Dramarama

Thanks to my wonderful grandmother, I was introduced to the world of Korean dramas back in Chicago. I'll confess I have yet to watch an entire drama from beginning to end, but thanks to the miracle of MySoju.com, I possess the ability to do so. As knowledge of K-Pop has allowed me to make connections with the people of Korea, so might a knowledge of dramas, so I've decided to begin familiarizing myself.

Which drama am I starting with? Well, I figured since I've seen bits and pieces of various dramas, I'd choose one that held particular interest to me, Lovers in Paris. I watched several episodes and it really stuck with me, though I wasn't devoted enough to watch it until the end. I especially liked the lead actress. Her name is Kim Jung Eun, and she's funny and cute. I can't remember if my grandmother told me she liked this one very much, but hey, I can watch it and decide for myself.

The episodes in Chicago are shown in half-hour installments, but I've learned that the original episodes are actually an hour long. Either they edit them heavily or they make two episodes out of one. Most of the stuff I'd seen was from the first two episodes, and I was amazed that I'd seen so much, since I was expecting that I'd missed a lot more than I had. I've just completed Episode 5, so the last half has all been new to me.

So what do I think of it? Well, I can understand the criticisms about the writing and acting quality of these dramas, but doggone it, I don't watch TV expecting masterpieces. If the story manages to make me care, I'm happy, and so far, I definitely care. I hadn't foreseen some of the paths this story would go down, and as you'd expect from a drama, things are getting complicated. I have no idea where it's going to go from here, but that's the whole point (like how I managed to say absolutely nothing about the actual plot?).

Lovers in Paris wasn't actually the first one I attempted to watch. There was a different one called Three Daddies, One Mommy that I watched the first episode of, and I really liked it. The only problem was that the second episode didn't work for some reason, so I'm stuck right now. Hopefully they'll get it fixed so I can see how that one goes.

Three Daddies, One Mommy is actually pretty funny. If it weren't a serialized story it'd probably be classified as a comedy. The plot is that there's a man with three close friends who gets married. He and his wife really want to have children, but the problem is, he's infertile. The husband becomes so desperate that he convinces his three friends to donate their sperm so that he and his wife can conceive. The wife hates the three friends though, so the husband has to keep it a secret that when he goes to the doctor for the special fertility procedures he's actually using his friends' sperm. At the end of Episode 1 they show the husband deciding to mix all three friends' sperm together so that it won't be known which one is the father.

The synopsis of the drama gives away what happens next, but even if it hadn't given it away, the preview for Episode 2 would've: soon after they successfully conceive the husband dies in a car accident, leaving the three friends to take care of his wife. I already have a pretty good idea which of the three friends will end up being the father, since one of them is portrayed as more honest and decent than the other two, and they've foreshadowed it in other ways as well. Of course, who knows if they're planning to pull a plot twist? Anyway, I hope they get Episode 2 fixed so that I can continue watching that one too.

Am I going to become a drama addict? Maybe, maybe not. Of course, I was obsessed with LOST once, so I definitely have the right type of personality. Oh, who am I kidding? Resistance is futile!