Dramas/reality shows I watched in 2023
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1. Reborn Rich
Korean Drama - 2022, 16 episodes
- Mediocre cinematography and directing
- First episode was pretty bad
- Great second episode
- Generally an okay watch that had its moments
- Unnecessary FL
- Unnecessary romance
- Great connection between past and present
- Some bad overacting here and there
- Lee Sung Min's performance was immaculate
- Had some quite interesting characters
- Toxic relationship between Jin Sung Joon and Mo Hyun Min was all the ''romance'' I needed
- Needed less episodes
- Economic dialect was a bit hard to comprehend at times especially as a non native English speaker
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2. More than Blue: The Series
Taiwanese Drama - 2021, 10 episodes
- Masterpiece
- Great directing and cinematography
- Fantastic acting
- Necessary comedic elements
- Heart wrenching
- Hard to watch
- Deals with many heavy themes
- It was way too sad, but it didn't feel like they tried hard to make it so sad
- Interconnected characters
- Interesting and well written characters
- Well written plot
- Fantastic quotes
- Great amount of episodes
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3. Twenty-Five Twenty-One
Korean Drama - 2022, 16 episodes
- Good acting
- Good OST
- Character driven
- Very well written
- Amazing characters
- I got emotionally attached to everyone
- Liked the ending
- Episode one is okay, but underwhelming comparing to the rest
- I love Kim Tae Ri, but her screaming got me a bit annoyed in the first two episodes
- Every character is unique and has strengths and weaknesses
- Great cinematography and directing
- Due to the time it is taking place it deals with a few important events that happened irl
- It is about first loves, hard work, friendship, family, social media etc.
- Heart warming
- I watched it in doses and even when I watched an episode after a month break, I cried on the emotional scenes and laughed at the fun scenes
- Realistic (even though it feels ideal sometimes)
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4. About Youth
Taiwanese Drama - 2022, 8 episodes
- Fun and easy to watch
- Underdeveloped second couple
- Pretty well written comparing to what is being released lately
- Liked the OST
- Liked the theme of parental pressure
- The ending was a bit abrupt imo
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5. The King of the Desert
Korean Drama - 2022, 6 episodes
- Not my cup of tea
- Pretty good acting
- Interconnected anthology (if that is a thing)
- I liked the first episode a lot, but the others were just not it
- Slow paced and pretty boring for my taste
- Kept comparing it in my mind with Isu, that I found much more interesting
- Good concept
- Had its moments
- I just couldn't feel anything for anyone, found most stories bland and a bit ''try hard'' to be something different
- At least it brings something new to the table
- Expected something else after watching the trailer
- Symbolism heavy
- Not for everyone (definitely not for me)
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6. Plus & Minus
Taiwanese Drama - 2022, 12 episodes
- Entertaining enough
- Cute first couple
- Cringy second couple with too much screen time
- Nonsensical conflict
- Most of the angst was unecessary and badly written
- Felt like they were trying too hard to tell us some things about the act of divorce
- Didn't like the cameos (a bit cringe)
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7. The Glory
Korean Drama - 2022, 8 episodes
- Noir vibe
- Dark atmosphere
- Some disturbing scenes
- Good OST
- Unecessary romance
- I like Lee Do Hyun's character, but the romantic music in the background takes away from the general vibe of the series
- Good performance by Song Hye Kyo
- Don't really like Im Ji Yeon's acting (aka Park Yeon Jin) - overacting in a bad way
- I like the generall lack of music
- Good directing
- Interesting and well written characters
- Not over the top
- The revenge has a realistic feel to it
- Makes you consntantly remember why she wants revenge
- Some great ''symbolism'' scenes
- Some overacting by some of the actors
- Great clothing choices (that are different for every character)
- Some necessary comedic elements
- Slow paced
- Character driven
- Not a good choice to seperate this into two parts
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8. Single’s Inferno
Korean TV Show - 2021, 8 episodes
- Fun to watch
- Addicting
- Great production
- Feels a bit repetitive
- It definitely feels a bit scripted at times
- Hot people -> eye candy
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9. Island
Korean Drama - 2022, 6 episodes
- Good production
- Great music
- Good acting
- Why the 2 parts?
- The priest is as hot as hell's cauldrons I will end up in
- Fun and easy to watch
- Some fantastic shots
- CGI was mediocre
- Make up looked awful
- The ''monsters'' looked ridiculous
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10. Old Fashion Cupcake Epilogue: Apple Pie
Japanese Special - 2022, 1 episode
- Cute
- Way too short
- Abrupt ending
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11. His Man
Korean TV Show - 2022, 11 episodes
- Addicting
- Fun to watch
- Mentions hardships of people belonging in the LGBTQ+ community
- Unique
- Didn't feel repetitive
- CLIFFHANGERS
- Please don't ruin your mood by reading the comments afterwards
- Short eps
- It would be more impactful, if the participants new each other more than a week
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12. A League of Nobleman
Chinese Drama - 2023, 29 episodes
- Great production quality
- Fantastic intro
- Good OST
- Eye candy
- Interesting concept, yet underwhelming execution
- Interesting characters
- Zhang Ping was unbelievably genius
- Song Wei Long's acting was not it
- Jing Bo Ran is one of the most beautiful people on earth end of story
- Wang Duo stole the show
- Wang Yan aka Mo Wen (aka Hyun Bin lookalike) deserved more screen time
- The background stories of the main leads were more interesting than the cases
- Pacing was a bit off at times
- The ''bromance'' between the two mains didn't work
- The ''bromance'' between Lan Jue and Wang Duo or Mo Wen was great and deserved more screen time
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13. Physical: 100
Korean TV Show - 2023, 9 episodes
- Fun and easy to watch
- Unnecessarily dark set
- Annoying repetitiveness
- Games were interesting, but we needed more
- Great cliffhangers
- Boring finale
- Lack of your typical ''backstabbing reality show''
- Obviously didn't serve the purpose of ''finding the ideal body''
- Interesting concept
- Very boring and slow introduction of the contestants
- Some games just seemed unrealistic af
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14. My School President
Thai Drama - 2022, 12 episodes
- Fluff
- Fourth is a fantastic actor (GMMTV found a goldmine)
- Good enough acting
- Fluff
- No angst (finally)
- Great songs (OST and covers)
- Nice pairings
- Fluff
- Parents that are actually there for a reason
- For once the main couple didn't get overshadowed
- Fluff - they are so cute!
- Good directing
- Light hearted, but also dealt with some heavy issues
- Made me feel all emotions possible
- Best GMMTV bl show hands down
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15. Alchemy of Souls Season 2: Light and Shadow
Korean Drama - 2022, 10 episodes
- Good production quality
- Good acting
- Didn't like the FL's make up
- The only character development we saw was that of the prince's eyebrows
- Best character was the turtle
- Unnecessarily long - draggy
- Okayish chemistry
- Boring
- Unecessary in all ways possible
- Jang Uk suddenly became unbeatably strong when the script said so
- Boring antagonists
- No plot
- Good OST
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16. Moonlight Chicken
Thai Drama - 2023, 8 episodes
- Pretty good from a visual aspect
- Pretty good songs
- Second couple stole the show
- Depicts all kinds of love
- Deals with different themes
- Slow paced (something that is not handled that well)
- Some nonsensical scenes
- Becomes a bit draggy on the second half
- Main couple is not that interesting (and don't kill me, but I just can't feel anything with the EarthMix pairing)
- An important GMMTV production
- The mock trailer promised us something much better
- Doesn't focus that much on some side stories/background of characters that would have potential
- We get reminded every part of every episode that Jim (aka Earth's character) is in his late 30s (how?)
- A bit preachy at times
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17. Utsukushii Kare Season 2
Japanese Drama - 2023, 4 episodes
- The only 2nd season that I enjoyed as much as the 1st
- Fun and easy to watch
- Good amount of eps
- Good plot
- Well written characters (that are not any different from season 1)
- Great poster
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18. The Glory Part 2
Korean Drama - 2023, 8 episodes
- Not as good as the first part
- Unecessary and cringy romance (once again)
- Had its moments
- Wasn't fully satisfied revenge-wise
- The series felt like a constant escalation that never reached its climax
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19. The New Employee
Korean Drama - 2022, 7 episodes
- Health romance
- Pretty boring
- Low budget feel (as usual)
- Kwon Hyuk (aka Jong Chan) was the highlight of the series
- Relatively fluffy but forgettable
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20. A Shoulder to Cry On
Korean Drama - 2023, 7 episodes
- Fun to watch in general (almost)
- Awful and boring last episode
- Hated the make up of Lee Da Yeol (Kim Jae Han)
- Loved the acting of Shin Ye Chan (Jo Tae Hyun) and his eye expressions, but hated the emotional scenes acting
- Satisfied acting and production wise
- Loved the manga, I expected it to be a bit more emotional and impactful
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21. Bed Friend
Thai Drama - 2023, 10 episodes
- Good chemistry
- Extremely boring after the first 6 episodes
- No actual plot
- Too much skin smoothening or whatever that is called
- Deals with sensitive themes, but not that well
- King barely had any actual personality comparing to Uea who was a multidimensional character
- Forgettable
- Disappointing especially after waiting that long
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22. Our Dating Sim
Korean Drama - 2023, 8 episodes
- Not as good as I expected but pretty good
- The enemies phase barely lasted
- Good enough acting
- Light hearted and easy to watch
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23. Bloodhounds
Korean Drama - 2023, 8 episodes
- Good production
- Good enough action scenes
- Okay acting
- Great abs - eye candy
- Plot was okayish, nothing great or unique
- Villains didn't feel that intimidating
- Of course plot holes - but it is action, so who cares?
- Could be a few episodes less
- MLs are a bit dumb and they know it
- Had higher expectations
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24. The Eighth Sense
Korean Drama - 2023, 10 episodes
- Pretty good acting
- Cinematography and editing were pretty interesting, but didn't work 100% for me
- Good plot
- Could be 2 eps less
- Liked the chemistry
- Pretty realistic
- Characters were pretty well-written
- The depth of Seo Jae Won's character was fantastic and really liked Im Ji Sub's acting
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25. Taxi Driver Season 2
Korean Drama - 2023, 16 episodes
- Easy to watch
- Awful editing -> mediocre action scenes
- Acting was mediocre to bad
- The villains didn't look intimidating at all
- Felt more like a badly made satire
- Villains felt caricaturist and as a result the plot felt ridiculous and humorous -> felt a bit offensive to the actual victims
- They forced the Do Gi/Go Eun romance to much and it felt cringe - sorry I see no chemistry
- Loved On Ha Joon's character and the actors (plus he was eye candy)
- The action scenes were not as good as S1 same with the cases
- Too much humour
- Some cases were pretty long and boring (the elderly scammer one for example)
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26. Lies Hidden in My Garden
Korean Drama - 2023, 8 episodes
- Fantastic acting
- Extremely cinematic
- Phenomenal cinematography and directing -> visually stunning
- Good plot
- Slow paced
- Could be a bit too slow paced in some scenes - like it was forced to be made like that (but it was only in a few)
- The last episode was not that great imo and felt like there were some plot holes
- Deals with dark themes in a quite realistic way (domestic violence, gaslighting etc.)
- No humour -> huge plus
- It is based on a book and truly has some book vibes
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27. Love Tractor
Korean Drama - 2023, 8 episodes
- Aesthetically pleasing
- Good acting
- Adorable!
- Pretty well written
- Loved the dynamics of the characters
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28. Revenant
Korean Drama - 2023, 12 episodes
- Good acting but expected better from all these talented people involved
- Not as good as I expected generally
- Slow paced and not that suspensful
- I really enjoyed like the first 8 eps of the series, but the last ones were very boring
- It would work better as a mini series of like 6 eps or even a long movie
- Characters were interesting enough
- It took way too long for all of them to work together...
- FL's mother was frustrating
- Not that scary, but it did have its moments if it was watched under certain circumstances (lights off, home alone in a village ?)
- Another highly anticipated series that wasn't that great after all
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29. Mask Girl
Korean Drama - 2023, 7 episodes
- Reminds me more of a movie than a series (in the greatest way possible)
- Fucked up, but great
- Unique plot wise
- Great acting
- Deals with lots of topic with the main being the korean beauty standards
- Pretty dark
- Great music
- Directing and aesthetics are on another level
- Ending could be much better than that
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30. Bokura no Micro na Shuumatsu
Japanese Drama - 2023, 8 episodes
- Much better than I expected
- Dynamics feel very different comparing to many bl series (even though they are not)
- Like the concept
- All the characters are pretty interesting to watch
- Great dark humour
- One of the few times that the ''main couple' is not taking the spotlight and they are just part of an actual fun to watch plot
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31. Be My Favorite
Thai Drama - 2023, 12 episodes
- Another segment of ''I never planned to watch this, but I ended up watching it and it was good''
- Pretty good aesthetics
- Good enough acting
- Fun watch
- I got a bit bored the last few episodes, but it was pretty addicting at first
- Interesting story
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32. My Dearest
Korean Drama - 2023, 10 episodes
- Namkoong Min is literally perfect! Such a great actor and those eyes...
- I honestly don't get why the main lead fell in love with the FL.
- Great music! ''With my Heart'' is such a heartbreaking and beautiful song
- I liked the darker episodes more
- It did feel a bit draggy at times
- Wasn't that fond of it in the beginning
- I highly disliked the FL in the first two episodes (even though I get why she was like that)
- The first episode was not good and generally the series especially in the first few episodes reminded me of the typical historical rom-com
- I like the dynamics of the two leads that are not your typical ones (prince/king - plain girl)
- Good acting from the majority of the cast
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33. My Journey to You
Chinese Drama - 2023, 24 episodes
- The aesthetics! The best aesthetics in all dramaland and prove me wrong.
- Everything looks amazing and all the actors and actresses are eye candies
- Good acting from the majority of the cast
- Interesting characters overall
- Fun to watch plot
- It did get draggy, but I didn't mind it mostly because I was watching it on air so it didn't get overwhelming
- The fight scenes gave me goosebumps
- I loved watching my golden trio (Gong Shang Jue, Gong Yuan Zhi and Shangguan Qian)
- Some scenes were unforgettable
- Ending was not that great, but not too bad either
- Main couple ended up being the least interesting
- FL was very interesting and mysterious in the beginning, but ended up being bland
- I didn't like Zhang Ling He's acting...
- I generally disliked the main male lead the majority of the show. His personality didn't fit the mostly dark and smart characters
- Pretty dark series both aesthetic wise and plot wise
- It could do with less episodes
- Loved most of the characters dynamics
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34. The Devil's Plan
Korean TV Show - 2023, 12 episodes
- Pretty addicting and fun to watch
- The games were very long
- They rules were very complicated and took long to be explained to a point that I couldn't pay attention (7 minutes of hearing rules - imagine that)
- The second game in the day was much better and faster
- Generally had fun and kept watching, even though I didn't understand what was happening at some points
- Some of the players were great and others just shouldn't have been chosen for a game like this...
- Needed more and faster games that the audience could actually participate in
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35. Only Friends
Thai Drama - 2023, 12 episodes
- Great aesthetics
- Good acting from the majority of the cast
- RaySand was the most interesting and fun to watch ship
- Some great scenes
- Pretty addictive
- Good music
- Felt like all the couples were mains (which is good)
- Many toxic relationships that for once weren't romanticized
- TopMew pairing was pretty boring the majority of the series
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36. Dangerous Romance
Thai Drama - 2023, 12 episodes
- Acting was watchable - Perth was the best
- Second couple was very fun to watch but had almost 0 scree time...
- Chemistry was not as bad as everyone is saying
- Plot was just not it...
- I like my toxic/enemies to lovers relationships but this one was badly written
- The main pairing ended up being super boring
- After the first few episodes this felt super draggy
- Selective amnesia was apparently part of the script lol. It was like some things never happened after a while. The extreme bullying was like completely forgotten...
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37. Kiseki: Dear to Me
Taiwanese Drama - 2023, 13 episodes
- Addictive
- Fun to watch
- Acting between the four main characters was pretty good
- Wayne Song's performance as Zhang Teng was sooo bad, that I actually couldn't believe it was so bad
- Should be on the Guinness World Record for most wrist grabs in a series
- Main couple was good, but second paring (Ai Di and Chen Yi) stole the show
- Plot obviously doesn't really matter, because if it was the main point this would get a 4.5
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