sunshine power

Agree, I also have a blast watching this despite dreading to wait for a new episode (I usually binge-watch a complete show). You can't imagine how much I ask my friends to watch this drama as soon as it ended!

tl;dr Good drama, worth your time if you ask me, but pretty overrated

Pros: Woo Young Woo basically carried the whole show.
Cons: Meh season finale, generic plot (court cases with no depth), overused trope with half-baked resolution (abandoned child, workplace bullying, autistic adult romantic lives), and inconsistent/underdeveloped characters (unnecessary relationship that came out of nowhere, discardable characters).

This drama aims too much and ends up very unsatisfying. Again, this is a good drama and I highly recommend you to watch it, but I'm not sure if I was looking at a masterpiece with the way they butchered the drama.

How is this drama rated higher that the movie? The second half of this drama is trash. The movie has an infinitely better cast. Am I missing something?

People gave this a pass because PSJ just annoyed me. Trash drama overall. Garbage plot. Cringe characters.

Another drama with wasted potential. I remember trying so hard to complete this drama just because it provides the best premiere episodes for the airing show at that time. I have no problem with wasting my time on a dragging plot (16 episodes, with the 10 episodes told literally nothing), but I'm not okay with being disappointed by a good drama that went downhill. I warned you as someone who only watched for a non-romance drama, kindly do yourself a favor, just skip this drama.

As a non-romantic kdrama watcher, my experience with this drama is overall positive. This drama provides likable characters with no cringy moments and unnecessary drama. But that aside, every aspect of this movie is bland; the music, the plot, the cinematography. So I mostly agree with some of the comments. It's good and worth watching, but not sure if it's considered the top of this trope.

This is a sequel of an amazing drama. People have been invested a lot of hours to reach at this point. I believe their frustrations are justified. Though so far I'm still enjoying it, makjang is my jam.

I should agree with the others. The match so far has been underwhelming.... I honestly don't expect them to play a good badminton at all, so please increase the match intensity. I remember watching Bae Doo Na in "As One", while the game is not high level, but they somehow can make it very intense.

You're facing a country where its netizen actually sending death threat to a titled chess player just because he exposed the Indonesian player for cheating. I expect nothing less from them. They will do everything for the sake of nationalism.

Noooo, you mistook my comment. In term of Liar Game quality, the appropriate order would be Manga > Jdrama > Kdrama. The reason of why I recommend the Korean version only because you can continue to watch the Japanese version. While if you watch the Japanese version first, there's really no reason to watch the Korean version.

Agree. I know this drama is supposed to be fiction, but please don't drag other country if you try to portray them poorly. In my experience of watching badminton in any level (senior, junior) for 20 years, I've never witness any Korean players got boo-ed by Indonesian supporter for winning, even to those players who notorious with bad attitude (ex: Choi/Seo).

Great article! If I may nitpick, I don't think I will depict Money Game as SoL, but the drama definitely has solid cast. As other mentioned, I'll definitely put Dear My Friends, Misaeng, and probably Amanza (very underrated) to this list.

Oof, only one vote for Namgoong Min? I'm surprised. He's been solid in most of his drama.

Finger crossed for SJH in this drama. I love her so much to the point that I watched every dramas and movies she's been involved, even those with horrible sub. Sadly, I mostly hate all of them. I found she's to awkward for a romcom. Sometimes her character is unlikeable, sometimes the plot is too cliché. But she did good in her non-romance movie, such as Intruder and Unstoppable. Hence really hope this drama didn't really focus on the romance. I expect this drama to deliver the same vibe as Mystic Pop-Up Bar or Sell Your Haunted House.

Based on your list, I can see that you enjoy drama that involved squad (2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) and FL-ML relationship with very little to no romance (3, 10, 11). I also love both. So based on those category, I will recommend the following:
- The Guest: Trio with unique trait (psychic, exorcist, police that doesn't believe in ghost) worked together to defeat powerful demon. Positive: Dynamic relationship, good pace. Negative: Can be interpreted as an open ending.
- Mystic Pop-Up Bar: Trio with unique trait (two underworld being, one individual with unique ability) help people by entering their dreams. Positive: Good amount of family-friendship-romance aspect, good cast, good twist. Negative: Can be predictable.
- The Uncanny Counter: Quartet with superpower (unique power up, read memories, super strength, heal) worked together to defeat evil spirits. Positive: Good amount of family-friendship-romance aspect, heartwarming. Negative: Can be shorter.
- Signal: Policeman helped other policeman from 15 years ago through walkie talkie to solve current cold cases. Positive: Excellent partnership between police in the present and past, no dumb cast. Negative: Need season 2.
- Life on Mars: Man involved in accident, travel back to the past to solve cases. Positive: Excellent partnership, good cinematography. Negative: Open ending.
- 365: Repeat the Year: Group of people invited by an organization to go back to the past, one by one dying. Positive: Good partnership between remaining survivor, good pacing. Negative: Sci-fi aspect can be too much.
- Liar Game: FL that can't lie and ML as swindler participate together in game show that require lying. Positive: Good mind game. Negative: Stray from manga or japanese version, unfortunately with inferior plot.
- Queen of Mystery (S1 good, S2 bad): Smart housewives help policeman solve cases. Positive: Badass FL because everyone always underestimate her ability and she proved them wrong. Negative: Love-hate relationship for FL.
- Okusama wa, Tori Atsukai Chui: FL as wanted unknown criminal and ML as secret agent, married and hid their identity from each other. The FL become faithful housewives, help other housewives from their abusive husband. Positive: Badass and good fighting scene from FL. Negative: Can be preachy.

Thank you for the article. IMO, I don't think Move to Heaven and Class of Lies belong to this list. I believe their viewership and MDL rating are doing fine. I never heard Flower Crew and Imitation, so I will definitely check that out. A Piece Of Your Mind is definitely underrated. But I can imagine that it's definitely not a drama for everybody. The pace will bore most of the viewers. There's also unrealistic issues for the AI.

After reading general consensus regarding the choice to produce the season 3.... Apparently I'm the minority in that matter. Sorry for the nonsense wall of text I spewed that might be unpleasing for most fans of this drama (though I also huge fan of the drama, but not the idea of season 3).

I somehow hate this season. They without a doubt can easily conclude the drama this season. But no, they choose to milk the drama as hard as they can while the ratings are mind bogglingly high. But the main reasons for why I hate this season are, for the sake to set up the third season, they did the following in literally the LAST episode: (1) they scrap the character development of some characters that was built nicely in the ENTIRE season, (2) they add a cuckoo plot twist, and (3) they introduce unnecessary characters. It's an absurd way to say "ooops sorry we need season 3 so let us destroy almost everything we build this season in last episode". I really hope the wrapped up the drama in season 3 for good. Not because the series is bad, but because the director clearly choose the cheap way to extend the drama. Literally almost every drama in existence can be extended by using the three monstrosity I've mentioned earlier. The cast carry the show, but the plot.... horrendous.

My only issue with this drama is weak backstory (or at least the portrayal of "certain" event), which is a huge deal for the drama. Other than that, every thing is okay. I mean it's only special episode.

This low? What's wrong with people. For me, this is the best horror I've seen for at least the last decade.