*Disclaimer: these are our personal opinions. If you like any of these shows, please don’t take it personally!* 

Amanda’s Least Favorite:

The Liar and His Lover 

The Liar and His Lover is about a high school student who auditions to become a musician. There, she meets a composer who is pretending to be someone else. I felt that everything in this drama was very watered down, the characters lacked in development and personality, and the lead couple was very awkward and lacked chemistry. Not to mention the fact that it was just a lying circle, with a confusing love line. 

Love Alarm 

Love Alarm is an app that allows users to see if their love is near them. Kim Jo-jo is a high school student, and unlike her peers, she doesn’t have the Love Alarm app. She meets Hwang Sun-Oh, whose love alarm rings everywhere he goes, except from his family. He is surprised that his love alarm doesn’t ring when he’s near her, so he tries to make Jo-jo like him. Starting from the first episode, the relationship between the female and male lead was very sudden to me. When they started their relationship, I thought “Really? Out of nowhere?”. There was no build up or interaction between the two that made me believe they were going to be in a potential relationship. They just suddenly had infatuations for each other and it just didn’t make sense to me. Plus, I felt like Hwang Sun-Oh was very narcissistic and selfish especially when his best friend Hye-Yeong tells him that he likes Jo-jo only for Sun-Oh to make a move on Jo-jo that same day.

The King: Eternal Monarch

A king from the Kingdom of Korea finds a pathway to the modern Republic of Korea. He discovers that someone is transferring people between the two worlds to kill their doppelgangers from the other world, and tries to stop it. I found that the transition from when he goes to the past and present was confusing as there was no way of differentiating the different time periods. Plus, there was a lot of back and forth with the time traveling, so it was confusing and not enjoyable for me. 

True Beauty 

After being bullied for her looks, a high school girl learns how to do makeup to transform herself into a “beauty”. While the drama is pretty cliché with it’s classic popular male lead and a love triangle, I wasn’t particularly interested in the male lead whatsoever – his personality was very dry and one dimensional. I much rather preferred the second male lead. I also didn’t like the drama in terms of its aesthetic and directing.

Cheese in a Trap 

Hard-working college student, Hong Seol, works to receive as many scholarships as possible to pay for her college tuition but her senior, Yoo Jung–a popular and rich heir–earns the scholarship instead. One day, Yoo Jung approaches Hong Seol asking her to date him. I found the male lead to be creepy and very boring personality wise. I also had second-lead syndrome and wanted her to end up with the second lead (obviously she did not). 

Jerri’s Least Favorite:

Itaewon Class

After the main character’s father dies under suspicious circumstances, the son vows to get revenge against a chain pub corporation as a competing pub owner. I found the plot extremely messy. The romance between the two leads felt forced and disturbing because of the ten year age gap. 

Start Up

Two sisters are separated when their parents divorce. In an effort to prove to her older sister that she chose the right parent, the main character enters a start-up competition where start-up companies compete for funding and success. I enjoyed the first few episodes but it soon went downhill. It’s full of miscommunication and I felt that the plot fell off track.

Hotel Del Luna

As punishment for the pain she had inflicted on people during her lifetime, the main character is sentenced to managing a ghost hotel for eternity. Her job is to host ghosts that wish to stay on earth for a little longer before going to the afterlife. I had seen great reviews about this show but I personally hated it. It was very boring and I was only slightly interested when flashbacks of the main character’s past were shown.  

Run On

A former track athlete and a movie subtitle translator fall in love. Other than the fact that they fell in love, I could not tell you anything about what happened in this show if asked. It was extremely unmemorable and boring. Even with 2X speed, it took me months to finally finish this show. 

Abyss

The main character is accidentally killed by aliens. As an apology, they revive him and give him an orb called Abyss. Through his revival, his appearance completely changes. He later finds out that Abyss can revive other people when he accidentally revives a serial killer. After being revived, the serial killer kills the main character’s best friend. After the best friend is revived, she and the main character must navigate a world where their faces are no longer recognizable to anyone while also escaping the serial killer who hunts them. The show itself was incredibly repetitive and frustrating because it took the characters way too long to figure things out.