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.

214. Squad 38 38사기동대 (2016) Korean

Ma Dong Seok, Seo In Guk, Sooyoung, Song Ok Suk, Heo Jae Ho, Ko Kyu Pil, Lee Sun Bin

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A

As a heisty type drama, this was pretty good.  I think that might have been like 75% because of Seo In Guk and Ma Dong Seok, who are both amazing.  It had some slow parts and the habit of you being super angry at the villains because they were the scum of the earth, but I guess that made it super satisfying at the end when they were gotten.  I was really busy when I finished this, so it's actually been too long since I've watched it for me to actually remember my impressions of it.  But it was so good that Curdy had to watch it with us.  That is saying a lot.  But she was hooked from the start and made more excited noises while watching than I did.  I loved all of the main characters.  Literally I only hated the villains, and each villain was worst than the last.  Then there were the lukewarm villains, the lackeys who did all the dirty work.  I loved how you hated them, but it was also complicated.  You could be sympathetic to them occasionally.  That's good writing.  I liked most of the twists they had, and the "surprise, you've been hustled" moments for the most part made sense, which is important.  I do need to write a post about the nicknames for this show, because everyone had one.  That's how endearing the characters were.  Loved it.

K-Drama Cameos FTW!

I recently started watching Squad 38, and to my delight, Kim Sung Oh made a cameo appearance in episode 2.  This got me thinking of how much I love cameos.  This stems all the way back to when I was a kid and watching the Muppet Movie and the Great Muppet Caper, etc, which are full of wonderful cameos.  This probably makes me appreciate all the lovely cameos in K-dramas as well.

So I made a list of all the cameos that I especially loved, and some that even made me watch the drama just so I could see the cameo, which is pretty much the most ridiculous thing ever.