197. Refresh Man 後菜鳥的燦爛時代 (2016) Taiwanese

Aaron Yan, Joanne Tseng, Lene Lai, Jack Li, JR (Jian Xiao Ru)

Drama Rating: 4/10     Neck Score: A+

And so ends another Aaron drama... completely ridiculously... well, it's not Fall In Love With Me bad... but it was way less good than the start of the show, when I was actually excited for it.  I think everything went down hill after they were all racist and stuff.  It was all icky after that.  They couldn't come back from that.  Not really.  It was too horrible and inappropriate, etc.  Then the show got shortened, so the plot made less sense... but it probably would have been draggy and ridiculous if it had been 20 episodes, it would have just made more sense in the pacing department maybe.  I did really love the chemistry of the main couple.  Having seen one too many bad/no chemistry couples as it is, this was very important to me.  I loved how their relationship developed both in the past and present, with those flashbacks to high school that made the present more meaningful.  I hated some of the weird cheesy stereotypes it insisted on following.  Also, why was everyone in love with that girl.  Also, way too many FILWM cameos.  We had Jack Li and Aaron, but then we also had Lance.  Tsk tsk, that's too many.  At least the Oz in this one actually did stuff and worked their butts off, on the fear of getting fired and all.  I also liked how Jack Li actually did stuff instead of just staring off into the distance.  He was a little bitca who I hated, but at least he tried.  I especially loved how out OTP made out all the time once they got together.  Good job.  But, the only thing this show had going for it was the OTP and love story, and definitely not the rest of the plot.  All the office politics stuff was boring and then they got racist- yuck- so really the show could have been 10 episodes, with just the love stuff, and it would have gotten at least an 8, but since it had all that boring and racist stuff, it is only a 4.  A mediocre show with a good OTP (despite how dense and dumb she was when it came to love) and Aaron's pretty neck.  Also, what the heck was that breaking the 4th wall at the end.  Ew, no.

Refresh Man: Falling In Love With Aaron Again

I have to say that I had my reservations about starting Refresh Man, because FILWM Syndrome.  But then I really like Joanne Tseng.  But I guess that even with the whole FILWM thing and the Instagram thing, deep down I still love Aaron, so I thought I would give it a try and see if it would make me fall in love with Aaron again.

And it has.  It is just different and fun enough to make it awesome.  It defies some of the typical stereotypes and is about more than just the romance, although that is obviously a large part of it.  It is about self-improvement and getting out of stagnation, etc.  It's also about revenge or rather making her fall in love with him.  You know, good stuff.

So, here are some things that make this show pretty great so far:

174. I Am Sorry, I Love You 我的鬼基友 (2015) Taiwanese

Jasper Liu, Bryant Chang, Andrea Chen, Zhang Yan Ming, Joanne Deng

Drama Rating: 2/10     Neck Score: A

I hated this show.  Bros before hoes, man!  They ruined one of the best bromances of all time because of some stupid twisted fate crap they tried way too hard to sell.  I didn't believe the characterless girl with the nerd for one second.  NOT ONE SECOND!  In fact they wasted so much time giving us all the drippy backstory with the ghost and the girl that all we wanted was for him to be alive again so he wouldn't be hurting anymore (didn't care about her one way of the other she didn't have any character).  Well, I guess her character was "nice and pretty" and "not afraid of ghosts" and "guilt complex."  I was shipping the childhood friend and the nerd so hard I had dreams about it.  They even made her in love with him, but then dropped it so hard it made me cry.  The end made me cry too.  Half because it was like beautifully tragic... well not even half, just partly, but mostly because I was so freaking pissed off!  They didn't even get to hug!  They were never alive at the same time!  I'm so angry!  I even waited a while to write this and I'm still too angry!  Ahhhhhh!  Either don't waste time on making us invested in the past relationship or don't pull this kind of crap with me.  I didn't care about the nard and the girl's love story so much I think I skipped past most those scenes because they were too boring.  Just boring.  I didn't care much about her mothering him until it somehow it became a romance.  Nope, wasn't there.  And that red string of fate triangle... yuck.  Just barf.  I just wanted my bromace to be alive together and they ruined everything.  Hate, hate, hate.  That Aaron song still gets stuck in my head, and I loved the bromance, but the show was total crap.

Need a Picker-Upper? Leave it to Aaron as he Boogies and sings "Rayayayayayayayayayayain!"

When Lizabreff and I first watched this MV, it was like constant laughter.  It was a great experience, so we had to share it.  This song is one of those up beat and catchy type deals, so most people would already be cheered up by that, but the MV is a series of priceless moments that will completely make you laugh at the glorious ridiculousness of it all.  Still, Aaron is naturally looking really good:

So we'd watch him do the silliest things anyways.  But that doesn't mean we aren't also going to laugh.

When Following Peeps on Instagram Makes You Like Them Less

Following my biases and other Korean and Taiwanese stars on Instagram and Twitter is generally a delight.  Countless hours have been wasted browsing their goofy, cute, and fun posts.  But then there is always the problem of a little TMI.  You get less impressed with them because of what they post.  This has happened to me one too many times to not write about.


It just so happens that the monotony or the stupidity of their posts just annoy us enough to where we end up thinking less of them to even not being able to take them seriously any more.

2015: The Year of Sexy Necks

Every year I make a calendar for myself, so I get exactly what I want and that sense of accomplishment.  I usually have a different theme each year (such as smiles or flower boys), and this year I decided to use my list of the Top 10 Sexy Necks as the general theme of 2015's calendar.

There was so much I could have put in here, and so many ways to do this, but I finally decided to count down to the number 1 on this list, and use the two remaining months for the other honorable mentions and general hot guys that I like and wanted to use.

My Norebang: Singing Kpop in the Shower

I actually sing karaoke in my living room too, but my day wouldn't be complete without me singing in the shower at the top of my lungs.  The acoustics are great, and I think no one else can hear me because of the water and the fan and all that, but really I just know they can hear me and I just don't care.

Here are some of my top songs sung in the shower.  Or at random times during the day.  Those catchy songs that get stuck in my head and just have to be sung no matter how actually good they are or how well I actually know the words.  They're just the songs I love to sing...

More Men Who Make Me Watch Drama Against My Will: Hot Bods Edition

Smiles aren't the only thing that make me watch dramas.  Sometimes I'm a lot more superficial and I watch a show just because I know that there will probably be a shirtless or brooding shower scene, and that actor has a hot body.  This just might be the most shallow post I ever will write, but you all know you've got your own list of hot bods.  Also, who wouldn't appreciate this list, because... yes.

Sometimes those shows are awesome, and it's not a problem at all that I started it out just for that one actor and how well he takes care of his body.  But sometimes, pleasure is mixed with regret as I wonder if that one shower scene was worth the 16+ episodes of crap.  That's a slippery slope, we won't go there, we'll just remember the minutes of shirtlessness, flexed arm muscles, and chocolate abs.

Drama Picking Bias Syndrome

I've been called out on this before, and I probably won't stop doing it ever.  As much as I love Kpop, and I do at that, I have problems finding new bands or getting into their music, until I have a bias for that band.  I don't pick a bias until I have a reason to like them, and that reason usually comes from seeing them in a drama first.  I think it's possibly because I tend to just appreciate them as a collective until I know one of them enough to love him individually.

A prime example of this is my history of liking Super Junior.

In 3.5 Min, More Chemistry Than the 23 Hours of Fall in Love With Me

So, Aaron just came out with a new dance version MV for his song No Cut, this time featuring Puff Guo.  No Cut is not my favorite song of his, mostly because of the rapping part in the middle which is just no.

Fall in Love and Then Get Forced Onto the Crazy Train for an Epic Crash You Can't Look Away From

I take it back.  Just You should never be compared to Fall In Love With Me, because that one was actually consistently good, while Fall In Love With Me turned into one of the worst most badly written dramas I have ever seen.  It couldn't even decide what the plot was, it changed so many times.  It was like... so bad.

What started out so good has become something so incomprehensibly bad that it became unrecognizable.  Seriously, the only way for us to get through it was to tweet to each other while watching it, sitting next to each other, mind you.

The Power of the Baseball Tee

I don't know about you, but one of the sexiest, most flattering shirt for a man to wear is the raglan sleeved baseball tee.  It just flatters all around, and most especially the neck.  If the guy is skinny, it makes their neck and shoulders look bigger, if the guy is muscular it makes those arms, chest, back and shoulders (and neck) look so good.  It just makes a man look so sexy.

Messing with the Moto Chinese Input: Chinese Auto Correct Fail

So, after really getting into Taiwanese dramas, Lizabreff and I decided to play with the Moto Chinese Input on our phones.  This allows you to draw the characters and it will recognize what you are writing and give suggestions.

We would send random Chinese characters to each other, use Google translate, and then laugh at what random crap we said.

This is fun... but it's also a bit dangerous I guess.

Men That Make Me Watch Dramas Against My Will: Smile Edition

Some actors just have that amazing power of making me watch a drama in spite of my better judgement.  I know the show will be crap/lame/bad/cray cray/super dramatic and so on, but I still watch them because of that one actor.

Sometimes it's to the extent that I've watched every show they've been in, and some of them were so bad (I'm talking to you, Yoon Si Yoon!)

Sometimes it's because of their smiles.  Those smiles that can make me watch even the dumbest of dramas.  Stop killing me with those smiles, you... super attractive and beautifully smiling men.

Sometimes watching that show ends up to be not that bad of a deal, but sometimes you finish and say to yourself "why the heck did I just watch that?" and then you see that man's smile again and you know why and feel no shame.  In fact, you hop online to look up another show he's been in, because you just can't get enough of that smile (or that neck and the rest of the face/body too).

Those are the some of the ones that I'm talking about here.  Bad or good, these dramas were watch purely for that man and his amazing smile.

Just You vs. Fall In Love With Me- two chances to see the same hot neck

It seems like everyone in my drama circle is watching Fall In Love With Me, which they probably should, because Aaron Yan.  Yep, that's the number one reason.  Jack Li is probably reason number 2, if that wasn't already the Aaron Yan OST.  I guess you could shove that into reason number 1, but I'd prefer to make it number 2 and Jack Li number 3.

Aaron Yan and Jack Li both have amazing necks.  In fact, Jack's neck bumps him up from a cute guy to a hot guy.

89. Fall in Love with Me 愛上兩個我 (2014) Taiwanese

Aaron Yan, Tia Li, Jack Li, Beatrice Fang, Kao Ying Hsuan

Drama Rating: 2.5/10     Neck Score: A++

It makes you fall in love with it and then turns into a train wreck.  The horrible, terrible train wreck that you can't look away from.  It's  completely awful writing.  It might be one of the worst written dramas that I have ever seen.  What makes it worse is that I loved it at first.  So much that I made all my friends start watching it.  Then it suddenly turned into a completely different drama.  It basically stole the horrible second half of Miss Rose manipulation plot for a while.  It changed plots so much in the second half that you completely forgot the first half, what was going on, and who the actual main characters were supposed to be.  Then, to make it worse, it tries to wrap everything up in a moralistic bow at the end, fixing things that cannot be realistically fixed, and redeeming people who can't be so easily redeemed, all in the space of one episode... impossible.  It was the lamest, preachiest, most horrible ending I have ever witnessed.  Seriously, what were the writers thinking?  Like a beautiful train wreck where you can't look away we finished it, making fun of how awful it was the whole time.  If it hadn't had been Aaron Yan, I might have just given up on it.  But it was seriously so bad that I stopped caring what happened so it all became funny, then it was ok.  I wrote a post about the first half, also talking about Aaron's previous drama Just You.  I also have another post here about how bad the second half was.  Spoilers included, but since I would never recommend this drama, I don't feel bad about it.  It is a seriously bi-polar drama.  So good, so bad.

49. Just You 就是要你愛上我 (2013) Taiwanese

Aaron Yan, Puff Guo, Dean Fujioka, Lin Lyla

Drama Rating: 7/10     Neck Score:A+++

The drama that started it all.  Not only was it my first Taiwanese drama, but it was also the one that started me neck crushing.  Aaron Yan's neck.  Whew!  That dude has a sexy neck, and this drama is delightful.  Well... actually the second half had me screaming at that stupid manipulating bitca, but there was always enough happiness to make up for it because Aaron Yan and Puff Guo have amazing chemistry.  Seriously.  I loved this drama.  Despite the screaming at the screen, I was so excited to watch it every week, even with all the cray crayness as the plot got messy and such, it was still fun (and cathartic to scream at that nasty bitca who is pretty much just cray cray).  We start with a new landlord (and obligatory accidental nakey scene) which forces them to live together from episode 1, who also happens to be her new boss.  He also happens to hate office romance and places an anti-dating rule which ruins her co-workers romance.  So she decides to "lion-hunt" the boss, which means that she plans to make him fall in love with her so that he will have to remove the rule.  This leads to some awesome situational humor since she is very very bad at trying to make people fall in love with her.  Good thing that it works in spite of all that, but not without her falling for him at the same time.  But who wouldn't with that neck... and face... and body... and voice... and sexy awesome hair... rawr and double rawr.  I actually have a post on how awesome this show is, so for more details... and possible spoilers... go there.  Also, this song.  My fave Aaron Yan song which also happens to be the ending theme.