Rants and Weekly Raves (RAWR) #388

Anne: Cedar!!! This last week, everywhere in South Texas, this has caused all sorts of issues in my sinus. The congestion and coughing the tree pollen has inflamed was worse than getting infected with SARS-CoV2. If only we could develop a vaccine against allergies! It got bad enough that I almost lost my voice on Friday. I conducted a meeting all by IM. It is a good thing that they made us all learn typing skills when I was in high school. During my academic career, I had more than one foreign graduate student who asked whether I learned typing during school. I have always thought that this was something that was taught as a general rule. But then I remember that when I was in high school, computers were just starting to come onto the market. And we learned typing on the word processor. (Two points to anyone on the blog who knows what this is.) While I was between coughing fits and sinus blockage, I was happily watching my two favorite dramas of this week.

Reset

I was pleasantly surprised when I realized that I was getting more than two episodes this week! This drama continues to captivate and surprise me. Each episode there is something new to discover, and it keeps building on what has already happened. As the audience, you feel like the two leads, coming into new information that helps you understand more and more of the events that you keep reliving. When the leads decide to investigate which passenger on the bus is the bomber, the audience is introduced to side characters that for the most part, we would have quickly forgotten. The way the story of each individual was told is an example of great story telling and plot building. There is never any exposition, everything is "shown" through actions. Nothing is explained like a lecture, all the answers the audience comes to realize. 

Everything up to episode 4 is all about the how, and everything else afterwards is about the why. Last week, I revealed a lot of the plot. The how is just the beginning and with the exception of where the bus explodes, there isn't really anything that would ruin your enjoyment of the drama if you knew before hand. However, now that we are getting to know all the characters, and we are getting to see what happens every time that He Yun and Shi Qing resets their ride, there are some surprising and very jarring situations that you have to experience for yourself by watching it. 

Episode 8 is when we know who is the bomber. It is also the beginning of some stunning moments that I have rarely seen portrayed so well. There are only 15 episodes. And even though the bomber is revealed at the halfway point, trust me, every single episode afterwards will continue to deliver and engage your interest. I told my husband that once everything is subbed in English, I will watch it all over it again with him.

Bad and Crazy

With episode 10 being bumped for it's airing schedule last week, we are only up to episode 11, and I have to wait ONE ENTIRE week to know how it all ends. In episode 10 and 11, what did we learn? We learn that when Soo Yeol was 13, he met a friend, whom understood the violence he suffered inside his own house. The two boys were very close. And then the other boy suggested a solution to their problem.

Soo Yeol wasn't convinced that this was the way to go. 

By episode 11, the Russian/Korean drug gang plot closed as fast as the "bad" cops did previously. In a series of scenes that lasted <20 minutes (maybe not even), Boss Yong's righthand man, Andrei, died at the main "evil" character's hands. In her desire to get revenge on the murderer of her friend, Boss Yong turned herself in. (There are some serious logic issues with this show, but given that the ML is a cop with an imaginary friend...I just go with it.)

Now... it doesn't take a genius to figure out who is the man behind the curtain, pulling the strings to lure Soo Yeol into his trap. Soo Yeol's childhood friend is not exactly thrilled that Soo Yeol negated on their plan, and doesn't appreciate how much better his life turned out to be after the death of his father. Joo Hyuk wants Soo Yeol to suffer. Now, what was a work of art is how Joo Hyuk did it all.

This is the smile of a man who is extremely satisfied with the result. (I don't know why but I really like this still shot.)

[Off topic -- every time I see the word 'therapist', I remember the old Jeopardy skit SNL did with "Sean Connery". I can never stop equating 'therapist' with the rapist'. To this day, it is how I remember to spell the word.]

With his master plan seemly fulfilled, Joo Hyuk succeeded in putting our ML in a psychiatric hospital medicated to the point where K is no longer present. In the last 30 seconds of episode 11, we see that Soo Yeol never took the meds, and K is very much still hanging about in his life. And the two of them are apparently ready to kick some ass next week!

Color Rush 2

When I saw the second season, I was kind of excited. Mostly because they left that odd mystery with the disappearing mom plot completely open. And in the first episode, this is now front and center and obviously the primary driving force of season 2. But...wait a second... who's that guy next to Yeon Woo? 

So where's Yoo Han? Apparently he was kidnapped between Season 1 and 2, when the boys went to a carnival for a date? So now Yeon Woo is looking for both his mom and his boyfriend. This new boy Se Hyun sort of just barges into Yeon Woo's life. Se Hyun has a younger sister that Yoo Han saw in a dream and some mysterious surgery where a mono can be transplanted with the probe's eyes? And by the end of episode 2, Se Hyun's sister apparently died. 

I looked at that scene and scratched my head...and went...what? Does anyone else understand what is going on?

I also see that the boy who played Yoo Han is nowhere on the cast list in MDL...oh oh... given the opening plot...what are the chances that Yoo Han will be found alive and well?

That is yet for this week. Here's hoping that my allergies clears up and my sinus will treat me better.