Rants and Weekly Raves (RAWR) #421

Anne: Hello Everyone! I have been, as usual, inundated with paperwork. And of course, trying to figure out why a six year old is going through the "teenage" difficult years. I'm looking at him and wondering...hm... this can get "worse"?! 

This week's post will be really short, and it is mostly a drop by just so everyone knows that I am still keeping up with the blog (and hoping that something better will air at some point before the year is out). Let's get on with talking about the couple of shows I've managed to watch in the last two weeks.

Tracer (season 1 and 2)

Yes, I am a little late to this drama. Even though the second on aired in 2022, it was the first quarter of 2022. I've only caught it now because both appeared on Viki.

In case anyone hasn't see this, it is about Hwang Dong Joo trying to get revenge for the death of his father. The act that he blamed on In Tae Joon, the current director of the regional tax office. The first season features Dong Joo solving some tax issues and proving the "Gold Cash" company was corrupt and pressuring it's borrowers to sign up for accidental insurance and then providing them the "accident". Of course, it also covers Oh Young's rise and his role in Seo Hey Young's family's suicide. The second season picks up immediately after the first, and it is in this one where we realize that Dong Joo may have not exactly know the whole entire story of his father's death and the schemes that his dad was involved in.

This is will feel very similar to anyone who has watched any Korean revenge dramas. There is a hero with challenging childhood and parental issues. There is a heroine with a complementary tragic past. A mentor who is flawed but otherwise, probably the least flawed character of the drama. And a sprinkle of other side characters. What I most like about this is that we are still able to be "surprised", or at least I was. I certainly did NOT see this coming as the reveal.

Or rather the identity of the "person" who was doing the act. 

Now, the pace of this could be sped up a bit, and I do admit that I FF part of the "inner contemplation" scenes. But I do like this quite a bit, for a revenge/mystery drama.

Strange Tale of Tang Dynasty

I started this because it is a period investigative drama...how could I not watch this?! I haven't gone very far and I'm only on episode 7. The story is about Su Wu Ming, a lowly investigator, and Ling Feng, a general of some sort of guard, team together to solve some, supernatural crimes. The first few episodes, you are introduced to a series of disconnected events that involved missing brides (or rather brides that were "kidnapped" and then killed) and this Chang'an Red Tea that is all the rage (a tea so expensive that people are going bankrupt to buy it...I thought it was made with some sort of addicted drug or something). The tea is also served in the palace and this "connection" and what may or may not be the origin gets Ling Feng demoted and stripped of all his titles/properties in one FELL swoop! There is also the classic "reveal" of the first bad guy. The first arc is done with the first bad people out of the way, but there is no clear resolution for this red tea. 

I do like this drama. With the investigative aspects that is more X-file like than Sherlock Holmes. But there is ONE thing I cannot stand (so far...maybe she will change later)..Pei Xi Jun... This girl is obsessed with marrying Ling Feng, but she originally mistaken him for someone else. Yes, you've read that right, she thought he was someone ELSE. Did her obsession lessen when she realize that he wasn't the one she wanted to marry? Nope, of course not. As any proper stalker, she just transferred her obsession to Ling Feng. I so so so hope that her character gets better...because she is annoying and preventing me from enjoying the drama.

At a total of 36 episodes...there might still be hope for her.

And that is all for the last two weeks. Here's hoping I can take more time to catch up on dramas next time!