Top 5 2017 Dramas

Top 5 

2017 Dramas

Can you believe that 2018 is almost half gone already? I sure can’t- it seemed to just fly by. In regards to my K-Drama watching, I feel like I’ve watched significantly fewer dramas this year than I had at this point last year. Is it because I’m spending more time at work? Have the 2018 dramas just not been striking my fancy? Have I actually been *gasp* socialising?! Who knows. But the fact is that my K-Drama watching has unfortunately taken a bit of a dive, so let’s take a look at best dramas that came out of last year (ie- the year I watched an exuberant amount of K-Dramas). You can check out my Top 5 2015 Dramas here and 2016 Dramas here.

5: Because This Life is My First

This drama was an unexpected winner for a lot of people. It had an interesting and unique way of looking at life and love, and gave us two leads that were about as different from usual rom-com leads as you can get. A girl who isn’t desperately seeking love or a career? A guy who isn’t either the perfect male or a complete tsundere? Unheard of. Rather than showing the heart-pounding moments of falling in love, the show focused on the small and simple way the characters fell for each other and how they had to learn to accept and live with each others’ more complicated personality traits. The leading couple were complimented by two other unique and interesting couples who had complications of their own. The cast were all brilliant without a single weak link, and they truly made their characters endearing and easy to watch. While the ending of this drama did lose it a few points, it remains an interesting and utterly engaging show.

4: While You Were Sleeping

Well to start with- Lee Jong Suk, Jung Hae In, Lee Sang Yeob. On a more serious note, the plot for this drama was totally riveting. The heroine can see the future in her dreams and gets into one of the cutest love-triangles. Each new mystery was engaging and helped to further develop the main plot line. The show was very good at hitting very emotional beats without ever feeling like it was trying to make you weep. The acting was exceptional all round (except for poor Suzy who was a bit outclassed). The plot was generally pretty fast paced, and managed to sneak in a fair amount of comedy which prevented the drama from ever becoming too dark. As a result the show was meaty but fun, and very enjoyable.

3: The Lonely Shining Goblin

Not my favourite drama by a long shot, but it was bound to make a splash. It was Gong Yoo first drama since 2012 so people were obviously to tune in. The huge budget behind this drama definitely made it feel like more of a cinematic experience than most dramas, and it was so amazingly pretty to look at, with wonderful CGI. The main love line was sweet, though a little angst-filled for my taste, but the second leads absolutely dominated with charming characters, astounding actors, and a heartbreakingly bitter-sweet story. The fantasy element of the show was continued strongly throughout, and the world building that went into the story was detailed and interesting to uncover. 

2: Circle

I find it rare to come across K-Dramas where the mystery aspect is actually extremely intriguing and…well…mysterious. Something about the length of time that dramas run for somehow seems to make it hard for writers to hold onto their secrets for exactly the right amount of time. ‘Circle’ instantly grabbed me as it was so unpredictable and had a such a strong mystery at its core. Each episode unveiled something new, so it never felt like the plot was at a standstill, but the more we uncovered the more dangerous and confusing it seemed to become. Happily, the drama also managed to bring pretty much all of its lose ends together to form a satisfactory conclusion, and answered most of the questions the plot presented along the way. The acting in this drama was absolutely phenomenal, with Yeo Jin Goo giving what I think might be his most dynamic performance to date.

1: 7 Day Queen

I love dramas that can make me cry, mainly because there are so few that can. I often read comments of people saying that certain scenes made them sob and I’m left feeling completely confused as to why and how. ‘7 Day Queen’ made me weep. It was so beautiful and so sad, and was the true embodiment of a tragic love. No matter how hard the characters tried to make things work in their favour there were always too many obstacles in their way. And unlike most K-Dramas, these obstacles were actually extremely dangerous. Such as our hero getting hamstrung. The villain was an absolute standout as he was so twisted, but also extremely vulnerable. It was hard (in a good way) to watch him enter his downward spiral, and impossible to fathom a way for him to get out of it. The visuals were absolutely breathtaking, and the acting was all excellent- particularly from our broken King.

What were your favourite dramas from 2017?

While You Were Sleeping

While You Were Sleeping

7/10

While You Were Sleeping

Genre:                            Episodes: 16                           Year: 2017

Romance

Fantasy

Synopsis:

Nam Hong Joo has dreams about the future while she is asleep, and these dreams always come true no matter how hard she tries to prevent them. Hong Joo meets Jung Jae Chan, a man who was able to prevent one of her dreams from coming true.

Cast:

Lee Jong Suk (Jung Jae Chan)

Bae Suzy (Nam Hong Joo)

Jung Hae In (Han Woo Tak)

Lee Sang Yeob (Lee Yoo Bum)

Kim Won Hae (Choi Dam Dong)

Ko Sung Hee (Shin Hee Min)

Shin Jae Ha (Jung Seung Won)

Min Sung Wook (Lee Ji Kwang)

Bae Hye Sun (Son Woo Joo)

Lee Ki Young (Park Dae Young)

General Thoughts:

There’s a lot that this drama does very well, and it pulls all its best elements together to formulate an interesting and enjoyable show. Sure, there were aspects of the show that could have been done better, but as a whole the series was pretty successful.

The beginnings of a great trio

While not my favourite of Park Hye Ryun’s works (there’s also ‘Page Turner’, ‘Pinocchio’, ‘I Hear Your Voice’ and more), this writer has a wonderful way of making characters really pop. While the story always moved at a good pace, and each different case was interesting in its own way, it was the characters that made this drama feel a bit more special than others.

While I love when he plays cool guys, I also love when he gets to make faces like this

Park Hye Ryun has worked with both of these leads before (and Lee Jong Suk twice), so it didn’t come as a big surprise that the characters and the actors suited each other really well. In my opinion, Lee Jong Suk is best when he’s cutely dorky with a dash of raw emotion thrown in- which is exactly how he was here. He shone in every scene he was in, and I think the writer’s thorough understanding of Lee Jong Suk’s strengths (does he have any weaknesses though?) made not only the character of Jae Chan stand out, but also Lee Jong Suk himself. I was a little less convinced with Suzy’s acting performance this time around, which is weird because I find her pretty okay in most things while others find her terrible, but this time when I think she’s not great everyone else thinks she’s done well.

Not amazing, not terrible

Anyway, I digress. There wasn’t exactly a particular type of emotion that Suzy struggled with, it was just that occasionally in a scene I could really feel Suzy acting, rather than only seeing the character. However, there were also times Suzy did really well. I loved her more goofy, weird moments, and she really sold that Hong Joo was a bit of an oddball- particularly at the start of the show during the leads’ initial interactions. Speaking of the leads interactions, I think I must be one of the only people who didn’t buy the chemistry between Suzy and Lee Jong Suk.

I am (surprisingly) not feelin' it

Most of the time I didn’t really 100% believe their relationship, and a lot of their cute moments felt scripted rather than natural. It's not to say that there weren’t some genuine, lovely moments between the leads, but those other moments where the chemistry was weaker was enough to have me lose a little interest in their love line.

Kim Soo Hyun X 2PM's Junho = The perfect face (aka- Jung Hae In)

Our second male lead, Jung Hae In, has just become one of my new favourite K-Drama faces. Not only is that boy ridiculously handsome (seriously, 100% my style), but he can act too! Despite my undying love for Lee Jong Suk, I was occasionally smacked with a bit of Second Male Lead Syndrome. It’s not that I wanted Hong Joo to ditch Jae Chan and date the gorgeous policeman, but Jung Hae In sold his one-sided crush in such a heartbreakingly believable way that I kind of wanted it to become real for him. And yet, a lot of the charm of the character was the way Woo Tak was content to like Hong Joo secretly while watching her be happy with Jae Chan. Seriously K-Drama, these are the second leads we love- endearing and sweet and generous without any brooding jealousy. The Dragon Club were a delightful bunch and I always loved their interactions with each other, especially as the drama focused on some smaller moments of how their friendship grew (my personal favourite being the all-inclusive breakfasts). I almost wished we’d had more scenes of the three of them together, as they had an interesting dynamic when it was the three of them that was completely different to how they acted in one-on-one situations.

Dragon Club, fighting!

Outside of our three main leads, I really adored Shin Jae Ha as our hero’s younger brother. The two had great chemistry together (dare I say more than what the leads had), and the scenes that the two shared often turned out to be some of the funniest in the whole show.

Spin off season starring the Jung brothers, please?

The two really nailed the bickering but loving dynamic and made for one adorable pair. Lee Sang Yeob did well as our villain, even if it did kind of feel like he was the only lawyer in the whole of Korea. I was surprised that I could dislike Yoo Bum's character so quickly after loving Lee Sang Yeob so much in his last role. He totally brought the bad guy vibes in less of an evil way, and more of a slimy, cunning way, which kind of made a nice change from our usual straight-up evil villains. For the side characters, the constant cameo parade was much appreciated. While it’s nice to have new actors and actresses getting smaller roles, sometimes it's also nice to have more experienced actors completely dominate the smaller characters. I adored Kim So Hyun so much (and she was in a love line with Shin Jae Ha!), and I kind of wished she’d been a permanent cast member. Each side character added a whole lot of depth to the show, and helped the story progress smoothly and not feel too strictly episodic despite the rather procedural format.

Kim So Hyun can totally star in the spin off season too

The show itself was shot beautifully and there were a whole lot of scenes that were just incredibly stunning. There was usually a pretty clear distinction between what was dream and what was was reality due to a slight change in the lighting or clarity of a scene, which helped the drama as a whole be a lot less confusing. 

What Was Great:

Story Progression:

With a lot of K-Dramas you can very clearly see the episode plans and how the writer introduces and then concludes conflicts.

From side character to major plot point

One thing that ‘While You Were Sleeping’ absolutely nailed was the way it introduced new characters that would bring new conflicts with them. The writer never waited until the previous issue had been resolved to bring in a new case-of-the-day, but often introduced new characters as extras in previous conflicts. It gave a sense of unity to the series and made it feel as though all the characters were really living in the same community. It also prevented these side characters from feeling like they were simply being thrown in for conflict’s sake. The barista and her murderous brother had been in the show as extras for quite some time before their main story arc was introduced. As our heroine had already had something to do with the barista and was her acquaintance, it made Hong Joo’s willingness to try and prevent one of her disaster dreams more believable. It’s got to be hard seeing something awful happen to someone you don’t know, but it’s got to be even harder seeing it happen to the sweet girl who serves you coffee every morning.

I'm so unaccustomed to Kang Ki Young being scary

It was a similar story with Myung Dae Goo. He was introduced to us in a previous case through Seung Won, so it felt completely natural that he would ask his new friend for help with his father’s case, and thus lead us to our final conflict. The way characters came in and out of the main spotlight was absolutely perfect and made the show feel really seamless.

We started and finished with the same antagonist

Not only did this flow give the show a smoothness and consistency, but it also encouraged confidence in the writer and how the final conflicts would wrap up- as it was clear that the writer had meticulously thought things through.

Young Cop:

What an impactful storyline. Despite being a character that was only really introduced as someone important later on in the series, Choi Dam Dong was a character that brought a whole heap of emotional weight.

He grew on me gradually until I loved him completely

I’m glad I can get Kim Won Hae’s acting from ‘Strong Woman’ out of my brain and view him as a serious actor again, because boy did he give it his all here. The character of the young policeman was often used for different purposes, but always added layers and depth to our main leads.

What a twisty twist

Whether he was offering our young hero words of advice or causing our heroine to question her capacity for darkness, he was always providing an intricate backstory for our characters and was a large part of what made them into the justice-seeking people they were. I also applaud the show for his final reveal. I had no idea that Choi Dam Dong was going to turn out to be the young policeman. None whatsoever. I was almost expecting them to introduce a whole new character as our grown up policeman. And Woo Tak was a pretty good ploy to add to Dam Dong’s cover. As Hong Joo and Jae Chan’s fathers were both killed by the runaway soldier, I automatically assumed that Woo Tak would have something to do with the soldier too (like Woo Tak was the youngest brother or something), and thus I ruled out Dam Dong as having any connection with the soldier at all because Woo Tak didn’t know him. It was an error on my part, but one I was happy to make as it made Chief Choi’s reveal that much more dramatic. I loved that he was also having dreams about Jae Chan and Hong Joo (not to mention it fit in with the theory of being saved=dreams) and that it had always been his goal to protect them.

Chief Choi is basically the best constructed character in the show

And this drama is the perfect example of how to execute a character death. Chief Choi had revealed himself to Jae Chan and they had ample time to reunite and bond over their shared history. They got the emotional reconciliation that I was dying to see, and they were able to look at each other for who they were and truly cherish each other.

TEARS

While the cause of death is a bit off-kilter (Yoo Bum just went crazy?) the death scene itself is perfect. It felt like Jae Chan returned to the child he used to be when he was around Chief Choi, and it was extremely evident in that scene. His grief and regret were all so plain, but it was Chief Choi’s happiness at being able to spend so much time with Jae Chan that made the moment really beautiful- even if it meant his death, Chief Choi would always seek out Jae Chan so that he could be his mentor and his friend, and would always be there to support him. Despite dreaming of his death, upon waking up Dam Dong’s first thought is to live well so that he can find and take care of Jae Chan in the future. He was such a pure-hearted character, and the show was so much better off for having him. I also appreciated that the show threw in a bit of commentary as to why Chief Choi didn’t just avoid his death if he’d seen it in his dream. The red leaf he’d seen had led him to think that he would die in autumn, which he didn’t, so it made complete sense that he was unprepared for his death at a different time.

A small but absolutely necessary piece of information

Despite this seeming like a small point, I actually think my take on Chief Choi’s death would have been very different if I had even the slightest belief that he could have avoided it. He was a perfect character from start to finish (even before we knew he was the policeman from the past), and his death was handled so perfectly.

What Wasn’t:

Where’d All Them Dreams Go?:

Not too long after the drama gets itself going, the idea of the predictive dreams kind of falls off the table. Originally it seemed as though changing the dreams was going to have some big effect on our characters, but that idea never really got explored.

Beyond the first few episodes, the future dreams were rather unimportant to the plot

In fact, rather than being an interesting fantasy element, the dreams just became convenient plot devices that were used to get our characters into action, or more often allowed for a quick save. Rather than being a mysterious and unknown entity, these dreams fairly rapidly became the only reason why our leads weren’t dead.

I mean, it's not like they're going to kill of one of the leads anyway

Beyond showing Jae Chan a vision of Hong Joo in a threatening situation (or Jae Chan for Woo Tak), the dreams actually did nothing. We rarely saw Hong Joo have dreams about anyone other than Jae Chan anymore, and so rather than upping the intensity of the series, the dreams instead only became a convenient way for the characters to know the others were in trouble. Which is a bit of a let down. I also didn’t really understand why the dreams stopped. It seemed to me that after solving the case involving Yoo Bum, Hong Joo (and thus I assume the boys as well) stopped having future visions. The drama didn’t explain at all why the dreams suddenly stopped, and I was kind of a bit disappointed that the main tie between our Dragon Club was dropped so quickly, unexpectedly, and so easily. 

Recommend?

Yeah. The drama itself is pretty good, but I feel like it’s one of those dramas that’s going to just get more and more popular, and pretty soon everyone will have seen it. And you just can’t be the only person who hasn't seen it.

There is much less sleeping than the title suggests