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18 signs you are in a drama slump


 

  1. You have a dozen dramas that are sitting unfinished with just one more hour left to watch, which somehow feels like five hours too many.
     
  2. You’ve forgotten your password on all your streaming site accounts and can’t be bothered to reset it.
     
  3. You’ve forgotten your username on your streaming site accounts. Going through the effort to find it is, naturally, out of the question.
     
  4. That drama you’ve been excited to watch for months is finally here. But you just… can’t… press that play button.
     

  5.  

  6. I mean, it’s there, it would be the easiest thing to press a button, but committing to “play” feels insurmountable because that action would mean something, it would have Implications, of time commitments and mental energy and caring about fiction and that feels like a fate worse than death by a million paper cuts right now.
     
  7. You see that your thoughts are veering dramatic, but you can’t feel the drama in them because drama is dead. Nothing matters now or will matter ever again. We’re all just meat sacks trudging toward our sell-by dates. Lee Jong-seok holds one-tenth of the appeal he did last year.
     
  8. Maybe one-tenth is enough, you think. There is some appeal still alive. But… then you remember Suzy. Minus five appeals.
     

  9.  

  10. Nothing, as in the actual concept of nothingness, feels like a concrete and burdensome presence in your life, rather than the absence of Something. You sit there doing Nothing, staring off into Nothing, thinking Nothing. You consider maybe watching a drama, but decide that it wouldn’t be worth disrupting this big pile of Nothing you’re working on right now.
     
  11. You decide that maybe a good old-fashioned favorite series would be more emotionally satisfying and less mentally taxing. You look through the shortlist, and then the longlist, and then make ten more lists, until you realize you’re just stalling life with lists. (META.)
     
  12. Fine, old favorites are out. Maybe it’s prime time to finally catch old dramas that never got watched in the first place. Then you ask yourself, “If I passed up Padam Padam ten times already, why should an eleventh time be different?” And that seems like the wisest thought you’ve had all day. You return to your state of torpor and gummy bears.
     

  13.  

  14. You remember how you used to love to read. Books are what stories did before television killed our attention spans! Two pages in, you realize that your attention span wasn’t spared in the cathode-ray massacre, because what are you, special? You reach for the remote control again, even though we just did this and it was futile, remember?
     
  15. Lather, rinse, repeat.
     
  16. Oh god, am stuck in a time loop. I could literally die of boredom right now. Or in twenty loops from now. It would be the same thing.
     
  17. You figure even if you can’t commit an hour to watch a show, you can read a recap so at least you’re still following the show. Two paragraphs in, you remember that attention span thing you just realized one bullet point (and two, and three) ago. Maybe the massacre also got short-term memory.
     

  18.  

  19. Determined to watch something, anything, you scroll through all the titles of all the shows that seem even the tiniest bit interesting. After spending more time trying to decide what to force yourself to watch than it would have been to just watch that damn episode in the first place, you give up. You turn off the lights and go to bed early like an old person, because oblivion seems more appealing than entertainment.
     
  20. You realize that dramas were once so important to you that you carved out all this space and time for them in your life, this emptiness which now mocks you. Clubbed in the head with your own punishment stick, you are the creator of your own misery. This is not the most depressing thought you’ve had today.
     
  21. You go out to dinner with your parents, who ask for your expert opinion on what dramas they should be watching, and find yourself saying, “I dunno, maybe you should consider watching less television?”
     
  22. But despite everything, you retain a vague, if distant, hope/feeling/inclination that you’ll find that lovin’ feelin’ again someday, and there will come along a show that will seem sparkly and shiny, and dramas will be worth it again. Because you’re in a slump, not dead.
     

Somebody save me from myself.

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I think it is harder for me to be in a slump now that my cable provider has like 5channels offering Korean content from dramas,entertainment shows and movies. But I only have 24hrs In a day of which more than half is for working,sleeping and #reallife. This means I have recorded shows frm my cable channels left unwatched like Woman Of Dignity and Good Wife. #powerladies shows does not pull a lady.

But those I do follow will follow them religiously albeit on the weekend catch up.#friendsarewhoandrelationshipsare what.

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I watched football and Motogp instead of drama. I start to follow top league European. But it might be due to the quality of recent drama. I start to watch old drama I've never seen like evasive agency enquiry and I quit from kdrama slump immediately.

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The slump is real.

I've started so many dramas this year and given up on them half-way: Man to Man, Suspicious Partner, Bride of Habaek, Live Up to Your Name. I finished Man to Man, but couldn't be bothered to finish the rest.

They promise so much, but end up something else altogether. The Dumbness Factor is a major reason why I can't finish all the dramas I've started this year. Characters act in ways that confound the human mind. It takes immense patience and the suspension of logic to watch a drama to its entirety, and unfortunately, I don't have either.

I have resorted to rewatching old dramas - Winter Sonata, Stairway to Heaven, Beautiful Days, My Lovely Samsoon. Winter Sonata is just lovely, and sad and Stairway to Heaven evoked remembered pain and made me cry. Beautiful Days left me unmoved...I remember being so affected by it when I watched it years ago....while My Lovely Samsoon was funny but I didn't feel the urge to finish it, unlike before.

But old dramas last only for a while, and after that, I decided to watch US movies. I watched a slew of movies I had not watched before: special mention to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo: haunting and so hard to watch in parts. Then I started on the TV shows: Timeless, Anne with an E, and now, Reign. Reign is getting annoying, and I'm only on the third episode, but the guy playing Francis is so cute I have to keep watching.

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Existentialism in deed. Everything speaks to me on a spiritual level. I haven't properly watched a drama for months, and being the resident "kdrama-expert" at work, whenever people ask me for drama recommendation it feels like a little part of me dies inside whenever i have to say "I haven't watched any kdramas lately".

I tried to "cure" the slump by watching C-dramas but halfway through the series can't help but compare it to K-dramas, and how it would be executed differently if it was remade by Korea.

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Agree with you 100% about comparing the C to the K dramas! After princess agents for like 2 walks you would hear a mumble if you passed me at work, the grocery store, the doctor's office "this would have been done differently if it were a K drama" mostly referring to pace & ending. No spoilers, not a bad show but let's just say that after that show I made my family promise that when we win the lottery part of our winnings would go towards a Proper Korean remake......a girl can dream 🤤

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I've officially been in a Kdrama slump for 4 weeks now... Not long by any account, but I'm hoping I snap out of it sooner rather than later.

As always, javabeans' writing is such a pleasure to read! Can you and Girlfriday do some of your "dialogue" posts, where you are basically having an online conversation with one another?? I've requested them so many times, and, and...am still waiting!

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A podcast of 'Tis the Slump Season' would be great.

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Oh my goodness, @javabeans, this is also exactly how I feel. I have a lot of dramas to watch/finish, but I can’t bring myself to go back to them right now. Neither am I compelled to start anything new. It’s been quite a while since there’s a nice drama that has caught my interest (this year, actually. Nothing really exciting)! Revolutionary Love looks promising, and maybe I’ll give While You Were Sleeping a try… but this period was so unlike last year, when dramas were coming at us left and right (MDBC, KBJ, Goblin, etc).

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Oh gawd, this is so funny but so real. When drama slump hits, I turn to variety shows. And vice versa. But I fear the day when I hit double slumps. *shudders* (Maybe I'll have my life back when that happens. Maybe.)

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1: Strong Woman Do Bong Soon, Hwarang, Heartstrings (for me it was probably 2 eps left but I just couldn't be bothered 😭)
Now, currently having massive withdrawal symptoms after Live Up To Your Name ended last Sunday 💔 While You Were Sleeping is supposed to help cure it but somehow ep 2 was a bit iffy so hoping it will be better this week. Same goes for Temperature of Love, I love both leads but somehow I cannot make myself watch the drama (sigh). Currently, watching I Live Alone and Live Up To Your Name clips on YouTube just because 😅

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Live Up to Your Name!! ❤❤❤

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Javabeans absolutely diagnosed my problem. I've been wondering for a month as to why I am no longer interested in dramas despite the stellar cast, intricate plot, dreamy cinematofraphy and what not.
PS: I decided to register at DB after 3 years despite being an avid reader just to comment on this article.

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You're so right, jb !

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TOTALLY FEELING THE LIST. I've been watching dramas for close to 10 years, and yes, slumps do happen once in a while. I have a FOMO feelings but thank god there is nobody around me who watches drama as keenly as I am, so I am not tempted to watch any of those trending series. It's just when I browsed through dramabeans that I'm feeling that FOMO again. Sigh. But how can I steer away from dramabeans? It's so integrated in my daily browsing activity already. 😅

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Oh my god! I am not alone. This is a phase, right? It will pass, right? I will have my joy of life back, right?

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Get. Out.
Get out of my head!
Lalalalala.
Lala... La....

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24. your daughter hooks you up to BeatEVO YG app on your phone and 6 days later you are at Level 22 Manager - and practically know all the rhythms to almost every YG group recorded...

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i just noticed the tag : existentialism.

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19. You have a life to live.

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9. When you start making fictional pairing in your head because the ones that are happening doesn't make any sense. Which is exactly what I do when dramas like UF or BOTWG are out. Like I literally did this when the drama news of KRW and SSK was published some days back lol. Most of the time my biggest reason of slump is this, when I don't see the chemistry between the protagonists. So when javabeans said,

Maybe one-tenth is enough, you think. There is some appeal still alive. But… then you remember Suzy. Minus five appeals.

That's exactly my feeling. Number 8 also resonates much. Somehow the big pile of useless things that you're working on, even if you decide to take a break, the worthless show wouldn't manage to make your mood any better.
This does make me wonder though, is the Hallyu wave dying down? Like back in 2013 when I started watching kdramas, it was totally a rage, and after I finished all the lists of 20 Korean dramas you should must watch from google or the school romantic comedy Korean dramas, cohabitation dramas, flower boy series, after all that was over, and I was back with the ongoing shows, that's when the real draw began. I have felt this often, but writers don't take much time anymore to write a quality drama, or even if they do rarely, the actors are a big hot mess. I can't even count how many times this year or the year before I was disappointed with the actor choices in few popular writer's dramas. So maybe those golden era writers from the past needs to come back and start writing again. :/ Or maybe the writers are suffering from slump too, or from lack of ideas/ inspirations. I don't mind watching less dramas if the quality is higher or the end product is something that will again make me addicted to KDramas. I remember back in those days I used to make a list of dramas that actually were worthy of re-watching or like you watched this one show and you realize whoa, this is not like the other shows, this one pulls on the heartstrings and make you forget the idea of time and real life lol. I don't get that feeling anymore honestly lol. Now it's mostly pretty and fluff, but the inner content is missing, I don't remember any show in the recent years that is rewatch worthy. So there, maybe like Hollywood the era of KDramas will end one day too. Though the prospect of that happening terrorizes me but, everything comes to an end and maybe our beloved KDramas are not past that either.😕🙁

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This is so me right now.

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I can't forget HI and YK. Live up to your name is daebak!
ps: won't watch anything after this.

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Me after reading a couple of points: Oh its nice it matches my mood, I'll just write a "I'm in a slump too" in the comments. \^.^/

Me halfway through: OMG this is gold! Should I print this out, & hang it in my room(?) (lol) #relatable

Me after reading the whole post: Is @javabeans a ninja? or a psychic? or a true philosopher? Or maybe she's a bit of everything?! OR is she a super advanced alien???? Coz she knows it all o.o

And finally, Me after reading the comments : is every beanie here related to everyone else? Are we soulmates destined to find each other at DB??? Or are we all clones??? \O.O/ How does everyone's opinion match in perfect sync???? how??????

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The gummy bears... I was just consuming gummy bears while I ponder my kdrama options.

😅😅😅

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I like the: using list to stall life, haha, am guilty of that too. Actually I think it has to do with age, am feeling it too, after watching kdrama for so many years since the pioneer shows of Autumn in my heart and Dae Jung Geum, kdrama has started to lose abit of glitter for me. I think partly there are too many being churn out now and that damn life shoot system are not helping with quality control. That said, I did enjoyed Live Up to Your Name, which is my The drama of the year. I think it is all part of ageing, am starting to fancy the idea of watching family dramas...lol

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Aww, sorry to hear about the drama slump @javabeans and many of our fellow Beanies are going through.

Here's to hoping that things get better soon.

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My recent drama slump was just last month..Watching Criminal Minds feels like I'm stuck in a limbo so I dropped it. I had a serious case of SLS in Reunited Worlds and stopped in the middle knowing it would end bad anyway. I had nothing else to watch. It was fascinating that what reeled me back to being a drama-loving sleep-deprived human is the Chinese Drama My Mr Mermaid.A drama so cute and fluffy I don't even have the time to think with all the cuteness and swimming competitions going on. I guess I just needed something to perk me up with all those corruption going around kdramaland.It got boring when they're less interesting than Secret Forest.

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Hang in there @javabeans. ☺ it is hard when your hobby, also becoming your job. It sucks the fun out of it. Take a vacation, go to place where no internet connection, or just do nothing, just watching the cloud or feeling the wind or the hear the sound of it. It is okay to not to watch drama, or not to write about them. No body is dying, life goes on. We are still here when you'll decide to come back. Aja! Sending you much love.

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♥ this so much

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