Romance, comedy, happy endings, and a pinch of good looks. These were the ingredients chosen to crea

I recently uploaded my first Blog post regarding Korean dramas. In it, I revealed five of my top 25 favorite dramas. In this week's post, I want to unfocus the lense by painting the overall picture of what it is that I look for in Korean Dramas. The more a drama incorporates these characteristics, the more I will decide that sleep is for the weak and that watching it is way more important!

First off, let's start with a no-brainer:

There HAS to be romance. The Korean entertainment industry has numerous actors that are as talented as they are gorgeous, directors with genius vision, and hard-working crew members, but what I truly care about is the brilliance of screenplay writers. The romance should be so good that I end up being two minutes away from pulling my own hair out in anticipation of the first kiss between the main two leads. After the big moment has finally come to pass, the romance needs to continue to evolve naturally, instead of becoming stagnant or seeming forced or far-fetched. That is probably the number one reason I stop watching dramas mid-way through, because the rest of the relationship, along with the storyline, becomes way too boring, and the romance on itself cannot maintain my interest.

Numero Dos: It has to be funny.

The more times I get noise complaints from my roommates because I'm laughing like a maniac, the merrier. I'm in no way saying that the drama has to be a comedy, but there must be enough comic relief in order to keep me entertained and wanting to watch the next episode, and the next, and the next!

Third: This is CRUCIAL, the drama has to have a happy ending.

I've said this many times and I'll say it again, "Look around, life is already depressive enough on its own. I don't need to be wasting my free time crying over fictional characters!" I expect the characters to find themselves in challenging and tear inducing situations, but if the last episode finishes and I'm still crying (and it's not out of happiness), I promise you those won't be tears of sadness, they'll be tears of frustration. Frustration due to the fact that I wasted hours invested on a script that ends up murdering my favorite character! You know what I say to those dramas? HELL TO-THE-NO! Go find another K-drama fan-girl, because I'll have none of that.

Last but definitely not least: The actors have to be so beautiful I start to hate my lesser existence. I love Seo In Guk, he is one of my favorite Korean actors, so every time he stars in a drama I'll watch it without question. Usually, that is, since in his last drama "Shopping King Louie," I almost gave up half-way. Call me superficial, but Nam Ji Hyun (his co-star) looked less than stellar during the first few episodes. Nevertheless, I kept fighting through the cringe of seeing Guk having a plain looking girl as his love interest. To my surprise, it turned out that the actress was actually pretty, and they had made her look plain only for the sake of the storyline (phew). After she went through her glow-up, I could finally watch the drama with delight. Don't get me wrong, when looking for a partner, appearance is at the back of my list. Nevertheless, when it comes to dramas (which are supposed to be love stories right out of a fairy tale), I demand to see Cinderella and Prince Charming, not Marissa and Steve. I mean, how can you not love watching a drama when the main actors look like this:

I know what most of you are thinking, "what about the acting?" To be honest, I don't really mind the acting too much. Usually the actors are as qualified as they have to be for the certain script/budget of the drama, so as long as that's the case then I can't really complain. Mini-series usually have mediocre actors, but huge productions cast the best of the best, so I know what I'm getting into when I start watching the drama.

What are your "must-haves" when it comes to K-Dramas? Must there be an idol? Should it have 16 episodes or less? Do you prefer watching Sageuks (historical Korean dramas)? Let me know in the comments below!