Living in the Sea of Denial - Coming to Terms with My Kdrama Addiction
Oh, my introduction to Korean dramas started out innocently enough, when I recorded what I thought was a movie to be saved for viewing during my rather habitual bouts of insomnia. When I watched it I was like "WTH? There's no setup, these people are going to sleep on the floor in their clothes, and they are yelling and smacking each in a foreign language!" But I have to admit, by the time the cliffhanger ending came, I wanted to see more. Imagine the feeling of joy that came over me when I searched the TV guide and found that same show was actually a series! And would be on next week--twice!
I started looking forward to my weekly meetings with all those names I couldn't distinguish and faces I couldn't recognize. They were so darn pretty! (Oh, and the women weren't bad, either.) After a few weeks, I really needed a little more info on what I was watching, and wondered if Google would have any information on it. HA! If you're reading this, you know I'm preaching to the choir here, because Google is a Korean Drama lover's best friend. And there, within the depths of cyberspace, a whole new world opened up to me, where literally HUNDREDS of other dramas were at my disposal. Instantly, whenever I turned on my laptop!
At this point I was already possessing an overwhelming curiosity and desire to watch more. Some miscellaneous being directed me to what they called the "beginning" Winter Sonata. Whoa--that was some crazy stuff! From there I went on to Coffee Prince (ahhh Han Gyul), then Full House (Rain, who's he?), then on and on...well, you get it. Eventually current dramas caught my eye, and I soon joined the thousands of others waiting (im)patiently for subs to come out, reading recaps and making comments on blogs. But secretly I began to wonder if an unhealthy addiction was forming.
Could there really be such a thing as being addicted to Korean Dramas? I sheepishly entered the search terms into Google, shielding the computer from any possible wandering eyes so as not to be discovered. Bing, bing, bing, bing....there were sites attesting to Kdrama addiction everywhere! Thundie's Prattle, Dramabeans and some others even had personal testimonies. They were hilariously insane, but surely I wasn't that bad, was I? For a while I scoffed at the idea, but the evidence doesn't lie.
I could no longer deny the signs of addiction when I:
had circles under my eyes the size of saucers and was mumbling words like yobsayo, aniyo
and chingu
was using a
comforter in 90 degree weather so I could watch dramas under it into the wee
hours without disturbing my husband
started plotting devious ways to hold my family hostage so they’d watch a drama with me
opened a
separate Twitter account with an alias so I could tweet incognito about dramas with
other like-minded KD lovers
started picking hotels, coffee shops and book stores when traveling based on how fast an internet connection they had so as not to get the shakes from withdrawal
Began to think I possessed superhuman skills that allowed me to fit 5 hours worth of work into the
20 minutes before a deadline--after only
having 3 hours of sleep
And the #1 thing that made me realize I was in denial about being a Kdrama addict was:
I actually
believed myself when I said “I’m just going to watch until the end of this
episode, then I’m going right to bed!”
Which brings me back to today. When you watch dramas, you want to discuss dramas, and everything drama related. So Kakashi, dear, I hope you don't mind yet another testimony of Kdrama addiction and my need to discuss it. Because there will always be new watchers out there, wondering if they, too, are addicted. And let's be honest--these kinds of things never get old!
Which brings me back to today. When you watch dramas, you want to discuss dramas, and everything drama related. So Kakashi, dear, I hope you don't mind yet another testimony of Kdrama addiction and my need to discuss it. Because there will always be new watchers out there, wondering if they, too, are addicted. And let's be honest--these kinds of things never get old!