Mnet airs first music drama Monstar

Music cable channel Mnet released their first drama late last week. Monstar (몬스타), befitting of the network's music-related program line-up, is a trendy music drama set in high school and it reminds me heavily of What's Up. At least, I hope it's more What's Up than, say, Dream High 2.

Monstar stars Yong Jun-hyung from idol group Beast in his first foray into acting. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for him. He plays the role of pop idol Yoon Seol-chan, leader of fictional idol group Men in Black, whose image has been sullied by netizens and sasaeng fans. In order to rectify the situation, his agency decides to force him into attending high school like a regular teenager.

At school, Seol-chan encounters a diverse group of ordinary students whose emotional scars bleed into their daily lives and are slowly healed and shaped through music; finding love, friendship, and their dreams along the way . This includes our heroine Min Se-yi, played by up-and-coming model/actress Ha Yeon-soo.

While this drama is definitely being marketed to a younger demographic, I sense heart and numerous emotional arcs in what should be a heartwarming coming-of-age story that would also speak to those who are not quite in their teens anymore. Like me. Ha.

Since I'm not much of a Beast fan, this drama had fallen off my radar quickly after I first learned of its conception. But due to gummimochi's recap of the first episode on dramabeans, my curiosity has been piqued. Based on the recap alone, this drama promises light humor, much heart, and teenage angst. My kind of drama! However, gummimochi had also mentioned that she won't be continuing with her recaps past the first episode, so if I want to keep abreast with this drama, I'm really going to have to tune in.

But, here's the thing... I've been mulling over the possibility of doing drama recaps and this is the perfect opportunity to do so. And it's doubly good that this series is only estimated to have 12 episodes. Recapping is something I always thought I should try my hand at except my commitment issues kept telling me not to. But, at the same time, I do need to brush up on my writing skills because I sense my Creative Writing degree slowly slipping through my fingers. What a dilemma.

Another issue I have is my being non-Korean and therefore not being able to explain or give extra light to the little nuances in speech, culture, and traditions that we may encounter in a drama. So, really, any form of recap that I will be able to produce won't be as enlightening as anything javabeans or girlfriday have written.

With that, I will check out the first episode soon and hopefully it's as good as it sounds. With a nice OST to match. Once I get to the second episode, that's when I'll decide on whether or not I should pursue recapping this drama.

Monstar airs every Friday night on Mnet.