**I am NOT affiliated in any way with Drama Fever, and this is not a paid post. I'm just a consumer of their delicious dramas. ;) **
If you are a North American who enjoys watching Asian Dramas, chances are you've heard of Drama Fever. You might already have a premium membership, or maybe you are contemplating whether it's worthwhile or not. Maybe you've never even heard of it before.
When I first began watching Asian Dramas, it was Netflix that sucked me in. Thanks, Netflix, now I have a serious addiction because of you! Alas, it wasn't long before I outpaced Netflix in my Kdrama consumption, so I had to find a new source for dramas.
In the beginning, I used DramaFever in a supplementary capacity. I watched what Netflix had when they had it and then I went on Drama Fever when I ran out of things to watch on Netflix or Netflix decided to remove a show before I was finished with it. At that point I didn't find it worth having any apps or paying for Premium.
It wasn't long though, before I just found it easier to START on DramaFever, so I could be more certain that whatever I was watching wasn't going to get canceled in the middle of my marathon. I would run into the problem of the newer shows having some or all of the episodes restricted to Premium only. I then figured out that watching on my desktop computer earned me credits which I could redeem for Premium-only episodes.
As before, it wasn't long before my Kdrama addiction outgrew my ability to keep up with earning credits, plus I had a new baby and sitting in one place for very long wasn't working well, so I downloaded the DramaFever app to my tablet. I discovered the app is amazing and works perfectly - except for one thing. It's fussy about whether you get the credit for watching shows on the tablet or not. About 60% of the time, watching on the tablet never counted toward earning credits, which was a bummer. :( It was a nice surprise when it did though! But generally speaking, even with the app, because of the inconsistency, it eventually got to a point where I was asking myself, so do I need to get Premium now?
Long to short, I have Premium now! Surprise! Yeah yeah wipe the shock off your face. ;) I LOVE it. It's just the basic Premium, no bells and whistles. For me, I watch DF more than Netflix. In fact, I have watched several hours of DF this past week, and 0 minutes of Netflix. Sorry Netflix! Because I almost never watch anything that isn't an Asian Drama anymore, Drama Fever has become more of a necessity than Netflix. If I had to choose only one streaming service, I'd choose DF.
I really used to like the web version layout of Drama Fever. It was very easy to figure out/use. The new web version released this week however is causing me some annoyance. I used to be able to comment on individual episodes as well as leave a review on the main show page- can't seem to do that now. Used to see a series synopsis on a main page for each show and then episode synopsis on each episode's page, but now I can't find any series synopsis. In addition to this, it keeps switching the text of the site randomly between various assorted languages without my doing anything to cause it. "Yo Drama Fever! I do not speak Japanese! How am I supposed to read the language menu in Japanese to switch it back to English?!" C'mon, I am only fluent in one language and dabble in 2 others. The random language switching is getting out of hand. I do love that I can still have a "My Shows" list for all 67 dramas that I am watching or planning on watching. (I already said I'm addicted to Kdramas, what more do you want from me here? :p )
If you watch 2-10 hours a month of Asian Dramas:
In this case, Drama Fever is probably going to prove more reliable than Netflix for you. Many shows are free and many more have most of the episodes free with just a few at the end available with credit or Premium only.
If you watch Asian dramas several times a week up to one hour a day:
It might be a good idea to download the app to your phone or tablet to support your new drama addiction. The app works great, I've had it over a year and never had a problem with it other than the odd issue where it doesn't fill up the credit meter all the time.
If you pretty much watch dramas daily, or nearly:
Yes, Premium is probably for you. If you're at the point of eat-sleep-breathe dramas, you maybe need to just bite the bullet and fork over the meager amount of cash required to bump up your membership from free to Premium. When you have a Premium membership, you can get the SmartTV app for your telly and make your significant other watch something with you. I will warn you though that I've had difficulty after difficulty with the Smart TV app randomly shutting down if I try to pause, play, rewind, or fast forward. Occasionally even if I'm not touching anything. Then when I restart the app, it wants to restart the episode back at the beginning, meaning I have to touch the ff button again, meaning I'm risking it shutting down on me again. It's a vicious cycle. Not sure if it's the app, the tv, or a joint effort to make me crazy. Maybe it's just the fact that I live in the mountains of the Pacific Northwestern US in a town that boasts a population of 500 so the internets no be so good sometimes.
{>>>}UPDATE 2018 Nov. 07:
DramaFever is dead, Netflix has had the same 20 Kdramas for the last 2-5 years, and I had to find a new source to feed my Kdrama addiction. https://kdramafeelz.blogspot.com/2018/11/dramageddon-and-viki-vs-kocowa-dilemma.html
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