Woah, definitely not a hundred, but I’ve watched quite a few dramas now, and I keep trying to make sure what I watch WILL be good, because when a drama ends unsatisfactorily, it just eats at me for days.
Of course, there’ve been rare exceptions: I watched Suspicious Partner on a total whim, and that’s how I found my favorite actor ever-- Ji Chang Wook 
You are lucky, for me it can be weeks, months, … Some dramas even make me say “Why?” years later.
Like my My Love Eun Dong, the last episodes turned my opinion from sublime into mediocre, and I have to say I loved that show, until, until it felt like the episodes tried hard at the end to please everyone … But me.
Let’s say for The President & I it was almost the last scene that ruined it completely for me, for those who have not watched for the others I only say A handshake, really?
And you might not guess it can also work the other way around Uncontrollably Fond, was such a hard watch for me - it was like doing work and then came the last 2 episodes and what do you know, they turned it into a masterpiece, well for me, that’s why I rarely suggest it to anyone.
lutra. How could you? How could you recommend such a terrible show as Madly in Love when you yourself said
I’m now 5 episodes in and IT’S ABSOLUTELY FLIPPIN’ BRILLIANT!
As I said previously, I’m not a fan of the daytime TV studio soap format as they are absolute time sinks so tend to avoid them, but my, even comparing it with the few samples of episodes of other TV soaps I’ve seen in flicking channels. This one has to be the worst, and I’m enjoying it on so many levels!
All the elements are there
-The harsh white studio lighting that bleaches everyone.
-The terrible open acoustics of a large open studio set ‘room’
-The stiff turn based line delivery.
-The role playing acting.
-The mother collapsing backwards wailing in distress.
but this show gives you more
Makeup special effect from a B rate horror film.
CGI special effects from a B rate made for TV Sci-Fi movie. You would never guess the truck rolling through the air in the crash scene was CGI.
The over the top reactions to situations, usually accompanied with wailing.
The under reaction. The whole family standing in a semicircle like statues with “look shocked” as given by the director, whilst the unconscious Moo Yeol lies motionless bleeding out with special effect blood puddling form his shoulder.
A mere 5 episodes in there has already been two deaths scenes. Both of which I am tearing up not because of the sadness of the lost (with obligatory flat line bleeeeep) but because I burst out laughing at the acting. I think I’m enjoying this not as intended 
I did begin to wonder at Ep.5 in when Sung Hoon would appear as the older Moo Yeol and sure enough right on queue at the end of the episode BLAM! Subtitle -10 years later-
The plot? oh yes, nearly forgot, there is a plot.
[clearing 42 more hours from calendar, looking up No.for psychiatrist]
Haha, you were asking for the worst, or not?
CGI? Enlighten me, I am by far no English native.
Well, it’s good that you have fun, back then I was watching the show on a different purpose. You know the me back then was still mentally with the New Tales of Gisaeng, all romance and stuff and this one 2-3 years later, silly me thought - Madly in Love, will be positively madly in love, … So little did I know, it might be the first episodes but …
And then I got what in other media is called Passionate Love or Hot Love, if Viki used that title I would have heard the bell ring, but so this naive drama addict stepped right into it with eyes wide open. Most of the time I am hanging my hopes on the storyline but this one felt as if you are trying to stand straight on shaking ground.
Keep watching and let me know how it’s going.
CGI = Computer Generated Imagery. is when they use computers to create a special effect. Like the transformer movies for example.
I’ve just completed it.
Slightly disappointed they toned down the craziness of the first 5 episodes but it was supposed to be 10 years later from Ep 6 onward and the start of the consequences of the first 5 episodes. However, the ridiculous and implausible plots throughout more than made up for it, holding an entertaining value in itself.
Being a TV studio drama it did have a lot of the day to day fillers which I felt were unnecessary as they could have condensed them to open up more time in the last 2-3 episode to reach the concluding end shot.
I see what you mean by the baiting title, even Passionate Love or Hot Love would still be quite misleading and I thought “Messed Up Love”, “No Point Crying Over Spilt Milk” or “Love 'till The Cows Come Home” would have been a more fitting title for the family feuds, boardroom battles and in the end how everyone was going about their day addressing others by what ‘xxx-in-law’ they were.
Further deaths scenes in the drama exposed the stone cold heart of mine, how can anyone not cry buckets at the tragic scene of death of the pet, a cow? How callous must you be to burst out laughing?
I don’t think I have ever felt as much frustration and anger at a fictitious character than I felt at the grandmother’s incompetence and stupidity in the handling of the only evidence (the will) in the entire world that could turn the feuding families fortunes around. My anxiety shot up to 9000, I was literally kicking and thrashing in my seat with frustration as the inevitable results of her actions was fulfilled by the script writers. I felt as if my head would burst into flames. If my monitor had lapels, I would have grabbed them and shook them violently as the actors/actresses did in a few of the scenes. I was watching the next two episodes in fits of fury, barely able to concentrate on the drama.
So, all in all a good watch!
Thanks for the good bad recommendation!
You are welcome, haha, that title suggestion is my favorite.
Edit: Btw did you ever watch a drama called Blue Fish?
No, is it just as bad?
I don’t know , How to put it?
It is one of those dramas that even years later will make me think, think, think … What did I actually watch? Leaving me to look if there isn’t another last episode. Either I missed out on something or it just was a drama that tried a “rosebud-ending”. Years later after the 1st watch I found it again, even re-watched it and was still left with the same feeling - I couldn’t tell what the whole drama was about in the end it just didn’t make any sense for me, the last straw for my sanity - I told myself that the subtitles must have missed out at one point. LOL
So I can’t even say was it good or bad. Let’s say it was bad for my energy flow.
Ah, one of those where even the interview with the writer or director years later, answers the question.
I don’t know, maybe I have selective memory loss when it comes to this drama. I went to MDL and it got a score of 5,4 from 10 and only 14 votes, it does tell something, or not?
Haha, at another page not even a single person made a voting.
Madly in Love got a 6,6 at MDL
Yes, I was curious so was poking around these sites, (in China?) it’s called Green Fish, ha ha maybe they can give it different colours depending on the region it’s licensed to.
Yes, that is another name for the drama. LOL It reminds of my mom and me, we have this one towel, she says it’s green and I say it’s blue, to be precise it is turquoise (Wow, first time I got that word correct in English in the first try it is way shorter in German - türkis.)
DRAMAS
Level Up (2019). That was much worse than Melting Me Softly AND The Undateables. Possibly even worse than I Picked Up a Celebrity on The Street. I think if I had to vote for the absolute worst I’ve watched, it would take the medal.
But you can’t go wrong with anything featuring Sung Hoon as a lead. They are one worse than the other.
My Secret Romance is also a strong contestant.
Infuriatingly old-fashioned and predictable. Horrid acting too. Watching while doing other things, crocheting, eating, is ok. I could never give it undivided attention, it would be too boring. Even looking at a good-looking man gets boring after a while if there’s nothing interesting going on. he has this blank face with a total toolbox of two or three expressions. When there are so many good-looking Korean actors who can also act.
The writer didn’t have what to fill the episodes with and made them shorter. The real content starts at 1:45 and finishes at 43:45. So the actual content is 42 minutes out of the supposed 1 hour. If you take out the flashback, what will be left? Half an hour? These writers have filled up episodes with zero ideas. Everything is stolen from other dramas and romantic comedies/melodramas from all eras and all countries. It could be a telenovela, a Hollywood rom-com, or come from any other country in the world.
We all knew since episode 1 what would happen next - only a few details may change, otherwise it’s like “painting by numbers”, or “cookie cutter screenplay”. Towards the end there were no ideas whatsoever, so in ep. 10 a fake and unbelievable misunderstanding was inserted. This episode was on a new level of stupid. The excessive and “in your face” fan service will get on your nerves. Little details carelessly executed. Dialogue repetitive and not leading anywhere, scenes awkwardly cut. And the ending scene seems to come directly from the Fifties. I thought I was in a time-machine.
This drama is so bland, predictable, full of worn clichés, that it is perfect after a stressful day. It numbs your mind and makes a good transition between working out your brain and sleep. This doesn’t make it a good drama, though. It’s like eating junk food, nothing more.
But I do have to mention The Undateables… How can a list of worst k-dramas exist without it?
Handsome guy and Jeung Eum (a.k.a. The Undateables) (2018)
I had to force myself to go on and eventually finish this drama. The story was cliché, predictable and completely unrealistic.
The main actress was extremely irritating with her clownish over-the-top acting especially in the first half of the show (not to mention the terrible styling, which got better towards the end). I would suggest she sticks to dramatic roles like The Secret, because when she goes in rom-com mode one wants to slap her hard. Even my beloved Namgoong Min was wooden, expressionless and boring. And the two of them had ZERO chemistry - like two co-workers who politely go through the motions to finish a chore they were paid for. I actually found myself not wanting them to kiss, can you believe that?
The secondary characters were nothing to write home about. They were okay and all, but you actually didn’t care about their fate very much. The Zero Members were fun sometimes, but they were completely forgotten for a good half of the episodes in favor of the uninteresting love triangle.
And what about the cheesy, cringe-worthy lines at the ending? I genuinely felt sorry for the actors who had to say such things.
I hope Namgoong Min chooses more wisely his next project and Hwang Jung Eum forgets about romantic roles. And I will take note of the script writer’s and director’s names, so that I know to avoid them next time.
WEB DRAMAS
Web dramas are mostly terrible, especially the Viki Originals, but here are the three contestants for first place.
The Facetale: Cinderia (2016) (10 6-minute episodes)
Poor Choi Tae Hwan. Is his career in such a slump that he had to do this lame excuse of a show? A makeup tutorial wrapped in a cliché Cinderella story. But even as a makeup tutorial it doesn’t work, because the person talks so quickly and the subtitles fly so fast that you’d have to pause at every sentence to make sense of what they are saying. If I want a makeup tutorial I can go to youtube, thanks. Short as it is, it’s still a waste of time. It does have some slightly humorous moments but you mostly laugh at yourself, wondering why you’re watching this.
The Universe’s Star (2016) – 6 eps
A very plain actress with a beautiful smile, and an idol male lead (Suho) who cannot really act, try to convince us in an absurd story with elements taken from popular dramas. I don’t think this is on Viki, though.
Traces of the Hand (17 seven-minute episodes)
It must have seemed interesting as a 1-page synopsis, but the execution was very poor, both from the screenwriter and the director.
It started as a bland, uninteresting youth romcom which you could watch only while doing something else at the same time like eating or crocheting, and in the last 3-4 episodes it suddenly remembered it wants to take a dark turn and give a serious message about greed. Although the latter was unexpected and thus slightly more interesting, both registers (the romcom and the dark) were awkwardly executed, none of them really worked, and the transitions were too abrupt, hard to believe.
The actors were meh as well and failed to make us take any interest in their character’s fate. Totally forgettable. I regret spending time on it.
The Miracle (2016) (12 fifteen-minute episodes)
The story was a rehash of things done again and again, a collection of story ideas picked up from other dramas without a hint of originality, and the way these copied things were pasted together was not skillful, because there were many situations and reactions that were not psychologically realistic at all - including the ending which was kept ambiguous on purpose, because the writers put themselves in a corner and couldn’t figure out a way to get out of it. Everyone was a stereotype: the two sisters, the k-pop star, his manager, the school bullies and the poor excuse for parents - cartoons have more depth than these supposedly real-life characters. The comedy was of the very crude kind (think elephant sounds when the fat girl walks), and most of the actors mediocre. The main girl is an experienced actress, but again she lacks subtlety. The male main lead, although visually interesting, has still lots to learn as an actor, and… let’s be kind and stop there.
What’s With Money? (6 thirteenish-minute episodes)
My notes on it were short:
Remind me never to watch something written and directed by this guy. WTH? It’s totally ridiculous and unfinished.
FILMS
Princess Hapyung’s Weight Loss
Childish comedy about an extremely fat, kind-hearted but also very stupid woman who decides to marry a man she loves without thinking that he is not in love with her. When she realizes the situation, she decides to shed weight and puts on a brave effort. But the ending will leave you seething with anger and disappointment. Not that the rest of it, full of silliness and cringe-worthy slapstick, is anything worth spending one hour of your precious life for. I sincerely regret it: cleaning behind the refrigerator would have been much more enjoyable, and it would have left me with a sweet sense of achievement, whereas this has left me grumpy and irritable for having wasted my time. Ugh!
Star: Radiant Love (2012)
Why oh why didn’t I trust the reviews and skip this one? One of the most ridiculously written scripts in Korean entertainment.
Good lord, that is quite the comprehensive list there! I’m going to have to check some of them out but a couple jumps out for initial comments.
My Secret Romance I’ve already seen. I’ve only joined Viki since February and had not seen that many dramas then, I think I started a few (this being one) from some recommends somewhere and with such a cheesy title gave it a go. I didn’t think it was bad as such, just ok but that might have been because I was still a newbie to dramas and everything was shiny and new, having only seen a small sample of shows to not be able to see recurring themes. Maybe it was a forgettable show if what I recall most of it was I liked the tune to one of the OST and was humming it for weeks and how chuffed I was reading the lyrics the thump,thump, thump of my heart and was able to sync it with the sung words kong, kong, kong.
I just looked up something about that show and it’s Sung Hoon AGAIN! Is he following me around?
(I didn’t pay any notice to who the actors were then)
Level up (that Sung Hoon again? He’s everywhere!) being worse than The Undateables? Now that’s going on the next list! I started watching The Undateables because you had posted this elsewhere
With such a stellar opinion I had to check it out and two or three episodes in my reaction to her ability to do comedy was something like
@irmar-- I share your pain – and even worse than just watching was to have committed to be on the team on several of the dramas you list – working on a series when I couldn’t understand the plot after working on every episode, praying for the broadcasting station to announce episodes were going to be cut
Add My Heart Twinkle Twinkle https://www.viki.com/tv/25936c-my-heart-twinkle-twinkle- I could never figure out the relationship between the title and the drama. I was the channel manager! Can you guess the story is about the fast food fried chicken business? The story started with three sisters but there was a scandal about the middle sister so her part was cut out and she just disappeared from the story. And it turned out in real life the actress who was cut out of the plot was actually a victim and not the perpetrator. The number of episodes were cut. The producer did not even bother to publish the OST. One of the reviewers wrote “Seriously the worst show I have ever watched, without a doubt. Unbearable. Spent half the time skipping, hoping it would get better and the female characters would redeem themselves. It didn’t and they didn’t.”
Add Playful Kiss (Korean version) https://www.viki.com/tv/504c-playful-kiss – This rom com is enormously popular at viki but I thought it was just silly.
I watched both the Korean and the Japanese version and I really can’t decide which one is worse. It’s the kind of female character I hate, and it gives such a bad example to youngsters: that if you’re clingy and pathetic and beg the man, he will become yours at the end.
I watched the Japanese version (S1 & 2) over on Cruncyroll, for some strange reason they had a handful of dramas along with all the anime’s.
It’s a good watch to get a fix of the underdog always winning or if you’re a down on your luck gambler because she has better luck than the Irish and an uncanny ability to fend off all love rivals to win out in the end, deflecting them off better than the shield to the Death Star. Hooray for happy endings!
Ah-- I forgot probably one of the most expensive to produce awful dramas
Arthdal Chronicles! I’m told it was a poor take off of Game of Thrones but I can’t say because I didn’t watch Game of Thrones as I don’t subscribe to the service which produced it. It was like Song Joong Ki was an Asian Pict - except instead of painting himself blue he literally had blue blood, and was a horse whisperer. He played a “primitive” enslaved by the tribe led by Jang Dong Gun as well as the son of Jang Dong Gun. Kim Ji Won was a vestal virgin. Jang Dong Gun played a warrior king whose birth secret is that he also bleeds blue. As I watched the series I kept on thinking every weekend, I should be doing something productive. I kept on hoping it would get better but it didn’t – the ending leaves you in the air with the hint there might be a season 2.