Kmuse's Musings: Unromantic Kdrama Countdown

Unless you are hiding under a rock, you are aware it is Valentines Day (White Day) and have been bombarded by hearts, khotties, and sweet romance in all its many forms.  So I decided to go in a different direction and make a list of kdramas that are decidedly unromantic.  These are the ones to avoid if you are look for a good OTP, or in some cases just avoid altogether.  What do you think is the most unromantic kdrama.  It can be because the romance fails to work, or because the writers were writing a drama romance free.  We love to hear your opinions here at TCA.

The Devil

I actually really enjoyed this drama, in a revenge suspense, kind of way.  However if you were looking for any kind of romance you will be sorely disappointed.  The story teases a romantic possibility in the first half, but by the second, the leading lady is simply there to help move the plot along.  She is literally a psychic who can see things when she touches people or items so the only time they tug her into the show is when a character needs to "discover" something.  I guess that the whole, I know your darkest secret anytime I touch you, can be a turn off.

A New Leaf

I was so excited for this drama to air.  Girl meets jerk lawyer.  Jerk Lawyer loses memory.  Jerk lawyer becomes a better person and girl falls in love with new improved lawyer. Sounds simple right?  WRONG.  It begins really well.  Main girl has a cute meeting/misunderstanding which results in her spending the night with leading man (was completely platonic but she thinks it wasn't because she was drunk).  Turns out that main guy is one of the bosses at her new workplace and when he loses his memory, our leading lady is put in charge of keeping his secret.  They have a few moments of cute banter and she even moves into the apartment next door................and then nothing.  The show literally loses any bit of romantic hijinks and turns into such a lump of vanilla. I sometimes had to watch an episode multiple times since I kept falling asleep.  If you are looking for romance, just turn away from this drama since the only thing it is good for is as a sleep aid.

When A Man Loves

If you are looking for a drama that has a 100% dysfunctional romance storyline that results in you hating all three of the leads after 20 hours, then this is the drama for you.  It has a pretty good premise.  Gangster meets poor girl (in her teens) who inspires him to go legit.  Ex-Gangster pays Poor Girls way through college.  Poor girl meets sweet 2nd lead in exotic vacation and he falls in love.  Poor Girl begins working for Gangster, hooks up with Gangster, and has the usual romantic ups and downs.  Then Poor Girl passionately makes out (one of the worst make out scenes ever) with 2nd lead in the bedroom of her Gangster.  Things just go downhill from there.  By the end you don't want either man to end up with the leading girl.  Or really with anyone......ever.......they all should just buy a bunch of cats and become spinsters.  It is the only thing that will make wasting those 20 hrs worth it.

Basketball

The cast for this drama was just so pretty and the cinematography was so pretty.  Unfortunately all the pretty in South Korea could not make this mess of a script worth watching.  Lee Elliya had the same amount of personality as a mannequin and should avoid historical scripts, or really anything that requires her to emote, at all costs.  She was such a turnoff that we viewers were left with a total disconnect to any of the romance.  It maybe would have still been worth watching with a strong focus on the basketball aspect, but that also fell apart.  What we are left with is just a drama that is, well, lacking. 

Endless Love

If it was physically possible to reach into the computer and smack the back of every writer, directer, and actor's head that had anything to do with this drama, then I would.  There would be so much smacking going on.  This drama should have been called simply "Endless" because it had nothing to do with love and it went on and on and on.  The worst part is that it kept teasing that something would be happening and by the time I realized that no love was going to take place, I was already a good 30 episodes in.  By that time I finished just to give it a low score on MDL (my drama list) and I remain cranky about it to this day.

There you have it, the top of the top dramas that lack all sense of romance. I hope that everyone's Valentine Day contains a lot more romance than we found in these shows.  What do you think?  Did I miss any ?  I thankfully have put these behind me and I hope that by warning you all, you can avoid the good 100 hours of crankiness that I was forced to go through.

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