As is usual, I watched a mix of dramas that aired this year, and dramas from past years, because there is ALWAYS something to try and catch up on...even though "catching up" with kdramas is basically an impossible endeavor. Unless of course you are one of those people can manage to watch 100s of dramas per year, which I am not one.
Anyway, here's my shake down on the dramas this past year.
Total dramas watched: 20
Aired in 2020: 10Aired previous to 2020: 10 (1 of them a re-watch)
Five hearts: 9
Four hearts: 6
Three hearts: 5
New-to-me favorite actors that I discovered:
 |
| Kim Jung Hyung |
Kim Jung Hyun
Seo Kang Joon
Lee Jae Wook
Ha Seok Jin
Kim Myungsoo
Kim Bum
Lee Tae Ri
Ryu Jun Yeol
Favorite dramas from 2020
(with blurbs and links to my reviews)
Crash Landing On You 
It's premise is one I've not seen before an any kdrama... which is basically a romance between a South Korean famous/rich lady, and a North Korean soldier. Because, one day, she goes out paragliding, and a storm comes along and blows her off course and she crashes into a tree and gets all tangled up there. Our guy, going on his patrols, happens upon her and gets her down.
Well. Now he has a dilemma. Does he turn her in? or let her go? He decides to let her go of course, and tries to direct her the way to go, on foot, to get back across the line, but she doesn't trust him and goes the opposite way. Wrong choice. She ends up wandering all night, gets lost and then ends up in a nearby village where just when she is about to get caught... he shows up and hides her in his house.
I'll Go to You When the Weather is Fine
It's quite the serious and slow paced drama. A beautiful slow burn romance. And so many funny parts too thanks to the awkwardness of our main dude and also many of the side characters. They are all so cute. His friend has a love story blossom in this drama too that I just loved. And his sister, is an absolute joy, so feisty and spunky!
The title is very symbolic as this drama is bottom line about finding warmth in a cold world. There is a line at one point toward the end that goes something like... your hand is cold, and mind is cold, but when they touch, we both become warm. And one time when our girl is so sad and hugging our guy, she says "It must be nice to be you...to be so warm all the time." Gah!! But yes, the underlying theme...warmth.
It's Okay to Not Be Okay 
Wow, but it's a good one. It's filled with many teary moments, and many out loud laughing moments. The relationship of the brothers is crazy good. The acting of these two actors playing the brothers is crazy good. The music is crazy good. The weaving of dark and twisted fairy tale stories in and among the "real life" stories is crazy good
The King: Eternal Monarch
The story gets very complicated and mind bendy from there, with our characters traveling back and forth, and also having counterparts in both worlds. In other words, all the actors had to play two different roles.... one in each world. How cool is that? But also confusing, yes?
Tale of the NineTailed 
WAH, things get complicated! It's a crazy detailed plot with magic, and horror elements. Lots of comedy and romance too. So much. It has it all.
Twenty Twenty
The story is about a bunch of college kids (first year in college I think?) and they are trying to navigate the waters of growing up... of separating from their parents and becoming their own persons. Our dude is very emo (and yes this fits Wooseok totally!) and he is bugged at his parents for deceiving him when he was younger about their relationship. He trusts them not at all... and he's moved out and living on his own and trying to make a push for getting started in the music business. (LOL) He's friends with a couple of other guys, his sidekicks. Chan plays one of these guys and can I just say... I was BLOWN AWAY by this kid's acting! Who knew he was so good? He's absolutely hilarious! He has the comic timing down perfectly. He was pure joy to watch.
Favorite dramas from before 2020:
Angel's Last Mission: Love 
And I'm sure you can guess what happens. Are angel's allowed to love humans? OF COURSE NOT! But will that stop our cute and adorable angel... OF COURSE NOT!
Guys, this is probably one of the MOST romantic dramas I've seen yet. Or at least in the top of my favorite romantic ones! But EVERYTHING is against these guys. And it's very heart wrenching!
1% of Something
So, we have our rich obnoxious leading dude who is set to inherit his grandfather's wealth...but the grandfather makes a clause in the will that he has to marry this girl, this nice sweet school teacher girl. Now, the reason the grandfather chooses this girl, is that she ended up being the one to save him when he nearly died one day near her school. She has no idea who he is and doesn't know the connection. So she is baffled when she is summoned to be part of this contract.
It's a really cute one! So much fun! So funny and adorably and swoony all over the place! AHH! It's great to counter balance some of the heavy subject ones with these sorts of fluffy ones. I love it.
Clean With Passion for Now 
It's a really cute fun drama and another perfect one for this crazy time. It's silly at times and over-the-top acted, but still, I really had fun watching it. I've never seen this actor dude before, but he was hilarious and really got into the over the topness!
Reply 1988
Anyway, these families are all best friends. The parents AND the kids. The drama has no plot, only we the viewers experiencing life with them. School stress, work stress, health stress, romantic stress and etc. It's all total character based, and I love it. So much. As with the other Reply dramas, these characters have become part of my life and it's going to be weird to let them go and move on!
(with honorable mention to Reply 1994 and Reply 1997)
Did I convince anyone to jump into the world of kdramas this year? If so, let me know what you watched and loved!
Here's to a new year of amazing shows!
