King of Dramas

Today I am reviewing King of Dramas, which I think is one of most under-appreciated K-Drama’s of 2012.  This show is a hidden gem, and if you haven’t watched it yet, you should.  It had all the things a great K-drama needs–a good plot, strong characters, awesome comic relief, and above all, it didn’t get bogged down in love triangle relationship troubles.  So many K-drama romantic comedies seem to get knee-capped in the second half by a relationship-triangle fiasco.

Don’t get me wrong; it still has a triangle, but the love “rival” is at least sympathetic and scenes that focus on that part of the series are not too drawn out.   I’ll admit I scene-skip when the love triangle gets too overblown, which happens a lot in shows with romantic plots or sub-plots.  I didn’t have to do that with this one.  So if you like that kind of thing, you may be a little disappointed, but I loved how this show handled it.  This series has managed to perfectly hit that balance between the dramatic, comedic, tragic, and heartwarming moments. I firmly believe it has a little bit of something for everyone.

I suppose I should go on to the specifics. The show stars Jung Ryeo Won as Lee Go Eun, a struggling script writer just trying to get by and get her first solo script. It also stars Kim Myung Min as Anthony Kim, a ruthless producer who’s a devout believer that “The Show Must Go On!” no matter what circumstances might come up. He is willing to do anything to make sure the show airs as planned– including torpedo-ing Lee Go Eun’s career, if he has to.    Everything seems fine until he pushes too far and someone dies, causing a giant public backlash.  Anthony Kim must then work his way back up from the bottom.

The problem? The only chance he has at a new project depends on convincing the still-unemployed Lee Go Eun to work with him again.

This show also has an amazing supporting cast including Choi Si Won, Oh Ji Eun, Jung Man Shik and Fujii Mina.  These supporting actors make the scenes without the main characters just as fun to watch.  In this respect, it’s one of the few true ensemble casts to come out recently.  The story craft in the series is also really above average for a romantic comedy.  Maybe it has something to do with the show being about a script writer, but the character motivations in this series are all well-developed and portrayed.

This is definitely not one of the K-dramas with a super syrupy romantic veneer and a flimsy plot.  In fact, I’d be comfortable asking my husband to watch this series with me– which I wouldn’t dare with other guilty-pleasure, romantic-fluff series such as Goong or You’re Beautiful.  If he knew I watched those shows and loved them, I’d probably get mocked mercilessly for months.   Anyway, you can watch this show in mixed company without worrying about being outed for liking sparkly princess stories and still have a great time.

Ultimately, King of Dramas is one of my favorite K-dramas of all time, with a high re-watch value as well. Absolutely recommended.

Please support the Korean cast and crew by watching King of Dramas at official sites. You can find it here:

DramaFever

Hulu

King of Dramas originally aired on SBS.