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.

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.

Hello, everyone! I haven't blogged here in months, but I just took my last uni final exam yesterday (as in yes, I am done with college forever!), and am super psyched to talk about my top five favorite Korean dramas of the year! I will note that all but one of these dramas are from the second half of 2019 — not quite sure if that's because they're more fresh in my head and so I think I love them more, or because these five are all so brilliant that there's no room for the other early 2019 dramas I already talked about in this post. But either way they're brilliant and you must watch them immediately if you haven't already, so let's just get straight into it!

This is hands down my favorite drama of the year, and also the one I watched most recently. Ever since I watched and adored Mystery Queen, I've been looking for a similar drama in terms of brilliant detective/crime cases and two leads with absolutely breathtaking chemistry who have such fun together. I found that earlier this year with Voice 2 - a darker take on the genre, but just as addicting, if not more so - and of course, that just left me wanting more such dramas but not finding any. But then came Catch the Ghost. The leads are brilliant and I have never loved either of them more, and every episode is the finest delight. This drama made me laugh, it made me cry, and I swear just talking about it makes me want to go watch it again. It's perfect in all ways. The drama is about a young woman trying to find her sister's killer (a serial killer dubbed the Subway Ghost), and as part of this attempt, she tries to get a job on the subway police team. There she meets the male lead, a "by the rules" kind of guy who is really not ready to handle this new hurricane of a person who's just blasted her way into the team and thinks rules are suggestions.

Did I swoon or did I swoon? I didn't get around to watching this until it finished airing - and thank goodness, because it would've been a pain to wait for new episodes each week - but I binged the heck out of it and perhaps disregarded my homework more than I should have. The premise pulled me in immediately: a young girl with a heart disease finds out that she's a character in a comic book — and not even the female lead but the supporting character. When she finds out she's expected to die soon, she rebels against the comic, determined to make her own decisions and chase her own love instead of blindly following the author's decisions. The drama ended up being just as amazing and unique as the premise sounds, and it was also so beautifully filmed? I love the actress (who may not be the lead of the comic, but she's definitely the lead of our drama), and of course one of the main draws was Lee Jae-wook who I'm sure we all fell in love with when he played the struggling actor in Search: WWW. I love him when he's playing a cute, nice boy, but even more so when he's an arrogant asshole with daddy issues (he brought back Kim Woo-bin feels from Heirs lol). This is truly a drama that's not to be missed!

Another brilliant story setup, this time by a Netflix drama: an app that tells you when someone in your near vicinity is in love with you. I did not think I would adore this drama as much as I did - especially considering how meh Netflix's My First First Love turned out to be - but errrr I binged all eight episodes in a single night and the cliffhanger definitely destroyed me. Classic Netflix love triangle, but gah, I definitely love one guy more than the other. The most unique aspect of the drama is that it traverses both the characters' high school years as well as their adult years, and they did it pretty well too. There's drama, feels and so much misunderstanding because duh the app is a terrible idea, but like, I need season two right now. I'm really hoping the show gets renewed and we get the second season in early 2020 because the three main characters are great and I'm really invested in their relationships and undoing the misunderstanding between a certain two characters.

Search: WWW is an unforgettable drama, and certainly one of the best of the year. It's a women-centric kdrama with a beautiful, talented cast, amazing writers, gorgeous cinematography and directing, and literally anything you could want in an intelligent, contemporary drama (including man candy LOL). I fell in love with all three of the lead women, and I love how they're all so different and how the drama doesn't present "good" and "bad" as a simple dichotomy. Search: WWW is a character-centered drama that explores relationships, marriage, business, and marketing (the latter through a search engine company that I would love to work for if it was a real company), and each episode is like...well, dessert.  Women supporting women is seriously my favorite thing.

I know Voice 3 isn't perfect - I had a whole rant about it when it finished airing - but apparently I just can't stop myself from adding it to this list regardless. I just love the characters and the drama so much that even a major mishap like that not-so-great ending can't put me off too much. I already discussed my love of Voice 2 earlier in this post, and it's for those same reasons that I was super thrilled to sit down and enjoy Voice 3 week after week while it aired — it was one of the highlights of that uni semester. If you want to give this drama a go, you have to watch Voice 2 first because Voice 3 is a direct continuation of the plot. I'd also highly recommend you start with Voice before watching the second or third season because it comes first and Voice 2 begins from where it leaves off, even though Voice is more stand-alone and isn't as relevant to the rest of the series. TL;DR: you can skip Voice if you're a mega Lee Jin-wook fan, but otherwise you'll get the most out of the drama by watching the seasons in order.

My feelings toward Voice 3 are so incredibly complicated. I loved the first week (which is to say, the first two episodes) of this drama so much, as you can clearly tell by the fangirl-y post I wrote about it. But the rest of the season didn't live up to that first week. Why? Mainly because whereas the first week featured a brilliant Code Zero case that involved saving Korean tourists in Japan, all whilst they were trying to keep Do Kang-woo out of the hands of Japanese detectives, the rest of the season had very few other such cases.

Voice and Voice 2 had roughly a new Code Zero case each week while also having an overarching plot that is taken care of between these cases; Voice 3, however, instead chose to focus on the overarching plot and scatter at most 2-3 cases throughout the entire season. And this was disappointing. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the heck out of this season - no, I genuinely adored it. It wasn't quite as good as Voice 2, but I love all of the characters so much at this point that it didn't matter. Plus it's not that the plot was bad - if anything, the stakes were even higher than in the previous season - it was just that it wasn't as exciting and charming as Voice 2 had been.

Now that everything is said and done, the story behind Do Kang-woo really is quite brilliant, and I really like how things unfolded. I do wish there had been more scenes between Kang Kwon-joo and Do Kang-woo in this season - Voice 2 was ripe with such scenes and cute banter, which is a big part of why I loved it so much - but plot-wise, everything was great. Granted, Do Kang-woo didn't do all that much other than stand around looking angry at the world (and to be fair, the writers of the drama really do love torturing the man), but whatever - I adore his character no matter what he's doing. My biggest problem with this season is, in fact, the ending. I hate it so much.

I was all ready to end the season on a high note, being fully in love with it despite its apparent flaws, when the writers really went and wrote that ending. My biggest concern before the final episode was that there wouldn't be a Voice 4 because no actor in his right mind would be willing to do another season of just standing around and looking pretty, but then the writers did what they did and completely shattered my heart, but in a very boring and frankly, dumb way. It's not even that it doesn't fit with the story - it makes sense - but if that's really what they wanted to do, then they should have at least written it better, i.e. with more emotion and drama. Even the ending of Voice 2 had me in exhilarated shock, whereas not only was the final episode of Voice 3 anticlimactic, but it also left me feeling really unsatisfied and disappointed.

I still love this drama to infinity and beyond - I feel like I haven't found something this much up my alley since Mystery Queen - but if I had the opportunity to erase the ending from my memory and force the writers to write me a new one, would I do it? Yes, a million times yes.

I only watched Voice 2 earlier this year but immediately fell in love with the new cast and especially the new male lead, Lee Jin-wook, who plays Team Leader Do Kang-woo in the drama. The season only had twelve episodes though, so I was extremely excited for Voice 3 which was going to have a full sixteen episode run. This is the drama that just finished airing yesterday, and while it did not end up living up to the previous season, I still adored and enjoyed every moment. The stakes were so much higher this season and the plot was intense, but at the same time, the writers didn't include many Code Zero cases, which is what the Voice drama series is known and loved for. Even so, this is one of my favorite dramas of the year so far and I'm going to go sit in a corner and cry now that it's over.

For anyone who hasn't watched the drama series, it's about a Golden Time Team that aims to solve 911 call cases within the "golden time" when they're more likely to solve the case and save the victim. The main character Kang Kwon-joo can hear sounds other cannot, which is why she's so good at her job. I'd recommend starting from Voice and going in order from there, but if you really can't wait and just want to see Lee Jin-wook in action, you can start with Voice 2 and follow it up with Voice 3.

A friend actually recommended this to me earlier in the year, and the convincing factor was the absolutely hilarious teaser trailers that showcase just how wacky the main characters of this drama are. I finally watched it and the drama was an absolute delight. It's a legal drama, but it's super unique because the male lead is literally the Sherlock Holmes of the legal world: he's nuts, he's fun, he values money above all else, and he has never lost a case in his lifetime. But then he meets this uptight female lawyer with exactly the opposite beliefs and they clash in the best and most amusing ways possible. There's no outright romance but the chemistry and adorable situations are plenty fulfilling - just how I like it. If you're looking for a fun time with a great plot and story to boot, then you'll definitely want to check this one out.

Kingdom aired pretty early in the year as a Netflix Original and it immediately blew me away. Think Train To Busan, except before there were trains. It's a historical drama that's all about zombies; there are only six episodes and each of them is freaking brilliant. The cinematography, acting, story - everything was super well done, and there is in fact going to be a season two to the series. I don't have much to say about this other than watch it because it's super good and you will not regret it.

This drama was sold to audiences as a young woman falling in love and finding her place in the world - all with a little help from a watch that allows her to manipulate time. However, one day, after using the watch too many times, she suddenly wakes up and finds herself looking and feeling like a 70-year old woman. The Light in Your Eyes is probably one of the most painful, but also the most beautiful, dramas that I have watched this year; I spent whole episodes just sobbing into my blanket. Everything about this drama is perfect: the chemistry between the two leads is off the charts and intense, and Han Ji-min and Nam Joo-hyuk and truly wonderful actors. There's also a plot twist toward the end that will shock you to your core, but it also adds that much more depth to this drama and elevates it to a new level of excellence. I am so impressed with the cast, crew, and writers of this drama. This seriously beautiful story is one that I will never forget.

This was one of my most anticipated dramas from the first half of the year because, hello, books! And after watching it, I can confidently say that this drama loves books just as much as you and I do. The premise of the drama reminded me a bit of the show Younger (which I think some drama is actually adapting in the near future): Kang Dan-yi is recently divorced and looking for a job, but no one will hire her because she hasn't worked in quite a few years. Desperate, she lies about her age and gets a job at a publishing company, but it just so happens that her best friend is an author and chief editor at that company (this is Lee Jong-suk's role) and he's harbored a crush on her for years. The noona romance in this drama is unbelievably adorable, and I fell in love with all the bookish scenes and moments and circumstances! I highly recommend this drama if you're looking for all the cuteness.

These two make me want to throw my CS degree to the side and work in publishing.

A few weeks ago I began watching Voice 2 on a whim - I'd watched Voice last summer - and found myself binging it within about two days and agonizing over the wait for Voice 3. My twitter header is currently Voice 2 related and I regret nothing. I know people have been disappointed by the second season and claim that nothing can compare to season one, but I genuinely have no idea what they're talking about. I thought Voice was great, sure, but the leads didn't have any chemistry. And then Voice 2 comes along and BLAM! I'm hooked on these two leads along with the brilliant writers, and after a painfully long wait of not that many weeks, I've been watching and re-watching the first two episodes in this new season over and over.

Thirty minutes in, I'd been afraid that Voice 3 wasn't going to live up to its predecessor, but I was way off-base. Things started picking up as soon as the leads met up again, both sizzle-wise and plot-wise. The case presented in these first two episodes is just as brilliant as we've come to expect from the minds behind the drama, and I need it to be next Saturday already. This is one of those dramas where I cry every time the episode ends because I want more: I can't wait to see what's in store for our beloved characters next. On a related note, why is Team Leader Do's life so hard?? He seriously needs a break (although I am so here for the drama in the meanwhile).

My favorite dialogue from the first episode:

Do Kang-woo: You're still the same. You don't care about anything when you're saving people.

Kang Kwon-joo: I think it's better than someone who says things differently after disappearing for ten months and becoming a different person. I never imagined that you would be here as an illegal alien.

Do Kang-woo: You never know what people think. So don't trust people too much.

Since it's almost the end of the year and I haven't written another Korean drama post since my mid-year TOPFIVE drama post, I figured it was time for an update - especially since a lot of what I said in that other post is null and void. I put some dramas in that list that were currently airing, and unfortunately, they turned a tad sour after making it onto my list. If you're curious regarding which dramas on those list you should probably avoid: Wok Of Love and About Time. But why start on such an unfortunate note? Let's get straight into the most amazing dramas of the year!

This is the new drama written by the famed writer who gave us beautiful dramas like Heirs, Goblin, and Descendants of the Sun. Mr. Sunshine is a breathtaking tale of Japanese colonization of Korea and the resistance fighters who will give up anything to save their country. It is a glorious and gorgeous drama, and it's conveniently on Netflix - I highly recommend it. It has a superb cast, and the dialogue is so charming and witty that I just melt. There are twenty four episodes in the drama, and while that may feel long, it's actually quite perfect. I want to say that this is my favorite drama of the year, but I feel like that spot goes to the melodrama Nice Witch.

This drama was in my last drama post as well. If you knew how much I loved it, you wouldn't even blink at seeing it again in this list. Long story short: it's about two twins, one evil and horrendous and dubbed "Ice Queen" (but not in the cute romantic way which means some male is about to get close to her and melt her heart - no, she's actually an awful Ice Queen who'd sooner shoot shards of ice at your face than be nice) and the other a beautiful soul, a mother of an adorable child and a terrible husband, and such a nice person. The premise of Nice Witch is that the mean sister falls into a coma after getting herself in trouble, but before falling unconscious, she begs her nice sister to take her place and pretend to be her. And then of course she meets this hot pilot, who thinks she's the awful Ice Queen who he hates, only to find that for whatever reason he's suddenly reacting differently to her. Cue swooning. Nice Witch is the nice twin's love story and character arc, and if you're looking for adorable romance, this is what you want to watch.

Life is a medical drama with Lee Dong-wook as the male lead, but I don't think medical drama really captures what it's about. Life takes place in a hospital, yes, but it's much more about the politics of hospitals that anything else. I don't even know how to put this drama into words because it's that unique and brilliant, but it has a great cast, an amazing suspenseful atmosphere the entire time through, and although I wouldn't go for this drama if you're wanting romance, it's so so good. And also conveniently on Netflix. (I swear I'm not a sponsor for Netflix or anything.) The antagonist character is really the true gem of the drama, and the relationship between him and Dong-wook is...wow. But fair warning: if you watch this, you're not going to be trusting hospitals or doctors anytime soon.

If you read all my ravings about this drama already, feel free to skip ahead. If not, just know that the sequel to Mystery Queen more than lives up to its predecessor - it might even be better - and if you love mysteries and Sherlock Holmes, then you're really missing out if you have yet to check out the first season as well as this one. It features a ton of slow burn romance and cutesy angst - as opposed to the stressful kind - and the mysteries as well as the way the main characters go about solving them is truly fun to watch and really quite smart. All I want for Christmas is a Mystery Queen 3.

I'm going to straight up be honest about this one and say that this drama is still in the middle of airing, so it's entirely possible that I might become bored of this one by the time it's finished. As of now, however, this is one of my favorite kdramas, partly because it features Choi Jin-hyuk and Jang Na-ra as the leads. We saw them together in Fated To Love You, but Jin-hyuk was the second lead at the time. The Last Empress begins with musical actress Oh Sunny (Jang Na-ra) catching the eye of the Emperor, but she didn't really catch his eye and it's all actually a conspiracy to cover up a crime. Jin-hyuk plays a Bodyguard aching for revenge against the throne, and he has some really cute moments with Jang Na-ra. Of course there's a ton of politics in this one, and you're really going to end up hating rich, royal persons, but hey, there's nothing wrong with that.

Nice Witch is my favorite drama of the year so far, and honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if it stayed my favorite by the end of the year as well. It's unlike any other drama I've ever seen - it's very reminiscent of Indian soap operas, and possibly Spanish telenovelas - and I unabashedly admit to adoring every second of it. It's one of those rare dramas (possibly the only drama) that kept my attention from the beginning to the end of the season. It's about a super nice twin who's been constantly pushed aside by her crazy mean younger twin. However, when the mean twin gets in trouble and ends up in a coma (I TOLD YOU), she asks her sister to take her place as an air hostess until she gets better. Of course, it wouldn't be much of a soap opera if there wasn't a conspiracy within the airlines, as well as a hot pilot who doesn't date, but finds himself oddly frustrated by a certain air hostess. I highly highly recommend this drama for all the cheese and swoons.

MYSTERY QUEEN 2

If you saw some of my posts on Mystery Queen, then you already know how fond I am of the series. As much as I loved the first season, I was super surprised when the second season actually managed to outdo it: a rare feat. I thought I'd be put off with the additional (read: new) cast members they brought it - I don't readily accept change - and the hole in my heart that came about when I realized that Lee Won-keun wouldn't be in it anymore, but nope, the second season was definitely a win. Obviously you want to watch the first season before starting this one, but this is a series that will nevertheless make you smile giddily if you are a mystery fan.

So first of all, you should know that I've had a thing for Daniel Choi since I saw him in School 2013, and I've had a thing for Baek Jin-hee since I encountered her in Pride & Prejudice. Since both of them are the leads in this romantic drama, it's only logical that it made this list. In Jugglers, Jin-hee plays a secretary who is fired by her sucky boss, only to be hired by the company to assist...the one dude who doesn't want a secretary (Choi). The two are adorable, yes, but I also really appreciated how stupid but often lovable tropes were averted. Unlike most romantic couples, these two communicated and trusted each other. I know, it sounds boring, but try it out - their relationship works for both them and the audience.

WOK OF LOVE

Also called Greasy Melo. This drama features Lee Jun-ho (you might recognize him from Just Between Lovers), Jang Hyuk (Fated to Love You, Voice), and Jung Ryeo-won (Witch's Court). It's probably one of the quirkiest dramas I've seen to date, but it's super cute, super feel-good, puts a smile on your face, and mmm the food. Make sure you always have something to eat while you're watching this or you'll feel like a starving man without an oasis in sight. The romance, the bromance, and the plot are all adorable. The character relationships are very unique, and to be honest I feel like I need to emphasize the cuteness of this drama more.

I had a hard time choosing between this and Handsome Guy and Jung Eum, but About Time is too unique and well done to pass on. Lee Sung-kyung is the lead in this drama, and she plays an aspiring musical actress - who can sing, baby! - who also happens to be able to see how many years, months, days, minutes, and seconds a person has left before they die. She unfortunately can also see how long see herself has, and it's only a couple of months. She tries to make the most of each day, but one day, she runs into a man who stops her clock i.e. keeps her that much farther away from death. The drama from there on out is splendid in terms of melodrama, actressing, and romance, and yeah, the leads have great chemistry.

I recently finished watching Mystery Queen 2 - the second season of Mystery Queen - and I it left me with such a warm, bubbly feeling at the end, as well as an intense need for a third season that'll give viewers some more of the banter between the lead characters as well as some answers to questions that the writers purposefully kept gaping open. You can read my quick review of the season here.

With the end of the season, I figured it might not be a bad idea to compile a short list of some of the more amazing mystery dramas I've watched in my days. These dramas are sure to satisfy anyone's Sherlockian, inquisitive mind.

Black was my favorite Korean drama of 2017, and I don't think I'll stop raving about it anytime soon. It's about a foolish grim reaper - that saying will tear your heart out once you watch the drama - and it's quite dark and atmospheric. I know some people aren't huge fans of the actress, Go Ara, but this was my first drama of hers and I have come to absolutely adore her. The plot is wicked brilliant, and the fantasy element just makes it that much more exciting and differentiates it from the other detective/mystery storylines out there. If you're in the United States, it's also available to watch on Netflix.

This drama features another of my favorite actors, Choi Jin-hyuk. Tunnel is a story about Korean cops dealing with a serial killer who strangles women with stockings. Serial killing was new at the time, so it was impossible to catch the villain. However, the main character ends up traveling to the future through, you guessed it, a tunnel, and he'll meet people that aren't quite so new to him as he thinks that'll help him find the murderer. There's a great cast, again a great atmosphere, and the romance is cute but sits to the side of the actual plot.

This one is more romance than mystery, although the crime is actually a big part of the romance. Uncontrollably Fond just so happens to be my favorite kdrama of all time, so it wouldn't be a mistake to say I highly recommend it along with a side of tissues and chocolates. Kim Woo-bin and Suzy are the main leads, and boy do they deliver the emotions. I still tear up whenever I listen to the soundtrack on my commutes to university.

Before you ask, no, this isn't a drama based on Jane Austen's novel of the same name. There is a romantic relationship that stems from hatred, but from there the story diverges. The first episode is by far one of the most amazing things I've seen, and the two leads are great. This is a law drama, but the main mystery is about what happened to the female lead's brother, and it turns out that quite a few people are entangled in that mess. This is another drama where the romance is still there, but on a back burner. It's quite good.

And how could I leave out the wonderful drama that inspired this post? Whereas dramas like Black, Tunnel, and Pride & Prejudice are dark and serious with moments of adorable, Mystery Queen is the Korean equivalent of Sherlock, I would say. It's a combination of fun and serious, and it's so well written. There are individual mysteries throughout the episodes as well as a larger mystery that encompasses the seasons. The characters are a delight and make the show, but the plot, dialogue, and mysteries are right up there in terms of excellence.