236. Shuttle Love Millennium 相爱穿梭千年2：月光下的交换 (2016) Chinese

Wei Da Xun, Wen Yong Shan, Guo Xue Fu, Zhang Xiao Chen

Drama Rating: 7/10     Neck Score: A

As the sequel of the Chinese version of Queen In Hyun's Man, this is really just similar in concept, rather than story.  It's a time travel drama, where two dudes with the same face and the same jade necklace can switch places, if some other conditions are met.  So naturally they are going to fall in love with someone in the other time period while they are there, that is just what you do in time travel dramas.

I really loved watching this show, but it did have some unlikable flaws for me.  Like the distribution of screen time.  I really liked the 2016 boy-1936 girl couple a million times better than the 1936 boy-2016 girl couple.  Their story was much more compelling as their period was much more dangerous, desperate, and emotional.  It made 2016 look frivolous in comparison.  I also thought 2016 girl, Wang Lin, was one of the more annoying characters (partially since her dubbing was the worst) and she caused the most problems because she never told Sun Qilong (2016 boy) anything which could have made a few things way easier or at least solved a few misunderstandings.  Poor clueless boy never knew what was going on and still managed to survive.  My biggest problem was how they wrapped it up in the end.  Time travel plots are always going to have some impossibilities to get everyone together and be happy, but they just didn't fill all the holes they created.  I spent the entire show wondering where the 3rd jade piece was, and then it miraculously shows up in the end.  It had been there the entire time, well what to you know, har har.  Yeah, not having any of that.  Also, they sort of overlooked the part where China was still going to be plunged into a war that destroyed everything, but somehow the Blue Moon was going to survive now that the couple was together...  Yeah, they just glossed it over with a big ribbon.  But at least it was a happy ending, even though the ending for the first couple would have to be changed when the second couple got together... before it even started.  Yeah, that's a can on worms that they opened but ignored the consequences by ending the show.  Not a horrible ending, but one that you have to just close your eyes and accept, because honestly, what else were they going to do?

Besides Wang Lin, everyone did a decent job acting.  I was super impressed with Wei Da Xun playing the two male leads.  I didn't even realize they were the same person in the first couple of episodes.  His mannerisms, voice, and hair were all just too different.  So claps to him.  I also liked how the grandma actually looked like her younger self.  The smile especially was believable.  So, I liked this show, but it was of course not perfect.  I watched it for Puff Guo (1936 girl, Zi Yi) and was not disappointed.  I didn't really have any expectations for it, actually, especially based on the name (Shuttle Love Millennium? Ha ha ha), so in that regard it blasted my expectations out of the water.  It is a super fun show to watch.  It really just faced the typical time travel problems and actually did an okay job with them, all things considering.

230. The Man Living in Our House 우리집에 사는 남자 (2016) Korean

Soo Ae, Kim Young Kwang, Lee Soo Hyuk, Jo Bo Ah, Kim Ji Hoon

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: A+

I was a little disappointed that this turned out to be more of a melodrama than a comedy.  They had made it look so funny, and sometimes it was, but then they couldn't get past the tragic loves part as they were in love but had a stepfather/daughter relationship legally.  This seems even more pathetic when everything is eventually solved with no headache and why didn't they just do that in the first place?  I did like most of the characters, although I have to like the side characters more than the main couple.  The three little dumpling ducklings, so cute.  The little sister of the 2nd male lead, hilarious.  The 2nd female lead, the most likable bitca ever.  She was thoroughly an evil man stealing jerk, but I loved her and totally shipped her with the reluctant neighborhood friend lawyer 2nd male lead.  I think I probably said "he's so flipping hot" every time Lee Soo Hyuk was on screen.  His attitude was also super fun, as he was so matter-of-fact and lazy.  I loved the developing relationship between him and his crazy stalker little sister.  I also love how the siblings names were Duk Bong and Duk Shim.  I did love Soo Ae and Kim Young Kwang too.  I liked how ridiculously their relationship grew, fighting and being "family" then finally getting to be a couple, they were just also all melodramatic at times.  really, the worst part is that everything was so dramatic, with his gangster past, and trying to protect the mother's land, and then it all gets solved so quickly.  I guess the gangster part didn't, but once the second male lead decided to not be selfish any more then everything was magically solved.  It was lamely amazing.  Why didn't they just all work together in the first place?  Huh?  Haha, so not the best, but it was still enjoyable enough, plus lots of hot men and strong women, so win?

234. Discovery of Romance 연애의 발견 (2014) Korean

Jung Yu Mi, Eric Mun, Sung Joon, Yoon Jin Yi, Yoon Hyun Min, Kim Seul Gi

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: B

I guess you can't technically say it belongs to the same franchise as "I Need Romance" since it isn't the same network, but it is the same writer, so it definitely has the same flavor.  But it was also different enough to be not completely associated with it.  Lizabreff still likes to say that it is the best of the "I Need Romances" but I might rank it on the same level as I Need Romance 3.  I do like how it has the interview style, where all of the characters are interviewed to show their inner thoughts.  I thought this was cleverly done, as it allowed for the differences in opinions and memories, because half of this show was about the past and what happened during the five years that the main couple dated and how they fell apart and why.  It shows how people have different perceptions of what happened, remember things differently, and nothing is 100% someone's fault.  I liked how the story built from the memories, to make us see that neither one of them was innocent and they both did plenty of stupid things while they were younger and more immature.  It also showed how their relationship had affected each of them in positive and negative ways.  She had become more confident in herself, but had also become manipulative.  He had become more stubborn, but also more aware.  This also left room for plenty of development for their characters which was also nice.  However, in true "Romance" form, the show was dragged out so that the couple would not get together until the last episode, because these shows are about messy, messy relationships where all the ugly comes out before we finally see them get to where they are supposed to be, in the last episode.  This meant frustration as the main love triangle dragged out for forever, even though we knew that Dr. Derpface and her romance was kind of toxic, as she manipulated him and he let her.  We also just really wanted him to be with the other girl.  Thank goodness we had the other couple, Fish Bangs and Seul Gi to make everything better.  They were probably the cutest ever.  I love both of them, so that could only be good things, and it was.  They were hilarious and adorable.  So yeah, good show, if you want a messy, frustrating, but growing and developing love triangle.

233. When a Snail Falls in Love 如果蜗牛有爱情 (2016) Chinese

Wang Kai, Wang Olivia

Drama Rating: 9/10     Neck Score: A+

In general, this drama was amazing.  It had a great cast of characters, and a lovely, dark crime plot.  I absolutely loved Xu Xu, our mail lead, who is a stoic, logical, and lovable psychologist, who is also the tiniest girl ever.  I loved the interactions between our heroine and all the characters, as she was both logical and kind.  I especially loved the slow but steady romance between the head detective of violent crimes and our intern criminal profiler psychologist.  The title gets its name from the animal imagery that our lead girl, Xu Xu, uses when profiling people.  Everyone in the violent crimes department gets profiled with animals, from a monkey to hippo.  Xu Xu even draws these profiles into comics of everyone, which leads to a series of comics about a snail and her lion boss, who then start to fall in love.  I also really liked the other couples and characters.  I was especially rooting for the pig and hippo.  The plot, with all the connected crimes that got more and more complex was amazing.  I loved how it became more serious and bigger at every turn.  I also loved the detail we got to see in how our heroes faced it and figured things out.  I loved the character development, as everyone grew, especially our snail and lion.  We got to see them form themselves into a great team and a great OTP.  My only complaint in this whole show is that the ending got a little sloppy.  Not so much in the actual plot.  I feel like the crime plot got wrapped up much more nicely than the romance did.  It felt super rushed and kind of nonsensical.  There was a ridiculous time jump where suddenly everything happened.  Whole romances were skipped over.  We left everyone at the start of the real relationship, and suddenly jumped to weddings and proposals.  It was weird and we felt a little cheated.  It didn't flow well, and we felt less satisfied.  They also tried to leave the ending super open ended, which would be find, but it was instead confusing.  I wouldn't mind a season 2, but I don't like how they wrapped up this series in an attempt to let that happen.

231. One Percent of Something 1%의 어떤 것 (2016) Korean

Ha Seok Jin, Jeon So Min

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: B

They might be one of the cutest OTPs ever.  They weren't any good at being in a "fake" contract relationship however, which is good, we didn't want them to put off being cute together.  They from the moment they signed the contract were dating for realsies.  Well, at least he was.  She took slightly longer.  This actually makes sense, because faking dating is just silly.  It was a short drama, so the pace was snappy, I liked that.  It meant that there was less time for the crappy and they focused only on the things that we wanted, which was the main couple.  I also liked how consistent everyone was.  She was fiesty and strong the whole time, he was an adorable little butt the whole time.  but at the same time there was character development as they both got stronger from being in a relationship with each other.  I especially loved how she held her own against that horrible and stupid bitca.  She won every single time against that bitca and I loved it.   She was so strong and logical against those bitca's stupid moves.  I kind of liked how there was no real 2nd male lead, which confused me first because that cousin kid never did anything, and just stood there all the time.  But I liked how honest everyone was.  They never lied, they just neglected saying what was important until the last minute, thinking that's the way it had to be.  But for a "fake" couple they sure kissed a lot, which makes it seem silly that they didn't know that they had fallen for each other.  So it was nothing grand plot-wise, but its simplicity is one of its virtues.  Consistency was beautiful.  Random other characters, whatever, but it was all about the couple, which is great.

224. Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo 달의 연인 - 보보경심 려 (2016) Korean

Lee Joon Ki, Lee Ji Eun, Kang Ha Neul, Hong Jong Hyun, Byun Baek Hyun, Ji Soo, Nam Joo Hyuk

Drama Rating: 5/10     Neck Score: A+

At least there were pretty oppas.  Can't say much else for it, the writing was all over the place, but the actors did a good job in spite of that.  It's just that the characters flipped flopped around so much.  This made me hate the main girl, the character, not IU, and be very confused as to anyone's motivations.  The show would go through waves of being cute and then just stupid.  It was frustrating and more often than not I was bored and disappointed.  It changed so much that looking back we were like, "wait, was that the same drama?"  I totally forgot she was from modern times by the end because so much weird shiz happened.  The pace was the number 1 problem, and then consistency was a big deal, because the characters changed back and forth so much that you don't know who they are or what they are doing most of the time.  Also, mostly everyone but Joon Ki was annoying at least part of the time, and then they made Joon Ki act like an evil crazy person, so there wasn't even that.  It was one big eye roll most of the time, and particularly at the end.  It was ridiculous.  The show had fun moments, but was ridiculous most of the time.  I think one excuse for the bad writing is that they were trying to adapt a Chinese drama to Korean history, so they had to fit everything that happened into the drama into as much historical events as possible, but since the two don't really work blow for blow, some of it was so forced it was frustrating.  Also, what the freak ending!  It was kind of lame and weird.  Why did they try to redeem everyone?  So dumb.  No one wants to waste time on the turd bucket prince, or see how pathetic Wookie became.  So many flashbacks!  Just in case we forgot it really was the same drama.  Seriously.  But there were plenty of hot men.  I love Lee Joon Ki and he was amazing in all the crazy different things they made him do.  Kang Ha Neul consistently stole Lizabreff's heart, until he was crazy bad, and then at least he was still hot and a good actor.  Guyliner (Hong Jong Hyun) was also a favorite of mine, he definitely did a great job, plus had impeccable eyeliner and skin, even after hiding out in the wilderness for a year or so.  I loved Queen Yoo (Park Ji Young) she is the best!  All the queens were really.  Classy and amazing, even though the script sucked.  Nam Joo Hyuk's character was the smartest person in the show.  Really there were a lot of stupid people or at least stupidity in the show.  So yeah, liked the actors if not the characters were good.  It bounced between being interesting, cute, boring, and just horrible.  It was inexplicable how much it changed.  But at least Lee Joon Ki was beautiful, even when he was being crazy.  That's about it.

226. Shopping King Louis 쇼핑왕 루이 (2016) Korean

Seo In Guk, Nam Ji Hyun, Yoon Sang Hyun, Im Se Mi

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A

Cute!  Cute, cute, cute, cute!!!!  I've never seen a cuter couple!  They were the best OTP!  Here is why: they were super honest about their feelings 95% of the time.  They weren't afraid to just say how they feel, treat each other kindly, be touched by their thoughtfulness, and actively admit they miss each other or are jealous.  None of this playing dumb for forever, they were like extra cute real people!  I loved innocent little "hot house" Louis being super naive about money and work, but being super teachable!  He learned how to be frugal and work hard and it was amazing.  Then there was Go Bok Sil, the mountain girl, who was super naive about the modern consumer world and how to use smartphones, etc. and she was also really teachable!  It was amazing to see them support each other and learn from each other.  But they weren't the only adorable ones.  Everyone in this show was likable and learned things.  Even the crazy other girl and the reluctant villain uncle.  I loved the bromance between Louis and Jo In Seong.  That was adorable.  Especially since they were both in Squad 38 together, and not necessarily as friends.  I loved the ahjumma club and how it kept growing and thriving.  Oska did an amazing job being the "straight man" who was also comedic.  His little grunt groan was a favorite, and the scene with "The Winner Takes It All" was just pure gold.  the pacing was kind of weird, because they didn't take forever dragging things out only to rush it later.  They actually resolved things really quickly and in a way that they normally would be.  The 5% time where they tried to be noble idiots for various reasons was so brief, and they didn't believe the lies, but they understood why it was happening and respected that (even though it's a stupid trope, it was the best uses of that stupid trope).  Then they managed to give proper closure for every character- I mean EVERY character.  We loved all the characters, so that was good, but it wasn't typical.  It made the ending a little slow because all the big resolutions were taken care of, and that just left all the little resolutions.  It was very sweet and teary and adorable.  I loved it.