DramaHeroine

Here from your follow up article, and I just wanted to share my experience in case it might give you some comfort and perspective: I went through a very difficult to admit to and accept drama slump maybe around 2015 or 16 (I think?), and it was a very difficult time for me. I'd been watching dramas for a few years by then (maybe longer, the numbers are really fuzzy in my brain), and I was deeply invested. I loved drama's to the point that I didn't want to admit that I was in a slump and not enjoying them anymore and was sort-of afraid that admitting it would mean I'd lose dramas forever. (I wanted my love of dramas to last until I die.) But I also had to accept that I'd sort of run myself into the ground with my drama consumption and watching dramas as a whole was making me kind of miserable. See, when I love something, I can get a little obsessive about it, and it can be kind of bad for my health sometimes. By that point, I'd developed an unhealthy need to consume every drama ever made, even if I didn't like it or it had nothing to do with my personal interests or any other legitimate reason not to watch a drama. I forced myself to finish every single drama I started (still struggle with this some today, but I'm much better now), pushed myself through a number of terrible dramas that I utterly hated, and lived with a perpetual fear of missing out. Drama FOMO, if you will. But what inevitably happens when you try to force yourself to continue something you're not enjoying is you become stressed out and kind of fractious over something that should really just be fun and not serious and life-consuming. Well eventually, I found myself quitting dramas without even realizing I was doing it, because my brain had finally had enough of my heart going 'But I have to watch it! I have to finish it! It's my duty!' and put it's foot down and said 'Enough. This isn't fun anymore.' After a while of this pattern, I eventually had to say to myself 'Look. Just take a break. It's ok. You're taking this way more seriously than it deserves, and it's bad for you.' So I took a break from dramas, went cold turkey, and allowed myself to focus on other things. In the back of my mind I was still thinking about dramas all the time, because I was so afraid of not having them in my life anymore, but I think my body just knew that it was time to stop, and it ultimately ended up being a very good decision. The break lasted a year or two (again, fuzzy numbers) before I ultimately came back to dramas a couple years ago to try and get back into them again, and my consumption habits have definitely changed since my sabbatical. Mainly, it's slowed down. I watch significantly fewer dramas per year, I don't try to consume everything in existence, and I'm a lot more selective about what I do watch. And while part of me still feels guilty about not watching more of the dramas on my watchlist and wishes I could find a way to get back to that obsessive love I once had, I'm definitely consuming dramas in a much healthier and more enjoyable way (although I admittedly still have a little ways to go.) I still put way too many dramas on my to-be-watched list, I've currently got too many dramas I'm trying to watch all at the same time, and I will still force myself to finish dramas occasionally, but I've completely accepted it now that some dramas, some entire genres, are not for me, and I purposely choose not to watch them at all. I also allow myself to actually drop dramas now when they are just not working for me, and at least half the time, I don't feel any regret about it at all (I did say only half of the time though). I'm honestly just so much less willing to watch a drama I'm clearly not enjoying, and I've found that writing reviews discussing my reasons for not enjoying and ultimately dropping a drama actually helps with drama-dropping guilt. The guilt I feel over it is just so much tinier than it used to be now that I'm expecting it to be pretty non-existent within a few years, and I'd say that's some pretty good improvement. After all, we're not obligated to watch everything Or to like everything, and it's okay to treat dramas as one of many interests/hobbies we have rather than the thing that gives us breath, lol. So all of this was to say, it's okay to take a breather from dramas, whether that's all of them or a particular country, and focus on other things for a while. And if after awhile, you find yourself not interested in coming back, that's okay too. But who knows, maybe when you caught the drama bug, it really was a lifetime commitment, and you and dramas are just moving into a new phase of your relationship with each other, and that's okay too. Just don't take it too seriously, because at the end of the day, there are so many types of entertainment out there, and there's a little something for all of us.

Not that it would be any use to him now, lol.

Bwahahahahahaha! Shakespeare would be making Bank.

This. What he's claiming has been taken from his movie sounds very much like a story Element, not an entire story Plot, and you can't go around copyrighting elements. That's insane.

Thaaaat's a pretty thin case for plagiarism seeing as the premise of a family working together in someone else's house has probably not only been done in other films before but is also not totally implausible to see happening in real life. Not to mention it's not really a story element you should be able to own??? I call frivolous on this.

Wow. How sad for everyone involved. Sad for the people he took advantage of who were just trying to keep themselves safe, sad for his family having to go through this on top of the fathers serious medical condition, and honestly, sad for him that he felt so desperate to help his father that he resorted to crime. As much as what he did was demonstrably wrong, it can’t be forgotten that these companies that put together these music groups are constantly taking serious advantage of the group members by not paying them a decent, livable wage and/or providing some sort of legitimate housing, etc. He is solely to blame for what he did to the people who were scammed, but it can’t be denied that these companies play a major role in driving people towards desperation.

Absolutely would love to see more articles like this. This is really helpful information.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

However many years later and I'm still dying to know what exactly happened to make this drama go so wrong. All the rumors and speculation and whatnot from the time have jumbled up in my head at this point, and I don't know what's true. Why did the producer decide to screw over the male lead like she did? Why did the story become so unnecessarily focused on the secondary male lead in the second half? Did the writing team actually steal their drama ending from the original manhwa writer forcing the manhwa writer to create a new ending for her story? And why did they want it to end that way to begin with? So many questions, and I just want to knooooooow!!!!!

I couldn't pull of Yi Na's look either. I'm much more modest, so some of her outfits are on the inappropriate side to me, but I'm also just intensely uncomfortable with the idea of being 'sexy.' For the right person, I want to be seen as sexy and alluring, but I don't know about for the general populace.

Thank you! I so wish we could get a season 3, but with one of the male leads ending up in a pretty serious scandal that he really shouldn't come back from for a while, and it now having been a couple of years since season 2, it just isn't likely at this point. Although maybe a movie could be doable? Don't think that would ever happen either, but I could see it being more likely than another full season.

Can't speak on the rest of their older dramas, but My Girl definitely has an intense melodramatic streak in the second half that makes you want to pull your hair out, lol.

Love the Hong Sisters and am on a mission to watch all of their dramas. I do have to admit though that I always find their endings disappointing. They know how to create really good characters and plots and forward momentum that gets you hooked, but they always fumble the ball in the final quarter, and it taints the rest of the drama. Getting an episode extension and then adding in a bunch of unnecessary plot elements (Masters Sun [I'm looking at you Mr. 'I met your ghost once, so that means we're gonna get married, right?']) or just purposely choosing to prolong the suffering portion of the story because YOLO (My Girl [We didn't Need five episodes of unnecessarily prolonging the lie past the point of logic. The Hong Sisters just Wanted it to happen.]) I will always appreciate their skill in creating really fascinating characters and worlds though, which I guess is why I continue to watch their dramas despite the flaws, lol.

The original is much more over the top, lol. This version has actually done a really good job in the first two eps of toning the story down and making it somewhat more believable, even if still far-fetched.

Personally, I would like a shorter version that cuts down a little bit on some of the dramatics (without cutting out any of the heart). The original is....pretty wild, lol.

Thank you! The costume team did a really good job of creating wardrobe's for the characters that reflected not just their personalities, but also what they were going through in their lives in both seasons, so they're outfits definitely left an impression on me.

Uuuuuummmm, yes please. The original Taiwanese version was my first ever Asian drama. I was simultaneously obsessed with it and driven nuts by it. (Tried to re-watch it years later and couldn't make it more than halfway through, lol.) Then I watched the Korean remake, and mostly enjoyed it. So, yeah. I'm definitely gonna watch this version.

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Thank you!

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it!