I really enjoyed the first 12 episodes and then I guess the writers said, "Screw that! All the previous episodes don't mean a damn thang! Let's try something else." Don't get me wrong! I don't mind unconventional endings but this sucked. I was really let down. It was as if all the drama and shit that happened in the previous episodes was for nothing. Zilch. Zero. Nada. I propose a 15th episode where the supporting cast members (minus the one who was killed) from the previous episodes converge on Taipei and beat the living shit out of the romantic leads, a gesture symbolizing the anger fans have towards the writers, after receiving no return on their emotional investment in this show.
Oh yeah! If hot Taiwanese women think Jerry Huang is good looking then I'm living in the wrong fuckin' country! A one-way ticket to Taiwan, please!

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Unfortunately for Lee Min Ho, he looked much older than the high schooler he was attempting to portray and his hairstyle was ridiculous, an obvious attempt to make him appear youthful but a distraction throughout most of the episodes. He seemed overly committed to the role of F4's leader, Jun Pyo -- a rich, arrogant asshole with mommy issues and at no time did I root for him to be with Jan-Di. If I were her parents I wouldn't want my daughter anywhere near an unstable prick subject to violent outbursts. I mean, if this show is a reflection in any way of South Korea's culture at large than the entire country is filled with a bunch of romantic bullies! Jun Pyo's infantilizing treatment (a paternalistic father knows what's best for the child) of Jan-Di was difficult to watch but what was even more difficult to watch was her suffer from a kind of Stockholm Syndrome where the victim identifies with her attacker.

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I'm a fan of Aaron Yan. I really am but I'm not a fan of the characters he plays in these T-dramas, though he's very convincing. I don't like it when the male lead treats his love interest as a child rather than an equal, masking it as romance and in the name of love.
Anywho, I understand that these shows are formatted to be watched on a weekly basis (which makes binge watching them more difficult with numerous recaps) hence the butt load of flashbacks. However, I have to question the producers of this show, when the flashbacks dominate the series, seemingly for the female lead's benefit and not the viewers. It's as though the director felt that viewers needed their hands held week after week trying to recover from bouts of amnesia, not being able to recall episodes the week prior.
Joanne Tseng is beautiful but she should not have been cast as the romantic lead in this show. Her facial expressions seemed to convey more of a discomfort rather than a desire to be with Yan, robbing their scenes of the necessary chemistry to sustain my interest in their relationship.
I did enjoy the corporate drama and that it was easy to digest but the ending was predictable and therefore anticlimactic.
I'm in love with Lene Lai. I was team Elsa the entire time.
In addition, I watch all my Asian dramas on Netflix and just found out that they cut the black face scene in episode 12, which was very offensive. I learned about the black face scene on another website's review of the Refresh Man and I saw the actual scene on YouTube. Netflix should NOT be commended for not showing the scene because they still stream the series that produced it in the first place! ASSHOLES!!!!

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An Unimaginative Whodunit Which Ultimately Left Me Asking Who Cares?

Kim Seo Hyung (Jeong Seo Hyun) was the only likable character I could actually root for in 'Mine'. Otherwise, I had little to no empathy for the other cast of characters. She made the often sluggish 16 episode journey tolerable after I was tempted numerous times to tap out early on--more specifically during the miscarriage scene. I'm sure there are other equally impactful but less graphic ways to express a mother's pain and anguish of suddenly losing her child.
And I know it's always a hard sell to get working-class viewers to care about the problems of the wealthy, powerful, and privileged. But this K-drama (like many of its predecessors) seemed to double down on its extravagance, affluence, and lavish living while physically and verbally abusing staff which felt gratuitous and pointless in a series that was 8 episodes too long.

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Since this was the very first Taiwanese dramedy I watched I won't shit all over it. In fact, this show taught me not only how to watch and what to expect from other T-dramedies, but that I shouldn't review them using American standards to avoid being overly critical. I've also found that translation is very important when there's a language barrier. Sometimes the translation can be too literal and the context of a scene has been misinterpreted.
However, for TTV shows like these, if you've seen one...
They're predictable, cookie-cutter affairs that are ripe with mellow-drama, Disney-style humor, and OTT performances, which is what they're supposed to be. Formulaic.
TaiwaneseTV producers know all too well who the hell their target audience is and more importantly that they're willing to spend money on products that are carefully displayed (product placement) throughout the episodes.
Anywho, what I find entertaining and interesting about these shows is how Taiwanese culture defines romance and gender roles.
Unfortunately for Aaron Yan's character, Yi Qi, I was introduced to the role of the romantic male lead for the first time or who I would come to know as the lead asshole -- an arrogant, condescending prick who gets a free pass for being a dick because he has mommy issues. Of course, he's good looking, earns a lot of money and is well educated so he knows better than everybody else, meaning he has the power. He's in control. In most of the TTV dramedies I've watched, this has been the case.
Enter Puff Kuo's character, Liang Liang, who I absolutely adored. Her eyes are amazing. I mean, why else would I give a rat's ass that her goldfish died. Liang Liang is so likable to the point that I felt that no man deserved her attention, much less her affection. I was hoping at some point early on that the writers would have her character exhibit more independence and kickassery. But after watching all 39 episodes of this show I've learned, sadly, that that type of female character is not popular.

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I remember being so disappointed, so angry after binge-watching all 16 episodes of Strong Woman Do Bong Soon that I swore I wouldn't watch any more romantic comedies ever again. Not that I was a hopeless romantic, to begin with. I mean, I can tolerate romance in bite-size portions but not when it's being force-fed in nearly every scene while forcing the rest of the series to take a backseat as if nothing else of consequence is happening.
Then I came across Ms. Temper &Nam Jung Gi (titled My Horrible Boss on Netflix) and decided I would take a chance.  
I'm so glad I did.
From the moment I saw Yo Won Lee, I was hooked. There was no turning back. She is the default, strong-female-lead who feels no need to apologize to the world of men for being a woman. Her character, Ms. Ok, may struggle--popularity-wise--against the seemingly endless stream of subordinate, submissive, and co-dependent types of female leads that readily appear throughout all of Asian television, but the fact that shows like Ms. Temper... were even produced gives me hope that times "are a-changin'". 
I really loved the fact that romance was not the priority in this K-drama but that the leads were allowed to let their attraction to each other happen more naturally. The supporting cast was excellent as well. I would definitely recommend watching this show if you're a fan who values quality--great story that's easy to digest, great performances and a real demonstration of "girl power" --over quantity--stacking the deck with eye candy in the hopes of distracting away from a  cookie cutter romance that ultimately defeats the theme of the show. Strong woman? I don't think so.

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An Overdose Of Romance In An Otherwise Incomplete Murder/Mystery

I wanted to enjoy 'You Are My Spring' a lot more than just the sporadic, individually solid performances by the leads, and certain ones in the supporting cast were able to muster, barely keeping this Kdrama from flatlining.

And it's not that the characters weren't likable. They were. The chemistry between the leads Kang Da-Jeong (Seo Hyun-jin) and Ju Yeong-do (Kim Dong-Wook) was unmistakable in the early episodes but then their relationship seemed to devolve into a sort of parody of angsty teen, goo-goo eyed cringe and annoyance.

I was also upset that Ian Chase (Yoon Park) seemed to get a free pass after choking Da-Jeong. Her reasoning for not reporting him was also suspect, to say the least. The man was obviously a danger to himself and others and for Da-Jeong not to report him did not seem realistic.

And I felt that 'You Are My Spring' wanted to say something profound about mental health without significantly challenging the ongoing stigma that surrounds those who suffer from mental illness, especially in a country with extremely high suicide rates. Instead, it gets bogged down with product placement and attractive, well-dressed actors portraying underdeveloped characters who occasionally offer life-affirming advice to each other and bits of comic relief meant to counteract the brutal murders and suicide that ultimately get sacrificed for the sake of romance.

Overall, 'You Are My Spring' felt unfinished with the exception of the predictable romantic coupling. Yet, the fate of Ian Chase is left unanswered and I was never convinced that he was a brain surgeon to begin with. There were just too many moving parts in this Kdrama.

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***WARNING***
I'm not a fan whatsoever of Chris Wang's acting. Just puttin' that out there. It doesn't matter what T-dramedy he's in. I know I can expect to retch, roll my eyes, and cringe, in varying amounts depending on if he's cast as the romantic lead, supporting role, or just making a guest appearance.
Unfortunately, he was cast as the romantic male lead, Ke Wei Xiang in Inborn Pair, where his facial expressions seem to range from a happy-go-lucky-dumbass to a completely-clueless-dumbass, mouth open, with a look of mild to severe constipation in between.
I don't know. Maybe it's just me.
I mean, as the viewing audience we're already expected to overlook a lot of the technical shortcomings (scenes with no continuity where the actor will be shown smiling from one angle but crying from another), suspend our disbelief when it comes to the show's premise we know is not likely to occur in the real world in order to enjoy these TTV romcoms. But when you have an actor like Chris Wang giving such a robotic performance, never closing the emotional distance needed for me to sympathize with his character at any time, the show became a chore to watch.
Personally, I don't believe 84 episodes were needed to tell us that the romantic leads would eventually end up together.
But it's the journey that counts, not the destination. Right?
Yeah, whatever.
I think the producers of this show were actually trying to convince themselves that Ke Wei Xiang and Song Yi Jie (Annie Chen) were meant to be together, despite being manipulated into marriage.
Needless to say, I didn't buy it.
A lot of their "chemistry" was paper thin, failing to make the transition from script to screen. What I found problematic about Ke Wei Xiang was that he was near perfect and whatever character flaws he possessed were not deal breakers. And really there was no logical reason for Wei Xiang not to be with Luo Yun (Or more likely why she would want to be with a clingy, insecure momma's boy. But then Pops Luo brought her back to reality. I'm not saying I approve of his method but I like the results. I just wished somebody would've done the same for Yi Jie).
I got far more entertainment mileage from the rest of the supporting cast with all their flaws, shortcomings and far more interesting stories instead of Wei Xiang and Yi Jie's who-gives-a-shit romance. Still. Eighty-four episodes? WTF?
I LOVE YOU Puff Kuo, Jenna Wang, Jennifer Hong, Annie Chen, and Fu Yin in that order.

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Some uncomfortable truths about cheating

Cheating on a spouse requires a certain amount of narcissism--an exaggerated sense of self-importance--and cheating doesn't "just happen" no matter how much cheaters want to justify basically ripping out the heart of the one they claim to love and wiping their ass with it. There is no excuse for cheating and many marriages do not survive a casual extra-marital hook-up much less an affair that lasts for any length of time which I think makes 'Love (ft. Marriage and Divorce)' season one a difficult watch for some viewers because the subject matter may hit a little too close to home.

Marriage is an extremely messy, complex relationship, especially where children are concerned because there are different expectations for husbands and wives and Korean culture is no different. But 'L(fMaD)' sn 1 misses an opportunity to fully examine the gender roles, double standards, and the damage a male-dominated patriarchal society continues to inflict on women in favor of men.

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What's uncanny about 'The Uncanny Counter' is how good it is

I didn't expect to enjoy 'The Uncanny Counter' as much as I did. The series didn't take itself too seriously and the performances were solid all around. I mean, a show about demon hunting is not exactly an original concept treading over familiar territory but the characters are just so gosh darn likable! The fight scenes were well-choreographed, keeping my suspension of disbelief to a minimum, and the season 1 finale was very satisfying. As always, I'm not a fan of the 16 episodes format on Netflix with a run-time of a little over an hour for each episode and padding them with flashbacks among other things. But it proved not to be a deal-breaker...this time. I'm looking forward to season 2.

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