What Dramas Am I Watching This Week?

Here's what I'm watching this week! Of course the list is split by country and episodes I've seen so far are written below! There will be spoilers from now on so if you aren't caught to the episode number I list, you might want to go watch that episode and then come back! If you're interested in previous lists, click here and if you want to see a list of my favorite asian OTPs and ships, click here!

KDRAMA

DROPPED Man To Man (5/16): Kim Sul Woo is a mysterious National Intelligence Service (NIS) agent whose identity is known only by a few superiors at the top of the agency. As a highly skilled and suave agent, he can accomplish any and every mission he is assigned. When a large conglomerate, Songsan Group, is identified as a threat to the country, Sul Woo needs to go undercover again. One day, he is ordered to infiltrate a private party held by Chairman Victor, a Russian oil tycoon, and extract the legendary wood carvings hidden in the compound. However, his best cover is to get himself attached to world star Yeo Woon Guang as his elite bodyguard, and so begins a whole new unexpected mission for Sul Woo. Woon Guang was a nameless stuntman who became a top star through unexpected good fortune after starring in a Hollywood hero series called, "Dark Death." He is in his forties and now specializes in acting as a villain. The often childlike Woon Guang is constantly involved in some scandal, and despite his occasional innocence, the world star is conceited and brash. He bullies Sul Woo, who panders to his every whim. Meanwhile, Sul Woo is preparing for his secret mission. Unfortunately, he also has to deal with Cha Do Ha, Woon Guang's manager, who used to be the head of his fan club, and is enamored with the celebrity. She is wary of Sul Woo, and anxious that Woon Guang may be interested in him, so she constantly gets in Sul Woo's way. While the secret mission must be completed, the seemingly perfect bodyguard and the world star's fan manager continue to collide, and their relationship may be something Sul Woo could not have expected.

I'm actually really sad that I'm going to drop this one cause I was super into the premise of this show and I love spy/swindler/con man stories so I was excited to check this one out. A lot about this show was a lot of fun like the spy stuff and how badass K was but what pulled me out of this show was the female lead and just how utterly cringey she was. Not only was she so extreme and judgy and over-the-top but I felt like the way the actress was playing her made me uncomfortable too. There was nothing that she did that I felt like K would have fallen for or been interested in from the start like he was and I could see that they were building a romance but I just wasn't feeling it. I debated pushing through and just fast forwarding through their cringey romantic scenes because I adored the comedic bromance between K and Woon Guang and I wanted to see more spy shenanigans but as the episodes went on and the focus shifted to their romance more and more and I became less and less interested and struggled to convince myself to pick the show back up once I had finished an episode. I do not feel like I'll be trying to check this one out again unfortunately so if you check out the first episode and don't find Do Ha annoying as hell then this show might be for you but here's where I say goodbye.

My ID Is Gangnam Beauty (6/16): Adapted from a popular webtoon, this drama tells of Kang Mi Rae, a girl once bullied for her looks. As a result, she became insecure, cautious around people and withdrawn. However, Mi Rae decides she wants a fresh start away from bullying and gets plastic surgery to transform her face. When she begins university, she meets Do Kyung Suk from their middle school days, who sees people for what they are on the inside and not the outside; he then becomes attracted to Kang Mi Rae. As Mi Rae begins to get teased once more and labeled "Gangnam Beauty", the cold, aloof but kind inside Kyung Suk becomes the one person that stands up for her and in the process, Mi Rae begins to recover her lost confidence and discovers that true beauty is not on the outside.

I really do adore this show and I feel like I say that every week but it's true and I'll keep saying it until I don't feel this way anymore!! I'm enjoying so much about this show as it goes on and I'm still loving the romance cause it's precious just how much Kyung Suk is head over heels for Mi Rae. His face is practically in awe every time they're around and I love how his whole cold emotionless thing means nothing around her. I'm also enjoying how Mi Rae is seeming him in a different light now that they cleared up their old misconceptions and I love that she's so awkward around him cause she's into him too. I always think it's really sweet when the main couple start falling for each other relatively close to each other cause usually it's like one or the other is more interested at first. I'm also loving the TA and just how sweet of a guy he is. I really want him to get with Mi Rae's roommate cause it looks like she's interested and he's too good of a guy to pine endlessly over someone who already likes another guy. I also really want to see Eun, Mi Rae, and Jung Boon's friendship blossom more cause they're so much better people than Soo Ah is and I'm glad that Mi Rae is starting to see that already cause nothing drives me more mad than when a female lead is a moron. No one is that naive to constantly say and do things that seem mean but aren't meant to. Speaking of, how is it that pretty much all the guys in this school except for Kyung Sik and the TA and maybe that one other new guy we were introduced to are such dicks? Like not only were they basically calling a girl fat but they were so damn condescending the whole time and I WAS LIVING for when the girls finally lost it on them and called them out on their bullshit. The only thing I'm not a fan of is how involved Mi Rae is in Kyung Sik's mom's life. Like I understand that she feels indebted to her but Kyung Sik is clearly not okay with his mom so if she wants to hang out with her, Mi Rae should either tell Kyung Sik the truth or refuse to tell his mom about him. It feels too sketchy the way things are going down now and one of my biggest pet peeves is when characters meddle in another person's family life cause they're outsiders and not only is it none of their business but they also don't know the full story!

Thirty But Seventeen/Still Seventeen (16/32): Woo Seo Ri, a violin prodigy at 17 who was about to study in Germany, got into a bus accident and fell into a coma waking up 13 years later. Mentally she is still only 17, while physically she is now 30. Gong Woo Jin is a 30 year old single man who works as a set designer. Due to a trauma he experienced 13 years before, he does not want to have a relationship with others. This series is about a man and a woman whose lives have been mangled due to a grisly accident. Together, they use all their might to try and open the door to happiness that they once thought had been closed to them.

I am living for warm and open Woo Jin who's pretty much in love with Seo Ri even if he doesn't know it yet cause it's completely adorable how she's wormed her way into his heart and it never ceases to amuse me when cold characters turn to putty around the people they love. Woo Jin is a special kind of cold character cause he is soft as a marshmallow inside and very kind though he tries to hide it and I'm dying every time he does something in the office that makes his coworkers look at him like he's insane. He was especially adorable when he was drunk and I love that Seo Ri was so annoyed with him afterwards that he basically did whatever she wanted to make it up to her causing the coworkers to be confused again though the boss seems to know that he might be feeling all the feels around her. I'm not thrilled with Chan's story cause he's precious but it feels weird that he's the second male lead and a weird one at that cause he loves Woo Jin so much that the second he realizes that he likes Seo Ri, Chan will back off immediately. I was glad that Seo Ri finally told Woo Jin the truth and that she actually didn't move out cause I'm loving the cohabitation hijinks and I love how much Woo Jin loves having her around. I'm curious as to who that yellow heeled person is and how she knows Jennifer and actually who Jennifer is at all would be interesting. I also don't think Chan's mom will be annoyed with Seo Ri if I'm being honest cause I'm sure she'll see how much Woo Jin has changed immediately like his friend and like her too.

Time (14/32): This is the story of two polar opposite people that come together in tragedy. One remains stuck in time, whilst the other only has a limited amount of time left to live. Seol Ji Hyun is a woman who, although living a hard life, remains positive, upbeat and social. Cheon Soo Ho is the CEO of a restaurant and the son of a wealthy family with a terrible temper and no regard for other people. They both meet briefly under negative impressions of each other. However, their lives become entangled once more when Ji Hyun's sister dies unexpectedly in Soo Ho's residence. From there, Ji Hyun's time stops and she becomes a cold, miserable person who finds nothing to live for. But Soo Hoo, who carries heavy guilt and is drawn to her, promises to himself to use the 6 months he has left to live to help her, whose life was destroyed because of him. In the process, Soo Ho falls in love with Ji Hyun, but how far can love develop when you only have a limited time left to live?

We only got two episodes this week which is sad cause I love this show so much and I always am left at the end of the week wanting more!! This week we continue to see how awful of a human being Lawyer Shin is and I really really really want a real explanation on his motivations cause THEY MAKE NO SENSE. Okay let's say he really hated cleaning up after Soo Ho's messes which made him hate Soo Ho and that he thought Chae Ah was nice and he wanted to keep Ji Hyun out of the rich people mess, none of that explains why he is consistently going down this horrible path when he sees that clearly Soo Ho is the best of the rich bunch. Like he's literally attempting to murder people left and right and keeps telling Soo Ho that he's the murderer even though he knows well and good that Soo Ho had nothing to do with Ji Hyun's sister's death! Chae Ah is just as bad cause she pretty much could not give a single shit about who died in the hotel. I was really hoping that Soo Ho would admit the truth to Ji Hyun this week cause for the love of everything I want her to find out the truth from his mouth but I have a feeling she's going to hear it from someone else and then she'll be all upset only to finally forgive him when she sees his interview. I just want them to continue being a team!! I loved that she found out that his mother committed suicide and that he attempted to as well and that she tried to comfort him in his own way and that he sees she's doing something but trusts her to come to him with the truth eventually and doesn't push her. They make such a great couple and it's going to be sad when he dies.

Your House Helper (28/32): The daily life of an average working woman involves: a packed subway during the rush hours, a miserable old boss, juniors clawing their way up, mounting credit card debt, and a rusty and tired body... And above all, the worst is the endless housekeeping work that awaits her at home. But what if a handsome guy appears and takes care of all the housekeeping work for her? And not only that, what if he solves the problems in her complicated and confused life? In this drama, a male house helper does housekeeping works in different women's houses and tries to solve their issues.

This week was fun cause Da Young and Ji Woon have finally got together and idk but as much as I wanted this to happen, I feel like these two have little chemistry. Tbh I think it has to do with more with the writing since this show isn't a rom com so it focuses very little on cute moments between our leads. Despite this I am glad this will they won't they thing is over now. I do wish Ji Woon was a little more expressive cause even when he was confessing his feelings, his face was pretty dead. My favorite scene this week is definitely the one where the girls see how empty his apartment is and run out and basically decorate it. It was precious and he looked so touched! At this point I'm over the whole ex thing though. It's gone on for so long and I don't want it to ruin his new relationship but with the new plot twist of Ga Ram being Ji Woon's ex's son, I'm sure she'll be back. I'm still loving the Ga Ram and So Mi relationship and I do actually kind of hope they end up together cause he's adorable and she needs a soft guy as a boyfriend. Sang Ah and Jin Kook are still my least favorite cause I cannot with Sang Ah anymore. Like she claims that she likes Jin Kook now too but he seems way way more into the relationship than she does and what kind of asshole sees all the work a date put into their evening and goes whatever works. Like pretend to care! And then when he proposes to her (which btw seems a little early!) she freaks out cause she's not dressed pretty enough like girl that's not the point!

CDRAMA

FINISHED Legend of Fu Yao (66/66): Meng Fu Yao, a woman born from a divine lotus petal. She journeys through the five continents towards the heavens in search of a secret order and to reveal a conspiracy originating from the heavens. In the process, she falls in love with the crown prince Zhangsun Wuji.

Like I was a little afraid of the ending felt a bit rushed and as though the writer decided that the whole evil personality thing was too much work and was just like meh whatever. For something that the most powerful sect in the world was worried about, Fu Yao's love for Wu Ji was able to overcome it and by stabbing herself she was able to stop the possession which though I loved the idea of, it was a bit silly in practice cause both she and Wu Ji ended up perfectly fine even after all the stabbings they had to go through. I still think this show would have been even better if they jus straight up cut this storyline out and stuck to the political stuff. That or they should have trimmed stories like that weird siege of Yan City in the middle and spent more time with Fu Yao possessed. Despite all that, I was happy with this show and I think that's mostly do to the incredible chemistry between Fu Yao and Wu Ji. Ethan Juan was a treasure and a half in this and I'm found another favorite actor in my eyes. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for his future projects. I really did enjoy all the spywork and theatrics our crew put on and the romances were all great and the Devine Physician was a treat. It is a little sad that Seven died and we never got a reaction from anyone for his death. Overall I'd give this show a 9.5 / 10!

Meteor Garden (36/48): An ordinary girl is admitted to the most prestigious school in the country where she encounters F4, an exclusive group comprised of the four wealthiest and handsomest boys in the school - Dao Ming Si, Hua Ze Lei, Xi Men and Mei Zuo.

My struggle with this show is how sick and tired I am getting of Si and Shan Cai constantly being broken up. It's always been one of my biggest pet peeves with the whole Boys Over Flowers series cause like 70% of the whole show is about Shan Cai refusing to accept her feelings and then like the other 25% is about them being broken up due to one misunderstanding or another so only like 5% is with them happily together. I need my relationships with both happiness and angst cause without the happiness why bother with the angst and without the angst the happiness doesn't feel real enough (as I've learned from Why Secretary Kim.) The previous breakups honestly did feel a little silly but this last time really hit me in the feels and was driving me mad cause for once it wasn't Si's fault and I actually cried when he finally broke down in episode 30. He had been holding it in for so long that he needed to let it out. I really don't understand Shan Cai cause she won't spit out what she's thinking! Like we always get her real feelings in an internal monologue but how is Si supposed to know and work to fix a problem if she won't say it and every time he asks she just dances around the subject or straight out lies to him and I'm so over it. I do hope that this time they'll be together for good! Also their most recent kiss in episode 33 was so hot and so unexpected!! I think it's hilarious that she blurted out her love for him in front of everyone but all their friends are so involved in their love lives that I guess it's okay but one of my favorite scenes this week was when Zhuang walked in on them making out on the bed and I died. I was also thrilled with all the screen time Ximen and Xiaoyou got this week cause I hardcore ship them on the side and though Ximen was acting like an asshole to her, I'm pretty sure he's into her too but he's scared of those feelings so he's trying to push her away. I wish the amount of time we had to sit through that annoying Caina stuff had been delegated to these two cause I care so much more about them! Props to Xiaoyou for being confident enough to confess her feelings to him but I felt really horrible for her when she was like I'll sleep with you if that makes you happy cause it broke my heart! I can't wait to see more!

FINISHED Sweet Combat (37/37): As the eldest daughter of the Fang Conglomerate, Fang Yu was raised to become the sole successor of the company, yet she goes against her family's objections to pursue boxing and won the championship title at the young age of 18. On the other hand, Ming Tian comes from a poor family. He once stopped schooling for three years in order to work and he decided to apply for a sports scholarship despite not having any background whatsoever. Fang Yu was one of the first to see his talents and their relationship grows over time.

This show just ended this week and I'm definitely going to miss it! It's been an amazing ride from the start and my only complaint would be that the show ended on such an angsty note. We spent episodes upon episodes with Ming Tian and Fang Yu broken up and that was really sad cause my favorite thing about this show was the fun tone! I loved that Fang Yu's grandfather was actually so evil cause he didn't give one shit about whether or not he was destroying the life of his only granddaughter so I guess props to him for being one of the most evil and probably one of the smartest evil rich guys. Rather than aiming for Ming Tian and knowing that ruining his job will only bring the two closer, he used the fact that Ming Tian's father killed Uncle Ji and even made up lies about it. I did love that Ming Tian got hurt and we got to see Fang Yu freak out and though unfortunately even that wasn't enough to get Fang Yu to forget the past, I was glad that we ended with the truth coming out cause they really were the most adorable couple! I do wish the grandfather had some sort of consequences to his actions and that the ending hadn't felt so rushed to solve the problem. Most of the drama with Aunt Ji happened off screen and that was a bit annoying. Sidebar, did you hear that the two actors are together in real life as well? How precious! On the other hand I was completely won over by Guan Yan and Ya Nan and how completely adorable they were as well. I didn't really care about Xiao Mi and Sun Hao getting together but it was sweet in the end. I really enjoyed watching this show and I'd definitely give it a 9.5 / 10!!

xoxo Allie