K Crunch November 2011 – Part 2 – K Dramas

Here’s part 2 of the November K Crunch, on K Dramas. If you haven’t seen Part 1, check our our reviews on Jay Park, Rania, and Clazzi.

Starting with Flower Boy Ramyun Shop!

Soooo. I could write a post about Flower Boy Ramyun Shop…or I could abandon you all and watch the show….*Martina sneaks away* (runs into Simon) I’m back!!! Hahaha just joking, I wouldn’t abandon you guise for a tv drama about one girl and 4 super hot Korean guys…*shifty eyes*

But seriously, I thought this drama was going to be a total rip off of Coffee Prince, which is my all time favorite Korean drama, but it takes around 6 episodes for the Ramyun Shop to get its flower boys. The rest of the episodes are focused on character development, which is a great thing, because I think that character development is an important detail that a lot of dramas are missing out on. Sure, you can have a cute plot about hot guys and girls interacting, but to shape the character into someone you can relate with or care about past the point of their looks is something really uncommon in a lot of dramas, and so I totally value it in this one.

Now this drama is not as deep as Coffee Prince, in my opinion. It does have a bigger focus on pretty boys and their ability to manipulate women (just by winking), but it still takes the time to show a slow change in the main playboy character. See, I really hate it when a book, drama, movie, or whatever, pushes a character to behave in a way that is out of their normal behavior just to advance the plot. I don’t want continuity in personality to be sacrificed for interesting plots. Fortunately, this drama does a nice job of allowing the plot to flow by slowly introducing plot changing characters, details, or changes of thought.

I don’t want to spoil much of it for you, which I’m worried I might have already done by talking about the plot a bit (though in barely any detail) in the video. Let’s just say I’m totally hooked on this drama.

Next up, Vampire Prosecutor!

Oh Vampire Prosecutor! How a show about a vampire could ever be boring is, really, quite an amazing feat in my books. I’m sorry to all those fans of the show that have to experience me ripping into this drama, but my hardcore vampire bias has unleashed a nasty side of me that should have remained in the deep dank darkness of a vampire castle. Buuu ah ah ah! Bad joke.

So this is supposed to be a CSI type murder mystery show, and I was hoping it would follow the same pattern: The plot to uncover the murderer come first, and character development – though not wholly neglected – comes second.

See, I really like the way CSI does it, which is mostly through the audience observing the CSI members in the field and then forming their own conclusions about their detailed actions. Once in a while, a CSI member’s personal life will spill into the show and reveal a bit of back detail on that member. They aren’t the most profound characters, mind you, but little bits of their personality are a welcome pause from the development of the plot.

Vampire Prosecutor does not do this at all. The show opens up with a back story about the vampire prosecutor, and then dives into the introduction of team members that are just painfully stereotypical. While the team solves their first murder together, the show sprinkles in flashbacks and hints of the vampire’s back story. My major problem is that I dont give a CRAP about this guy because the show has done nothing to help me LIKE him in the first place. He’s not kind, super smart or a playboy. He has little to no redeeming or endearing qualities. He only helps solve the cases via his blood drinking flashback ability (which is sooooo not vampire since the blood is already dead and decaying – but that’s a quibble) and his ability isn’t even that helpful to begin with.

Let me give you an example. In one of the episode the vampire gets a vision of a room with dolls. And so, every person they interview or every house they visit, they check to see if there are any dolls around, all the meanwhile his team is like :what the hell, why are we looking for dolls?” One of the visits they meet with the most suspicious eye-contact avoiding bitch woman, who is soooo unhelpful to the cops, almost to an offensive level. And, even though she was the last person to be seen with the victim, and she knows the victim is dead, she says to the cop, “oh this isn’t really a big deal. I’m busy can you just forget about it?” and she leaves to get a massage. Are you freaking serious? You tell cops not to make a big deal of it? How is this in any way believable?

Anyhow, they notice that she has a small doll keychain on her cellphone. WHOA! SHE MUST BE THE KILLER BECAUSE OF THAT DOLL!!!!! Yes, that’s clearly the most relevant evidence, not her super suspicious behavior, not because she was the last person to be with the victim WHO WAS AN ORPHAN THAT SHE PICKED UP IN A CAR FROM THE ORPHANAGE AND NEVER RETURNED WITH HER! The freaking keychain doll.

Sure, turns out, they’re right, BUT COME ON!!!!! EVERYONE ALREADY KNEW IT WAS HER BECAUSE SHE WAS SOOOOOOO SUSPICIOUS AND UNHELPFUL!!!!!! *nose bridge pinch*

Perhaps I’ve been spoiled by murder shows like Dexter, where dark characters are given loads of depth, and investigative skills are valuable, and so I’m coming at this show with high expectations. And perhaps I’m spoiled by vampire shows where vampires are pretty awesome. I don’t know. I just thought that with such a fresh idea for a show, like a vampire prosecutor, the show should have been immensely awesome. Instead, it was immensely disappointing. Boo-urns.

On a less serious and grumpy note, we have bloopers for K Crunch! Yay for being out of place! And lastly, if you didn’t read our first post on the Kpop section of K Crunch, we’re doing an interview with Clazzi from Clazziquai next week. Let us know what questions you think we should ask him :D

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