352. Melting Me Softly 날 녹여주오 (2019) Korean

Ji Chang Wook, Won Jin Ah, Yoon Se Ah, Lim Won Hee, Jung Hae Kyun, Shim Hyung Tak

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: A

This... wasn't great. I didn't hate it, but it did feel a bit burdensome to watch. It was ridiculous, not really compelling, and the episodes felt twice as long as they actually were, making it so I could only watch one episode a day max, and didn't mind if I didn't watch it until later that week when I had nothing better to watch. It just fell way short of its potential. However, it was still well acted, especially with the generational gaps, with the frozen people fitting in with their same age, but actually 40-50s friends. Like, Ji Chang Wook acted like a 52 year old in a 33 year old body well, by virtue of how behind the times he was, and his old fashioned standards, etc. The evil villain plot seemed like an afterthought, even though they were hinting about it the whole time, but it just wasn't well thought out, I guess. It fell short of the potential it could have had and instead slipped into the same bad tropes, making our second leading lady be needlessly stupid and occasionally evil- the stereotypical bitca. I do like how they redeemed that mistake though. They just should have not made that mistake in the first place, but baby steps, I guess. I think I agree with some of the opinions that were going around on Twitter (I don't remember who said it, sorry!) that Na Ha Young should have been the love interest, and that would have made for a much more interesting drama. Bridging an age gap instead of the typical bonding over the common ground of being displaced in time and age. Both work, but one is way more interesting and intriguing. Oh well. Even if it was weak at best, the actors gave it their all, and that went a lot longer than some dramas, because their actor choices were awesome, especially for the age gap. I believed all the younger people could grow up to look like those older peeps. It was probably the best part right there.

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.