The site seems to be settling. The configurations are coming into focus. The issues are slowly being wiped away.

The timing seems to be ripe to dwell on TV for a moment.

Yesterday, I finished watching Hotel Del Luna. Once I finished episode 7, I was ready to binge through the rest. The story was great. The characters were great. A lot of the imagery was fantastic. I laughed out loud a lot. Although it’s not my favorite series ever, it represents what I like most about k-drama. The story is great and it makes me feel good.

I particularly enjoyed the series after watching several series that I didn’t enjoy. Squid Game was the first “k-drama” I remembering watching. It was in February of 2023, before I met my friend. There were parts of the story I liked. There were some good characters. In general, it was a story about awful people who hurt good people and, in the end, the bad people triumph. It left me feeling sad and annoyed.

The next series I watched after that was recommended by my friend: Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha. This series had great characters, a great story, and it felt like it was the correct length. A lot of shows have odd episodes that seem to only drag the story out. Many series seem better suited for 8 or 12 episodes, but they stretch to 16 episodes and it feels unnecessary. Almost everything about Hometown felt right. This is the show that taught me to love k-drama, generally.

Still, there are shows I hate. I was recently reminded about this when I watched The Glory, A Killer Paradox, Weak Hero, and Squid Game 2. These are shows I either heard other people discuss or read about online. They weren’t terrible for what they were. I understand the appeal. It’s not what I like about k-drama.

For me, I like to imagine a fantasy world. I like a world where people are generally good and moral. Traditional values are the norm and deviant behavior is frowned upon. When I look at the real world, I can easily find corruption, abuse, immorality, hatred, violence. Why would I watch TV and be entertained by the glorification of the worst of humanity?

So, Hotel Del Luna was a great return for me. I’ll stay away from the dark shows for a while. After binging for the last week, I think I’ll spend some time thinking about what to watch next.

Now, I can focus on this web hosting nonsense instead of watching TV all evening.