Rants and Weekly Raves (RAWR) #392
Anne: My week pretty much passed the same way as it always has...too much work and trying to figure out how to add more time into my day. The only funny thing that happened was that my husband made a reservation for my birthday, and let's say that I had an little inkling that something might happen. So I asked if he got an email reminder for the reservation. And he picked up his phone and said, "For 2 at 9:15pm March 17." I looked back at him and said, "March?" He nodded and looked at me for one second. I raised my eye brow and repeated, "March 17?" Something finally clicked and he said, "Aw...sh@t!" So we still went and waited for like an hour. But the food was yummy and we went dancing. So everything was pretty good. Yes, this was not the first time he did this.
Autumn Ballad
How much do I LOVE this show? A lot! Since there are only 6 episodes a week, I wait until Sunday so I get 4 episodes before I start, and catch the last two on Monday. This week's episodes are both great and not so great. Let's get the not so great thing out first.
Poor Qiu Min, while "staying" in the back (with Qiu Yan's birth mom) to avoid from being in the "tainted" front of house, gets sexually assaulted by the chubby bastard who was in charge of the family. The rest of the women all went up front to "serve" Qiu Yan. Qiu Min, in a fit of wanting to be better than her elder sister, perhaps went a little too far.
Liang Yi planned an escape for the women and hid them in an insane asylum. The plan also faked Qiu Yan's death by drowning. Qiu Min decided to get her man at all costs, and "left" the safe house and went in search of Qin Xuan, whom she always had a crush on. So...in a very misguided attempt to follow her sister's advice, she took advantage of Qin Xuan in his grief that the love of his life died. In order to find her sister, because this is her mom's only child by blood, Qiu Yan went out to find her. Don't ask me how her idiot of a sister was able to avoid getting caught, but Qiu Yan ended up almost being caught if not for Liang Yi who just happened to be in the area working on a case.
These two have the best arguments!
However, hiding Qiu Yan was never going to be easy and in the most bizarre attempt to throw off Yuan Lang, who basically kicked open the door to their hiding place. Liang Yi and Qiu Yan was "caught" in bed. Liang Yi insisted that this girl who looked like Qiu Yan isn't Qiu Yan, but some one who "looked" like her and is his concubine. So this bizarre series of events ended up with Qiu Yan pretending to be a different person, now married to Liang Yi. And because Liang Yi is a man who, up to now, has never shown any interest in any woman, his mother is "thrilled" that her son has a concubine. She could care less that she is of low birth and worked as a singer/musician. The fact that Qiu Yan could get her son to bring her home was all she wanted. And now for the best part of these episodes...the silliness of forced cohabitation in ancient times!
And when your mom caught her newly married son in a "lovey" situation, she decided that her son really did have a thing for this young lady.
And proceeded to put a lock on the bedroom door.
And our newlywed trying to avoid the awkward situation upon discovering that they can't leave.
And the morning tussle when your "husband" tried to climb into bed when his mother comes knocking on the door.
I have now a new favorite actor with some of the best facial expressions I've seen in a drama. Liang Yi starts out as the biggest A-hole, but throughout the drama, you start to see his less serious side. His quirky smile, his very childish action of hiding booze in his room, his "playing" around with Qiu Yan, and all sorts of interactions that he has with her. It is very clear that Liang Yi likes her.
And we, as the audience, is given this confession of his feelings for Qiu Yan, when Qin Xuan challenged Liang Yi. Qin Xuan lost it when he found out Qiu Yan was alive and now married to his best friend. Liang Yi gave us the best proclamation of love I've seen this year! (Okay, it's only been 2 months, but it's a great start!) Liang Yi is now actively pursuing Qiu Yan.
The problem for him is that Qiu Yan still pretty much treats him like a friend. The last episode of this week ended with Liang Yi needing someone to pretend to be a "heaven" chosen girl. I mean...what is he going to do, have Qiu Yan "come back to life"?
Besides the really unbelievable situations, Liang Yi and Qiu Yan's relationship development is quite organic. They really do start out as friends, and they are still friends. It is quite refreshing, actually.
Dine with Love
This show started great! And I only clicked on it because of the ML. He's my favorite second ML and he is great in this! He plays Yu Hao, a boss who can't cook, who owns a food company, and sponsors a reality cooking show. Su Ke Lan is in public relations who was elevated to the director of public relations to "fix" his problem when his use of a body double on his own "cooking" show was found out.
This thing is hilarious!
When this man gets drunk...
and he tries to crack a tomato...
If you are looking for a short drama (like 5-6 minutes each episode) that has a pretty good plot and silly scenes, this is a good one to try. Be warned, it isn't over, and season 3 is coming out soon. The story is about Yang YiYi, who basically electrocutes herself and enters into her own novel. Qin Yu is the emperor character she wrote, who is pure as virgin snow, despite having a harem. He is just too busy managing the business of the state. Her only job is to make sure that she follows as closely to the original novel as possible, and so she keeps wanting to be demoted into the cold palace. She has to stay there for 100 days in order to survive. Any time she doesn't stay there, she will be in danger of being "killed". And that doesn't mean she gets to wake up in the real world. It just means that she's dead in both worlds.