2013 Year in a Review: Disappointments of the Year

It’s time to get the harsh critic out of me.

Each year, we get to see amazing dramas that would rock our Dramaland but we also watch dramas that made us die of frustration. You would find yourself annoyed and literally pushing yourself to watch the following episode; it may even become a pure torture at some point. At the end, you find out that you’re wasting your precious time and that you made a horrible mistake by picking that certain drama. Some of us like to express their negative opinions freely (which is quite alright btw): “Oh, so this is how it feels to watch a horrible drama?” “I want my time back!” “I want to kill the writers,” “I am finally done with this, Yay!” while others prefer to be a little optimistic: “Come on guys, I am sure it will get better next episode,” “There are still good things about this,” “there’s no need to be that harsh” but at the end of the day, only few will actually love it: “That was amazing, I want more.” As for the third category: I salute you guys so hard for being that lenient with these dramas.

Like it’s displayed on my profile; this is my exact reaction while watching these types of dramas:

In this part of the yearly review, I will introduce you the disappointments of the year. These are the dramas that were unbearable to watch and made me scratch my head. In short, they were a complete waste of time in my point of view. Just for the record, I do not drop dramas because I hate leaving things unfinished so no, I couldn’t just give up on them no matter how badly I wanted to.

Without any further delay, here are the biggest disappointments of the year categorized by country. 

South Korea:
Without even noticing it, I watched many Korean dramas this year. I was pretty lenient towards them at the beginning of 2013 so I wasn’t even picky while choosing my Kdramas but that made me encounter some huge disappointments. The worst of them all is:

Oh lord, what can I say about this drama? Even the word bad is really too little to describe how horrible it was. Yes, it was that kind of drama that almost made me go crazy of frustration!

If you read my episodes reviews about this drama, you would find out how hard it was for me to complete it or even watch it. I can swear I killed the writers many times in my head.

I wasn’t actually expecting anything from this drama, my guilty confession is that I watched it for Song Seung Hun, I needed an eye candy at the moment so I was going to forgive any type of plot and just focus on someone’s hotness but things were too messy for me to stay calm, even SSH face and body couldn’t save me from hating this. I’ve learnt my lesson; I will never watch a drama because of an eye candy. You can skin me alive if I do that ever again.


Let's leave the fangirling aside, finishing this drama was a hard challenge for me; it was a painful watch that almost made me hit my head on the table. Why? It’s because the plot was all over the place. For starters, the first episode was too packed in a way that would leave no room for other developments. The first two episodes were okay, I was joking about how hot SSH can be. The third and fourth episode were Meh but I was having faith that what will come next will be better. From the fifth episode onward, I was “Screw you drama, just finish already!”

I think what bugged me the most about this drama is the female lead indecisiveness and stupid actions. I hate people like Mi Do, people who don’t know what they want and when they want it. 



Here’s a conversation that went through my mind with her:

Me: Mi Do darling while I am being nice, pick a side already. I hate two timers. Mi Do: One is handsome and the other is cute, how do you want me to pick? Me: Just pick the one you’re most comfortable with. Mi Do: But it’s really hard, can you give me a hint? Me: You know the one that makes you laugh not the one that you act robotic around him. Mi Do: But he saved me. Me: It doesn’t matter; you don’t have to be grateful for the rest of your life. Pretending to love him isn’t going to solve anything. Mi Do: Okay, I will go with the one that makes me comfortable. Me:  Yay! *happy dance* Now, please stop acting jealous on the other one. Mi Do: But he loves me and I pity him. Me: Just stop it idiot, focus on the one you got. Mi Do: It’s true that I am scared of him but I think I love him. Me: Screw your love, are we back at it again? I thought you picked a side for crying out loud! Mi Do: Can’t I have them both? Me: *facepalm* *takes my coat* *slams the door and leaves*

This is show has the perfect combination of awful characters, while Mi Do stood on top, the others weren't any great either. We had some serious second female lead issues here, she was hateful and all what she did was showing her body around. What also didn’t help is the“supposed to be” villain for this drama, he had purple hair how do you expect me to take him seriously?


There’s too little space to describe how much this drama was awful. Let me just stop here now.

Dear Writer: I don’t want to badmouth you so I will just say that you tried to make your drama too special that you ended up ruining things way too hard. You Madam have written a disastrous story. I was thinking about watching The Equator Man but when I knew that you wrote it, I am reducing my chances to 5%
The Bright side: I swear that birth secrets which are usually not my favorites became the most appealing part of this drama. Also, SSH hotness gets 10/10 from the beginning until the end.
Reaction after finishing this: *Does a back flip* Yay! This drama is finally over! No more frustrations and painful moments.

Logic thinking: How can gender-bender lovers not watch this? That’s almost impossible!

I mainly watched this because of the gender bender since I am a fan of that theme. However, I was disappointed throughout. I am still thinking: “Why on earth did I watch that drama? Was I on drugs while picking it?”

The problem with this drama is the fact that the writers wanted to do everything and ended up with nothing: there’s gender bender, flower boys, nail art, freaking savors, gumiho, ghost, a writer, a fictional storytelling inside the story. Mix them up together and you get an unbearable hot mess. I mean how do you expect all of those themes to co-exist together?



It’s like they tried to make another Coffee Prince with a weak plot and a Nail shop instead of a coffee shop. I admit that the nail arts theme could be interesting to some people but for me, it was plain or at least not very well executed. What also bugged me off about this drama is the stupid act of heroic savors. The nail shop isn’t there to do nails but it exists to solve people’s problems. They get involved in every client’s life to make their issues go away. Like seriously? Are you sacred savors or something? I hate the cheesy unrealistic thinking of being “holy heroes,” I always disliked that theme and Nail Shop Paris’ meddling dudes exceeded all the limits.

The reason that made me watch the drama wasn’t even helping. The gender bender was seriously messed up; although girls who pretend to be boys are usually not convincing but they’re not supposed to be this obvious, I mean the girl wore lip gloss. The worst actress who did gender bender is definitely Park Gyu Ri. Moreover, the triangle was ridiculous and once again, I encountered an indecisive female lead that I wanted to choke so badly. Oh yeah, even her friend caught the “bunny two timers’ contagious disease” at some point.


And what makes it even worse is the ending which was stupid. I had to make my own theory to make myself accept the whole thing or I would’ve really gone in a rage because of that. What doesn’t help is that I watched When a Man Loves and Nail Shop Paris at the same time. Would I be exaggerating if I said that I almost took pain killers?



Dear Writer: You Madam need some serious time off to think about a good script to display. Your tries to make another Coffee Prince with supernatural elements were an epic failure.
The bright side: Flower boys! Thank the lord there’s something pleasant to look at although they were pretty bad actors so…you know what I mean.
Reaction after finishing this: Screw you bunny and your stupid story.


This was Joo Won’s follow up drama after Gaksital. I loved him in the latter so I was really looking forward to another strong performance from him. But after seeing this, I got something to say: “My dear Joo Won, you made a serious bad choice with this drama.”

At the beginning let me state that I have no hard feelings against Choi Kang Hee, I don’t care about her looks or the age difference; at least she’s a way better actress than many plastic Korean actresses out there. So heck no, I didn’t hate this drama because of her like many people who started judging the drama ever since she was announced as the female lead: “Oh no, my Joo Won doesn’t deserve someone ugly like her”; those are the harsh comments that I loathe the most. Fangirling has limits; it’s okay to express your meaningful criticism but the stupid fangirling isn’t something that I will ever tolerate.


The reason behind my disappointment in this drama is strictly the plot. For me, the screenwriting is the most important element in the drama so when that goes wrong, the rest doesn’t get a chance to redeem the whole thing. This was supposed to be based on one of my favorite Korean spy-comedy movies My Girlfriend is an Agent. I was already anxious that Joo Won wouldn’t be as funny and as entertaining as Kang Ji Hwan was and I was spot right. Joo Won is a good actor, at least way better than many flower boys but he couldn’t manage to be funny. I won’t make him or any other actor bear the blame though, it’s strictly the writers’ fault. 

This was practically the worst spy drama I ever saw. Do you mean to tell me that South Korea spies are actually that stupid? K-thrillers usually show stupid detectives and now this drama shows horrible idiot spies? If I was the head of the police or the secret agency department, I would’ve sued the writers who make us look like that. I mean the guys here can’t even hold a gun properly, are they supposed to protect the country? I would fear for South Korea if that was the reality. 

Other than that, the plot wasn’t coherent at all, I watched this while it was airing but I still felt intensive dragging and lots of slow moments with many plot deficiencies. The romance was also quite flawed, it’s not about the chemistry; it’s about the stupid push and pull and the intolerable lying.

Also, I swear I could’ve killed Seo Won’s parents; they were really annoying. Even Gil Ro’s parents weren’t any better. I was ready for massive kill at that time.

Dear Writer: You wrote My Girlfriend is an Agent for crying out loud, how can you remake it into a drama like this? If you want to remake something; you should at least leave something out of the original and please; when you write your next spy drama try to make things more believable or at least take some advices from people who work in the field.
The Bright Side: The acting was good and the concept was fine but the execution and the storytelling were just horrible.
Reaction after finishing this: Thank the Lord this is over!

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Taiwan:
I only saw three Taiwanese dramas this year and two of them were huge disappointments; I did some pretty bad choices. I thought I became immune of the Taiwanese way of dragging but I was dead wrong. After finishing these two dramas, I made a pact of giving up on Taiwanese dramas except the serious ones and I even established an “anti-rom-com” club with a friend (you’re welcome to join btw). The main reason why these dramas are considered disappointments is because of the line I always quote “Taiwanese are so professional at dragging their dramas”. So here are the dramas that played on my patience level:

As I remember correctly, I was watching too many serious dramas at the time so I decided to break the rhythm with something light and that’s where this drama stepped in. While the concept isn’t new, the drama actually had a tolerable start but it fell apart starting episode 9 or 10. 

As I mentioned above, Taiwanese like to drag their dramas but this exceeded all limits. Love Around was supposed to be 15 episodes long but they decided to extend it to 20 episodes, and then they added another one. The extensions killed it all for me. I would’ve been more merciful with it if they ended the whole thing with 15 episodes. The story doesn’t deserve that much length, believe me. I mean it could even end at 13 episodes if they weren’t trying to get more ratings or whatever. All those dragging games and the episodes’ length as well as the meaningless events made me regret the stupid moment I decided to watch this. What also didn’t help are the usual clichés that I grew tired of seeing them everywhere.


Dear Writer: Are you trying to win an award at dragging? If you do then I think you’re the first nominee alongside the writer of Just You. You guys make a freaking awesome pair.
The Bright Side: That “Come Back to me” song was the best thing that ever happened to this drama. Also the chemistry was quite great until it got ruined. George Hu is also an impressive eye candy.
Reaction after finishing this: Super happy! But I had to delay my joy until I finished Just You.

Oh well, this drama is twins with Love Around when it comes to dragging. And what makes it worse that I watched them at the same time with a week apart. I clearly remember that I was in a normal mental state when I started them so why on earth did I go into that hellish adventure? A question that’s very hard to answer.

Just You is a typical Taiwanese romantic comedy; there’s nothing special to add to the usual concept of forced living together, the jerk male lead and the airhead female lead. You know how that story goes, right? But in this case, you need to add an evil irritating second female lead, an epic game of dragging and some usual clichés. I found the drama cute until episode 8 I believe; I was biting my tongue and tolerating all the slow moments and the stupid female lead that shouts a lot. Now, that I think about it; both the character and the actress sucked so badly. However, when the second female lead came in, I lost any type of enjoyment and I was eagerly waiting for it to end. 

Unfortunately, they decided to add a one episode extension just like they did with Love Around. I swear I felt like someone was torturing me at the moment. I always despised extensions even when the drama is good so what if it’s terrible like these two? It was a total breakdown.


Dear writer: I know that this is a romantic comedy but couldn’t you come up with a fresh idea and not use all the book of clichés? You’re also such a perfect Taiwanese writer at dragging.
The Bright Side: Aaron Yan, yes he can be such a strong plus point on his own. There is also the chemistry and Dean. 
Reaction after finishing this: Everyone needs to congratulate me for all the time I wasted on this drama!

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Japan:
I like Japanese drama and I watched lots of them this year. Maybe it’s because of my preferences and the fact that Jdramas are my favorites but I didn’t actually found unacceptable disappointments except for:

“Who cares about the plot? There are vampires you know.” I am so sure that the executors of this drama had that idea as a motto while making this.

I don’t know if any of you is familiar of some Japanese silly weird shows. They produce some of them every year and I don’t usually get this harsh on them. However, Vampire Heaven is not something I would go easy on because I was failed and I felt like I was mocked on. I was anticipating this drama because of the vampire theme and the young cast of adorable actors but then, I got a silly nonsense story instead.

Let’s leave my anticipations behind, this drama was pretty random; the idea was alright but the execution was terrible. This was supposed to be a vampire drama, did it deliver? Oh no it didn’t! The vampire theme was so silly and even embarrassing. Was there romance? It was obviously forced without any chemistry. Is it funny? Even for someone who adores the Japanese sense of humor, this wasn’t hilarious.



Dear Writer: I am pretty sure you came up with a good idea but you lady needed serious help with developing your story and characters.
The bright side: It’s only 26 minutes per episode so I didn’t waste so much time and I am so glad that Honda Tsubasa, Omasa Aya and Hiraoka Yuta were the main leads for this. At least, I got good actors and something pretty to look at.
Reaction after finishing this: “That was such a boring vampire drama. I am so glad it’s over”.

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