Late again! I officially declare Monday a part of the weekend — problem solved. We shall speak of this no more!
On to more interesting stuff. So I finished watching both Miss Korea and I Need Romance 3 this week. (Which means my to-be-reviewed list has exploded and I need to get right on that before it gets daunting.) But it also got me thinking. Because one of those dramas tackled a thought-provoking subject with intelligence and grace and humor. And the other one revealed just how skinny Sung Joon actually is.
I talked a lot about the less interesting drama. A lot more than I actually had to say. But it all came down to which one I chose to live-watch. I was afraid I Need Romance 3 was going to suck, and I like both Sung Joon and Kim So-yeon, and I thought I could give it a go and drop it if it offended. Whereas Miss Korea‘s pedigree gave me high expectations (the same crew created Pasta, which I adored) so I saved it for a marathon.
The marathon was as delicious as I’d hoped. (Even more, actually. Because the street’s dead silence on Miss Korea had me a little worried.) But the nature of marathons is I’m not forced to wait for the next episode, so it’s easier to put off writing a post. Live-watching has a built in posting time that would cause me personal shame to miss.
So even though it was often a struggle to come up with something to say (because how many ways can you say, “aww, adorable”?) I blathered on about I Need Romance 3. And even though Miss Korea inspired a whole lot of thinking, by marathoning it I had a good excuse to save all those thoughts up for the end.
Luck of the draw, I suppose. Here’s hoping my next live-watch drama (Secret Love Affair because — come on) will be worthy of my many, many words.
Creating Volumes 
Yes….Miss Korea was not as talked about as it deserved (from what I’ve heard about it!)…I haven’t seen it myself…maybe I’ll watch it later as my plate is full of so many dramas right now….
I won’t be watching Secret Love Affair (I’m kind of bored of noona romances right now..lol) but of course I’ll check your posts on it….
Definitely keep Miss Korea on your list for a future rainy day. I think you’ll like it. 🙂
For some reason I’m still deeply enamored of noona romances — maybe because of the reversed power imbalance? and this one will be a doozy of power shifting, I’m expecting… But yes, if you’re not in the mood then it’s doubly not attractive I’d imagine. 😉
Miss Koreaaaaa!!!! (yes I might do this for years lol)
Hah! 😀
Planning to live-watch Secret Love Affair too (dear God, I really hope I have enough time next quarter to squeeze this show in…), so looking forward to be by your side again with the live-watching and parallel write-ups! (we kinda did this when Jang Ok-jung aired and although I eventually burnt out, I thought it was fun while it lasted :D)
Yay! It’ll be fun to be live-watching together! I’m so, so hoping the show lives up to its possibilities. There are so many reasons why it should so I’m staying hopeful. 😀
You may have hit it on the head here. The lack of discussion on Miss Korea must have been largely because 99% of live drama bloggers were caught in the frenzy of You From Another Star and there was simply no bandwidth left for Miss Korea. Add to that the quiet nature and the darkness of its earlier episodes. But what I still can’t understand is why sooooo many people were attracted to INR3 right away. What is the connection to the earlier versions?
I’ve started watching You From Another Star and I can see why it attracted everyone in the universe. 😉 I think Miss Korea is more meaty, with more realistically realized characters, but it was darker. The realism brought a certain amount of gloom. So I can see why it didn’t win the popularity stakes.
With INR3 — the last two dramas in the franchise were pretty steamy, which is a rarity in k-drama. (And I should add, steamy relative to most k-dramas.) So there was that draw. I think Sung Joon and Kim So-yeon were also big pulls. And the two earlier dramas took interesting, some would say realistic looks at what modern relationships are like. (I didn’t agree with the shows’ views, but that’s just me.) INR3 didn’t go the realistic route at all this go around, but that was probably an expectation.
Wait, so when you have high expectations for a drama you tend to choose to marathon it? I don’t quite understand what you’re saying. Wouldn’t it make more sense to live recap what you think would be a good drama instead of something that you hope would be a good drama?
Hah! Welcome to the madness of my brain. 🙂 It’s not always consistent but, yes. Sometimes if I think a drama is going to be really good I save it up for a marathon. Because a live-watch might just kill me. (Heartless City is an example of that.) And other times I’ll live-watch something that I worry won’t be that good but I like the actors so I know I’ll be checking it out even if word on the street turns bad. If I’m watching something in a stretched out live-watch, I can tolerate more bad stuff, is my theory. (Doesn’t always work, but that’s my theory.)
Plus, I’d been burned lately with dramas that should have been good disappointing me. So in this case I figured if Miss Korea was bad I wouldn’t even bother with it. But I knew I’d want to at least check out INR3 because of the actors involved. But! I might shift that a little now that I’ve seen that I end up writing more about whatever I live-watch. It’s always a work in progress around here. 😉
I see what you’re saying. Still, I would have loved to read your episode-by-episode thoughts on Miss Korea as it was airing. But I’ll settle with your fantastically written formal review. 🙂
Hee! Thanks. 🙂 And, this won’t necessarily be my last word on “Miss Korea”… 😉
Of course not. You have written a reaction post, but not a review post. Remember? 🙂 I know, I am being demanding.
Hee! A gold-star to you for catching that detail! 😀 I’ll definitely be getting a review out. (Probably in the not too distant future. I don’t anticipate “Aftermath” taking much time and “Miss Korea” comes next so…)