Rants and Weekly Raves (RAWR) #423
Anne: I actually debated a bit about whether I should write this week or not. But the little boy went to sleep a WHOLE 40 minutes earlier than he usually do, and I find myself with time on my hands, mostly because I decided to ignore whatever work (read that as documents and all the related stuff) that continues to circle me. Besides the client related work, I ended up taking a large chunk of our lab moving project. It's a long, long story of my struggle of getting alignment. I finally just gave up and took charge of it all. I take the fact that no one stopped me as agreement.
And my need to know all is giving me a lot of anxiety when it comes to the 6 year old's "project". I KNOW they have a class project where he worked on a biography in class for 2 weeks. He was suppose to turn in the "report" TODAY. And he has a presentation on Friday dressed as a famous historical figure. The problem is, every time I ask him about the project, his reply is always, "I don't know", "I didn't do that", "No there's no project", and the like. And I have seen NOTHING of this "report", or the "script" that he is suppose to be practicing this week. At this point, I'm only about 40% certain that the figure he picked was George Washington. I'm just hoping that this is correct because that's the costume I bought. (And yes, I did email the teacher. This time, I'm asking specifically to see if the 6 year old did his work.) I did not expect to have to figure a way to get a 6 year old to tell me what is happening at school. I expected this to happen when he's a teenager!
Okay, that's enough ranting for today. This will be a short post, mostly because I spent a lot of time re-watching dramas, on FF of course. But I did manage to find some interesting shows to watch.
Under the Queen's Umbrella
I am quite enjoying this slight different take on the palace drama story line. I was a little surprised on the inheritance process in the palace. At least the Chinese kingdoms, there is never that much of an advantage to being born from the Queen/Empress. Maybe my knowledge of history is skewed by the drama writers' interpretations. This is a good setup regardless, about a mother who is doing what she can to protect her sons' lives if the Crown Prince ever loses his position. Is anyone else wondering why we see no princesses? And why does all the consort only have one son? Are there no OTHER children?
I really like how even though she is trying to prevent her sons from causing any trouble, she is very accepting of her sons and tries to do what she can to make them happy. The Queen Dowager is a bit of a B... Although I guess I'm not that surprised, besides their OWN son, everyone else is expendable. And we all know what happened at the end of episode 4. Is anyone else think that something he ate lacerated his stomach? And I assume that it's hemophilia right? Isn't this a recessive trait? This would mean that the previous Queen and this current one share a near common ancestor, but they don't, as this was made quite clear that the current Queen has no "connections" in court. With only 2 episodes a week, we are looking at this ending in December.
A Familiar Stranger
This is a part of the short dramas that have been proliferating the most this year. I have found some that were really good. And this new one was by the same director as The Killer is also Romantic (the ancient Chinese version of Mr. and Mrs. Smith). This drama tells the story of Shi Qi (literally her name is 17) who is a painter that paints brothel women. Her reason is that she's been trying to find her elder sister. During one of her painting sessions, she meets Shen Qin, who is having an affair with Prince Ning. Shen Qin is engaged to be married to General Xiao Han, but she doesn't want to because she wants to marry Ning and also because she was pregnant. Some how Shen Qin "face swaps" with Shi Qi, who then marries the general instead. Each episode is only about 10 or so minutes with a total of 18 episodes. Viki collapsed the episodes into only 8, and it is a quick enjoyable watch. It is not without flaws, but it is most more enjoyable then some of the normal length ones.
Good Job
I also finished this drama this week. If everyone remember, this is the story of Eun Seon Woo, a CEO who moonlights as a detective with his lawyer side kick in order to solve his mother's murder. And Don Se Ra is an orphan with super vision, who gets involved in the detective business. In the process of trying to solving his mother's case, they get dragged into a series of cases. It ends with finding out the murderer and such, but the mystery is definitely not the reason to watch this show.
The best thing about this show are the characters. I really like each and everyone and all their interactions and personalities. I liked how each character developed and the stories of their past. I like the characters more than the plot itself. I wished they spent a bit more time explaining how and why the kids were in the orphanage, because at this point, I still cannot explain the killer's issue except his crazy obsession to please his father. There were some light comedy in their interactions. It's not ha-ha funny, but a quiet polite giggle funny. Overall, I would watch it for the characters, but don't expect much from the plot.
Okay, everyone. Have a great week. And here's hoping something interesting airs for us to discuss next week.