Rants and Weekly Raves #153 (RAWR)

Trotwood: I don't want to say that I'm throwing in the towel, but I feel like I am. I was going to start so many new dramas this month--Strongest Delivery Man, Falsify, Live up to Your Name--but I don't think I have the energy. recapping the epically long episodes of stare acting Cubic is sucking the life out of me and using up all my wtf patience. I have now admitted that I'm only capable of finishing Father is Strange and Teacher Oh Soo Nam. I am watching My Mr. Mermaid because it's quantity of cute sweetness (really I feel like I should brush and floss afterwards because of the sweet) is my counter to all of the ugliness going on the world. other than that, I'll have to rely on everyone else for everything else until I'm finished with my Cubic work.
kakashi: This RAWR is on a diet. It's really thin.
JoAnne: MY WOLF.

in honor of the eclipse

KOREA

Bride of the Water God 

Water? Ha. Habaek is the God of Steam, cuz any water near him would evaporate in that heat.

how's Krystal doing in this? 
About like normal

The King Loves

I wouldn't say that the acting in this is as good as it was in 7 Day Queen, but I do feel like this story is every bit as tragic and compelling as that was. Won and Rin love each other, they do - but Won fools himself when he thinks that they are pals and Rin never, ever really reveals himself to his friend. Poor San loves them together more than she loves either of them alone, I think, but I do believe she has feelings for both as men. Which one she truly loves, I change my mind every episode. I don't think she'd stay in love with Won. Rin would be the one in the end, I think. (for me too) Lady Dan is a doomed bambi, Song In and Rin's brother no longer seem evil, just driven by a particular patriotism. The king and queen are locked in their corners, although I have less sympathy for him than I do for her in the long run. And that assassin who follows Song In, I'm so curious about him. Every week, I enjoy every minute of this show.

 

School 2017 

Ohhhhhh, my God, that Grumpy of mine. 'Can't you tell? I want to be with you.' all close up, intense eye contact. Gah, that girl doesn't know what she's got there in that fine, delicious vein-y armed man. And have you noticed those muscular thighs? Pants can't hide 'em, no sirree. Okay, okay. I have to stop. Safer ground: how CUTE are they together? He's all serious and intense and she just laughs at him and he dissolves. That's a dynamic I really enjoy. Plus, we are so close to reluctant bronemy partners against the evil weevil Hee Chan or whatever that misbegotten cretin's name is.

Manhole 

Everyone, come back. Try again. Yes, really. Come watch Jaejoong try on all kinds of personas. Who knew he could be a believable thug? Not I, not before this week. Uee, yes - you kind of have to like how she is in order to like her characters, but I do like how she is, and I love seeing how much she liked him ALL. ALONG. and he had no idea. I also like that irritating girl - well, I like her two suitors at least, and I love that one friend who's so calm and observant and supportive and oddly, now that Hot and Evil isn't hiding his face like he did in Bong Soon...I no longer think he's all that attractive. Or maybe it's just that JaeJoong is SO attractive? Anyway, here's my theory: he goes back in time and he tries to correct things, yes? And then learns that correcting them made other things worse. So he has to try somehow to reset things. I don't think I ever really thought about these time slip dramas this explicitly but here's my thought: You can't change the past, but you can learn from it. So when he revisits, it's not that he should change anything but he should observe what he did or didn't do. Where's he going to win the girl? In the present day. You watch. Side note: If I had a hat I'd tip it to Baro, currently playing a weak, sly, petty slime toad. Every time he chooses a role, it's different from anything he's done before, and he always nails it. Also - excellent BG music.

Manhole, smells so good
Haha for a minute I was wondering where the smelling good part would come in

Father is Strange 

I realized last week that I'm more mad at the writers than I am at the characters in this show because I feel like they think very little of their audience. They really did not need to throw in so many items at the parents, including cancer, to make us feel sorry for them, but it's like they don't trust us to believe that they are good people in a bad circumstance who have lived really good lives for decades and raised very nice children, but they need to suffer to gain sympathy.  This gives us not very much time to sort out the many problems that the other siblings have, including our OTP. How is the public let alone this family going to take to the idea of the once thought to be siblings dating. Has no one watched Autumn in My Heart for goodness sakes?
I'm with you on this point. Cancer was totally over the top. At this point all I really want to do is watch Mi Young and Joong Hee enjoy each other. I'm not tired of the other family members but dammit I waited a long time for this!

Strongest Delivery Man 

I'm so sad about the rich boy. Especially we keep seeing flashes of the sweet kid he could be. I know how he's thinking - what's done is done and I'll pay whatever it takes and I'm trying to live a good life now, I was even before I knew about this...but that is short-sighted and rather self-serving on his part. He was scared of his dad, I know. But still. STILL. I'm disappointed.

Save Me 

Holy FUCK balls, Batman. This show is just...wow. I keep wanting to call it Gosiwan but I know that's a student hostel - whatever those freaking creepy evangelists have, man. They are bad. BAD. No really, they are BAD. They're so bad that I almost didn't notice that Taec's dad is a shitbag. I still need to watch episode 6. I'll warn you all now: Dong Cheol better be alive at the end of it.

Teacher Oh Soon Nam

I'm a bit behind on this but our goody two shoes teacher had gone dark--almost too dark. I hope they aren't going to make her irredeemable so she can get her revenge. There are already too many people in this show that need punishment. Soon, there will only be the Kang family (which includes Cheekos) and my my beloved minions who are still not dirtied from the fray.

Hurray for minions!

Live Up to Your Name (New)

First episode is really good. Yes, I'm biased towards Kim Nam Gil, but a) he's a fantastic actor, and b) he's really good-looking and c) I have before dropped his films and shows that were boring, like Shark and that weird one on Viki about him seeing a coma patient's ghost. So, if it wasn't good, and if it doesn't stay good, no amount of saintly yet humourous gorgeousness would or will keep me watching. 

NOT-KOREA

Mark-ing Time

The King's Woman

Admittedly, I tried this while really tired and rather put out by not being able to find any eclipse glasses anywhere, but it's not interesting. It's very pretty. But not interesting. And this is probably not a good thing, but it reminds me of General and I. Which was also amazingly uninteresting considering it had so much going on in it.

I would watch it I were not sure this is an absolute tearjerker.
I'm gonna.

Candle in the Tomb:  The Weasel's Grave

Not a single actor I find attractive, but I still enjoy it.

My Mr. Mermaid

I started watching this because I kept seeing adorable pictures of the OTP on my tlist. It take me forever because i keep stopping to dwell on how cute these two are. really. Right away from the very beginning. I'm only four episodes in and they are clearly besotted. But I'm sure angst will come and the 2nd lead who seems to have purchased an entire building next to where the heroine is an intern just so he can watch her work is clearly going to be a problem.

Game of Thrones

This show has jumped the shark.

Defenders

My favorite blind man is back! Yay! And Sigourney Weaver! And someone who grew up at Kunlun! And a whole bunch of bad guys who want to return to Kunlun! I admit, I fastforwarded my way through this, mainly because I just don't have time to watch stuff, but for any Daredevil fan, this is good stuff. Or for Jessica Jones fans. Or Luke Cage! Or Loras Tyrell! Er, I mean Iron Fist. 
So this will tide me over until next year when Jessica comes back?
Oh yes. 

GirlBoss

Watched all of season one on Netflix. Enjoyed myself thoroughly.

Grace and Frankie

Watched all of season two on Netflix. Enjoyed myself thoroughly. I do not consider that a contradiction at all.