230. The Man Living in Our House 우리집에 사는 남자 (2016) Korean

Soo Ae, Kim Young Kwang, Lee Soo Hyuk, Jo Bo Ah, Kim Ji Hoon

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: A+

I was a little disappointed that this turned out to be more of a melodrama than a comedy.  They had made it look so funny, and sometimes it was, but then they couldn't get past the tragic loves part as they were in love but had a stepfather/daughter relationship legally.  This seems even more pathetic when everything is eventually solved with no headache and why didn't they just do that in the first place?  I did like most of the characters, although I have to like the side characters more than the main couple.  The three little dumpling ducklings, so cute.  The little sister of the 2nd male lead, hilarious.  The 2nd female lead, the most likable bitca ever.  She was thoroughly an evil man stealing jerk, but I loved her and totally shipped her with the reluctant neighborhood friend lawyer 2nd male lead.  I think I probably said "he's so flipping hot" every time Lee Soo Hyuk was on screen.  His attitude was also super fun, as he was so matter-of-fact and lazy.  I loved the developing relationship between him and his crazy stalker little sister.  I also love how the siblings names were Duk Bong and Duk Shim.  I did love Soo Ae and Kim Young Kwang too.  I liked how ridiculously their relationship grew, fighting and being "family" then finally getting to be a couple, they were just also all melodramatic at times.  really, the worst part is that everything was so dramatic, with his gangster past, and trying to protect the mother's land, and then it all gets solved so quickly.  I guess the gangster part didn't, but once the second male lead decided to not be selfish any more then everything was magically solved.  It was lamely amazing.  Why didn't they just all work together in the first place?  Huh?  Haha, so not the best, but it was still enjoyable enough, plus lots of hot men and strong women, so win?

234. Discovery of Romance 연애의 발견 (2014) Korean

Jung Yu Mi, Eric Mun, Sung Joon, Yoon Jin Yi, Yoon Hyun Min, Kim Seul Gi

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: B

I guess you can't technically say it belongs to the same franchise as "I Need Romance" since it isn't the same network, but it is the same writer, so it definitely has the same flavor.  But it was also different enough to be not completely associated with it.  Lizabreff still likes to say that it is the best of the "I Need Romances" but I might rank it on the same level as I Need Romance 3.  I do like how it has the interview style, where all of the characters are interviewed to show their inner thoughts.  I thought this was cleverly done, as it allowed for the differences in opinions and memories, because half of this show was about the past and what happened during the five years that the main couple dated and how they fell apart and why.  It shows how people have different perceptions of what happened, remember things differently, and nothing is 100% someone's fault.  I liked how the story built from the memories, to make us see that neither one of them was innocent and they both did plenty of stupid things while they were younger and more immature.  It also showed how their relationship had affected each of them in positive and negative ways.  She had become more confident in herself, but had also become manipulative.  He had become more stubborn, but also more aware.  This also left room for plenty of development for their characters which was also nice.  However, in true "Romance" form, the show was dragged out so that the couple would not get together until the last episode, because these shows are about messy, messy relationships where all the ugly comes out before we finally see them get to where they are supposed to be, in the last episode.  This meant frustration as the main love triangle dragged out for forever, even though we knew that Dr. Derpface and her romance was kind of toxic, as she manipulated him and he let her.  We also just really wanted him to be with the other girl.  Thank goodness we had the other couple, Fish Bangs and Seul Gi to make everything better.  They were probably the cutest ever.  I love both of them, so that could only be good things, and it was.  They were hilarious and adorable.  So yeah, good show, if you want a messy, frustrating, but growing and developing love triangle.

233. When a Snail Falls in Love 如果蜗牛有爱情 (2016) Chinese

Wang Kai, Wang Olivia

Drama Rating: 9/10     Neck Score: A+

In general, this drama was amazing.  It had a great cast of characters, and a lovely, dark crime plot.  I absolutely loved Xu Xu, our mail lead, who is a stoic, logical, and lovable psychologist, who is also the tiniest girl ever.  I loved the interactions between our heroine and all the characters, as she was both logical and kind.  I especially loved the slow but steady romance between the head detective of violent crimes and our intern criminal profiler psychologist.  The title gets its name from the animal imagery that our lead girl, Xu Xu, uses when profiling people.  Everyone in the violent crimes department gets profiled with animals, from a monkey to hippo.  Xu Xu even draws these profiles into comics of everyone, which leads to a series of comics about a snail and her lion boss, who then start to fall in love.  I also really liked the other couples and characters.  I was especially rooting for the pig and hippo.  The plot, with all the connected crimes that got more and more complex was amazing.  I loved how it became more serious and bigger at every turn.  I also loved the detail we got to see in how our heroes faced it and figured things out.  I loved the character development, as everyone grew, especially our snail and lion.  We got to see them form themselves into a great team and a great OTP.  My only complaint in this whole show is that the ending got a little sloppy.  Not so much in the actual plot.  I feel like the crime plot got wrapped up much more nicely than the romance did.  It felt super rushed and kind of nonsensical.  There was a ridiculous time jump where suddenly everything happened.  Whole romances were skipped over.  We left everyone at the start of the real relationship, and suddenly jumped to weddings and proposals.  It was weird and we felt a little cheated.  It didn't flow well, and we felt less satisfied.  They also tried to leave the ending super open ended, which would be find, but it was instead confusing.  I wouldn't mind a season 2, but I don't like how they wrapped up this series in an attempt to let that happen.

231. One Percent of Something 1%의 어떤 것 (2016) Korean

Ha Seok Jin, Jeon So Min

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: B

They might be one of the cutest OTPs ever.  They weren't any good at being in a "fake" contract relationship however, which is good, we didn't want them to put off being cute together.  They from the moment they signed the contract were dating for realsies.  Well, at least he was.  She took slightly longer.  This actually makes sense, because faking dating is just silly.  It was a short drama, so the pace was snappy, I liked that.  It meant that there was less time for the crappy and they focused only on the things that we wanted, which was the main couple.  I also liked how consistent everyone was.  She was fiesty and strong the whole time, he was an adorable little butt the whole time.  but at the same time there was character development as they both got stronger from being in a relationship with each other.  I especially loved how she held her own against that horrible and stupid bitca.  She won every single time against that bitca and I loved it.   She was so strong and logical against those bitca's stupid moves.  I kind of liked how there was no real 2nd male lead, which confused me first because that cousin kid never did anything, and just stood there all the time.  But I liked how honest everyone was.  They never lied, they just neglected saying what was important until the last minute, thinking that's the way it had to be.  But for a "fake" couple they sure kissed a lot, which makes it seem silly that they didn't know that they had fallen for each other.  So it was nothing grand plot-wise, but its simplicity is one of its virtues.  Consistency was beautiful.  Random other characters, whatever, but it was all about the couple, which is great.