325. The Smile Has Left Your Eyes 하늘에서 내리는 1억 개의 별 (2018) Korean

Seo In Guk, Jung So Min, Park Sung Woong, Go Min Si, Yoo Jae Myung

Drama Rating: 7/10     Neck Score: A+

I kind of loved the level of psychological thriller this had. With a mysterious man who is a sociopath or whatever, manipulating and not understanding emotions. Completely jaded to the good in the world because he can see human hypocrisy all too well. Seo In Guk did a great job being the "monster" in this one. You hated him and loved him all at once. He made you shiver all while being attracted to him. But then the developing relationship between him and Jung So Min was also really great. I loved her as well. Her innate ability to see through him, but still empathize. To see both the good and the bad and to call him out on his crap. It made the relationship worth watching, even though you had the sick feeling that everything was going to go wrong when we finally found out about the past that the oppa kept not telling everyone about, even when we were all sure that telling would save some mistakes from being made. Oh well.

Women Who Make Me Watch Dramas Against My Will: Tiny Edition

With several of my current favorite dramas ended or ending, I felt the need to show some love to some of my favorite actresses again with another list of women who make me watch dramas against my will, especially since some of them were starring in those ending shows.

This time the loose theme linking them all together is "tiny" because while these women are giants in their acting abilities and awesomeness, sometimes their size, age, or cuteness makes you want to just put them in your pocket and take them home.  I mean that in the best possible way.  I love these women and though they be little they are fierce and can hold their own on screen, and they deserve some love and respect.

280. Because It's My First Life 이번 생은 처음이라 (2017) Korean

Lee Min Ki, Jung So Min, Esom, Park Byung Eun, Kim Ga Eun, Kim Min Suk

Drama Rating: 9/10     Neck Score: A

I knew going in that I was probably going to like this drama, just based on the plot and the cast of characters.  I just didn't think I was going to get this obsessed with it.  This is easily a contender for the top drama of the year for me, and I'm not sure that it has any competition, I'd have to go back and do some research on it.  Maybe Defendant... but they are completely different genres, so they can both be the best, it's fine.  It was soooooo good!  It was so relatable, and hilarious, and deep, and full of the tropes that we love, but handled in a good and fresh way that made us laugh and squeal instead of roll our eyes and groan.  It helps that it had some pretty tight writing, great actors, and plenty of good chemistry.

I'm a sucker for tropes like contract marriages and forced living situations.  This has them both.  That hit it off right away too.  I also really love how it is about three friends and their lives, so we had three couples rather than the typical love triangle.  THERE WERE NO ACTUAL LOVE TRIANGLES!  Can I just say how happy I was about that?  I hate triangles of love, and that was not what this was about.  It was about learning about themselves and healing wounds, and understanding feels and most of all communication.  I loved how most of the plot was about learning how to communicate with the significant others, and with their inner feelings.  So all of the drama with the couples really came down to learning to communicate, which is both great and frustrating at times, when there is a lack of communication or understanding.

267. Sound of Your Heart 마음의 소리 (2016) Korean

Lee Kwang Soo, Kim Dae Myung, Jung So Min, Kim Byung Ok, Kim Mi Kyung

Drama Rating: 9/10     Neck Score: A

I was so sad when I couldn't find this anywhere, because you all know how much I love Kwang Soo.  He is my #1 actor who rivals even GD in my heart.  I had to watch him be Cho Seok, because I also am 100% in love with Sound of Your Heart and have read everything that has been translated on Line Webtoon.  Sadly that is just a fraction of what there actually is, sniff.  Basically, there is a certain laugh that I have reserved just for Sound of Your Heart.  Lizabreff knows only one thing can make me laugh like that, so she knows what I'm reading.  This show was the same.  I laughed so hard!  I think it did a good job capturing the right feeling.  Their actor choice was perfect for all of them.  Every new person introduced I was like "Yeah!  They're perfect for it!"  It was delightful.  Even before we found it on Netflix and were just watching random clips on YouTube, I was just laughing.  They did a good job.  It's a slightly different experience when the naked/bathroom humor comes in, cuz it's live action vs just the drawings.  You realize just how tall and skinny Kwang Soo is when he's streaking through the city with his bare legs and censored blur.  It was hilarious.  I loved it.  I also like how they managed to keep the webtoon feel to it, while also connecting them into a somewhat cohesive story, with some character growth and some tied in themes.  It brought it all back in for a good ending to the series, so we didn't get left hanging.  It was well done.  Highly recommended.  I want there to be more seasons.  All the seasons in the world!  More Sound of Your Heart!  More Kwang Soo!  Hurray!

262. Father is Strange 아버지가 이상해 (2017) Korean

Kim Young Chul,  Kim Hae Sook, Lee Joon,  Jung So Min, Lee Yoo Ri, Ryu Soo Young, Min Jin Woong, Lee Mi Do, Ryu Hwa Young, Ahn Hyo Seop

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A+

I love a good 50 episode family drama, and that is exactly what this was.  So many wonderful characters that you can just grow to love, because you have all the time in the world.  I love it because you can take time to develop characters fully and let relationships build naturally.  This usually makes me way more invested in all the characters and all the relationships to the point where I'm crying and giggling at any wedding or big event near the end.  This was no exception.

The plot of this was a bit interesting, since it is focused on a family with three strong minded girls who all take after their strong minded mother, and then the one older brother who takes after the easygoing sweet father.  However there are, of course, family secrets- practically birth secrets here- when an idol turned actor shows up looking for his father who happens to be the dad of this family.  This is potentially bad because the main OTP is clearly this actor (Lee Joon) and his manager, who is the third child in the family (Jung So Min).  But they let us slowly unravel the secrets until all the crap hits the fan and it's all dramatic, and all that.

30. Can We Get Married? 우리가 결혼할 수 있을까 (2013) Korean

Sung Joon, Jung So Min, Lee Mi Sook, Kim Young Kwang, Han Groo

Drama Rating: 5/10      Neck Score: A-

I watched this for Sung Joon, the little bro from Lie to Me, and came out thoroughly impressed by Lee Mi Sook, who was the mom in Love Rain.  Such completely different characters and both played so well (she does this every time as I saw when I watched Lee Soon Shin).  This had enough plot and characters/couples to justify it being a 50 episode family drama, but thankfully it was not.  It's about a single mom with two daughters and a single younger sister who is trying to keep them all happy.  She's tacky, assertive, loud and fast talking, and I love her.  Especially when she talks to the stuffed animals that her daughter's ex-boyfriend gives her vs the one her perspective son-in-law gives her- beating up one and loving the other.  There is a lot of mom drama, which is a bit annoying, but also a lot of different love stories.  The aunt falling in love with motorcycles (and maybe a biker), the older sister leaving her douchey husband, the younger sister working out the kinks so she can get married, the best friend having constant fights with her boyfriend and maybe getting a crush on her friend's fiance.  Yeah, lots of drama.  I still didn't like Jung So Min.  Didn't like her in playful kiss, still not my favorite in this.  But with Sung Joon and Kim Young Kwang there are plenty of necks to love.

16. Playful Kiss 장난스런 키스 (2010) Korean

Kim Hyun Joong, Jung So Min, Lee Tae Sung

Drama Rating: 3/10      Neck Score: A

I actually started watching this earlier, got 2 minutes into it, and stopped because it was so bad.  Then one holiday weekend, when I was feeling very low and needed something so bad, I just finished it.  It really was bad.  So cheesy, bad acting, silly plot.  (I've since read the manga and watched the Japanese and Taiwanese versions).  This is probably the worst version of this story, mostly because of the bad acting and weird writing choices, such as combining two characters to make one bad other chick.  The character I liked most was "Tae Moo" which is the character's name the actor played in Rooftop Prince, aka Bong Joon Gu (Lee Tae Sung).  He had hot hair and then later when he cut it, hotter hair.  Also a hot neck.  Kim Hyun Joong has a pretty face and hot neck, but he really can't act.  He looked blank the whole time, unless he was angry at her, and then he looked like he hated her.  Even after they were married I didn't believed one bit that he loved her.  She was just annoying.  Out of all the girls, she was the most annoying.  Just... no.  So hot men, but not worth the time.  If you must watch a show of this manga then I recommend the newest Japanese version first (Mischievous Kiss: Love in Tokyo) and then the Taiwanese version (It Started with a Kiss).