I used to keep track of all the dorama and kdramas I watched in the past, but the website where I had the (hundreds??), of titles recorded was closed down and I didn't even notice until recently. But boy, I've watched a few in the past ten or so years.

Just last year I watched 31 kdramas. That's THIRTY ONE. And only because I started around April, since I was super busy in the first quarter of the year (back when, you know, we actually went to places and saw people).

Thus, one of my survival methods last year was to watch one kdrama after the next. I didn't really have the attention span for reading, and while I wasn't writing I just needed to shut my brain off.

Thank you, kdramas!!!! Your contribution to my mental stability was, and is, so appreciated. Keep it up :)

So, here's the tea. The 31 were only the kdramas I started and finished. I also started a handful others that I ended up DNFing for one reason or another. And as much as I would love to give an extensive review of all 31, I'm afraid my bird brain doesn't remember all the details of each one already, LOL.

That's why I'll give you three types of review in this post. 1) The abridged reviews, quick notes I jotted down after I finished each one. 2) The DNFs and why. 3) The more detailed reviews for notable kdramas (both good and bad).

Warning: I have A LOT of unpopular opinions. Check your visceral reactions at the door.

Let's go!

1) The Abridged Reviews:

These are the 31 kdramas in the order I watched them. You can see I went through periods where I was bingeing on the dramas from certain actors, LOL!! I have no chill.

Crash Landing on You: AMAZING

The K2: AMAZING

Healer: AMAZING although the first two episodes were kinda meh

Suspicious Partner: cute

Melting Me Softly: just okay compared to the previous three

Weight Lifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo: LOVED

What's Wrong with Secretary Kim: LOVEDDDDDD ooooh myyyy

Itaewon Class: LOVED, including the final ship!

It's Okay Not to Be Okay: it's okay to just be okay

She Was Pretty: so-so

My ID is Gangnam Beauty: liked it a lot for what it was

Goblin: trashcan fire

Touch Your Heart: cuuuute, the AU I needed after Goblin's mess

Hwarang: liked it

The Moon Embracing the Sun: so-so, why is this so popular??

100 Days My Prince: LOVEDDDDDDDD

Gunman of Joseon: waste of time

Love in the Moonlight: too messy, what is a plot??

My Sassy Girl: cute, really liked it

Record of Youth: okay, the ending was kinda meh

My Strange Hero: cuuute

Fight for My Way: LOVEDDDDDD

You're All Surrounded: really enjoyed it

Blood: so-so

Extra-Ordinary You: LOVEDDDDD

Tale of the Nine-Tailed: BEST KDRAMA OF 2020

Start-Up: LOVEDDD IT I don't care what the shippers say

Tale of Nok Du: cute but the final episodes were a letdown

Search: surprisingly liked it

Dodosolsollalasol: what the hell

A Witch's Romance: really enjoyed it

2) The DNFs:

W: Lee Jong Suk is one of my top three actors and I've watched almost all his dramas, but what the heck was this? His character was an unredeemable jerk and there was no plot, except for the artificial tension in each episode that led to the male character acting like more and more of an asshole. I got to like halfway through the drama until I realized I was spending my time pissed off and that wasn't the point. I really wanted to love this, but the concept was so badly executed. Thank goodness for Extra-Ordinary You.

Dr. Romantic: I watched the first couple of episodes and couldn't deal with the whiplash of how quick everything happened, with no emotional connections between the characters, and no logical sequence of events for the viewers. Bye.

Memorist: After watching a drama with Yoo Seung Ho and liking it, I figured I'd check this out. But what the fuck? This was so disturbing and messed up. Hard fucking pass.

3) The Notable Kdramas:

Favorite Ji Chang Wook Drama: Healer

I actually hadn't watched any of JCW's dramas until last year and at a friend's recommendation, I gave his dramas a try. I started with The K2 and LOVED IT and it was really hard for me to choose a favorite, but I think I'll go with Healer.

Despite the really rocky start of the first two episodes, where nothing made sense and the cinematography was clunky, the drama quickly evolves for the better. It has amazing action scenes, lots of drama and swoony romance. The chemistry between JCW and Park Min Young is off the charts and JCW in this role is a killer who healed my heart (ha!).

Favorite Park Seo Joon Drama: What's Wrong with Secretary Kim

PSJ is the other actor whose works I binged pretty intensively in 2020 and I loved a lot of them, especially Fight for My Way and this one. In the end, I'm choosing WWWSK (even despite all the whew fan service in FFMW), because it was just so...

ADORABLE!!!!

Like, his character starts out as a bit of a jerk but has a really good development and turned into a total dreamboat. This one had Park Min Young opposite PSJ, and she was amazing too. Her character was no pushover and I rooted for her so hard throughout the drama.

Plus, they had so many sweet and adorable scenes—ugh, my heart. I may rewatch it when I feel down.

Favorite Historical Kdrama: 100 Days My Prince

Freaking. Loved. It.

The cinematography was just gorgeous. Every shot had purpose and was so pleasing to the eye. The entire cast was on point and there were so many endearing characters (the female lead's best friend and her dummy husband have my heart).

It had a ton of tropes I feel were handled really well, making for an entertaining drama with a good balance between tension and release. Do Kyung Soo was amazing in his role (his voice is so beautiful wtf), and had great chemistry with Nam Ji Hyun. Both characters kicked ass and while I would've preferred a more finite and happier ending, I really, totally enjoyed the whole romp.

Most Controversial Kdrama of 2020: Start-Up

HAHAHAHA!!!

I waited until this was finished to binge it because I have the patience of a gnat, but while the drama was airing there were so many explosive reactions everywhere. People's feelings were so. freaking. loud.

And all because of the love triangle.

The reason I loved this drama is because *I* didn't pick a side. I let Bae Suzy's character, Dal Mi, do that. Then I sat and watched the reasoning behind that as the drama developed and whaddaya know, I agreed with her.

MASSIVE FREAKING SPOILER, RUN IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THIS DRAMA YET:

.

.

.

Dal Mi chooses Nam Hoo Hyuk's character, Do San. And not everybody's fave, Kim Seon Ho's character, Ji Pyeong.

I get it, the whole first episode (and a good chunk of the second one), was about Ji Pyeong and it led people to think he was the male lead. The writers probably did that on purpose. But if you evaluate that episode and most of his scenes again you'll find his arc was related to Dal Mi's haelmoni, and not to Dal Mi.

As the drama picks up when the characters are older in the present time, there's a huge power difference between Ji Pyeong and Dal Mi that Ji Pyeong thinks is a good thing. He thinks he can sweep Dal Mi's hard work aside and fix her problems with his money and connections, and she'll be happy. Not to mention he's been lying to her, technically for years. Meanwhile, homeboy has so many emotional issues to work out and he really needs to do that outside of a romantic relationship. That's why his development is linked to haelmoni, the only person in his life to give him an example of what love really is. He ain't ready to give it to others yet.

And then there's Do San. Homeboy gets caught up in Ji Pyeong's lie, but it's actually not what would've led him to meeting Dal Mi anyway (it's a tossup between the flower petal, LOL, and the baseball). His biggest drawback is this lie and it's what gives us the real tension in the drama with Dal Mi. But he shows up for Dal Mi continuously, using everything he has to lift her up (his body, his brain—heck, his heart). Do San has nothing but himself and in that, he's equal to Dal Mi. They're both young, poor and finding their way in the world together. Do San is a soft boy, vulnerable and hurting from unresolved issues he eventually works to resolve with his own means, facing his fears.

When we talk about wanting realistic, emotional male leads in media who aren't victims of toxic masculinity, Do San is an amazing representative character. Don't get me wrong, I really liked Ji Pyeong's character too, but for most of the drama he's emotionally stunted, continuously acting like a villain and not showing any willingness to grow up emotionally until the other characters make that choice mandatory for him. Nah, bruh.

You know who is another amazing, non-toxic masculinity male character? Chul San. I'd honestly watch a whole drama with that character also portrayed by Yoo Soo Bin.

Least Favorite Drama: Goblin

Maybe even more controversial than my opinion about Start-Up, is my opinion about Goblin.

This is one of the worst kdramas I've watched. A total trashcan fire.

It might be because people hyped it up so much since it stars Gong Yoo but it was so, so, spectacularly bad.

First of all, the age gap was disgusting. Unconscionable. I'm not talking about the hundreds-of-years-old mythical creature versus a regular human. I'm talking about how they made this mythical creature to be a guy in his late thirties or early forties, versus a HIGH SCHOOL human girl.

Would it really have been so hard to set this drama of a Goblin and his fated bride when the bride was a legal adult?

And then there was the fact that this had no plot. It pretended to have one, but it was a sequence of cool supernatural scenes one after the other. The tension is supposed to come from a mystical threat to the bride's life that the Goblin fixes easily, without losing anything, every single time. Then the fated villain who screwed the Goblin over hundreds of years ago appears somewhere in the middle of the drama, and is dispatched in like two episodes. After that, the drama wants us to think the Goblin and his bride have to be separated forever because UWU...

Only to reunite them with a deus ex machina plot device? (But again, what plot???) And then it gives us some sort of slice of life that ends tragically, and THEN it sends us to the future again where the bride is reincarnated and the Goblin finds her, and she's again a high school girl????????

Fuck no.

The only reason I watched this whole turd on a stick of a drama was because of the secondary couple. The grim reaper and the Goblin's reincarnated sister were AMAZING and the whole drama should've been about them. I'm very happy I was able to follow up this gross mess with Touch Your Heart, because it felt like an AU of the grim reaper and the Goblin's sister.

If you haven't watched this garbage, keep it that way. If you have, and you loved it, having opinions is for free :)

Favorite Drama of 2020: Tale of the Nine-Tailed

This is what Goblin wanted to be but absolutely freaking wasn't, LMAO.

TOTNT had everything: a plot (GASP), that kept me on the edge of my seat. A mythology that made logical sense. A romance that was well balanced, even between a mystical creature and a human. Characters that had their own arcs and developments, including the secondary ones!! Nuanced villains that had reasonable screen time. Two leads who kicked fucking ass, one with magic and the other one with her guts.

UGH!!! I LOVED IT SO MUCH!!!! My mind was so blown watching it, not to mention it gave me serious Inuyasha vibes.

Can I also mention how drop dead GORGEOUS Lee Dong Wook was in this drama??? Because WHEW. Wheeeeew.

1,000/10 recommend.

—

And that's all folks! Cheers to another year of staying somewhat afloat thanks to Kdramas. Drop your recommendations in the comments!! I won't promise to watch all of them but I can always use with inspo.