The Torment of Unfinished Dramas

de Akage Girl, august 5, 2020

Some shows have more agony than entertainment. Is this one of them?

I just love MDL for its lists, especially the Watchlist. Carefully, over the last year, I have completed many an episode, sending dozens to the completed bin... so organized. I like that. Some shows are more exciting than others, some slightly entertaining, and some I can’t believe I wasted my time on. While reviewing my Currently Watching list, I realized that I started way too many shows where I haven’t made it to the bitter end, and I think its time to clean up that Currently Watching list. The problem is that I just can’t make a decision. I need some assistance. Since my friends and family would rather watch paint dry than review my currently watching list, I decided to enlist the aid of my friends at MDL. Here are four shows that I started but just couldn’t finish, no matter how hard I try. Please, pretty please with sugar on it, will you help me choose what to watch and what to throw out like those ratty quarantine pyjamas? Indeed, it’s time.

ETERNAL LOVE OF DREAM

Yan Chi Wu, the one character that does not annoy me at all. He’s just too funny.

I loved the story of Bai Feng Jiu and Dong Hua Dijun in Eternal Love. I was over the moon to learn they would get their own C-drama where we can see their relationship unfold more slowly and beautifully and for 56 episodes. Bai Feng Jiu (Dilraba Dilmurat) is a fascinating female character with stellar fighting skills and a flighty personality. From episode 1 through 10, I enjoyed how Eternal Love of Dream worked between the two despite how they rarely met face to face. I actually adored the arc with the fox (Still Bai Feng Jiu but with fur) and Dong Hua Dijun. It was sweet and fun, and Vengo Gao played the appropriate mix of cool and aloof with just a touch of humanity (still like Mark Chao best though).

Here is the problem, I must admit that I absolutely can’t stand infidelity storylines especially with lead characters (it’s more a personal preference, sorry). For more than ten episodes, Eternal Love of Dream tried to convince me that the best cure for Dong Hua Dijun’s flagging health is when his mortal self believes that his true love is having an affair with his best friend. WHAT?!

How can I get past that? If I hate the idea of infidelity, won’t I hate the lead character for cheating on her man? And don’t get me started on the Cang Yi’s storyline. Even if Bai Feng Jiu decides to avoid her “one true love” forever, does she need to get engaged to someone else the next day? And all because she was intoxicated? Really? Does this make her a more sympathetic character? Um, no. That makes her a stupid drunk.

Please help! Do I even move on and finish all 56 episodes or do I drop this show like a hot potato? Like right now, when I’m halfway done?

DESCENDENTS OF THE SUN

Yoo Shi Jin and Dr. Kang Mo Yeon. Do I want them to end up together?

I like the acting and the dialogue in Descendants of the Sun, but I can’t get past the story. Listen to this: A really talented special forces soldier falls for a doctor more focused on her career than finding romance. Sounds sort of okay, but I’m stuck after completing episode 2. I like the characters of Yoo Shi Jin (hubba hubba, Song Joong Ki) and his best friend Seo Dae Yeong (wow, Jin Goo did a lot of push-ups for this K-drama). I like the eye candy of the soldiers, and the music isn’t terrible, heck even the second leads story of forbidden love is kind of compelling, but there is something about ANY woman telling a gorgeous and sympathetic male to take a hike because she doesn’t want to get distracted from having a rewarding career (which she does not have nor will get in her current job). Instead, she’s stuck playing politics with rich upstarts while trying to practice medicine. That storyline just doesn’t sit right with me. Maybe it’s the writing. Or maybe Song Hye Kyo doesn’t make Dr. Kang Mo Yeon sympathetic enough. I don’t know.

I’m all for having a rewarding career, but if some beautiful man with shiny white teeth and abs galore wants to get to know me better, I’d say yes sir, especially if he looks like Song Joong Ki. Why, oh, why would man or woman tell someone like Yoo Shi Jin, “No, thanks. I’d rather fend off continual annoying attempts of sexual harassment from power figures at work and fight for a place in a hopelessly outdated medical system that rewards spoiled chaebols over medical geniuses with little pedigree and mountains of debt.”

Here I am wedged squarely between episodes 2 and 3 where THAT gorgeous creature (Yoo Shi Jin) puts his decorated military career on the line for a woman who won’t give him the time of day. Why should I continue to watch such a show? Does it have a happy ending? Does he lose his career, his future, his livelihood, just for a woman who chose profession over his abs? I’m no sexist. I would never want a female to lose everything just for a meaningful relationship with a gorgeous creature who plays well and looks like a dream, and I certainly wouldn’t expect the same thing from a male.

I need one reason, just one, to finish Descendants of the Sun. If any of my friends at MDL reading this is willing to help me, please tell me why I shouldn’t stop right here at the end of episode 2 and move on to something less irritating.

PINOCCHIO

Choi In Ha and her “uncle?” Choi Dal Po. Yeah, it’s a little weird.

There are two actors that I think do a fine job in whatever show they are in. It’s is Park Shin Hye and Lee Jong Suk. I enjoyed Lee Jong Suk in I Hear Your Voice and Park Shin Hye was not the most annoying character in The Heirs nor Memories of the Alhambra (but she was tiresome at times; too many tears). But I did love her character in Pinocchio because her inability to lie without hiccuping made her less helpless and much more interesting.

But what the heck! Lee Jong Suk plays these characters that get victimized, and they always seem to have such catastrophic childhoods like in I Hear Your Voice and don’t get me started on W. However, with Park Shin Hye and Lee Jong Suk together, Pinocchio was bound to be at least mildly interesting, and it is. But still, what is it with Lee Jong Suk playing characters that have these tragic pasts that I just want to take these poor boys home with me and raise them. Perhaps, making pancakes every morning? Can’t he pick a character that is the spoiled chaebol or the ambitious CEO at least once in a while? Every one of his dramas I’ve seen has me feeling sorry for him by episode one.

Apparently, both Park Shin Hye and Lee Jong Suk are drawn to roles where the characters have hideous backstories where they must overcome so much trauma thrown in with heaps of injustice and setbacks, and don’t forget: lots and lots of tears.

Frankly, my poor heart can’t take all the sadness. In Pinocchio, it’s no different, I just want to pull my hair out with the plethora of terrible events that happen to these two losers (including the crap they do to each other). So far, the only good thing I’ve seen so far is Choi Dal Po (Lee Jong Suk) cut off that shaggy hair and gave up taxi driving (that was just borderline creepy). And there is that scene where Choi In Ha (Park Shin Hye) gets revenge on Choi Dal Po by using his toothbrush to clean the toilet. Now that was extremely disgusting and funny all at once (I will admit Pinocchio is worth watching just for that).

Is there light at the end of the tunnel for Pinocchio? Does it get a little happier or do I need anti-depressants to make it to the last episode? (Ummmm…. no spoilers, please.) I just want to know, is this show worth finishing or should I just put it in the dropped bin like last week’s pizza boxes?

FOREST

Not sure I love the show, but I love this oppa!

Anyone who has read any of my articles knows that Park Hae Jin is my #1 Oppa. I have loved him forever (okay just over a year), and think he can do no wrong. That said, I’m not so sure about Forest. Truth be told, I can barely finish episode 1. Is it because I don’t find him a viable CEO? Maybe it’s the wardrobe, I’m not sure, but here I am struggling to deal with CEO Kang San Hyuk (sigh… Park Hae Jin) and wondering if he is entertaining enough to get me past episode 2. And Jo Bo Ah’s Jung Young Jae doesn’t seem to bring a smile to my face or fascinate me as a female character. At least Choi In Ha in Pinocchio is interesting, and Bai Feng Jiu from Eternal Love of Dream wields a vicious sword, and Dr. Kang Mo Yeon from Descendants of the Sun is a kick-butt surgeon. Just saying.

Just writing this article leads me to believe I should drop Forest quicker than my last boyfriend. What do you say, MDL friends? Is it worth carrying on with Forest? Will either Kang San Hyuk or Jung Young Jae get more interesting? Are there other interesting characters in this show? (I have yet to find one.)

Because I just had to use one more picture from the Untamed. Sorry. It’s a chronic condition.

I know, not every show is The Untamed or Goblin, and not every character is Jang Man Wol from Hotel De Luna or Bai Qian from Eternal Love, but I do need something to keep me going, at least until I find that next heartbreaking piece of goodness. Surely, nothing I have in my “Currently Watching” queue qualifies. So friends, yes, I’m talking to all of you fabulous MDL readers, which of these four dramas should I buckle down and finish? Is it the C-drama with Bai Feng Jiu (even though she’s just not quite as exciting as Wei Wu Xian) or is it the one of the K-dramas with all the drama and none of the comedy (ahem… like between the Goblin and his buddy the Grim Reaper)?

Help! I need guidance and believe me, my friends and family don’t have the answer. They wouldn’t watch one of these dramas if Vengo Gao tied them to the couch and hand fed them Double Stuff Oreos between episodes (um… that sounds fun). So please help @AkageGirl out. It’s not like I have anything better to do this summer unless I suddenly develop a burning desire to clean my house, weed the garden, or write the next great American novel (or Korean or Chinese for that matter). It’s just too hot to move and well, have you ever seen Park Hae Jin? He’s much more interesting than my garden.