The production values were great as well, especially in terms of the lighting design. I even loved the opening credits.

The other two are on the list not because I think they were over-the-top brilliant but just because, well, I liked them.

“Makanai” was lovely and comforting, which I wasn’t expecting given the subject matter (maikos are Kyoto geishas in training). In addition, I’m a sucker for food-focused stories.

And I’m making a mini-pitch for “One Day Off”, which scratched my art-house itch, with an understated performance by Lee Na-young, who was also winning in “Romance is a Bonus Book”.

It’s an anthology show with no real plot but felt great on grey Sunday afternoons with a cuppa Joe in hand. One can find many worse ways of using 25 minutes than watching Episode 5, which plays perfectly as standalone short story.

ACTORS OF THE YEAR

Lee Sung-kyung | Han Suk-kyu

I’m selecting co-actors of the year for diametrically opposed reasons.

First up is Lee Sung-kyung, has done terrific work as a comic or mixed genre actor for years (I first saw her in “Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo”).

This year, her work as the distressed “part-timer” in “Call It Love” just brought another set of layers to her palette and, in my mind, elevated her to a new level of accomplishment. It was a subtle and complex role.

In the meantime, she hadn’t missed a beat in more mainstream fare, exemplified by her continuing role in the “Dr. Romantic” series as an ambitious but squeamish OR doc. I look forward to what she does in the future.

I am always impressed when people play away from type and do it well.

Other veteran actors had comparable success this year, such as Song Hye-kyo, who leveraged her ice-queen persona effectively in “The Glory”.

And I liked “Doona!”, its ending!, and Suzy’s! terrific performance in the title role (coming as it did off of her triumph in last year’s “New York State of Mind”).

And Park Bo-young is well on her way to doing something comparable in “Daily Dose of Sunshine” (I’m only on E6 as of this writing.).

I’m no less impressed by Han Suk-kyu’s opposite but nonetheless rare feat in K-dramaland, to be a franchise anchor as Kim-sabu – “Dr. Romantic” himself.

He has created a character that is familiar as can be (sort of a mashup between House, Doc Martin, maybe a bit of Hawkeye Pierce in there) but nonetheless all his own (“okay!”).

We can argue about the wisdom of sequels in K-dramas (I don’t love them) but that doesn’t diminish Actor Han’s accomplishment over the last few years.

SUPPORTING ACTORS OF THE YEAR

Kim Joo-hun | Kaho

Kim Joo-hun is now officially the industry’s go-to guy for a drama adversary with depth and charisma, having played three versions of this character type in “Dr. Romantic”, “Castaway Diva”, and “Soundtrack #1”.

For my money, a “villain” who is sympathetic and complex beats the moustache-twirling type anytime (although Byeon Woo-seok in “Strong Girl Nam Soon” certainly appealed to the female fan contingent and had a pretty good backstory to fill out his Resume of Evil).

So what of KJH’s characters? He is great at what he does and has risen to the top of whatever industry he is in.

One can see why: he’s a workaholic, highly ambitious, and willing to do what is necessary to succeed.

Where does that drive come from? Partly from the burden of talent, one supposes, and partly due to some past trauma? Perhaps he comes from a poor background. Perhaps he has had problems with public transportation. We don’t know, really.

And while he is not above using people to achieve his aims, he is transparent about his plans and motives and rarely treats his competitors poorly.

He has similar characteristics in his personal life, pursuing his intended affections with the same sort of strategic approach that he might apply in business.

With his Cary Grant looks, grown up wardrobe (no fuzzy Lee Min-ho “Legend of the Blue Sea” sweaters to be found here), and a keen ability to understand people (including his rivals), he is an impressive suitor.

And in at least one case, he has maintained his feelings for a woman long after the relationship seems to have ended.

Surely this guy would be a major catch in real life.

In “Silent”, Kaho plays Nana, a born-deaf friend of the ML who has been nursing a crush on him for years.

I don’t want to spoil the show for anyone who had not yet seen it (and I do recommend it highly), I’ll only say that Nana had the singlemost moving scene I saw in a drama this year.

She is another believable character – wielding snark through signing while wearing her heart on her sleeve.

Kaho has quite a distinguished resume – she was also good as a fiancée-in-denial in last year’s J-dorama “First Love” – and I would certainly pay attention to her in other roles.

(I did try the movie “Tokyo Vampire Hotel” but checked out after about 10 minutes. Just. Too. Much.)

SPECIAL EXISTENTIAL ANGST SUPPORTING ACTOR AWARD

All of the Losers in K-dramaland Love

OK, so there are many times when someone is just not right and you just move on.

On the other hand, there have been so, so many times I have wanted to shake up a K-drama lead, shouting,

“Hey! YOU! There is this magnificent person RIGHT THERE who would be perfect for you! They are fantastic! So what?! You didn’t play in the sandbox or share crayons or whatever as little kids, so you are blinded to – oh, forget about it. I see you gazing at your childhood sweetheart with puppy eyes and they aren’t even listening at this point.”

At this point, the most you can hope for these lovers unrequited is that they’ll be reincarnated as a lead sometime soon.

This is for them.

OTP OF THE YEAR

Ella and K

The concept of the OTP is baked into the form and has a rich history, with the childhood-friends-to-lovers variant being particularly prevalent in K-dramaland. And that’s fine.

But while this story form was new(ish) when “Winter Sonata” fatefully appeared on the scene, I just wish we’d have a bit of genuine romantic tension from time to time.

Consider the somersaults that the “Reply [Insert year here]” went through to accomplish just that. It doesn’t have to be that hard, writers.

But when it happens in real life…sigh. All cynicism melts away, and it’s unexpected and soulful and life-affirming.

Thanks to Ella for sharing her story and most sincere wishes to her and K as they create their own life soundtrack.

RAZZIE OF THE YEAR

No Award Given

While there were plenty of missteps and missed opportunities in dramas this year, there was no show that stood out as representing a huge disappointment.

I would ding a few shows for starting out strong and then fading (I’m looking at you, “Crash Course in Romance” and “My Lovely Liar”), but that pretty much comes with the territory.

If anything, I’d like to see shows taking bigger chances and failing than playing it safe, which is how most of 2023 played out.

BEST WISHES FOR 2023

I would like to acknowledge kfangurl for her outstanding work again this challenging year…best of luck to you as you continue to create and reinvent this community.

I am especially grateful for having the opportunity to step on the big stage and share my “thoughts.”

And thanks as well to the fabulous Verdict and Patreon contributors for their camaraderie and drama insights.

Best wishes to all for a 2024 filled with only the right kinds of drama.

~j3ffc