Rants and Weekly Raves (RAWR) #486
Anne: Happy New Year, Drama Lovers! It has been a crazy last few weeks! And just in time for the end of the 2025. The nine year old came down with some odd stomach issues that went on for a good 4 weeks and the cause remains elusive. After the symptoms were controlled with medication, we started to take detailed notes to find what could be the food trigger. Well... nothing was really found because he's all of a sudden, fine now. So my most likely conclusion was a stomach virus that probably disrupted the gut flora, and it took a while before it finally got back into a good balance. So...sigh, at least no more throw ups at 2-4 am in the morning. (Yes, I have superior hearing... and my husband never hears anything...)
A new year has started, and as everyone who has noticed in 2025, I have watched very little traditional dramas. Not a lot has caught my attention, or if it did, I will only watch a few episodes before losing interest. Despite this, I am still hopeful that 2026 will be a better year...
Now...for a recap of my recent watched dramas and some of my favorites of 2025.
Taxi Driver (Season 3)
I cannot believe that this still hasn't finished! The slow airing schedule is killing me. And I even waited until the last week of 2025 to start watching, and there are still 4 episodes unaired of the full season.
Our favorite vigilante team is back! The stories this season are as entertaining as ever, although the situations are a still as unbelievable as always. (Do we really believe that the car selling scam can work the way it does?) The team got brand new toys and a new taxi...
I do think that this season, Kim Do Gi has move his character a little more towards the comedic side. From what I've watched so far, every story has a comedic element that is taking the spot light more than other previous two seasons. Looking forward to finishing this in the early part of 2026!
Along about the same lines, I've still yet to finish Strange Tales of the Tang Dynasty or to even start Strang chronicles of Tang. I liked the mystery solving aspect, but geeze whiz the whole court thing was really getting to me. I will probably find some time to speed watch this just to finish it.
The Truth Within
Yay! (Finally I have a Luo Yunxi drama that I can watch... The other one didn't catch my interest. I really don't understand these brotherhood/hero growth stories... I have never been too fond of this genre.) This just aired recently, starring one of my favorite actors, and it's a crime drama plot, a genre that I always loved. I haven't gotten very far, but it has the feel of Dr. Qin, which will also star Luo Yunxi in the next one.
As I was staring at this title poster on MDL, I'm squinting at the guy on the right, going...where have I've seen him before? Jiang Qi Lin...I looked through his works...and tada! He was the 3rd prince in Go Princess Go... I would have never been able to tell from how he looked in the drama. For some reason, in this poster, he carried some resemblance to his character as the 3rd prince.
Looking forward to see where this goes.
The Unclouded Soul
This is another demon vs human drama series, with a love/hate story that reminds of me of Ashes of Love. It is along the same lines as the Demon Hunter's Romance, although I hope it has a better ending. (This is the other reason I haven't watched the other Ren Jia Lun's drama this year... I really didn't need the aggravation.)
The story starts with poor Bing Zhu, getting promoted after his superior was executed by the emperor. He meets Xiao Yao, whose blood can attract demons. While using her as bait, she accidently wakes up the Demon King.
Am I crazy or is this Demon Valley the same one that was in the Demon Hunter's Romance?
I don't expect anything profound, but I'm hoping that at least it's entertaining.
Let's me take one little second to talk briefly about Glory, a family and business empire run by women. In particular, the eldest daughter, Rong Shan Bao. Has anyone started this one? Seems quite interesting.
Some of my favorites of 2025
One of my favorites of this year was Prisoner of Beauty, I loved everything about this drama. It had a great plot, the ML and FL had great chemistry, it had complex relationship within families... and truthfully what I really loved about the entire thing was the romance. It was great!
Coming a close second this year was Corner's Diary, because it is a period crime solving drama! The plot was a bit...too much... but at least it followed the plot through to the end.
And rounding the top 3 of 2025, ABO Desire, because it was the first time that a distinctive unique world was created on screen. For BL drama, it's not the best (that spot still belongs to Word of Honor), but it was different and quite spicy!
And this will close out 2025 and the start of 2026.