Expectation and Fulfillment in Dramaland

Yes, I know it's been three weeks since we've blogged. You can blame a combination of hiding out in a cabin in the mountains for a week, having to work extra to make up for hiding out in a cabin for a week, and then just feeling like I wanted to vegetate and watch dramas instead of writing about them. But now I'm back in a writing mood, so look forward to more consistent posts!

In all of my vegetative drama watching, I've developed kind of a bad habit. I used to be a pretty strict one-drama-at-a-time kind of girl. Maaaaaybe two dramas if they were airing simultaneously. Over the last couple of months, however, I keep starting new dramas, getting to the last three to five episodes, and then putting them on the back burner for a new drama.

Part of the problem is that I'm woefully behind on reviews, so I don't want to finish more dramas before I review the old ones, but that's just a big fatty excuse because the truth is that I love drama beginnings. I love the excitement of a new drama. I love the suspense that builds to the moment of romance shared and feelings expressed.

This obsession with beginnings has made me think about what it is that compels viewers to watch (and love) entire dramas. I think a lot of it comes down to the balance between expectation and fulfillment in the drama structure.


The best writers build a sense of expectation at the front end of dramas. They give us little moments of partial fulfillment throughout the first few episodes, pushing us to keep clicking the "next episode" button in hopes of getting more. And more. And more.

The problem with expectation is that you can't put it off forever. If you only give your viewers little breadcrumbs for too many episodes, they will eventually feel bored and move elsewhere. For me, this was one of the big problems with Heirs. I think we all kept hoping that interesting things would happen, but nothing ever did. It was just the same love triangle standoff at the end of nearly every episode, and it eventually got dull.

Similarly, one of the fastest ways to infuriate viewers is to build infinite expectation without an equal payout at the end. If you're going to put off viewer fulfillment for a full twenty episodes, you'd better be a screenwriting genius and give us an entire episode that is twenty episodes worth of satisfaction. If you give us a handshake at the end of it all, we're gonna start throwing things at our televisions and inventing new profanities to express just how cheated we feel.

Not to name names, but....
You know who you are. Now go in a corner and think about what you did.

Sometimes, drama writers want to play with expectations, and that's okay. It's refreshing when the second lead suddenly turns into the first lead or when a clever twist pushes viewers to think. But even if you toss in a twist, it needs to have some hint of expectation. We want the second lead to get the girl, but it has to feel earned. We want to know that she's going to be happy with her choice. That's why the ending of Marry Him If You Dare was so infuriating. The show focused so heavily on building romantic expectations that refusing to fulfill that expectation made the entire series feel somewhat hollow. I would have been okay with a series about her personal journey and individual development if the every episode hadn't shouted "WHICH MAN WILL SHE CHOOSE???"

"No, no, we meant for it to be a searing statement on women and romance! That's why we spent the whole series building a tedious, endless love triangle! We swear!"

At the other end of the spectrum, you have dramas that are great at building tension for the first half of the series, but they fulfill the expectation too early, leaving empty space for the second half of the series. It's pretty typical to have the leads first kiss somewhere between episodes 7 and 12, which is a great gift to keep viewers invested. The problem is that many writers seem genuinely baffled after the big kiss. They spend the rest of the series scrambling to come up with appropriate romantic hurdles, but we all know they're just killing time to the inevitable finale. Does anyone actually get excited when a drama moves into the noble idiocy/birth secret/corporate shenanigans phase of the show?

This is one reason why I'm a pretty strong advocate of the 16-episode series for most shows. Series extensions are one of the biggest enemies to narrative tension. I have seen only a handful of shows where the episode extension was okay (and only because I loved those shows), and I'm not entirely convinced that I have seen any shows where it was a narrative necessity. Even shows that feel rushed in the last five minutes could have avoided trouble with better pacing in the middle sections. Wait, I take that back. The extension for Queen of Reversals allowed it develop a satisfying, if unexpected, ending, so that one is the exception that proves the rule.

Maybe it's just because it was my first drama, but a good example of the balance between expectation and fulfillment has got to be Coffee Prince. As I watched, one of the things that enthralled me was how many heartfelt, meaningful moments it had sprinkled throughout the show. Unlike American romcom movies that ended after the big confession, Coffee Prince kept giving, and that's why I kept watching. It's proof that you don't need seven rounds of amnesia to keep people involved. With smart pacing, characters we can care about, and obstacles based in reality, shows can keep viewers engaged and satisfied.

One of the things that keeps me so engaged with You Are All Surrounded (aside from my love of action comedies) is the way that it builds expectation. With both the central mystery and the romance, the first ten episodes gave us enough hints to string us along. Episodes 11 and 12 get a pass because Lee Seung Gi's eye injury probably altered some of the script plans, but I keep hoping that the show will fulfill my expectations. It's getting to that stage in the series where the romance needs to start moving if it's going to keep my interest, and there's an opportunity for an engaging mystery as well.

In episode 12, we finally get a scene where Soo Sun starts to recognize Dae Gu as more than a little brother or a detective partner, but I have to admit that the reliance on the old rescue hug left me wanting more. Here's hoping episode 13 starts to move towards the fulfillment end of the spectrum!

Fashion Face-off Friday: Turtleneck Edition

It's been a while since we featured a solid Fashion Face-off around here.  In our last competition, The Master's Sun representing fall, won in a landslide.  I think people might have been swayed by their love of the series, though, so I'm not sure it was a fair fight.

Given that it's the Christmas season and all, I figured that we could celebrate some cold-weather wear and do a battle of the kdrama turtlenecks.

But why turtlenecks?   Why not fur coats or absurd hats or some other wintery clothing item?  To answer that question, I bring you a story:

Once upon a time, Vivi was four years old, and her mother lovingly sewed a dress for her.  This dress had a ruffled collar on it that stood up like a turtleneck.  When four-year-old Vivi saw this dress, she hated it.  HATED IT.  But, being the sensitive little whippersnapper she was, she didn't want to hurt her mother's feelings and pretended to like it.

I'm pretty sure I wasn't fooling anyone.

Her family members always wanted her to wear that dress because it was "so cute," but Vivi knew better.  Every time she put on that stupid pink dress with its stupid ruffly turtleneck, she was absolutely positive that she looked absurd, so she made up excuses to get out of wearing that dress.  Fortunately for her, she eventually outgrew it and was no longer forced to choose between the shame of wearing the dress and the guilt of hurting her mother's feelings.  The end.

Ever since I owned that dress, I've had this unreasonable hatred of all turtlenecks.  There's something about all that unbroken fabric rubbing up against your chin that I find both unnerving and unflattering, so it drives me absolutely crazy that they're so common in kdramas these days.  So, in honor of four-year-old Vivi and her wounded pride, let's look at some of the worst kdrama turtlenecks, shall we?

Contender 1: Park Hae Young, My Princess

YOU.  You were the offender.

Look, I totally get the impulse to cover up that turtleneck (with a velvet coat???), but the thing about turtlenecks is that there's always more fabric.  This cream number is kind of form-fitting, too, which makes me wonder if they were just trying to show off Abs McGillicuddy over here in a subtle way.  Sorry, Song Seung Heon, but even you can't pull it off.  

Contender 2: Kim Tan, Heirs

This one's pretty self-explanatory, right?  I mean, the sweater is eating his face.  I know, I know, I've made fun of Kim Tan a lot lately, but it's kind of like a scab I keep picking.  I just can't stop!

Contender 3: Kim Shin, Marry Him If You Dare

If there's one thing I hate more than turtlenecks, it's brown turtlenecks.  I don't want to be gross, but the tightness combined with the color really looks like a fresh turd (Turd-leneck--get it?).  

Contender 4: Ma Ae Ri, Miss Korea

Not a full-fledged turtleneck like the others, but it reminds me so much of my childhood nemesis dress that I had to include it.  Also, this:

Every time I see this character on Miss Korea, I won't be able to get Yzma out of my head.

Which turtleneck takes the cake?  If you love turtlenecks and hate me for hating them, which one is your least favorite of the bunch?

Which Kdrama Had the Worst Turtleneck?
	My Princess
	Heirs
	Marry Him If You Dare
	Miss Korea
pollcode.com free polls

Marry Him If You Dare/Mirae's Choice Korean Drama Review

If I had a time machine, I would go back in time and hang out with Leonardo da Vinci for a while.  Once I was done, I would go warn the writers of Marry Him If You Dare (aka Mirae's Choice) not to ruin their show.  This thing was so promising at first.  I gave it a lot of leeway because hey, at least it wasn't the train wreck that Heirs was, right?  Well, while Heirs has gradually been improving, Marry Him If You Dare gradually got worse.  And worse.  And worse.  And then the finale felt like someone vomited into a paper sack, lit it on fire, and put it on my pillow.  But more on that later.

Positives

The first few episodes of Marry Him If You Dare were really great.  Yoon Eun Hye's ridiculous styling was kind of distracting, but otherwise, it had all of the pieces of an engaging romcom.

Where does one even find a train conductor's hat for casual use?

Most time travel dramas involve someone from the distant past coming to the future, so I liked the switch-up with the traveler coming from the future.  It was kind of like A Christmas Carol--if, instead of telling Scrooge what would happen to him over the course of one night, the ghosts kept dropping vague hints for weeks on end for maximum dramatic impact.

The cast was really strong as well.  Yoon Eun Hye and Lee Dong Gun created some solid chemistry in the initial stages of the relationship that made me anticipate the progression into passionate love.

I also liked the initial characterization of the second leads.  Park Se Joo was kind and thoughtful like a typical male lead, but he wasn't afraid to voice his feelings.  He wasn't a complete emotional doormat like other second male leads, which was really refreshing.

The breakout star of the whole thing, though, was Han Chae Ah as Seo Yoo Kyung.  In the first few episodes, I thought I would despise her, but then she became delightfully funny and complex.  Even when the rest of the show became a gigantic mess, she continued to shine in her scenes.

Let's just make a show about her and skip everyone else. 

The other character who went from hatred to love was the brother.  He seemed overly overbearing at first, but by the end I was begging for more of his love/hate relationships with both Kim Shin and future Mirae.  

Awwww, oppa surrounded by his two sisters (or, to be more accurate, his one sister twice)!  So heartwarming!

Where It All Went Wrong

As I said, those first few episodes bought Marry Him If You Dare  a lot of time before I suddenly came to the realization that I wasn't enjoying it anymore and that I hadn't been enjoying it for a while.  The sad reality is that Marry Him If You Dare is boring.  Not typical kdrama draggy middle episodes boring, either.  It's stab-yourself-in-the-arm-just-to-make-sure-you-can-still-feel boring.  Thinking back, I can remember maybe three scenes from roughly episode 7 to episode 15.  It all blends together into a hazy mush that you could feed to people as a tranquilizer.

As if being boring wasn't bad enough, the writers completely tanked 3/4 of the main love square.  Seo Yoo Kyung was consistent, but the other three leads were infuriating.  What began as a backbone in Se Joo turned into relentless nagging as he wouldn't let Mirae go even after it became clear that she would never love him.  Kim Shin did all kinds of logical contortions to make his consistent noble idiocy seem like it made sense.  Instead of building his relationship with Mirae, we watched them run away from each other episode after episode (after episode after episode after episode...).

And then, stuck between these two men who inexplicably loved her, we have Mirae.  The alternative title of Mirae's Choice suggests that the entire premise focuses on the balance between fate and choice.  At several times throughout the show, I applauded when Mirae announced that she wanted to take control of her own life and make decisions independent of other people.  That kind of talk struck me as good ground for a strong kdrama heroine.  But even as Mirae's words said one thing, her actions consistently said something else.  Every time someone offered a reason why she shouldn't date the man she wanted, it put her totally out of emotional commission for the rest of the episode.

Your mouth says "strong female," but your face says, "I have a bad case of motion sickness."

By the end of the series, we are supposed to believe that Mirae has made the right choice to lead her into a future of happiness that her original path wouldn't have held.  The big problem, however, is that I'm not convinced that Mirae actually changed in significant ways from the beginning of the series to the end.  Yes, she became more confident and found fulfillment in her job, but that wasn't the part of her life that led to the tragic future in the first place.  The debt was the outside stressor, but it was Mirae's building resentment over their hardships that caused her to lash out at Kim Shin in the end.  In the final few episodes of the altered reality, that stressor is gone, but Mirae still doesn't know how to cope with her trials.  She cries over things like office gossip, she strings Park Se Joo along because she doesn't have the communication skills to make her feelings clear, and she becomes tearful and irate when things don't go her way.  That doesn't sound like resilient character development, does it?

Ultimately, I didn't like or empathize with Mirae, and that was one of the biggest weaknesses in this show.  She was upbeat, positive, and strong in her professional life, but in her personal life, she came off as self-centered and petulant.

The Ending (MAJOR SPOILERS)

If I still cared about Mirae by the end of the series, this is how I would have felt about the finale:

 It's like the writers realized that they had squandered the last ten episodes, so they had a contest to see who could make the most disastrous choices for the finale.  Let's have a heart-to-heart about that pile of pig excrement they called a last episode, shall we?

• If we're talking about "selfless" moves gone wrong, Mirae's breakup with Se Joo takes the cake.  Your "gift" to him is doing what you want and telling him to try again later?  You're not fooling anyone, Mirae.  
• The ONLY good thing here is that Yoo Kyung didn't end up with Se Joo.  This whole time, I've been wondering why switching one event changed his entire love fate, but apparently nothing can change Mirae's fate to love Kim Shin.  Weird, right?  Well, Yoo Kyung deserves someone better than this guy anyway.  Why did he have to turn into such an obsessive crazypants?
• So Mirae only wants to date Kim Shin if he's not in debt anymore?  What kind of life lesson is that?
• Remember how it was an ENORMOUS deal that future Mirae's timeline couldn't change, regardless of what past Mirae did? And then, in the very next episode, past Mirae is like, "I'm gonna put stuff in a box for you to dig up in the future!"  AND IT WORKS?  I know that narrative logic isn't your strength, dear drama writers, but this just feels lazy.  
• Speaking of lazy writing, future Kim Shin is suddenly alive?  How did his wife not know this? No takesies backsies on suicide, guys!

• Aaaaaaaaaaaand then that freeze frame at the end.  I'm not always opposed to ambiguity, but again, this feels like random laziness more than purposeful writing.  In a show called Mirae's Choice, MIRAE NEVER ACTUALLY MAKES A CHOICE.  Then again, the way the show developed over the last few episodes undermined either choice anyway. The obvious pick would be Kim Shin, but even that option felt sour by the end of episode 16.  Poor Kim Shin.  He deserves better, too.  
• Yoon Eun Hye didn't kiss a single person in this entire series.  What a waste.

Overall

This series is just a pity.  It could (and should) have been so much better, but it just wasn't.

If you want to watch Marry Him If You Dare (but seriously, why would you?), you can see it here:

Dramafever

Viki

Other opinions on this series:
1 2 3

Better Subtitles for Heirs

Guys, I have a confession to make.  Please don't e-punch me to the face or revoke our eternal kdrama-watching friendship, okay?  But I am having a reeeeeeeeally hard time getting through Heirs these days.

I love a good love triangle as much as the next gal, but seriously, this scared-face standoff has happened about forty times.  WE GET IT. 

So, you know how the full title for Heirs is actually Heirs: He Who Wears the Crown Must Endure Its Weight (or one of about forty variations on the same theme)?  Well, to stave off some of the boredom, Coco and I started to brainstorm some more apt subtitles for the show.  Here's what we have so far:

• Heirs: Rich People Are the WORST
• Heirs: He Who Wears the Crown Probably Has Daddy Issues
• Heirs: First World Problems 
• Heirs: He Who Wishes to Get the Girl Must Lurk the Most
• Heirs: Love Is the Moment. And the Moment Is Usually Uncomfortable
• Heirs: No Event Is Too Small for Dramatic Music
• Heirs: There's No Such Thing As an Ugly Sweater
• Heirs: "I Don't Love You" Means "Hug Me Extra Hard"
• Heirs: Poor People with Awesome Phones

And finally, my personal favorite:

• H.E.I.R.S.: Hoping Everything Isn't Repeatedly Sucky

On an unrelated note, this is why I roll my eyes quite a bit less when I watch Marry Him If You Dare:

What alternate titles would you give Heirs?  Am I a crazy person, or is anyone else having a hard time sticking with this drama?  If I AM a crazy person, can we still be kdrama friends?