Rants and Weekly Raves (RAWR) #457
Anne: Hello Drama Lovers! Hope everyone is enjoying the last few days in 2023. Now...I know Chinese New Year isn't until February 10th (so late!), 2024, but I am very excited for the next year...because it's back to the year of the dragon. Not sure if the year will be good or not, but I'm hoping that next year will open up some new paths in my life that will bring those around me what they will need the most. And me some better dramas and get me out of this slump! Because what I ended up doing a lot the second half of this year is getting deep into crafting. I know... I'm always late...I'm two years passed the Covid restrictions where most people pick up projects. I end up getting into these things during 2023. I am currently building a greenhouse, and all the little "things" that might go inside of it.
I'm only a third of the way through...I have like 20 more plates to make...and obviously the "building". I'm battling the 7 year old as to who gets to keep this when it's completed. This is still unresolved...
Now, since we are at the end of the year, I thought we should also take the time to discuss some of the highs and lows and what we enjoyed the most out of this year in drama-land. If I miss anything interesting that anyone has come across this year, please recommend in the comment section.
Let's start with what I watched in the last two weeks...
The Truth Season 2
I was scrolling through the apps when I came across this crime drama. Because this was season 2, and because Liu Yi Tong is also in this one, I wondered if season 1 is some how linked. So I spent a day watching season 1 (which is only 12 episodes)...but they are not linked. It's a Chinese crime drama so it's littered with smaller stories linked to a bigger arching plot and bad guys. Season 2 revolves around Xiao Yi and his team. Xiao Yi is searching for a watch that used to belong to his dead girlfriend, which would lead to the identity of the man he was looking for from a few years ago.
I'm only on episode 7 so I have no idea what role Bai Zhe is playing here. Bai Zhe is currently a mysterious figure who apparently planted a bunch of hidden camera in specific characters houses. I'm still figuring out what all the connected pieces are but am really enjoying the well drawn-out characters, even the ones who only appear for their small arc of the overall story.
I highly recommend this if anyone likes crime dramas. Season 2 is better then season 1.
Derailment
I really liked the synopsis of this drama when I read it on MDL And I've enjoyed the last few shows that were adapted from Priest's novels. Now, I won't recommend you reading the novel if you haven't, and just take the drama as is. The drama starts with a very exciting and confusing sequence.
Episode 1 starts in 2025 we see a pink sports car speeding through the a bridge, and ending in an accident that caused the girl (Jiang Xiao Yuan) and her car to dive off the bridge. As she and the car heads into the water, a strange cell phone suddenly announces welcoming her to some system and that they are opening a "tunnel". The next scene is Qi Lian in 2012, accompanying his best friend into the hospital, after his friend fell from a construction site during a some sort of fight. His friend's life is saved, but is now in a wheel chair on the roof of a building (presuming the hospital), as Qi Lian is talking to his father on the cell phone. When he returns back to his friend, he has disappeared, with that same strange cell phone sitting in the empty wheel chair.
The story then jumps back to 2025, and we witness the events leading up to Jiang Xiao Yuan's plunge over the bridge. The story then begins back in 2018, where Jiang Xiao Yuan ended up in the middle of what looked like a stone yard. She ends up in a different time, where her dad died before she was born. Her father's cell phone number now belongs to Qi Lian. And Qi Lian, who obviously knows her other self in 2018 keeps following her around.
The story is intriguing, I just have one little complaint. The actress who plays the FL...I see that she is in her early 20s, but she looks so much younger on screen. I feel like I'm watching a teenager trying to be an adult with creepy men everywhere. Anyway, I am still going to continue. But I'm not sure I'm going to get rid of the creep factor between the leads.
Highlights of 2023
Now on to this year in reflection. Let's start on the positive end first.
My favorite show of the year is still My Uncanny Destiny, which actually aired at the very beginning of 2023. The story is a romantic comedy set in a fictional historical time period and it involves the two warlords of neighboring cities, who hated each other to the core of their beings. I loved everything about this drama, from the silly comedy of errors, to that famous "bath tub", the oddball off the wall side-characters, the romance, and the music! This is truly a comedy, so do not watch this show with any expectations of reality.
Under the Microscope, was by far the most exciting drama (it was also quite short at only 14 episodes) about the most boring topic (taxes) I've very seen. The story was about Jia Mo, who is obviously on the autism spectrum, and his discovery of an error in accounting. Everything was done quite well in this, and I've always like watching Zhang Ruo Yun. And I think they made the right decision to keep it at 14 episodes, any longer and it would have dragged.
And one of my most anticipated sequels...Taxi Driver Season 2, where we could all watch new adventures of Kim Do Gi (so hot!) and his team bring justice to the bad guys. But his resurrection of his alter ego Wang Tao Chi was the BEST scene ever!
Now, I know that this COULD have been better, but the only full length fantasy drama I really enjoyed this year was Till the End of the Moon. Yes, I know this mainly due to the fact that I have a thing for Luo Yun Xi and Bai Lu, but I also loved the novel. For the most part, the story was pretty on point, and he was just SO pretty, and so a tragic character.
The best remake that corrected the abrupt pull of a BL drama was Stay with Me. This was a remake of Addicted, and anyone who tells you differently is only looking at the surface. This was the perfect completion of what should have been, told in a way that was able to pass censorship and still kept enough of things "suggested" that anyone who knows the original story could read between the lines. The main actors are a quite a bit younger than the original, but given that this was supposed to happen in high school, I think this remake had the correct ages depicted of the two main characters. I really hope they make a season 2 and continue the story.
My obsessions this year were the short web dramas, and ended up watching quite a bit of these, including the ones airing on YouTube. Out of all of this, Forever Love, introduced me to my new crush Dai Gao Zheng...sigh...such a hottie. And my YouTube story watching gave me my other obsession, Shen Hao Nan. Take a look at these short dramas if you want a fixed period where everything in the room is just a bit warmer than it should be (and no, I am not having hot flashes...at least not the age related kind...)
Lowlights of 2023
Most of the BL dramas, except the one mentioned above. Not even the Taiwanese BL dramas worked very well this year. Everything was just so so, with plots that made almost no sense...or not a lot of sense anyway.
Most of the full length features, both Korean and Chinese. I have started more shows than I've managed to finish this year, and I almost always stop because I wanted to FF through the scenes that just dragged. I'm not saying that I agree that we should never have a show beyond 40 episodes, but come on! Give me something that makes me want to continue! Maybe I just don't to spend the time invested in the journey. It's just not worth my emotional time.
And that's it for 2023! I don't have specifics for the lowlights because there really hasn't been anything that I regret devoting so much time to, mostly because I didn't... hahaha. Looking forward to what 2024 will bring in both drama land and in everyday life.