Park Hae Jin’s face.

Let me expand on that:
Park Hae Jin’s acting (or maybe he was just goofing off the whole time?) was hilarious. Though I really enjoyed a lot of elements in this show, his facial expressions throughout it made “Man To Man” my new favorite drama. [I spammed my MDL feed with examples, if you want to see what I mean.] Kim Min Jung was also great playing our female lead, Do Ha, a quirky, independent, non-cookie cutter heroine who, thankfully, did not cling to the male lead.

The Plot: For some, the drama itself might seem to be a half-baked combination of humor, espionage, romance, and bromance—but for me it was perfect. I get bored if I feel like a show is stuck in one genre. The only time I was disappointed in the plot was during the last episode, because I disliked how it concluded the various story arcs. Last episodes are very important; they are the final impressions of each character and should wholly complete the story. I was regretfully disappointed in the “Man to Man” finale.

Acting-wise, I thought all the cast did great within the limits of the characters they were given. What I mean is, that all the characters were enjoyable to watch because they were portrayed well, but the characters themselves were underdeveloped. I thought Seol Woo and Do-ha were developed enough, and since they were the two main characters I was content with that.

Long review short, I loved “Man to Man.” Park Hae Jin’s face is hilarious, the plot is a spy-romcom, and the OSTs are great. I say give it two episodes, but you can probably tell if it’s the type of show for you or not after just watching the pilot.

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What’s that drama?
This Chinese drama about soul-swapping was a hit romantic-comedy, but it also featured the worst plot twist of  2017.
da da da, da da da da da, da da da da DA, dadadadada…
What is “King Is Not Easy.” CORRECT!

Jeopardy question aside, I’ll break down this review into cast and plot, with a few comments on production, music, and re-watch value at the end.

Cast: Being a soul-swapping drama means that Bai Lu and Zhang Yi Jie had to be good at playing each other’s characters and their opposite genders, and in my opinion they were. They were hilarious, and the majority of their acting seemed very genuine *applause*.  All the characters, including our leads, did well. The plot is very silly, and the cast did a good job not taking their characters too seriously.

Plot: As the plot is bipolar, so must my review be. To avoid spoilers I will simply refer to the two plot arcs as “Arc A” and “Arc B.” Arc A was everything you expected it to be; the story was funny, sweet, and entertaining. It’s 20 minutes of guaranteed lighthearted fun—Arc B not so much. Arc B was highly confusing and disappointing. Presumably the arc was meant to add depth to the show, but is was not needed and very poorly done.

Production-The dubbing (the ADR) was very irritating at first, but I got used to it.
Music-Theme song was annoying, but the ending theme was pretty. The rest of the music was unmemorable.
Re-watch value-It is such a short show that I would re-watch it, but I would stop before I got to Arc B.

Overall, I enjoyed this show, it fulfilled its purpose by making me smile and laugh a lot. 7.5 stars.
P.S. At the end of each episode are short skits. Don't miss out—watch them!

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Diagnosis: Full of Fluff

If you like broody male leads, bubbly female protagonists, and seeing semi-dramatic, unrealistic scenarios play out on screen, then this is the manga adaptation for you!

Quick review:
-Story: unoriginal, but entertaining: a solid shojo adaptation
-Acting/Cast: amazing performances by everyone, even when the script was lacking
-Music: Worked well, enhanced scenes
-Re-watch value: Probably not worth re-watching, but it is so short you could

To be honest, I had to watch on 1.5x speed, because the cringe moments were so cringe and any time the two main leads were not in a scene together the show became pretty boring. I wish they would have spent more time developing Saikai’s and Nishi’s characters, because they had a lot of potential but ended up flat.

I feel compelled to say that this drama is problematic in a way that I see many shojo being: it’s supportive of infatuation-based relationships over healthy, mutual-respect based ones. But, what’s new? Of course the secondary male lead would be a better boyfriend, but that doesn’t stop our female heroine from being madly in love with the main lead before she even knows him. It’s definitely entertaining, but even such an “innocent” drama has harmful messages.

Overall, you can easily binge this 10 episode drama and enjoy all the classic moments of a jdrama romcom. If you’re on the fence, watch one episode. If you like the first, you’ll like the next nine as it’s a lot more of the same.

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“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.”
-Galileo Galilei

         Galileo was an exciting drama. The drama is wholly focused on solving episodic (bizarre) mysteries, with just a small sliver given to character and relationship development. Each episode is only 45 minutes, and there are only 10 episodes, so this drama is great to binge in a week or weekend. There is a second season (I have not watched it), but it features a new female lead, which is extremely disappointing. Speaking of Utsumi…
         Based on the first episode, I thought Utsumi’s character had great potential to be a lovable, savvy detective. Unfortunately, Utsumi’s character ends up spending the majority of her screen time being confused or making exasperated expressions (she is still lovable, if not as savvy as I would have liked). Yukawa is charmingly eccentric in a Sherlock type way. The side characters mainly add humor to the show; I especially liked medical examiner Sakurako.
          The opening theme music was cool, and the ending theme was cute (also, it was performed by KOH+, which is a band whose lead singer and guitarist are the actors of Utsumi and Yukawa!) As far as rewatching this drama, I probably won't since I already know how all the mysteries are solved.

I wish they had decided to make more episodes and gone deeper with the characters, but overall this drama is worth the quick watch.

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I loved Introverted Boss (a.k.a. My Shy Boss). While no one element of the show is perfectly done, there are a couple reasons I consider this a 9/10 drama:

1. The quirky characters! I really enjoyed each character's unique & extreme personalities. I think the casting was great, and the chemistry between characters (romantic and non-romantic) was entertaining.

2. The laughter. I thought this show was hilarious, as I said before, the characters are very quirky, so when they interact with each other hilarity ensues.

3. The plot. I would say the main four themes of this drama are: 1. Working through trauma 2. Getting to know people (vs. assuming and judging) 3. Becoming comfortable in your own skin 4. Family doesn't have to be blood related. In other words, this is mainly a feel-good drama. It takes everyday life, throws tragedy in the mix, and lets you watch characters' various responses.

4. The adorable, and, of course, complicated, romantic relationships between characters. Usually, once characters in a drama become a couple, the romantic tension is lost and the drama becomes less interesting (depending on how much the drama relied on the relationship to propel the drama). I thought Introverted Boss did a good job keeping the drama interesting after the romantic tension was lost.

5 reasons why this might NOT be the drama for you:
1. No action, few suspense scenes
2. You won't see character development in every character, and the character development in some characters is minor
3. You might find the plot repetitive or boring/uncompelling
4. If you dislike lots of cute, romantic scenes
5. The quirky characters may seem annoying

Hope my review helps you decide if this drama is for you! :)

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"Beautiful Mind" (BM), is a show that proves viewers do not have to choose between an engaging plot and character development (*cough* "Stranger" *cough*). Furthermore, it is a show that reminds us that we can have our cake and eat it too:  a serious plot with moments that still make us burst out laughing or crying--
AKA a Medical-Crime-Psychological-Romantic-Comedy drama.

The Story:
    If you have ever had a drama that was 20 episodes long that decided to wrap up all loose ends in the last 50 minutes, don't worry, BM doesn't. BM is only 14 episodes, but neatly ties up all its plot points throughout more than one episode. The happenings in each episode are pretty predictable, but the overall plot should keep most viewers saying, 'I did not see THAT coming.'  The show takes a couple episodes to build, but after episode five I could not stop watching. That being said, the story sometimes fell short of amazing, but I am going to blame that on the episode reduction.

Acting/Cast:
    There is no doubt that Jang Hyuk's acting is the most outstanding, but all the actors and actresses in this show were very good. The chemistry seems real, the relationships are not cliche, and overacting is practically nonexistent. No doubts, this show should have won some acting awards.

Music:
    You would think it would have more than two OSTs, but once you hear "Dirt" by Bernard Park, you will realize why the show doesn't need any more music. I will say though, once or twice they could have restrained from playing it.  

In conclusion, the minds that created this show were beautiful~

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Just finished this gem--so glad my friend suggested it to me. Since our leading lady Go Ho likes to rate everything with stars in the show, I thought I'd do the same in this review.
* = star
A spunky, yet cute, heroine * * * * *
Having Kim Young-kwang play a hard-ass with a sensitive side * * * *
A well paced plot * * * *
Barley seeing Kang Rae Yeon's character in the second half of the show * *
This show's costume department (see esp. our main leads) * * * *
Having to see Lee Ji Hoon's crying face every episode *
The two extremely...extremely catchy OSTs * * *
The banter between our adorable main couple * * * *
Characters 100% forgetting about their jobs to focus on romance *
Our secondary and tertiary characters * * *
And, of course:
Go Ho's sassy blog~ * * * * *

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Since there are already a lot of good, positive reviews for this drama, I'll keep mine brief and focus on what I disliked.
I really, really loved the first 2/3rds of the drama. However, the drama loses interest for me after the romantic tension is gone and all the problems are solved (I seriously don't count his grandma's resistance a real problem, since we have seen how nice she is to Eun Chan in previous episodes and know there is a strong likelihood she will come around). Sure, there are some plot points to complete and tie up during the remaining episodes, but none of them come close to being as engaging as watching Han Kyul's emotional turmoil over liking Eun Chan. I also did not care too much about the three side couples in the drama--even Yoo Joo's and Han Seong's relationship became dull for me around episode 11.
Apart from all that, yes, the drama is great and deserves all the hype it gets.

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