305. A Poem a Day 시를 잊은 그대에게 (2018) Korean

Lee Yoo Bi, Lee Joon Hyuk, Jang Dong Yoon, Seo Hyun Chul, Lee Chae Young

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A+

A beautiful slice of life drama that can make even this poetry hater appreciate the poems. Probably because each poem was so poignant and healing as it was read, at first by just Bo Young (Lee Yoo Bi) but then by each of the characters. Because while this was primarily about Woo Bo Young, each character mattered and it was about all of the health professionals as they went about their daily lives in the hospital, with their own set of worries and pains.

The fact that it was a medical drama held me back for a bit, because I have an aversion to hospital dramas, with their super high stakes, with the surgeries every episode, all life and death. It just doesn't appeal to me. I have a hard time caring about surgical dramas. But this one appealed to me a lot because it wasn't about the surgeries, it was about the recovery, as it focused on a team of physical therapists and a couple of radiologists. This fit in really well with the poetic theme of healing. It was all about the struggles and hardships of life, with all the deep emotional struggles as well. Looking at people who don't have hope because they may never walk again, or no matter what they do they can only barely pay the bills. It was heartwarming and you just end up loving everyone, because they were all relatable and beautifully human.

163. Scholar Who Walks The Night 밤을 걷는 선비 (2015) Korean

Lee Joon Ki, Lee Yoo Bi, Shim Chang Min, Lee Soo Hyuk, Kim So Eun

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: A+++

So many beautiful vampires.  That's about all there was to this show.  It's plot was okay, but kind of draggy, as in they could have solved it sooner but they didn't.  They literally just ended up doing what they could have done so many episodes ago.  Sigh.  It was clearly about how hot Lee Joon Ki and Kim Soo Hyuk were.  It totally emphasized the sexuality of vampires.  They made scenes needlessly sexy, which was funny...well I rolled my eyes at the fan servicey sexiness of the scenes anyways.  It wasn't as bad as The Night Watchmen, but I did accidentally call it Night Watchmen all the time.  It has some similarities in the cheesiness department.  The biggest difference is that everyone in this one was a good actor, even Changmin, who I had my doubts about.  Sadly Changmin's character was a little sissy poo who caused a lot of the dragginess.  There was also everyone trying to sacrifice themselves for everyone else, blah blah blah.  I think by the end what saved it for me was how sympathetic they managed to make the villain while still making him an evil vampire.  Calling the Chief Minister out on his crap, "Are you even human after all of this?" and going on a rampage out of guilt when he killed someone he didn't mean to.  His conflict about emotions he didn't understand and dealing with hypocritical humans was nice.  The parts with him were about the only thing I liked about the ending, which was just weird.  I didn't get the need for a year gap or whatever it was they did to try and make the ending happy or whatever.  Also, props to Joon Ki for playing a human, a vampire, and a mix of the two so well, and looking so darn pretty as he did it too.  So it was okay, but super draggy/silly too.  But as a historical drama portraying vampires, it was decent.  It was one of the better vampire dramas I've seen (but is that really saying anything?)