Rants and Weekly Raves (RAWR) #410

Anne: Hello everyone, again I am one day late. I really have no excuse except that I needed to finish work last night.

The 5 year old boy started space camp this week and he is very excited. Although he always tells me that he doesn't remember anything that he did during the day. Today, when I asked specifically if he had milk during lunch, he says that "No milk. We get to choose water or juice." I then asked what he picked, and he said juice and then added, "No one picks water." Sounds about right.

And now on with the shows!

A Dream of Splendor

I wake up Sunday morning, and they dropped the rest of the episodes. So I spent the rest of Sunday afternoon binge watching everything to the end. This will be an overall review of the end with little details so I don't give away too much for those who is still waiting.

As expected, happy endings all around. Although the "mis-understanding" between the leads did last a bit TOO long. And seriously, no one ever clean up papers laying around on their desk, I guess? And what kind of "hurricane winds" knock over a vase?  And how did they remodel a restaurant in 3 days? 

Zhang Hao Hao was a life saver and good of her to not let her jealousy turn her into a villain. Good job to Song Yin Zhang for being vicious enough to break a certain someone's fingers for trying to use her.

Ou Yang Xu got what he deserved in the end.

But how he got to THIS point is quite ridiculous. Let's just say that there are a lot of holes in the plot and logic towards the end that could have been avoided. The only thing that made sense is that Ou Yang Xu, even at the very end, never thought he did anything wrong. His defense has always been that he was forced to do what he did, and that he had no choice. It is an interesting character devolution. And seeing what he went through, it makes sense why he would think that way. Even though as the audience, we definitely noticed that he caused it all himself.

The Empress was completely out of left field. And how that ended... okie dokie...😶😶

And even our favorite second lead, Chi Yan Nei have a new interest at the end. And we all wish him good luck on this one!

Overall a fairly decent show where the best thing is the chemistry between the leads. Love it!

Insider

I started this because I wanted another crime show and I also thought this was finished airing (don't ask me why). Well...it turns out that it isn't and only 6 episodes are released out of a total of 12.

First thing, don't believe the synopsis. I was expecting something like Lawless Lawyer...but it was very obvious that this is SO not like that. Warning, you will need to handle a lot of abuse and torture of the main character if you want to watch this. 

Kim Yo Han is a trainee, and I guess he hasn't even graduated or gotten his professional license yet to BE a prosecutor, when he was roped into doing undercover work for the police. And in this "process", he offends the wrong people, gets tortured by a gang member for "closing" down his gambling house (and this is why no one likes the dentist), his grandmother dies, and he gets thrown in jail, for real. 

Inside the prison, he gets beaten up a LOT in the first 5 episodes. 

This prison offers the prisoners' special privileges (such as not being "locked" in a cell) if they can demonstrate an ability to be a great card player. When Kim Yo Han enters, the prison is run by a gambler named Jang Seon Oh (played by none other than our devoted and cute chairman from Military Prosecutor Doberman), who is a card shark. I do LOVE the details when they explain how they can cheat the game and learn to deal any card to any person they want. 

The beginning is a bit confusing and the beatings are really hard to watch, but I am hooked now, although I'm still unsure of what in the world is going on and how Oh Soo Yeon plays into this.

Stayed tuned...for at least 6 more weeks...we are on the 1 episode a week Kdrama timeline.

Alchemy of Souls

She is the reason I LOVE this show. The boys feel like a Kpop group. I don't know why I cannot get that image out of my head. So we find out why Jang Uk had his powers locked... but it made NO sense (biologically), so I can only infer that conception also transmit a part of your parents' soul. 

Mu Deok helped Jang Uk get his powers unlocked and now has accepted him as her pupil. In order to help Jang Uk, Mu Deok "confessed" her feelings for Seo Yul, even though it isn't a complete lie. We still do not know Mu Deok's origin or why she was picked. We do know who is the lead of the assasin's group...but we also don't know why.

However, I really like looking at all the pretty people.

And this is it for this week. I'm not sure what else I want to watch know with Splendor done. I did try one episode of The Legendary Life of Queen Lau...I am not sure how I feel about it. I might give it one more try and I'll let everyone know next week.

Have a great week and happy drama watching.