tvN Korean Dramas

Oh my goodness. There is a new favorite in town. Move over everyone else, tvN network is awesome and I really hope they are here to stay.

I like Korean dramas, otherwise known as KDramas, but after a while the ridiculous naivete, the hand grabbing, and the absolute disregard of the woman and for the woman in relationship setting was disturbing. Oh and the frozen face kisses and never hugging back. It was just simply too absurd. There is a reason It Started With a Kiss and My Name is Kim Sam Soon will always have a space in my heart.

So I watched I Need Romance and I LOVED IT!!!! I wanted to find the entire cast and follow their works, it was that good. Did it pass the Bechdel test, where women are in a scene talking about something other than men? I'm not sure. And that is unfortunate and it is such a good and mature drama. You have women being their own agency and making their own decisions for themselves, whether it is to try again and be hurt or to forgive and forget and move on. You have women deciding for themselves whether to kiss...I never realized just how big a deal this was much less to have sex. So I watched all three series and I am so glad.

Then I saw Dating, not Marriage. In addition to seeing actors I had been denying myself the pleasure of watching, my kdrama mind was blown. Every single thing was perfect, my goodness I have never seen a much more perfect drama. The writing was beautiful, the acting excellent, the every single thing, the subtle things, the major things, all were perfection. And there was actually characterization here not stereotypes.

And then came Queen In-Hyun's Man. From the first episode alone, I knew I was going to love this. I love well-developed characters and the true test of that is with the antagonist. It is not enough to make someone the bad guy, there must be a reason. Why are they the bad guy? There is always a reason. The leads were just amazing.

And the granddaddy of them all, the drama that was not centered on a romantic plot, the drama of all dramas Misaeng. This drama had my life and gave it back. I could only watch an episode a day because it was just too good. First is the casting. I am not used to kdramas having non-skinny/non-muscled actors playing a non-comedic role. Having the chubby coworker with the curly hair in the role he played was as groundbreaking as having a chubby Kim Sun-ah in My Name is Kim Sam-Soon. It was that important. And the way the drama was shot...the camera work was orgasmic. It was absolutely creative and beautiful. Then the female characters and their clothes and positions....sahn!!!!! You have a brilliant female working with a bunch of prejudiced men and she kept at it and was strong for herself, not strong to prove a point. I got to see the life of the salaryman and there were other languages other than English. So yes, this drama is not for the lighthearted, and I appreciated that it did not rely on a romantic crutch.

I just finished Heart to Heart and again I bow for tvN. You guys must have recruited the noisemakers, troublemakers, and outcasts from the other networks because you guys did not play! We finally have couples addressing matters in a mature manner. We have characters who are vulnerable and honest with their emotions. We saw the same in Marriage not Dating. We see complex characters not that saccharine syrupy nonsense, and there is actual relevance to real life. They misunderstand and resolve matters. They talk and deal with issues. They address their expectations of each other and sex is not some sacred subject that gets pushed aside. You guys did you research and now you have spoiled me for all dramas.

I await that collaboration with Nigerian film industry, and while we are at it let's have Chimamanda Adichie collaborate on a script eh?