For the past two years, I used to literally count down to June 30th because I'd be so excited to write this annual post and talk about the brilliant dramas released during the first half of the year. In 2020, however, I've been stressing myself out instead because I wasn't even sure whether I could come up with five dramas that were good enough for me to discuss. Offhand, there were only two I loved and wanted to discuss, but I thought a top two list would be rather sad, so I've done some digging through my watch history and miraculously came up with five that I genuinely appreciate. Some of these dramas are in fact better than others, so I'll list them loosely from most amazing to least amazing (but still good enough to make the list).

Without a doubt, this is my absolute favorite drama to come out this year. I hadn't actually planned on watching it originally, but the draw of the Reply series writer and Jo Jung-suk were enough to pull me in after about two weeks of it airing. Of course, the plan was to watch it casually, which I did for a few episodes, but soon enough each episode became the highlight of my week, an event I looked forward to every Thursday after work. It physically hurt me that this drama only aired once a week (but considering each episode is one and a half hours long, perhaps that was actually a good thing). The main and supporting characters in this drama are brilliant, and I love how they interact together, as well as how the writer really brings out the joys and sorrows of humanity through these doctors, nurses, and residents who are more than just their jobs. I adore everyone in this drama and I hope they're happy forever.

There are only twelve episodes in the season, and unexpectedly, not everything wrapped up in episode twelve — apparently I was unaware of the fact that a second season was basically guaranteed before this drama even began, so I'm happy to say we'll be seeing this beloved cast again in 2021!

This drama was such an unexpectedly delightful surprise. My friends and I were ooh-ing and aah-ing over the sexy poster before this drama even aired, but episode one veritably blew me away with its bold lead characters and the arc of glorious betrayal depicted right off the bat in episode one. Hyena is a legal drama with a heavy side of one of a kind hate-to-love romance (extra steam please). The plot is rather simple if you stop and think about it, but what you're watching this for is the comedy as well as the clash of wills between the lead characters, one a successful, high-powered lawyer, the other a more gangster-like lawyer (I say this with the greatest admiration) who will stop at nothing to get her way in court. This isn't a drama I'll be forgetting anytime soon.

If you told me a couple weeks ago that Mystic Pop-up Bar would be third on this list (or even make this list at all), I would've laughed and barred you from my blog. I watched the first episode on a whim because it was on Netflix, and wow that was boring — I dropped it almost immediately. But after all twelve episodes aired, everyone I knew was raving about it, so I watched the second episode, only to be bored out of my mind once more. It just reminded me too much of Hotel del Luna - a drama I despise - and nothing about Mystic Pop-up Bar seemed promising enough for me to continue watching. However, come Independence Day weekend, I gave it one last try...and loved it. The characters grew on me and I wanted them to all have happily ever afters, the backstory really started coming into play in interesting ways, and lo and behold, I became invested (something that's becoming more rare nowadays). This isn't a fast paced drama, but if you're willing to sit in there and watch a truly beautiful story unfold - featuring a delightful and heart hurting pair of star-crossed lovers - then you're in for a treat.

This is definitely not the sort of drama that I usually watch, and yet I am impressed. I randomly decided to watch this because Kim Ji-seok was wonderful in I Need Romance 2 and Top Star Yoo-baek and I was excited to see more of him, and also of course because Han Ye-ri is an amazing actress. My Unfamiliar Family is a really well done drama dealing with mature topics regarding a single family. This is another drama with an amazing cast, and it deals with topics like cheating, sibling relationships, infertility, homophobia and coming out, and so many other things that may make one's familiar family seem unfamiliar. There's a lot of love throughout this drama, and it's beautiful to watch, but it's certainly not something to pick up if you're looking for something cute and fluffy, because this gets deep (although yes, just like every other drama on this list, there is romance).

Now, if you are in the mood for something cute and fluffy, then Dinner Mate is the drama for you. I was psyched for this solely because I am a huge Song Seung-heon fan (plus the drama poster was ridiculously cute and fancy), and thankfully it didn't disappoint! This drama was adorable right from the beginning, and though we're nearing the end, the leads are still so precious that I absolutely want to pinch both their cheeks. This is a drama about getting over painful first loves and opening yourself up to love again, while also dealing with some mental health issues since the male lead is a psychiatrist. Dinner Mate is a primarily soft drama with just enough of an antagonist to keep things interesting — some of the highlights are the Kim Jung-hyun cameo in episode one (which is exciting if you've watched Crash Landing on You) as well as a particularly funny reference to CLOY in a later episode.

I'm not the biggest gamer, but I love my Switch so so much and have discovered some really cool games despite how rarely I play. Hopefully this'll be a nice break from my usual kdrama and book posts — and hopefully it'll help you discover some wonderful games to check out!

Night in the Woods is the second game I bought for my Switch, and probably my favorite one, to be honest. The premise is that the main character Mae - your avatar - has returned home halfway through college, and nobody understands why. This means living back in your parents' home, meeting up with old friends, and so many curious people wondering why you're doing what you're doing. It's a very chill game for the most part, and although it's essentially a story, you're living it through the actions of your character, moving around the town, and talking to different people. The friendships built feel genuine, and many of the scenes are extremely relatable, especially if you're a university student. I also love that this game isn't just reading dialogue like many story-driven games; it's actually moving your character around, solving puzzles and figuring things out, while also giving you the freedom to explore and play music with your bandmates, for example, if you want a break from the main storyline. Also, the story itself, when the game is all said and done, is actually pretty crazy — and I mean that in the best way possible. There are some very unexpected plot twists toward the end, and I may or may not have cried at all the love.

Have I played Broken Sword 1-4? Unfortunately not. Do I still adore The Serpent's Curse despite that? Absolutely.

I adore solving fictional mysteries - when I was younger, my favorite game on the Leapfrog Didj (actually a very cool system, despite what you'd think) was Nancy Drew: The Mystery in the Hollywood Hills - and so of course this game was right up my alley. It's a point-and-click style game, which is new to me on a console like the Switch, considering I usually play action games such as Mario and Spongebob on consoles and typically think of point-and-click games as something seen more on phones and PC games. But this game works beautifully on the Switch, and I am still blown away by how intricate the story was and how much fun it was to play! The game starts out with a simple murder in an art gallery, but the more you dig into the murder, the crazier things become. I don't want to spoil anything because the mystery is so cool, but suffice it to say that everything eventually boils down to an epic fight between good and evil. The art is gorgeous, and the characters are very interesting and actually quite memorable. I also love how there's so much backstory alluded to between several of the characters — if the first four games were available on Switch as well, you know I'd play them immediately.

This one will come as a surprise to absolutely no one (except myself). I have never played Animal Crossing before in my life, and honestly, wasn't even sure I'd get the game when it came out. And then, of course, they came out with the ridiculously pretty Animal Crossing edition Nintendo Switch, which is why I'm sitting here in quarantine with two Switches under my roof. At that point, yeah, I was pretty on board with getting the game as well the day it came out.

Now, Animal Crossing is definitely not my usual sort of game, and I did not expect to love it. So color me surprised when it's all I did for the first two weeks after it came out. To this date, I have played it longer than I have played any other game on my system (and maybe more than I've played all of them combined as well). It's a tad difficult to describe the game, but basically, you have decided to live on a deserted island (this is the New Horizons edition), only to find out later that this costs money, and now you're in debt to a Mr. Tom Nook. So you have to earn money to pay it off, and then you can upgrade your tent to a small house, but now you're in debt again so you repeat the cycle. This basically happens over and over again throughout the course of the game, which is nice because it provides some simple but necessary goals to keep the game entertaining. While this cycle continues, you invite neighbors to your island, decorate the rooms in your house, and also decorate the island and turn it into your perfect, aesthetic utopia. There's so much more to it - seasonal activities; donating to and expanding your museum; visiting other islands, including those of your real life friends, creating outfits and art, etc. - but that's the game in a (very small) nutshell. It's actually crazy addicting — if I sit down to play, I'm probably going to stay for at least 2-4 hours, if not more (which is why I began listening to audiobooks while playing after a certain point). It's also especially nice during quarantine because it kind of feels like you're outside even when you can't go outside.

Social media low key ruined the game for me though — when other people's islands are so pretty and organized in a way that mine will never be, what even is the point of playing? That plus my short attention span meant I took a couple months break from the game, but I went back in the other day and was surprised to find that it's still fun to visit my island! My favorite thing about this game is probably that you can play it at your own pace, and that it never ends — you can take however many breaks you want because your island will always be there. You just have to stomp on all the cockroaches that have decided to take over your home in your absence. Re-visiting Sanditon (that's my island!) last week truly did feel a bit like coming back home.

Lately I have been having the hardest time finding backlist dramas to binge and love. I feel like I'm running out of good dramas to watch! While this is a pity for me, it means I have tons of dramas to shout at you lot about. Of course, I've been thinking about some dramas more than others lately, so those are the ones I'm going to talk about. If you want any other recommendations, feel free to let me know what kind of drama you're looking for down in the comments!

Of course I'm going to start with my favorite drama of all time (and that's saying something considering I've watched 235 dramas). I've never watched a drama like this with such stellar writing and banter between its characters, such brilliant character arcs that aren't limited to just the leads, and a hate-to-love romance I cannot stop thinking about despite it being at least half a year since I first watched City Hall. This drama is a delight from episode one, but there's so much growth experienced in each episode that by the end of the series, you won't even recognize the beginning. Cha Seung-won and Kim Sun-a play the main couple in this drama, and I can honestly say that they are perfect. The drama and its bloopers are a delight to behold, but if I had to pick a favorite scene, it would be the tango scene (those who've seen this drama, you know what I'm talking about) — the angst is fiery and I swoon just thinking about it. I'm currently rewatching the drama and I think the next episode is the tango one, so I'm excited!

I discovered this drama exactly one week after finishing City Hall. I started it because I was feeling lost without any more City Hall episodes, and so I started The Greatest Love in a desperate attempt to feel a similar high since it had the same lead actor, Cha Seung-won. Much to my surprise, it really delivered, and I became a huge Cha Seung-won fan! The plot is very different from City Hall - it's entirely rom-com, whereas City Hall is rom-com intertwined with stellar political plot - but the main things to love about City Hall are present in The Greatest Love as well, i.e. wondrous, mature romance based on actual substance, wonderful writing, and of course, weird as heck male lead who has beautiful chemistry with the female lead. I'll say it now: Cha Seung-won is the king of the romantic comedy genre.

In a drama hangover after watching City Hall and The Greatest Love, I spent months scouring recommendation lists, looking for some drama, any drama, to sate my thirst for whatever type of drama these Cha Seung-won gems can be labelled as. I didn't want light, fluffy romance with no texture, I wanted hate-to-love with serious angst and maturity. I didn't just want a rom-com, but also a hefty side of plot to go with it. It took quite a bit of searching, but finally I stumbled upon a recommendation online for The King of Dramas, which apparently featured a wacky male lead who may appeal to those who loved the same in The Greatest Love. This sounded extremely promising, so with high hopes I began watching it...and fell head over heels. The romance here is between a struggling drama writer and a producer, and you get a fair bit of behind the scenes about how a drama actually gets produced. But the best part is probably the slow burn, hate-to-love; the chemistry is there beginning from episode one, but boy did they make us wait (note: I say this with utter glee). It's truly a superb drama, and one I'm so glad I was lucky enough to find.

The odder the couple, I more I adore them. [The King of Dramas]

After you watch City Hall, you'll probably spend a few months in despair over the opinion that no drama will ever live up to that one. While that is true, I can share the happy news that Lawyers of Korea comes pretty darn close. It sounds unbelievable, I know, but Lawyers of Korea features the same odd dynamic between main leads that we all loved so much in City Hall. Once again, the plot is nothing like that of City Hall, but the romance and lead characters are so similar that the dramas themselves feel similar. I only started watching this one because Ryu Soo-young - an actor I've adored since watching Nice Witch - plays a second lead, so imagine my pleasure and surprise when I watched the first episode and just knew I'd found the closest thing to City Hall.

If you know me at all, then you know I'm not one for horror films. I'll concede that being freaked out by a movie is an interesting, exhilarating feeling, but I prefer getting eight hours of peaceful sleep every night and not glancing back at my mirror every five seconds to make sure nothing odd is going on in the reflection, thank you very much. That being said, I've wanted to watch The Closet (2020) ever since I first saw the poster and viewed the trailer — and of course because Kim Nam-gil is such a fun actor and who wouldn't want to watch something he's in? Even so, I put it off for several months, because again, sleep. Eventually I gave in though, and smartly had the new Scooby Doo film lined up to watch afterwards since comedy is a brilliant foil for horror.

The premise of The Closet is a man and his daughter move to a new house in what seems to be the middle of nowhere (nothing new here). He doesn't know how to deal with his daughter without his wife, and so for the most part, the two ignore each other. The father is so uncomfortable with things that he considers sending his daughter off to a boarding school to help her acclimate to, well, her new life. Enter: the freaky closet in the child's room.

I don't typically watch horror without a good reason, and right now that reason for me is Kim Nam-gil (he plays a "ghostbuster" character that has a cool backstory that ties him closely with the main plot). Not only is he brilliant, but also his humor is the main reason I enjoyed this. I was fully prepared to be bored by this movie - I typically go in with low expectations - but to my delight, I loved it! One of my favorite things about Korean horror is that it tends to be less scary than American horror, in my opinion. Additionally, Korean horror often brings the supernatural horror aspect back to the horror that is humanity, which gives a lot more depth to the film and also hopefully means I'm not thinking about ghosts for the next three months after watching the film.

So I watched the film, was a tad scared despite playing it in broad daylight, keeping distance between myself and the screen, and making sure the door of my room was wide open, but everything was fine because I watched Scoob! after and laughed at all the corny jokes. A week passes, and I'm completely okay. Hooray, I think to myself, I watched a wonderful horror movie and survived without side effects. Then day eight comes along...and there's the nightmare. Cue sleeping with the chromecast on and jumping at shadows for the next couple days.

But I call it a success, considering I was only frightened for about three days instead of three months. The movie was such fun that I'd do it all over again too, short-term consequences notwithstanding.

Note: This post contains spoilers for the film.

I went to watch Emma with the highest of expectations, only to come home from the theater sorely disappointed.

I admit I never fully watched the trailer - I saw a bit, it looked decent, and I cut it short so I wouldn't spoil myself for the experience - but even so, my expectations were moderately high. The style of the film looked interesting, it was directed by a woman, and it claimed to be a "romantic comedy" — not a term I'd typically associate with the story, although thanks to the whimsical, matchmaking main character, there is already a lot of comedy inherent in Austen's original novel. But I took the film at its word and went in expecting an original adaptation that brings something new to the beloved story of Emma. Except it didn't do this at all, and in fact, I yawned through the whole thing.

One of my biggest complaints is that the film wasn't all that funny. You'd expect some laughs brought about by some new, contemporary insight or commentary on the novel, but instead this film keeps everything the same and only occasionally exaggerates scenes in such a way as to bring out "comedy". The older 2009 BBC adaptation of Emma features the character of Elton cooing excessively over a painting done by Emma of her friend Harriet, all in an attempt to win her favor, although Emma herself doesn't realize this until much later. This new adaption keeps this scene exactly the same, while additionally placing this painting in an obscenely ornate frame that resembles a cuckoo clock more than anything else. This conjures a few snickers from the audience, but that's about it. Similarly, when Knightley finally musters the courage to speak to Emma about his feelings and Emma finally musters the courage to listen, her nose randomly starts bleeding as they're speaking under a tree. This scene probably got the most laughs out of the audience, but I sat there wondering why this nosebleed - more applicable in a Korean drama, in my opinion - was supposed to make me laud the film when there was nevertheless nothing meaningful in that red stripe of blood running down Emma's face and into her mouth. It was an odd and unexpected choice on the director's part, and appreciable in that sense, but it didn't add to the feeling of that well-known scene in any way; in fact, the nosebleed did its best to express emotions that Emma herself simply didn't invoke.

My other main gripe with this latest adaptation is that for a film that was expected to be unique in its depiction of Emma's story, an unfortunate amount of scenes were strikingly similar to those in older adaptations. I rewatched the 2009 mini-series shortly after this film just to make sure it wasn't just my imagination, and indeed it appears that the 2009 adaptation is almost taken as canon. The painting scenes look very similar, as did the picnic scene toward the end — Frank Churchill even slouched on the picnic blanket in a way reminiscent of the older adaptation.

When all is said and done, however, the 2009 adaptation just has so much more heart than the 2020 one ever will. Granted, it has the benefit of having double the runtime, so there's more time to build out relationships and the like (although in my opinion, a more concise film should at least have the benefit of not boring its audiences to sleep). Even so, while this latest adaptation attempts to push the comedy angle and fails even in that - though I will say that Miranda Hart as Miss Bates and Bill Nighy playing Emma's father were the saving graces of this film - the four 2009 episodes actually get you invested in the characters, maintain clear chemistry between the leads (which this film certainly doesn't do), and live up to the original book in a way that is certain to have all Austen fans daydreaming about Mr. Knightley during their A.P. Biology exam (aka me a little less than seven years ago).

Having seen the 1996 and 2009 adaptations before this one, as well as Clueless, I can say with certainty that this is my least favorite out of them all.

It's come to my attention that while I do TOPFIVE Favorite Kdramas posts every year, I've never done any sort of list of books, and I've read some really good ones this year that I want to talk about. Of course, I've also read a lot of not great books this year that did not at all live up to the hype I heard about them, but that's a conversation for another day. All of the books on this list are absolutely brilliant, but I have attempted to order them from most favorite favorite to least favorite favorite, although there may be some overlap because they're all so good.

I literally just finished reading this one — I kind of like that fact that one of the last books I read in 2019 trumps all the other ones read in the past 360-some days. That's not an easy feat. This book is both huge and gorgeous (I dished out on the Waterstones Exclusive, so sue me), and I won't lie: I was very intimidated by both its size and all the love for The Night Circus by the same author, which I still haven't read. This always seemed to me a book you had to think through; it wasn't just something you could read and enjoy. Well, I was right and wrong. You don't really have to think particularly hard - the author does a great job laying everything out; the hard part is definitely in the writing of the book rather than the reading of it - but it also does provoke thought. The story itself - a meta-story of sorts - is so large in its scale, and yet also so small, that it is something you have to wade through. But in a good way — you have to experience it. It's intimidating in the way that The Book Thief is intimidating: it's big, it's fancy, and it's beyond brilliant, but every page enchants the mind. It's hard for me to describe exactly how amazing it is, but I loved every moment of reading this, from page one to the end that's really only another beginning.

I already mentioned this book in another post, but this was about to be my favorite book of the year if The Starless Sea hadn't shown up and stolen its thunder. It's a book about war and segregation and love, and as expected of Julie Berry, it's beautifully written. This aching, lovely story is further encased within the narrative of a trial going on between the gods: Aphrodite and her husband Hephaestus, as well as a few other key mythological players. This is another book that's enchanting from the first page on, and I highly recommend it if you're in the mood for a gorgeous historical fiction or romance.

I hadn't even known that Julie Berry had a book out this year, so I'm extremely glad the cover got my attention.

I also wrote a post about this book — check it out if you want to see the kinds of beautiful illustrations you can find in it plus general flailing. I randomly picked this one up in the bookstore earlier in the year, and what a great decision that turned out to be! It's so rare that I pick up a book without finding it on Goodreads first, plus I just loved it so much and it successfully drew me out of the book slump I was in at the time. It's a cute little YA fantasy novel that combines magic with science, and the romance between the characters was so soft and probably hate-to-love (it's been a while since I read it) considering how much I adore this book. And of course one of the best parts plus one of the reasons I bought it is became there are some really pretty illustrations in it that I just had to own.

This is the only picture book on the list, but it's one of my favorite finds of the year. I kid you not, I cried almost the whole way through. The reason I added the book to my TBR (to-be-read list) is because of the gorgeous art on the cover, but then I saw that the author/illustrator was a POC and I knew it was a must-read. When I finally picked up the book at the library - it was pleasantly large in shape - I was beyond in love (and in tears, of course). The art is gorgeous, and it's amazing that such a compelling story can be told without words. It was a very quick read, but it's not one you're going to forget quickly. Also the puppy is so adorable and I love soft, happy endings.

I wasn't the biggest fan of the first book in the series, City of Ghosts, so I'm very surprised that I not only read, but loved this book. I'm a fan of the author, although not everything she writes ends up becoming a favorite, or even something I enjoy (apparently I read The Near Witch sometime before I purposefully read V.E. Schwab books and I saw on Goodreads that I only gave it two stars — ouch). I hadn't even planned on reading this book, but I picked it up in the middle of my last uni semester and raced through it. I just ended up loving the Parisian setting, the female friendship, and the ghost friend, and even the plot was entertaining, although things weren't as surprising as they would have been if this wasn't written for a Middle Grade audience. I can't wait for the third book!