243. Missing Nine 미씽나인 (2017) Korean

Jung Kyung Ho, Baek Jin Hee, Oh Jung Se, Choi Tae Joon, Lee Sun Bin

Drama Rating: 5/10     Neck Score: A

Oh.... um... yeah... where to start?  Well, I liked the start of this, because it was crazy.  The whole time they were on the island it was good.  I liked the earlier mosaic of flashbacks to the island and her lost memory.  I was even fine with it turning into a murder horror flick, but then everything changed.  The first half was nerve wracking.  It was so life or death that it made us anxious to watch it.  Like, Curdy was constantly having to calm herself down afterwards.  Then, once they were all back in Seoul it became a typical lame melodrama where the now all powerful murderer has a all powerful gangster backing and everything sucks all the time.  It was like the writers gave up, because the longer the Seoul drama went on, the less it made sense.  It became unbearable during the last two episodes, where nothing was making sense and the writers unleashed a new wave of shiz to ruin our lives.  The worst part about it was that everything we loved was pushed to the back and then by the end completely ignored.  I just wanted our OTP's relation to be solidified, as in, I wanted them to kiss.  PLEASE!  LET THEM KISS!!!  They never did!  WAE!!!!!!!  The most sexy scene we got was her calling him Oppa.  I wanted more on Ji Ah and Ki Joon's relationship.  I wanted it to still be about the survivors, but instead it became about all powerful Tae Ho getting all the powerful people's trust when he was a murderer.  So ridiculous.  Then the writers gave up and wrapped it up in the lamest way possible, trying to redeem people?  No.  Trying to use the power of bromance?  NO.  Then it ended in what should have been a drug trip dream, but it was just a... well drug trip reality?  What was that ending?  I was so confused!  What was going on?  Why didn't they let them kiss!?!  Why is Tae Ho there?  Why are they painting like crap?  why is this the end?  Why didn't they kiss?  Why did they end it like this?  Why did they waste 8 hours of my life?  WHY DIDN'T THEY KISS!?!  Ahem.... yeah.  The ending sucked.

232. Laurel Tree Tailors 월계수 양복점 신사들 (2016) Korean

Lee Dong Gun, Jo Yoon Hee, Cha In Pyo, Oh Hyun Kyung, Ra Mi Ran, Choi Won Young, Shin Goo, Kim Young Ae, Hyun Woo

Drama Rating: 7/10     Neck Score: A

50 episode family dramas are not everyone's cup of tea, but they are starting to be mine.  You have to pick a good one of course.  One that has something that grips you enough to make you want to stick around for 50 episodes.  This one might just have been 4 hot men in suits.  No, it wasn't just because all of these 4 male leads in this were super attractive and people I love, it was for the characters themselves.  Every single couple was cute for the most part, which meant that I was shipping everyone.  Even the villains were not that villainous.  Yes, that means the show was cheesy and moralistic and everyone got redeemed to a point at the end, but it also means that this is a show where people learn and grow, and I loved the journey.  It was downright weird to see flashbacks to the start when everyone was a young idiot or disliked each other, or had misunderstandings, etc., because by the end they had all matured and it was wonderful.  Now I had to talk myself into watching this, because it was 50 episodes.  I love Lee Dong Gun and I love Ra Mi Ran.  Then Choi Won Young tipped the scales for me.  He is my ahjussi actor, one of the ones that I love the most, so I just had too.  Then I was not disappointed.  He was a rock star (literally) who then became a trot star so his honey voice was responsible for most of the OST, which I cannot complain about.  We also saw him start off as a selfish has been full of pride to becoming the most humble family man.  We saw push overs becoming pillars of strength, and we saw people becoming family and having a family.  It was basically adorable.  I think I cried during every wedding scene (literally did during my ahjussi's wedding.  The sunshine couple- so cute!  The cheesy couple (the OTP, Dong Jin and Yeon Sil)- too adorable!  I loved how all the families felt real.  My favorite family might have been the antagonist's family, Dong Jin's ex-wife and her step family.  I know that mom was my favorite.  I loved Hyo Won and Hyo Sang's brother/sister teasing.  I loved Hyo Sang even though he was a little poo butt with an inferiority complex.  I did tend to hate the ex-wife and ex-girls friends who were the bitcas of the show, as well as the fake husband, who was a crazy liar gangster, but even they had their redeeming qualities.  Yes, the show was long.  Yes, it had it's fair share of makjang (you guys know that I actually like that stuff), but it was cute, and it game me the feels.  Now, I'm going to go listen to Susanna's Handkerchief for the umpteenth time.

Chiseled Jawlines: A Neck's Best Friend

You all know I like necks.  If you don't know that, then just look at the blog title, haha.  But you know what makes a neck look better?  A nice jawline.  It is something that can cut through the horror of the turtleneck and brings out the glorious lines of the neck so well.  They're like best friends, really.  They compliment each other so well.

I recently re-watched Queen In Hyun's Man with my peeps (now that Curdy has finally fully succumbed to the Kdrama), where the second male lead's jawline is a wonder.  This caused us to start talking about how jawlines are hot and make necks better, which of course led me to start collecting peeps who represent this wonderful feature so nicely.  So here are some jawlines to appreciate.

The Flower Boy Bromance: Nicknames of Hwarang

Hwarang was a beautifully ridiculous show full of beautiful men.  It wasn't the worst fusion sageuk that I've seen, but it definitely wasn't great.  It was enjoyable, but only when it was being what it was, a bunch of flower boys being typical boys.  It was also full of gratuitousness, like the frequent, unnecessary shower scenes.

#Blessings.  But it was good when it was not taking itself serious, because there was no way that I was taking it serious, so when it got serious, it was lame.  Boring really.  But maybe not Nightwatchman bad.  At least it wasn't a supernatural/fantasy sageuk.  But as silly as it was, it spurred us to creating a bunch of nicknames for the collection of cast members.

240. Hwarang 화랑 (2016) Korean

Park Seo Joon, Go Ara, Park Hyung Sik, Sung Dong Il, Choi Min Ho, Do Ji Han, Cho Yoon Woo, Kim Tae Hyung

Drama Rating: 5/10     Neck Score: A+

If you just appreciate this for what it is, a bunch of flower boys being boys, it was good.  But then they got too draggy and serious, like normal, and it was... less good.  Like, when it was building the bromances and having needless shower scenes it was good, but then there was way too much of the evil queen, her crazy daughter, and evil politicians being evil.  It got in the way of the bromances and the romance.  They seriously didn't give this couple enough cute times.  There was way too much drama interrupting it.  Then they tried to surprise us with the ending, which was impossible, so they had to make us thing everyone was stupid, throwing bromance away, etc. and it was super draggy until the very end.  So that was lame.  But one thing it did do good was the death scenes.  Everyone who died in this (yes people died) made me almost cry.  They were also pretty gross with the blood coming out of the mouth and stuff.  As for acting, I thought everyone was decently good.  I didn't cringe or anything with anyone, and some people were pretty awesome.  We all fell in love with Park Seo Joon all over again.  We just couldn't help it, he's got so much charisma.  So, it was good for the pretty men, funny at the beginning, and then fizzled out like most dramas, so pretty typical.

239. Legend of the Blue Sea 푸른 바다의 전설 (2016) Korean

Jun Ji Hyun, Lee Min Ho, Sung Dong Il, Lee Hee Joon, Shin Won Ho

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: A

Why did I start this one?  Not for Lee Min Ho (obviously).  I do like Jun Ji Hyun, but not for her either.  It was because of Jo Jung Suk's cameo.  Also, Sung Dong Il was the bad guy.  Because of those two alone, I endured the rest of this.  Actually, it was much better than I thought it was going to be.  I actually really loved it up until the last half of it.  I liked the premise with fate repeating itself and flashing back and forth from their past lives to their current lives, etc.  So when the show was about the mermaid, I loved it.  When Sung Dong Il was the main bad guy, I loved it.  He is just an amazing actor who could take a psychopath and make him sympathetic.  Then the makjang took over with the evil mom and "hyung" (who totally looked younger than Lee Min Ho) and I actually forgot that she was a mermaid.  Now if the whole thing were about that makjang and not about the mermaid, I would have been fine with it, I like good (haha, I mean bad) makjang.  But when makjang takes over a different genre, then it becomes a problem.  I really forgot she was a mermaid (it wasn't important any more at that part) and I forgot he was a conman.  I always struggle with Lee Min Ho the most when he's being sad and serious (or mopey).  He is fine acting like a conman, and they were an adorable couple, but every time he cried I am not moved.  I just can't believe it.  He's not a good crier I guess.  I would be like "oh no, Lee Min Ho is sad now" and proceed to check the latest Twitter updates.  They wrapped up all the makjang really fast, as they realized that it was out of place, so our villain didn't even get the ending he deserved.  He was too cool to be wrapped up in that sloppy manner.  Sad day.  The last episode was really boring and drawn out.  Whatever.  So by the end of it I wasn't even paying attention that much and was playing Go Stop while watching.  So, while it probably started out a 7 or an 8, by the end it was probably a 5 or a 6.  Jo Jung Suk was a 10.  He outshone everyone in the scenes he was in.  I was like "who is that squid next to him?" when he was interacting with Lee Min Ho.  He was just too charismatic.  Overall everyone was great and the show was good, it just had the sloppy writing in the second half curse, like most dramas do.  I did wish that Tae Ho (aka my Shin Boo) had more screen time.  He makes good faces.

237. Goblin: the Great and Lonely God 쓸쓸하고 찬란하神-도깨비 (2016) Korean

Gong Yoo, Kim Go Eun, Lee Dong Wook, Yoo In Na, Yook Sung Jae

Drama Rating: 7/10     Neck Score: A

As always with this writer, this show was as watchable a all get out, but of course wasn't actually a great drama.  It was just a good enough drama.  I usually like her characters, and this was no exception.  The characters were the best part.  Especially the grim reaper and the bromance between the reaper and the dokkaebi.  I have never been obsessed with Lee Dong Wook before.  I've always liked him ok, but I've never like fallen in love with him.  Until now.  He was literally the best.  The worst part of this show was probably how they really didn't give the Reaper and Sunny (Yoo In Ah) enough screen time.  We were always shouting out and chanting for more Reaper and Sunny.  I loved that couple to the point of wishing they would date in real life (or at least being happy if they did) and that is saying something because wishing that sort of thing is rather silly.  I at least want a drama starring those two, because seriously good chemistry and interactions.  Of course Gong Yoo was also good, and sexy.  I didn't hate Kim Go Eun's character like I though I would, but I did wish she wasn't a high school student all the time.  That kept me from loving the main couple.  I liked them, but didn't love them, because icky.  So the real worst part of this show was that it was mopey from like episode 1.  There was so much moping.  It got old really fast, but then they would have wonderful bromance scenes, or Secretary Kim (aka Turtle, aka Jo Woo Jin).  Also the dream team- reaper, dokkaebi, and Duk Hwa.  Really most of the relationships were just great.  So it was super watchable and fun, as long as you could make it through all the pretty moping and pretty (and ugly) crying.  Definitely a win for Lee Dong Wook, the depressive diva reaper, and petty childish dokkaebi Gong Yoo.  They really sold the whole show... especially the reaper.