357. A Love So Beautiful 致我们单纯的小美好 (2017) Chinese

Hu Yi Tian, Shen Yue, Gao Zhi Ting, Wang Zi Wei, Sun Ning

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: A

I watched this one because of how much I loved Put Your Head On My Shoulder and that probably made it harder to like this one. It's the same basic plot, spunky girl/stoic genius, but this one should have been called "A Love so Frustrating" because it quickly became obvious that they both liked each other, but for some reason they still weren't getting together. It did make sense why, but that didn't make it any less frustrating. She's the typical spunky, artistic, but not any good at school, girl who is in love with her neighbor and is constantly following him. Her determination to win him over is the entire plot of the show. He is the stoic genius who is super handsome so everyone loves him, but he's got some severe emotional and trust issues, which means that her devotion to him is actually attractive to him, but he's got so many trust and abandonment issues that he's too scared to actually voice his feelings. He's also a tsundere, which is like a double whammy.

347. Go Go Squid 亲爱的，热爱的 (2019) Chinese

Yang Zi, Li Xian, Hu Yi Tian, Lee Hong Chi, Li Ze Feng, Chen Xi Jun, Wang Zhen Er

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

I had to see what all the hype was about. I'm admittedly on one of those weird blah watching kicks where I'm not motivated to watch or especially start much of anything, but this manages to hook me fast enough that I kept watching and then I quickly knew exactly what the hype was about. It's super addictive because you really just fall in love with everyone and especially all the relationships. I mean ALL of them. It's just as much about the friendships as it is about the romance. Also, the romance is absolutely fun to watch because it's two super awkward first timers who don't know what they are doing despite the age difference, and to see them bring out the best in each other and struggle to figure out what to do is pretty darn satisfying.