Rants and Weekly Raves (RAWR) #482

Anne: Hello Drama Lovers! It's been over TWO months since I last posted. Now...what have I been up to since then.

In the early part of July, I went to Netherlands for a work trip. I swear...I don't know what weird cloud of luck that surrounded that trip...but it was a trip full of all sorts of "kinks". First, when I was booking the flight, I thought I got a great deal: business class for under $3000, round trip. Well...it has been a while since I traveled for business...I didn't realize that I landed in Reagan and had to take off from Dulles. Situation 1: Yep, I didn't realize that I had a connection that was in two different airports. (And I live in HOUSTON, where I've advised OTHER people to watch out for the exact same thing.) And how I found OUT, was after I wondered around for 45 minutes in Reagan trying to find a gate that didn't exist. Yes, you've read that right, it took me FORTY-FIVE minutes!

Now, the good thing was I have a thing about always having at least 4 hours between flights. (I get motion sickness on a plane, that is triggered by anxiety. No, not anxiety about flying, it's anxiety because I know that I'll be sick on the plane. It is a vicious cycle. When I was in grad school, I took one trip where I was vomiting every 15 minutes for a 3 hours plane trip. I felt REALLY bad for the poor people sitting around me.) The layover is part of my ritual, along with a combination drug regimen. Because of the 4 hour layover, I was able to still make my connection, at different airports an hour apart from each other.

The site in Netherlands is actually in an industrial town, where there isn't really anything interesting. (When I went through customs at Amsterdam, when asked where I was going...I said "Geleen". The agent went "Where is that?"...I answer "Netherlands." She looked at me as if I was lying.) From the Amsterdam airport, I took a train to Maastricht (and no, I don't think I pronounced this correctly ONCE in the 3 days I was there...).

It was quite pretty. It was near a river and had a lot of bridges. I thought I would get a few cool days, since I was in the Netherlands. But...they were experiencing a heat wave: Situation 2.

One my very first day of the workshop, about 2-3 hours into the meeting, and it was right before lunch was going to be delivered...a series of alarms started to go off. (The site is on a chemical plant compound.) Situation 3: I ended up being locked in the "safe zone" in the building for like 6-7 hours because of an ammonia leak...due to the heat wave. 

On day 2 of the workshop, I realized that I could not make the flight next morning if I took the earliest train the next morning to Amsterdam, Situation 4: I skipped dinner so I could catch the train and get to Amsterdam before I got rained on.

Once I got to the hotel at the airport, I order room service (because I had a series of message to get something done at work...). Then my laptop...which didn't charge completely before I left Maastricht...refused to charge...at all! Situation 5. Immediately after I got what I needed to complete for work, my laptop shut down. (This thing didn't charge for like 3 days. I thought I fried my battery. But I decided to try one last time late Sunday night, and it suddenly started to charge again! So relieved...)

Waking up at 6am in the next morning, I see a notice on my phone that my plane was delayed by FOUR hours!!!!! Situation 6: So I spent about 6 hours walking around the airport because I can't work while traveling...and spend way too much money buying stuff. At least I didn't miss my connection...

So that was my adventure on my work trip, the first and good gracious, probably the last one for a LONG while...It was too much stress for me 😁

And now on to what I have managed to watch since my last post...

Coroner's Diary

I started watching this because how can I not?! It's one of my favorite type of period dramas...crime solving. The story started with Shen Wan escaping her family's massacre. She hid in a medical valley, where she was trained as a doctor, adding to her skills as a coroner that she learned from her father. A few years later, she entered the Qin manor, disguised as the Ninth daughter, Qin Wan. Later, she realized that her father's "crime" centered around the crime of Prince Jin (I forgot which number he is in the royal lineage).

She meets Yan Chi, the emperor's nephew, who never believed that his cousin, Prince Jin, was guilty of murder and was on a mission to clear his name. It doesn't take long for Yan Chi to realize that Qin Wan could help him with his goal.

The overall feel between the FL and ML reminds me of The Imperial Coroner, but Chu Chu and Prince Xiao were probably smarter of the two pairs. But there was a lot more romance between Qin Wan and Yan Chi.

The over arching plot was quite...unbelievable. But it connected some of the puzzling things that, as the audience, I was really puzzled about. The emperor's insistence on taking back Yan Chi's father's army. The fight between the empress and the favorite concubine, and the competition between their respective sons (and why both were not the classical archetype in Chinses drama land that would end up taking the throne). Why Yan Sui was deadly afraid of  the emperor. The mysterious masked leader of the "cult" that was murdering all the "bad" people. And this is only a bit of the plot... It was quite a complicated string of stories that was actually done quite well, in terms of story telling. 

I like the 2nd ML, Yan Li, and Yue Ning, the 2nd FL. 

The cutest pair was actually Yan Chi's guard (Bai Feng) and Qin Wan's maid, Fu Ling.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. And this week, I'll be looking forward to starting The Wanted Detective. 

Revenged Love

It was a been a VERY long while since there was a really good BL drama. But this one, despite the slightly silly "revenge" is turning into one of the best BL dramas I've seen the in last few years. It is also longer than most of the others that have aired.

Wu Suo Wei (who changed his name) is devasted when his girlfriend of 3 years dumps him because of his financial situation, and then he loses his job, and hides out in his friend's (Jiang Xiao Shuai) neighborhood hospital because he didn't want him mom to know he lost his job. While trying to figure out how to make money, he "discovers" that his ex-girlfriend is now dating Chi Cheng, his mortal enemy whose life seems to make fun of Wu Suo Wei's efforts and struggles. And in a flash of brilliance, he decided to ask his friend (whom he has seen attract men and women without hardly even trying) to teach him how to seduce Chi Cheng, make him fall in love, and the drop him without a backwards glance.

Unknown to Wu Suo Wei...Chi Cheng needed a girlfriend because his father has taken all his pet snakes as hostage until Chi Cheng will straighten out, stop being a weirdo, and get a girlfriend. 

As for some of the BL Taiwanese dramas, the plot set up is really exaggerated. Chi Cheng and his nemesis/best friend, Guo Cheng Yu, and their love of snakes and stealing each other's boyfriends. But the relationship as it develops between the 1st CP and 2nd CP is very addicting to watch. It's slow airing...so I'm saving up the remaining episodes until it's completed. I know for a fact that we're heading into massive heartache, so...I'm waiting until I don't have to wait a week to find out what happens.

And how many of us were surprised by the airing of ABO Desire? I barely started this because I never really got into the ABO universe, but I am still amazed that they made this drama. Looking forward to see if this is any good.

A Dream Within a Dream

I've put this at the end because I haven't finished this one yet (because my husband wanted to watch it with me), even though it's the first one that completed airing all episodes compared to the above 3. 

How many of us had to take a second look at Li Yi Tong, because on first glance (especially in this custom make up), she looks a lot like Bai Lu? And how many of us were surprised when this became a 40 episode drama? I have seen so many of this plot foundation in the short dramas, I did wonder how in the world they were going to extend this troupe into a 40 episode story.

I love everything about this so far, although the beginning seemed a bit slow compared to the rest of the story. I loved that she was so sure she could beat the system by trying to marry her childhood sweetheart, when everything in the universe was trying to stop her. And then the world just decided to screw this and sent her back 6 months later. 

The best kiss of the two most unwilling people ever! 

I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops.

And how much do I like the way Liu Yu Ning looks in this!! He is really suited to these roles, where the character is slightly bad...but not really in the end.  

And this is all for this post! I really need a vacation....