Rants and Weekly Raves #175 (RAWR)

JoAnne: I feel like I'm going to a funeral.
kakashi: What now! And I'm on fire! I also have a fever. The flu has me...
SakiVI: The flu sucks. 
Trotwood: Ahhh. Now it really makes sense. I like it!

KOREA

Radio Romance (new) 

Mostly so that I wouldn't have to listen to others talk about it, I wish they'd gone with someone more of an age with Doo Joon - but in all other ways I have no complaints about this drama after episode 1.  (Okay yes, her hair is a bit much.)
Trotwood: I'm glad you brought up the hair because I don't want to be known as the only one here who talks about hair (remember me in our Pied Piper recaps?). Anyway, why did they go with hair when the flashbacks have her with straight hair AND in the last photoshoots I saw her in with straight hair, she actually looked older--more her age. She does have a baby face which will probably have her aging like Jang Nara, so longevity? Anyway, I like it far more than I thought it would. I want to know more about his background and why he seems to both love her and hate her.

Cross (new) 

I guess none of us checked this out yet.  Truthfully even with Go Kyung Po as incentive, this isn't very high on my list.  Let us know if we're missing out, hmm?

Black Knight 

She still doesn't give up! Sharon is the Michael Myers of Kdrama, I swear. We're so close to the end I can taste it, though. Sharon is so crazy she's revealed herself to Chul Min and has him trying to kill poor Soo Ho AGAIN, but I guess she left out the part where that's so he will come back in another lifetime and maybe love her. Not going to happen, number one, and number two, I don't think Chul Min would be happy to hear what you're hoping for, Crazy Eyes. Soo Ho and Hae Ra are married and she still gets to go to Rome, what's her face the frizzy haired friend has confessed all she knows (I think) to Gon, who I think is just trying to save his dad's soul at this point...what else? Is there anything else? Well, Soo Ho is now super strong and his luck is crazy good, better than it's ever been. I'm sure that will be important next week.

Mother 

This is shaping up to be a really good story. All of the mothers/mother figures seem like they will be interesting, nuanced characters. They may still be heavily weighted on the flawed side of scale, but I think it won't be hard to find something in each that speaks to us.

PS. I was very happy to see Thighs this week.

Return 

What an absolutely delicious show!  I am sad every time an episode ends. Puppy Killer, Frog Face, Cheater, and Druggie are reprehensible people who do horrible, terrible things...and yet someone is going behind them every time and completely fucking them up, so it's hilarious even while you are on the edge of your seat wondering what next. 
Nice Wife, Lawyer Lady and Messy Cop are probably decent people on balance, but I have my doubts about Lawyer Lady, quite frankly.  She's a little off.  Enough so that I could imagine her orchestrating the nightmares for our freaky friends, but I'm not sure.  Anyway...cannot wait for next week!
I literally rub my hands when this show starts each week. And they do good cliff hangers, too. I can't even describe how horrid the people in this show are. Right when you can't think of anything worse, the writers seem to take that as a challenge and have them do something even worse than what they did a minute ago. But it's also fun because someone is not just out for revenge but also to just mess with them like they are puzzle pieces which is what we usually see get happen to the good people in dramas. They are all so mixed up together and yes Lawyer Lady has a past with them. She seems to relish in digging the knife into them and not just because she is an old friend of Nice Wife.

Hwayugi 




Every week I wait impatiently for this and end up watching some portion of it without subs and then go back and watch again with - and I just do not do that, so you'll have to accept that as proof that I am addicted to this show.  

I had an interesting conversation today on Twitter with a couple other watchers who feel that by now the show should have told us whether Son Oh Gong's feelings are real or not.  They're ready to move on to the next phase, whatever that is.  Me, I feel like the show HAS told us whether his feelings are real or not (they are); the problem is that Son Oh Gong isn't entirely sure yet.  Who could blame him?  He's had thousands of years with a stone heart, and how should he know? He's at least gotten to the state where he seems like he'd be fine if they were real, and that's quite a leap for him - but I also don't fault Jin Seon Mi for not quite trusting him even though she's given in to her love for him.  Neither of them know what will happen if she takes off the Geumganggo, and if she bets wrong, it's her life.  Anyway...I'm perfectly fine with more episodes of them moving slowly toward full acceptance of each other and whatever fate brings them.

I've been figuring all along that we (really them) would get the definitive answer just before the end of the drama, maybe even in the penultimate episode - and that's because I assumed that the answer comes with him offering up his life for hers.  However, today's conversation makes me wish for a different arc, maybe - one where the bracelet comes off and the question is not whether their love is real, but whether their love can survive.  He's an immortal deity, she's a human.  How would that work? 

Money Flower (finale sort of) 

Well, it may be the finale in real life, but for me we've just finished episode 18, and Boo Cheon knows all yet somehow still thinks there's a chance that Pil Joo/Eun Cheon (otherwise known as the REAL HEIR) is on his side.  Meanwhile, we've all been let in on the ultimate plan, finally.  Boo Cheon should be made head of Cheong Ha Bio, and Cheong Ha Bio should control all the other businesses; once that's in place, everything is controlled by someone who isn't even a Jang - and Pil Joo can sue for his rightful inheritance and take it all.  *rubs hands together gleefully*

The only thing I really don't get the point of is Pil Joo outing his role in getting Boo Cheon and Mo Hyeon together.
 

Misty (new) 

I saw comments online where people were all, she's so cold, but in the 20 minutes or so that I've watched of it, I didn't find her cold, just very controlled, which is fair as a working professional.
I watched both episodes and I agree with you - I don't think she's naturally a cold person at all but she's ambitious AND she's been put under pressure by those around her including her mother. One listen to all the fake friends surrounding her and you understand why she is the way she is. Looking forward to watching this mystery unravel and for her to triumph over her enemies.
First off. Is no one going to talk about how fantastic her clothes are? I mean they are just deliciously good and look comfortable and warm (well not the shoes, but you can't have everything). She looks so good and it's not just because she is so lithe (I don't recall her ever being this thin, which is worrisome), but because whoever is dressing her is on point for her character and for the season. I think people think she is cold because women are always told to smile more, but geeze, she is surrounded by vipers. Everyone seems to be out to get her for their personal reasons and not necessarily because she did something to them. And is no one going to talk about the hotness that is Ji Jin Hee and Go Joon. My god. My computer needs its own air conditioning unit not to spontaneously combust from the heat.
Her outfits are great and she is gorgeous and I want her hair. I have wanted her hair all my life. Her young rival has great clothes and hair, too, and I can't hate her for her ambition because she hasn't said one word about getting ahead in that kind of work that isn't true. But that doesn't mean I can't also laugh gleefully when the little shit gets played and remember Kathy Bates in Fried Green Tomatoes: 'Face it, girls, I'm older and I have more insurance.' (Go watch that movie, if you haven't. Have tissues nearby, but expect to laugh as much as you cry.)

 

Happy Sisters

Of course I don't understand why HoJoe is obsessed with making our heroine unhappy. She already stole her husband and has moved into the house. I guess it is because torturing her new family is way too easy. I like how she crazily smashed bean paste in her husband's face after hearing him say he missed his ex-wife's bean paste soup. I'd like her to be a more nuanced villain, but I'm not sure they deserve that. All those episodes that they abused YE are going to come back and bite them for the next 25 eps at least. I wonder what is going to happen with that shampoo that YE's friend is trying to use as her own. Sike. No I don't. Eventually, that will make her rich, which will make me sad because I like her in her construction job. As for her sister, she is falling hard for her husband, and he is for her, so I don't know why he is still fighting it. He'll have to step it up once 2nd lead infiltrates in this marriage more.
I still haven't seen more than the first episode and even though it seems promising, there's so much else I'm watching...

NOT-KOREA

Dou You Feel Like I Feel 

Who has seen the movie?
So rude.

See You in Time 

Not caught up, and I don't know if I will. Sigh. I do miss that smile though.
I'm officially two weeks behind, but I'm going to stay with it. I like fluffy romance and I like twisted lovers so I'm choosing to view this as two for the price of one.

The Good Place 

So everyone is back on Earth to try again, while Michael and the (hilarious Maya Rudolph) judge try to figure out what to do next. YES.

Final Cut

This is a Japanese show starring Kazuya Kamenashi. He is our for revenge against the news organization that he blames for his mother's suicide. They really are horrible scumbags, twisting stories for ratings rather than the truth and leaving misery in their wake. I'm not going to press for answers about how he got all this money for equipment and minions at such a young age because I'm enjoying it so much and I'm into revenge these days. I've also never seen Naohito Fujiki play an ass before, so this is interesting.
Oh thank you for reminding me! I love Kame...I did want to see this.

Mr. Right

Adding this to say how awful it is.  Jin Dong should only ever play awesome heroes and should always have his hair off his face because here, he plays an jerk and looks it too.  The character he plays in this show is so petty and nasty and he's the freaking hero!  Someone even commented on Viki how sexist the whole show was, and I found him and the men in it generally nasty and bullying. Even if this is real life, I don't need to watch it when one of those men is supposed to be the hero.  So upsetting and disappointing as a whole. Going to try that Head Above Water to cleanse my eyes

Lucifer

this is kakashi, now in red! I forgot about this show! I watched the three episodes that aired this year that I had missed... Good stuff Those were really funny if not to say hilarious episodes. (There's at least one more in the season, airing Monday.--> actually, quite a lot more, Jo!) The show has issues with its tone, often, but if it doesn't take itself too seriously, it's very entertaining. Episode 13 has a drug named KPop and actual KPop soundtrack :D
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