Big Disappointment

Well, the title says it all, really.  I stuck through to the bitter end.  Let me be clear, this was no Mary Stayed Out All Night level of suckitude, but I really expected more out of the Hong Sisters. 

You know what this felt like?  As though they had written up notes for the characters and plotlines but something happened and they had to pull in a ghost writer.  Because it just did not feel like their show.  It was just...off.  I don't blame them for trying something new, but it didn't work and I hope that going forward there were lessons learned from this.  A lot of people thought Best Love/Greatest Love was just...too much (Not me! But people. Out there.  In the interwebs.) Maybe they responded to that criticism by pulling back too much. 

Let's face it, Gong Yoo is awesome but he can't carry the weight of the entire show.  But darn he was cute. 

So onward and upward.  I wrapped up Protect the Boss.  I can recommend that drama for people who are just looking for something pleasant.  There's not a lot of angst and the characters are really likeable. It was a nice change and I'm glad I watched it.

Right now I'm all about Faith and Haeundae Lovers and am heavily drawn to Arang and the Magistrate. My schedule will probably be ramping up again soon so I just don't know if I have the time.  So many dramas... 

What Are You Watching?

I haven't posted in a while.  Real life has gotten in the way and I am seriously behind on my dramas.  Queen In-hyun's Man/The Queen and I is seriously tempting me to start.  Crazy!  I can't even manage to watch the dramas already on my list. But how can I resist the drama that caused the infamous Fan Meeting to End All Fan Meetings?    I need a day that I can do some serious marathoning. 


Big is a lot of fun, if not the cracktastic rollercoaster ride you normally see from the Hong Sisters.  Admittedly, a lot of the time it coasts on Gong Yoo's charisma and abs.  I Do, I Do I'm really enjoying, even though I don't get the romantic pay off there that I get from Big.  Protect the Boss I'm really lagging on and I'm still too traumatized by King 2 Hearts to pick City Hunter back up again. 


How about you guys?  What are you watching?

Too. Many. Dramas.

I'm watching 5 dramas.  Drama overload.  There aren't enough hours in the day.  


City Hunter I haven't watched since a certain event in King2Hearts because the drama is hurtling toward its endgame and I'm still traumatized from K2H.  If anything bad happens I can't take it.  So rom-coms it is! I'll come back to it because it's really good but I've got to be ready for it. 


Protect the Boss I'm really enjoying, but it's been spinning its wheels the last couple of episodes so I picked up Full House thinking I wasn't going to watch anything currently airing and I wanted to see something a little more old school. 


Foolish, foolish Penny.


I already posted about I Do, I Do.  I've been totally sucked in because I want to see how the drama between the A and B female leads plays out.


And then there is Big.  I was feeling some ambivalence but it's the Hong Sisters and Gong Yoo so it's not like I could stay away.  Plus I really liked Lee Min-jung in Boys Over Flowers (She played Ha Jae-kyung.  Am I the only person who was upset that she didn't get the guy?  I actually liked Ha Jae Kyung more than Geum Jan-di and thought that Lee Min-ho had a ton more chemistry with Lee Min-jung than Ku Hye-sun. But that's another story...) Anyway....Gong Yoo is killing me playing a teenage boy (*waves hands* "Whatever!") and his post army body is....killing me in a completely different way.


(Dear Gong Yoo,
I'm sorry for objectifying you.  I know it is wrong.  But the army was very, very good to you.  And everyone else.  The end.


Love, 
Penny)


So, yeah, it's Drama City around here.  Sigh!  Can you tell I'm really, really happy?


P.S.  We need to talk about the person responsible for Rain's wardrobe in Full House.

Protect the Boss (through episode 8)

Okay, I admit it.  My first impression of Protect the Boss as a Secret Garden knock-off was wrong, wrong wrong.  There are some similarities but what really matters is how it all plays out and this is definitely its own show.  


Spoilers after the jump...

Protect the Boss

Okay, whatever reservations I had are gone.  The story has got me hook, line and sinker.  This is mostly thanks to No Eun-seol.  She's awesome and she doesn't take any guff.  Sweet and tough heroine? I am so there. Show, please, please stay this good.  I'm on episode 6 so things could still derail.  I'm looking at you, Lie to Me.

Protect the Boss

I've just started this one.  I'm on episode 3 and I've got to say that the workplace drama scenario is really working for me.  I particularly find that the heroine, Eun-seol, is one that I can readily identify with.  She doesn't have the best background or education, but she's trying to make her way and carve out a career in spite of not really having solid goals beyond "get a good job" "pay the bills".  Like I said, easily identifiable.


I'm not loving the hero, Ji-heon, quite as much. He comes of as a bit of a  Joo-won/Secret Garden  retread, albeit more childish and even more neurotic (did not think that was possible).  The drama seems to have a lot of heart, though and I'm looking forward to where it's taking me.  The two leads don't have as much chemistry as I'd like, but what they do have I'm enjoying.


It's a good balance against the darkness of City Hunter, at any rate.

Poll: What's Next?

It's that time again:  I'm looking for my next drama fix.  I put up a poll with the dramas I'm thinking about so please vote or leave a comment to give me suggestions.  


Hong Gil Dong - Looks like a lot of fun and it also looks like a good place to start with sageuk dramas.  I haven't watched a sageuk yet, so a fusion drama seems like a nice way to dip my toe in.


Rooftop Prince - It seems fluffy and light, which is a good balance to King2Hearts and City Hunter. Also, I kind of want to check it out because it's got great buzz and the current ratings bloodbath between King2Hearts, Equator Man and Rooftop Prince leaves me curious. Even though it's currently running there are only a couple of weeks left so I have plenty of time to get through the early episodes and still not run into an episode gap.


My Girl - 1. Hong Sisters  2. Lee Dong-wook.  And not necessarily in that order.


Protect the Boss - I hear it has a strong female lead and we all know how I love that.

What's Next?

I have one episode left of You're Beautiful.  So sad!  It's hard to find a drama that delivers so consistently.


At any rate, 3 dramas at a time is just about my max.  The King 2 Hearts makes it easy because it's currently running, so that's just two episodes per week.  I usually prefer to wait until the entire series is subbed, but it sucked me in with its yummy goodness. That leaves me with My Girlfriend is a Gumiho.  I'm loving that drama, but I've reached episode 8.  Right around episode 8 tends to be the tipping point for angst in many of the dramas I've seen, so it's nice to have another drama to turn too when the angsting gets to be too much.


This is kind of long, so my choices are behind the jump: