Dramas You Thought You'd Hate & Actually Did

I know what I like. 

Because I have limited time to watch dramas, I investigate a drama thoroughly before I decide to watch it. I need to ensure that there's a good chance I'll like the drama before I start it (I 'like' a drama if I rate it 6 or above). If I rate a drama 5 or below most likely I felt cheated at the end, like I wasted my precious time watching it. I really, really hate having that feeling at the end of a drama. I'm not a dropper so I can't watch the first few episodes to make up my mind like some people do. If I start the drama, I have to finish it (I'm anal & neurotic in that way). 

So I read reviews and comments about the drama, I watch the trailers and teasers, I talk to people who display similar tastes as my own and maybe I go on YouTube and watch a few scenes from the drama just to get a feel for the mood, tone & atmosphere. I also watch the kiss scenes. Good kissing is really important to me in a drama. I usually choose not to watch a drama if the love interactions are awkward and childish. Dead fish kissing, overbearing parents, juvenile comedy and behaviour ... these are instant turn offs.

A lot of people have accused me of being too critical and picky. I don't really care what others think about my preferences and methods. But I am human so sometimes I do bow to peer pressure and hype and watch shows I suspect don't match my tastes. In most cases, I end up hating the dramas as much as I suspected I would. Self fulfilling prophesy or just a strong sense of knowing what makes me tick?


Here are my picks:

• Temptation - I don't usually like cheating dramas, but the hype got to me. Worst decision ever.
• Can You Hear My Heart - I didn't like the lead actors & the story just sounded meh to me, but people pushed me to watch it and I bowed. I want those 30hrs of my life back.
• Ugly Alert - fell for the hype, wasted 133 hrs of my life. 
• My Sunshine - While I like Wallace Chung & thought the story sounded okay, I was turned off by how the female lead behaved, like a child, so I hadn't planned to watch this at first. But I fell to peer pressure & hype and watched it anyway since everyone said how GOOOOOOD the chemistry was. It was NOT good!
• The Heirs - While I suspected from the get-go that this drama was not for me (I don't watch teen dramas and I'm not a fan of the leads), I do like the writer & I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. Bad idea.
• Queen In-Hyun's Man - I didn't think this drama was for me, but the hype got me, then the kissing ... and I liked the music too (usually I don't pay attention to drama music), but in the end it was a poor investment.

What about you guys?

Innocent man was the first drama I skipped through on the first watch! I kept saying I'll give it one more episode to redeem itself in my eyes. I finished it but it drove me crazy the entire time! Why didn't I stop, not sure, the story line had me curious, but the way it progressed was pure torture. I dropped marry me or not just couldn't take it! Cheese in the trap was a whole heap of everything and nothing, if that doesn't make sense neither did the the drama.

Bloody Monday...I watched two seasons by skipping the half of it.The only good thing was J/Narimiya Hiroki in this.J became one of my favorite villains but except that everthing was mediacore,esp miura's acting

Um.....

- My Girlfriend is a Gumiho.
I was prejudiced against it from the look of the poster alone - I know it's silly, but I happen to have these first sight impressions, . Also, this was a Hong Sisters drama, not exactly my cup of tea. I gave in to Lee Seung Gi's allure.
I hated every minute of it - with a couple of tiny exceptions - dropped it 4 times and finally completed it for the sole purpose of writing a review and tear it to shreds to my heart's content.

- Innocent Man
I can't say I really thought I'd hate it, because the cast was engaging and the opening promised to be visually beautiful. However, I'm not a fan of this kind of makjang where at some point nothing makes sense anymore. I'm also not drawn in by the revenge trope, usually. In the end, it's become my... least beloved drama.

After these two, I became a serial dropper.

Secret Garden:
Tried to watch it 3 times. I skipped through most episodes and it was soooo boooring! I can't understand why so many liked it. I guess it's a personal taste ;)

Boys Over Flowers: Watched it to see what all of the hype was about. I didn’t enjoy it at all and ended up dropping.

Nihonjin no Shiranai Nihongo: Also dropped. Didn’t enjoy at all. I gave it a chance because of the Japanese language aspect, but no.

Though the biggest disappointments are ones I thought I would enjoy a lot and didn't.

I really don't force myself to watch anything anymore - that's why my On Hold and Dropped lists are so long! In any case, I've still given some dramas a chance for few episodes and still regretted it...

The Heirs. I went in knowing that I don't like Park Shin Hye but the hype was strong. She's done too many roles of that weak and crying girl so my tolerance for that was low. Then comes the rich male lead bad boy and so I dropped it. I'm so done with this trope.

Bride of the Century. Master's Sun. My search for a good supernatural drama is not going well. The weak female lead strikes again.

Boys Over Flowers: I loved the japanese version but I couldn't stand the korean one, idkw.

Secret Garden: Even though the female lead was strong, I didn't actually enjoy it. I love Ha Ji Won tho <3

Goong: I couldn't actually finish this.

To the Beautiful you: I finished this one in a month I think.