Rants and Weekly Raves #273 (RAWR)

kakashi: HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Also, we reached 15 Mio blog views! My heartfelt thanks to everyone who has helped make this blog such a success over the years.
Trotwood: Thanks for inviting me to be a part of your world! Warmth to everyone in the holiday season.
Panda: Happy Holidays to everyone! A huge congratulations to the the Readers and Commenters, Blog Admins, and FF writers on reaching this 15 Mio milestone. I truly love our little community from talking about menswear to menstaches to men abs to all things men... Oh and dramas too :) I love you all so much!! Mmmmmwah! Have a wonderful holiday season that I pray is filled with everything you love and desire.
JoAnne:  Merry Christmas!  Happy New Year!

KOREA

VIP

Wow. This is just getting better and better. So many cards are on the table with Jung Sun on the warpath, especially now that she knows that it was the mistress herself who sent the incriminating text. The show is really trying had to make us see YuRi as a sympathetic character with the death of her mother, her ostracization by her co-workers, and the way her Cinderella entry into the world of the rich is not everything that it would appear on the surface, especially since she really admires Jung Sun, but I don’t care. I have even less sympathy for Sung Joon. His mother’s rage when she finds out that her son has repeated the pattern of his parents (she was his father’s mistress) was brilliantly played and thus perfectly painful to watch. But though I’m enjoying the revenge, I hope Jung Sun stops before she gets hurt though I’m like her dad in understanding that she must go until she feels like she doesn’t care anymore.

Chocolate

Very happy with this week's episodes, actually, but I have decided that Cha Young really shouldn't be allowed near patients.  She took the grandpa for noodles, he gets in an accident.  This week she goes with Mrs. Bong (the simple halmeoni) to get raspberries, and the poor woman gets bit by a snake and then even Cha Young falls over a bit of a cliff and is passed out in the forest for half the night.

Kang is realizing he has feelings for her, but it feels disloyal to his dead bestie so he won't do anything about it and even tells Cha Young she needs to go back to Greece, already, and why is she still hanging around. Her crushed puppy eyes pretty much killed me there, poor girl.

We finally get to see why we're spending SO MUCH time on Jun's middle school love, the happily married blind woman.  First, she has him come for a 'date' of sorts to tell him shes sorry that she always ignored his feelings and she hopes he finds a woman to love soon, and that really he lucked out because she's always so sick now anyway.  He says he'd rather not have known that she knew...too embarrassing this way.  His crushed puppy eyes pretty much killed me there, poor boy. 

THEN...Cha Young thinks back to helping blind Hui Ju get ready, and the things she said start to take on a darker meaning.  While she's racing alone to where she left her (in a wheel chair, by a lake -  SEE?  She should not be allowed to take patients anywhere!) the entire hospice is in an uproar searching for her because they realize she took a bunch of pills.  Cha Young finds her in the lake and is trying to pull her out when Kang arrives and takes over...Hui Ju lives, but it's touch and go for a bit.  Jun is so furious that she would do this that he tells her he won't even attend her funeral when she dies, that she doesn't deserve to be reborn, and that he's completely out of her life.

THEN...during a follow-up check, Kang sees something that catches him by surprise during the exam.  He goes to the original surgeon to get details about her treatment and his questions put the woman on the defensive.  'Are you implying I'm incompetent? Even her husband agreed with my decision!'  Kang looks at her with disgust and replies 'I'm saying what you did makes you an accessory to murder.  Did you think I was just calling you incompetent?'

YUP.  She's the husband's mistress and they plotted to take advantage of a complication during her initial brain surgery and just leave her to die a slow, painful death instead of resuming the surgical plan once the emergency was resolved.  Kang left the doc and went straight to the police, who arrest both pieces of shit as they leave the hospital.  VERY satisfying.

Even more satisfying?  Jun goes to the police station and beats the crap out of the husband.  We don't get to see it, but even so.  By the way...this man's face as he contemplates the sadness of Hui Ju's reality...it spoke volumes.  Another set of crushed puppy eyes to kill me, but so much more.

One thing this show does is spread the pain around.  The nurse is not the sister of the director, but a lifelong family friend.  She definitely loves him and always has.  Her entire life.  He does not have a clue.  The two halmeonis who are patients of the hospice were wife and mistress of a man now dead, the mistress brought in to produce an heir.  The wife hated the mistress, who adored her and always tried to stick by her side.  She did produce a son, who was immediately claimed by the wife, but even then the mistress loved her and admired her, and eventually they became friends, sort of.  When the wife dies the mistress is inconsolable.

The little boy dies this week, too.  There is not a dry eye in the hospice - nor in my living room.

My big question now is will the blind woman be saved?  Will Jun be able to spend a lifetime with the woman he has loved forever?  Also - will Kang realize he can't be without Cha Younng before or after she returns to Greece?  What's going to happen to Alzheimer's halmeoni?

Also, the fight for control of the big hospital is going to resume and Jun's parents/grandmother are terrible people.  His father is weak and stupid, his mother is bitter and cruel and jealous, and his grandmother doesn't have a heart.  I'm not sure what makes the blood move through her veins. Merry Christmas, Trot!

Woman of 9.9 Billion/9.9. billion Won Woman

You know you are in danger when not only are mafia people after you, but your crazy abusive husband teams up with your scumbag lover to try to find you. This was an interesting turn, and I don't know why Seon Yong every found Jae Hoon attractive or even a person she could rely on, but then I guess he was better than her psychopath of a husband. He's positively frightening, so I can see why she is so numb to so much when you've lived with that kind of fear for so long. Thanks goodness she's beginning to get some allies--not just in our hero cop I won't reveal my source even if I'm trapped in a car about to be crushed in a junkyard Tae Woo, but also his friend, minor gangster, Dae Yong.

Crash Landing on You

You know I was snarky about this before it started but at least this weeks comments all over my TL has piqued my interest. It seems genuinely funny so I am on board and will definitely watch once my concentration moves back to watching kdrama stuff.

Funny and sweet but I have no idea how they can be together.  Are they going to make the two Koreas reunify? And they just could not resist showing us that they've met before, though neither remembers.

CHINA/TAIWAN

Royal Nirvana

I think I've dropped it. Not because it's bad, not at all. But it's just too desolate and I can't deal with that right now, so there. Sorry, drama. 

HIStory3: Make Our Days Count

My rage from last week is nothing compared to the white hot heat that the finale caused. The internet was ablaze with the fury of fans of the franchise. I will not even comment except to say that those of you who remember (and are still scarred by) the death of Earnestbot in King to Hearts will get it. It’s right up there with that. The finale doesn’t even deserve a photo just my black square of disappointment. OUCH. 

Some Day or One Day

So now we have revealed who the murderer was in the past. Does this kid grow up to to be connected somehow to the psychologist because that guy is sketchy, too? But we are only on ep 5 of 13 episodes. What is going to happen with this mystery and why is the past Zi Wei so much like the future Wang Sheng when they can’t possibly be the same person? One could say that Yun Ru is reincarnated in Yu Xian and has charged her future self to find her murderer but what about the current dead Wang Sheng and his background. Also I’m now completely worried about Jun Jie. Is he dead? Is that why he isn’t anywhere in the future?

JAPAN

La Grande Maison Tokyo

Driving to my parents today for the holiday, so I don't know if I will get to it. Update: despite the slow connection here, I was able to watch episode 7. I realize that this show is very much like a sports drama with all the competitions and the strategies of skill. I thought all I wanted was to see our fledgling restaurant place, but with the appearance of Aizawa's runaway wife, the stakes got ridiculously high. It was helpful though because some of my nervousness was tempered by my outrage that she could just appear after so long to claim her child AND blame her husband for everything. I would have been like:"see you IN COURT!" I was so consumed by this that I was blindsided by Kyono's confession to Rinko at the end even though I've been waiting several episodes for this.

G-senjou no Anata to Watanashi/You and I on the G-String/You, Me, and Bach 

I continue to be delighted by this drama and the friendships between our trio. Yaeko is really trying to keep them together because it's really the only good thing going on in her life, and her job prospects in something she loves are really slim. I like how she and Rihito give each other just the right amount of sympathy but that they don't let the other wallow. Both of them can move forward because of each other, but are they moving closer together? Yuki is struggling with her MiL who seems to be in quite a bit of denial about the physical therapy she needs but frustrated at her own body. Yuki, not the son/her husband, is taking all of this on herself.

Ossan's Love: In the Sky

My subs seem to be a week behind everyone else's, and I'm already seen dissatisfaction with the finale hinted out by people that have already seen it, but since there doesn't seem to be anywhere near the same level of rage as some other finales this week, I'm going to be sanguine.  The show continues to be funny and tender, but the complications with all of these people loving people who love other people seems to be going down the road of people actually moving and leaving jobs just to get away from this tangled web, which is too bad because all of these people are actually good friends, and they'll have to go through these break ups alone.

Follow Saretara Owari

Only one of the 2 eps has been subbed this week, and we get a bit of a break because the focus is on how our two leads get through the misunderstanding each has about the other's reaction to the almost kiss. That is resolved fairly easily, but I believe trouble is brewing because our frenemy in the hospital thinks she knows who is behind it all.

Nee Sensei, Shiranai no?

Our new couple (how did I forget to say he asked her out at the end of the first episode?) have been working so hard, they barely have time to talk let alone date. And really it's our manga artist who is on a crazy deadline. She reads his texts but hasn't even responded. Riichi's colleague at the salon can't believe that Riichi would ask out the mousy Ao, especially since he has so many women interested in him and because she barely contacts him, but Riichi is smitten and is completely understanding of her work. The sexiest thing I've seen on my screen this week is watching Riichi state how sexy he found her work focus & how happy he was when he finds out that she thinks about him while she is working. I don't think her boss is going to be able to fault her for her lack of romance inspiration anymore. But we know that actress is going to be a pushy second lead, don't we?

THAILAND

Until We Meet Again 

We get progression in our OTP because they finally not only have a clear understanding of their relationship--back off Alex, Parm is a taken man--but they also realize that they are having the same visions and are those two people from the past. This is one of those times that I am glad that I read the book, so I didn't feel so attacked as so many people new to the story were upon realizing that the double suicide that happened in the past occured on In's birthday. It seems uncommonly cruel, but watching Dean and Parm be Korn and In finding each other again was such a relief. I think I have a different relationship with this show's OTP than other dram OTP because it seems so much more about justice than about romance sometimes. 

Blacklist

I feel like I could open each week's discussion of this show with "Well, that was a twist I didn't expect," and it would be true. The dead sister is back, and though I was expecting her to be an addict, I wasn't expecting her to accuse someone so close to the "good guy" team. But this is going to be the way that Andrew is going to be allowed by into the group, well in addition to the fact that his father kicked him out because he sided with his friends. The story twists everything around in a really interesting way that is undermined by the music choices and the fact that I can't take things as seriously as I should because of some of the production choices. For example, nobody's hair looks this good after being captured and tortured for 6 months. 

Dark Blue Kiss

I knew this episode was going to be painful, and I had resolved to wait to watch it until next week when I could watch it and the finale together, but GMMTV heard my prayers for SunMork and posted an essential scene between the two of them early. There was no way I was going to wait a week to see these two finally come back together. Of course, while they are bonding together, Kao watches his life fall apart because of the rumor Kon allowed to spread. I knew he wouldn't take it back because he is afraid of his father, and I'm dying to find out who posted everything, but it looks like Pete is coming to the rescue. I predict that the shot of Kao running at the end of teaser is him running back to Pete. I love, love, love Kaos' mother, and how that tiny woman stands up to her boss for her son.

WESTERN

The Mandalorian

Holy shite. Well, THAT was a barnstorming return to the main storyline. foooook! Mando was somehow smart in this episode but he's too frigging cocky. You're not invulnerable, dammit and you have to take care of a little one now!!!! (Still don't understand why an eight episode season needs three fillers, but we're over it, we're almost done, and I really hate waiting for the next season.)

The Witcher 

Started and watched 10 minutes before my son threw up all over the floor so that distracted me somewhat. I did admire seeing the genuine Spiderman though. Such a handsome fella.
I was not aware of this, thankfully, my T-list let's me know about things I might be interested in (feather seems to know me best :))). Well! Enjoyed this A LOT, despite (or even because?) the strange mingling of timelines. I did read a few Geralt stories and one of the longer novels about ten years ago, I might go back to the books now because.... not enough!! Why do we need to wait for more? It'll be a year or something, IF they renew it. Boo! There's so much more story to tell in this world of stolen magic, mutant experiments, and insane suffering.