A bromance?

This could have been so much more than it was! It started off as a cute high school romance between the popular school president Taehyun and the quiet archery team member Dayeol. The circumstances under which they originally meet set them up to be enemies, but they quickly start to get along instead.

Unfortunately, this one missed the mark a little bit. Every time their relationship should have taken off, something happened to stop them. And just when you think everything is going to work out, it still doesn't! It seemed like they were trying to get around the fact that this was a gay relationship by....not letting them have a real relationship. No kiss, no handholding, nothing! Just two bros with some tension and an unexplored relationship.

They're clearly gay so I won't call this queerbaiting, but it nearly was.

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So cute!!

A lot of Korean BLs fall into the unfortunate issue of not having enough time to develop their characters but Our Dating Sim found the perfect way to show characters who have grown and changed in just 8 15-min episodes. Plus, the main actors do a great job and have great chemistry. Super cute and fun show to watch.

I'm a sucker for the "right person wrong time" trope, and seeing that play out in these characters was fantastic. You get to see the high school embarrassment of a (seemingly) one-sided love turn into a relationship years down the line in adulthood. Super well done and well paced without any unnecessary conflicts or that horrible second-to-last episode breakup trope. Biggest complaint is that it isn't long enough!

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Better than I expected!

I wasn't sure how this was gonna go with how short it is, but I was pleasantly surprised! They didn't try to do too much with the vampire lore and didn't try to overcomplicate things. Junho is a vampire who is going to die and needs to drink pure human blood (still not sure what this means but oh well) to turn into a human. To do so, he needs to make Minhyun, who has pure blood, fall in love with him. But of course, Junho falls in love too and isn't willing to risk Minhyun's life for his own.

Most realistic part is Minhyun learning Junho is a vampire and immediately telling him to drink his blood. Honestly he's so real for that.

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Refreshing!!

This drama was nearly perfect. It was shot in such a beautiful way that felt really fresh and didn't feel like the typical over-produced kdrama.

Jihyun, a college freshman, meets Jaewon by chance one night while working at his part-time job. The two continue to cross paths, and Jihyun joins the surfing club in order to get closer to Jaewon. As the two begin to spend more time together, their relationship grows as they navigate hardships.

The interactions between the characters in this felt so much more real than most kdramas. The conversations have awkward silences, they're nervous on first dates, etc. and it's super enjoyable to watch. I was super worried that this would end on a sad note, but was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this one, start to finish. There was a bit of a lull in the later episodes where you just want them to solve their problems and be happy, but it's never overly frustrating. The colors, the music, and the shots were all beautifully done. 100% worth the watch.

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Mediocre At Best

I was soooo looking forward to watching this because I've been wanting a good GL to watch and I had heard so much about it! Unfortunately, it was extremely mediocre. The entire plot was predictable, the characters were only sometimes likeable, and every conflict could have been resolved with a single conversation.

This was not a queer story. Yes, it had queer women as the main characters, but this exact storyline could have been done as a straight or BL romance. I wished the writers and directors focused more on the relationship dynamic between the two women and less on silly arranged marriage plotlines.

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Simple, but cute

My Love Mix Up was super cute, light, and fun. Gemini and Fourth did a great job in these roles, and the side couple helped to round it out very well. No conflict was drawn out too long either. My only complaint is that it didn't feel like anything new, especially for Gemini and Fourth.

It's said that if you write your crush's name on an eraser, the more you use it, the closer you'll get to them. Atom (Fourth) has a crush on Mudmee (Pahn), a girl in his class, but when he asks to borrow her eraser, he sees Kongthap's (Gemini) name written on it. As he's using the eraser, he ends up dropping it and Kongthap picks it up - leading him to believe that Atom has a crush on him. To prevent his friend's feelings from being exposed, Atom has to come up with another way to tell Kongthap that he doesn't like him, but the more time he spends with him the more he realizes he might like him after all.

This show was a very cute and simple high school romance. If you're a fan of Gemini and Fourth, you'd definitely like it. Mudmee and Half (Chokun) were also super cute and fun to watch! I do wish that Gemini and Fourth would branch out and play different types of roles though, as this show felt very similar to My School President (though less singing), especially in terms of the main characters. Overall though it was very cute and fun to watch.

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A Must-Watch!

I was super excited to see Bible work with Jes in this show, and BOY did they deliver!! This show was absolutely incredible and had me at the edge of my seat every episode. A thrilling, action-packed plotline was perfectly partnered with a slowly forming romance between the main leads, and side characters that could stand alone in their own series round it out beautifully. The only potential issue with this one was that the 18+ rating needs to be taken real seriously....both with the violence and explicit sex scenes.

When Great (Bible) hits and kills a woman while driving, he suddenly finds himself with a strange ability: he is occasionally (and not of his own will) sent back in time 4 minutes to fix mistakes. After preventing the death of this woman, she still ends up in the hospital. Great, feeling bad about this, goes to visit her and meets Dr. Tyme (Jes). The two slowly get to know each other, but it seems their lives are more intertwined than they thought. Great's family's shady business seems to be willing to go to any lengths to continue their work, and Tyme seems to be somehow connected to all this. Meanwhile, Great's brother Korn (Bas) and his boyfriend Tonkla (Fuaiz) seem to be more involved in the inner workings of this shady family business, which is straining their relationship.

I can't begin to describe how incredible this show was. The plot twists were INCREDIBLE and had me sitting in shock at the end of the episodes. I can't possibly describe all the interesting plot points that happen without horrible spoilers, but it is truly an experience to watch it. I love when a plot doesn't only revolve around the romance, and this one definitely isn't focused on it, but uses the romance to enhance the plot. Again, the explicit scenes in this show were a bit much for me, but overall it was fantastic and I would highly recommend it.

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Go Young's Tragic Autobiography

The best way to describe this show is snapshots of our main character Go Young's (Nam Yoonsu) life. We first meet him in college, where his queerness makes him a loner. This doesn't stop his pursuit of love, but not all romantic encounters are created equal. Go Young finds again and again that love requires not just the right person, but also the right circumstances. In his quest to figure out what love looks like and how to make relationships work, we see him continue to get his heart broken, both by his own faults and his partners'.

I think what really sold me on this show was the way it was done. It felt like it was being told as if Go Young had written his own autobiography, where he emphasized what he found important and left out the details that seemed too mundane. We get glimpses into his life and his relationships, without ever getting to see his day-to-day life. What happens in an episode may be a few weeks or a year, depending on how important the events felt to Go Young himself. Each relationship he enters presents new challenges, and unable to navigate them, Go Young continues to feel tired and alone. I did not expect such depth of issues on queerness coming from a Kdrama, and it was done beautifully. The issues were never taken lightly or laughed at, and the relationships were portrayed in such a realistic way that it truly felt like this could be someone's autobiography. It was unfortunately sadder than I had anticipated, and the realism just emphasized the tragedy, but it was beautiful nonetheless.

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Suspenseful and Thrilling

I was really excited to watch Spare Me Your Mercy when it started airing because I'm a sucker for crime dramas. The premise of this one was especially unique - catching a killer that might not even be the bad guy? The cast was absolutely incredible, and the show had me on the edge of my seat every episode. I do wish this was a 10-12 ep series instead, just because there were a few things I wish they could have explored deeper, but it is absolutely worth the watch.

Tew (JJ) is a detective who decided to transfer to a rural town to be near his mom, who is dying of ovarian cancer with only a few months to live. However, right as he goes to see her after transferring, he learns she has passed away months before the doctor said she would. Hurt and confused, Tew does to talk to Dr. Kan (Tor), the palliative care expert in the town. Kan explains that this isn't uncommon with terminally ill patients and Tew doesn't think too much more about it - until terminally ill patients start dying prematurely all over this rural town. With few suspects and a growing suspicion of Kan, Tew tries to keep him close; Kan seems to be trying to keep Tew close as well, and though he says it's because he's developing a crush on him, Tew remains unconvinced. Unclear motives from both parties create tension in this slowburn relationship, and as more and more deaths occur prematurely, the need to find out the truth may outweigh any feelings the two have for each other.

This show was truly incredible. I would recommend watching for the thriller/suspense/mystery elements more than the relationship, because truly the story is about the deaths and not the romance. However, JJ and Tor do an amazing job portraying these characters. A cold and tough detective determined to find out the truth paired with the bright and kind doctor was a great match. The acting, effects, and writing were all fantastic. Plot twists weren't necessarily predictable, but they were built into the story well enough to not feel like I was being blindsided by nonsensical twists in the story. The framing of certain scenes to intentionally throw the viewer off was super fun too. Even though I thought they could have played up the tension in the relationship and that a few more episodes would have helped flesh some things out more, I thought the story was fantastic and loved the way it wrapped up. One of my favorites of 2024 for sure.

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Underwhelming

As a big fan of crime dramas, I was super looking forward to this. I love Taecyeon in Vincenzo and was excited to see him in something else. This show has great casting and acting; however, I was disappointed with the plot of this one.

The show itself is a fairly mediocre crime drama. It felt like they were throwing darts to figure out the twists, leaving plot holes that they had to try to quickly clean up towards the end of the show. The show starts by splitting the storyline between children locked in some kind of hellish prison, and our main characters in present day. Figuring out how these storylines connect is super interesting....until it's not. It seems as though the writers tried so hard to throw the audience off and to make sure they wouldn't expect the twists that they weren't even worked into the story well. However, towards the end of the show I did start to enjoy it a bit more. Considering my love of crime dramas, to rate this one so low hurt a bit, but I think there are a lot better, more cohesive crime dramas out there.

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The plot was bad, but the chemistry was good

The only redeeming quality of this show was the fact that Zee and Nunew have great chemistry. Besides that, there's nothing special about this show and I was pretty bored for most of it.

The entire time you're waiting for single conflict to be resolved: the fact that Lian doesn't like Kuea's fake personality, and the fact that Kuea refuses to be his true self. Literally if they were just honest with each other, this show could be two episodes long. Instead, the conflict is drawn out way too long. The whole arranged marriage plot felt pretty odd, but I could get behind it if it made sense or helped the show move along. Instead, it's just this odd point that creates unnecessary drama between the leads.

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The arrogant will always lose

This drama was incredible. It quickly had me invested in the cases the two leads were solving, and as the story progressed and more and more cases fit together in mysterious ways, I was on the edge of my seat and staying up late to watch another episode. The main characters are wonderful to follow, and the more we learn about them and their world of cultivation, the more complex they become. We see their loyalties tested, past mistakes resurface, and secrets come to light. To avoid spoilers, I'll just say that I wished the ending was different than it was.

Fang Duobing has always wanted to become a detective of the cultivation world in Baichuan court. However, his parents will not allow it - he is set to marry the princess in an arranged marriage he doesn't want. The court states it will allow him to become a detective if he can prove his skills by solving three cases, which is exactly what he sets out to do. On his first case, he runs into Li Lianhua, known as a miracle physician who can even raise the dead. Duobing doesn't quite believe this, and intends to investigate this quack doctor. Instead, he and Lianhua end up working together to solve a different case, and work together on it quite well. Though the pair doesn't seem to get along all that well at first, they begin to travel together and solve cases, growing closer as they do so. The more cases they solve, the more the dark inner secrets of the cultivation realm come to light, and it seems the world will need a hero to save it.

The main characters in this show really sold me on it. Fang Duobing's naive nature but strong cultivation paired with Li Lianhua's immense knowledge but weak body created a perfect duo. Lianhua's obvious (to the viewer) secrets are bound to come out sooner or later, and it's clear that Duobing thinks everyone is always honest. Even though the cases took multiple episodes to complete each, it never felt like they were dragging on too long because of all the twists in each one. I was never bored watching this show, and frankly couldn't afford to look away since the dialogue holds all the information. This was a fantastic watch and one of the best cultivation dramas I've seen, but be prepared for some heartache in there as well.

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