221. Moonlight Drawn By Clouds 구르미 그린 달빛 (2016) Korean

Park Bo Gum, Kim Yoo Jung, Jung Jin Young, Chae Soo Bin, Kwak Dong Yeon

Drama Rating: 7/10     Neck Score: A

And yet another tale of Lizabreff and I not finishing a drama right away because of reasons that weren't really reasons.  Once again we were watching too many dramas at once, and we sacrificed this one so we could finish the others.  Of course, like always, we stopped right before it got good again.  It was getting boring and we couldn't handle it.  We weren't ready for all the crap that was inevitably going to happen after episode 12, so we just stopped before 13.  It probably didn't deserve that, since it was by far a better drama than most the other ones we actually finished at the time, which I gave much lower ratings (cough cough Moon Jun Ki ahem Cinderella and the Four Knights cough cough).  I think it was too many sageuks for Lizabreff.  She'll be the first to admit they are not her thing, and as soon as they get slow she struggles.  I think that was partially what happened, plus the other sageuks, and it was just too much.

So, I ended up just finishing it alone, much later.  It took me no time at all too, which makes this whole story pathetic.  In like two or three days I finished the remaining 6 episodes.  Why was that so hard?  I was super into it too.  Nothing was hard to watch, it was all just normal good sageuk.  Not even the bad kind, the normal good kind.  I do have to say that the last episode was not good.  It did not measure up to the quality of the rest of the drama, which is often the case with any given drama.  However, this erred on the side of being too happy and gooey.  No way any of that was possible.  It was like they just threw all reality out the window and made every happy ending fantasy come true.  It was cheesy and bad.  Sorry that I actually wanted Bo Gum to die?  Not because I hate him, I love him. But I thought a tragic ending would have been nice.  It's not like that historical figure didn't die young.  Apparently he did, so what was that ending?  Spoilers, he doesn't die.  Sorry.  I know it was based off of a novel, but not having read it, all I had was the historic context, but I probably should have just left that part alone.  Then the cheesiness could have prevailed.  But I guess it did make an obvious point about what the title was about in the end, tying everything up with a nice big bow, the end, everything is great.

So, it wasn't a bad drama by any means, and I can see why it was so popular, although maybe not agreeing to that whole extent.  It wasn't amazing or anything, just good.  The acting was stellar through out, although I will say that Yoo Jung looks young for her age and Bo Gum looks exactly his age, so no one but Dong Yeon looked 18.  I liked to point out all the age gap romance scenes, which annoyed everyone else, mwahaha.  It does have all those sageuk tropes, with the girl dressed as a guy, but it was fresh in the execution.  At least what she had to go through to be a eunich was interesting.  I loved the bromance the best.  Kim Hyung and the prince were my OTP.  Wah, that scene at the end when Kim Hyung... wah!!!!!!  I liked how the second female lead was nice the whole time and liked Jin Young just all the time, even when he was being annoying.  His ending was super weird and unnecessary, but whatever.  At least he got lots of pretty clothes.  Lots of pretty men in pretty clothes all around!  Yay!

179. Reply 1988 응답하라 1988 (2015) Korean

Lee Hyeri, Ryu Jun Yeol, Go Kyung Po, Park Bo Gum, Lee Dong Hwi

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A

Well that was a perfectly wonderful drama that fell flat on its face in the end.  Everything was wonderful until they finally did a time jump.  Then all the sudden they tried too hard to wraps things up too suddenly.  You know, the things they'd been neglecting while they spent more time on the gloriously awesome other things.  I mean neglecting all the romance in favor of family and community matters.  Don't get me wrong, I loved the family and community matters.  This show was one big neighborhood romance as opposed to a romance or love triangle.  Well that's what I thought it was until they forced it back into a love triangle husband hunt in the last few episodes.  Narratively, the romance didn't make sense.  I have no idea why they wrote it that way.  Why would they make us care about one person so much that they completely neglected building up the person who was actually going to end up married to her?  Mmmm, no.  Not okay with it.  I cared about every single character in this drama.  I was absolutely in love with Jung Bong, and Samcheonpo (Kim Sung Kyun), and Cheetah Ahjumma, and Jin Joo.  All five of the kids.  Literally everyone was compelling.  Their stories together, the little mundane things.  All of it was so good.  The only thing that wasn't good was the way they handled the romance.  It was like the battle of the 2nd male leads.  They made us care about Jung Hwan by showing us his feelings from episode 1, and then they made both him and Taek do nothing... for the rest of the series.  We never knew what Deok Sun was thinking.  She ended up being an impressionable girl who married the only guy who ever actually did something, after 6 years of doing nothing because the writers are lame, and we never knew what she was feeling the whole time.  I might have given this show a 9 or a 10 if the ending hadn't been so lame, but that really leaves the last impression, doesn't it?  I was actually so angry at the way they played so mercilessly with my emotions that I didn't even want to finish episode 19, and if it wasn't for Jung Bong's scenes being next I probably wouldn't have.  They literally spent so much time making me hurt for Jung Hwan that I literally didn't care about anything else.  That's just messed up.  Literally the only good thing that happened after the time jump to 94 was Sseuregi Oppa.  The end.  They needed to balance the romance with the neighborhood love so we actually have time to care about the couple.  We needed to see the couple grow, not have their love force fed to us in the last two episodes.  Like, they literally rammed it down our throats in such a way that even if I was team Taek I wouldn't have been satisfied.  Like seriously no.  Very badly done.  Narratively, it was a huge slap to the face to all characters involved.  I mean, Cheetah Ahjumma going through menopause was more compelling than the love story, and that is a fact.  So the ending gets a 1 or a 2.  The rest of the series gets a 9 or a 10 (because they made me love them) so that evens out to a 7 or 8.  Since I want to be generous and try to not let the bad aftertaste taint how fun the rest of the show was, I will make it an 8, but that is being very generous on my part.  (She's not even sitting next to him in this poster!)

162. I Remember You 너를 기억해 (2015) Korean

Seo In Guk, Jang Na Ra, Lee Chun Hee, Choi Won Young, Park Bo Gum

Drama Rating: 9/10     Neck Score: A+

What a consistently good drama.  Sad it didn't have super ratings in Korea, but it was competing with popular ones.  Maybe it's just because I like psychological thrillers, murder dramas, and all the actors in this show, but I just loved it.  Park Bo Gum!  Why do you have to steal my heart every time!?!  I loved how organic the relationship was.  All the relationships.  Even the bromancey type deal between the detective and "Dave."  But I loved how the romance took it's time and progressed at a natural pace for someone so unemotional as Lee Hyun.  Also big slow clap for Jang Na Ra, she impresses me every role, and this time she did good with the action, bad-a detective.  Basically everyone did a great job, especially Choi Won Young and Park Bo Gum- and super epic slow clap for Do Kyung Soo for once again rocking his acting skills for a creepier role.  He played a good psychopath.  Woo woot.

118. Tomorrow's Cantabile 내일도 칸타빌레 (2014) Korean

Joo Won, Shim Eun Kyung, Go Kyung Po, Park Bo Gum, Bae Min Jung

Drama Rating: 7/10     Neck Score: B

This was actually a very well done drama, but I always got so angry at it that I'd have to force myself to watch it every week, until I realized that I was relating too much to Joo Won's character Cha Yoo Jin.  It was like seeing myself (in a highly dramatized and exaggerated form) back in high school or early college years.  I would just get so pissed at everyone who messed with him that it was hard to watch.  I found myself getting so freaking annoyed at that adorable other guy that I couldn't stand him.  I wanted to like him as a person, but he kept just making me angry.  Sigh.  That's what I get for going through a grumpy cat type phase just like Yoo Jin, with the whole not expressing feelings, not liking skinship, thinking everyone is an idiot, not wanting to get close to people... I never had a traumatic past or a bad relationship with my father though (my dad is pretty cool).  Anyways, once I figured out that I was able to appreciate it to the fullest.  There are so many good characters, and everyone acted all the parts so well.  With Nae Il's character being so quirky and childlike, there was a big danger of her being annoying, but Shim Eun Kyung did a great job of keeping her cute, funny, and realistic.  Also I might be in love with Go Kyung Po even more now.  That guy is adorable and has a great neck.  Worst part about this show was actually all those flippin' turtlenecks that Joo Won kept wearing.  WHY!!!!!!  Other than that there were a lot of cute clothings.  And huge props to their classical music soundtrack.  They very cleverly used a lot of really good pieces that enhanced the show.  That might have been the very best part of the show.  So much good music.  If you know and love classical music this show will be a lot better and more meaningful.  If you don't, then it will just be average I guess.