Rants and Weekly Raves (RAWR) #468

Anne: Happy Tuesday Everyone! So...quick update on the hurricane that came through Texas. Truthfully, it was a tiny one, and I was lucky. Never lost power, and the trees didn't fall onto the roof. Unlike the poor people two streets down from us, they lost power for over 6 days. Even though it hasn't been as hot immediately after all that rain and wind, after 5 days, it is un-livable without air conditioning. 

Anyway... I haven't posted in a while due to a variety of reasons, of which work was just one little constant annoyance on top of my short attention span. Besides my binge watching of the short YouTube dramas, I've also been watching a lot of variety/talk shows. And it's the latter that has been giving me lots of entertainment lately.

A lot of these shows that I watch talk about relationships and married life. Granted the couples are in entertainment, so... I tend to take what they say as more entertainment and may not be the full truth. One of the things that made my eyes go buggy was the conversation about having kids sleep in the parents' bed when they are little. This is one of the things that my husband absolutely refused to allow, and he told me this before the little one was even a reality. Since I had no real opinion one way or the other on this, I agreed. From the very beginning, the little one slept in his own bed. So...I have never had to experience a little kid trying to squeeze in between his parents. It did not come as a surprise that, even on these talk shows, one of the most common complaints about having a child sleep with their parents is the interruption of adult events. In my innocent little brain...I thought it was the kid prevented the event even starting, but who knew that I wasn't even close to understanding. These parents were interrupted in the real sense, as while in the middle of having sex, they would notice that their previously sleeping toddler would be awake and watching them. Ok, yes, the parents were under the covers, and they did have a "separation" from the sleeping child...but I can't imagine having sex in the same bed that my child is sleeping in. It would be so awkward that I don't think I could focus. Not to mention my husband never sleeps with any clothes on, so...everything would be awkward. 

The most horrible story I've heard on these shows was actually about a group of 3 girls (early 20s) when they decided to go vacation in Paris together. The girls met a cute guy in a bar, and he invited them back to his place. One of the girls really wanted to go, because the man was super cute (apparently), but the other two were hesitant, due to logical safety protocols about going to a stranger's house. Anyway, the girls, after getting contact info, address, and a call schedule, let their friend go. In the end, the girl didn't get the night she wanted, except a little make-out session. So...the girls went back to their lives. A month of so later, the girl called her friends asking if they were feeling unwell, and if they had developed any odd patches on their skin. Neither of the other two had any issues. The girl went to the hospital and was immediately interrogated, even the local police showed up. It turned out that her skin infection was due to a bacterial or fungal pathogen that only existed on decomposing carcass. The interrogation led to an investigation back to that guy they met in the bar in Paris. The police found 2 women buried in his backyard...

Ok, enough of the talk shows that I've been watching, and let's talk about some of the shows that I have been watching these last few weeks.

My Sweet Mobster

I started this on Viki because most of the episodes have been aired, and it is almost at the end! Even so, I didn't think I would binge all the episodes in 3 days and now I'm waiting for the last 6 episodes. When I first read the synopsis, it didn't really intrigue me. The description on MDL is just a description of the 3 main characters. But once I started...I was hooked!

The plot is about Seo Ji Hwan, the only heir of a powerful Korean mafia family, who took over the family "business" when the father went to prison. However, Ji Hwan, after stabilizing the gang and the fighting with their "enemy", he dissolved the criminal doings and opened a meat product company that is staffed by ex-convicts. Ji Hwan spends so much time trying to build the business and take care of his own people, he has sort of missed his entire childhood and early years. And now at the ripe age of 36, he is starting to notice "other" things.

Go Eun Ha, is a woman who is a content creator, for a company that creates contents for kids. She runs into Ji Hwan. And this leads to a whole series of misunderstandings, that do eventually gets resolved. Then there is Prosecutor Jang, who also has taken a liking to our FL. 

Ji Hwan does not have the pretty boy look, but his face in this drama is quite well sculpted. 

Now, even though this show is technically a modern romance between a web creator and the son of a mafia boss, the romance part feels like I'm watching a high school drama. Notice that I didn't even say a college romance. And since all these boys all live together, even the house seems like a frat house, one without the parties and the girls. 

Yes, if you are planning to watch this, be prepared for some very elementary romance scenes because our ML has never had a girlfriend. (As if we can believe that in real life...) But it can happen. I started dating around his age, but I was not playing around in the kiddie playground.

There is an overall background plot of Ji Hwan trying to find his missing worker, the appearance of a new drug on the market, trying to keep his business afloat, and trying to avoid a certain woman who is chasing after him. There are some pretty funny moments, even the fact that his entire senior management all dress in black suits. 

The show is quite cute!

Haunted House for Sale

This is a Taiwanese drama whose title isn't completely correct, at least not the English title. This drama is about a realtor having to deal with houses where violent deaths have occurred. One one hand, she makes sure that buyers know if a property has been the scene of a violent death and on the other hand, she helps sellers deal with how to sell a property that was the scene of a violent death. 

She has a little helper, who can "smell" spirits before he "sees" them. With this special skill, he can help her identify which houses have vengeful spirits. Just be prepared that this is not a comedy, even though some of his "ghost" encounters are kind of funny. 

The FL, Lu An Chi, is focused on making as much money as possible, because her mother has quite a large sum of debt. Her goal of making money did cause her to get into trouble, which was fueled by a seller who lied in order to recoup the dropping price of their house. Since it is a Taiwanese drama, there is only one episode a week. With the last episode I finished, with her career in the realtor business in trouble due the above troubles, she stumbles upon a bunch of people calling her for help in dealing with houses with violent pasts.

The show in interesting even though it isn't exactly about haunted houses. There is definitely a spiritual component to the plot. The show is interesting over all. And I am interested to see where this will go. 

The Princess Royal

I started this only after I had been seeing this on the apps for quite a while. The reason I didn't start this was for a very silly reason. I DO NOT like this drama's main print title poster (see above). I'm not sure why, but everything about the above image is throwing me off. But when I finally started the show...everything is better than the above image.

They look so good in the drama. Who in the world designed that poster!

The story is about the elder sister of the emperor in episode 1, Li Rong and her estranged husband, Pei Wen Xuan. At the beginning of the story, the couple has been married for 20 years, but completed separated for over the last 15 years. Due to these years of animosity towards each other, they had a hand in killing each other. When they died, they both wake up back before they were married, a few weeks before their marriage was planned. 

It took about two episodes for each other to realize that they both have memories of the last 20 years. While at first, they decided to pair together to accomplish what each other wanted in the past life, it doesn't take long for their interactions to fall back to how their relationship was when they were first married. They decided that neither wanted to relive their marriage life the way it was, and decided to just become each other's best friend, since they know each other so well. 

But it isn't only their relationship that was changed, it was also those around them. We see the "truth" of what happened in their past life, and how each of their decisions affected the people around them. For example, we see Li Rong's younger brother, Li Chuan, the crown prince and his love, Qin Zhen Zhen, and how he still fell for her despite meeting under a different circumstance. We see that Li Rong's misunderstanding of Pei Wen Xuan's "love" for Qin Zhen Zhen (his ex-fiancée) was completely due to speculation. She wanted to break off the engagement for years, but her family never let her, until his family fell into dire circumstances. We also witness Shangguan Ya, who ended up becoming the empress by marrying Li Chuan, had someone else that she liked. 

I am really enjoying this drama. It is not any different from other re-birth story, but the one thing that is different is the main couple, after realizing each other's circumstances, we see a couple who has spent over half their lives with each other, pretty much divorced, and are on the road of getting back together. They used what they remember to help them navigate the road blocks and challenges that happened in their last lives. The funny moments, so far, are how petty Pei Wen Xuan is whenever Su Rong Qing, the man that his wife "fell" for in their last lives, is around. This husband certainly does not hid his emotions whenever Su Rong Qing is circling around his wife. (A short note about Su Rong Qing, who lived with Li Rong longer than her own husband did, in the first life. Su Rong Qing's family was completely wiped out, and she felt partly responsible. She begged the emperor to spare Su Rong Qing's life, and was only allowed to live after he was castrated. Hence the reason why he was allowed to live in her manor for several years.)

The pace is good. I like all the back stories and wondering what will happen with everyone, if they can somehow escape their tragic endings. I really, really like the main couple, because this is a romance story not of the young and innocent, but of a couple who already have made all the mistakes. Love it!

Ok...and this is it for this week. I see that Lost You Forever season 2 is out, but I need to remember what happened in season 1. So it might be a few weeks before I finally come around to getting to this one. Hope everyone finds something good to watch, and I'll try to watch less of the addictive short dramas on YouTube. Have a great week!