Fell down a rabbit hole... May stay here a while...
I have discovered the most delicious, addictive, story-telling crack I've experienced in... ever? What the hell, I'm still deep in the throws of passionate love so I'll embrace the hyperbole... BEST. STUFF. EVAH!! :D
I should start at the beginning. I don't remember who turned me onto Tiger and Bunny, (flist? fandom-secrets?), but that's where it started. (Oh. Hah! That actually works well with my title... damn, I'm clever. *g*) I introduced the show to my husband, we marathoned it (so much fun!) and then, we followed the thread. Hulu offers quite a lot of anime and we dipped into a few random shows. I began one rather forgettable anime and that's when the hole opened up. Hulu advertises. And one of it's methods is to say, "98% of viewers also like this!" The ensuing trailer enticed me into to a brand new world of story-telling. And I was gone.
Korean Dramas, people. Where have they been hiding all my life? (Korea. *rimshot*) A little while back I chatted about my favorite forms of story-telling, and how tv series tend to suffer from lack of arc because there's rarely a planned for ending. THAT IS NOT TRUE WITH K-DRAMAS!! It's like a smorgasbord of miniseries and even at its most crack-tastic, because you know there will be an end, kidnappings and amnesia plots are more fun than frustrating. :D So totally awesome!
I've been watching shows with the fervor of the newly converted and I knew I had it bad when I hunted down recap sites to get a better sense of some of the tropes and cultural views. (For example, piggyback rides are a thing.) I've mainlined five shows now and, in an effort to discipline myself (and also not lose complete touch with LJ... apparently there was a DDOS attack?), I shall share the shows and my thoughts below. :)
Hilariously, (or maybe understandably?), the show that pulled me in is probably the worst of the bunch. Boy before Flowers is like high-fructose corn-syrup. You can't get enough of it and the squee is high and then you get a little woozy and then you feel a little ill. But I think it was exactly that over-the-topness that made it so addictive for me. All laws of basic human behavior (and also, I suspect, physics) are broken in the name of drama and I could not. Stop. WATCHING! I blame Lee Min Ho.
And then I followed him to Preferred Taste. (Which was another sign of my smitten-ness, because I had to actually seek that show outside of my familiar Hulu hunting grounds.) This one I rather adore. It's a quieter drama with much more realistic characters, a good sense of humor, and an incredibly hot kiss somewhere around the midpoint. (Warning: The plot swings around whether or not one of the characters is gay. This leads to discussions that get translated as, "Are you a real man?". Which is offensive, but is apparently more a translation issue than an actual dialog issue.)
Actor-love pretty much cemented, I followed Lee Min Ho to City Hunter. Which hit so many story-kinks of mine! All sorts of delicious daddy-issues and main character suffering and heroic last stands... I full on sobbed during some parts. It was so awesome! :D But also the end of Lee Min Ho vehicles. :(
So I followed another Boys before Flowers guy into Playful Kiss. This was a fluffy little thing with amazing supporting characters (the mom was hilarious, and the father/daughter relationship incredibly sweet) and a main couple that... okay, I know I shouldn't have, but I really did end up loving. Cotton candy, but made with real sugar so no nasty after-taste. (Actually -- there's a handful of "after the series" vignettes on YouTube that were kind of adorable -- sort of a Korean I love Lucy.)
Then I struck out even more on my own and landed in the wonderfulness that is Sungkyunkwan Scandal. Oh my gosh, the goodness of this drama! It takes place in 18th century Korea and there's a girl pretending to be a boy and a motley group banding together to become unlikely friends and possibly change history and school days shenanigans mixed in with kingdom-shaking plots and... seriously when I wasn't giggling I was swooning, and when I wasn't sighing I was full out bawling like a child. This might be a case of "last seen, most loved", but at the moment, I adore this drama a ton.
The wonderful (and terrifying!) thing is I'm just getting started. There is so much lovely goodness around me I could seriously stay lost for weeks more. It's probably not helping that I'm going through a mild existential crisis at the moment (as you do) and am eager for anything to escape into. So... I think I'll probably post as I watch? I don't know. We'll see if I'm able. In the meantime though... that's what I've been up to! :D
I should start at the beginning. I don't remember who turned me onto Tiger and Bunny, (flist? fandom-secrets?), but that's where it started. (Oh. Hah! That actually works well with my title... damn, I'm clever. *g*) I introduced the show to my husband, we marathoned it (so much fun!) and then, we followed the thread. Hulu offers quite a lot of anime and we dipped into a few random shows. I began one rather forgettable anime and that's when the hole opened up. Hulu advertises. And one of it's methods is to say, "98% of viewers also like this!" The ensuing trailer enticed me into to a brand new world of story-telling. And I was gone.
Korean Dramas, people. Where have they been hiding all my life? (Korea. *rimshot*) A little while back I chatted about my favorite forms of story-telling, and how tv series tend to suffer from lack of arc because there's rarely a planned for ending. THAT IS NOT TRUE WITH K-DRAMAS!! It's like a smorgasbord of miniseries and even at its most crack-tastic, because you know there will be an end, kidnappings and amnesia plots are more fun than frustrating. :D So totally awesome!
I've been watching shows with the fervor of the newly converted and I knew I had it bad when I hunted down recap sites to get a better sense of some of the tropes and cultural views. (For example, piggyback rides are a thing.) I've mainlined five shows now and, in an effort to discipline myself (and also not lose complete touch with LJ... apparently there was a DDOS attack?), I shall share the shows and my thoughts below. :)
Hilariously, (or maybe understandably?), the show that pulled me in is probably the worst of the bunch. Boy before Flowers is like high-fructose corn-syrup. You can't get enough of it and the squee is high and then you get a little woozy and then you feel a little ill. But I think it was exactly that over-the-topness that made it so addictive for me. All laws of basic human behavior (and also, I suspect, physics) are broken in the name of drama and I could not. Stop. WATCHING! I blame Lee Min Ho.
And then I followed him to Preferred Taste. (Which was another sign of my smitten-ness, because I had to actually seek that show outside of my familiar Hulu hunting grounds.) This one I rather adore. It's a quieter drama with much more realistic characters, a good sense of humor, and an incredibly hot kiss somewhere around the midpoint. (Warning: The plot swings around whether or not one of the characters is gay. This leads to discussions that get translated as, "Are you a real man?". Which is offensive, but is apparently more a translation issue than an actual dialog issue.)
Actor-love pretty much cemented, I followed Lee Min Ho to City Hunter. Which hit so many story-kinks of mine! All sorts of delicious daddy-issues and main character suffering and heroic last stands... I full on sobbed during some parts. It was so awesome! :D But also the end of Lee Min Ho vehicles. :(
So I followed another Boys before Flowers guy into Playful Kiss. This was a fluffy little thing with amazing supporting characters (the mom was hilarious, and the father/daughter relationship incredibly sweet) and a main couple that... okay, I know I shouldn't have, but I really did end up loving. Cotton candy, but made with real sugar so no nasty after-taste. (Actually -- there's a handful of "after the series" vignettes on YouTube that were kind of adorable -- sort of a Korean I love Lucy.)
Then I struck out even more on my own and landed in the wonderfulness that is Sungkyunkwan Scandal. Oh my gosh, the goodness of this drama! It takes place in 18th century Korea and there's a girl pretending to be a boy and a motley group banding together to become unlikely friends and possibly change history and school days shenanigans mixed in with kingdom-shaking plots and... seriously when I wasn't giggling I was swooning, and when I wasn't sighing I was full out bawling like a child. This might be a case of "last seen, most loved", but at the moment, I adore this drama a ton.
The wonderful (and terrifying!) thing is I'm just getting started. There is so much lovely goodness around me I could seriously stay lost for weeks more. It's probably not helping that I'm going through a mild existential crisis at the moment (as you do) and am eager for anything to escape into. So... I think I'll probably post as I watch? I don't know. We'll see if I'm able. In the meantime though... that's what I've been up to! :D