Year-In-Review

Patreon Year End Awards: Trent’s Year In Dramas!

| kfangurl

In case you missed it, we’re doing something special and different to end off the drama year this year! Guests posts, by patrons on Patreon!

You can read more details, and check out Shahz’s inaugural post, here, and JJ‘s post here!

After today’s post, there will be three more guest posts by mystery guest writers, whose identities will be revealed when their various posts go live. And then we’ll cap everything off with a poll, where you’ll be able to pick YOUR favorites for the year, from among the gems identified in these posts. How exciting! 🤩

..But, wait! Didn’t I already say, last time, that there would be three more..? Heh. Very sharp spotting there! Basically, one more mystery guest writer has volunteered to share their picks for 2021, woot! 🥳

Today’s post is brought to you by Trent, who manages to watch way more drama than I do! While I don’t think that Trent’s taste in dramas is identical to mine, we’ve had similar reactions to so many shows (most recently, Dali and the Cocky Prince 😉), that I tend to take a little extra notice when he recommends a show, coz the chances are pretty good, that I might like it too.

Trent’s got soo many nominees in all the various categories today, that I thought this image, of a sea of awards, fit this post quite perfectly.. I imagine that if Trent could, he’d give out many more awards than he’s given out today, heh. 😁 Thanks lots, Trent, for sharing your drama year with us!!

You might also like to check out Trent’s blog, where he writes more drama thoughts!

I hope you guys enjoy!

~ KFG ❤️

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Patreon Year End Awards: JJ’s Year In Dramas!

| kfangurl

If you didn’t already know, we’re doing something special and different to end off the drama year this year! Guests posts, by patrons on Patreon!

You can read more details, and check out Shahz’s inaugural post, here.

After today’s post, there will be three more guest posts by mystery guest writers, whose identities will be revealed when their various posts go live. And then we’ll cap everything off with a poll, where you’ll be able to pick YOUR favorites for the year, from among the gems identified in these posts. How exciting! 🤩

For those of you who’re keeping track of numbers, yes, this means that one of the guest posts isn’t happening after all. However! That same mystery guest writer has offered to bring us a thematic musings post, next month, so you can look forward to that instead!

Today’s post is brought to you by none other than JJ, who’s also known as Shahz’s bestie around these parts. 😉 And if you didn’t already know, you’ll soon find out from reading this post, that JJ’s got lots of love to give, and is effortlessly effusive about it – which is why I picked this picture below, for her post. 😁 Thanks for doing this, JJ!

I hope you guys enjoy!

~ KFG ❤️

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Patreon Year End Awards: Shahz’s Year In Dramas!

| kfangurl

Tis the season for talking about our drama years, and this year, well, we’ve got an unexpected bonus for everyone!

Basically, over on the Drama Exchange on Patreon, I saw that Shahz had floated a cool idea to the community: that everyone come up with their own year-end lists, to complement my annual Year-In-Review post (which will still publish as usual, in case you were wondering!). She even came up with a bunch of categories for everyone to work with, and everybody was pretty buzzed about it.

Some days later, it suddenly occurred to me one morning, that it might be fun to invite those who are keen, to turn their year-end lists into guest posts here on the blog. I asked the community, and got lots of positive responses! Those who couldn’t commit to writing a post, were enthusiastically supportive anyway, and basically, that’s why we’re here today.

This kick-off post is by Shahz, who volunteered to go first (yay Shahz!). Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be seeing 5 more posts (yay!) by mystery guest writers from the Patreon community – whose identities will be revealed when their posts go live. Thanks for doing this, you guys! 😘

Thanks to another brilliant idea by Shahz, we’ll cap everything off with a poll (which I will announce after everyone’s guest posts have gone live), to see which dramas you guys as a community give your stamp of approval to this year!

I hope you all enjoy!!! ❤️

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Year In Review: 2020

| kfangurl

What a surreal year 2020 has turned out to be, amiright?

It’s been the year of surprises and curveballs, and I think it’s safe to say that none of us has been unaffected by the events of 2020.

As a small silver lining, with lockdowns taking place around the world, and Netflix promoting Asian dramas with unflagging enthusiasm, we’ve welcomed many new drama fans into our midst.

And, our dramas have not let us down. I mean, yes, there’ve been duds, but that’s true every year anyway, yes? 😉 I’m just happy that Dramaland has found a way to continue production while ensuring the safety of cast and crew, coz I know I’m not alone when I say that dramas have helped make 2020 better.

Now, let’s take stock of my drama year in 2020, before 2021 comes upon us!

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Year In Review: 2019

| kfangurl

It’s that time of the year again, my friends. 2020 is upon us, and 2019 is just about done and dusted. Time to take stock of the year, celebrate the highs, brush off the lows, and get ready to usher in the new year.

Can you believe that this is my 8th year-in-review post?? Imma be honest with you guys; every time I sit down to do one of these, I get visited by a touch of blogger existential crisis.

Essentially, I ask myself, “Where am I going with this? How long will I do this? Is there still.. a point to doing this?”

..And I gotta tell ya, I still don’t know the answer to those questions. What I can say, though, is, I’m still enjoying my dramas reasonably well, and I’m still game to write about ’em, and I’m grateful that you guys are still here on this journey with me. Thanks for sticking it out with me, y’all.  ❤️

And now, let me attempt to break down my 2019 drama year for ya.

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Year In Review: 2018

| kfangurl

What a year, I say.

I know I said last year that Dramaland was exploding with more dramas than ever before, but Dramaland basically outdid itself in 2018 – and then some.

You know when you have only 2 ice-cream flavors, and only room in your stomach for 1 scoop, it’s really easy to choose, but you still wish you had more flavors to choose from?

Well, it’s all fine and good when it increases to 5 flavors, or 10 flavors, right? But when it gets to like, a thousand flavors, your eyes glaze over, you get hit by decision paralysis, and it just feels impossible to choose, anymore? Same thing.

I used to try and keep up with Dramaland, especially after I started blogging. I’d try to stay on top on what dramas were airing, and which ones were good, and I’d try to watch all the reportedly good ones, because I’m a curious cat and FOMO is real, yo.

Well. I think 2018 is the year that I realized it is humanly impossible to keep up with everything that Dramaland is putting out, and there is just not enough time in one person’s world, to watch all the reportedly good ones, and take time for the ones that you wanna watch, whether anyone else is interested or not.

So 2018 is the year that I stopped trying. Uh.. Kinda.

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Year In Review: 2016

| kfangurl

If there’s one conclusion I’m drawing this year, it’s that dramaland is literally exploding with new dramas on a regular basis, and it’s just not humanly possible to watch every drama that’s out there.

My drama instinct has always been to try to balance the urge to follow drama buzz (the niggling question of, “Omo! Am I missing out on something?”), and the desire to follow my heart (the “I don’t care that nobody cares about this show, I just feel like checking it out”).

These days, with more drama offerings floating around the dramaverse than ever before, I think it’s even more important that I remember to stay true to my drama instincts.

From here on out, no more hanging on pointlessly to a show that just isn’t quite working for me. It’s just not efficient spendage of drama hours – or time in general.

Next year, I will be more efficient with my use of drama time – and time in general. Ahem. *pinky swears* *resolves*

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Year In Review: 2015

| kfangurl

I can hardly believe that 2015 is coming to a close and 2016’s almost upon us. I know I said this last year too, but seriously guys, time is flying.

Even more so when you count the year in drama milestones, or so it seems, since there are more dramas in dramaland than ever before, vying for our limited drama hours.

Everything feels like it’s flying by in a blur, and even though I’m dedicated to my dramas, it’s just not humanly possible to stay on top of everything – and that’s before taking Real Life responsibilities into account! XD

Still, I’m pleased to report that I managed to watch at least as much drama as I did last year, if not a little bit more. I’m sorta behind on the reviewing front, but I promise to catch up on that, pinky swear!

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kfangurl’s 2012 Drama Awards [Repost]

| kfangurl

So this might be the mother of all throwback posts on this blog. (Wait, this might be the only throwback post on the blog, actually!)

Basically, this post had first appeared on Stephanie’s blog Crazy for Kdrama, when she’d invited me to guest on her 2012-in-review series.

I’d been super excited, and Stephanie’s invitation basically was the catalyst that inspired me to even start this blog (you can find the blog’s origin story here).

Long story short, Crazy for Kdrama suffered from a takedown a while ago, thanks to DMCA bots, which sucked. 🙁 But, Steph’s since dusted herself off and has started over at Kchat Jjigae.

This post, though, was lost with the original blog. That’s been niggling me for a while, since this post has a special place in this blog’s history.

That, and the more OCD parts of my brain felt uncomfortable that the link to my 2012 year-in-review on the Full List page basically led to nowhere.

Happily, those same OCD parts of my brain had thought to save my original draft somewhere, so it wasn’t all that hard to reproduce the post here.

So now, for old times’ sake, and for the sake of having my 2012-in-review post available somewhere, I present to you one of the earliest blog posts I ever wrote, in its pure, original state.

I’ve simply added links to reviews where available. Hope you guys enjoy the walk down memory lane with me! 🙂

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Year In Review: 2014

| kfangurl

If there’s one thing that everyone seems to be able to agree on, it’s that time is flying. Like, seriously. Where has 2014 gone?

I can hardly believe that 2015 is almost here, promising/threatening gifts of dramas chock-full of vampires, multiple personalities, and other psychological disorders goodies.

Before 2014 makes her exit, though, I wanted to come out and give credit where it’s due. Coz as much as so many of my friends in dramaland have been talking about a meh drama year, I feel like I had a pretty good drama year, actually.

I know. How did that happen, right?

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