A DramaddicKt's Worst Nightmare {Monday Morning Therapy with Dongsaeng}

          It's a dramaddicKt's worst nightmare...

a good drama gone bad.

Oh the conflict!  Oh the horror!  Oh the humanity!

You know what I'm talking about, don't you?  A drama starts out awesome, or at least very good and you're really enjoying it.  Life's good.  Life's grand.  You've got the whole world in your hand.  And then...it all goes horribly wrong.  You are suddenly sideswiped by a bad episode.  An episode that makes you say, "what was that?  Where did that come from?"  You don't see it coming.  You're in shock.  You think that surely it had to be a fluke and that the next one will be better.  And maybe it is, maybe it's not.  Maybe it's better, but not necessarily all better.  The magic...is lost.

Now what are you supposed to do?  You really were enjoying it.  Maybe the writer/writers were just having an off-week.  If they had it in them once before, well then surely they can get it back, right?  That's what we tell ourselves as we slush along, hoping with childlike innocence that somehow the magic will be recaptured.  At what point do you throw in the towel and walk away?  I, for one, am not much of a drama quitter.  I will usually stick it out until the bitter end, then ask myself why I bothered wasting my time when there are plenty of other dramas out there that don't lose their way.  I just can't help it.  I feel so invested.  So, so...I don't know, loyal or something.  Especially when it's a popular drama that is rising in the ratings every week and you start to wonder if maybe you're the problem instead.

A few examples, based on my experience and my experience alone (sorry if I step on toes and call out one of your favorites or something), are as follows:

~Ms Panda and Mr Hedgehog~
What happened here?  I liked it at first.  No, I loved it at first, but then, oh boy.  What a train wreck.  It derailed and never again found its footing.  Yet I stuck with it.  To the bitter, bitter, lame end.  Even Donghae wasn't enough to redeem this one in my book.

~Rooftop Prince~
This one was like a roller coaster for me.  Good, bad, good, bad.  It would start out okay, then take a really dismal turn, and just before you thought all was lost, pull itself out of its tailspin.  Until the next time.  I know this one was insanely popular, so maybe I'm the only broken one, but for me, I never knew whether I was coming or going with this one.  It was a very unhealthy relationship we had and I was glad when it ended.

~Big~
Now, really I don't think this one falls perfectly under this category, because for the most part, it was fairly consistent and only lost it in the end.  But that end was so traumatic for many of us, so I'm going to throw it on here anyway.  It is a perfect example of a good drama gone bad, it just managed to last longer than most.

~Level 7 Civil Servant~
This one still has some life in it, if for no other reason than we're only up to episode 6 out of 20.  Episodes 1-3 were pretty decent.  I was really enjoying it.  Sure, there were some early warning signs, but they weren't all that glaring.  And then episode 4 hit.  Honestly, I meant it when I said that it was like the writer(s) had a stroke partway in and nobody bothered to notice.  Did they read the script before filming?  It was just all of the sudden very different in feel from the first 3 episodes.  Episode 5 was better, I'll give it that, but not enough.  After the head-scratching 4th episode I really needed 5 to come back and totally wow me.  It just fell flat.  Oh dear.  Joo Won.  I don't know if I can let him go, but I don't know if it will work out between us this time.  Yet, it's still incredibly popular.  Leading me to wonder, once again, maybe it's just me?  Except that it's not just me.  I know others that share the same fears and opinion as me.  I truly don't want to abandon this drama, but I have so many awesome ones waiting in the wings that maybe I shouldn't give too much of myself over to a doomed relationship.  The dilemmas that we dramaddicKts face, I swear.  And no one but our fellow dramaddicKts understand or relate to this tragic event.  Our life is flipped upside down when a good drama goes bad and no sympathy will be coming our way.  Have you ever tried explaining the reason behind your long face to a non-dramaddicKt before?  It's not pretty.  They just can't relate to the anguish of soul we experience when potential genius is lost. 

How about you?  What good dramas gone bad have you experienced?  This is a safe place, it's okay to admit it and face your loss here.  We will understand for we all most certainly have been there.  Let it all out - the pain, the frustration, the feelings of helplessness, the "wae?!s".  Purge.  It's the only way to move on and try again.  Every time we click play on a new drama, we are taking a risk, just as when we embark on a new relationship.  We go in, deep-down knowing that we can get hurt, but willing to take the chance in the hope that it will turn out to be a wonderful and beautiful experience in our life.  It's all a gamble, really, isn't it?  One giant roll of the dice.  They can't all be winners, but we hope that at the very least, the odds are in our favor.

Now, for today's prescription.  It is a very blah Monday around the Dongsaeng household today.  LP1 has been fighting this cursed stomach bug for way too long and was in tears when I dropped her off at school today.  LP2 now has this cold/upper respiratory dealio that I'm also fighting at the same time.  Little sleep and a whole lot of stress.  In other words, it is time to break out the big guns on this Monday.  I'm going with the ultra-strength, super potent cure-all medicine.  Oh yes.  This one is so strong and powerful, I don't dare embed it even, for my biggest fear is that it gets pulled down and we are left without it.  I, for one, cannot live in a world devoid of this video.  So, like visiting the pharmacy and having to jump through extra hoops to get the "controlled substances", this one will require you taking an extra step and following this link to get there.  I can pretty much guarantee though that the extra effort will be rewarded.  Maybe this is one you have seen once, twice or a thousand times.  Maybe it's brand new to you.  Either way, it's an elixir of sanity reserved for such a time as this.

Now, if you're having a pretty good day, you may want to store this one in case of emergency.  I would hate for you to over-medicate.  If you just need a bit of Tylenol for example, you shouldn't be taking Vicodin, now should you?  So, if you don't need the strong stuff today, here's a little OTC treatment coming your way.  How about a little Lee Hi?  Lee Hi and Monday mornings just seem to go together, like toast and OJ.  Now, I like Lee Hi and of course have seen her 1,2,3,4 M/V several times, but I never did bother to watch any of her music show performances.  Here is her Inkigayo stage from Dec 29th in case you haven't seen it either.



Finally, to round things off, how about some Super Junior M on Music Bank? Why not?

I hope that you all have a wonderful Monday and a superb week. And may all your good dramas stay that way.

 

P.S.  I hope you all had a marvelous Lunar New Year celebration as well if that's something that you do.  We were supposed to have our annual New Year feast, but due to all the sickness going around our family, it was pushed back to (hopefully) this upcoming weekend.  So instead we did a mini-celebration in honor of it here at home.  I finally, after drooling over it in so many dramas, finally had my first taste of jjajangmyun, or black bean noodles.  Yumm!  I can't wait to have it again!