Lovepark

Welcome to the fifth Lovepark End of the Year Awards: where the awards don't matter, and nobody cares!   Judges: Me (as always)   It has been years since my last "awards" post—mostly because these things take way too long to write—and while I have been watching dramas (and enjoying them immensely) in the time I haven't given out awards, there were a couple of shows this year that compelled me to recognize them in some capacity. With the influx of channels and streaming services jumping into the money pool known as Korean dramas, there are more shows being made than I can count or care to remember. The increase in supply does not always guarantee quality, and in fact, there were probably more duds than gems this year if anyone had the time or desire to watch everything that aired. While most dramas go unnoticed, a deserved few garner attention, and in some cases, created an irrevocable impact on the landscape. Without further ado...

Welcome to the second Lovepark End of the Year Award: where the awards don't matter, and nobody cares! Judges: Me (as always) NOTE: There are a couple of dramas that I've watched that weren't included, and there are a couple of dramas included that I haven't finished. Thus, while not everything is included, I did try to mention most of the dramas I enjoyed this year.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! After six years, Park Hee-soon is returning to dramaland in the up-coming SBS drama All about my Romance slated for an April, Wednesday-Thursday time slot. He'll play the second lead who helps the heroine who is a rookie politician. No confirmation about the female lead, though Han Hye-jin was cast but dropped. Lee Min-jung's name is being attached, but I hope that doesn't solidify. In the lead is Shin Ha-kyun who plays another politician who's on the opposite party of the heroine, but (obviously) they get romantically entangled and hijinks ensue. Park's management company confirmed the casting today stating that he picked the drama because the script was fun and his friendship with Shin Ha-kyun had a positive effect. I feel super happy that Park is returning to the small screen, but being second fiddle in a rom-com doesn't scream exciting or great to me. May be, just may be, he'll be ...

Hello, world! I'm going to warn you, this end of the year review is embarrassingly short because I didn't finish many dramas this year. I don't finish many dramas every year because I hardly ever finish sageuks (shame on me), don't really like Korean action-oriented dramas (i.e. Iris), and have a life outside of dramas that doesn't allow me to watch everything that is airing, unfortunately, but this year seemed especially low.   Just a heads-up, but I'm going to talk about three unfinished dramas because, though I didn't watch them in their entirety, I feel like I've watched enough where my opinion won't change. That doesn't mean they are the only dramas I didn't finish this year (hardly), and neither is this a list of all the 2011 dramas I've seen. I've seen Birdie Buddy , Athena , The Princess's Man , Man of Honor , and many others that would take up too much space and brain power to list them all. [WARNING: there will be ...

Since there was a soccer game on Tuesday, KBS decided to air episodes 1 and 2 on Monday. Brain , as the trailers and stills suggested, leans more towards heavy a la White Tower rather than lighter and more romance based a la Surgeon Bong Dal-hee . It started off slow with only a rating of 8.9% (TNmS) while its competition Thousand Day Promise and Kyebaek had 15.8% and 9.2% (TNmS) respectively. However, the ratings aren't that discrepant meaning the possibility of the rankings changing is still high.