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Conversations with kdramas, part 1
Aug. 3rd, 2009 01:12 amI have started going through the kdramas available at Drama Fever. Pretty much, I’m planning to at least every one that sounds like something I could like, and every one that I remember people liking.
The hangup is that, while historical kdramas are my favorite kind of dorama, the more popular, trendy modern kdramas and I don’t get along well. There are a couple I love and a decent number I like, but I bounce hard off of most of them, and after the complete travesty of me and Goong, I realized that if I didn’t like it fairly early in the first episode, I’d be much happier moving on. On the list of “Things Megan Doesn’t Care For In Her Fiction,” the following rank pretty high: the vilification of family, the portrayal of women as unable to move on from past relationships, and stories that result in women standing to the side, probably crying, most likely hurt, while a guy works through his issues and angst. These are, of course, very popular kdrama tropes. Kdramas also have a habit of placing the heroines financially, legally, or professionally under the heroes’ power or in his debt, and I tend to be uncomfortable with that.
Of that 8 dramas I checked out, there are 2 I fully intend to watch more of, 1 I might watch more of, and one that might have had a better chance if, about the time the hero randomly took off his shirt in the name of fanservice, I hasn’t remembered that this was a pseudo-incest stepsiblings drama and fled in terror. (Which is an odd reaction for a heterosexual woman to have when an attractive man on her screen takes off his shirt, but there you have it.)
( proceed )
The hangup is that, while historical kdramas are my favorite kind of dorama, the more popular, trendy modern kdramas and I don’t get along well. There are a couple I love and a decent number I like, but I bounce hard off of most of them, and after the complete travesty of me and Goong, I realized that if I didn’t like it fairly early in the first episode, I’d be much happier moving on. On the list of “Things Megan Doesn’t Care For In Her Fiction,” the following rank pretty high: the vilification of family, the portrayal of women as unable to move on from past relationships, and stories that result in women standing to the side, probably crying, most likely hurt, while a guy works through his issues and angst. These are, of course, very popular kdrama tropes. Kdramas also have a habit of placing the heroines financially, legally, or professionally under the heroes’ power or in his debt, and I tend to be uncomfortable with that.
Of that 8 dramas I checked out, there are 2 I fully intend to watch more of, 1 I might watch more of, and one that might have had a better chance if, about the time the hero randomly took off his shirt in the name of fanservice, I hasn’t remembered that this was a pseudo-incest stepsiblings drama and fled in terror. (Which is an odd reaction for a heterosexual woman to have when an attractive man on her screen takes off his shirt, but there you have it.)
( proceed )
