Re: Park Shi-hoo. Word!!!! I've had The princess' man and Cheongdamdong Alice on my watchlist forever, but nope, i just can't. I tried to watch TPM for all of 5 minutes but i can't bring myself to go on. I just have to accept I won't watch anything with him in it anymore.

I've always wanted to watch some of the older sageuks like Queen Seondeok, Hwang Jin Yi, Jewel in the Palace, Dong Yi etc., as I kind of feel my kdrama experience is incomplete without them, but...
The lack of time is only an excuse, it's more like I can't MAKE myself watching them.

#'s 8 & 9 -- yes, their scandals have left scars and one can never look upon them the same...

i feel terrible for TOP/Choi Seung-hyun, however -- he is such a talented young man, but so insecure. he needs to stay out of the business, it apparently ruined him emotionally. it's a shame, as his acting was superb in 71: Into the Fire and IRIS and i will miss his resonant rapping voice in future Big Bang recordings.

@javabeans must have had this list pinned on desktop for so long and finally decided to public it.

To me, the lists of must-see that I conventionally do not think of every time I've got time:
- Signal, Misaeng: cos I'm scared of marathon them without sleep.
- Shopping king Louis: I want to watch Seo In Guk, but I'd think about Eunji and Reply 1997.
- W: I want to watch Lee Jung Suk but then the ending seems to be very controversial.
and the list goes on with other dramas and other kinds of excuses...

I'm writing this comment hoping that javabeans will see it.
Everyone goes through a drama slump. Right now I am in one and incapable of watching more than bits and pieces of Age of Youth 2 due to my short attention span but that's okay (yours is especially entertaining for us :P I will be sad when the existentialism tag dies down). But you know what? Everyone has different methods. I will neither advise you any remedies nor judge your "populistic" drama taste (but you couldn't care less anyway). Just a few *suggestions* :
1) If you have a bucket list, consider completing a few items
2) Do things you procrastinated on right away! No excuses :D
3) Create something. A picture, a song, a story
4) Go out more often
5) Watch Korean variety shows (mine changed from RM to 1N2D to KB)
6) Write down a reason to be thankful for every day
7) Mediate

As I said : those are suggestions. You don't have to follow them. Just knowing that you have at least an audience that will always have an ear for your self-ironical rants should/might be able to put a smile on your face :D It's good that you're in an existential crisis right now since this forces you to confront questions you tried to avoid before and once you find a satisfying answer to those questions and stay alive in the battle with your inner demons , you'll only get stronger :)

Have a nice day

Yay! 😄 I haven't watched any of them and I won't now 😝. Thanks javabeans, for saving me time and regret.

So this might be slightly off topic but speaking of Park Shi-hoo, how do you all support other actors you love when the drama is also featuring someone you cannot ethically stand. For example, My Golden Life, I adore most of the cast but that leading man, Shi-hoo, is something awful.

King2Hearts was a good drama and worth the time spent for certain. Yes, Lee Seung Gi's character does mature a great deal during the course of the drama. This actually is a high quality drama that will likely pull you in just as soon as you get past the early part of the drama where the prince is being so ill behaved and immature. Don't give up. :-)

Re #8. I know there are people who are able to put all that aside and simply focus on the quality of the work, but I find I can't do that, because I can't divorce myself emotionally from a person's off-screen 'scandals' (a word I hate when used in this context. it's either too big [see: idols dating] or too small [see: well, PSH]).

So I can't watch his older dramas and I can't watch his newer dramas, no matter how much a certain aspect may appeal to me (the writer of My Golden Life, for example, also wrote My Daughter Seo Young, which is one of my favourite weekend dramas buuuuut... there's that moral elephant raising its trunk again. and... well, it just feels icky [watching PSH - not the elephant.].).

I don't even know what I'm trying to say. Just... words. All the words.

I'm definitely the odd one out on this site. Healer and City Hunter. I've seen bits and pieces of both but can't commit. Top of my list... still

I haven't watched any of these though some are on my to-watch list.. Indefinitely.

If I could upload this show directly into my brain, though, I’d do it in a flash. *Nods vehemently in agreement.

Cheer up, JB! Maybe you could try learning something new. Something you have always wanted to do and be good at. Like i have always been in awe of embroidery, so when I was a little low and bored a few years back during a school vacation, i signed up for classes and it helped me a lot. Once i got better at it, i felt happy and got a sense of accomplishment. Hope this helps. Or go on a vacation. Either way, beanies are always here for you. JB, fighting! 💪

Dead dogs are sad, but I loled at that screenshot, remembering the news about how the writer was killing characters off left and right and not even the dog was spared from her 'death note' .

I often find that unless I watch a drama during airing, I usually don't pick it up again. Except for my first 2 years of watching kdramas over a decade ago, since then, I've only picked up 2 handfuls of dramas after airing has been completed. I find kdramas sort of difficult to binge sometimes. I need the week break between pairs of episodes to let the events and emotions percolate. I've started so many that I've also dropped - often promising them that I'll come right back because the drama was good so far and I feel like I need to reward its good quality. But as I get older and there is more content to be consumed than ever, I'm more okay with just dropping a drama. Every drama's got loving audience members, so it's not going to miss me.

I'm glad to see that even javabeans haven't watched everything - even ones that lots of people have watched.

Hehe, truth is we all have those dramas that we know we should watch to live up to the kdrama addict label ("it's a classic, everyone has seen it, it was a hit, it has Lee Min Ho") but we somehow cannot drag ourselves to do it. (SHE WAS PRETTY, I can't bear to hear the main actress screaming through it).

By the way, did I mention I've turned to chinese dramas for now. I am greatly amused at all the super flying effects and uber romantic confessions in General and I. I kind of want my own Chu Bei Jie now, but an incredibly handsome romantic general with killer warrior skills is not at all relevant in a discussion of how to get out of drama slump. 😂

Except for Protect the Boss which I watched and enjoy, I feel the same as Javabeans about the drama mentioned (and many more).

I feel a high degree of guilt for not finishing King 2 Heart.

Hi @saya

funny thing is, i've only watch only 3 dramas from above list, and the way i feel about the ones i haven't (on the list), is the same with javabeans.

I have also kind of been in a drama slump lately. The only show I am keeping up with to date right now is While you were sleeping. I am behind in the rest but I am slowly catching up. If you are taking recommendations Javabeans I recommend Deserving of the name. I went in not expecting much (mainly because I usually can't stand medical dramas) but I was pleasantly surprised. The leads have so much chemistry they are just adorable together. I can now say I am a fan of Kim Nam Gil.

Heee, so I'm one of those that loved King 2 Hearts a lot. Everything about that drama clicked with me. The OST was great, too! And being an SNSD fan, I appreciated the SNSD references in the drama, lol. But seriously, it's one of my all-time favorite dramas so I recommend it to those who haven't bothered to check it out. I even live watched that as it aired and I can probably count on my fingers the number of dramas I went through all that hassle for. The most recent one being Live Up to Your Name. Again, shamelessly plugging that gem of a drama to everyone!

I also really enjoyed Prosecutor Princess and Punch. Punch isn't normally my type of show but it actually kept me entertained.

As for dramas on my To-Watch List, there are honestly waaay to many for me to remember and each year I end up dropping a couple of them off my list because I can't even bother to find the motivation to check them out anymore.

Some of the ones I still "plan" (although not sure if the day will ever come) to watch / continue include: Misaeng, Signal (saw 4-5 eps but wasn't feeling it), Goblin, Princess Man, Nine, Liar Game, History of a Salaryman (tried it twice, stopped somewhere in ep. 4 or 5), Kill Me Heal Me, 9 Ends 2 Outs (attempted this twice but dropped twice since I found it slow), Weightlifting Fairy.

"Alas, I am an ordinary viewer with populist tendencies, and no longer care what people think about my taste."

- this.

My PC's Kdrama File SubFolders:

Finished Dramas - All the shows I have already watched and I have been rewatching over and over.
Ongoing Dramas - The currently airing dramas I am watching.
To Watch - Completed Dramas I am actively watching and is on my schedule to binge watch on weekends.
Pending Dramas - Basically the dramas I am planning to watch ( or have watched initially but was not able to get pass the earlier episode) when nothing else is there to watch. So, these are the "dramas I thought I’d watch if I only had time, but turns out that time was just my excuse."
So here's my list:
1. Forest of Secrets.
2. Criminal Minds.
3. Circle.
4. Signal.
5. Ruler Master of the Mask
6. The King Loves.
7. Seven Day Queen.
8. My Sassy Girl.

it may have had to do with Lee Seung-gi’s irritatingly immature character, which I found so annoying

haha same! XD I skipped through the recap to the end & realized the poor bodyguard is no more, the hero finally grew up, his bratty sis can't walk anymore....wow I was really surprised back then.

I stopped the king 2 hearts too for the same reason. I do have it loaded up and ready to go if I change my mind though.

So me!! Ugh, this drama slump is just so frustrating!

I am loving the change of pace at dramabeans and really enjoying your articles. All of us need a break sometimes and you deserve let it out in any form you want. Good Luck!

I tried to re-watch Prosecutor Princess and quickly remembered why I barely managed to get through it the first time. Kim So-Yeon made that drama impossibly unbearable.

That list is so looongggg though.... Some samples:

ManxMan- As Park Hae Jin fan, I feels bad about it but I cant just cant get my will/determination/fangirl self to finish that drama. Seriously.

DOTS - so pretty, so glittery but nah. I downloaded some cuts from that drama hoping it will lure me to watch the whole thing...still no. A for effort? Think back, Goblin is actually an exception tbh. I never finish KES's dramas since City Hall.

Strongest Deliveryman/Chicago Typewriter/School 2017 - I just dont feel like watching it?

Rebel - I watched better sageuk before

My Secret Romance - boring.

Jackpot - To busy laughing at the magical baby to care about the rest. When he grow up, I feel sad ;(

" If I could upload this show directly into my brain, though, I’d do it in a flash."

This is so relatable, for once I wanted to insert Circle's memory chip into my head and get on with all these dramas that I want to watch but couldn't get myself to do so.

King2Hearts is what made me like Lee Seunggi, but I also never got around to finishing that drama. Thanks to that show though I found out about 1n2d and fell head over heels with the first season! :D