Dramas Watched/Completed in 2019

Absolutely loved this one.  A part of it had that old school Taiwanese vibe mixed in with the new.  The male lead was not an ass, he was practically an angel. I pretty much loved all the characters, main and supporting.  I don't really like what the writers did to this one poor character, but I still think it fit in beautifully with the story.

So I acknowledge that this is a great drama, but I didn't really fall in love with or become attached to it until the last 6 episodes or so. This is mainly due to personal preference. I usually avoid dramas centered around cheating and this drama had a good chunk of infidelity in it. It made it hard for me to watch. Also, the first 10 episodes I just felt miserable and depressed over the main two characters' lives. I get how the drama actually captured the feelings of the main characters, but again this made it hard for me to watch. It wasn't really until the character growth that I really became attached. But yeah, lots of tears in those last few episodes.

At first, I couldn't see why people were raving about it in the comments. There was something awkward about it that I couldn't quite put my finger on...wasnt sure if it was unnatural pauses/acting of some of the supporting actors, the cinematography, or the direction. However, for webdrama standards the quality was pretty decent/average. The plot was absolutely fantastic though, especially for a BL. I want to give it a 9 just based on that. The action choreo was pretty fun to watch. Overall a really great accomplishment for what seems like a lower budget drama. It's short so if you're going to give it a try, give it at least a 3 episode chance. It does get better as it goes on.

Well that took a dark turn.

This was just really, really weird...but also oddly kind of enjoyable.

Wholesome, fun, loved the pacing, loved the FL, and loved the dog.  This was a cute and sweet feel good drama.  Thank you.

Episode 7 was my favorite.  The psychological prank warfare with Imai was next level. XD

The pros: This was great.  It had such a great cast and soundtrack (and fantastic song inserts).  The writer is hilarious.  Please stick to comedies. ♥

The cons: It was probably slightly longer than I would have liked and I didn't care much about some of the drama/romance stuff that was going on.

Overall, a solid good drama that had some epic laugh out loud funny moments.

I actually loved this a lot more than I thought I would. Yusuke was adorable and funny. I must be a sucker for kids.

FINALLY DONE!  Needed to watch something with the word "Disguise" in the title and I had already seen the others.  This happened to be on my PTW, but it unfortunately turned out to be a total waste of time.

The main character was cute and it was nice and short, but there wasn't much to the plot.  She basically goes out drinking every night by herself and finds the perfect meal to complement her alcoholic beverage. I didn't care too much about the food, but I guess the food porn worked because yesterday morning I was looking up how to make gyoza and then ended up going to a ramen place and having gyoza and ramen for lunch. XD

I was a marketing major in college and worked corporate retail for a while, so I really appreciated the marketing references in this. Although I'm not sure how accurate the boss's random facts about high end designers were, they sure were inspirational.

Despite the cheesy poster, this was reeeeeally great.  It also came to me at just the right time in life when  I'm in the middle of a work slump.  The main character is just so cute and lovable.  I would really like her to be one of my friends so she could spread cheer to my life.  The actress also really suited this role.

Good, informative, made me cry (tears of joy and tears of sadness). I suspect a ton of you had baby fever after finishing it.

I'm still terrified of having kids though.

Should've been 16 episodes.  It was alright. I appreciate the scene transitions and likable antagonists in this one though.

Nowhere near as funny as the original.

This is probably one of those love it or hate it dramas (like W).

I liked this better than W.  I loved how it was filmed.  If you're a fan of RPGs, this is a must watch.  The only thing that was lacking was the weak female character and the romance storyline.  I could honestly do without the romance, but others would disagree.

The secretary and FL's lil sis were probably my favorite supporting characters.

I think I would've liked this a lot more had I been watching it with a fresh pair of eyes. That's the only annoying thing about watching remakes. You can't stop comparing them to the original.

Well this was tough to watch (due to the subject matter).  I wouldn't say it's predictable, but if you've seen enough of these you start to sense a pattern.  It did manage to throw me off with some stuff. It's really good if you're into mystery, suspense, and psychological dramas.

This was such a randomly funny food drama.  The humor was kind of silly sometimes, but it was cute and fun. Plus, it was part cooking show, so you got to learn a lot of recipes (though I doubt I'd be making any of them).

The truth is I loved this like it was an 8/10.  It really was a gem with how refreshing it was compared to mainstream Taiwanese dramas.  This was a heartfelt story about two different girls who experience two different cultures.  I just love how real it felt with the culture shock and cultural differences.  The drama was by no means perfect though.  It had a rocky and almost cringeworthy start.  It would skip around a lot and use a lot of flashbacks as filler scenes.   There were also a lot of unnecessary scenes that made me cringe.  I loved this drama for the cultural representation, but the plot was somewhat of a downer.

The classic girl accidentally travels to the past and has multiple princes fall in love with her storyline. Oh, did I mention she's stuck in the body of an adorable cat?

Average plot. Could be a 6 as well.

All the feels! I think this writer and director team worked really well together. I especially appreciate this director's attention to detail and ability to drop subtle hints. You see stuff coming, eagerly await for it to happen, and yet are still surprised when it does. I applaud the cast and crew for putting together such an excellent drama. Thank you.

Same writer as Kingdom and Signal.  She has a way of making you absolutely furious over the evil characters in her dramas.  I've noticed a common theme in her works : the living are more scarier than the dead because they tell lies and are greedy/corrupt.

A proper horror drama. This was my bedtime drama, which is either the best or worst decision I made when it came to watching this drama. I don't get spooked easily, nor did I think this was creepy (minus possibly the intro scene of every episode). It was probably more gory than anything, but I love the direction and cinematography.

Finally completed on second attempt!  I loved the first season, but couldn't get into the second season.  This season reminded me a lot of It Started With a Kiss (2nd season) where one person was putting waaay more effort into the relationship than the other and it was frustrating to watch.  It was still cute though.  I'm thinking I liked season 1 better for the forced cohabitation plotline.

Nothing against the cast...the plot didn't do it for me.

This was a sweet drama...literally. Kim Min Kyu is eye candy in the form of fluffy marshmallow.

Let's just say it was hard not to fall asleep in the second half.

I probably would've liked a lot better had I not already seen Searching.  Although this is a quirky comedy and very relatable in terms of the distractions of the internet.

The first 4 episodes the drama was unbearable due to FL's personality and actions. I really wanted to drop, but the comments said keep going and it's true, it does get way better once you pass that 4 ep mark. The rest of the episodes were a 7-8 range. Some things were ridiculously unrealistic when it came to protocol so I had to deduct rating for that. Overall, decent detective drama. FL is genuine tomboy, which is refreshing.

6.75.  I loved this drama and think it's mainly worth checking out...its downfall being its episode count. However, for a 40 episode drama, it's surprisingly well paced.  It kind of gets draggy toward the last 10 episodes, but it's not too unbearable like many cdramas.  To sum it up, it's a light watch, but the episode count makes it seem somewhat heavy.  It could've been condensed to 30.

The inner nerd in me gives this +.5 :)

The timed comments were pretty entertaining and kept me going (I watched this one on viki).  There was one gold-digger that stressed me out so much.  I liked the main couple, but the last 8 episodes were a time waste.

Story was okay, but I liked how this was filmed, particularly how it captured the grittiness of life in the slums  and overcrowded prisons.

I finished this two days ago, but I went back and rewatched the beginning episodes I forgot about.  It was on my On Hold list for some time.  Clearly, it wasn't memorable enough for me despite being a Hana Yori Dango knockoff (or at least heavily inspired by HYD).

A plus was that the writers did not negatively stereotype the black character in this. :)  Too bad he wasn't in the second half as much.

LOL, this was odd, but cute.  I wasn't expecting much, but this one surprised me.  I'm an only child, so I totally get the appeal of wanting an awesome older brother (one that you can pick anyway :P)

This was technically season 1 and it seems like they split a 32 episode drama awkwardly down the middle.  This is my rating for the first "half".  It's good and enjoyable, but when it comes to cdramas about swimming, I like My Mr. Mermaid way better.

Even though season 2 is a continuation, I think I liked it better. What's funny was that the entire first season, it was puzzling me how they were supposed to be top swimmers, who were training for major competitions and even the national team, yet they didn't shave. Isn't that something top swimmers are notorious for doing? I'm glad this season addressed it. XD

Addictive melodrama. Contract relationships are my weakness, but this is probably not for those who dislike possessive male leads.

I think the story was interesting, but the drama was not well put together.  I'm not sure if it was the editing (maybe scenes were deleted due to regulation?) or lack of transitions. It all just seemed very confusing. Things that needed to be clarified were not clarified until the second half, which by then it was too late. I think the synopsis of the plot is also somewhat different then what the drama portrayed so that threw me off a bit too. Maybe you have to read the manhwa and have a grasp of the background story to appreciate this more? I just felt very frustrated watching this. Oh, and I didn't feel the chemistry either.

This was amazing for its time.  It took me months to watch though. I struggled to get through the first half for some reason (not that it was bad, I just wasn't in the mood to watch this drama). Just finally got done binge watching the second half.  Overall solid good drama with FANTASTIC music.

This drama has consistently been my happy pill for the past 6-7 weeks.  It's a sweet drama, that's technically not that original. It's pretty tropey and feels like a mismatch of borrowed themes from other dramas.   That being said, the main fresh thing it brought to kdramaworld is shedding light on the struggles of women who try to come back to the workplace after taking a break to raise their kids.  I enjoyed this drama, but it might not be the best to watch during a drama slump or if you're looking for something original.

I thought I had this drama figured out. I did not. The story starts off slow and seems pretty cliche and predictable. I almost dropped the drama due to its slow pacing. However, after about 10 episodes, the plot thickens. The mystery and suspense were cranked up and I was sucked in. It has some pretty good twists. I'd say it's a solid revenge drama. It just needed to be more fast paced.

Major disappointment. Super repetitive. Doormat female lead.  See my review for more details.

Can't decide between a 7.5 or 8, but I'll go with the higher number for now.  This was interesting and filled with somewhat atypical mystery. Lots of twists. Lots of life lessons learned. This takes place in March, so I thought it was pretty cool to watch in March.

 On the other hand, I watched this after the Christchurch, New Zealand massacre (in which one of the  psycho terrorists live streamed his actions) and I am still triggered by that incident, particularly how people on the internet kept sharing the video online making it viral (totally disgusting).  If you have not read the synopsis of this drama already, it's about a teacher who holds his classroom hostage and live streams/shares updates about the incident online. Sound familiar?

 Although, the teacher is the protagonist of this story and trying to make a point by finding out why a student committed suicide..it got me thinking.  Any psycho can believe his actions are well intended and that he/she is doing good to justify committing a crime.  What makes him so different from other dangerous criminals?  Anyways, as the main character says, "Let's Think!"

typical revenge lakorn, except ML is a manchild and I did want to drop this during the earlier episodes.

It started off interesting...and then I don't know what happened.

WOW. I see what you all mean. Those last few episodes were so beautiful and amazing. Honestly, that turn did flicker across my mind early on, but I immediately dismissed it. And now I am just shook about all the small details I noticed and dismissed as dumb dramaworld things. The first 3/4 is so different than the last 1/4. I don't know how to rate this (7.5-8 range?), but I'll go with the higher number for the minor details.

A very high quality drama.  It has a great cast/acting, good story, and high production.  While this drama is definitely worth watching, it's not something I would highly recommend due to it's episode length.  It's just SO LONG.  I didn't really mind the slow pace as I did the number of episodes.  And yes, the story got much more interesting after the couple got married.  Loved their chemistry (makes sense cuz these two are married IRL).  However, the story would get boring every time the male lead was away from the capital or from his wife.

cute and fluffy fanservice involving two people awkwardly dating for the first time. very little plot. I should've dropped this, but Idk why I didn't...maybe it was because of the fluff.

A good old fashioned body swap comedy, with somewhat of a twist to the traditional body swap trope.

I'm actually okay with this ending.  I thought I wouldn't, but the drama does a really good job of portraying why things needed to end the way they did.  This drama was an addicting watch.  I see some people comparing this to Ashes of Love....I see where people are going with that, but this drama is totally unrelated and is not quite on THAT level of execution.

Watched the second half of last episode raw, but I basically got the gist of it.  +.5 for the non cliché ending.

My weekly happy pill. ♥ This was actually really great for webdrama standards.  Kind of sad that it's over.  Thanks for the laughs.

THAT'S IT??? You can't just cut me off like that!  It wasn't even a  cliffhanger ending.  It felt more like there was one more episode to go, but that was it.  I just feel so cut off...I'm so frustrated now lol.

It was really hard not to compare this to NIF1.  In terms of plot, I think I liked the first one better.  In NIF, the protagonist was a master manipulator and it was exhilarating to see him get his revenge. In NIF2, there are still master manipulators, but more on the villain side.  That being said, there are some things in NIF2 that I liked better than NIF1.  NIF2 had better sword fight scenes, the bromance was great (especially of the two brothers), and the subtle romance was a tad bit more present. NIF2 might also have targeted a younger audience, since the ML was much younger, there was more action, and slightly more romance...in this aspect the dramas were different.  I absolutely LOVED how they tied in connections from NIF1 into NIF2.

I don't think this was executed as well as Jang Bo Ri, but for cdrama standards, this was pretty good.  I think they also cut out a lot of crap from the original....like dumb makjang stuff that dragged in the original.  This was more fast paced. However, because they cut stuff, the transitions and the suspense was sort of lost.  Either way, both are very addicting series...though I think I liked the pairing in this one better.

Oh my! The ML and the SL. ♥ Waiting for season two.  They basically split 16 episodes into 2 seasons.

Pretty funny. Seemed kind of a low budget for a tvN historical drama (although this is an older drama), particularly because of the graphics and the editing.  It seemed kind of choppy at times when it came to stunts and the action scenes.  It was actually a lot lighter than I thought it would be considering this time period and this king. Although the story was somewhat simple for a sageuk, it was fast paced and well balanced. For a historical drama, this was a light and fun watch.

This drama was so goofy and hilarious!  The plot itself was okay...there were some things I liked and some things I didn't. However, I loved the comedy, the entire cast, and the action choreography.  It's a pretty light drama for a crime/investigation drama. The second half was much better than the first.  The cast seemed to have a blast filming it. Gotta love these dorks.  I need to find BTS footage if there is any.

The female lead is soo cute in this. She reminded me of an adorable monkey. Very light drama.  I might be slightly biased cuz this is a contract relationship storyline. :/

It was okay.  The female lead's acting really annoyed me and the male lead character was such a cliché (tsundere). It was cute though.  Did I mention there's a cat?  It was very appropriately named for this musical couple. :D

Fantastic remake.  It was still hilarious, especially Jiro Wang's acting in everyone's crazy fantasy scenes.  I also liked how it had its own uniqueness to it and still managed to keep all my favorite scenes from the original.  I forgot how precious Jeremy was! I liked the female actress in this one better...and the ending was great too. Oh and I almost forgot, better kisses!

It has a little bit of everything, so I think it's a solid good drama for it's genre.  I think it was slightly overhyped though.  If you are new to psychometry in dramas, I think you're more likely to be impressed by this.  I've seen my fair share of psychometry in jdramas though.  

Kim Kwon was amazing in this.  He's really good at pokerfaced, yet adorable roles.

OMG, gorgeous guys acting like cats! xD LMAO. The first two episodes were better than the last two, but overall highly amusing.

I went in with low expectations due to the negative comments, so I wasn't as disappointed as most people were.  As many are saying, this drama was poorly written and even for webdrama standards this was subpar.  I did not watch this drama for Hong Ki as many of his fans did, but I must say this was a low for him.  Dare I say his acting a bit sloppy at times.  He really needs to take on more challenging roles instead of his typical "adorable male lead" roles.

10 episodes subbed so far. I watched the last 2 raw.  This season was a bit slower than the first, but most dramas are slower in the second half so it was to be expected.  It's different for a mermaid drama. I liked it.

How do I get over this "bromance"??

Refreshing. Original. Lots of grey area, but makes sense due to paparazzi scene. Some of the stunts were insanely ridiculous and unrealistic, but entertaining. Leave your morals at the door.

I get that this is supposed to be artsy and very indie, but I just wasn't feeling it.  Too slow paced for my liking.

+.5 for the amazing sound mixing.

The cast and acting was superb in this.  Even if I hated the characters, I loved the actors who played them.

 The story itself was fantastic the first half.  In fact, the first 20 episodes I watched all at once since the plot is very on the edge of your seat binge worthy.  Things start to wind down and get repetitive toward the end...it's not exactly repetitive, but the back and forth match between good guys vs. bad guys was getting really annoying.  The villain was just too smart and wouldn't fail! And while the ending wasn't disappointing, it seemed underwhelming compared to the amazing beginning of the drama.  I think the drama was also cut short, so they didn't have as much time and had to close some loose ends very quickly.

Light and fun watch. Some parts do get boring. I think I'm going through a burnout of school/youth Chinese dramas. It's mainly due to Chinese censorship/regulation.  Creators are driven more toward certain genres which really leads to lack of creativity.  Not saying that this is uncreative, just that I'm seeing too much of this genre. It all seems the same after awhile.

 recognized the signs early on, but SLS still hurts every time. < /3

What a sweet old man. :)

Most def overhyped, but that last episode was an 8 or higher. I loved how they wrapped things up.

What a touching drama.  I really felt the ups and downs of this couple trying to conceive a child.  Plus, this drama is really woke as it confronts the prejudices and biases against fertility treatment, homosexuality, and methods of raising a child.

Idol bait and pandering, but fantastic cameos and supporting actors. Ga Rin is my favorite character.

Watching this drama while it was airing has been an emotional roller coaster with all the cliffhangers and sweetness of this drama. Although it was cliche and had some flaws, I absolutely loved it. It was just what I needed...a solid romcom. There were times when the writer did us dirty and a few filler episodes here and there, but it was consistently cute, sweet, and fun. There were a lot of mixed reviews over this drama, but basically if you like cliches, this is a much watch. It's one of my favorite romcoms of 2019.

The ML was such a manipulative asshat in the first 10 episode, but changes for the better. Also, this has an autism awareness plug. Nice!

The FL was wild and at times obnoxiously annoying, but that's also one of the things that was endearing about her.  I really liked Qiao Zhen Yu in this. It's a pity that his dramas rarely get subbed.  I really loved this couple, but there was just a lot of filler content/side story BS that I just couldn't deal with.  This 44 episode drama should have been cut down to 16-20 episodes.

Also, this is NOT a youth drama as listed in the genre section. It does have two high school students in it, but they are not a main part of the show.

This had two of my favorite tropes (contract relationship and gender bender). Plus, this had a non dumb female character and an actress who slayed her role as a male and female character. This had plenty of kisses and I really enjoyed it.  I would've gave it a 7.5 or 8 had it not been for the ending.  It's pretty good if you don't watch the last 5 minutes of the drama.

Okay, so the plot was objectively like a 6, but I really really liked this drama and almost all the characters.  You just have to go in with low expectations.  Even with the typical "evil" characters, you saw some good in them and wanted to root for them to listen to their good side.  Sure, there were some snakes here and there, but I didn't get TOO annoyed.  Ironically enough, it was Poseidon himself that really annoyed me.  His arrogant godlike  attitude was pretty irritating to watch in the beginning (it was some pretty cliche stuff).  I liked the second half better because he appeared less and there were a lot more Ye Hai x An Fei moments.  Also, Ye Hai was just so much more lovable than Poseidon despite being a flirt. :P  

The drama sort of got choppy toward the end and someone in the comments mentioned it was because they cut out extra scenes to release a special episode afterward.  That makes sense and I think I might check it out.  I personally really loved this drama and found it somewhat refreshing, especially with how supporting characters weren't so flat.

Plotwise, this was your standard slap/kiss revenge lakorn. However, Tor is EXTREMELY handsome in this.  He seems to have shed his boyish image for a more manly one. OH MY.  There were times when he let his cute side slip through when he was trying to act serious. xD I think it's just the way he talks.  This couple was so cute together, especially in the second half.  However, the second half also had your typical psycho villain B.S. as well, so that's something to keep in mind. Also, Tor IS a manhandling asshole in the first half.  Just telling things like it is, but it's a slap/kiss so that's "normal."

I just loved how things unraveled. It was slightly slow paced, particularly toward the second half, but a well made drama nonetheless.

I skipped through the elder brother's scenes, but the storylines of the two younger brothers were interesting.  No screaming banshees, no psycho she-villains.  Just a mad scientist.  I enjoyed it. :)

This was great. The plot was really interesting and fun for a CH3 lakorn and it had a good message too.  That ending was really cute. xD ♥

This drama seemed like it was having an identity crisis lol.  It was part musical, part action, part romcom, part melodrama...and although it was a nice balance, I would be totally confused when they'd randomly break out into song.

I loved this couple. They were WILD and badass.  Their fights were intense and I love how the FL would put up a good fight against ML.

Trigger Warning: This has a ton of rape in it.

The plot was really dumb, but the FL and ML were ultra adorable. And let's not forget the SFL, Veronica Park, who pretty much stole the show. My main issue with this drama was the plot, lazy writing, and kind of lame villains.  Every week the FL would be like, "I can't do this anymore. I'm going to tell him." Yet every week something would happen and she would STILL be pretending to be someone else. It got repetitive and annoying. Although this drama was cute, it was at times borderline too sweet. Ultimately, it was worth the watch though.

p.s. The writers misrepresented his illness, but it's dramaworld so at this point I've stopped caring about accuracy. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm usually not a fan of OL dramas, but this was just so positive and uplifting.  Not only was it inspirational, the main character was adorable. I wasn't the biggest fan of the romance storyline and how it played out, but the main couple made a cute pairing nonetheless.

This was quite a fluffy drama...literally. ^w^  So many adorable furballs...I was in cat heaven.  I would say this is a must watch for animal lovers, but some people can't stand seeing animals in pain. Although, none of the animals were actually in pain in this drama,

pretty decent for a webdrama.

Not one of my favorite seasons, but still one of my favorite shows. The winner deserved to win.

The first half was like a 10 for me.  It doesn't have a mind blowing plot. It's very simple, but executed really well for a cdrama.  You can tell the writer was inspired by the Reply series.  

The only reason I dropped my score was it got a little bit draggy in the second half and suddenly turned into an office drama.  Like I could've cared less about their wristwatch problems and thought that they spent way too many episodes on office drama than they should have.  And then it suddenly turned into typical sweet fluffy cdrama...the style of which was so different from the first half.  Not that I have anything against it, it's just that I was expecting consistency? Overall, terrific drama for it's genre.