Nam Gil and Nara.

Yeon Seo and Jang Woo

Rain and Tae Hee.

Goddamit.

It’s happening for everyone but not with the couples i ship!

EXPECTATION:

REALITY:

Very well said, allkpop.

Very well said.

You took the words right out of my mouth especially the parts about Jang Woo.

And so in memoriam and in honor of one of the best couples that i have ever watched in WGM, i am reposting your article in full.

Lee Jang Woo and Ham Eun Jung, you’d be missed.

Retrospective: We Got Marrieds Lee Jang Woo and Ham Eun Jung

Last week, MBC announced that ‘We Got Married‘ would be ‘divorcing’ one of its married couples, Lee Jang Woo and T-ara‘s Eunjung. Their final episode was broadcast last Saturday. The following essay is a retrospective about the couple, and the program in general. We’ll miss you, Woojung.

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‘We Got Married’ is possibly one of the cruelest shows on the planet.

Two strangers get together. They move into a house. They live together (if only in part). They fall in love (according to the editors). They dress up in wedding clothes. They get married. They kiss. Then, inevitably, it’s over.

And the only thing that’s left in the viewers’ hearts is an emptiness, where once there used to be a sort of giddy happiness every time Saturday rolled around. It’s the perfect fantasy.

Of course, ‘We Got Married’ is a fantasy. No reasonable person will deny that the show is purposely designed to tug at our heartstrings.

But even though we all know that it’s two people putting on a show, a part of our minds can’t help but think, “what if…?” and that’s what makes ‘We Got Married’ so powerful. It’s why we, as viewers, knowingly fall for their trap every Saturday, when we sit in front of our televisions (or computer monitors) and tune in to this on-going drama, fully knowing it’s not going to have a happy ending.

Because we can dream and we can indulge in our fantasies, if only for the briefest moment – that the couple on screen is actually dating, and perhaps they really fell in love. And our fanboy/fangirl hearts would be validated.

That never happens, of course. ‘We Got Married’ has a real-life track record of exactly zero percent. No couple that has ever ‘wedded’ on the show has ever gone on to become an actual couple.

Rumors abound – they were seen wearing identical bracelets! They locked eyes for a brief second! She smiled when a fan mentioned his name! Nothing ever comes out of it, though. And there’s always the press conference, where one inevitably says, “We were just friends.”

The more lovey-dovey a couple acts on ‘We Got Married’, the faster we fall into the fantasy pit. Which brings us to Lee Jang Woo and Eunjung.

It’s pretty darn obvious that the ‘Woojung’ couple has gone farther than your average ‘We Got Married’ relationship. Heck, they kissed – on the lips! – at a time when other couples would be holding hands for the first time. (‘YongSeo’ couple, I’m looking at you.) Even Nichkhun and Victoria didn’t kiss until … well, never, if my memory serves correctly. (Oh, they brushed. Nope, not kissing.)

To be honest, the show had fallen into a bit of a rut by the time Jang Woo and Eunjung came around. The three anchor couples from Season 2 – ‘YongSeo’, ‘Khuntoria’, and ‘Adam’ – were all gone or close to being gone, and with it went most of the program’s fandom. Korean ratings were dipping, and the producers knew they wanted a couple that would shake things up a bit.

I don’t know if the producers intended to have it this way, but Lee Jang Woo was possibly the best person they could have chosen to take ‘We Got Married’ in a new direction.

Let’s face it: men like women. In a primal way.

With previous couples, this aspect of male psychology was carefully hidden, out of the way, buried where distraught fangirls would never get to see it.

But Jang Woo, he embraced it. He gave male viewers (the whole five of them) a figure to identify with. He was like a burst of fresh air in a room clouded with suppressed dust.

I lost count how many times Jang Woo cracked a dirty joke, made Eunjung blush, and generally acted like a pervert (in a good kind of way). And every time that happened, male viewers smiled and said, “That’s what I would’ve done!”

No more goody-two-shoes husbands for ‘We Got Married’. Lee Jang Woo knew what he wanted and went for it. Eunjung, on her side, responded good-naturedly to Jang Woo’s playful side (“molkang molkang”) and it resulted in the creation of one of the most romantic, lovey-dovey couples ever. And for a while, they were the ‘ace’ couple of the show – before they fell into their own mannerisms and tired cliches, but that’s another story for another issue.

Unfortunately, we’ll probably never get to see Eunjung’s “molkang molkang” or Lee Jang Woo’s byuntae mode ever again. But if there’s one thing that’s certain, it’s that another couple will soon find their way into the show – with their own catchphrases, characters, and special moments.

And we, as viewers, are taken for a ride once again. A ride we hate, yet hate to love, at the same time.

Original article can be found HERE

credits: allkpop