For post #1, I have decided to tell my kdrama discovery story. I love reading about people’s first experiences with kdrama, and it makes a great introduction.
I have always been a TV junkie and have long enjoyed the experience of getting completely immersed in a show. When I got a subscription to Netflix about four years ago, it revolutionized my TV experience. I now had the opportunity to “binge watch” entire seasons of TV shows at whatever pace I wanted. My husband (aka Mr. Kay) and I blew through many series over the next couple years. But as much as we love TV, we are a bit picky in our tastes, so we soon found ourselves at the bottom of the American TV barrel. We were left with a lot of mediocre shows that really just didn’t satisfy.
So late one night after Mr. Kay had went to bed just before Christmas 2013, I was browsing Netlfix’s offerings as I had many times before, trying to find something, anything, worth watching. After about 10 minutes of searching, something different stuck out. A show called “The Great Doctor” (also known as “Faith”). I read the description and thought it sounded kind of interesting. I had always liked time travel stories, but I had never heard of this. What category/type of show was it? It was…a Korean drama!?? Sure, I had quickly passed by that category before, but who watched Korean dramas? I was vaguely aware that they had a following here in America, but again, seriously, who watched them? Now the subtitles didn’t scare me off. I had watched my fair share of foreign movies and a handful of Japanese anime shows, but aside from a few British shows I loved, I didn’t really have any in depth experience with another country’s tv offerings.
Things were about to change. I decided I would give “The Great Doctor” a go. Now unlike most people, I didn’t fall in love immediately or anything. I thought the show was a little slow to get going. If it was an American show, I probably would have given up on it within 15 minutes, but I wanted to get a feel for a Korean show. It felt different in so many ways. One thing I was quickly intrigued with was the character General Choi Young (who just happened to be none other than Lee Min Ho). I continued to be mildly interested, so I watched two episodes.
The next day I headed to good old Google to find out more about this Kdrama phenomenon and what it was all about. I read about other people’s crazy obsessions with their dramas and couldn’t help but be fascinated. It seemed like there were tons of dramas to choose from, so I thought maybe I should give a really popular one a go. After some reading, a popular classic kept popping up…it was “Full House“. The premise sounded funny, and I wanted to give it a try. Luckily, it was on Hulu. I mentioned to Mr. Kay that I was going to give this Korean drama a try, and to my surprise, he wanted to check it out too!
So on December 27, 2013, we started “Full House”. Two days later, we emerged new people. We had completed the entire show and were in awe. We were fascinated with this new culture and were craving more. I find it funny now, but I vividly remember Mr. Kay worrying that maybe “Full House” was the best kdrama had to offer. What if nothing else was as good? Haha! If he only knew. I assured him that I had read about lots of other good shows, and I was confident that we would enjoy them too. Now I will always have a special place in my heart for “Full House”, but most kdrama fans know just how much more awesomeness is out there. I found another drama with the guy from “The Great Doctor” in it called “City Hunter“, and we blew through that one too, closely followed by “Boys Over Flowers“.
Of course, that was just the beginning. I had been kissed by kdramas. A new passion had been born. I’m lucky that my husband just happens to share that passion. We were in deep, and there was no coming back. And I wouldn’t have it any other way…
So what was your first kdrama experience like? Leave a comment below.
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