Read on Twitter
2020 review thread. I read a lot of op-eds analysing k-drama's popularity and far more of them emphasised the male leads (hot, good) than the reason I watch them: how they write and portray women. A #DecemberDramas roundup for @dramasoverflow. ~15 tweets. 
if you don't like TV.
if you don't like TV.
Seo Dan (Seo Ji-hye, Crash Landing On You). Unfriendly, uptight icon. Second best character on the show. Gets the arc she deserves without ever becoming ~likable. Made barrettes the fashion accessory of the year.
Bonus: the best character on the show, Dan's mom, played by Oscar-winning actor Jang Hye-jin, who *also* - phew! - played mom to another immortal character on my list this year. Legend.
Lee Se-young (Park Eun-bin, Stove League). Hard-working. Earnest. Delusional fan. Yet she’s never childish, one-dimensional or boring. A small masterpiece of optimism and resilience. Park Eun-bin has more charisma than the sun.
Jung Geum-ja (Kim Hye-soo, Hyena). Discomfiting sleazebag with more moral clarity than anyone, including the good guys, in the establishment she’s fighting. Could not have been written, acted by a superstar, and given a happy ending in any other industry in the world.
Chae Seong-hwa (Jeon Mi-do, Hospital Playlist). Little Dr Perfect whose earnestness would have been comic in the hands of a lesser writer. JMD produced a beautiful non-attn seeking performance in a big, loud ensemble. Would make this list for this alone:
Koo Seo-ryeong (Jung Eun-chae, The King): Accidentally great character in a lousy show: clever, ambitious, unapologetic. Old-fashioned man-hater. Glad I dropped the series before they punished her for it.
Kim Eun-hee (Han Ye-ri, My Unfamiliar Family). There's a moment late in the first episode, where we see Eun-hee driving home, belting out an old song on the radio from a painful moment in her past. We stay with her as her voice screeches, then wavers, then falls. +
Her face changes –– minutely. We know she's going to change direction before we see it. Han Ye-ri's wasn't the only great performance on this v unlikely show but she's arresting in a way v few others come close to. (Cinema Twitter, get ready to simp for her after Minari.)
Goo Se-ra (Nana, Into The Ring). Gobsmacked by how much I loved this bimbo––yes, bimbo. Her biggest success is accidental. She has to have her job explained to her. She's a broke drifter who gets by on sheer self-confidence and sheer decency. You have to love her. Outstanding.
Han Yeo-jin & Choi Bit (Bae Doona & Jeon Hye-jin, Stranger 2). No relationship affected me more than theirs. Ppl said this season was less affecting than the first, but Bit & Yeo-jin are an *improvement* on the big dramatic mentor-disciple problem in #1. Two greats.
Finally, an honourable mention: Wol-ju from Mystic Pop-up Bar, played by the often-dissed Hwang Jung-eum with just the right approach: absurd, loud, tender and not too serious. A breath of fresh air in a bad summer.
I picked characters for this thread because it seemed like the best way to talk about the tremendous collaborative talent that makes these shows work: not the least of them the wonderful women actors and writers who pluck them from their ribs.
This is for the brilliant women with whom I've enjoyed watching + thinking + talking through stuff this year:
@dpanjana, @parodevi, @festerfaster and @dramasoverflow, and others who can't be named here. #DecemberDramas
@dpanjana, @parodevi, @festerfaster and @dramasoverflow, and others who can't be named here. #DecemberDramas
