blacklist
was inspired by someone else's list and i just realized i have beef with a few shows.
disclaimer: these are all my opinions and we can agree to disagree. feel free to add your opinions too.
also, some descriptions may have some plot spoilers, so read at your own risk!
-
1. U-Prince The Series: The Handsome Cowboy
Thai Drama - 2016, 8 episodes
the male lead is lying, cheating pos full of red flags from the beginning till end. and the female lead is an idiot for falling in love with him. there is chemistry, but only if there were better characters. love how they tried to gaslight us into believing that they are made for each other and deserve a happy ending together. and this is the only sub-story with 8 ep, while the other ten have 4 ep each and one has 5 ep. if you want cringe, u-prince is a great show, but just skip this sub-story. the others are much better.
-
2. The Whirlwind Girl
Chinese Drama - 2015, 32 episodes
just want to tell the female lead to stfu. how is she a prodigy, but can only do one type of kick? also, who's the male lead?!?! she just cries for her dad. also, which institute happens to carry surveillance footage from decades ago, and how do they find it so easily? also, you will practically hate every character in this show except for a couple of side characters.
-
3. Strong Woman Kang Nam Soon
Korean Drama - 2023, 16 episodes
feel like i need to interject and remind the world that not everything needs a second season, or a sequel. this show is one of the many reminders that just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
considering the cast, i had higher expectations. as everyone will tell you, the best actor in this show is the villain, and he had really good chemistry with the female lead. i fell in love with him if that's what you want to call it. but this show, writing, story, pacing, development, is all the best example of what not to do. the reason the first season did so well is that they included side plots and characters with the main leads and plot (except for the racist Indian bit that you can easily skip through). this show has 10 different things happening that the show tries to convince you is all related, but you don't really know what and how it's possible. it's just a huge disappointment. the best part is the cameo of the leads from the first season- the only people in this world that i ship in real life knowing how toxic that behavior is.
-
4. Ugly Duckling Series: Pity Girl
Thai Drama - 2015, 5 episodes
girl can't act. is she crying? supposedly, but it looks like she has the biggest smile on her face while screaming at everyone else. i don't even remember what exactly this was, but i do remember skipping through most of it because i hated watching the female lead.... she actually sucks.
-
5. The Whirlwind Girl 2
Chinese Drama - 2016, 36 episodes
last season, she was whole other person crying about her dad. this season, she's crying about yang-yang's character, who we never find out if he's alive or dead. but despite ignoring him and his feelings for her in season 1, here he's all she can think of. it's truly mind-boggling as to how a second season was approved but it's a hot mess.
-
6. Good Morning Call
Japanese Drama - 2016, 17 episodes
i was surprised to find that this show is only from 2016. i thought it was much older. the female lead just keeps screaming (at least for this show's two seasons) and it's really annoying to see how cringeworthy her character is. the male lead is bearable when he's nice, but why do we still entertain men who can't admit what they are going through? i think accidental-cohabitation tropes are actually really cute but this show will make you roll your eyes and shut your ears every time she screams.
-
7. Un amore così bello
Korean Drama - 2020, 24 episodes
i love cute, sweet, coming-of-age love stories but this show was just a bunch of red flags. the male lead wasn't that bad at all, the female lead's character was literally just super annoying. she spent so much time and effort pining after one guy, only to suddenly break up with him and jsut leave him hanging with no explanation. i understand that she went through something traumatic but how does that lead to breaking up with the most supportive boyfriend ever right after it happens!? they just wanted some angst but executed it poorly.
-
8. The Bride of Habaek
Korean Drama - 2017, 16 episodes
i loved the costumes and hair/makeup in this show. i watched this originally because i like fantasy plots and nam joo-hyuk. the actress in this show cannot act and her character was super annoying. there is no chemistry between the leads and the plot makes little sense. i felt bad for the villain since his character wasn't even actually evil. the plot did what it wanted but none of it made much sense.
-
9. Boys Over Flowers
Korean Drama - 2009, 25 episodes
i want to ask all the people who told me this is one of the best kdramas ever, and all the people who deemed this as one of the most iconic shows. i heard the original tawianese adaptation is the best and only one worth watching, but haven't watched that yet. boys over flowers is hands-down one of the most frustrating shows ever.
-
10. Alchemy of Souls: Part 2
Korean Drama - 2022, 10 episodes
absolutely no one should hate on the actors or the changed female lead since they carried this show when the plot and writing failed us all. i personally feel that changing the female lead was an awful choice but the actress did no wrong and i feel so bad for the backlash she received. the writers completely changed the direction of the story and all the character work done in season 1, as if that were just a completely different show. i loved season 1 and thought it was one of my best viewings of all time, but season 2 completely destroys your faith in intelligence and humanity. if season 2 was equally amazing and they kept jung so-min, or they just nicely ended with the first season instead of creating another conflict, it would have been on my all-time favorites list.
-
11. Love O2O
Chinese Drama - 2016, 30 episodes
when i saw this the first time in 2017, i loved it. when i saw it for the second, i realized i only loved yang yang. the female lead cannot act for the life of her. and the kissing scenes were just sad. yang yang was trying to hard to give us something, and while i get not wanting to go all the way, she just looks like she's trying to get away and struggling to hold her breath. the side characters and plots add nothing to the story or the main leads so it feels unecessary but they honestly do a better job than the female lead...... also, apparently she's banned in china now so do i feel bad? nope- only for her kids since they deserved a better mother.
-
12. Little Women
Korean Drama - 2022, 12 episodes
an absolute abomination. as someone who crushes over wi hajun, i felt annoyed for his character having to deal with kim goeun. her character is just so dumb. what was even worse is the chemistry their two characters ended up having (albeit sometimes forced) but we get nothing at the end. nam ji hyun is the only one who gets a kiss scene at the end, but we barely saw any scenes with her opposite, so it felt incomplete. there are just so many scenes where you can see danger from a mile away and still see kim goeun's character confidently/stupidly head towards it. i was so glad this finally ended but regret wasting my time with it.
-
13. What's Wrong with Secretary Kim
Korean Drama - 2018, 16 episodes
everyone was in love with this show but other than its big budget, i thought the story was disappointing. i personally don't like park minyoung for some unexplainable reason (idk why but i don't like watching her), but her and park seojun's characters were just so annoying to watch. plus the trope of "knew you from childhood" in kdramas is so boring and overused and just a sign of poor writing.
-
14. Secret Seven: The Series
Thai Drama - 2017, 12 episodes
what is up with gmm tv actors who can't act. also, it's a reverse harem trope, but it's not like everyone likes the female lead- it's merely a possibility that someone might. i didn't think the plot was that awful, but the female lead was rude at times and also it might just be me, but i don't like her acting as much? idk, i just feel that there are some gmm tv actors that only work on gmm shows because they tend to have cute and quirky plots that teens love. but there isn't much going on in terms of acting, or at least it's not a priority. i know that's true everywhere, but gmm makes it a characteristic of theirs.
-
15. Backstreet Rookie
Korean Drama - 2020, 16 episodes
do i even need to explain? the blatant racism, the large age gap, the storytelling was just awful, and overall just a waste of time to watch.
-
16. Ani ni Aisaresugite Komattemasu
Japanese Drama - 2017, 5 episodes
WHAT WAS THIS!?!?!? there's a movie that actually has the ending to this show, but i only watched it because i saw an edit on youtube of the two and i thought it was cute........ this show was outright creepy and the main reason why i haven't seen many japanese shows/dramas at all. the chemistry was there, but there should not have been any in the first place. maybe it's because of the culture i'm from, but once you accept someone as your sibling (cousins included since they're just extended siblings), having any romantic/sexual thoughts for them is gross. this show is gross. otherwise, the plot was cringe, characters were annoying, and it honestly reminds me of a wattpad fanfic. i don't hate this show, but ew.
on another note, congrats to the two leads for getting married and their first child! as gross this show is, it brought two people together, who did have good chemistry on the show.