293. Just Between Lovers 그냥 사랑하는 사이 (2017) Korean

Lee Joon Ho, Won Jin Ah, Lee Ki Woo, Kang Han Na

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A+

I wasn't going to watch this at first, but I kept seeing spoilers that made me want to watch it. Plus, I wanted to see Joon Ho act more, because he really impressed me in Chief Kim. It was definitely worth it. I burned through the whole show in about a week. But the one thing that you have to remember before starting this show is that it is a melodrama. Straight up tragedy, really. It is about a bunch of people whose lives were ruined because of a mall collapse back in 2005.  You know you are getting old when the past scenes in a drama were after you'd already started college. All of our leads have a traumatic past because of this event, some of them have it worse than others because they were trapped in the mall and almost died.

I do like the character development of most people. I like how we slowly started learning things about what happened in the past. It unfolded nicely and helped the character development. I loved how no one was really a horrible person, and even that gae baby had a story and reasons, even though I still called him "gae baby" cause he deserves it. The person whose character got the least development was Lee Ki Woo, who had a lame second male lead plot development, while the second female lead was bae.

I thought that Won Jin Ah did a great job.  Joon Ho was decent too. They definitely kept me coming back even when I thought it was going to be too hard or dramatic. It was a bit of both, but it was also enjoyable and worth it. I did get a bit mad about how the previews strung me along making me keep watching as they lied about what episode the cute scenes were actually going to be in. I had to wait like three episodes for that back hug scene, thanks a lot.

27. Flower Boy Ramen Shop 꽃미남 라면가게 (2011) Korean

Jung Il Woo, Lee Chung Ah, Lee Ki Woo

Drama Rating: 8/10      Neck Score: A+

The first in a series of Flower Boy shows that all have the same basic standard.  Four extremely hot flower boys surrounding one normal girl, for whatever reason.  This one is still the best of all of them, but the others are good too.  Also, this one is the best if you happen to be a noona (which I am), since this is a noona romance.  I tried to get my little sister to watch it and she just couldn't get into it in the same way.  Eun Bi (Lee Chung Ah) is trying to be a teacher, but she runs into Cha Chi Soo (Jung Il Woo) who is a high school student, and she ends up having to take over her father's ramen shop along with Pillar (Lee Ki Woo) who was trained by her father and given the shop and her (so that he calls her his wife) and three hot high school boys who respectively call her noona, teacher, and honey.  So well written, so funny, so delightful.