[2023 Year in Review] K-drama: My reignited first love story

by Guest Beanie

By: @gadis

As a drama year, I started 2023 with a doom portent. It might sound like an exaggeration, but how else would you describe a year of drama adventure that was opened by a face palm-inducing show like The Heavenly Idol? I will spare you all the long rant about why this series could have been ridiculously fun with just a little tweak and a bit more common sense. Sufficed to say that I blame the dramaland drought in that early months (and also my temporarily misplaced good judgment) for making an idol drama with a pontifex lead sound like my idea of fun.

It was the understatement of the year to say that by the end of The Heavenly Idol, I was ready to take a break from dramaland. Overflowing offerings combined with overall mediocre reviews only further convinced me of my decision. It would be a very long break if not for the multiple posts of Beanies gushing over My Perfect Stranger that I accidentally saw. Kim Dong-wook, Jin Ki-joo, and my nearly blind love for time travel story. What could go wrong with that perfect combo?

Nothing, apparently. Nothing but the very fact of how tame it was. How not thrilling the drama was despite all the mystery and red herrings and rising body counts that happened throughout the show. Two perfectly lovely leads went through (expectedly) unexpected revelations about their tragic family histories. They then faced the age-old question in every time-slip story ever: whether they would meddle to get a happier resolution, knowing that it would indelibly change a lot of people’s lives. My Perfect Stranger felt like a comfort food to me: a perfectly good story that was just a little bit unpredictable, a common premise about righting the past wrongs, and unsurprising messages. It was nice and familiar, and that’s about it.

I realized then that maybe after more than a decade, K-dramaland has lost its charm for me. It was a bittersweet realization to have right when K-drama reached its peak popularity in the last few years and I saw waves of new fans flocking in to rejoice in their recent discoveries.

Nothing caught my attention for months, and I found myself filling my free time with more K-pop variety content instead… until September brought me my favorite variety show PD back with his fresh survival show The Devil’s Plan. I jumped in without any preparation, which is uncharacteristic of me these days. I didn’t even peek into the list of cast, or try to find out about the “survival” that went on there. Needless to say, the show stole my heart and ran with it. It was the most thrilling journey of self-discovery I’ve watched this year, complete with sprinkles of brilliant wit and strategies. By the time they announced the winner, I was hungry for more emotional roller coaster feels that only the best fiction could give me.

In the luckiest timing ever, Twinkling Watermelon came crashing with its pop color, four impulsive teenage leads, and the very familiar time-slip plot. I was ready for the insightful exploration, given the writer’s thoughtful past projects and the premise of finding out about one’s parents’ youthful stories. What I didn’t expect was the blast of emotion it led me through as our leads formed a school band and discovered their love for music, made unexpected friends, fell in love, and grew up together in the midst of laughter and tears and difficult decisions.

This youth drama reminded me of what K-drama does best: hitting me right in the feels and making me live in the moment, instead of worrying about the next misstep it might make. I was never happier than to have my expectation of an unsatisfactory ending dispelled so neatly by a writer who has the gumption to stick to her original message. In a drama that revolved around correcting past mistakes, it was a powerful moment to show that one doesn’t need to “undo” their disability to get a chance at a happy ending.

Like a reignited first love, Twinkling Watermelon restarted my K-drama journey as the year rolled to an end. I didn’t necessarily search for the most thoughtful story out there anymore. I believed those deep messages would eventually follow me as I hunted for the next wild premise that made me dive in purely out of curiosity — be it a fantastical high-stakes romance like My Demon, or the elaborate and tastefully done suicide prevention campaign that masqueraded as the equally high-stakes thriller Death’s Game.

People say first love is a source of silly mistakes. That’s why I refuse to worry over the endings of the currently-airing dramas I’m watching. Even if these dramas ended up in a crash, it’s only going to fuel this old flame to burn even brighter in anticipation for next year’s adventure.

 
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