Review extravaganza time!
I know: Already? It feels like just the other day I was killing myself to corral all my thoughts in coherent fashion in a monster review of 2011′s dramas, and already it’s time to lose sleep wrangling my thoughts together for 2012. Time sure flies when you’re having fun, or old. Guess which one I am?
These days I shy away from blanket statements like “This was an awesome year” or “This was a terrible year.” Dramaland has been putting out so much material that all the nuance gets sucked out of a flattening statement like that. If anything, 2012 was the year it overflowed with variety—so yes, there were terrible shows, and there were awesome shows, and there were shows every step in between. But thanks to the explosion of cable programming—aided by the launching of not one, not two, but four new cable stations boasting big drama lineups—there was just about something for everyone.
I’ll start with the non-drama series, since they’re a different format than our standard prime-time miniseries. It seems apt to talk about them together, to compare apples to apples. As with all years, I add the caveat that not all the year’s dramas are talked about in this post, but future reviews in our year-end series will do a pretty good job covering the spread.
THE SITCOM
( Vampire Idol )
( You’re Here, You’re Here, You’re Really Here )( Standby )MINI-DRAMA
( Ma Boy )THE DRAMAS
( Color of Woman )
( History of the Salaryman )( The Moon That Embraces the Sun )( Dream High 2 )
( Shut Up: Flower Boy Band )( Rooftop Prince )( Queen In-hyun’s Man )( Dr. Jin )( Gaksital )( I Do, I Do )( Big )( Arang and the Magistrate )( Answer Me, 1997 )( Faith )( Vampire Prosecutor 2 )( Nice Guy )( Oohlala Spouses )STILL IN PROGRESS…
I’m setting these dramas off in their own section, because as of this writing they’re all still airing. But some are already near the halfway mark and next year’s a long way off, so I’ll touch on them briefly here.
( I Miss You )( King of Dramas )( Jeon Woo-chi )( School 2013 )Source: Dramabeans [
Poll #1883777]
My favourite by far this year (and one of my favourite period) was Arang. What about you guys?