Entertainment Tonight. . . Er. . Sorta?

Let me pain a picture for you: You are used to being able to get a hold of just about any book you want, watch anything on TV or choose any other form of entertianment you please. Now take that easy access away. Well friends, this is where I live. Yes, Korea has English TV shows and Movies. Hell, super action is full of em. However, unless you like watching CSI, CSI and CSI then you might have a problem. The main issue is that many shows either don't come over here or they are seasons behind. Heroes comes on here, but it only comes on during certain parts of the year. A lot of reruns also come on here. The Simpsons and Sex in The City are big ones here so I see them on all the time. . . not so good. I watched The Boondocks, Cowboy Bebop and a lot of very random shows. Shows like "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" don't make the grade here. Ironic humor doesn't go over well with Koreans and I'm not sure why. Movies are the same, only major block busters come here or movies with major Korean actors. So you're choice of movies at the theratre of limited (Thanks for the few choices we have!). So unless I want to watch the Starcraft Channel, I have to download shows. . . and to make that difficult, most American websites (NBC, ABC, etc) that stream shows are blocked in this region. That means' no Aqua Teen Hunger Force for this guy here. But I have found ways around it, and these are a few of those recent selections.

I recently watched the first season of True Blood and I have to say I was impressed with it. I had no idea what to expect of the show because I wasn’t home for all the hype around it. I watched it with no expectations or pre-conceived notions. I was rather surprised with the storyline and the characters. I’m enjoying it quite a bit as the writers are keeping everything tight and interesting. So now that the second season has recently started up, I have something to look forward to each week from home.


So now that I have a little more time than normal and I don’t have any books to read, I developed a K-drama habit. I can thank a few friends from home (and one here) for this, as it caused me to watch a few random shows back in during the winter months.
I have watched a few shows recently or scanned a few episodes of things looking for something interesting. The show that’s become my current crack is Strike Love. It’s based off a Korean comic about a baseball team made up of misfits who beat the odds to become pro ball players. Beneath this underdog tale is a love triangle between four main charcaters. Now after the evil that is Boys Over Flowers I had to detox from K and J Drama watching. I didn’t know if I could handle another crazed show. Turns out it’s pretty damn good. The acting on the show is surprising. I’ve watched my share of foreign dramas and I often find that while some of them have endearing moments or interesting ideas, the acting often makes things tough for my western thought process to swallow. But Strike Love has been the exception to the rule. Heck, even the kids in the first episodes are good! It doesn’t hurt that the backdrop for this show is baseball. I’m a sports fan at heart and the idea of the underdog fighting to become more than what the world tells him that he’s capable of tugs at love for all things sport.





So, on to my more. . . sensitive side. In my search for K-drama entertainment, I found another show that seems to work despite my brain telling me I'm insane for watching it. Shining Inheritance (or Great Inheritance as I’ve seen it called) has wiggled it’s way into my viewing rotation. The main character is a sweet but spunky girl who (surprise!) grew up privileged but lost everything after her father’s death. It’s literally a Cinderella story. The alarms were signaling my gag reflex to go off, but I gave it a chance. The first two episodes threw me for a loop and I was kind of impressed. I was thinking “Oh look, someone’s figured out how to write!” Turns out there’s enough character development and story to keep me interested for some reason or another. The heroine Go Eun Sung is who Jan Di (Boys Over Evil) should have been; cute without being annoying. But to me, the most fun characters are the evil step mother Baek Sung Hee, the spoiled silly housewife Oh Young Ran and the best friend Lee Hye Ri. Supporting characters are usually the most interesting. Afterall, the main characters are usually there to just stand around and look either pretty or sad.



So this brings me finally to the big question: "Why the hell do you watch this?" Well, i suppose that's a loaded question. I'm not the typical audience for such stuff and I don't honestly know why some of it appeals to me. I understand why i watch Strike Love. Being an old school anime fan, I'm already used to watching shows with substitles and cultrual differences don't shock me. Strike Love is essentially a Live Action Sports Anime/Manga (it IS based off a manga afterall). Unlike most shows of this nature, the production values are high, the dramatic tension is well done and despite the over-the-top nature of the charcaters (it is a soap opera), it's entertaining.
Shining Inheritence is a tough one. I'm not adverse to qirky romances. However, I usually DON'T like the fans of such shows. They bother me. Fan girl squealing over the hot asian boys is a huge turn off to such things. And let's face it, the formula for such shows is more predictable than a dumb action movie. Yet, I can at least see the appeal as trashy TV. It's the same reason i watch the new 90210; it's funny to watch people behaving badly, even if they are cardboard cut out archetypes. I end up enjoying them for what they are in my own way. Sometimes things are popular for a damn reason I guess?