A New Wave of Talent: Discovering the Rising Stars of South Korea
When I first started watching dramas, I treated every drama like the holy grail. Through watching more dramas, it has become easier to differentiate between the good, the average, and the boring dramas. A slew of new K-dramas aired this year, but unfortunately for me, I’m now a more seasoned viewer and am super quick to judge a drama. These are all my own opinions and I respect your opinions. Here are six popular K-dramas (which aired and ended in 2017) that I personally disliked. Please don’t kill me. Jebal…
Note: I prefer 60-minute episodes, so when I say one episode or sixteen episodes, I am referring to episodes that are 60 minutes in length.
*minor spoilers ahead for: Strong Woman Do Bong Soon, Suspicious Partner, Fight For My Way, While You Were Sleeping, School 2017, and Mad Dog -- you’ve been warned*
Bring it on. I am ready to get roasted for roasting your favorite K-dramas.
Strong Woman Do Bong Soon
MDL rating: 8.7 (rated by 13,821 users)
My rating: 6.0
How the heck does this drama have an 8.7 rating here on MDL? Strong Woman Do Bong Soon was my first ongoing drama and from it, I learned the deadly dangers of waiting an entire week for new episodes. Sure, the first couple episodes of SWDBS were exciting, but the plot quickly fizzled away into nothingness.
The only reason I completed this drama and gave it a 6.0 (a very generous rating for this drama) was because of the main pairing. I agree that their chemistry was through the roof, but it was a waste because of the terrible plot. There are many loopholes in the whole ‘physical strength’ idea and the mystery/kidnapping plot was just plain lazy writing. Not to mention that we have a bunch of useless side characters. Go ahead and fight me. I have my reasons for disliking this drama.
Bong Bong + Min Min = GOALS
Suspicious Partner
MDL rating: 8.4 (rated by 6,820 users)
My rating: 7.0
Just to clarify, I love Ji Chang Wook. I fell in love with him in Healer and am still debating whether or not to start Empress Ki (maybe I’ll binge it over Christmas break… we’ll see ^_^). However, Suspicious Partner was a mess. The cast did a pretty good job, but once again I’m blaming writer-nim for ruining the drama. I have a soft spot for crime/mystery dramas. A good one can make me ponder for days. Unfortunately for this drama, it focused on the less appealing storyline: the romance.
The romance went back and forth in the middle and the interesting crime storyline got very little development. Suspicious Partner started off okay, but it quickly slowed down and lost its initial charm. I think this drama would’ve been better if it had been a 16-episode drama instead of a 20-episode one. This could’ve helped make the drama feel less repetitive. Watch this if you’re thirsty for Ji Chang Wook, but it’s not a must watch, at least in my books.
Too bad we couldn't get more of this...
Fight For My Way
MDL rating: 8.6 (rated by 7,175 users)
My rating: 6.0
I almost dropped this drama, but stayed because of the cast (I know, how odd of me. I almost never watch dramas just for the cast xD). This drama was pretty bad. It’s so bad that I've already forgotten most of it. All I remember is that we have a group of friends who try to live their dreams.
From the get-go, I had a feeling that this drama would be a miss for me, but I stuck to it just to see if the way things turned out would be interesting. It wasn’t. No idea how the writer made this drama stretch out for a whole 16 episodes, but gosh it was boring af. The acting wasn’t even that good… I’m still making excuses to this day as to why I watched the whole thing.
While You Were Sleeping
MDL rating: 8.9 (rated by 5,349 users)
My rating: 5.0 (dropped halfway and browsed the finale)
Warning: rant coming up.
I present to you all the biggest letdown of 2017 after The Bride of Habaek. If you follow me in the feeds, you’ll know how much I disliked this drama. I usually don’t rate dropped dramas, but I wanted to pull this drama down from its 9.0 rating so much that I gave it a 5.0 (in my opinion very well deserved). I know-- I’m so petty. xD No offense to any fans, but all the positive reviews and comments about WYWS make me laugh out loud.
Some viewers praised the main characters and the unique plot, and I’m just here wondering if we watched the same show. There is literally no character development whatsoever and the plot is hella repetitive. Every single time a person has a dream, I swear I know how things are going to end. Here’s what one MDL user posted and I agree 100%:
“This drama is essentially a repetition of four steps:
1. One of the MCs (HJ, JC, or WT) gets a dream in which one of them gets hurt.
2. Everyone tries to prevent the dream from happening.
3. The dream happens.
4. Despite that, everyone is okay.”
So how in the world does this boring drama still have an 8.9 rating on MDL? I agree that the cinematography is beautiful, but there is no real plot and Lee Jong Suk and Suzy have the chemistry of a rock (shipped her way more with Woo Tak). I don’t exactly hate this drama, but I think I stacked up my expectations too high, so that’s probably why it turned out so bad for me. Aigoo, I used to be a big fan of LJS, but now I’m second guessing why he’s so popular, lmao. The problem is that he always picks roles that are very similar, but that’s a debate for another day. ;-)
Such beautiful cinematography... wasted.
School 2017
MDL rating: 8.3 (rated by 3,871 users)
My rating: 7.0
Uhh, this drama was pretty boring? Among all the school dramas I’ve watched, School 2017 is on the weaker side and I don’t understand the high MDL rating. The premise of this drama is catching Student X who is trying to troll the principal. This plot gets no development and just repeats itself.
School 2017 in a nutshell:
Step 1: Student X does something bad to the school.
Step 2: the principal tries to catch the culprit, but doesn’t succeed because he doesn’t know who the culprit is.
Step 3: Student X almost gets caught, but manages to escape unscathed.
Step 4: repeat steps 1 - 3.
The only reason I stayed was because of the cute relationship between the main characters, but I was hoping to see more plot development, which we clearly did not get.
Mad Dog
MDL rating: 8.5 (rated by 539 users)
My rating: N/A (dropped at episode 8; I would probably rate it around a 6.0)
Woo Do Hwan is life. He totally stole the show (and my heart) in Save Me, so I started Mad Dog as soon as it aired. Turns out, the show is hella boring. Boring as in nothing really happens. I have countless examples of dramas with a star-studded cast that I dropped because of the poor plot, and Mad Dog is definitely one of them. I adore Woo Do Hwan and I also love Yoo Ji Tae and Jo Jae Yun, but I barely slugged through each episode. Each episode is boring, and then something slightly exciting happens in the last few minutes.
I really wanted to love Mad Dog, but it was too difficult for me to continue watching. However, I am tempted to give it another go because of Woo Do Hwan. ;-))) In my opinion, Squad 38 was a much better white-collar crime drama. Looking forward to Woo Do Hwan’s next project…
Adorable ^_^
There you go! Six popular 2017 K-dramas that I disliked, also known as the “Six Dragons That Did Not Fly” (at least for me).
Were there any popular K-dramas this year that let you down?
Peace out. ;-)
