Finished Watching Korean Soap “Terroir” - Notes

I don't watch too many soap operas, but I've watched a couple of Korean soaps and I admit I have a fascination with them. I came across a site called mysoju.com by way of a friend who also happens to be a Korean Soap-a-file. They've got a bunch. I landed on "Terroir" only because there was someone I recognized on the show (a friend of a friend type of thing).

The soap is about a young sommelier who wants to make it on his own because he'd rather not work for his grandfather's conglomerate. Kang Tae Min is his name. He goes off to France in search of a some hard to find wine for his boss at the wine import / distributing company he's working at. Tae Min finds it, then mixes up his wine with another woman's bottle of wine after a wild chase scene in the streets of France. This woman is Woo Joo Lee. She works at a traditional Korean winery, a place that Tae Min's uncle happens to own the lease to. Tae Min's uncle has a terminal illness, by the way. So the wine gets mixed up and well, long, long story short, Tae Min decides to start an appropriately named wine restaurant, "Terroir" on the land that the uncle owns - Yes, the traditional winery where Woo Joo lives and works. I think I gave some things away here, but you get the idea.

Some notes I jotted down as I watched it:
- The better the soap does in ratings it seems, the better their makeup, hair styling and clothes get.
- Deus ex machina is heartily condoned
- Women are taken down from their high horses, and taken in hand... by love
- Storylines can be diminished and removed completely without explanation
- It sucks being the female sidekick - unless your character is popular, you're gonna have to keep wearing those nerdy glasses
- Lives are saved and destroyed by cellphones: voice or text, potency of message not related to medium of delivery
- Men can try to destroy each other's careers, but in the end, all will be forgiven because it's just business
- Forgiveness is a given
- It sucks being the incumbent girlfriend/boyfriend - you're gonna get the ax
- Characters must secretly do some unexpected good deed, which is to be revealed later in order to sow guilt (and love) into the receiver of such benevolence
- People literally only "sleep" with each other in this world
- People drink a lot and wine people drink the mostest
- The old men are either tough and later soften up (even wearing nicely colored soft, cardigans) or are soft from the start and end up being all-knowing sages
- Everyone has a beautiful car
- Everyone has a beautiful house, even the small ones are charming and cute
- The music counts - see if those tears appear without it
- When it's all over, you either wish you could start all over again or wish you never started in the first place