Can I have my 118 hours 30 minutes and 11 sec of my life back???? The Worst Dramas of 2013!

This year has been truly an epic year for horrible dramas.  Not only have there been some really really bad dramas, but they all have the distinction of being in the very very bottom of My Drama List ratings.  To put it in perspective I have rated and watched around 300 or so dramas and all five of these are in the bottom 15 of that list. 

 I am putting out a spoiler warning for the following reviews since there is no way possible to describe how bad they are with out some spoilers.  So beware...... you have been warned.

Basketball 

 Now those of you who have followed me from the beginning know that my first dip into the blogging pool was following the ups (there were not many of them) and the downs of the drama Basketball.  Supposedly about the players that become the first unified Korean Basketball Olympic Team it quickly drowned itself into the drama writing equivalent of a tar pit.  We were forced to watch these characters do really really stupid things, achieve new levels of shallowness, and pretty much achieve nothing in 18 episodes (it was originally supposed to air 24 episodes but half way in the writing was on the wall that this was going to be a ratings bomb and they dropped the number down).  The romance was a joke, mostly because the main actress could not act her way out of a paper bag.  And the writers made her switch between the two guys as if she was the ping pong ball in a game.  It got to the point where I was voting for whichever character I liked least to end up with the twit.  Turns out she ended up with no one.  San ended up tormented for 18 episodes with no upswing.  And Chi Ho kind of sort of stands up for what he believes in...............maybe???  The show ended with a super duper secret plot to use an exploding basketball to create terror among the Japanese (oh and supposedly it was  a suicide mission).  The ball is thrown and????????????????????????????  Nothing.  That is where the show ends.  No redemption, no conclusion, just more messed up What the Heckory that makes us say "at least it is over".  All of the pretty boys in the world cant make this show worth watching.

Knife and Flower (Sword & Petal)

How can one describe the despair I experienced with this drama.  It had all the elements of a great drama.  Good actors (I love Choi Min Soo so so so so so so so much after Warrior Baek Dong Soo and Faith) and it had some of the most stunning cinematography out of any drama this year.  So what went wrong?  First, I have rarely watched a historical drama this boring.  The characters, who on paper and should have been really interesting (It was one of the bloodiest Coup's in Korean history), falls flat.  And instead of action we get a whole lot of staring into the camera (I swear the whole cast must have eye issues from not being able to blink on screen) and lackluster dialogue that made no sense.  I kept thinking that it has to get better but was left disappointed over and over.  Save your 16 hours and instead watch anything else.  This drama was a huge dud.

Nail Shop Paris

There are not enough words to accurately describe this psychedelic mess of a drama.  My 2nd lowest ranked drama ever, it achieves levels of crappiness that no drama should ever achieve.   I would purposefully watch it late at night when I was kind of punch drunk sleepy so I could get through it.  My drama BFF Angela and I  would always come up with reasons for the plot and I think we finally concluded that it was because all of the writers were drugged out on PCP.  There is no other explanation for these characters.  Said to be a romantic comedy revolving around flower boy nail artists and the happenings around them.  What it really ended up being was a drama about a bunch of nail artists that invaded their clients personal lives (in very very awkward and uncomfortable ways).  With a heroine who is a cross dressing half Gimiho writer who falls in love with the most boring vanilla character ever (oh and he is also a half Gimiho which is why she feels a connection to him).   The only good or interesting thing about this drama is Song Jae Rim as Kay (the B lead) who actually gets the girl.  As a character/actor he is very good but his talent just shows you what a crapfest the rest of the drama/characters are.  So take my advice and burn this drama out of your queue.

Queen of Ambition 

 If I was just going by the synopsis this is exactly the type of drama I love.  Lots of angst, a bit of murder thrown in, high and mighty presidents wife is dragged down because of her horrible past.  All the elements are there to send me into drama heaven.  But then I started watching it and was annoyed beyond bearing.  I don't know what it was specifically.............. it was the actress... 100% it was the actress.................. but this drama just fell flat and failed to grip me from the get go.  Not only does Soo-Ae give a wooden performance (SHE AND THE GIRL FROM BASKETBALL SHOULD GET TOGETHER AND QUIT ACTING!!!!!!!!)  But she becomes so unlikable I don't even want to see her on screen let alone in the drama.  Even the men of the drama were hard to really like.  Both were very "eh" and personally they kind of deserved what the got dating her when she was obviously a mega grade a WITCH.

I Summon you Gold

This drama has the distinction of being the absolute biggest mistake of my drama watching career.  It had so much potential.  I put so much time into watching it.  I actually really liked the first 40 episodes but then it felt like the writers all quit and they had people off the street start to write the scripts. People off the streets that were in the last stages of rabies and totally bat craptastically crazy.  Every character started acting completely different and it just felt horrible having to sit through an episode. If it had ended at 40 I would have given this drama and 8 or 9 overall but because of the awful last episodes I give it a 3 (I actually went back into My Drama List and changed the score so it would be my #1 lowest rated drama of all time......... Yes I was that pissed off).  You might ask why it was so horrible..... well let me tell you a little tell of forty episode of a drama, where you fall in love with the lead male (he had been trapped into a loveless marriage with a horrible women) and he finds his wife's doppelganger/unknown twin sister.  In order to not lose his inheritance he spends 40 episodes having this twin pretend to be his wife.  They live together, fall in love, do everything a good OTP is supposed to do..... And then they have him decide to stay with his psycho wife who suddenly had a change of heart.  And the main female lead stays alone and single supporting her twin and her ex love of her life in their new found relationship.  WHAT THE FLIPPING HECK WERE THE WRITERS THINKING.  Don't make an OTP and then get to the point where you cant see how you can make them get together because of Korea's conservative issues about family relationships.  It is not like you did not know how the Korean society was before you wrote forty episodes into a sister dates her sisters husband drama.  And then you expect us to be ok with it?  Are you CRAZY.  Even the lead male threatened to leave the show he was so upset with the script problems.  You know you have problems when you are at the finish line and even the cast thinks that this is messed up.  Biggest disappointment EVER.

Dishonorable Mention
Marry Him if You Dare - A romantic time traveling comedy that fails at being funny nor romantic.  And the time travel plot feels forced and awkward.  One of those dramas that you don't care who she ends up with since they are all either blah or boring characters that deserve to not be remembered.

She is Wow - Way to ambitious in its attempt to be edgy and clever.  The whole My husband is gay and we are faking that his young lover is really our son back from America while we hide our real son next door with the wife's boyfriend...................oh and then people die..................... is so overdone that you just are shaking your head by the end.  And thanking the kdrama gods that this was only ten episodes and not a full length drama. 

That concludes my Worst Dramas of 2013 list.  Check back later in the week as I list my top dramas of the year as well as the mega Korean Hotties of 2013.

Sincerely,
Kmuse