159. High Society 상류사회 (2015) Korean

Uee, Sung Joon, Park Hyung Sik, Lim Ji Yeon

Drama Rating: 5/10     Neck Score: A 

This drama had potential to be a little different and edgy and stuff, but it unfortunately it ended super lamely.  Typical fall flat on its face.  I liked the evil male lead gold digger plot, even though it made for some awkward kiss scenes early on because they actually didn't have a real relationship.  They didn't even know each other and they were kissing and dating, haha, awkward.  I was therefor way more invested in the other couple, even though they are a more typical chaebol and candy type girl.  She at least had a backbone and wasn't really a candy girl since she wasn't opposed to the money thing either, even though she tried to be.  The non-romantic plot was super predictable, and the worst part was that it also ended lamely.  They kept building expectations and then they all feel flat at the end.  There really was not big struggle or contest between her sister and her, the dead brother plot ended super lamely too, and it was all wrapped up so quickly.  Not even amazingly.  I wonder if they were hoping for an extension and never got one, or what. But it just never reached its potential and was super cheesy at the end.  Oh well.  At least there is a lot of beautiful people in it and it is still a different sort of  chaebol drama.

158. When I See You Again 他看她的第2眼 (2015) Taiwanese

Jasper Liu, Mandy Wei, Jet Chao, Ivy Wei

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: A

Generally good for a drama about misunderstandings.  I liked how in the relationships at least, it was pretty realistic. The main couple were pretty polar opposite, and naturally that was going to cause problems.  He was one of those nerdy geniuses who don't like people so much, and she was a super friendly take action girl.  Then you have the couple who are both sick in their own way, physically and emotionally who relate to each other and find healing, but not before a bunch of ridiculous revenge drama.  The worst part of this show is that everyone had to be redeemed, which is an old Taiwanese favorite.  The problem is that when everyone is redeemed, the show gets preachy, moralistic, and makes you want to gag at the end.  I didn't mind that the mom and antagonist were redeemed and learned their lesson.  That was a given from the start.  They were setting up that from the beginning when they bothered giving them things like tragic backstories and cancer.  But when they are also redeeming the random bully kid from their past?  No, that is just gag worthy.  Why!?!  But honestly, as a drama it was very watchable, even though it was a bit draggy in how long misunderstandings dragged on, and way too much screen time for the 2nd leads (you know, the people they insisted on redeeming).  I think I angry tweeted the most about how stupid the mom was.  She was supposed to be this powerful, accomplished CEO, instead she was a a petty, emotional, and manipulable mess.  So dumb.  But hey, she was redeemed in the end, so she's going to get better (cue the gagging).  Still, I liked it.

157. Mask 가면 (2015) Korean

Joo Ji Hoon, Soo Ae, Yeon Jung Hoon, Yoo In Young

Drama Rating: 5/10     Neck Score: A

They took an already stupid show and turned it into complete and utter nonsense.  No surprising at all.  This show was seriously a addicting as crack, so overly dramatic and ridiculous that I couldn't help but want more.  It was already nonsense, but it ended way lamely.  It was like a crazy barrel roll of madness that suddenly took an abrupt nose dive down to boring nonsense town.  Boo.  Ok, so Suk Hoon (Yeon Jung Hoon) was the best and the worst villain ever.  But mostly just the worst.  He seriously needs to be added to the hated villains list, because, he is loathsome.  Smirking all the time.  But he did make me laugh all the time.  Every time he dramatically opened a door.  I'm laughing just thinking about it.  Min Woo (Joo Ji Hoon) might have been one of the best heroes ever though, in the honesty department anyways.  He always saw through people's crap and was super up front.  He was always just asking "what the shiz do you mean by that?" or calling out the crap with a "stop lying about this," etc.  Cute couple, lots of cute moments, but really too many moments of stupidity all around... except Min Woo was a pretty constant smart guy that no one listened to.  Anyways, it was both painful and addicting and then absurdly boring.  By the end no one cared what was going on at all and there were huge plot holes and they tried to redeem everyone and it was so bad.  All I wanted was an overly dramatic ending, maybe with a murder/suicide of the bad couple.  That would have been perfect.  Sigh of disappointment.  I just wanted it to stay the same kind of bad the whole time.  Was that asking too much?  Apparently.  Boo.

156. Drunken to Love You (aka Love You) 醉後決定愛上你 (2011) Taiwanese

Joseph Chang, Rainie Yang, Kingone Wang, Tiffany Hsu, Alien Huang, Tom Price

Drama Rating: 6.5/10     Neck Score: A

Probably the world's cutest OTP.  That's the only thing that makes this drama work.  You just fall in love with the main couple.  As for everyone else in the drama, they're actually not that bad, for 2nd male leads, 2nd 2nd male leads and crazy bitcas.  Kingone was a nice guy who messed up, Alien was a turd (and I love him unreasonably as an actor), but also an ok nice guy, and the bitca just didn't know how to give up because of her obsessive personality, but was still a nice person consistently, even though she made a lot of stupid decisions.  The biggest problem I had with it, is that I have Fall In Love With Me Syndrome, meaning that I don't trust Taiwanese dramas any more so at the first sign of crappy drama in the previews, and I panic and imagine the worst, making it hard to watch the next episode, but in this show's case, it was never that bad, and they were actually just tricking you into thinking it would be.  This is sort of a second in the series to Fated to Love You, and like it's predecessor, it is a roller coaster of draggy tiny drama.  The main couple can't be happy for more than two seconds because some random tiny drama happens.  It's frustrating as crap, but at least it never ACTUALLY gets Fall in Love With Me bad.  What makes it different from Fated is that Jie Xiu was a whole lot more mature than Cun Xi, who was a total butt.  In fact he was more like Lee Gun.  He was dedicated to making her happy from pretty much day one, and didn't take forever trying to figure out what he wanted and being hung up on "Anna."  I loved how quickly he got rid of that poster of Ai Wei.  Of course his being awesome and falling in love with Xiao Ru that quickly (but how could he not when she was that cool?) just made it harder to wait 18/30 episodes for them to get together because of all the stupid crap that went down.  But at least there was some cute in every episode to make up for the little bit of crap in nearly every episode.  Also, they have to make the ending cheesy and inappropriate. I'll take it, if it means that it is finally ending and I can get my happy ending for my dream OTP.

155. The Producers 프로듀사 (2015) Korean

Gong Hyo Jin, Cha Tae Hyun , Lee Soo Hyun, IU

Drama Rating: 9/10     Neck Score: C 

This show was both wonderful and frustrating as all get out.  That's because it had a very real life feel to it.  They were originally going for a mockumentary feel, but then sort of changed the focused based on ratings and stuff, I guess.  The four main characters were all super relatable, which was why we both loved and hated them.  I feel like while I might actually relate best to Joon Mo (Cha Tae Hyun), whether I like it or not, and that made him one of the more frustrating characters for me.  He kept keeping it to himself and not doing anything.  Boo.  I really don't think that they gave him enough screen time or focus at all.  I ended up super loving Cindy.  She was literally the best person in the whole show.  Her character was also the most dynamic.  Seung Chan (Lee Soo Hyun) was both adorable and so frustrating, like everyone.  I loved how petty he was.  That was one of the funniest parts of the whole show.  He'd get his petty revenge on people who made him mad or jealous.  It was hilarious.  Also Kim Jong Kook's plot line was the best romance in the whole show.  It kept things light and funny when all the crap was going on.  He did a good job with it too.  They left the ending open on purpose, but I think they copped out a little too much.  After all that crap we went through, they could have made the things that did wrap up wrap up a little more satisfactorily.  More kissing, sillies.  But besides that I actually liked the openness in general ok.

154. Ex-Girlfriend Club 구여친클럽 (2015) Korean

Song Ji Hyo,  Byun Yo Han, Lee Yoon Ji, Jang Ji Eun, Hwa Young

Drama Rating: 6/10    Neck Score: A

I'm sadder that this show was cancelled than I thought I would be.  I didn't like the episodes where everything started to go crappy, because it seemed like too much all at once, and then I heard that they had cancelled the show and so they were wrapping up quickly.  They did manage to make it not suck so much with the sudden shortening.  I am super shocked that it was doing so poorly in ratings, because I loved it.  I love Ji Hyo and Byun Yo Han was adorably amazing in it.  I also loved and hated the three exes at the same time, which is good.  It's just sad that it got a bit weird in the middle.  I was getting frustrated at the exes because the OTP was too cute and they were starting to get to the annoying point, but it was also so funny at the same time.  I thought because of how cray it was getting that ending it sooner would be good, but it still came off as a bit abrupt.  It was like they solved too much and not enough at the same time.  It was weird.  Not bad, just weird.  I still liked it.  I think the biggest reason I was dissatisfied was that it wasted too much time on drama that didn't matter and then only gave us superficial fixes to the rest.  Even our OTP was only given cutesy time while never getting into any real emotional depth in their relationship, which is why they still looked like best friends or a high school couple at best.  This is one of the problems with shortening shows, however with the way they were dragging out the love triangle and other annoying crap, I do have my doubts as to whether they were ever going to go there, even after they made a big deal about the sexy time earlier in the show.  I don't know, I still liked it, but the ending was decidedly lackluster and left me feeling a bit underwhelmed.

153. Warm and Cozy (aka Jeju Island Gatsby) 맨도롱 또똣 (2015) Korean

Yoo Yeon Seok, Kang So Ra, Lee Sung Jae, Kim Sung Oh

Drama Rating: 5/10     Neck Score: A

I was super disappointed in this drama.  I have raved about the Hong Sisters' dramas in the past, but really they aren't perfect and this might have been one of their worst written dramas.  They are good at the campy humor (such as the imaginations, etc.), the bathroom humor, and side couples, but plots are not their strong point and this show's plot was all over the place and sucky.  The male lead was all over the place and sucky too.  He couldn't be nice, consistent, honest or make up his mind for more than two seconds.  We wanted to like him, but all he did was frustrate us.  Like always, however, the side couples and characters were so much better.  I loved the black pearl couple.  I also loved the mayor.  He might be the best second male lead ever.  Kim Sung Oh is just an amazing actor and brought so much cute sincerity to the role.  Kang So Ra completely rocked the lead as well.  She is just great and I loved her, even when she was dumb and frustrating.  Yoo Yeon Seok actually did a great job with the stupid character he was given.  I think it would have been worse if it had been someone else who couldn't have brought that childishness to the role that made it slightly more forgivable.  As for the ending, this tweet just says it all:

MarlubsGD ‏@MarlubsGD  Jul 2
And then it ended in a gag fest. What the he-ack, cheesiness. Gaaaaag. #WarmAndCozy