Rants and Weekly Raves (RAWR) #488

Anne: I feel like I'm slowly being drained of all energy. How long has it been since I last posted? Way over a month at this point (looking at the date of my last post). What have I been busy with? Everything and anything at work. What in the world happened this year? How did 2026 start like this? Work has buried me under ten feet of mud, and it's very difficult to climb out. I don't think I've made much progress. (At this point... is my promotion even worth it...)

Sigh...

I have problems everywhere. 

And why is everyone taking vacation in APRIL?! Aren't school still in session????

And why did I spend nearly two days watching the AI generated stuff on YouTube? The plot is even more outrageous then the short dramas. I do like it that they are fast and mostly narration. Who knows how far this will progress???? Is it scary? The pace of development is quite astonishing. 

Anyway...I did manage to catch a couple of interesting shows. (I am this close to canceling most of my streaming apps... Apparently Netflix will take care of all my current drama needs...)

Phantom Lawyer

I saw this come up a few weeks ago, and I finally started watching it just last week. I went through all the episodes pretty quick.

The story is about a lawyer, Shin Yi Rang, who couldn't get a job because his father died and suspected of being involved in criminal activities as a prosecutor. Since he couldn't get a job, he decided to open up his own law office. (He also sort of stole his mom's deposit) by renting out a space that used to belong to a shaman, who recently passed away. In this new "space", he finds all the things that the shaman left, one of which was an incense burner. After lighting it, he breathe in the incense, and the next thing he knew, he can see ghosts.

One of the things I really liked about this is that while the overall plot of solving crimes for the dead isn't new, there are some new elements that they introduce that are fresh in my eyes. The first one being that the ghosts, even though they know that they are dead, they don't really know who they are. In the first few cases, the ghosts float, and their feet do not touch the ground until they learn their name and birthdate. As soon as they learn those two facts, the ghosts feet become grounded and they remember, like their whole life flash before their eyes type of thing. 

However, our poor lawyer can be possessed when they ghosts experience something that really "moves" them. Such as encountering their favorite foods, being angry, or otherwise whey their emotions get out of control. Then poor Shin Yi Rang has no choice. What's worse, he doesn't remember anything afterwards, and has no idea what he has done. The only thing to stop the possession is to splash water/liquid in his face. 

Han Ya Hyun is a partner at a very prestigious law firm, that originally rejected Shin Yi Rang's application. She loses the first case she has up against Shin Yi Rang because she was decent enough not to destroy the evidence that implicated her client. 

In the first ten episodes, we meet Shin Yi Rang's brother-in-law...working in their family restaurant while also taking small acting roles, who becomes Shin Yi Rang's biggest side kick as they "con" their way into places to look for "clues".  There is a priest, who used to be a shaman, who helps Shin Yi Rang "send" away the spirits once their cases are solved. 

So far, everything is quite entertaining, unless you are my husband and he thinks it's too slow. Looking forward to the rest of the episodes.

Agent from Above

This one is more to my husband's liking and pace. 

This is a Taiwanese drama that is on Netflix. I started watching it and was like...I have SEEN the ML somewhere else before (a quick search online and I realized that he was the ML on Let's Talk About Chu - which I also liked). 

This is a fantasy drama, that takes the Chinese myths and move it to a modern setting that, which for my husband, resembles Constantine. Han Chieh is a young man who is atoning for his sins, by working for the third crown prince (a god who is more or less in charge of keeping the mortal world protected from the demons). He lives in a run down apartment building that is also home to a bunch of ghosts who haven't been escorted to wherever they need to go yet. Apparently good employees are also difficult to find in the afterlife. They are very behind in schedule given how many ghosts are still hanging around with no place to go. 

To his life comes a young girl who is dying of cancer, who keeps tagging along with Han Chieh despite him always trying to tell her to go away. The king of demons is trying to find his way back into the mortal world, and there is someone helping him to arrange the sacrifices for the summoning. It is quite action packed, which is why my husband likes it. Being the god's agent also means his body can be possessed by his boss. And his boss doesn't permit his employee to smoke... that boy can't light a cigarette worth to save his life...even though he continues to try...in vain (except under one very particular incidence). 

In the end, the good guys win, and our hero has to learn that he can't save everyone. And he re-signed his contract to be the third crown prince's human agent (probably for another 10 years).

The setup is there for season 2, let's see if they make it.

And this is it for this post. Hope everyone has a great week and find lots of good things to watch.

I will continue to look for entertainment...to take my mind away from my work and all the issues that come with it. Maybe I'll manage to climb out of the mud in the summer.