Rants and Weekly Raves #282 (RAWR)

Trotwood: Last week began with major upheavals at work and ended with the memorial service for our friend. I'm so glad I was able to attend and represent her drama friends. I got to meet some of our group in person for the first time, too. Wish it were under different circumstances. In any case, I didn't get to watch all shows on my list.
Panda: I wish I could have attended the memorial. I am sure Bel knows she is well loved and missed Trot. Thank you for all you guys did. As for dramas, I think I am just not in the mood for it. I am watching one with my hubby though- Its a Nigerian show on Netflix called Sons of the Caliphate. It's not bad I guess...
kakashi: Are you thinking I'm not around much? Yeah, cause I'm not around much, sorry, peeps. Bear with me :) At least I remember it's Tuesday and I need to post this.

KOREA

The Game: Toward Zero

The plot of this show is really interesting, and the fact that it has the ability to make me feel sorry for a man who has killed an innocent teenage girl right before our eyes, says something about the layering of the script. I wasn’t expecting the connection made in this week’s episode between the victim and perpetrator in the latest murder, but it worked and actually made earlier characterization make more sense.

Hyena

I did not know what to expect from this show because the trailers were so over the top crazy comic sultry while the plot synopsis seems like a typical battle of expensive lawyers playing a high level game with the money of the elites. I knew that it would be superbly acted with my fav Kim Hye Soo as female lead and always dependable Ju Ji Hoon as the male lead. What I got was a tense but hilarious battle of wills between two leads whom you can’t completely like or dislike. Right when you think you have Ju’s Yoon Hee Jae pegged as a snotty geeenius lawyer who threw away an opportunity to be a judge to make money, we get him dancing in car with his colleague or falling head over heels for a girl in a laundromat. Right when you think that Kim’s Jung Geum Ha (the girl in the laundromat) is just a master manipulating, client steeling, only in it for a buck lawyer, you get her flashback of abuse and her taking on her attacker to the point that the police question who is the victim. And it’s funny. So many flashes of humor here. I don’t know if I’m in it for the long haul, but it’s opening weekend was good.

Tell Me What You Saw

First let me admit that I was completely distracted from the very tense child abduction case by the hotness that is Jang Hyuk. I can see why it would be difficult to work with his character because his presence even in silence just sucks up all the energy in the room. But the twist to the abduction case had me yip with glee.  I love being surprised in the middle of an episode. I also like the fact that even though Soo-yong accuses him (in a very good parallel come-back to his taunts) of lacking empathy, he is the one who understand the pain of the perpetrator. In fact, I think that ability is what makes him a good profiler and probably why he seems cold. It isn’t just because of his loss; we see that he was like this about cases even when his fiancé was alive. He probably can’t allow himself to fall into his deep capacity for empathy or he’d be miserable & not be able to sleep at night. I’m very curious about the gangster connection to the tragedy from long ago, too.

JAPAN

Kono Otoko wa jinsei Saidai no Ayamachidesu/ This Guy is the Biggest Mistake of My Life

Right when the drama needed to, it gives itself a jolt by adding in new characters. We’ve seen people at the office, but we get to see more of the science world that Kioichi lives in: his two best friends from college, Mishima Sae (nobel prize finalist and professor) and Aida Koshiro (a cardiologist who has never failed). Their introduction changes the dynamics in unexpected ways. Sae is set up to be the typical perfect rival who is determined to win Kiochi’s attention, but what I didn’t expect was that Yui would end up bonding with Koshiro over their love of dogs and that he actually makes her not only understand Koichi a bit more but also how she feels about herself.

Shiranakute Kariyama/No Need to Know/Off the Record

This show is just giving us more and more reasons to dislike Nonaka, Kate’s new ex, which I find increasingly uncomfortable because they are also making it clearer that Odaka, the guy with whom she broke up with 8 years ago, is probably the perfect guy for her despite him being married with a child (or is he . . .?) In any case, I almost wish there was no love triangle here so I can focus on her plight to deal with her feelings about being the child of a murderer and the social stigma of that. I also really like watching her be so good at her job. I like Yuriko Yoshitaka, who plays Kate, more and more with each episode, and really wish I had more time to go back and find more of her dramas. She just has a quality about her that I like. She seems so physically comfortable in her acting.

THAILAND

Until We Meet Again

Whew! That ending! I’m going to be honest and say that I fast forwarded through a lot of this episode. Everything moves so slowly. For example, there isn’t any need for how long the car ride scene is. Or the long pauses in between lines at the dinner with Pharm’s uncle. It’s frustrating because the book doesn’t move this slowly and the storyline itself doesn’t need long drawn out pauses and heightened music to create tension. I mean this is the ep that Pharm finds out that the Korn from the past is not only his uncle but is the one who came up with the name Pharm and the whole hiding the suicide comes out. I did love the scene with the brothers. Everyone’s acting is on point. I love seeing the older actors in this, but the directing . . . 

Why R U?

Yes, this was my favorite episode so far, but that’s probably because there was more Fighter/Tutor stuff. I’m relieved that Fighter finally gets to see how Tutor is struggling and of course he wants to rescue him. I really like them together now that they are sincerely trying to help each other out, but who’s going to tell the best friend/girlfriend about this, especially with what happened at end of episode. The irony about the Zon/Saif plot is that they’d probably be together by now if everyone just minded they’re own business. I actually like watching them together until all those other side characters show up.

2Gether: the Series

What do you do when you are a serial dater really looking for “the one,” but all your girlfriends have been disasters? Are you excited when you finally get to college for the idea that this is the place where you will find “the one”? Are you excited when you get a secret confession note? Hmm. Are you sure? This is what happens to our hero, but the person who confesses to him is not only a guy, but a VERY persistant guy who doesn’t believe that he can’t convert him into loving him by being that stereotypical stalker date. Our hero tries everything to dissuade him. Of course, his friends decide that the only way to make him stop is for our hero to get a fake boyfriend! Let the contract dating hijinks begin. First episode was fun and funny. Pacing a snappy, and I like all the friends here. I even like stalker guy, which never happens. He’s more like a super fan.