응답하라1994 ~ Answer Me 1994

One of my favorite dramas of all time is Answer Me 1994. I watched it first in the winter of 2013, soon after it first aired and again in 2014. Answer Me 1994 is a comedic, light-hearted drama that follows the growing pains of 7 young college students in 1994, all of whom recently moved to Seoul from the countryside. At that time Seoul was (as it still is now) the major city in Korea, but even more than now, other parts of the country were still relatively under-developed, lacking many of the western chains that are ubiquitous today.

One of the reasons I love this drama is that it is essentially nostalgic — it is meant to appeal to viewers who grew up in that time period and to evoke the decade when Korea (and the whole technology world) were changing rapidly. The drama does this masterfully and helped me understand where certain aspects of 21st century Korea have arisen from.

Although all the characters have entertaining storylines, the main plot revolves around Sung Na Jung (Go Ara) and her future husband. The drama involves a frame story set in 2013 in which Sung Na Jung has just moved to a new apartment. The doorbell rings and through the door camera we see all the members of Na Jung's college hasukjip (homestay or boardinghouse). In a voice over Na Jung tells the audience that one of the men below is her husband. From there on, each episode contains a small portion of the frame story and then flashes back to the characters' college days as they reminisce.

So what do I love so much about Answer Me 1994?

• This is one of the best written dramas I have watched. The characters come off as natural, sometimes goofy and very likeable. There are no real villains and conflict comes mostly through the coincidences of life rather than any fatal misunderstandings.
• Go Ara does amazingly well portraying the outspoken, passionate and sometimes insecure Na Jung. Sung Il Dong and Lee Il Hwa have wonderful roles as Na Jung's father and mother respectively. The rest of the main cast — Jung Woo, Yoo Yeon Suk, Kim Sung Kyun, Son Ho Jun, Baro (of B1A4) and Min Do Hee (of TinyG)— are all at times hilarious, pitiable and charismatic.
• The drama provides a special glimpse into the Korea of the 90s. You can watch the rise of college sports and kpop with their respective fandoms, the feelings surrounding the IMF crash (when Korea declared bankruptcy) and the rivalry between Seoul and the other provinces.

This is one drama I can watch again and again and the characters and situations never get old.

프로듀사 ~ PRODUCER

This summer I took the opportunity to watch the star-studded drama, Producer, which came out in the late spring of this year. The story follows Baek Seung Chan (Kim Soo Hyun) a rookie in the variety department at KBS, Tak Ye Jin (Gong Hyo Jin) the producer of Music Bank, Ra Joon Mo (Cha Tae Hyun) the producer of 1 Night, 2 Days and Cindy (IU) a popular singer as their professional (and love) lives overlap.

The story opens with the slightly clueless Baek Seung Chan who followed his college crush to KBS's variety department, only to discover on his first day that she is dating one of his sunbaes. At the same time, Tak Ye Jin, famous in the variety department for her temper, is having money troubles and dented a car on the way to work, but can't get in touch with the owner all day. Not only that, the star Cindy, who is appearing on Music Bank that evening refuses to change out of a risque outfit. Ra Joon Mo is having troubles of his own: his show ratings have reached the lowest of the low and the rumor is going around that 1 Night 2 Days will be cancelled very soon.

By the end of the first episode we discover that the car Tak Ye Jin hit is in fact Seung Chan's car, the man dating Seung Chan's crush is Ra Joon Mo, who's show is, in fact, getting cancelled and Joon Mo is actually Ye Jin's childhood friend and POTENTIAL SPOILER: roommate.

If you noticed I didn't mention IU too much it's because she doesn't figure too heavily in the opening of the story. At its core, Producer is a drama about growing/changing relationships, especially in the face of the media and media culture. Cindy (IU), is cold, isolated and overworked. At the age of 23 she has been active in the industry for 10 years and has no friends. Over the course of the drama she struggles with all these issues and we could say her coming of age is the main storyline.

In fact, there are many different main storylines all of which are roughly equally balanced within the drama. For some people, especially those who prefer to watch only the main romance, this could be a drawback to Producer. The show is somewhat experimental within the kdrama genre and did not do as well in Korea as the popularity of the main actors/actresses might have predicted.

However, there are many things to love about Producer as well:

• The four main stars (Kim Su Hyun, Gong Hyo Jin, Cha Tae Hyun and IU) all had wonderful performances. As a group the actors had wonderful chemistry resulting in some very hilarious scenes in which Gong Hyo Jin and Kim Su Hyun perform their best (or possibly worst) aegyo. 
• The drama is FULL of cameos. Even many very small characters are easily recognizable stars. Just trying to find out who's who and get in on the joke can be a lot of fun. Look for Girl's Generation, JYP, Hani of EXID, Dara of 2NE1, Kang Seung Yoon of Winner, Lee Seung Gi and many others.
• You get to peek into the world of Korean variety television. All of the work scenes are filmed right in KBS and the scenes in which the producers come up with ideas, test-run games and edit the raw footage are often hilarious, while being true to life.
• Again, the actors really made the drama. Besides that, the show only lasts 13 episodes and who doesn't have time for that?