MaryMeKpop

It’s the end of the year which means that it’s time for an End-of-the-Year review! Unfortunately, my journey with K-dramas has deteriorated over the years and it certainly hasn’t been the same (hence, why I haven’t been posting as much on this blog). But every year, there are still a few gems that are released into the world that are worthy of celebrating and gushing over.

Just like with previous years, my review this year will be split into two parts. This first part will consist of dramas that I was disappointed in, or that I dropped, or that I thought would have been better but unfortunately weren’t. Then the second part of the review will include my honorable mentions and favorite dramas of the year.

So with that being said, buckle up because this post will be a wild (and juicy) one!

50/50 (50% yaaaas, 50% …..)

Tastefully Yours

Oh “Tastefully Yours”.. You were almost a good one. You had so much potential. You started off well and then wandered off and was never able to bounce back. With a fun cast, simple concept and premise, and a good director, ‘Tastefully Yours’ should have been better. And it was at first.. and then it wasn’t.

Even though I had my initial doubts and yellow flag warnings about the first half of the drama, I was able to overlook them and just enjoy the drama for what it was. I didn’t think too much about it because it was still enjoyable and fun and easy to watch. You have your group of characters working together to operate a restaurant.

And then the second half happened with Yeon-joo’s ex-boyfriend coming into the picture which was when things started to unfold negatively. The ex-boyfriend storyline took up way too much time, felt unnecessary and random, and signified that the drama had no idea or clue as to what it wanted to do or what it wanted to be. It felt as if the drama needed to fill up its run time so it decided to go with the ex-boyfriend plot which was a little odd considering that the drama was only 10 episodes long. Just imagine all that the drama could have done with those 3 episodes by focusing on our team or on Beom-woo and Yeon-joo’s relationship. Instead, it went off the rails and did something that it didn’t have to do and shouldn’t have done.

In all honesty, I don’t really think “Tastefully Yours” confidently knew what it wanted to do or be from the beginning but at least we got insight into how our team was formed and we got to watch them work as a team for a bit. This was the better part about the drama. Then the worst part of the drama was in the second half when it dropped everything that it had built up and instead, became a completely unrecognizable drama. I’ll never be able to understand why the drama made the odd decision that it did and why it went in the direction that it did. What I do know though is that this decision was what unfortunately caused the drama its downfall.

Dropped (because it wasn’t hot)

Good Boy

This one hurts to list because I love ensemble dramas and there was so much potential with the plot, premise, and cast members. You have former Olympic medalists transitioning into police officers coming together to take down the group of villains? Sounds great! It had a fun, exciting, and cool premise and could have done so many things with it. Instead, the drama was incredibly redundant and repetitive even from the very beginning and didn’t have a whole lot to offer.

I really wanted to like this one especially because the ending of episode 1 was just so cool and fun to watch. Each of our characters were introduced through the sport that they competed and won medals in so there was this hype and excitement. They each looked so cool doing their own thing. I thought the drama could only get better from there on out. But as I continued to watch each episode, I began to realize that there wasn’t a whole lot going on. Even when I was watching the drama, I started to notice some warning signs and red flags early on but I simply brushed them aside thinking the drama would eventually improve or that things would get better. And unfortunately, they didn’t. In fact, things just got worse and weird. Dong-ju (Park Bo-gum) continued to fight and threaten the main villain, Ju-yeong (Oh Jung-se), in almost every single episode. I was also shocked at how early Ju-yeong’s role was revealed in the drama. Given that the drama was 16 episodes, I thought it was an interesting but odd choice to have him involved so early. However, I thought that maybe the drama set it up that way for a reason and that it was going to do something with Ju-yeong’s character. But the drama didn’t really have a plan with his character or really any of the other characters. I was getting exhausted by how many times Dong-ju would threaten or beat up Ju-yeong only to get reprimanded for it and bailed out by his team only to repeat the cycle and do the same thing again. It was also a little exhausting watching our Olympic Avengers team try to chase after the bad guys and not get any wins. Each episode just felt so repetitive and as if there was nothing new to offer.

Going into the drama, I had high hopes but unfortunately the drama didn’t deliver. There were some cool moments such as the character introductions at the ending of episode 1 as well as the group fight scenes in the first half. But the drama just couldn’t manage to maintain any momentum and they were also a little too ambitious and greedy from the start. The pacing wasn’t the greatest; the characters also felt too one-dimensional for me (I at first enjoyed watching Man-sik as he was the comedic role in the group dynamic but after a while, I was a little disappointed that that was all he was doing. I would have liked to see other sides to him considering that he was the team leader. The drama carved him out to be the funny team leader and that was it). At one point, I thought that I would stop watching the drama weekly and wait until all the episodes dropped to see how things would unfold. However, once I stopped watching the drama, I realized that I had no motivation or energy to pick it back up. Unfortunately, that was the type of drama that “Good Boy” was to me.

Most disappointing (AKA what was that??)

Twelve

Park Hyung-sik as the villain? A drama with Ma Dong-seok as the protagonist teaming up with his team to fight against Park Hyung-sik? I mean, what could go wrong.. Right? Right?

Wrong. Unfortunately, I was wrong. There wasn’t really anything good to say about this drama whether it was the characters or the directing or the story. The casting was the initial reason that I think people tuned into the drama. Heck, it was the reason as to why I decided to check it out. But unfortunately, there was nothing impressive or fun or stylish about the drama. It sort of seemed as if Ma Dong-seok was inspired from his time in “Eternals” so he wanted to create his own version by coming up with “Twelve”. And just like how I felt about “Eternals”, I too was not impressed with this drama. It was underwhelming. The visuals didn’t look all that good or pleasing. The drama wasn’t engaging or promising. The action and fighting scenes looked odd and off and choppy.

I still very much love Park Hyung-sik but I’ll pretend that this drama never happened and that he never participated in this project.

When the Stars Gossip

I’m not going to say too much about this drama since I already provided my thoughts about it back when it aired in the beginning of this year but I’ll just say this: I just know that the director is glad and relieved that he followed up this drama with “Our Unwritten Seoul.” LOL. Hopefully, many people will remember him for the latter rather than the former.

Squid Game 3

Some dramas and shows are better off existing as just one season but with the huge success that this show was, I understood why it went on to have multiple seasons.. but ultimately, it wasn’t needed and the show was better off with just season one.

The Potato Lab

I wanted to like this one. I really did. I like Kang Tae-oh and Lee Sun-bin as actors and I thought it was going to be a cute countryside drama with some romance mixed in there. But there was just something about this drama that couldn’t capture my interest or attention. Perhaps it was the slow pace of the drama. Perhaps it was the lack of interest in the characters. I just couldn’t get myself to care or be invested in anything that was happening in the drama. Even though the drama wasn’t for me, the one thing I will always remember and take away from the drama was the ending of episode 2 when Kang Tae-oh’s character fell asleep on the shoulder of Lee Sun-bin’s character’s as they were riding in the back of the truck together. One of the cutest and most heart-fluttering scenes in a drama this year for me 🙂

Maybe Later??

You and Everything Else

I heard great things about this drama but unfortunately didn’t have the time or energy to get around to watching it at the time when it came out. However, with all the solid reviews and with the talented casting, I’m pretty sure I’ll find the time to getting around to it.. eventually.