290. Two Cops 투깝스 (2017) Korean

Jo Jung Suk, Hyeri, Kim Sun Ho

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: A+

I don't know how we were so talented at forgetting what was going on in this show every week. We didn't watch it while it was going, but we did watch it once a week on schedule for our girl's night with my sister, and it was surprisingly forgettable. I liked it when it was going, but it wasn't very compelling. The parts that gripped me the most were the bromance (naturally) and the second couple. I loved the second couple. They were my OTP... well, if the bromance wasn't the OTP for reals. We especially forgot that Hyeri was in it, because she really wasn't important to the plot at all. In the second half especially because that's when the true drama began. When it became about the bromance instead of the love triangle.

So the plot wasn't bad or anything, it was that the writing was pretty sloppy. Not super bad, just all over the place. This made it hard to follow, easy to forget, and not very compelling. They were too draggy with the whole partnership thing. It took them half the drama to figure out how the possessing part worked. They didn't trust each other for forever, and fought all the time. This just made it less watchable.

But I have to give mad props to Jo Jung Suk for pulling off both characters so well. You knew that it was Gong Soo Chang in Cha Dong Tak's body. It was beautiful. He was amazing. I really loved Maknae (Kim Sun Ho) as the spirit of Gong Soo Chang as well. All I wanted the whole time was for them to be partners and the bromance to be real. It took way too long, but when it happened, it was awesome. It kind of made up for everything else.

We also all struggled with the endless scenes of the bad guys talking in the sashimi restaurant. Literally every time the Blueberry Tart (my name for that pie faced villain) was on the screen I zoned out. It didn't help that my sister's kids were constantly distracting me, but it is much harder to want to pay attention if the bad guy gets too many boring sashimi restaurant scenes. It did spark a realization though. You know someone is the villain when they hold their meetings in the private room of a sashimi restaurant. Only villains and corrupt politicians eat there. Good guys all eat samgyeopsal at BBQ places (unless the boss is buying the beef).

You know who else stole the show? Lee Si Eon as Yong Pal the gangster. I never thought he was not good looking or anything but dang he was sexy as Yong Pal! The gangster style suited him with the bright colors and sexy slicked back hair. He rocked the thick fur collars like a boss! He and his boys were the highlight of the show at times. He's the best! Avengers for the win!

So maybe if you have more patience and focus this would be a better show, because like I said, our main two boys were amazing and it was good for the most part, it's just that the pacing and writing held them back for so long. It was a good halfway through the show before the actual plot happened. They became a team, they started focusing on the real case instead of a bunch of little ones like a serial would, and then magic happened. Bros before anything else!

The ending was almost lame. They did try to throw some mopiness in the last episode. No one wants that. But I would say that the very end was nice enough that I forgave the rest of it. It was never horrible, just hard to get into. I've never forgotten about a drama so much, and we faithfully watched like once a week. It was super strange. So a solid meh? A "shug it was okay?" I liked it, but it didn't love it. I guess I was just not that into it, it's fine. That bromance though.

Korean Movie Night: Hyung, aka My Annoying Brother, 형 (2016) Korean

Jo Jung Suk, Do Kyung Soo, Park Shin Hye

Movie rating: 8/10     Neck score: A

Can I just say that the genres assigned to Korean movies are all lies?  They say it's a comedy, and then you're crying by the end.  Such liars!  Well, I guess that's why this one is labelled a comedy drama, which seems like a walking contradiction, but trust me, it does it and does it well.  The situation itself is both comedic and sad, as it is about a conman (Jo Jung Suk) who uses his younger brother's sudden blindness as an excuse to get out on parole.  To make matters worse, his younger brother (Do Kyung Soo) was a judo athlete training for the Olympics when the injury happened.  Talk about depressing right there, but then there is the conman comedic element that makes it also weirdly funny.  It's just a mix of lots of emotions.  Plus you have some of my favorite actors.  I have always had nothing but praise for both of these boys, and their brotherly chemistry is the best.  Bromance between real brothers is the best.  I love seeing families coming together.  I was super impressed with Kyung Soo's ability to act blind.  I believed it.  I also loved how they look enough alike to be half brothers.   They were just great.  Park Shin Hye was... okay.  Like usual.  I liked the pace of the story, as well as the comedy.  The timing was pretty great.  Then the emotions!  Wah!  So many emotions!  All the emotions in the world!  I think I might have felt them all!  Haha, maybe an exaggeration, but hey, I am obsessed with these boys.  Jo Jung Suk makes me feel things.  It was definitely a good one that I would recommend watching, especially if you happen to love these boys as much as I do.

222. Jealousy Incarnate 질투의 화신 (2016) Korean

Gong Hyo Jin, Jo Jung Suk, Go Kyung Pyo, Lee Mi Sook, Park Ji Young, Lee Sung Jae, Seo Ji Hye

Drama Rating: 9/10     Neck Score: A+

What beautifully flawed people.  What horrible imperfections.  What lovable love triangles.  What perfectly wonderful acting.  I loved this show so much.  Never have I loved so many characters!  Everyone was just real and harsh and lovable.  Of course Jo Jung Suk was just perfect.  He nailed it.  He made us feel so many conflicting emotions and to be on his side no matter what, even when he was being a complete idiot, which he was often, that was the beauty of the show.  So many complex feelings and emotions, so perfectly portrayed.  It was beautiful.  My other favorites were the ahjumma frenemies love triangle, because it wasn't even a love triangle as much as a womance.  Going to be honest, we probably liked them the most because we saw ourselves in them.  I love Reporter Kye, because I related to her, I want to be her when I grow up.  Lizabreff connected to Chief Bang.  We just like to relate to the womances, apparently.  Also, Na Pyo Ri's little brother = yes.  Gong Hyo Jin was great as always.  I loved how much her character grew.  She started off being that same awkward character she always is, and then ended up being a strong woman.  I super loved their relationship and how they ended up as equals after starting off as a pushover girl and full of himself guy.  Also, the bromance.  Go Kyung Pyo and Jo Jung Suk's bromance was perfect, even in their merciless fighting over her.  The mudflat scene.  Need I say more?  It's pretty hilarious because I had to talk my sister through this show because there was so many raw feels and people being selfish jerks, which she hated but I loved, while she had to talk me through Scarlet Heart Ryeo because I thought it was stupid.  I guess to each their own.  This show was one of the best I've seen in a while.  It was 24 episodes and I didn't care.  It could have been longer and I would have been fine, so long as they kept the writing just as tight and consistent.  It was just delightful.

161. Oh My Ghostess 오 나의 귀신님 (2015) Korean

Park Bo Young, Jo Jung Suk, Kim Seul Gi, Lim Ju Hwan

Drama Rating: 7/10     Neck Score: A+

You really shouldn't watch a drama over the space of a whole year.  Because if you have a million days in between each set of episodes, then you are going to forget what happens and be less involved with the characters so the feels don't mean as much.  That's what we did, and it was a sad mistake.  So I was watching this with my friend who is really busy, and then I got a job where our schedules didn't align well, so we never had time to watch it.  But she was so determined to finish it with us that I couldn't refuse, so we took a million days to watch it.  Like a whole year.  This meant that by the end, I didn't remember most of what happened earlier.  This was good for Luscious Locks though (Lim Ju Hwan who did not have luscious locks in this one) because it made us way more focused on his brilliantly subtle acting in the last few episodes.  Because literally all the feels came from him in those ones.  He caught our attention from the very start because even when he was acting like a sweet nice guy he was somehow creepy at the same time.  And it was very subtle and it was wonderful.  I do remember really liking all the characters.  However it seems like it was two different dramas.  Jo Jung Suk and Park Bo Young had a cute rom-com going there with the ghost possessing and seducing, which was cute and fun.  I loved both Park Bo Young and Kim Seul Gi's portrayals of the ghost.  They were both brilliant.  Sadly I didn't like the normal girl Park Bo Young without the ghost, because she was lame and boring, but she got better, which was good.  So we have a cute rom-com with an adorable couple, and the group of idiot chef boys who were hilarious, especially when they sang "congratulations!"  Then all the sudden it's a super dark murder mystery and really, really creepy.  And there are still random hilarious dorky scenes of the idiot chef boys being weird bros.   Then there is more creepy where Lim Ju Hwan is amazing with his actions and facial expressions, and then we have an needlessly slow last episode that felt really draggy, especially since they had to have a time jump.  Lame.  But whatever.  All the actors were amazing, and I'm sure if you watch it all consecutively it will make way more sense and be lots better.  I still liked it, but I don't know if I can give a fairer review than this, because of my unique experience.

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.

45. What's Up? 왓츠 업 (2011) Korean

Lim Ju Hwan, Daesung, Lim Ju Eun, Oh Man Seok, Kim Mi Kyung,  Jang Hee Jin, Kim Ji Won, Jo Jung Suk, Lee Soo Hyuk

Drama Rating: 5/10     Neck Score: A

I should actually finish this one before I write a review.  It's not like I didn't like it... I just didn't love it and got distracted by something else, and then forgot about it.  I do want to finish it though... because Daesung and Lee Soo Hyuk... also Jo Jung Suk.  They were the reasons I started (well Lee Soo Hyuk was a bonus since I only knew him from the 2ne1 music video "It Hurts")  I remember thinking the main dude was annoying through...  That might have been a problem.  I have like 6 episodes left I think, so we'll see how this gets updated.... Ok, I finally finished it, and it wasn't so bad.  I actually don't know why I stopped watching, besides getting distracted with other shows.  In all honesty it's really hard to care about shows that center around musicals (just look at my reaction to Heartstrings).  They just don't do it for me.  I just don't care.  So this one... not that compelling to me.  The only things that were compelling to me were the men that I loved (Daesung, Jo Jung Suk, and Lee Soo Hyuk).  I loved the music in it, which is something.  Every time that Daesung or Jung Suk's voice came on I got happier about watching it.  That one girl was annoying, the one that Lim Ju Hwan liked, because she was such a naive and incompetent little kid, but she became less important.  I though Ju Hwan was annoying at first when he was being an angry young man, but he got over it and became likeable.  I didn't think that Daesung was in it enough.  The ending was really open, which was what they were going for, so no worries.  I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either.  The singing and stuff was well done because it was rarely an actual performance and it usually was integrated into the story well to make it more emotional.  For a musical show it was actually quite good, I guess.

44. You're the Best! Lee Soon Shin 최고다 이순신왓츠 업 (2013) Korean

IU, Jo Jung Suk, Ko Do Shim, Lee Mi Sook

Drama Rating: 5/10     Neck Score: A

I started this because of Jo Jung Suk, and then I realized that it was 50 episodes long.  50!!!!!  At the time I didn't know those existed.  I had never watched the dreaded weekend family drama.  But once I started it, I had to finish it.  I did, somehow.  It was so long... and less about IU and Jo Jung Suk  and way more about the moms.  There were at least four of them and they were all annoying.  ALL OF THEM!  It was mom drama and birth secrets.  The grandma was even worse than the moms.  She kept pounding herself and asking why she was still living.  So annoying.  To give you an idea about how long it was, the premise I read said her dad died in it and there was hard times for the family.  The dad didn't die for like 10 episodes.  What?  There were some redeeming qualities.  Jo Jung Suk is adorable in it.  Awkward, sweet, trying to act cool all the time.  It was great.  Weird to see him in the jerk role at first (you know the typical rich leading man role) but once you found out that he was awkward trying to act cool, you just loved him.  IU did a great job.  She's really cute.  She handled all the crying and yelling well.  Then, I have to love this because it introduced me to the glory of Jung Woo.  Ahhhhhhh!  I fell in love with Jung Woo.  He is tall, hot, manly, and just made me love him.  Out of all the romances of the three sisters in Lee Soon Shin's family, the oldest sister and Jung Woo's baker ex-convict man was the best (or should we call it the oldest sister's daughter and the Jung Woo man, since their friendship had much more time to it than the romance).  Then maybe it was Soon Shin and Mr. Shin (IU and Jo Jung Suk) and then the middle sister and her husband.  They were mostly just annoying.  So, even with the mom drama it was tolerable.  There was a lot of time for character development, and that's good.  But don't make the mistake of thinking it's about the kids.  It's not.  It's totes about the moms.  Mom drama.

12. King 2 Hearts 더킹 투하츠 (2012) Korean

Lee Seung Gi, Ha Ji Won, Jo Jung Suk, Yoon Je Moon

Drama Rating: 9/10     Neck Score: A (B+)

The necks are good... but too many stiff collars so... yeah.  Well made, perfect blend of political drama, action, humor, plot twists, and creepiness.  Yoon Je Moon is so, so good at being creepy.  I almost couldn't watch some scenes.  Also, one of the best kisses ever.  We've got a North Korean soldier girl and a South Korean prince (if there were still princes in South Korea) who have to work together, first as team mates, then dating, then actually falling in love, then saving their two nations.  A lot happens, but this was so well done that even when you don't want to watch parts, and put off finishing because you know the inevitable will happen, it's still so good that you have to watch it.  Also, super nice OST.  Best acting job Seung Gi has done.  Ha Ji Won is good as always.  Fell in love with Jo Jung Suk.