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grrrlsoverdramas · 2 years

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2021 Wrap Up, pt.1: 2021 Dramas I Most Enjoyed Watching

Run On

Watching this live with all of fandom and my dash got me through winter remote teaching to say the least. I suffered for most of the rest of the year due to an utter lack of comparable synergy in any of the other (k)drama live-watching experiences I had. Of course, the show was objectively well written and produced, and picking apart a drama only really works when it’s good. But also, the tone/thesis/pace nurtured positivity and joy and shared experience, and welcomed critical examinations of media and society while maintaining a light and entertaining mood. Really one for the ages!

Hospital Playlist 2

I really love Hospital Playlist because it is exactly what it thinks it is, a feel-good heart-warming blanket. It’s also over-sentimental, tear-mongering, intellectually unchallenging, and full of fan service. But it does all its cliches well and builds genuinely loveable characters. It’s a lot like Ted Lasso in that it just makes you feel as though people care for one another! And they do! I’ve watched this show for the past two years with my parents, sometimes in person, sometimes over zoom while we can’t see each other because Covid makes it too risky. We enjoy it in part because my sister is a doctor and since she’s usually too busy to watch anything with us we feel like she’s there too. A real strength of the show is that it never abandoned its case-of-the-week nature, which is why it stayed just this side of slow and stayed healthily away from being too heavy.

Bad Buddy

I’ve also really enjoyed this as a fandom experience, and I have a friend in reallife who loves it as well, which is a rarity for me. And I’m so glad I learned of Soon Vijarn because watching a show along with its creator and their friends is truly a gift. It’s even made me love product placement scenes because I feel “in” on the joke. Seeing p’Aof respond to criticisms is also so interesting. Whilethe bare bones of this show aren’t revolutionary (it’s just a university y-series in the end…), it doesn’t feel like a tropey, surfacey y-series, or like a y-series trying too hard to be a lakorn (yes this is a subtweet). Instead, it’s a well-acted romcom with honesty and layers that make it feel real. I’m not really sure the genre can do better.

Welcome Back Mone/Okaeri Mone

What a real joy! This show was so lovely and I will definitely watch it again. It had a lot of what I loved about Just Between Lovers: a show dealing with sociocultural fallout of a (real or modeled-on-real) national disaster and thinking deeply about how this would affect different people, being honest about the human failures and feelings of shame/guilt, etc. While slice-of-life is not out of the ordinary for jdramas, I usually have difficulty investing in jdramas of this type, but the Asadora-pacing of the show, the background story, the way it was so easy to believe and care about Mone’s traumas and motivations, but it was also about many little moments.... All of it was easy to watch. Mone was such a wonderful character to see come of age, but I also LOVED her sister and the mountain leader, two very different characters but fully fleshed out. The many different and interesting female characters were like a breath of fresh air. Very grateful to hpriest for subbing.

Dear Diary

I watched SO many cdramas this year it is honestly embarrassing. Was I watching GOOD dramas? No, I was watching mindless fluff and half of the time hated it. A great example of some of my most psychologically unwell behavior this year, if I’m frank. Dear Diary is one of the few I watched that felt meaningful and interesting and like it was actually trying to say something and wasn’t created by an AI. It isn’t necessarily that this drama is “good” (in fact the only real way to describe it is “absurd” or “unhinged”) but it was such a good show to watch as I turned 30. Watching these characters manically go through all their baggage and fail over and over and feel things. Oof. Anyway. Episode 5 is particularly a masterpiece.

You Are My Glory

On the flip side of the cdrama coin, they’re just doing romcoms in a way that kdramas haven’t in a while. And in part it’s because cdramas are bad in a way kdramas haven’t been in a while, and, like, are good romcoms actually “good”? Because there’s nothing here really, except a hazy video game commercial. But as soon as it was done airing I rewatched it (very rare for me). I think the success of this comes down to the well-characterized webnovel it’s based on and Dilraba’s charisma. The end waned, since there’s little to no conflict, and it turned more focus to Yu Tu, but Dilraba was still able to maintain enough buoyancy and enjoyment all the way through.

There’s a Reason for the Love I’m Wearing

I don’t know why this drama jumped out at me so early as a one I should watch, but I’m glad I picked it up. It was a great drama to watch slowly as it aired. I actually felt tension about whether or not the main characters would end up together. The show balanced that really well – it would have been ok if they didn’t end up together, but that didn’t stop me from really wanting them to end up together. While the main couple’s chemistry was palpable, and I loved them together, I also loved them individually and was invested in their growth as human beings. It was also another great drama to watch when I was 29, because it was so much about just going for it, but also taking your time to get there.

Racket Boys

Would this drama be on this list if it wasn’t set in Jeollanam-do? No, probably not! But, it was, so that’s what matters. I love Jeollanam-do so much and it’s so beautiful and Jeolla accents are so sweet and wonderful. Every drama should be set in Jeollanam-do, thanks. Also, I greatly enjoyed the student dynamics. It’s been a while since there was a similar youth drama, like Queen’s Classroom, and I think this did admirably at making both realistic and likeable characters. Se-yoon’s storylines were particularly good at riding the line between dramatic and slice-of-life.

Inspector Koo

Glad I got this in at the end of the year! Lee Young-ae really went wild here and I love that for her. The chemistry between all the characters really drives the show, and while I don’t thinks its as serious of an endeavor as Run On, it’s a good bookend to the year because it has a similar charismatic ensemble comedy feel. I’m glad I was able to binge it because there are too many ~mysterious~ points that would have made me anxious (both worried about the outcome and feeling like I had to watch “on time” to avoid being spoiled or overwhelmed by fan theories) and I would have dropped it. Eminently likable and definitely a drama I will recommend to others going forward.

The Uncanny Counter

Another good bookend for the year, I really loved watching this show live at the end of 2020 into 2021. It managed to maintain its interest level by being cartoonish in the right places (the societal issues), intense in others (the really evil seeming demons), and focused on catharsis rather than making you feel sad. Then last week I recommended it to my sister and she loved it (it’s the first time she’s actually watched a drama without me forcing her to), and I loved how she felt so similarly about it!

Favorite Dramas I Watched for the First Time This Year That Didn’t Air in 2021:

Shanai Marriage Honey

The Good Detective

Honorable mention: The Untamed (I skipped a huge chunk of the flashback section of this drama. I loved the parts I watched, though!)

#kdramaedit #2021 #run on #the uncanny counter #hospital playlist #hospital playlist 2 #okaeri mone #there's a reason for the love I'm wearing #inspector koo #racket boys #you are my glory #dear diary #lists #kdramanetwork

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