The first kdrama I ever watched was The Great Queen Seondeok, thanks to the vidder Beccatoria (see her vid Matches to Paperdolls). Queen Seondeok doesn’t have a lot in common with the kdramas I would later come to love – I rarely watch anything historical, or anything so long. And I never actually finished Queen Seondeok – after watching 50-something episodes, I fell off post-time skip. Maybe this is down to knowing the ending, and not wanting to get there? Or perhaps rather it was the death of a certain character. I have this idea that one day I’ll go back and finish it, but at this point the gap has been longer than the timeskip itself ...
The first kdrama I got really into fannishly was White Christmas, which is more representative of my tastes. I don’t even remember how that got on my watchlist! But I watched it and then rewatched it almost immediately, and gradually wrote a whole bunch of fic. I love teenagers in high-pressure environments and I love serial killers manipulating people, what can I say?
Sadly when I meet people into kdramas in real life they are into less murder-y shows than me. Not that it should be surprising to have taste misalignment when you are talking about the output of an entire country, but I feel like I disappoint people sometimes!
Apart from White Christmas, my main kdrama fandom is Strangers from Hell and more recently Squid Game. Thank you to Yim Siwan and his taste in projects.