Rants and Weekly Raves #239 (RAWR)
JoAnne: When I rawr this week you best believe it's for Lion.
Trotwood: He is perfectly delicious, and I'm so glad that his first rom-com lead is something that is playing upon all his abilities and is good. I'm hoping that now he'll be able to play BOTH romantic leading men and psychopaths since clearly he's good at both.
kakashi: Just left Avignon, man, the Palace of the Popes is something else! I'm deeply impressed. I'm less impressed about how bad the wifi is on this boat, but I guess you can't have it all.
Panda: I was late to the party but I'm now fully aboard the Lion train. *choo choo*
Trotwood: He is perfectly delicious, and I'm so glad that his first rom-com lead is something that is playing upon all his abilities and is good. I'm hoping that now he'll be able to play BOTH romantic leading men and psychopaths since clearly he's good at both.
kakashi: Just left Avignon, man, the Palace of the Popes is something else! I'm deeply impressed. I'm less impressed about how bad the wifi is on this boat, but I guess you can't have it all.
Panda: I was late to the party but I'm now fully aboard the Lion train. *choo choo*
KOREA
Special Labor Inspector Jo
I'm hearing good things about this.
Possessed (Finale)
A surprisingly affecting drama, for me. It was not really about being scared while watching, at all. Yes, the demon was terrifying, and there were stretches of time where our leads felt dismal, even hopeless. Hell, even the demon was sad and miserable sometimes. Yes, too many people died in the fight. One was too many, and there were many more than that. But you truly cared for these characters and you were right there with them, determined to save the people they loved, determined to save the world. I would 100% watch again to see our lovely shaman and her grumpy detective become the biggest, most selfless people you can imagine.
Her Private Life
People will talk about the obvious swoony elements. But I also like the real warmth in this show. I wept over the scene about the writer and his photographer and their great love. I really like how our couple works together not just because they are falling in love but because they recognize the strengths of the other. That is what the scene below makes me think. However, I still love the relationship with her friend, but I must say that I'm worried about her friend and her marriage and that loveable part-timer/musician wannabe. Where is the show taking them? And do we even need Cindy drama? I know. I know. She is exactly the character I always hate in dramas, and we are supposed to dislike her and her mother, but I'm not sure what they add to the plot. We have so many problems already. I'd much rather find out more concerning the artist Ryan Gold seems to be searching for and the connection to Shi-An. And now we even get a love rival? I'm worried that there are too many things being added that will take away time from the ability to get any developed in a satisfactory way.
All you said Trot! I really enjoy the friendships too asides our OTP. I really like the girls friendship, had a very brief moment of SLS but quickly overcame it especially when Eun Gi became slightly pouty. I feel Cindy is still going to be an ally if she can get rid of her ridiculous mom. But yessss, the principal reason for this is our OTP and they rock!
What more is there to say except that as much as I live for the swoon, I live for the moments when Ryan realizes he's made a fool of himself and cringes in embarrassment - not the moments when he's an ass, but the moments when he remembers being drunk the night before, things like that. Lord knows I love me a beautiful man who doesn't mind looking silly, right? Anyway, if you're not watching this, you might wanna check it out. There is something for everyone, I promise.
All you said Trot! I really enjoy the friendships too asides our OTP. I really like the girls friendship, had a very brief moment of SLS but quickly overcame it especially when Eun Gi became slightly pouty. I feel Cindy is still going to be an ally if she can get rid of her ridiculous mom. But yessss, the principal reason for this is our OTP and they rock!
What more is there to say except that as much as I live for the swoon, I live for the moments when Ryan realizes he's made a fool of himself and cringes in embarrassment - not the moments when he's an ass, but the moments when he remembers being drunk the night before, things like that. Lord knows I love me a beautiful man who doesn't mind looking silly, right? Anyway, if you're not watching this, you might wanna check it out. There is something for everyone, I promise.
My First First Love (Complete)
Ummmm, what was that? Is there a second season? It ends so abruptly I thought my internet must have cut out and there was still more of the episode to watch. Aside from that, though, engaging characters, no one's a jerk, and the mandatory tragic back stories are handled with a nice light touch. Maybe wait until Season 2 appears, though.
Kill It
Oh, my God. Nana can ugly cry with the best of them, and I was right there with her. Very satisfying story. Maybe could have been put together a bit more smoothly but I loved our lonely reluctant assassin, and I'm glad so many others did, too.
I Picked Up a Star in the Road
I'm not going to watch until this summer when I can marathon Sung Swoon (cough) I mean Sung Hoon all in one go and I have plenty of time to recover squeeling.
Just One Bite Season 2
This is season 2 of one of my favorite web dramas from last year on Playlist Global. It focuses on three friends who bond over food and support each other through everyday trials. We ended last season with two of the friends not talking because one started going out with the other's younger brother. He's clearly had a thing for her for years, but she's just noticed him now that they are all older. While the other friend broke up with her boyfriend not because they weren't in love but because she couldn't deal with all the comments about her not being pretty enough for him. That was sure painful. This season, opened with an ep that focused on the siblings. The two friends still aren't speaking, but what sis doesn't know is that her friend is no longer seeing her brother either. I really hope they sort this out and that our self conscious friend gets back with her love of a boyfriend.
Triple Some
Another webdrama by Playlist Global recommended by Medusaspeaks in the comments from last week's post. Seven eps have been released, but only five have English subs. Each ep is 8-9 minutes. Our heroine, Se-hee, is a high school girl living a high school girl's fantasy. She starts high school nervous that she doesn't know anyone only to meet up with her old middle school friend, Injae, and two other guys, Jiho and Dahyun, on her first day. A girl, Soo-ah, stands up for her when they other girls keep trying to pry her for information, and she becomes part of their group. In typical harem fashion, each guy likes her, and show gives an ep to each to show how she gets along with each of them. It's light & fun fare, but pay attention. I've seen several of these web drama actors end up in major shows.
CHINA/TAIWAN
From Survivor to Healer (New)
I saw a few episodes. Sean looks fantastic, and the story has some promise.
Detective L
This show is fun. Fantastic sets. Beautiful costuming. And a cool cast of characters to solve mysteries. We meet the other two members of this very intelligent eccentric team in the next mystery: The Missing Boyfriend. They are a coroner, Ben Jie Ming, and a psychologist, Huo Wen Si. Det L is already fast friends with Ben Jie Ming, but he has an open antipathy towards the psychologist which I think will be interesting as time goes on. Our rookie cop is a badass though and really smart as well. She is the muscle of the team, and holds her own against an elite assassin. I like this format of 3-ep cases even though there are four episodes a week.
HIStory3:Trapped
Each episode is far too short and makes me salivate for more and want to instantly rewatch.Our determined cop, Shang Fei believes that Tang Yi is going to be meeting up with a notorious mobster, but also has a suspicion that Tang Yi might also be trying to capture said mobster. In fact, I think he wants to believe that Tang Yi is really staying clan. When they both get kidnapped, Tang Ti's sidekick, Jack, kidnaps his sidekick,Zhao Zi, and the most adorable hostage situation begins with ZZ exchanging one food for one number in his boss's phone number. A lot of bonding happens with some early hints of jealousy. I'm hooked. You'll have to watch to see why they thought stripping down to their boxers is a way to hitchhike (see pic). I was cracking up.
JAPAN
Kinou Nani Tabeta
I continue to love this show with a slow burning love that will most likely outlast the hot burn of some of the other things I'm watching now. In this episode, we see the real underlying struggles that Shiro has with his identity. Some of that has to do with his sexuality, and some is just his personality. We see him with his parents who seem to be supportive on the outside, but he knows that they still don't understand him, and his new friends think they are being helpful by bringing over another gay man for him to have a friend like they are organizing a playdate or something. I think he underestimates Kenji's strength and his desire to be supportive of him. But illness should bring them closer together as long as the creeper doesn't start calling him and wanting to hang out. I spend way too much time stopping to marvel at Hidetoshi Nishijima's smiles.
