195. Descendants of the Sun 태양의 후예 (2016) Korean

Song Joong Ki, Song Hye Kyo, Kim Ji Won, Jin Goo

Drama Rating: 7/10     Neck Score: A+

Was it over-hyped?  Yes.  Was it still worth it?  Yes.  It wasn't brilliantly written by any means, but it did bring out the feels.  It was also probably one of the best romances and definitely the best bromances by this writer.  The Song couple had plenty chemistry.  I liked their feisty bantering and teasing.  I did think that her worries dragged on a little too much, even if they were understandable, but at least the show never did get to the point where I hated it ever.  That one episode was really boring... you know, episode 15, but it still had enough good parts to make it not worthless.  Maybe because all the actors were good enough to make the cheesy lines they pulled less sucky.  I liked all the relationships too.  I think the bromance held it together the most, but then all the other romantic relationships were great too.  The army couple, Seo and Yoon were maybe more compelling for me because they were more angsty while the Song couple was more sexy.  But my personal OTP was the doctor-nurse couple.  I heart them the most.  Now to talk about the ending... o-mo.  It was so cheesy that I thought I was going to die laughing.  It almost ruined it for me, because... yeah.  And it was completely pre-produced and it still had a lame ending?  What the heck!?!  I liked everything else about pre-production, though.  Good times.  But the show was if not well written, completely enjoyable to watch.  It was certainly super over dramatic at times.  I mean, right when something gets fixed then something else dramatic happens.  Natural disasters, secret black ops missions, etc.  It was very dramatic.  But at least it was rarely boring and, while ridiculous, you felt the feels.  So I liked it.  Plenty of beautiful "pigeons" to look at.  Mmmmm.

Refresh Man: Falling In Love With Aaron Again

I have to say that I had my reservations about starting Refresh Man, because FILWM Syndrome.  But then I really like Joanne Tseng.  But I guess that even with the whole FILWM thing and the Instagram thing, deep down I still love Aaron, so I thought I would give it a try and see if it would make me fall in love with Aaron again.

And it has.  It is just different and fun enough to make it awesome.  It defies some of the typical stereotypes and is about more than just the romance, although that is obviously a large part of it.  It is about self-improvement and getting out of stagnation, etc.  It's also about revenge or rather making her fall in love with him.  You know, good stuff.

So, here are some things that make this show pretty great so far:

202. Page Turner 페이지 터너 (2016) Korean

Kim So Hyun, Ji Soo, Shin Jae Ha, Ye Ji Won, Hwang Young Hee

Drama Rating: 9/10     Neck Score: A+

I just wanted this to be longer!  Seriously so good!  I was crying one minute and grinning from ear to ear the next.  I could easily have watched 16 episodes of this, because there was plenty to deal with.  Also, Ji Soo.  He was just about the most adorable thing I've ever seen!  He was the nicest, most optimistic, and funniest male lead ever.  This show was so good that it got both Lizabreff and Curdy to sit down and watch the last episode with me when they hadn't seen any of the other two episodes.  That's right, it's only three episodes long.  Way too short for all of Ji Soo's cuteness.  All the characters are good.  Kim So Hyun was awesome.  Her and Ji Soo had great chemistry, even when she couldn't "see" his face.  Also, lots of beautiful piano music.  Really good.

203. Eating Existence 먹는 존재 (2015) Korean

Ahn Young Mi, No Min Woo, Yoo So Young

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: A+

I was super weirded out that this show was labeled as NC-17 on Viki.  What made it NC-17?  No Min Woo's shirtlessness?  I mean, that did happen a lot.  Maybe just his face is NC-17, haha.  But this show is not about him.  It is just a short little story about a girl named Yoo Yang and all the weird thing she does as she essentially grows up, I guess.  It's based on a webtoon, and since I liked this, I might have to try and find it in English... if that exists.  Anyway, she gets drunk, mouths off, gets fired, decides to become a writer, gets a boyfriend, they eat a lot of food, and then she has a bunch of growing pains trying to get enough money to buy the food she loves and juggling all her different relationships and what they bring.  That kind of stuff.  It's a bit random, but very enjoyable too.  I liked it.  It could have been longer.  I would have watched it.

200. Creating Destiny 인연 만들기 (2009) Korean

Eugene, Ki Tae Young, Kim Jung-Nan, Byeon Woo Min

Drama Rating: 4/10     Neck Score: B

Ugh, this show was so long and boring.  I only watched it because I wanted to see the drama where Eugene and Ki Tae Young fell in love.  This was spurred by Ki Tae Young playing that hot doctor in To the Beautiful You.  I loved the main couple in this.  The problem is that they only had 33% of the screen time... at the most.  I'm inclined to think that they didn't even get that at times.  The other third went to the older sister and her poo butt baby daddy.  I was most dissatisfied with that whole story.  Gyuhan!!!!!  He was the only character in this whole show who was smart and yet he was the only one who was unhappy at the end.  Talk about lame.  This show had the chance to talk about so many things that are issues, such as single moms and adoption, and it fell so short of its potential.  Disappointing.  I would get so bored having to sit through the poo butt drama, and then the other 33% which was just the busy body parents and grandparents messing everyone's lives up with their dramatic crap.  It also had all the tropes that could possibly happen (except, thank goodness, amnesia), forced relationships, evil bitcas who don't even have a chance, first loves (who are also bitcas) showing up right as things start to get good, birth secrets, cancer, evil chaebol parents, heart attack change of hearts... you name it, this show had it.  I loved the main couple, the cappuccino couple, and even bitca/baby poo butt (aka the 2nd leads) couple.  But I got so annoyed at everyone else.  Too much everyone else.  Too much slow moving crap.  Too much screen time on not my favorite couples.  Boo.  Well, at least I can say that I finished it.  Also, I ship that real life couple in real life, because they are great.  The end.

191. Madame Antoine 마담 앙트완 (2016) Korean

Han Ye Seul, Sung Joon, Jinwoon, Lee Joo Hyung, Hwang Seung Eon

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: A+

DERP FACE!!!!!!! I think the number one reason I loved this show was because of all the wonderful and ridiculous faces that Sung Joon made.  The main plot was weird.  I liked how different it was, but it also needed a little more to it so that it wouldn't fall into the draggy trap... which it did.  But, it was still super enjoyable because we had a great cast of characters, and they were all characters.  Characters with unique and quirky personalities that made them lovable, even when they were being as frustrating as heck.  Which was a lot.  It also made us laugh because she was the ENFP to his INTJ, which just might be the exact Myers-Briggs personality types of some of us (nonchalantly clears throat).  I did have to turn my research brain off because of all the ethical issues in this show, confidentiality being the least of these issues, but once I just got passed that, I was able to enjoy the show a lot.  It's a K-drama, we're not expecting it to be realistic, okay?  I loved the back and forth between Hye Rim and Soo Hyun, since they both were super smart in their own way and played each other so hard.  Unfortunately that dragged on for a little too long, which was a little frustrating, but I still think that it was able to wrap up all the loose ends and give us a good solid ending.  I think I speak for us all (I watched this show with Curdy and Lizabreff of course) when I say that Ji Ho (Lee Joo Hyung) was just the cutest.  What an adorable, dorky, little clueless nerd.  When he went around with the sheep style towel on his head.  Dying of cuteness.  And his little walk and sissy run.  He did such a good job with that.  I loved Hye Rim's clothes!  Also Dr. Bae's clothes!  The girls in this show had a 95% approval rating when it came to their style.  The men had a 75% because too many bad turtlenecks/weird sweaters.  I seriously need to do a Madame Antoine Fashion Show post.

190. One More Happy Ending 한번 더 해피엔딩 (2016) Korean

Jung Kyung Ho, Jang Na Ra, Yoo In Na, Kwon Yul, Yoo Da In, Seo In Young

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: A+

There were a lot of things in this show that were really fun.  And a lot that just left us shrugging.  I'll be honest, it wasn't the best writing wise.  It was kind of all over the place and weird.  I think the thing that really held it together despite the bad writing was how great the actors they got were.  They all did a solid job, even if I didn't like them.  I also have to say that I hated that annoying Creepy Doll Face (the 2nd male lead, Kwon Yul).  I don't get why everyone kept saying he was so handsome.  I guess he's not ugly, but he does kind of look like a creepy doll, with a weird pointy nose.  He even looks like a creepy doll standing in the poster too.  He just had weird lack of emotions and was basically the worst boyfriend ever.  Which made it really lame when they kept drawing out the inevitable break up and giving him way too much screen time in general, which meant that all the other couples got less screen time, which was sad, because I was super invested in all their stories.  I think my favorite couple was the player couple.  I wish they had gotten more screen time.  Also, the cancer couple was so adorable and I wished they had kissed.  But to be honest the best of the best was Sexy Man, aka Jung Kyung Ho.  He was like the perfect cheesy man.  So flippin' adorable.  His kid was awesome too.  As always, I loved Jang Na Ra, but since the worst writing was centered around her character, that was a bit frustrating, but she did a great job of it anyway.  And shout out too Yoo In Ah who played the most relatable older single girl ever.  Every scene was just perfect.  I know a lot of people complained about the ending (like Lizabreff's mom) but it really could have been worse.  It's greatest sin was that it was draggy about less important things and didn't give us quite enough of the cute that we wanted from all the couples.  That was probably the sin of the entire show.  It wasted too much time on lame crap and not enough time on the cute and the funny, which is what made the show good... when it had it.