Hallmark For All Seasons

Hey there, everyone!  I felt it was time to dust this place off and post again since it has been months!  You are long overdue for an explanation of where I have been since January!

With the best of intentions I had hoped to watch at least one Hallmark movie a month in an attempt to continue providing new content for this site. Alas, that didn’t happen. My Tivo is chock full of Hallmark movies recorded since February, and I’ve not watched a single one. And to be completely honest with you, I’ve not had a desire to watch one over the last 5 months.

Don’t get me wrong – I still love Hallmark movies, but I have enjoyed not feeling like I *need* to watch and pick apart the movies I love. Will I ever watch the 20+ movies currently saved on my Tivo? Who knows. I know that a couple weeks ago I accidentally deleted one, and was surprised that I didn’t have a moment of panic like I have in the past when I’ve accidentally deleted something from my queue. I gave it nothing more than a shrug and a brief “Oh well,” before moving on. That’s new for me.

So what HAS my Hallmark viewing been replaced with?

Let me tell you.

K-Dramas Are My (New) Obsession

Allow me to introduce you to the wonderful world that is the k-drama/c-drama.

What are k-dramas some of you might ask? They are the Asian (“K” for Korean and “C” for Chinese) tv shows and movies that you might occasionally see pop up on your Netflix recommendations list. I had watched a few k-dramas and movies (2018’s “Love Alarm” was my favorite at the time) and a number of years ago and enjoyed them tremendously even if they were a bit over the top sometimes. But after a brief dip of my toe in the K-drama waters, I went back to regular programming. However, this past January my daughter started force-feeding me YouTube content of her favorite k-pop musical group, Seventeen. It didn’t take me long to look forward to our near-nightly deep dives into the hundreds of episodes that Seventeen has put out since their debut in 2015.

As a result, I also found myself seeking out k-dramas again on Netflix. I found rom-coms, I found thrillers, I found zombie shows, I found teen angst drama, I found political thrillers, I found straight up love stories, and I even found the most adorable Mafia man on the planet. I discovered the Korean version of everyman Kristoffer Polaha, and the Korean version of adorable Ashley Williams. But more importantly I found well-told stories that kept me enthralled, made me cry, had me swooning, or simply caused me to laugh out loud on many occasions.

The shows are wild because you can have a storyline that is very romantic/dramatic and then you’ll have a bunch of characters that are only there for weird over-the-top shenanigans. At first I was very nonplussed at some of these choices, but now I know it’s just what k-dramas do. And almost every time I grow to love the over-the-top characters despite the downright cartoonish writing and acting.

Do you have to watch with subtitles on? Yes – unless you are fluent in Korean or Chinese.
Are some of the comedic elements over the top bordering on farcical? Absolutely.
Are screeching mothers or overbearing fathers just about the only parental portrayals in these shows? 99% of the time, yes.

But like Hallmark, k/c-dramas have product placement within their shows (for a while I thought Subway was paying for every single k-drama out there, they were SO prevalent). Even better, K/c-dramas have tropes galore. SO. MANY. TROPES. Anyone who visits this site knows that one of the main things I love about Hallmark movies are the tropes.

Tropes

Here’s a list of just 20 tropes that I’ve seen – trust me when I say there are SO MANY MORE than this:

• Aforementioned product placement – It can be Subway, or a brand of Korean instant coffee, or a type of makeup or facial moisturizer.  It’s just as obvious as the can of Folgers or that fancy greeting card that appears in many Hallmark movies.
• The wrist grab – Most k/c-dramas are known for being more like Jane Austen than HBO.  A simple hand or wrist grab is triple highlighted on most of these shows, as it’s one of the rare times that two romantic leads may actually have physical contact, given how proper they are meant to be. These moments are divisive for k-drama fans, since some see it as the man being controlling, but they are mostly played as the person (male or female) wanting to protect someone from a bad situation.

• Previous meetings – A lot of times, the romantic leads will find out in the next to last episode that they actually met when they were children – this is not as common, but it does happen quite a bit (enough to be a trope, certainly).
• Disapproving/overbearing/abusive parents – As I said, it is RARE to find a loving parent in these shows.  Most of the time these awful parents are portrayed as being the reason a character is a workaholic or extremely successful, but can also result in a leading character who is extremely immature and needs to grow up (read: stand up to her parents).  It’s the one trope I can’t stand in k/c-dramas but it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon, unfortunately.
• Love triangles – Oh my word. What would ANY romance be without a love triangle? The triangles come out of the woodwork in these shows, and I’m here for it.  Be they teenagers or adults – there will somehow be someone who has feelings for someone who has feelings for someone else, and chaos and hurt feelings ensue.
• Fever dreams – Inevitably, a character will fall ill or suffer an accident and end up in the hospital or consigned to the bed at home.  And the other lead ends up being the one that stays at their side, gently but ineffectively mopping their brow through the night.  And the moment they go to step away, the comatose patient will grab their hand and begin deliriously murmuring “don’t leave” while making some kind of confession.  Honestly, it might be my favorite k-drama trope out of all of them, I’m not going to lie. Because the MOMENT someone goes to the hospital or gets sick, I know what’s coming.
• Back-to-back hugs – This goes back to the Jane Austen of it all. Hugging while facing front is very intimate for k/c-dramas, but a character hugging someone from behind is more innocent.  Usually this kind of hug includes some sort of admission that cannot be said when looking that person in the eye.
• That’s a lot of Jinro soju – Soju is an alcoholic beverage that is seemingly imbibed in mass quantities to the point of drunkeness.  This drunken state usually leads to a love confession of some kind, which the character is then horrified to remember the following morning while the person on the other end of the confession usually acts like they didn’t hear it.  But they totally did.  Added note: I’ve recently taken up drinking soju and the kind sold here in the U.S. is delightfully good.  It’s only half the proof level of what they sell in Korea, so I have no doubt that people do overdrink with regularity in that country. Side trope entry belongs to seeing them drink makgeolli, which is a rice wine similar to sake. They drink it out of bowls and it looks like watered down milk. It is also very tasty (I have a bottle in my fridge right now as I type).

• Open eyed kisses – These shows don’t avoid kissing completely.  But when characters do eventually kiss, 99% of the time, one of them keeps their eyes open in shock. Even “Vincenzo,” the Mafia drama, featured a hilarious open-eyed kiss at one point. Fortunately it morphed into a legit kiss that was a highlight of the season.
• Obligatory male shower scene – This is so viewers can see how fit the leading man is.  Obviously we only see them from the waist up, but they are always fit. I don’t know why showrunners feel this is necessary, but apparently it is. I don’t mind.
• Rooftop scenes – If you only had k-dramas as your reference point, you’d think every single building in Korea had people milling around on the rooftops having intense conversations.
• Bullying – This is a saddest trope (even sadder than the abusive parent trope).  Apparently Korea’s school bullying became such an issue that the country now has many outreach and awareness programs to try to get it to stop.  Some k-drama fans say the bullying portrayed in is over the top, and others who have experience in the Korean school system say it’s completely accurate.  Either way, if there’s an extremely introverted/shy/troubled character, chances are they were/are being bullied.
• Inevitably, everyone cries – Even the male leads.  EVERYONE cries at least once. In fact, if the male lead doesn’t cry in at least one episode, then he’s a monster. Even Vincenzo cried in a couple episodes.
• Hand clenching – A way to show emotion without SHOWing the emotion.  “The King’s Affection” had multiple hand clenches in every episode to the point that a person would be blackout drunk after watching just one episode if they had to drink every time someone was shown clenching a fist.
• The company dinner – any k-drama set in the workplace will eventually show the entire work team having dinner together and drinking soju. I’m curious about whether work teams are really THAT close that they go out to dinner so much? I’ve been with my current company for over 5 years and I can count the number of times we’ve been out for happy hour on exact zero fingers.
• The same songs playing over and over again – This isn’t necessarily a TROPE, per se, but even when the songs are GREAT, if you are binge-watching these shows you will grow to HATE the 3-4 songs that show up every episode. Maybe it’s not as noticeable if you only watch an episode every few days. But watch 3-4 in a row? The songs will quickly be like nails on a chalkboard. But I’ll admit that I’ve downloaded a couple of them and when they come on, they immediately take my brain back to the show.
• Hangover soup – but also fried chicken – what with all the soju they drink, it inevitably leads to conversations the next day about hangover soup. And if a character celebrates their birthday, they will definitely be served a bowl of seaweed soup. And a lot of shows also feature fried chicken at least once.
• Robotic kisses – This is adjacent to the open-eyed kisses. But when characters do eventually kiss, it will be even more chaste than the vanilla kisses one sees on Hallmark. It is literally just two mouths pressed together. That’s it. It’s the weirdest thing EVER. But it’s so normal in these shows that then a couple does actually show signs of a true kiss, it’s downright shocking.
• Fake dating – this trope is not only popular on Hallmark, but it’s popular on k-dramas too! I just finished a k-drama last night that featured a fake relationship.
• Cliffhangers for everyone! On K-dramas, EVERY episode is a cliffhanger. I’m not kidding. EVERY episode. It makes binging an entire season a very easy thing to do. Because you HAVE to know what happens next.

Shows I Recommend

So how do you get started? Start searching up stuff to watch on Netflix. Here are a few that are good “starter” shows.

Crash Landing On You (2019) (Netflix) – this is my all-time #1 favorite k-drama. Plot: A paragliding mishap drops a South Korean heiress in North Korea – and into the life of an army officer, who decides he will help her hide. The leading man, Hyun Bin, is DREAMY and his chemistry with co-star Son Ye Jin was palpable (and real – they got married in real life and last year gave birth to their first child). It’s only 16 episodes and has a great supporting cast. And while I think it’s portrayal of life in a small North Korean village as downright whimsical and quaint is utter nonsense when compared to what I’ve read life is actually like for those suffering under that dictatorship regime, it’s still a fantastic series.

Vincenzo (2021) Netflix – this is my all-time #3 (I’ll talk about my #2 below).   Plot: During a visit to his motherland, a Korean-Italian mafia lawyer gives a conglomerate a taste of its own medicine with a side of justice.  Song Joong-Ki is a baby-faced treasure in this show.  His main co-stars Jeon Yeo-Been and Ok Taec-yeon are also fantastic.  It’s 20 episodes long, but each episode runs almost 1.5 hours, so basically, this show is the length of 20 Hallmark movies.  Incredible character development, great chemistry from the entire cast, and a couple of truly evil villains that you REALLY REALLY want Vincenzo to bring down.  And there’s also a little bit of romance in there to boot.

Business Proposal (2022) (Netflix) – this is a straight up rom-com.  Plot: In disguise as her friend, Ha-ri shows up on a blind date to scare away her friend’s prospective suitor. However, plans go awry when he turns out to be Ha-ri’s CEO and he makes a proposal.  This 16-episode show has two leads (Kim Se-jeong and Ahn Jyo-seop) who are fun to watch together in their eventual fake relationship storyline.  Ahn Jyo-seop also starred in a sci-fi crime drama called ‘Abyss’ that I enjoyed a lot.

Extraordinary Attorney Woo (2021) (Netflix) – this is a legal drama with romance thrown in.  I adore this show and it’s a rare one that is getting a Season 2 (albeit not for a couple years since in late 2022 Kang Tae Oh started his mandatory 2-year military service). Plot: Woo Young Woo is a young lawyer with Asperger’s syndrome. She boasts a high IQ, an impressive memory and a wonderfully creative thought process, but she struggles with everyday interactions.  The cast is delightful, the “case of the week” is usually good, and chemistry between sweet Park Eun-Bin as Atty Woo and Kang Tae-oh as Jun-Ho is fabulous.  There are talks to adapt this and bring it to American television, and I’m VERY fearful that they won’t get it right.  Because this original Korean version is almost perfect.

If you are the rare Hallmark viewer that also likes thrillers/horrors, I also recommend a show called “Sweet Home” – I won’t post the video here, but the title is linked if you want to check it out. This is my #2 favorite k-program. Keep in mind – this is a HORROR show so it’s brutal, violent, intense and contains some pretty horrible scenes of bullying. But actor Song Kang (one of my faves) is amazing in it, and the special effects near the end of the 16-episode season are nothing short of breathtaking (I told someone that the awful sfx in the first few episodes were the filmmakers saving the movie budget for one particularly amazing scene near the end of the show). The trailer is very graphic but will leave you in no doubt as to what you’ll be seeing in the show if you choose to watch it. You’ve been warned so don’t come at me if you watch the trailer and it’s more gory than you anticipated.

If you like any of these and want to watch more, below is a graphic showing my current Top 15 out of the 30 or so I’ve watched over the past few months.  “Attorney Woo” would actually be in the fourth spot to the right of “Vincenzo” if Letterboxd had it listed in their database.  It reflects a good mix of romance, comedy, fantasy, historical, sci-fi, musical and thriller.  Actors I like include Hyun Bin (“Crash Landing” and “Memories of the Alhambra”), RoWoon (“The King’s Affection,” “She Would Never Know” and “Tomorrow”) and Ji Chang-wook (“Lovestruck in the City” and “The Sound of Magic”).  Shoutout to Kim Jae-wook who is great in “Her Private Life.”  He cries a LOT in that show during the last few episodes. *lol*

So What About Hallmark?

If you’ve made it this far down in my post, then thank you for reading and I hope you’ll tune in to some of these k-dramas.  And now  you know where I’ve been. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying all the k-dramas and c-dramas that I can get in front of me.  Will I ever get back to Hallmark? Sure. I know I’ll be watching the Christmas movies coming up next month, as well as at the end of the year. But will I review all the other movies that come out all year long? I’ll be honest – I can’t say for sure. But stick around – I’ll definitely review the Christmas movies when they come out. So stay tuned!