It's finally December (is what I write when I started this post almost two months ago) - and damn, has it been a year. Not a good one in reality, but I watch some great shows. That counts for something, right? My method of in-taking shows has changed since last year - I've more readily dropped disappointed shows. Therefore, I had to massively expand the categories so I could fit in as many winning shows as physically possible!
THE CATEGORY AWARDS
Best Writing: Circle, I'm Your Destiny
Circle was an experimental show - there were twelve episodes, each split in half, one of which would be set in our time and the other set twenty years into the future. Slowly, as the show progresses, the threads of the plot start to tie the two halves of the story together until they're irreversibly meshed. And at the heart of this show is two brothers, separated by forces beyond their control and desperate to find each other again. Some have pointed out plot-holes, but I didn't really notice any and that didn't bother me. This show is an utter delight and undoubtedly one of the best this year.
This is more of an honourable mention, but I also wanted to say something about I'm Your Destiny. It's a little romantic comedy that would've passed under my radar if I weren't actively searching for it, and it was so clever in an understated way. Each episode the hero, instructed by God to court a woman who he is supposedly destined to marry, is given a clue towards how he can melt her heart. What's clever is how these always seemed so unrelated and strange but took me by surprise with how they tied in. Although I thought that Kamenashi Kazuya had far more chemistry with Yamashita Tomohisa than his leading lady, it's a funny little show that I enjoyed.
Best Directing and Execution: Overprotected Kahoko
Direction is something I never used to think much about, but there was a clear winner in this category for me this year. Overprotected Kahoko stands out, not only for it's delightfully weird heroine, but for the amount of symbolism and metaphors it uses to get across the progression of the story. Framing the narrative as a power struggle between a 'carefully, carefully' raised Princess and the reigning Queen was a great idea. I adore the there's a line around the territory in which Kahoko can be protected, and it's only when she ventures out of there that she can make big steps to become a more independent person. It's a genius metaphor. The show knows how it set itself apart from the competition, whether it's through the wacky characters, the family drama, or the great directing.
Best Romance: Strongest Deliveryman, School 2017
Somehow, I haven't mentioned two of my favourite shows of the year yet. Whilst the crop of romance stories was pretty awesome this year, for me there were clear winners in this category (Fight My Way is a close third choice, but I decided not to include it because Ae-ra constantly trying to force Dong-man to give up on his dreams frustrated me).
Strongest Deliveryman isn't something I initially had on my radar, but when Go Kyung-pyo and Chae Soo-bin were cast into leading roles, I had no choice but to sit up and listen. This wins hands-down for me as one of the best shows of the year because it's just so charming - although it's not entirely new concept, it still feels like something that hasn't been done, with a fundamentally 'good' hero and a quirky ensemble to boot.
School 2017 is a drama I was looking forward to from the moment it was announced - anyone who's been part of this community for a while will know about KBS's School series. After the horrible way that the last installment ended, School 2017 was the perfect remedy to restore my faith in the series. It was wonderful for many reasons - the focus on troubles of students regardless of class, grades or later life plans; the fun and thrilling underdog vigilante plot; the saddening and bittersweet focuses on family and lost time - but I'll point out the romance here. Just go watch it - there's something for everyone.
Best Comedy: The Best Hit, Buam-dong Revenge Club
The Best Hit is a show that, for many reasons, people either loved or hated - whilst the time-travel made no sense, the cast was (mostly) brilliant. Whilst the screen-time for each character was massively disproportional, the soundtrack was phenomenal. Despite it's flaws, the team knew how to draw the funny out of every scene, I still get the giggles thinking of about Yoon Shi-yoon, who naturally stole the show from the parade of rookie actors involved, and his excellent performance. He was the embodiment of everything that makes time-travel so funny.
Buam-dong Revenge Club was difficult to decipher from the teasers. On the outside, it looked like a revenge melo, but in reality it was a cute story about three women getting petty revenge on those who've put them down. The actresses had amazing chemistry with each other and their bond as sisters closer than blood was believable. It was sweet, immature and silly, and occasionally a little tragic, a great watch for when you're having a bad day.
THE RANDOM AWARDS
Best Character: Song Ji-won, Age of Youth 2
Across season one of Age of Youth, Song Ji-won was always played for laughs. She was the wild card, the girl you bring to a party because you know she'll liven it up. She teases you relentlessly, never takes anything seriously, and laments about how she doesn't have a boyfriend. That was all there was to her.
But this time she ruled her own story - and we found out as viewers that, not only is most of the persona she wears simply an act, but deeply rooted trauma from her past is bubbling up to the surface again. Park Eun-bin stepped it up this year and gave us a Ji-won who not only took the fans by storm, and drowned out almost all the other characters effortlessly. Although the writer was cruel enough to tell us that she dies young, we know that mood-maker Song Ji-won lived to the fullest until the very end. Only the brightest candles burn out quickly.
Best Secondary Couple: Young-choon and Hae-joo, Lingerie Girl's Generation
There are a lot of secondary couples I liked this year, but this is the only example I can think of where the secondary couple was so much more likable than the first. Where's Bona's character had a tendency to be whiny and entitled, her friend Hae-joo was so completely pure that she was a breath of fresh air. Although her relationship with rough-and-tumble Young-choon was laced with melo, the two of them had so much respect for eachother in a time where women were seen as second-class citizens, and that makes me immeasurably happy.
Best Bromance: Goblin
This isn't going to come as a surprise to anyone having seen the drama. Kim Eun-sook, the writer, does bromance better than anyone else, which is apparent across almost all of her shows. This is my personal favourite pairing, not just in the show, but across all her shows as a collective. Having an immortal Goblin and an amnesiac Reaper living together was so much more hilarious than I expected, but their initially backstory plunged the story into delicious tragedy. You know that these two have become inseparable best friends when their centuries of bad blood is settled with an apology. I suggest watching this epic fantasy just for them.
Best Villain: Strong Woman Do Bong-soon
I think we were lacking in compelling villains this year - whether this was because the villains were one-dimensional or because they had no real aspirations or motives behind the disgusting things they did. Yet, Strong Woman Do Bong-soon's villain wins for this category, despite possessing those issues. Why? Because he was genuinely fucking terrifying. Strong Woman's biggest charm is clearly the sweet romance, but the show keeps the stakes high with a kidnapper on the loose who decides to turn the women he torments into his seven wives. He's vile whether he's wearing that creepy skin mask or not. This is a great show for Halloween, or just when you really need some satisfying justice.
Biggest Disappointments: Introverted Boss, Tomorrow With You, While You Were Sleeping
I don't particularly want to talk about disappointing shows of the year, because whilst nothing failed spectacularly, there were a few that let me down. I've already talked about Tomorrow With You and Introverted Boss, so I'll talk about my most anticipated drama of the year - While You Were Sleeping.
Whilst Park Hye-ryun's comedic genius was definitely there, and it's clear that her love for procedural arcs is still burning bright. But While You Were Sleeping disappointed me because so many elements of the show were recycled from other shows where she'd used them better. so many of the elements she included in While You Were Sleeping were more satisfying in her other works. The dream powers turned out to be less fun than I hoped they would (everyone was having dream visions by the end of the story), they turned into an easy escape route, a guide that took the thrill out of the thriller aspects of the plot. The soundtrack was awful, pretty much every track was badly produced and gave me a headache, even the nice songs were too busy. The romance also felt lackluster, likely because Suzy couldn't carry romantic chemistry the way Lee Jong-suk could. Speaking of, this drama is worth watching solely for his performance - I thought he was doing as well as usual, but there was a scene near the end where he had to cry hysterically (I won't spoil) and it made me cry on cue. The boy just gets better and better.
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