GLAD I WATCHED IT ONCE/KOREAN
This list is for shows that I won't watch again, but absolutely deserve to be watched at least once.
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1. Shopping King Louie
Korean Drama - 2016, 16 episodes
This series was fun and the story, even with its sadness, was still nice. There wasn't anything cerebral but it did have moments of emotional tugging value. There are the standard cliche characters, however they are not so annoyingly written that I wanted to stop watching.
Also, bonus points for making me Google Seo In-guk so I could discover that he is also a singer/songwriter and very good at both.
Full credit for casting and acting.
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2. You Are The Best!
Korean Drama - 2013, 50 episodes
WOOOOOOOW, this was long! Every part of the production except writing, gets the 8 stars to be considered as 10. The FL is worth her weight in diamonds, I have no idea who she is, but she's brilliant...well done casting!
My favourites after her are the restaurant owner on the production company's first floor, the ex-con baker and the ML. I'd watch these four together in series after series after series.
Two stars off for the vicious, vindictive, and the airheaded, bloody annoying whiners...OH MY NERVES...I hit fast forward through every scene they were in to stop myself from doing the whole stabby stabby thing into my own brain...it would have hurt less.
EDIT:
It's been four months since I watched this and I'd forgotten pretty much everything about it. I've just tried to re-watch, but as soon as I saw the FL's grandmother (even before she opened her mouth) my hackles went up, I bared my teeth and a deep, threatening growl worked its way up from the core of my being. It was a struggle to restrain myself from snapping at the old hag and ripping her throat out. Then the FL's middle sister opened her mouth...all restraint shot to hell.
If it weren't for those cliche soap opera characters, I would willingly watch this production once a year for the rest of my existence. I'm angry that this title has to be on this list...way to go writers...argh!
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3. When Flowers Bloom, I Think of the Moon
Korean Drama - 2021, 16 episodes
Not awful, so definitely worth a once through. Even with its flaws, it's still considerably less annoying than a lot of the tripe that is out there now.
I had to fast forward within episodes and skip a few episodes to get through plot lags or cliche infestations.
It get 9 stars because the acting wasn't ridiculous and the writing was for the most part, intelligent.I have it under this heading, but I think I might watch it again in a few years.
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4. The Last Empress
Korean Drama - 2018, 52 episodes
Given the length of it, I was expecting a cloying soap opera...it sort of was...but wasn't? Whatever, I only skipped a few episodes because of boredom due to lag or annoyance due to nonsensical behaviours.
Cliche alert...seriously K-d writers...it's like your entire upper echelon are vicious, emotionally driven, megalomaniacs...WHY?????
So much talent wasted on so much tripe....argh.
All eight stars go toward acting...
I'm on the fence about watching it again. -
5. Graceful Family
Korean Drama - 2019, 16 episodes
This story is a collection of nasty, unhinged characters fighting over money and power and how that never ends well.
There are too many holes in the plot. My primary annoyance with this is when characters said or did something COMPLETELY out of character for them to accommodate lazy writers.
The ML's character and those of a few supporting ones were the reason I stayed until the end. It felt like these characters where written with a level of intelligence that is hit or miss with the rest. -
6. Mask
Korean Drama - 2015, 20 episodes
Not awful. Nothing negative about the casting or the acting. Too many worn-out chaebal based cliches.
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7. The Client
Korean Movie - 2011
Well, it was another movie that should have been a series. Everyone did a superb job with their roles and the writing was well done.
Not sorry I watched it, but I probably won't watch it again...because it's a movie. -
8. Tell Me What You Saw
Korean Drama - 2020, 16 episodes
I almost quit this after two episodes because the lead female detective and the guy in the wheel chair were unnecessarily cold and rude to the people around them...especially toward the FL character, who was never deserving of it. These types of characteristics are unnecessary to the story, it would have played out as well had they just been distant. Being distant would have been quite understandable given their backstories.
After two episodes, I skipped ahead a couple of episodes and this allowed me to continue as the annoying writing started to turn toward intelligent and gave the characters some humanity.
I still skipped episodes here and there because this series overall, is quite dark, which is not somewhere I step purposely.
The acting, for the most part was brilliant, the casting was spot on and the production as a whole was very well done. -
9. Shine or Go Crazy
Korean Drama - 2015, 24 episodes
Overall this production was well done. It dragged in bits across the entirety of it, so one star off for that.
Casting was excellent, thus acting followed suit giving us a well balanced set of characters whose stories drew us in.
Is it one of the best, I don't think so, however it is not a great distance from the top.
I'm on the fence about watching it again in the future but I'm glad I watched it this once. -
10. Is It Fate?
Korean Drama - 2024, 8 episodes
Ahhh, one star off for the cliche annoying best friend of the FL and tyrant mother of the ML...and that there are only 8 episodes...eight is NOT enough. This story was sweet while keeping the fluff down to a reasonably bearable limit.
I probably won't watch this again because it's too short but I'm almost okay with having watched it once.
Most other viewers will definitely enjoy it thoroughly. -
11. Bad Memory Eraser
Korean Drama - 2024, 16 episodes
I am enjoying everything about this series...EXCEPT...the TOKEN, CLICHE ADULT THAT ACTS AND SOUNDS LIKE A SEVEN YEAR OLD AND THE HORRIBLE MOTHER...WHY???
Yes, I yelled it because I'm that sick of it, right up there with the vicious mothers, mother-in-laws and chaebols. I FF through all their scenes lest I toss my monitor out the window...that I admittedly don't have because I'm a basement troll.
I realize, that sadly, there are people like that in the world, and that it its quite possible that these scenarios can and do happen, HOWEVER, why continuously stereotype an entire population for the global eye?
Those characters aside, this is a really good production offering a vignette of the path to the destruction of mental health along with possible ramifications.
I've watched up to episode 6 and will return when it's done to update. -
12. Haechi
Korean Drama - 2019, 48 episodes
I found this to be painfully long, and did skip episodes, HOWEVER, some of the characters were just brilliant and made this series worth recommending.
The acting was at such a level that both the evolution and devolution of the characters was seamless.
The story itself (cliches and stereotypical nasties aside) was well written and lead the viewer through a million different versions of political intrigue while maintaining the humanity of those involved...regardless of how horrible they were.
I won't watch this again, but I still recommend that you at least give it a go. -
13. Your Honor
Korean Drama - 2018, 32 episodes
For the most part, I enjoyed this series. I'm really not a fan of characters that get to be vicious their entire lives and then be forgiven by the person they were so vile toward and then suddenly everything is okay and they get to be a part of their lives...wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.
Casting was thought out as all the actors did their jobs well. The criminal twin was so goofy that it felt like he was right out of a slap stick comedy...which made the entire scenario laughable...and not in a good way. I would have made him a bit calmer and articulate whilst keeping true to his character...this would have made him FAR more believable as a judge and would have given us reason to believe that those around him wouldn't have immediately realized that they were not looking at the same person. Kinda hard to believe that all those upper echelon criminals were too dumb to figure it out.
I may watch this again in a few years.