The Problematic of the Unproblematic

END OF DECADE POST!!! Trotwood: As usual, at the end of every semester, I make a list of things I need to do or about which I need to think or things I need to not forget. On that list was this blog's end of year post. I hadn't heard anything about it, so I innocently messaged our fearless leader, worrying that I had forgotten a message about it. But you know how that goes. If you ask a question, you end up being the person in charge.😊 Thus, if you were looking for our usual best/worst dramas of 2019 and are disappointed, don't blame anyone but me. I'm the one that wanted to look back long-term. It is the end of a decade after all. I don't know about you, but my life both personally and professionally is completely different than what it was ten years ago. Much of it has to do with the influences that dramas in general and this blog in particular have had on me. I want to thank all the writers here for the warm welcome and our readers for indulging my less t...

kakashi: Another year gone, another one begins. Time is like an endless river and we ride it on our little boats for a while. I am happy to have found so many great blogger friends on this journey. May 2019 brings as many memorable dramas as 2018! Below: the PotUppers Picks of the Year. Good or bad doesn't matter, this year, we talk about what made an impact.

kakashi: I tend to express my love for a drama through recaps, but since my plate is too full for that, I want to at least spend some time babbling about The Rise of Phoenixes outside of RAWR. I absolutely love it. (I have currently seen up to episode 23, so, if you haven't seen this far yet, be aware of spoilers and if you've seen it all, be aware of spoilering me :) My first (rather long) post is about Ning Yi.

The Flame of Love By Chance: Burned Hot, Burned Out, Burned Fans Hearts Before we start, I should give a shout out to Caitlyn, Oppa, and Amanda. They are my LBC companions on twitter and the ones who know far more about this subgenre than I know about most things.  Stick around for a list of shows that they would recommend.

When this drama is not about a love so deep it is both beautiful and scary (see Part I of our review !), it is about the eternal struggle between good and evil, cops and criminals. Fastfood lovers and vegans. Also, we discuss what worked and what did not work ... and spend quite some time on the ending. I am still not sure how I feel about it. I'm feeling some kind of way about this GIF... Yes, so it's not only what worked and what did not but also who worked out and who did not . 

kakashi: Very often, I experience KDramland as stressful. It’s because it keeps pumping out show after show. It never stops, it commands constant attention and a LOT of time. And as shows become shittier and shittier (or I become more demanding - or both), watching the endless parade of beautiful oppas and puppies becomes less and less enjoyable, like too much fastfood. You kinda want it, because it gives you some pleasure, but it has no nutritional value and the more you eat, the more bloated and ultimately sick you feel. JoAnne: I think perhaps after a while you've just had enough, and need to 'taste' something different - plus, as a thinking adult you're very conscious of those times that what you 'feed' yourself is mostly of low nutritional value, and you begin to crave more substantial stuff. Okay, I think you get it. I never saw this morphing GIF before. I didn't even notice it changing at first! I saw his pretty face, and then I looked up and saw...

Dear Readers, today, I present you with a special kind of Guest Post ... Not long ago, I was contacted on this blog's Facebook page by a person without a blog, lets call her Nabi (as in 나비), who is still suffering from the after-effects of Faith. And because Nabi wanted to have closure, Nabi wrote a long and detailed review. But what good is a review if nobody but the reviewers gets to see it, right?! I immediately agreed to help Nabi to get over the agony that some KDramas can inflict on us by posting the review on this blog. It's a total win-win situation for everyone. Enjoy. *** Faith , how did you disappoint me?   Let me count the ways... I'm not savvy enough to pinpoint exactly where this series went awry -- whether it was the writing, the directing, the editing, the acting, or some lethal combination of the above – but it was, without a doubt, a series that I should have loved, but didn't. So here is my effort to reconcile the potential I thought ...