437. Run On 런 온 (2021) Korean

Im Siwan, Shin Se Kyung, Sooyoung, Kang Tae Oh

Drama Rating: 9/10     Neck Score: A

Dang it, I started this and then it didn't save, and somehow got published before it was finished, lol. I'm not sure why this review was so hard to write besides all that. I loved this drama, but it's also hard for me to describe in words that will accurately show how great it is. It's like a melodrama that was instead turned into a slice of life, if that makes sense. It has all the tropes of a typical melodrama set up, with the orphans, the chaebols, the overly ambitious politicians, celebrities, and quirky artists. But instead of it being a dramatic mess, instead it humanized at these typically stereotyped characters and made them real people. Incredibly flawed and lovable people. I very much appreciated that there weren't those lame tropes like love triangles, but instead we got multiple sets of people developing their relationships in very organic ways, where the biggest tests of their relationships are getting to know each other and working out differences. Not that other things don't also influence and that there weren't any misunderstandings, there of course were, but they were the real kind and the couples were really good at talking through them instead of being dumb. That was probably the best part, it was full of communication, but also the dialog felt very organic and real. It let the characters be awkward, imperfect, and lovable.

284. Bride of the Water God 하백의 신부 2017 (2017) Korean

Nam Joo Hyuk, Shin Se Kyung, Lim Ju Hwan, Krystal, Gong Myung

Drama Rating: 4/10     Neck Score: A+

I wasn't going to watch this one, because it was obviously going to be not amazing.  But I kept watching all the clips and spoilers about it, and hearing about it from others, that I thought I would give it a chance.  Plus, I was having Gong Myung withdraws after Revolutionary Love finished, so I need to see it.  Plus, as everyone said, it's got a lot of pretty in it.  That's pretty much all it had in it.  It's rare to see something so fabulously bad as this.  It wasn't just because the actors were not the best.  I've seen Nam Joo Hyuk and Shin Se Kyung do decently well before, just not in this drama.  Although neither of them were so terrible that I wanted to cry or die even (most of the time), they were both not on their form at all and left much to be desired.  Really it was a combination of bad acting, directing, and writing.  I blame the writing the most for my lack of enjoyment.  It was just so bad, I didn't feel connected to the people who should.  I didn't care about the people I should, it was all just a big mess.  A big, pretty mess.

So, my biggest problem is that I just didn't care about the plot of the drama.  It just wasn't compelling to me at all.  In fact, I was probably watching it for all the wrong reasons, because I was way more compelled by the secondary couples and antagonist than the main couple.  It probably wasn't the best idea to watch a drama for Gong Myung when he wasn't even really in the first four episodes.  But he remained one of my favorites in all the other episodes.  I also related and cared about Lim Ju Hwan's character and story way more than anyone else.  So here is a list of the things I liked and cared about:

178. Six Flying Dragons 육룡이 나르샤 (2015) Korean

Yoo Ah In, Kim Myung Min, Shin Se Kyung, Byun Yo Han, Yoo Kyun Sang, Chun Ho Jin

Drama Rating: 9/10     Neck Score: A

Slow clap.  I loved it.  Seriously long, but never boring.  I actually had some trepidation about starting it because it was so long.  I saw who was in it and what it was about, and I got super excited.  Then I saw how long it was and I was like... ew.  Then I kept hearing such good things about it, that I decided to just watch it anyway.  It was amazing.  I started it with Curdy at first, which slowed me down considerably.  We were already way behind, but we ended up not being able to watch more than one episode at a time because it was too heavy for her.  Soon it was harder and harder to get her to make time for it.  When I saw how into Madame Antoine she was (much more of her type of show), and how she'd drop everything for that one, I knew I needed to press on alone.  Honestly there were times when I could only watch one episode as well, because it is pretty heavy, but it's totally worth it.  I was super sad when Gil Tae Mi (Park Hyuk Kwon) died.  He was my favorite, Gil Seon Mi (also Park Hyuk Kwon) just wasn't as cool.  But at least Gil Tae Mil had one heck of a death scene.  Another sign that this was amazing was that it made me do more research about this period than other sageuks have.  I had to look up everything that happened to see what was the fake and what was the real.  Everyone did amazingly.  Seriously.  I've seen most of these actors before, and have been impressed with them generally, but never so impressed with them as I have been in this one.  Round of applause for every one of these cast members.  I was especially proud of Shin Se Kyung because she was probably the one that's been hit or miss the most for me, but she did awesome.  I love her strong character.  Booyah.  Another thing I love about this is all the character developments.  No one was the same person at the end as they were at the beginning.  Some people changed more than others, but there was absolutely no stagnant characters.  Moo Hyeol (Yoo Kyun Sang) was one of the most startling of the changes, since it was so abrupt, but obviously Bang Won (Yoo Ah In) was the biggest.  But because everyone was constantly changing, I never could love or hate any person 100%.  They were all super dynamic, well-rounded characters.  I couldn't be on any side completely.  That went for the villains too.  I couldn't decide who was worse, because they all took turns being the worst and sympathetic.  Our heroes all took turns doing dumb things and being less sympathetic too.  When it came down to it, only the completely fiction people had less bad decisions, but that makes sense too.  They let everyone be real and conflicted, and messed up, and it was marvelous.  So worth the 50 episodes.  I couldn't give it any less, even if the very last episode was a bit draggy.  I mean, they had to resolve what they could so we didn't think too ill of anyone... only they could have, but it was still ok.  They tried to end on a hopeful note, I guess.  But still, slow clap for awesome.

The Girl Who Sees Yoochun Being Better at Comedy... and Everything Else

Why do all the good post worthy dramas have to begin/end right when finals and busy happens?  Here I am trying to catch up on all my posts when I should be writing papers and completing projects... or going to bed.  Whatever, I needed to post this because I love this drama.

It's Yoochun, of course I love it.  Also, it's Yoochun playing a perfect deadpan.  Yes, yes, yes.

Blade Man: I'm Thinking Wolverine Meets Bowser? Or Mega Man Villain?

 
What the heck is this show?  This plus the English title and premise makes me think of something along the lines of Wolverine, but the blades come out on the shoulders and back, so... like Bowser's koopa shell?  Also, he has the temper of the Hulk... so... yeah...

"Does it hurt when they come out?"  "Every time."

147. The Girl Who Sees Smells 냄새를 보는 소녀 (2015) Korean

Park Yoo Chun, Shin Se Kyung, Nam Goong Min, Yoon Jin Seo

Drama Rating: 5/10     Neck Score: A

Slow clap for the worst police ever.  They should get an award for how stupid ALL the police work was in the ENTIRE show.  They were outright incompetent.  So much so that they were unable to do anything without the main couple.  What.the.heck.  This was tolerable in the beginning, when the police work wasn't that necessary for the plot, but by the end, it had us screaming in rage.  It also dragged out the ending to be super lame and annoying.  All I wanted was for it to be over, and it was not.  But, as bad as the writing and police plot of this show was, the main couple almost made up for it.  Yoochun has to be the cutest man in the world.  He pulls off aegyo and is a namja at the same time.  How does he do that.  But Nam Goong Min... how in the heck were we supposed to deal with that?  He's creepy.  Let's talk about how creepy he is while showing him without a shirt and being all sexy.  They would literally send such mixed signals about him, forcing us to be attracted to him against our wills.  But he seriously was amazing in his role too.  Yoon Jin Seo had some amazing parts... if the rottenness of the police didn't ruin a lot of them, she was still cool.  So basically we have a bunch of cool characters trapped in a crappy cop show with horrible plot writing, not necessarily bad other type, just in the flow of the story and plot devices.  Romance wise it was good, natural, cute relationship development, but the rest was super bad.  So it's good and bad at the same time.  Super enjoyable and then ridiculous.  Just don't take it seriously and you'll be fine.  More details about it in this post.  It definitely has tons of laugh out loud moments.  Both intentional and not so intentional, so it's fun.

115. Blade Man 아이언맨 (2014) Korean

Lee Dong Wook, Shin Se Kyung, Han Jung Soo, Kim Gab Soo

Drama Rating: 4/10     Neck Score: B

Ok... that was... ok... um... not sure what else to say about it.  It had potential but then... it was all never fulfilled.  Even cruelly crushed under the oppressive weights of stereotypes.  They wanted something different and interesting?  Then why did they fall back on every trope ever?  Also it was horribly written.  Let's end every episode with a cliffhanger where something bad, usually revealing his Blade Man identity, happens, only to either just skip passed it without really explaining how he got out of the situation except some lame little "the sun blinded everyone" and move on.  Impossible.  "You wrote a bad drama, Pete." If they had just kept it to 16 episodes, without bringing already dead people back to turn it into a completely predictable makjang fest love triangle of mopey self-depressing crap, it might have been ok.  At least a 6/10, but this... I'm not even sure it deserves 4.  It was so bad.  It was boring and lame, and didn't use the blade thing enough... dumb.  At least we had Han Jung Soo playing Secretary Ko.  He was the only thing that saved this show at all.  The only reason to give it a 4.  He deserves a 10 alone (maybe along with Lee Joo Seung who played the little brother so well, even if his character was written so pitiably and with no real point except to be pitiable).  That was one huge problem.  Everyone was so two-dimensional, with no character depth or improvement, besides some sob story attached to their psychological problems. Total crap.