For starters,

 I do feel like 2018's dramas are mostly dry and lived on from the hype of the actors in it.

This OR I was just really stressed out over things for school that I found most kdramas dry? [I feel like it's the latter]

However, I do feel like this year's dramas has a more melodramatic plot and for someone who was in a spiral of her own melodrama, I didn't need it. And most of them, I just dropped them after episode 5 or so.

I was prone to go watch lighthearted ones.

So, bear with me, I feel like I started a lot of dramas but weren't able to finish them because I was not interested or just don't have the patience to watch it.

[This list is scattered unless for the last two.

These are all the dramas I remember watching.]

1. Welcome to Waikiki 

This is the FIRST kdrama I watched in 2018 and I LOVE it.

It's just a great show to watch when you get back home from school or work to just laugh.

I still remember in episode 1 when three of them went to a grocery store to buy milk and made a speech on their broke-ness I laughed SO HARD.

Dude, I'm not the biggest fan of comedy in a drama but Waikiki WORKS. The slapstick comedy is stupid but hilarious. All the actors ARE WONDERFUL in their roles.

And relatable? Despite it slapstick comedy it's just so close to most of our hearts about the struggles to have a job and money to live a society where everything goes so fast that your biggest fear is not to be able to catch up.

2. Switch: Change The World

The main reason why I started this: 

I haven't see Jang Geun Suk in a drama for YEARSSSS and I missed him.

I did watch this and I felt so agitated waiting for the new episodes.

All of the characters are grey and have their own needs to achieve something and they dared cross the line between right and wrong.

If you like crime drama-centric on gangsterism, worth the watch.

3. What's Wrong with Secretary Kim

This drama is like HELLA big this year.

It's fun and funny and the romance is technically a slow burn.

I have one petty problem though: I read the webtoon and Park Seo Joon looks so boyish compared to the webtoon design of his character and I had trouble enjoying it.

The main girl looks EXACTLY like her counterpart in webtoon.

That's it, a petty reason.

Overall a fun drama, a forgettable one yes, but a fun drama nonetheless.

[Gosh, I sound so mean...]

4. Lovely Horribly

The ONLY reason why I watched this is that the main character is a writer and I have a soft spot of drama that has this type of character.

And the ONLY reason I went through all episode because I was into deep to stop.

A drama I realized that Highlight's Gi Kwang is kinda cute.

A drama has a lot of plot holes but still fun because it's spooky.

Watch for Ji Hyo.

And the OST, Bumkey still the best!!

5. Misty

I watch this out of boredom and didn't expect anything but I was HOOKED.

It's so melodramatic and you gotta hate the main woman but then... oh....tHAT happened?? Wow...

[But I still don't condone cheating]

Quite a lot of topic of sexism in the workplace and mainly about the couple's marriage that is falling apart.

This drama has strong writing I'll give that.

6. Mr. House Helper

aaaHHHHH I feel REFRESH after an episode.

Offended me with 'Your house reflects your state of mind' because true.

This drama is more to Slice of Life than any other genre.

I like the main guy and the way he handles people and became friends to his clients.

And HE GIVES TIPS ON HOUSE CLEANING!!! [I appreciate]

I like him and the second girl lead cause...the main girl... is okay?

Watch for the lighthearted moments.

7. Life

When they cast Lee Dong Wok and Cho Seung Woo together my head went '!!!!!!!!'

And they're enemies in this drama??!!!

This is not a romance but more to 'reality going to choke you with facts' drama.

It shows that every institution in the world is in fact, business and profit first.

Even when you're an established, talented doctor don't have the power to stop them.

Watching this knowing this fact scared me.

8. Life on Mars

This is based on a British TV show about a cop who goes back in time

I watched a few episodes of the British one and the Korean version is more emotional and I feel like I prefer the Korean one more.

I believe that Jo Kyung Ho is one of the most UNDERRATED Korean actors out there. He's talented and I like the way he acts in shows.

This drama is good too I feel bad for his character.

And the number of PRETTY JACKETS the main guy wear? Whew!

9. The Undatables

I LOVE Nam Goong Min and Hwan Jung Eun individually because they're so funny [so funny] and we got a drama that they're together and my mind. MY MIND!

A lighthearted drama of course and the romance are more adult and quick.

But Nam Goong Min's character is not as funny as Dan Tae and my hopes were high and kinda disappointed but oh well.

Still, a funny kdrama to watch.

10. 100 Days with My Prince

This is a drama you watch just because.

The plot is nothing special but D.O is an exceptional actor and I feel like most of the time I enjoyed it because of him and the main girl.

Also, FLUFF relationship honestly we here to stan.

11. My Husband Mr. Oh

The plot is not special either but to cast a comedian as the second lead and you enjoyed his character is wholesome af.

I watched in until the end because I was into deep to stop lmao.

12. Time

Tragedy. Melodrama. People dying.

Hell, this drama is dramatic as drama could be but I can't stop watching it. It was written like a Shakespearian play.

The actors are doing a great job. I can't believe the dude is the same dude in Waikiki.

13. The Ghost Detective

Daniel Choi, we missed you.

It was the spooky season, of course, I watched this.

The first 2 episodes ARE STRONG AF. There were spooky, interesting and shocking.

But then... it went a little bit downhill?

Suddenly, the main girl kept on fainting when she in the two episodes looks strong.

Most of the time I was just confused.

But I stayed for the plot and the mystery and that red DRESSED BITC-

Anyways, a great drama to watch if you want to watch a supernatural drama but is kinda afraid, it's not that scary after a few secrets revealed.

14. Children of Nobody.



I genuinely forgot about this drama sjdjddfjffjdjjs

I didn't watch it until episode 7 aired cause the summary provided is weird.
But, as a person who loves police drama with a hint of psychological, I gave it a try and I LIKE IT!

The drama centers around child abuse and a child psychologist who are also maybe? was a survivor of abuse.

It's super interesting and makes you think of theories and stuff.
It still airs too!

And Vixx's Hakyeon is in here!!

15. Mr. Sunshine

Look. 
This was written by the person who wrote Goblin and the same director who directed Goblin OF FUCKING COURSE I WAS GOING TO WATCH IT.

I agreed that a lot of us are not a fan of historical dramas especially it's historical in the sense that this has happened back then.

And I too, have issues on the age gap. But I gave a benefit of a doubt because I waited for this drama since it announced and the actors are ALL credible and acted in movies I had hopes okay.

I feel like you have to have some knowledge on the US occupation in Joseon to further understand.

It is a VERY good drama and has very strong and careful writing.

This is a drama you don't watch for fun cause you gonna get bored.

This is a drama you watch BECAUSE you want to learn and enjoy good writing.

Also, Park Hyo Shin sang the OST. 

16. Return

This is the drama that the villains did so much shit to cover their wrongdoings and then they did another stupid shit and you just like "SIT DOWN!"

This drama is GREAT. There so much discussion after an episode ended. I'm in love with Shin Sung Rok now. This is a drama you love hating the rich men whom somehow you know are not the killer but like "fuck them!" 

Kinda disappointing to changed the main lead in the middle of the series because an issue happened and poor her.

A great show to watch!

Random not this year's dramas:

I know this one comes out 2 years ago but;

17. Age of Youth

Screw it okay! THIS IS SO GOOD.

I wished we have more kdrama centers around college kids like wHAT SHOULD I SACRIFICE TO HAVE ONE??!!

Great, SO GREAT. I didn't sleep and marathoned ALL THE EPISODES.

Senior Jin Myung and Jae Hwan HAVE MY HEART!!

My favorite couple in the drama T___T

This one comes out three years ago but!

18. Missing Noir M

ITS SO GOOD AND IM SO PISSED NO KNOWING IT EARLIER IN LIFE.

It's a well know underrated Kdrama and I jUST YES

Great detective drama and amazing plot and it have like 10 episodes I'm so sad.

I don't have any favorite dramas this year, I was pretty off. But I have two dramas that I do enjoy most this year.

19. Feel Good To Die

I read the webtoon [Happy if You Died] out of boredom and it is SO FUNNY.

Then I found out that it would turn into a drama and I'm like YESSS LORD

The webtoon is more to the relationship and funny moments, rarely a serious issue goes up and the main lead is in his 50 and the girl in her mid-twenties and there is no romance. Like it ended in the way a lot of readers aren't sad nor happy?

The kdrama too, there rarely a romance scene [unless with the male second lead] and I can't believe I say this. This a great adaptation.

It surprised me. To adapt a famous webtoon and changed the story to suit a drama but STILL have the integrity to respect the original story is fascinating.

The kdrama focuses a lot of office drama and character developments. Baek Jin Sang, the male lead, wooo you gonna want to strangle him so bad like in the webtoon. He's such a J-E-RK and then you see him grow and you care for this man.

This is basically a drama about a middle-aged man who keeps dying because he refuses to be nice.

Great drama about work life. STRONG WRITING.

10/10 would recommend.

20. The Guest

The Son, The Father, and the Holy Spirit.

My Coffee Prince waiters T___T

I was scared. At one point I screamed. At one point I cursed like a sailor.

I find it super fascinating how the show entangled Korean Shamanism and Catholicism together WITH a ghost/spirit that was deep into the Chinese culture.

Like WHAT?!

We get an exciting show by this.

I love how everyone who watches this show is able to come out with many theories and how we all want all three of them TO BE AT PEACE!

All three of them went through a lot when they were kids and I'm just- I WANT TO FIGHT THAT FUCKING SPIRIT!!

LET THEM BE AT PEACE!!

I feel no supernatural/horror Kdrama will TOP this in the short run.

gUYS, people were really scared to watch this when it aired cause it aired at 11 PM.

Even I watched the episodes in the morning.

A great show.

Episode 2 is my FAVOURITE. The exorcism part aHHHHH.

Watch it. Do it for Father Mateo.

I think these are enough.

I didn't enjoy a lot of shows this year honestly. A lot of them I watched this out of boredom and forgets about them. A lot of it because I was super busy and I decided to read books instead.

Adios for this year's Kdramas

- Amni

*In Michael Buble's voice*

It's the most wonderful time of the year....

FOR MY KOREAN DRAMAS OF 2017! (and my top three)

Not gonna lie though, I didn't watch that much dramas this year.

I was so overly criticized dramas this year that if I didn't enjoy the first three episode:
 I just stopped watching it.

You know the term 'book hangover' where you can't read any book because you finished a really good and cannot move on?

Apparently, there's this thing called 'drama hangover'.
Where you can't enjoy any drama after that ONE drama you loved and will die for it.

Which was a drama that obviously made in the list;

1. Goblin.

It's technically a 2016/2017 drama so I'll put it here.

I love goblin, so much.

Too much that I keep being so critical about other dramas, its actually not healthy.

2. The Liar and His Lover



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I watched the Japanese movie first out of boredom so I can say this;
The Korean drama version is less angsty.

And I need more ANGST!

I found the show (both the Japanese and the Korean) uncomfortable because of the age gap (I know its legal in these countries but it was still...weird to watch it, especially the Japanese one. I can tolerate the Korean version a little bit).

Still a good show though, extra points if you love music and musical. So, the deep meanings will come into your soul.

3. Strong Woman Do Bong Soo

This show is lowkey overrated the more I realized it, but it such a good drama to rewatch, so that's a point.

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Do Bong-soon was born with superhuman strength. Her strength is hereditary and passed along only to the women in her family. Her dream is to create a video game with herself as the main character. She desperately wants to become a willowy and elegant woman, which is the ideal type of her crush, In Gukdoo, a police officer. 

Thanks to her strength, she gets the job of a bodyguard, to a rich heir Ahn Min-hyuk, the CEO of a gaming company, Ainsoft. Contrary to Guk-doo, Min-hyuk is an odd man who is playful, a little spoiled, has no regard for rules, and dislikes policemen. He has recently received anonymous threats, blackmails, and has even been stalked at an occasion.

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Kinda watched this out of curiosity despite my lack of interest on the plot.

Because the plot is ridiculous and like the rich guy thing is sooooooooooo overplayed.

I watch this show religiously because of the crime in it which was showed since episode one okay, episode ONE!!!

Despite all the cutesy and very adorable characters,

I was left disappointed about the criminology behind the antagonist of this show.

Anyways, it's still a great drama to watch with your friends :D
And thanks to this drama, I actually had a lot a fun watching with friends.

4. School 2017



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Ra Eun-ho, a cheerful and kind-hearted 18-year-old who dreams of being a webtoon artist but is caught up in the search for a mysterious troublemaker in the school, known as 'Student X'. When she is accused of being Student X, her dream of going to university to study art is put at risk as she faces expulsion.
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Is it me or there were a lot of crime related dramas this year?

I do enjoy it but I don't know, it a pretty okay school drama. I personally still love the 2013's one and I feel none of the new School series will beat the 2013's one.

5. Twentieth Century Boy and Girl




I watched this out of boredom okay, and it was pretty exciting.
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Depicts the love and friendship of three 35-year-old single women.
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I love dramas about friendship and even better when they all grow up and still friends. It warms my cold, cold heart.

I APPRECIATE a male lead who is soft and not arrogant. Which was surprisingly made me enjoyed Twentieth Century more. And their conversations are straight up funny.






6. Voice.



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Moo Jin-hyuk is a "mad dog" detective who becomes guilt-ridden after his wife was murdered while he was at work. Kang Kwon-joo  is a tough policewoman who is gifted with perfect psycho-acoustics skills. And went for voice profiling. She was working at the call center when a brutal murder case took place and in the process of investigating her father was killed. Three years later, Jin-hyuk and Kwon-joo team up as the "Golden Time team" and solve cases together, chasing after the serial killer who took their loved ones.

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Maybe I watched a better performance from Jang Hyuk and maybe I watched Marry Me Mary and I KNEW who owned the smile that they showed in the first episode already so I was basically spoiled myself because I already knew the villain of the show.

So, Voice did threw me off a bit hahahahahYAAKUBENGAPhahahahahahaha

Also the thing in which the every episode ends with a cliff hanger....you can wrap it up in one episode..... I don't understand...

Still, if you're a newbie in kdrama, Voice is a good one to start.





7. Fight for my Way



Funny. Sad af too. Realistic and Relatable.
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I don't know what's up with me being so soft watching kdramas about struggling youth, I feel it in such a personal level it's weird. I know this show is funny, but prepare tissues.

Tissues. A lot of them.

8. Man to Man



I can't believe I waited for this show since it was announced on October of 2016.
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A longtime celebrity Yeo Woon-gwang suddenly has a need for a bodyguard and hires Kim Seol-woo , a man trained in special investigations and a mysterious man of many talents. In reality, Seol-woo is a NIS black cops agent who has his own agenda and the role of bodyguard is only a cover to achieve his goals.

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Not gonna say I'm happy with it. They promised us BROMANCE but what we got in return?!
The main girl threw me off a bit (I want to like her but I can't like her? She's kinda annoying?) yet the male leads though.
THE MALE LEADS THOUGH.

Funny. OST GEMPAK.






9. Prison Playbook




I WATCHED THIS RECENTLY AND IT SO GOOOOOOOD

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About people in prison walls
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Literally every episode plays like a Korean Movie (if you watch crime related Kmovies, you know what I'm talking about).

Kodus for the main character for being witty and smart. I deserved smart main leads after torturing myself with God's lucky idiots.

This is still ongoing and its basically one of the highest rated kdrama out there right now.

GO WATCH IT!!!!







12. Go Back Couple



Kdramas and their time travel theme.

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Choi Ban-Do and Ma Jin-Joo are both 38-years-old and a married couple. Choi Ban-Do has been burdened with being the breadwinner and Ma Jin-Joo is a housewife with low self-esteem. Even though they loved each other when they married, they now hate each other. They both regret marrying at such a young age. The couple travel through time and find themselves as 20-year-old university students, when they met for the first time.

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I love Jang Nara and the main guy also, I truly ship them eventhough a lot of people like the second lead. AND THIS DRAMA ONLY HAS 12 EPISODES?!

I AM MAD.
I found out when I was in episode 11 :)))))

I started crying 20 minutes into episode one, so PREPARE TISSUES!!





13. Witch's Court



CRIME DRAMA IS LOVE.
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A materialistic female prosecutor, who does not hesitate to use personal attacks, fabricate evidence, and incite perjury in order to win her case, is assigned to lead the special task force for sexual assault crimes.

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Trigger Warning.

Really good show and also one of a few dramas that talks about rape case on men. Excellent writing. The main girl will put you off for the first half of the first episode but seriously, continue watch it. She is the literal version of 'Ride or Die'.

It is really worth it.





OKAY, 
MY
TOP 
THREE
KDRAMAS OF 2017!!!

3...2....1




3. Tunnel



You think that I will get tired of time travel drama? You're wrong!!!
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In 1986, Detective Park Gwang-Ho desperately tries to catch a serial killer. He chases after the serial killer and goes through a tunnel. On the other side of the tunnel, Detective Park Gwang-Ho finds himself in the year 2017. The serial killer has resumed the killings that began 30 years ago. Detective Park Gwang-Ho works with Detective Kim Sun-Jae  and Professor of Criminal Psychology Shin Jae-Yi to catch the killer.

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I noticed that S.Korea loves to do a time travel theme drama....and not most of them are great?

Like they made this time travel thing as a hUGE thing and when the plot moves, the theme suddenly vanished (eg. Marry Me if You Dare. Goooooosh so MANY potential)

Yet, Tunnel used the time travel theme so simply and somehow very effectively.
It made you second guess things, like who's the villain?? what?? hIM? HER? HAH?

Also, the case is loosely base from one of the well-known South Korea's cold cases.

C R I M I N O L O G Y.
I would like to thank GOD.
(My nerdass knew the villian in episode 6 cause I am a paranoid motherfucker)






2. Secret Forest




Reason why I watched this:
BAE DONNA!!!
(Cloud Atlas might be a shit movie, she was still amazing in it!!!)

Reason why I watch it until the end despite I personally dislike a show that focuses around one case:
Shi-Mok and Yeo Jin crime fighting partnership.

THIS. IS. GOOD.
Every single episode ends with a twist until you can't trust anyone anymore.

The bad guys become the nice guys, the nice guys become the bad guys. The circle continues that you can only trust Shi-Mok.

I finally can say that I truly enjoyed a law drama :D

And Seo Dong Jae....tHAT BITCH!!!!





And finally,

I think everyone knows my favourtite kdrama of 2017 is;


BECAUSE THIS IS MY FIRST LIFE



When this show was announced, I was so stoke.
Because I have waited for Lee Minki to come back to dramaland for so long.

It is the drama that basically talks about youth and our thinking on marriages, the economy, our jobs and buying a house.

I was like: "SIGN ME UP!"

And I watched it, and it became my favourite drama of 2017, and will be put in my list of my favourite drama of all times.

There no drama, in my life of watching too much dramas, made me think twice about life, relationships, and dreams other than this drama.

I'm so happy that the male lead (Nam See Hee) is not a rich or arrogant man, he just a simple, kind, introverted man who have loans to pay.
 (It's 2017, finally a male lead who is not a cheabol or rich or have a big house and actually have loans to pay, wooooow!!!)

And Jiho, who is not your typical girl lead, which are usually extroverted and would beat the male lead. Jiho is an introverted writer and also a very strong character by her own right. She ain't weak that's for sure.

To the writer of this drama:
*claps hand to you QUEEN*

Every episode are quotable and every point this show made would be a great debating session. It is truly a great drama, all actors are great, and the OST (no 4 and 8) liSTEN!!!




I think that's all.

I'm honestly really tired and lacked of sleep.


-Adios and watch them!!!



- Amni