Rants and Weekly Raves #305 (RAWR)
kakashi: I'm at the office. I have a headache. I also started watching Season 3 of Attack on Titan (finally! But I really couldn't stomach something as brutal and sad as that during the Corona lockdown). I will go look for Levi fanfiction next.
Panda: I sound like a broken record but yep, still not watching any dramas. I think I am just going to wait for Secret Forest 2 (A great birthday present). I am still binge-ing through Midsommer Murders and I just realized I have now read 393 books this year. WTF
JoAnne: I am busy trying to save the world, so I'm not watching much. I only watched Flower of Evil this week. Oh and Lost Romance - still on the cute side of things, happy to say.
Trotwood: We keep getting government guidance that keeps changing which means that we need to keep updating our plans, but soon they are just going to have to stop because we are in the implementation phase. I'm trying to find balance, so I went berry picking last week and picked ten pounds of blueberries in an hour. I call it rage picking.
KOREA
Flower of Evil
JoAnne and I are back in KDrama recapping business! YAYYYY. It feels good. You can find a detailed discussion in the recaps before RAWR posts since this is a Wednesday/Thursday drama and I intend to recap both episodes before the next ones air.
She Knows Everything (Finale)
I enjoyed this drama all the way through until about the last five minutes, which I didn't think necessary at all and just diluted the intensity and the tight structure of what was happening. I continued to be surprised with how the lives of all of these people were intertwined and how so very needless the deaths really turned out to be, making it more tragic. If you are looking for a tight and short (4 episode) mystery, I would suggest it.
United Effort to Accomplish One Thing/Chip In
This will probably the only time I use that crazy long title. Not surprisingly most online sources call it the second one, which actually makes sense to a reference in the second week of episodes (four episodes have already aired), but I may find out the the other title makes sense later. This is the kind of mystery I can handle right now. Flower of Evil and Graceful Friends may turn out to be better shows, but when I have to try to figure out risk exposure to over 2000 people, I'm not really interested in anything super dark. This show has a death, but it's just like an Agatha Christie death at a manner house mystery where everyone could be the culprit. I like that the two college age female cousins are taking the lead and neither is dumb.
CHINA/TAIWAN
Parallel Love
This show was delightful. There were times that I fastforwarded but only because I was too impatient to find out what happened. We have a fantastic couple that work together through the problems--even the time travel problem. We have a wonderful work team, another trope I love. There are dastardly antagonist that is a real threat but never to the couple's relationship no matter how much he tried. The ending with make you cry, laugh, and go awww. I know everyone else was watching has finished, but please, I'd love to talk about it. It's not a perfect show by any means. But for what it does, it does well with lots of original touches.
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| Favorite scene. I was impressed. Not by the makeup, but the thought behind it. If she wasn't in love already . . . |
Mr. Honesty
No time for this one this week because I had to watch ALL four episodes of Parallel Love first, and I ran out of time.
Cross Fire
I started this show because of recommendations from commenters in RAWR AND because I have a student who is working on a research paper trying to convince skeptical parents (most likely his own) that e-sport is a lucrative industry. I got so much credibility with him when I spoke about show! Anyway, I'm not a gamer, but I still say it's an interesting drama. You can even fast forward through the actually gaming parts (at least so far-I've only watched three eps) and not miss much of the plot. We have two heroes. One from 2008 played by Lu Han (they try to grunge him up, but he's still sort of ethereal looking) and one from 2019 played by by everyone's favorite Nirvana in Fire child now grown man Leo Wu. Both are struggling in different ways to stay in this gamer world and they meet through some weird vortex in an online game. I'm really more curious about what the conspiracy is behind Leo Wu's character. He's excellent, but their is a powerful man who wants to completely block him from success? Why? Also what happened that put him in a wheelchair? Don't tell me people, I know everyone else knows.
JAPAN
Sousa Kaigi wa Living de!/The Investigation Meeting is in the Living Room (Finale)
We finally get to the end of this lovely warm show that starts out as if it's going to be a generic Murder She Wrote type of a show, but the mysteries of the week became secondary to the growing community between our crime solving family and the neighbors. They haven't felt much of community since they have had to leave each place for fear that the FL's job as an undercover criminal investigation detective puts the communities they are in at risk. But moving like that all the time takes it toll on everyone. Finale was soothing. Something that not a lot of things can say nowadays. 
Unsung Cinderella: Byoin Yakuzaishi no Shohosen/ Unsung Cinderella: Midori, The Hospital Pharmacist
I did enjoy this episode because it made me wonder about all of the different medications patients take and how it could be impossible for doctors to know this in an emergency room and they could through no fault of their own do more harm than good. Of course our favorite pharmacist works her magic, but I also think that is part of the strain which make the show have potential but could also be its downfall. I can understand Aoi and why it's so helpful for her to spend time getting to know patients, but I can also understand the frustration of her team members who may not have her bedside manner but also need to then make up for her frequent absences because they have a hospital's medical supplies to run. I'm also not sure how this "case of the week" is going to be able to sustain an entire show unless we see more of the back story about the head pharmacist or we get some controversy going on with the odd pharmacist guy at the restaurant. For some reason, I don't trust him.
PHILIPPINES
Gameboys
I was going to be so mad if this show dragged out the drama about Cai having to move. I mean, the two of them fell in love on the internet because of the lockdown, but being apart is going to be a drama? Pfft. No, the show actually addressed the real problem--which was Cai's worry that when they met in real life the feelings they had would have been proven to be false just like Pearl's relationship. Thus, their final meeting, particularly after he and Pearl lost connection with Gav, left all of the bitter out of the bittersweet. Wait until after the credits, people. You get to see how Gav set up the plastic barrier so they can actually hug each other without chance of infection.
