Rants and Weekly Raves #304 (RAWR)
Trotwood: All our offices are supposed to be "ready" by August 15. But because of the social distancing requirements, my admin and I can't be in there at the same time and receive guests, so we are going to divide up the week between us. Have to wait to see what the local schools do before we can do our final schedule though. I'm fine only going in to sign documents once every other week, but I'm not ready for every day.
JoAnne: We've been phasing people back in at work, very slowly and with staggered schedules and enhanced protocols for distancing and cleaning - but my group is part of Phase 4 and will likely be one of the very last within the phase since there's nothing we can't do remotely. It might even be the New Year. I've already spoken to my boss, casually, about my reluctance to return given some chronic health conditions, and I'm confident I'll still be working from home the vast majority of the time, once we do go back.
Panda: I am also in Phase 4 or is it 5 and we have been definitely told we are not going back till next year. I wouldn't mind that if only I could have had the entire house to myself. LOL. I am still only watching Midsomer Murders and reading books. That reminds me, I should do another book post...
Panda: I am also in Phase 4 or is it 5 and we have been definitely told we are not going back till next year. I wouldn't mind that if only I could have had the entire house to myself. LOL. I am still only watching Midsomer Murders and reading books. That reminds me, I should do another book post...
KOREA
She Knows Everything
Wow. Wow, Wow. I didn't pay attention to the opening until episodes 3, so I didn't know that this drama was the 2019 MBC Script Prize Winner, and it doesn't surprise me. I think I said wow at lease four times watching this episode. Within 5 minutes, there was plot reveal that surprised me but made perfect sense, and there were at least 3 more. There are so many integrated experiences and relationships that keep getting pealed back. I'm excited to see how it gets wrapped up in episode 4. It's been subbed. I'm just behind.
Mom Has An Affair
Lots of major reveals last week that frankly I am surprised came this early. I knew that the ML's identity would be revealed because we are at the painfully being apart stage of a daily. However, I didn't think that his birth secret would come out to the audience so early, but maybe the writers decided to reveal the secret to us because it is not the secret I think we were all (okay maybe just me) thinking. If the ML isn't the chairman's son then why did he lie? None of the hostility would have happened if his crazy current wife didn't think he had an affair all those years ago. One thing I like about dailies is that the older people's stories are just as interesting and the plot with the younger people.
CHINA/TAIWAN
Parallel Love
So in a span of four episodes, I went from rolling my eyes at the 2nd FL to cheering for her. Yes our OTP has some great scenes, and I'm going to admit to tearing up when they realized the only way to save things was for him to get engaged to the 2nd FL, but really these episodes all belonged to what the writers decided to do with our Zhao Yan. She, with her trusty side-kick/true love interest Yan Xin, were going to go all the way, winning this war and the hand of the man she's assumed she would marry since she was a child, but she recognizes not only his misery but her own sense of self worth and, most importantly, the fact that she has grown up. She doesn't need him. She deserves someone who loves her not just her shares. She walks away and leaves everything righted, including herself. I cheered. She deserves two pictures.
Mr. Honesty
One of the reasons I am so tired this weekend is because I watched/ff thru eight episodes of this show. I just had to see how everything was going to happen. This is another show where I really wanted to like the 2nd FL and was hoping that they wouldn't make her into the crazy I've been by your side so I deserve you character, and this is just because she always looks so good and she clearly is so good at her job and needs to be able to design far away from her overbearing father. She went down the road of unforgivable, but I think our heroine/love rival is going to be the person who brings her back. She has her pride in her work, and I can so see them being friends. I think they are all going to have to work together to beat the parents.
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| I really want to like her |
JAPAN
Unsung Cinderella: Byoin Yakuzaishi no Shohosen/ Unsung Cinderella: Midori, The Hospital Pharmacist
I'm a major fangirl of Ishihara Satomi, so I will try the first episode of any drama in which she stars even if there is no hope for the subbing to continue. This show was already delayed once because of COVID. It was supposed to start airing in April but didn't start until July. I like watching dramas about other professions besides police officers, doctors, or lawyers. This show highlights the hierarchy in a hospital, and the machine-like precision the pharmacy must have. Our heroine believes in the human touch, and this causes all sorts of problems.
PHILIPPINES
Gameboys
Right when you think things would be able to start in the recovery phase, after all the original was only supposed to be nine episodes and this was episode nine, there is now going to be a forced separation compounded by a lie. Sigh. This is what happens when a show that was chugging along to be in my top ten gets popular enough that people get greedy and decide to do an extension. Is the scenario they have cooked up as a response to economic hardship caused by a family death due to COVID realistic? Yes. Do I believe that Cai would leave town with his mother out of guilt and fear of being apart because of COVID? Yes. Did we need to break up these two for the sake of a painful if realistic extension? No. And I can't say enough how much I love their best friend, Pearl.
