351. The Tale Nokdu 조선로코 녹두전 (2019) Korean

Jang Dong Yoon, Kim So Hyun, Kang Tae Oh, Jung Joon Ho, Kim Tae Woo

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A

This is super late, so I'm not sure I remember enough to write a lot... and I'm also getting over a cold so my head is still cloudy as well. But I do remember liking it a lot. It's one of the ones that I looked forward to watching every week.

However, this felt like two different dramas: one where he cross dresses and one where the second male lead goes mega evil to stage a coup. They tie in together well, but the flavors are so drastically different that you forget the other one existed. I much preferred the cross dressing story too. Maybe because Jang Dong Yoon did a fabulous job, but also because it was different and refreshing while the highly political violent half is basically every sageuk out there. Not a bad thing, I did like all of it, its mostly how much it changed that made me forget. What I loved about it was that the characters didn't change even though how dire the situations got. They grew and adapted, but their basic character stayed them. Nokdu was Nokdu whether he was dressing like a widow or playing the soldier. You could even see the gradual decent of the villain into extreme measures. Just kidding, that was mind-blowingly unexpected. As was the death of who we all thought was the real villain.... wow.

299. Radio Romance 라디오 로맨스 (2018) Korean

Yoon Doo Joon, Kim So Hyun, Yoon Park, Yura

Drama Rating: 3/10     Neck Score: A

Also known as Ladio Lowmance, aka Too Many Bitcas, aka She's Too Young/a minor. Honestly, I started this one against my better judgement. The age gap was squicky and the plot seemed cliche. However, Curdy had just finished watching Splash Splash Love, so she was on a Doo Joon high, and Lizabreff loves Yoon Park, so they were planning on it. I joined in because of fomo. By the end, I was forcing them to finish it, because I am a finisher, while they aren't necessarily. It was torture. We literally could only watch one at a time, and only if we had something else to watch to bring our spirits up, because it was so badly written. It was all over the place. It was super draggy too. The plot didn't actually start moving along until it was almost over. It was just the same nasty bitca fighting, hurting our main girl, and the two male leads having constant weenie wars EVERY SINGLE EPISODE. Seriously, dudes, put them away. No one cares about either of your feelings, just let the girl do what she wants!

Thanks for making this, Lizabreff, haha.

273. Nightmare Teacher 악몽선생 (2016) Korean

Uhm Ki Joon, Kim So Hyun, Lee Min Hyuk, Seo Shin Ae

Drama Rating: 7/10     Neck Score: A

After the lameness of Golden Cross, I needed to see my Grumpy Cat (Uhm Ki Joon) in something more worthy of his greatness.  What better than a webdrama where he is a teacher who is making his students live their nightmares so he can steal their souls and teach them life lessons?  Answer, lots of things, but this was also a good option.  It was actually not too bad for a webdrama.  It wasn't that creepy, sadly, and it was very moralistic and stuff, but I still liked it.  It was done in serial format, with a new kid with a new problem every two episodes.  Some of the mini story arcs were more relatable than others, which really helped with the quality or enjoyability of the story arc.  Lizabreff couldn't get into the story about the overachiever student who studied until he lost his memory of anything else, while I cared less about the girl who wanted to look perfect and be the prettiest so she went all Dorian Gray on us.  Although I liked the Dorian Gray part of it.  We also both struggled with the lonely, dreamer girl who dreamed herself a boy friend and a stalker.  Why would you want the stalker?  He turned out only slightly less scary than the boyfriend actually.  While her stupidity was the worst, I loved that one the best because it was probably the creepiest one.  The end was almost the creepiest, which I was excited for, but it stayed pretty tame and not horrific like I wanted.  Oh well.  It was very moralizing and we all learned a lesson.  The end.  The important part was that Uhm Ki Joon was amazing and I loved him, as he just stood there, being awesome and leading the kids to their doom... haha.  It was a good drama to appreciate him in, and that's what I needed, so it was perfect.

249. Bring It On, Ghost 싸우자 귀신아 (2016) Korean

Ok Taecyeon, Kim So Hyun, Kwon Yul, Kim Sang Ho, Kang Ki Young, David Lee

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: A

An appropriate blend of creepy and cute.  The acting wasn't the best... ahem ahem Taecyeon ahem ahem... but that didn't hurt the show too much.  The best acting was of course the villains and side peeps.  I loved the GhostNet who became Soondae Soup boys.  Ki Young and David Lee were just the best.  I think every screenshot I got while watching was Ki Young, except for that Shim Hyung Tak cameo.  Anyways.  I did like the build up of figuring out the plot.  At first Creepy Doll Face (Kwan Yul) is just a creepy Cat Killer (his new nickname), but then he starts to become even creepier as we figure out that he doesn't just kill cats, but people too... and more people than we thought.  He's just killing people all over the place, making ghosts everywhere... or killing ghosts everywhere.

The basic root of the plot, that tied everyone together was a little weak in my opinion, but not enough to ruin everything.  It explained things... okay, but whatever.  I wanted the ghost girl to stay bad-a the whole time, but sadly she had to have her time as a damsel in distress.  But that's the good part about the horror/action romantic comedies.  Instead of getting mopey, we have life and death situations to add the drama, so it thankfully never got lame.  Even the amnesia episodes weren't too bad.  They made more sense than most amnesia episodes.  It wasn't unwarranted amnesia, it was somewhat justifiable amnesia, if that is a thing.

Last thing, there is no way we would believe that Kim So Hyun was a year older than Taecyeon.  I understand the part about her becoming a ghost in high school, so they need a young looking person, but there is no way we'd believe she was any older than high school.  The age gap wasn't great.  Not as bad as some, since he could look college aged, but still.  Eek!  As much as I hate to admit to praising Creepy Doll Face Cat Killer, he did a good job being creepy as foretold.  Obviously Kim Sang Ho was the best actor in this, but he also did a good job.  Reluctant claps.  The last episode was super drawn out.  They solved the ghost crime part too soon, so all that was left was bringing everything back to where it started, with Soondae Soup, and as much as I love those boys (literally my favorite part of the show) it made for a really boring last episode.  That's ok, overall this show was cute and creepy, so what more do you want?

202. Page Turner 페이지 터너 (2016) Korean

Kim So Hyun, Ji Soo, Shin Jae Ha, Ye Ji Won, Hwang Young Hee

Drama Rating: 9/10     Neck Score: A+

I just wanted this to be longer!  Seriously so good!  I was crying one minute and grinning from ear to ear the next.  I could easily have watched 16 episodes of this, because there was plenty to deal with.  Also, Ji Soo.  He was just about the most adorable thing I've ever seen!  He was the nicest, most optimistic, and funniest male lead ever.  This show was so good that it got both Lizabreff and Curdy to sit down and watch the last episode with me when they hadn't seen any of the other two episodes.  That's right, it's only three episodes long.  Way too short for all of Ji Soo's cuteness.  All the characters are good.  Kim So Hyun was awesome.  Her and Ji Soo had great chemistry, even when she couldn't "see" his face.  Also, lots of beautiful piano music.  Really good.