Posted by eric_r_wirsing Thursday, October 1, 2015
12.
Worst K-Drama Endings
We've all seen 'em. Drama series that were so terrible they deserved an equally terrible ending. Also fantastic dramas that had great endings like Reply 1997. But we're tackling series that started out so good, and then they tacked on a WTF ending. Did the writers run out of steam? Did they write themselves into a corner, or was this planned from the beginning? I'll stop ranting now, and give you the list (in no particular order):
11.
LOVERS IN PARIS
A young film student in Paris is courted by the chairman of an auto manufacturer and his freewheeling nephew. Not only that, but an old classmate schemes to win the nephew's love. Probably the most confusing ending because of the different endings that followed. The chairman is in Paris, married to the girl, who is somehow also in South Korea, throwing coins into a fountain hoping to meet her true love. The only conclusion we can come to is that somehow, the whole series was a daydream or a dream.
10.
HIGH KICK THROUGH THE ROOF
A family sitcom with great humorous moments and touching drama comes to a screeching halt with the death of two main characters and an open-ended fate for the others. There were characters that belonged together, that would have had wonderful lives if they weren't brutally cut down by a writer's pen.
9.
ROOFTOP PRINCE
So the Prince and his reincarnation aren't the same, so now they have to have an unhappy ending because of it? There could have been so many other ways to wrap this up that they didn't take. 'School 2015' had a pretty good ending to a doppelganger-trope driven story.
8.
HIDDEN IDENTITY
Argh. The final battle was satisfying, and it was a nice, happy ending. But it seemed for a bit like it was going to end 'IRIS II'-style -- that is, the hero can't live, and has to sacrifice himself for the greater good. But no, Deus-ex-machina has to intervene and take us to the finale. I like happy endings, but even better are happy endings that make sense.
7.
THE BOOK OF THE HOUSE OF GU
A pretty good fantasy saeguk, with love, betrayal, magic, and kick-ass fight scenes. But instead of the logical conclusion to the series, the writers said "let's give everyone a twist ending," which is sometimes code for "let's ruin this thing." So the female lead is shot, she dies, and 400 years later she meets her love interest in a reincarnation twist? Not only that, but the male lead undergoes some serious character drift in a single episode
6.
SUNGKYUNGKWAN SCANDAL
While not properly a saeguk, it was still a good drama that brought us from point A to point B. Point B was a bit unsatisfying, though -- I wanted to see what it was like as a woman in a position of power in the Joseon era, and what it wanted to be was more of a rom-com.
5.
MY LOVELY GIRL
Can a music producer and an aspiring musician make it work, especially with so many standing against them? Well, yes they can, but the ending was so contrived with the 1-year time jump and the "grand gesture" that the sweetness got a bit lost.
4.
GOD'S GIFT - 14 DAYS
An awesome tale of a mother and a badass cop trying to stop the murder of her daughter and are transported 2 weeks back in time to do it. Then we learn that the prophecy was misinterpreted, and we don't even know if the cop was alive or dead by the end. Great series, bad ending.
3.
CITY HUNTER
A pretty cool series marred by an extremely open-ended finale. It was the old hero-rides-off-into-the-sunset finish, and it didn't really resonate with me. We had kind of edge-of-your-seat action, and then kind of a lukewarm ending. Would have been happy if they'd given it a second season or at least a good finale.
2.
IRIS
This one has bothered me for awhile. So the guy arranges to get out of the anti-terrorist business after fighting his way back into South Korea and clearing his name. He's headed off to meet his bride-to-be at the lighthouse, and a few hundred feet from his destination, he's gunned down by an unknown sniper. No reason is given, and they leave it there, with her waiting, while he bleeds out. So heroes can't be happy?
1.
THE HEIRS
The drama that had the problem of being fairly good and bad at the same time got an ending that was completely contrived. Everyone was happy together, and the Cruella deVille-style parents somehow suddenly had a bipolar shift and were nice and happy and smiling and, well, it was too neat and way out of whack with the rest of the series.
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