My Girl

Google "My Girl" and your top result won't be the 1991 coming-of-age movie, but the 2005 Korean drama. You can also find some fairly detailed information about the series on the Korea Tourism Organization's website.

I don't know if any TV show deserves recognition from the national government, but My Girl is still a pretty cool show. Sure, it hits almost every cliche in the drama repertoire, but the show is actually aware of that fact. There are several moments where characters imagine how things would fare if they were in a TV show. From imagined gangster shoot-outs to who would be a good candidate for amnesia, the show gets creative without being too corny.

What impressed me the most, however, was the show's ability to introduce, continue, and develop a theme. The writers' use of snow as a symbol (which in other shows usually carries a vaguely cathartic connotation at best) grows in importance throughout the series, actually developing along with the romantic leads' relationship. Not only that, the writers use lying as a motif. Typically, the lies characters tell only serve to heighten the drama or squeeze another couple episodes out of a newly complicated situation. In My Girl the characters actually examine ideas like what circumstances make dishonesty allowable, how do people change through having to keep up a charade, what things are impossible to be dishonest about, and what makes a lie convincing in the first place.

I'm not saying the show is Solzhenitsyn: There are a few ridiculous plot moments, but they're forgivable. The show is fun, thoughtful, quick-paced, and definitely worth a look.