My history could be traced back to Vic Zhou's Huaze Lei, eventually leading to Wu Chun's Quan. Then, the one-two punch that was Lee Dong-wook and Lee Jun-ki in one drama. Later it was both Jung Ryeo-won and Kim Rae-won in a ridiculously angsty melodrama that caused what I can now only describe as an early bisexual awakening. Falling in love with Ms. Han Hyo-joo in her first drama shortly thereafter, simply clinched it.  Then, an early fascination with Lee Seon-kyun's "Mr. Darcy" aura in 2007 that completely pays off in 2018. Meanwhile the Korean F4 obviously became appointment viewing, and here is where Hallyu officially starts for me. Cohabitation, cold male lead, softboi second lead, tropes galore! If Park Shin-hye as a runaway nun melted my heart, Lee Jongsuk and Kim Woobin as besties on and off-screen destroyed me. Of course in between that, Kim Soo hyun, IU and Suzy make their legendary entrance and my fondness for them only grew from there. Life happens..

and I only start falling back into Kdrama through what is still today my favourite coming-of-age piece...ever *cue WHAT sound bite*. I obsess over this for months, fall into a mini depressive episode after it ends but it doesn't really matter now looking back because 2016 was an absolute banger of a year. I get a laundry list of new actors to discover, plenty enough to make my head spin. My Kdrama consumption reaches its pinnacle with one line of dialogue: 아무것도 아니다 (It is nothing). What could possibly follow such a masterpiece? Suddenly, I'm scouring youtube dot com for bite-sized Chinese web dramas thinking I only need light and fluffy now. Enter: a time-travel concept melodrama with acting, music, and a core message that hit me with the force of a battering ram. This drama coming from Taiwan is a real full circle moment. Pop culture literature will say Hollywood dominated the small screen during my formative years, and maybe there'll be a throwaway mention of Asian dramas "breaking through". In my heart and mind I know the power these stories hold, at least for me. When I say I was raised by TV, I'm referring to my drama watch list.