Rants and Weekly Raves (RAWR) #336
kakashi: They grow up so fast (see Lee Jong Suk below...)
Trotwood: I was hoping we'd get post military muscle, but I'm also liking the long hair.
KOREA
Times
It's a show like this that makes me miss Jo extra. She'd be watching, and I'd read her commentary, so I'd know enough to be able to start watching again. I'm behind. I didn't have time to watch last week or this week, and this isn't a show you can fastforward through or skip episodes and still understand. I see clips on OCN's Instagram, and I want to watch, but I don't have time to watch six episodes to catch up. Is anyone watching? It looks really good.
Will You Leave/Must You Go?
Unlike with Times, I was able to catch up with this show. Four episodes have been aired and they are only 30 minutes long. Another time travel show with a completely different vibe. Min Yoo Jung seems to be the reincarnated version of a woman in the past who begins to relive a love triangle that looks like it ended tragically. A talented but fledgling musician, she is desperate to pay rent, so she takes a job one night to play the gayageum in front of Joseon era structure, which calls forth a man from that era. He is the connection to that past and this present. The cast is really young and very green, but it's interesting. I want to see what is motivating people. People might remember the ML; he was one of the boys in Click Your Heart.
Miss Monte Cristo (daily)
The second week of this drama and we've already had two time jumps. I'm enjoying the present makjang craziness because I love revenge dramas, and usually to get to the revenge portion, we have to watch the lead suffer for at least half of the show before they get their turn around. However, this show has established how horrible everyone else in this show is with few exceptions: the heroine's mother and brother, one of her friends (the "plain" one whom I'm sure with have a makeover in the future), and the supposedly good for nothing rich guy who is just bitter that his father who remarried his mother's best friend seemingly seconds after his mother's funeral. I do love the twist and how our heroine comes back another a different name. But she is already plotting and scheming to take them all down. They seem such easy targets that I wonder what the show is going to do for 100 more episodes, but I'm ready for each one of the people responsible for her "death" and the suffering of her entire family, and I'd enjoy watching each suffer for twenty episodes a piece, so . . . 
CHINA/TAIWAN
Word of Honor
Now that I have completely given up on trying to remember all the different alliances and relationships between the sects, I am really enjoying the show more. and it's really fun. I didn't hink Ke Xing's flirtation could get any more obvious, but ow that Zi Shu is no longer in disguise, he's definitely taken it up a notch. which is hilarious. I also find it interesting that he knows who Zi Shu is and yet keep asking him to tell him the truth. I think we are all supposed to know his true identity, so I'm really curious to know what his angle is. For those of you who can watch without subs, please know that Youku releases four episodes with subs a week, so I have only been able to watch episodes 1-8, meaning that the people who need subs are going to be two weeks behind, so please be mindful of spoilers in your comments.
JAPAN
Kimi to Sekai ga Owaru Hi ni/ With You on the Day the World Ends
Seriously, why aren't you watching this show? I wept crocodile tears this week when we lost another one of the good guys and everything is so twisted that I think that I'm going to wait and not watch until the remaining three episodes are subbed. I do NOT want to have to wait a week in between anymore with this story. Our crazy scientists is completely brilliant such a villainous mastermind twisting up the stories of his enemies that I'm not sure how the good guys are going to be able to sort any of it out before being completely broken. The golems, what they are calling the zombies in this show, continue to be the least of our worries. It's the heartbreaking broken alliances that are going to be the death of the viewers.
Attack on Titan - The Final Season
It's easy to hate Zeke but I don't.
Nishiogikubo Mitsuboshi Youshudou
Another warm episode that made me cry. What is a life if you work and work and work and then retire to an empty house with no love and very few memories except of work? Our guest this week in the bar has just "celebrated" his last day of work, but the congratulatory messages have only been like jabs with a knife. Our three friends realize that though they weren't in the same friend group in high school, they had still connected then. Also, I want the canned cake! Does anyone know what they are called? I tried to look up cake in a can but all I got were recipes for baking cakes in cans. The premise of the bar is to make gourmet foods from canned ingredients, but this is the first time they've done a full on dessert. 
THAILAND
A Tale of a Thousand Stars
This show continues to be my guaranteed happy place each week. It comes out on Friday and is subbed right away, so I have something that I know is going to make me smile after a long work week. It is obvious to everyone except Tian that Chief Phupha likes him, and instead of having some kind of panic over his feelings for a guy, Tian seems to be embracing them. What he can't past is his guilt. Someone else also uncovers his secret, and he promises to reveal the truth soon. I knew our rural gangster was not going to let the villagers off the hook once they figured out how to make money without him, so the end of last week's episode probably surprised no one but the characters in the show; however, it will be interesting to see how they all try to recover or if they will just capitulate for the time being.
Talay Luang
No subs!! Another week of waiting to find out the results post accident. I feel like the relatives in the waiting room.
Lovely Writer
I have gone all mother hen about Gene, the lead in this show. His discomfort continues to be palpable and borderline unenjoyable for an introvert like myself who really can only function in my very public job because of my quiet alone time. I'm just going to quote what I wrote in my group chat about this show: "I love Gen so much that it's making me dislike the other characters too much. This isn't "gay panic" but a personal space issue with everyone. Does no one in the show respect personal space. I would lose it if people kept sitting so close to me and touching me and wanting to be in my apartment while I'm working. And the show hasn't made me care enough to want to know why the character who is playing the 2nd male lead in the drama they are filming is acting like a shit. I am curious about Nubsib's motivation, but not enough to not be annoyed by his manipulative flirting. I'll probably keep watching, but I don't know if I will keep posting about show until it is over.
