HIRAI MOMO

imo the most consistently mid season so far.

Looking back at the whole season, I think I was entertained enough through all of the scenes except Jeong-Su's. The problem with this is that this season didn't get the peaks that the previous seasons had -- especially from seasons 1 and 2.

There were a lot of things that disappointed me this season. The casting was probably the biggest problem this season, the male cast were particularly bad. The games, the format of going to paradise, and inferno itself sucked. Instead of talking about the bad things this season, I'll list down things that they need to do for the next:

- They should choose the cast more carefully with specific intentions
(types of cast needed):
- The "IT Girl": There's always one in each season. A girl that would get 2-3 men choosing her in the end. This contestant's
background doesn't matter too much.
- A pure and innocent girl: A girl that's similar to Season 1's Shin Ji Yeon.
- A funny and reliable one-woman guy: Someone that would take Season 1's Moon Se Hoon. It would be nice if this guy likes
the pure and innocent girl and gets her in the end. Note that I am not mentioning Season 2's Jong Woo; I don't want an
unimpressive, no aura, cry baby simp in any season ever.
- A smart korean-american girl: someone like Season 2's Nadine please. Someone with an impressive background that
would feel untouchable for mere peasants.
- A darker skinned girl (for korean standards): Someone like Season 4's Jiyeon. They usually don't get much love in the show,
that's why...
- A korean-american guy: an expressive, freedom loving guy that has a preference for darker skinned girls.
- A guy that looks like has a professional job: Someone like Season 2's Youngjae and and Season 4's Dongho.
- A funny mood-maker guy: Someone that lighten ups the mood.
- An entertaining red-flag guy: Someone like Season 3's Gwanhee
- The male game-changer: This is probably the hardest to cast. They need someone like Dex, a person with immense
charisma and impact in the show
- The rest of the girls just need to be pretty and entertaining.
(we need more non-model contestants. this season pretty much had a modeling cast)
- They should bring back the old Inferno. Cooking their own meals together, fetching water, tents, etc.
- Maybe change the season they film. Seems like they film during summer season, it would maybe be refreshing if they filmed during a season where it rained more.
- They should naturally orchestrate scenes that would go viral. Scenes like Season 2's Dex and Seulki's pool scene would be nice if they happened again.
- It's nice that we're getting more funny and light scenes, but we need more tension filled scenes. Dex totally filled season 2 with tension, and we need to get that feeling back; the feeling of holding your breath.
- Make Paradise trips less frequent and harder to earn. This is not Single's Paradise. Make Paradise feel more special, not just another weekend.
- Games need to be more physical and feel more important. A perfect example would be Season 2's mud wrestling.
- It would be refreshing to also have games of luck. Games where only luck matters. This doesn't have to be for a trip to paradise, it can be simple things.
- Wouldn't it be nice if the panel were more involved in the show. Somehow integrate them to the show itself. Maybe they could be counsellors, or maybe they can give special privileges to the contestants. Whatever it is, they could maybe make the show more interesting.

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This drama first showed up on my radar after it was reported that Jung Yong Hwa was the male lead (I'm a fan). After discovering the drama, I didn't know anything about the female lead and also found the synopsis of the drama uninteresting. With all this in mind, I wasn't motivated to watch any dramas at the time; so naturally, I ignored this drama. About a month and a half after this drama started airing, I started looking for something to watch and coincidentally found this drama again. I checked the comments and saw a lot of people saying that the drama was good and was such a hidden gem, so I gave this drama a shot.

Oh boy, the people in the comments couldn't be more right. Sell Your Haunted House is definitely a hidden gem. I literally had no expectations going into this drama, but after watching just a few episodes, I was hooked. I don't normally binge dramas easily, but this drama is an exception.

Let's talk about the strengths of this drama.

The cast - The cast and their chemistry are unrivaled. I don't think any other actors/actresses could've done a better job. I suggest watching behind-the-scenes episodes after watching the drama.

The characters - Oddly enough (and this is rare), I didn't find any of the characters annoying. I felt like every character served a purpose and was not in a way useless.

Comic relief - there were tons of funny scenes, but not too much. What I hate the most in any kind of drama is when there are too many comedic scenes that are way too exaggerated. Most of the time, I drop such dramas because I can't take the story seriously.

The story - The story was quite interesting and was unexpectedly deep. What I thought was just a light story at first turned out to be the opposite. A lot of things were connected and the characters had an appealing backstory.

Any complaints about the drama? Every drama has a flaw or two, and Sell Your Haunted House had a major one. Somewhere near the ending of the drama, there were some anticlimactic twists. I would've preferred something else for the story that would make everything even richer.

Overall, this drama was so enjoyable. I've definitely become a fan of Jang Na Ra. Give this drama a shot, you won't regret it.

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DRAMA OF THE YEAR

Honestly, I wanted to make a slightly in-depth review for this, but I've seen a lot of extremely good reviews posted already; so instead, I'll try to make it short and simple.

I have absolutely no idea why some people are calling this overrated. It was definitely being talked a lot about within the community but outside the MDL community, almost no one knew about this drama. The cast wasn't your typical mainstream household names, so non-avid watchers weren't swarming to watch this drama and join all the hype it was creating. Flower of Evil definitely isn't overrated. I honestly wanted this drama to garner even more attention than initially gained.

This is exactly what I was looking for in a genre like this. I often found myself at the edge of my seat losing my breath as I didn't want to miss a beat in very intense scenes. I kept asking myself "HOW??", "THEY'RE ACTUALLY DOING THIS??", "THE WRITERS DID THIS THIS EARLY??" in the majority of the drama. This drama will keep you second-guessing, and it's what makes this drama so fun; you're never too sure of yourself.

Flower of Evil is a masterpiece. It is definitely a very interesting drama to watch. What more can I say?
Last words: Unexpectedly heartwarming
Everything was somewhat... poetic in a sense

edit: the ending? not so sure about my thoughts about it. I can't wrap my mind to it if there could've been a better one.

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This will really hit you hard. If you've been following Twice for a long time now, or if you at least know what they've accomplished over the years, this can be very emotional. Seeing how they all started with just small dreams of debuting and winning 1st place in a music show, makes you look back on how Twice really started from the bottom and rose to stardom becoming the most successful Korean girl group thus far. They always stayed through to themselves and stayed humble, that's why a big number of people love them for who they are and stuck with them through all their hardships. This is definitely a must-watch for Twice stans, Onces.

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I have to admit, this drama might not be for everyone. As I'm writing this review, I'm having a hard time gathering all my thoughts because this drama is very deep and I wasn't attentive enough to make an in-depth review.

Personally, at first, I wasn't that hooked; I was watching this drama every weekend because of the cast. Eventually, in the second half of the drama, it started becoming really interesting. I was more interested in seeing the 'main story' progress rather than seeing the romance and side plots. And that was something I did wrong. I suggest paying close attention to everything in the story because a lot of it is actually connected to one another.

I was initially a bit disappointed because, after much build-up, a few things I found were a bit anti-climactic. I was hungry for conflicts in the story, not knowing that this drama isn't about day to day problems but how you get through them. It's Okay Not to Be Okay is a drama that is unexpectedly heartwarming. This drama is so heartwarming, you can connect with it at a personal level. The story tackles a lot of different life crises in different perspectives and shows how one can cope up with it and overcome all obstacles with the help of people surrounding you.

I don't know about other people's thoughts, but I didn't like the romance elements at first. Everything else seemed more interesting than the romance, but eventually, I thought that the romance was necessary once a few things were revealed.

Now I'll just list down a few things that overwhelmingly stood out in the drama:

The cast: Wow, just wow! Acting in this drama is on point. I don't even have to explain this. I'm sure at least one of them will win a best acting award at the end-of-the-year film awards.

Life lessons: watching all episodes you'll realize that you can learn a lot from this drama. One thing that was mentioned in the drama that really hit me was "The law of the total number of misfortunes. I heard we all have a set amount of happiness and misfortunes assigned to us. If their lives have been filled with misfortunes up till now, it means only happiness awaits them.".

Seo Ye Ji's Visuals: Okay, so I just wanted to put it out there. Seo Ye Ji is just out of this world beautiful. ( 8/10/2020) I now consider Seo Ye Ji's character, Ko Mun Yeong, the prettiest among all other female leads I've watched.

Sorry about the worthless review. I was just not attentive enough when I started watching this. But all in all, this is a really good drama.

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Prison Playbook is a PERFECT DRAMA! Everything about it is perfect and I can't stress this enough! Let's start with the minor things; the OSTs perfectly suit every moment of this drama, and I guarantee you that you'll add all songs to your playlists. This was probably the funniest drama I've ever watched. There were so many funny scenes in this drama; the writers would squeeze a funny scene every now and then to ease the tension coming from very serious ones. But don't get me wrong, this drama isn't one of the best just because it's funny; this drama is actually perfect because of the seriousness of the whole plot and how it was told and directed. There were no mistakes and I have no complaints regarding how the story was told and how the story was overwhelmingly rich. I'm telling you, EVERY IMPORTANT CHARACTER HAD A BACKSTORY. Everything was just so touching and warm. How can a drama be so heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time??

Honestly, I had my doubts going into this drama, as I didn't find the synopsis interesting. But I decided to give it a shot, and right after watching the first episode I immediately knew that I'll add a new drama to my "favorite dramas list". Seriously, give a shot, for sure you won't regret it. Like I haven't said it enough, THIS DRAMA IS PERFECT! If I were to be overly critical and change one thing.......... just watch it yourself, I'm sure everyone would want to change "that" one thing in this drama.

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I honestly decided to watch this drama just because of Seohyun. I expected not to be impressed, and that's exactly how I felt. For me, the whole drama was consistently good enough though confusing at times. This drama was meant to be binge-watched as some things remain unclear till the end. Watching as things start to unfold you'll clearly see the intentions but to an extent lack proper explanation. There were a number of dialogues and scenes where I desperately wished they could've given some kind of explanation for context; this made the drama look a bit rushed. I loved the overall battle between the protagonists and the antagonists. I could truly feel the battle between them like a very interesting game of tug-of-war. However, I felt like the conclusion to this very long war of attrition was very underwhelming. After such a long build-up for the final battle, everything ended too quickly and easily. The thing that I loved the most is the chemistry of the cast, both as characters and actors/actresses. Almost no one seemed annoying to me and everyone truly had a part to play.

Overall, I'd still say that this drama is 'good'. An interesting story that lacked proper execution I'd say.

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I started watching this drama on a whim; without any expectations at all, besides 'Lee Do Hyun'. After binge-watching the first 10 episodes, I was pleasantly surprised. Think of the American movie '17 Again' but so much better. Unlike the original American counterpart, 18 Again didn't feel too forced when the story progressed.

This drama is the type that will really stir-up your emotions without the need for extreme situations and thrilling suspense. This may sound silly, but if you made the fantasy portion of this drama a normal occurrence, this drama could definitely be one of the most realistic dramas out there. And the realisticness of this drama is definitely its charm; everything is relatable and you can totally feel the emotions and warmth the script and dialogue are trying to portray.

Well, there are some things I didn't particularly like, but these things are purely subjective. First things first, I don't really react well with really cringy and awkward scenes, and 18 Again at the start was not short of them. And probably the only other thing I can pick on, the drama lacked depth. I know that it's like I'm contradicting what I've been saying in this review, but it just feels like something is missing despite the praise I've given this drama; it's just hard to explain. I personally think it could've been better if they added more of a melodrama vibe in order to make the drama a bit heavier.

OST- this deserves its own short paragraph. No kidding, the songs in this drama are bombs!

Overall, this drama is pretty good. Definitely a drama you could watch when you've run out of highly publicized-mainstream dramas.

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The King: Eternal Monarch is a drama made to binge-watch. Trust me when I say this, taking this drama slowly would only do more harm than good. Watching this in a span of 9 weeks kept me in the dark most of the time; not knowing what's happening and how they're happening. Naturally, like other dramas, there are things you wouldn't understand at the start but would eventually understand as episodes pass by, but in this case, a lot of things didn't make sense and the drama would just keep on going as if the viewers understood everything.

This drama deals with parallel universes and anything related to it. Whatever knowledge you have regarding this, forget it; it's much better keeping your mind open on the rules of parallel universes because the whole drama has rules of its own. It would be easier to understand everything if you don't try to overanalyze how things happen.

Now let's talk about why The King: Eternal Monarch was a decent drama despite all the shortcomings:
-The cast is nothing short of amazing. On the surface, just the thought of Lee Min Ho and Kim Go Eun is amazing in itself; they are definitely stars, albeit Woo Do Hwan was personally my favorite in this drama.
-Woo Do Hwan: He deserves all the love in the world. His acting versatility was somewhat showed through this drama and his role itself was just the best.
-The visuals of this drama are amazing! This is to be expected from a high production cost drama.
-There were a lot of nice scenes in this drama and I loved all of them, but the underlying problem comes from the overall combination of all these scenes and how they mesh.

If you were expecting some kind of bubbly, full of heart-fluttering moments kind of drama, this isn't it. The romance was fairly nice, despite the speed of it all, but it isn't the main interest point of this drama. What makes this drama special is its complicated structure, which is parallel universes. It's very interesting but confusing at the same time; a double-edge sword. I rated the rewatch value 10/10 because this is the type of drama where you'd want to watch everything again to catch all the details. As I said, this drama could've been a lot better; if only they managed to write a more cohesive plot. Overall, this drama is interesting, and something new; certainly not the best but would still recommend.

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I haven't been watching any dramas for the last 2 years, but this one might bring me back for good.

I won't be discussing what made this drama good/bad nor will I try to convince you to watch it and ignore the low ratings from other users. I'll be discussing how this drama led me back to loving the genre as a whole.

Just to give a little disclaimer, my ratings encapsulate how dramas in MDL were originally rated; dramas were never review bombed and it felt like every drama except for maybe controversial ones were always rated fairly. I'd like to think that I'm fairly harsh on my ratings and I wouldn't give such a high rating to a drama that didn't deserve it. That being said, does 'Can This Love Be Translated' really sit atop with the heaviest punchers in the drama world -- which is 9.5 in my case. I would say no, but in my books it deserves to be higher than 9.0. I originally debated giving it a 9.0 or a 9.5, but after some thought I decided to give it a 9.5. I usually have certain criteria for rating dramas; to name a few, I put a lot of emphasis on the enjoyability of the drama, how easy/hard was it to watch and finish, and how the drama was able to keep me intrigued throughout the show. In those three, this drama definitely scored higher than a 9.0, and this was confirmed after letting it sit after a few days of completing the drama. The feelings that I felt have lingered throughout my mind, and I found myself being interested in the show's promotions and the cast.

You could say that I've fallen out of love from watching dramas, but watching this one truly made me feel the butterflies I've once felt. Is this drama perfect -- no. Is the story extremely deep and compelling -- no. Is this drama a good watch that deserves the hype and a rewatch in the future -- definitely.

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This is a good movie. Everything seemed realistic and nothing was too over the top. But I have to say, the zombies felt a bit underwhelming, especially comparing it to other Korean zombie films of recent years. The movie itself is more on how to survive and the struggles that come with it. You don't really get much of a storyline outside of this surviving a zombie apocalypse plot. If you've watched EXIT ( Jo Jung Suk and Yoona) before you might find it similar to #Alive.

Nothing much can really be said about the movie as I felt there was nothing complicated about the movie in any aspect. All in all, it was fairly good.

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I initially started watching Live for the sole reason that Lee Kwang Soo is a main character in this drama. Not really expecting much, I started watching and I didn't get hooked right away. I started liking the drama at around episode 4; I couldn't stop watching then.

This drama had me take a roller coaster full of mood swings. Crime scenes would make me all flustered, love-related scenes would make my heart flutter, and all the sad scenes would make me down right cry a bucket of tears. The relationship of all the cops in the patrol division is nothing but lovable. The characters in this drama are complex; you could hate one or more of them by the start of the drama, but you'll most likely be attached to everyone in the patrol division at the end of the drama because of the incredible character and relationship development of everyone.

I rated this drama a 9.5. Along with Live, I rated Healer, Mr. Sunshine, and Scarlet Heart the same. Live isn't as heartbreaking as Scarlet Heart and Mr. Sunshine nor does it have an extremely rich story as Healer with a lot of plot twists but Live has this unique characteristic of reeling you in despite the plot being simple. I guess it's the complexity of everything coming from a simple story that makes this drama so appealing (if that made any sense at all).

Something I realized after watching this drama is that you should trust the rating of the dramas in MLD. I usually hesitate first before watching a drama due to various reasons. I hesitate maybe because the synopsis doesn't appeal to me, or because I subjectively don't like the cast. You should get rid of these standards when choosing a drama to watch. Trust the ratings! If you're still unsure of a drama, read a few reviews then make a final decision. But I guarantee you, most of the time, the ratings won't disappoint!

I'm sorry for the vague review, because this is my first time writing one.

To cut things short, this drama is a must watch! I cant recommend this drama enough.

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This drama was a pleasant surprise. I'm usually up-to-date with upcoming and on-going Korean dramas, but somehow The Uncanny Counter managed to escape my radar upon release. Aside from seeing news about the viewership ratings, I knew nothing about this drama before I started watching. I could even say I avoided this drama for the most part because it looked like some kind of full comedy-action film just judging from the cover on Netflix. But oh boy was I wrong. After watching the first episode I could tell that this drama would be special, I was caught completely off guard as I didn't have a lot of expectations. This drama has a surprisingly deep story and the characters aren't one-dimensional. All the relevant characters had some kind of tearjerking backstory which contributed to some of the tears I shed. The chemistry of the main cast is to die for. There's just no way you won't be attached to the main characters once you finish this drama. The Uncanny Counter is a very exciting drama that makes you want to binge-watch all-day. This drama is filled with funny, sad, and action-packed scenes that will have you craving for more.

Flaws? There probably are a few here and there, but I enjoyed the drama too much to even notice. Overall, this drama is a masterpiece, one of the best dramas released in 2020!

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A very promising start that couldn't hold on until the end.

I'll try to make this my simplest review ever.

This is actually a good show; it's very easy to binge watch and the show itself is very enjoyable. These types of shows can easily reignite your interest in dramas if you haven't felt like watching any.

Things I liked:
- I liked the cast
- Comedic scenes were actually very funny
- Bromance in this drama is topnotch
- The fighting scenes were really good for the most part

Things I didn't like:
- The acting of some people kind of looked awkward. I'm pretty sure there were a few mistakes that were overlooked
- Majority of the series was fine, but towards the end, things started to go south plot-wise
- Maybe because this drama is based on a webtoon, but it kind of felt more like an anime towards the end of the series
- Again, towards the end of the drama, I felt like the writers lost their touch and became ambiguous

If I were incharge of finishing this drama, I would've gone a different route and made things a bit more interesting.

Overall, this is still a good watch and I would still recommend.

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