As Summer officially drew to a close, I thought I would take this time to pay my tributes to the Kdramas that have kept me entertained during my 3 months of summer vacation. Let the summer drama recap start!
*Please note that there is no specific reasoning behind the ordering of this list. I wrote my list as I remembered the dramas that I have watched.*
Producer:
Cast: I was compelled to watch Producer because of the star-studded cast. They had one of my all time favorite actresses, Gong Hyo Jin, the trending Kim Soo Hyun, and IU for the mains.
Plot: The drama has a nice plot going, where a guy starts working for a big Korean broadcasting station and he works with his team to save a dying variety show, 2 Days & 1 Night. It’s a compact 12 episode drama.
Rating: Producer gave off a very different feel from the typical Kdramas because they broke the third wall very often. The characters spoke directly to the camera very often as if they were expressing themselves to the audience. This is very similar to the American TV series, The Office, or like the small clips at the end of the episodes of You Who Came from the Stars. Despite the cast and unique layout, I have to admit that Producer did not live up to its hype and the awards that it had won. Compared to some of the better dramas out there, Producer felt a little lacking and it’s hard for me to pinpoint exactly where. 7/10
Warm and Cozy:
Cast: Another drama with a very compelling cast, Kang Sora, Yoon Yeon Sook (who is the main male lead of a drama for the first time, so I am hella excited), B1A4’s Jin Young. Also, there are cameos from So Ji Sub and SNSD’s Seohyun.
Plot: A girl is fired from her job and looses her life savings because it was foolishly spent on a rundown cottage on Jeju Island. She moves to Jeju in hopes of making over the cottage into a successful cafe. The restaurant across from her cottage is owned by a playboy chaebol and he offers to help the penny-less girl because he is under the impression that she only has a few more months to live from terminal illness.
Rating: This is a very light 16 episode romcom with your typical lover’s quarrels in the beginning and then the gradual process of realizing that they are in actually madly in love. It’s a bit disappointing because I had higher expectations for a Hong Sisters’ drama. It did not meet the level of the other Hong Sisters dramas, like You’re Beautiful, The Greatest Love, or Master’s Sun for me. I would recommend this if you are looking something light and silly to pass time. 7.5/10
The Time That We Were Not in Love:
Cast: Ha Ji Won (Yassss, I loved this girl since her Secret Garden days), Lee Jin Wook, Yoon Gyun Sang, and Infinite’s L- all 3 of them are such cuties, so if you are all in for the eye-candy give this drama a go.
Plot: A girl and a boy has been very close friends since their childhood. They hold feelings for each other, but they just never had the proper timing to start a romantic relationship. These 16 episodes will show you their romantic journey.
Rating: The drama had a very nice start and it was filled with its share of sweet and romantic moments. Towards the latter half of the drama, I disliked the main girl for being indecisive, pabo, and dragging shit out. Like, where’s my strong and kickass Ha Ji Won at?5.5/10
Scholar Who Walks the Night:
Cast: Lee Joong Ki (need I say more? no, I didn’t think so ❤ ❤ ❤ ), TVXQ’s Changmin, Lee Soo Hyuk, Lee Hyun Woon, Lee Yoo Bi, Kim So Eun. Again, an amazing lineup of eye-candy.
Plot: A man has the people that he cares about the most taken away and is turned into a vampire by a evil under-lord vampire. Many many many years pass by and the man is still plotting a way to over turn the power of the evil under-lord vampire. He meets and receives the help of a boy who is actually a girl in disguise.
Rating: I have yet to finished the 20 episodes, but it’s completely all because of my time restraints and nothing to do with the drama itself. There is a lot of action and strong feels interlaced into the drama. Also, I feel the need to point out Joong Ki’s overly done vampire make-up…why, Kdrama make-up artist, how could you? Like it was fine for the drama poster, but for whole scenes and episodes of smokey eye make-up and blood-red tinted lips on Joong Ki- I reject! 8/10
EXO Next Door:
Cast: EXO (as a EXO fan I couldn’t pass up this short series), Moon Ga Young (so jealous of this girl, she must of saved a village in her past life or something)
Plot: EXO has moved in next door to a EXO fangirl, who becomes their house-cleaner. The EXO members have been experiencing bad luck and the band leader is here to find his good luck charm to break the curse. The band leader shares childhood memories with the fangirl next door, but she doesn’t remember.
Rating: Expect to see exactly what you would from a short series about a K-pop group moving in next door. A lot of silliness and cheesiness. Each 16 episodes ranges about 10 minutes. I enjoyed it because each episode cracked me up and it passed my time enjoyably. The thing I loved the most from this series was the interactions between Sehun and the fangirl’s brother. They were comedy gold *wipes my tears from extreme laughter*. 8.6/10
Hello Monster/I Remember You:
Cast: Jang Na Ra, Seo In Guk, Lee Chun Hee, Park Bo Gum, EXO’s DO. I’m not sure if the trend is apparent to you guys yet, but I like dramas with good-looking casts.
Plot: A boy is seen as a monster in his father eyes. His father is murdered and his little brother goes missing. When the boy grows up, he is determined to find his father’s murderer and his little brother. He joins team with the police force, where his past stalker/secret admirer is coincidentally apart of as a detective.
Rating: Hello Monster is one of the better summer dramas that aired and it had the perfect mixture of thrill, mystery, suspense, romance, and comedy. This dramas is definitely a yes! 8.8/10
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Of course, there are plenty more summer 2015 dramas other than the ones I have listed above. Below are the dramas that I couldn’t get myself to finish or have’t gotten around to starting. I didn’t given them a numerical ratings because I felt that I have not watched enough or am too biased to give one. If only I can be a full-time professional drama-watcher, so I can watch everything and give my truthful rating to viewers.
High Society:
Cast: Afterschool’s Uee, Sung Joon, ZE:A’s Park Hyung Sik.
Plot: This drama had a pretty interesting plot that resembled a little bit of The Heirs. A second generation chaebol girl is disguised as a part-time employee of a supermarket. She begins to have feelings for the manager of the supermarket who seems like a wealthy, hardworking, and smart man. The supermarket manager is actually not wealthy, but is setting his eyes on the chaebol girl because he wants to be a part of the high society.
The cast is a very nice-looking bunch. The reason why I didn’t get around to watching more episodes was because I really didn’t like that the main guy was, to put it frankly, a gold digger.
Oh My Ghostess:
Cast: Park Bo Young, Kim Suel Gi, Cho Jung Seok, Lim Ju Hwan.
Plot: A girl is a assistant cook that can see ghosts and gets possessed by a seductive women ghost. While possessed by the ghost, the girl seduces the chef who she has always admired against her will.
I’ve heard amazing things about this drama and I like Park Bo Young, so I would definitely give this one a go once I free up more time.
(Update: I’ve gotten around to watching Oh My Ghostess and finished and have no regrets, except for not watching this earlier. I give this gem a 8.9/10)
Mask:
Cast: Soo Ae, Joo Ji Hoon, Yeon Jeong Hun, Infinite’s Zoya, Yo Yoon Woo.
Plot: A woman in financial difficulty lives as a wealthy women that looks just like her. A chaebol finds that the women is different from other wealthy women and begins falling for her.
This is another drama that I heard had raving reviews, so I have already place it on my To-Watch-List.
(Update: I marathoned Mask in 5 days and I suggest you all to hurry and do the same. I give this game changer a 9.3/10)
Orange Marmalade:
Cast: Yeo Jin Goo, AOA’s Seol Hyun, CNBlue’s Lee Jong Hyun.
Plot: In a world where vampires and human co-exist, a vampire girl pretends to be a human. She falls in love with a human, but she can’t be with him because he hates vampires for killing his entire family.
The treatment that the second lead received was just so heartbreaking that I couldn’t continue watching. Also, around the middle, they time switched the series to the historical period. That’s exactly where I stopped and placed this series on my abandoned list.
Yong Pal:
Cast: Moon Joo Won, Kim Tae Hee, Stephanie Lee.
Plot: A resident surgeon secretly takes on private patients that are criminals to make money in order to save up to treat his little sister’s illness. The hospital chief discovers the resident’s secret and blackmails him into caring for a VIP patient, who the hospital is intentionally putting in a coma state. The resident grows feelings for the VIP patient and tries to rescue her.
This drama started off great with medical suspense and all, and I just ❤ ❤ ❤ Moon Joo Won. However, I just couldn’t get myself to see the main girl in a favorable light. Sometimes you just don’t like someone for no reason at all and this is one of those times for me. Thus, I dropped the series when the main couple got together.
Sensory Couple/The Girl Who Sees Smells:
Cast: JYJ’s Yoo Chun, Shin Se Kyung, Nam Gung Min.
Plot: Due to a murder case, a man looses his younger sister, as well as his sense to feel pain. A woman, also a victim of the same murder case, survives the attack, but wakes up with the ability to see smells. She uses her ability to help the man, who became a cop, in solving his cases.
I have only watched the first episode of Sensory Couple and I get the feeling that this will be a very cute and funny drama. I might pick this up again.
Who Are You: School 2015:
Cast: Kim So Hyun, Nam Joo Hyuk, BToB’s Sung Jae,
Plot: A popular girl at a prestigious private school goes missing and looses her memory. No one knows that she did not loose her memory, but that she is actually just a look-alike, whose own life consists of severe bullying.
I just wasn’t feeling the plot for this one. Maybe I’ve watched too much identity-switching dramas and I need a new plot to work with.
I hope that you found my review of the summer 2015 dramas enlightening and keep in mind that all of these are my opinions. We all have different tastes in dramas, like my friend and I- I love the dramas that she hates and I hate the dramas that she loves.
Let me know what you guys think!
The Crazy and Lazy 