Our bean series continues! First up was our Bean of Greatness — now we give out the Bean of Disappointment. You’d think it would be easy, with so much disappointment to go around, but how do you pick just one? Add your own personal Bean of Disappointment in the comments and join the 2024 Year in Review fun!
missvictrix: So much disappointment, so little time. I have a lot to go around this year, but I think my most bitter disappointment is Cafe Minamdang. Seo In-gook being his amazing self and acting as a fake coffee-shop-running shaman? This drama wanted to be zany, extra, clever, and amazing. Instead it was dry, boring, and full of wasted talent. When a colorful and carefully-built story world gets decimated by a snooze-worthy script that needed to be gutted and redone (save nothing except the premise) and questionable bad casting decisions, it makes me want to scream. When even Seo In-gook can’t make your drama interesting, you know you have a major problem. Get thee to a script doctor.
quirkycase: Oh, Forecasting Love and Weather, how you disappointed me. You had Park Min-young, a strong overall cast including the ever-awesome Kim Mi-Kyung, and a unique work setting with nary a lawyer, police officer, doctor, or serial killer in sight – how did it all go so wrong? Everything about the drama felt sterile, making it impossible to connect to the characters or their stories. It’s a shame because I think there were interesting themes around marriage and relationships that could’ve been explored so much better. Instead, we got lackluster romance and weirdly dramatic weather forecasting.
mistyisles: This one was actually hard to choose, because an overwhelming majority of the shows I watched to completion this year were pretty great in my book. And the ones that weren’t I don’t really feel strongly enough about to consider them much of a disappointment. So I’ve decided to award my Bean of Disappointment to a show I didn’t finish: Grid. On paper, it has a lot of elements I love: mystery, time travel (I think? I didn’t make it far enough in to find out if that’s really what it was), Lee Shi-young, the fate of the world at stake, etc., etc. But the combination just didn’t resonate enough to keep me coming back for more, and I was genuinely disappointed that it didn’t.
DaebakGrits: There was no bigger disappointment for me this year than Love is for Suckers, but I guess I’m partially at fault for my own dismay because I went into this drama with a clear vision of what I wanted to see and how I expected it to end. And nowhere on my list of must-sees were: an almost marriage to an ex, a pouty second female lead with a teenage crush on the male lead, and an OTP romance that played out like a poorly timed (and joyless) rebound relationship. All I wanted was a light-hearted comedy, and I would have preferred it if the drama, love triangles, and backstabbing had been confined to the cast of the reality show. Like, I wanted Singles Inferno ridiculousness where Jae-hoon was the only non-thirsty cast member because he only had eyes for Yeo-reum. Sadly, that’s not the drama we got, and the only plot devices I would have saved from the official Love is for Suckers are the exploration of late-thirties relationships and the utterly adorable romance between Ji-wan and Chef John.
solstices: Lee Jong-won in his first leading role on a main broadcast channel! Yook Sung-jae’s comeback drama after his military service! Choi Won-young and Yook Sung-jae playing father and son again! With so many exciting aspects to look forward to in a single drama, how could it possibly be a disappointment? Well, The Golden Spoon is how. Not only did it squander the potential of its unique premise by falling back on predictable twists and cliché tropes, but it also reduced its intriguing and complex characters into one-dimensional chess pieces running around the same old maze. Perhaps I wouldn’t be this upset if I had just given up hope (as was the case for Doctor Lawyer, in which I turned off my brain and just stared at the pretty that was Shin Sung-rok). But the frustrating thing about The Golden Spoon is that it always promised, but never delivered, causing it to dash my hopes every time. Sure, it was entertaining, but I wanted depth to its story and explanations for its magic. And unfortunately we never really got either.
Unit: For a masterclass on how to ruin a good show, watch Artificial City. Really, it was hard to not expect greatness from this drama because it had everything: Soo-ae, good acting, suspense, wow twists, delicious villains, and what seemed like a pretty tight story for the most parts. I was really invested in the heroine who matched her opponents in wit and deviousness, until the finale slapped me in my face and unravelled everything we built for nine good weeks. Logic flew out of the window, I was left with more questions than answers, and I can’t regain the twenty hours of my life that I wasted on the show. In summary, this city deserves to be razed to the ground!
Dramaddictally: Oh the disappointments of 2024. There was a wide selection to choose from, but just like great dramas sit a little above the rest, truly disappointing dramas also stand out from the crowd — because the only thing that causes real disappointment is great expectations. Love is for Suckers was by far my biggest disappointment this year. When I began my weecaps, my excitement for this drama was bursting off the page. The show centered its two talented actors and inundated us with adult jokes as the characters delved into their adult problems. The first six episodes made me laugh and cry in equal amounts and set up a dynamic I was truly curious about. Let’s just say the expectations had already reached unmanageable heights — and were bound to go over the Cliff of Doom. Still, as I watched this little drama I had once loved falling to its death, I maintained my denial right up until the last episode. Only then did the deep disappointment hit me, as I thought of the drama it could have been and all its wasted potential.
alathe: I came in prepared to like Love in Contract — and, for a while, I truly did. Sang-eun and Ji-ho had barrels of unexpected chemistry. I loved how, on the face of it, they seemed diametrically opposed… but, deep down, were precisely the same flavor of weird. Alas, this drama never quite leaned into its strengths. For one, the sheer bulk of contrived misunderstandings weighed down a romance plot that truly didn’t need the embellishment. For another, our heroine’s cloying romantic naivete was hard to swallow when it clashed so hard with the rest of her characterization. But, the biggest problem was a conceptual one. This drama was noisily billed as a love triangle, but it was clear from the beginning Sang-eun had no serious feelings for Hae-jin. That would have been fine! Hae-jin was an endearing character in his own right! Still, because the love triangle premise was hyped up so intensely, I feel like the writers were obliged to pretend that Hae-jin was a romantic contender. This led to a bunch of messy plotlines that ultimately distracted from what I cared about: Sang-eun and Ji-ho learning to communicate; Hae-jin finding himself outside of his relationship with Sang-eun; Gwang-nam getting more than two seconds’ worth of screentime; Jamie the cat… There were some great elements! Sadly, nothing quite cohered.