Rants and Weekly Raves #144 (RAWR)

JoAnne: What the hell?  How is it Sunday again already?
SakiVI: I know, right? I'm so tired! Too much to do each week. I basically kept up with my daily dramas in between work, and one kdrama.
bcook: Yes that was me last week. Glad I got in on this one this week. :) Miss you guys.
Trotwood: I don't know how that week flew by. Began with me having to be an auctioneer and ended with me being a mascot. Glad it's over. But I managed to catch up . . . with dramas that is.
kakashi: What year is it? I actually and seriously got confused this week. I had to check a calendar to see whether it was 2016 or 2017 already
Cookieeeeeeeeeeeeee! We miss you too! Also: I was pretty much caught up but now I'm behind again.  

Korea

Fight My Way

Moo Bin is a piece of shit and always has been. Max was right. In other news, Dong Man and Ae Ra are making moves toward their dreams, Joo Man and Seol Hee are heading for a showdown of some sort, and SOON - and our mystery landlady has become even more mysterious. I like her. I like all of them. Not you, Moo Bin you piece of shit. (And notice I haven't mentioned Hye Ran at all. She's beneath notice.)
Max will never let us live down our Moo Bin mistake I think. Oh well. I agree. He was completely right. So right in ways that I did not expect. I really like how the confessions happened this week. Dong Man turned into all manly man during that fight, but most importantly at the very end when he knew she was there to support him even though watching him fight clearly freaks her out. I will mention Hye Ran because I got as much pleasure watching Dong Man completely NOT see her to get to Ae Ra with her preening self. WHat the heck is she famous for anyway? Joo Man/Seol Hee are still getting on my nerves. I know people are all excited with his way of saying they can get married once he's finished this project, but we all know that he was picked because of that girl's connections, right? She probably is somebody's daughter who put in a good word for him or something. I love her boss. I can tell she wants them to just put it out there since she struggled like Seol Hee. Either claim her openly or let her go, Joo Man!
I was not impressed with his proposal at ALL. He may have always intended to marry her but the situation itself smacked of appeasement.

Lookout 

I know there's a lot of people who hate Do Han, but I'm not one of them. How is he using or manipulating people who make a choice to act on the information he provides? They don't have the full story, no. Does that change anything? I don't think so. The only thing they don't know is who he is. They can reasonably assume that he, like they, have a grievance, and that he, like they, has a unique offering for the group as a whole. I don't think he doesn't reveal himself to them because he needs to keep emotional distance. He doesn't have emotional distance from them now, and we've seen it in his face in previous episodes, not just this one where he finds Soo Ji unconscious and hurt. He does it because uncovering his role would end everything, and if the others get caught and they know who he is, they can reveal that information - even if they don't really want to. I have no ethical dilemma at all with what's happening. (And I have to add that this week I fell IN.LOVE. with Key and Seul Gi as a thing. That works for me. You know, in the show.)
I completely agree about the Key and Seul Gi thing. This has got to happen. The way he genuinely didn't think it was her was hilarious because you know he had this picture in his head about some odd-looking older ahjumma hacker like in Healer or something, and he was genuinely stunned by how pretty and young she is. He's just not smooth enough to make up lines like that. I pretty much swooned when he reached out his hand to her and told her he'd never leave her.
However, I disagree about Do Han. I want to kick him in the face, but I think that's a good thing. Yes, he has brought them all on for revenge. But it's very clear to me that his revenge trumps theirs. They are adults making choices, but I have very little patience for people who take advantage of other people's trauma. And this is what he is doing, capitalizing on each one of their situations for his gain. If they solve those cases, it seems as though that will be purely by accident not because he is really focusing on any of them. The chinks in his facade make him human to me though.  I know people are still holding onto their dislike of Kim Young-Kwan, but I think he is killing this role here.
He definitely is. I'm not one who had to overcome a dislike, I've always been able to separate a cocky bastard from his work.
 

Circle 

I'm very conflicted. Not about the show, but about the people in it. Who's really good or bad doesn't so much seem to apply here, though; this is more about tracing motivations. Maybe that's what the circle references, and in the end those who've lost their way will come back to their original intent, which seems to have been good. I do think the characters who believe we need our memories, good and bad, are on the right path. The inventor may have meant to create something that could remove painful memories, but what he created was a way for people to escape the emotional weight of their behavior. I don't think that was what he meant it for. I guess we'll see?
You've got me wondering about this show. Maybe I should take it up....after I clean out my backlog of time traveling shows.
 

Suspicious Partner 

Ji CHang Wook is the most precious baby. He turns me into an old lady when I watch him though, because instead of thinking "What a Namja!" Instead he gets all adorable in his glasses and grins and I just want to pinch his cheeks and go back to my knitting. He really is super cute, but not the response I usually have to him. As much as I like out OTP, I was getting tired of them not getting any further with the story or developing the case of the week any more, but I am dying to see next ep after that cliffhanger! I am going to comfort myself by what the psychic said "Don't cry so much. Everything will be okay"
Don't tell Cher but I didn't watch this week.  I'm like you with Wookie - my brain knows he's as sexy as it is possible to be and not self-combust but my heart just goes awwww, Wookie, let me hug you.
Wookie makes me smile like an idiot for the entire episode. I'm not sure if I'd rather sigh like an idiot (for his action shows) or smile. I just wanna meet him in real life. #lifegoal157
Me watching Wookie drink tea, eat food, stare blankly at his screen...heck even when he's waking up from a nightmare

Seven Day Queen 

We've arrived at adulthood. The Mad King is even hotter than he was 5-7 years earlier, but he doesn't seem to be any better emotionally. Yeok was saved somehow (so who did the king see that night under the sheet?) and it becomes clear that Mom and his friends knew it all along - and now he's come back to seize the throne come hell or high water. Of course the family that saved him had a daughter who fell in love. Sigh. She's going to be awful, it's clear. Since he thinks his brother was the one who had him killed, and he sees his brother and Chae Kyung being friendly, he's filled with rage against them both...but despite himself he still loves her...and man, Yeon Woo Jin is the right guy to show that conflict. Still my favorite of the currently airing shows!
Darn it, I didn't get to watch it this time around.
I'm not watching this yet (ever?), but everyone on the internet knows I'm responsible for Lee Dong Gun being dubbed "Shoulder Smolder" years and year ago. I think I made some comment about him being hot enough to fry bacon on his shoulders.
I always liked him but never thought he was all that HOT, exactly. Here though. Oh my God. Oh my God.

Ruler: Master of the Mask 

Can someone please tell MyungSoo that you do not demonstrate anger by hunching over like a constipated turtle and bugging your eyes out?  Also, fuck Grandma.

Father is Strange 

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh we're in the stage where Joong Hee is trying to deal and is completely unable to deal and actually seeks psychiatric help and offers to have surgery or be committed or ANYTHING to help him not be in love with his half-sister, the poor sweet thing. Fortunately the psychiatrist is sane and tells him he's not crazy and given the circumstances it's completely understandable - and then offers him practical advice to get past it. We know he won't, of course, but we also know she's not any kind of sister to him at all, and I cannot wait for the two little sweethearts to be able to love freely. In other news, watching the battle of wits between the new bride and her idiotic but cunning mother-in-law is more fun than I expected, and I'm very interested in the whole pregnancy/work debate going on with the show. Mi Young called it right - Bully is perfectly happy to take all the privileges at home but at work, she pushes all concern away and basically values her job over the pregnancy. I get her desire to still be taken seriously and her fear that she will lose her job, and I shoot dagger eyes at the team member who is obviously angling to replace her - but it is a real dilemma with no easy answers.

Bad Thief, Good Thief 

Still mustering energy to continue.

The Best Hit 

Okay, this week they have a little more backstory ( a very little) and we learn that Ji Hoon is a really good rapper. Poor Drill, I know. Also that he likes Woo Seung. Gwang Jae discovers Hyun Jae, and Hyun Jae wins a little mall talent show. Nothing else happens. Jeez Louise, pick up the pace.
Whose child is the little girl? She seems so random. Also, I find our agency head and his older wife who calls him oppa and gets him chasing her around the office so funny.
Don't know who she is, but I figure we'll find out soon enough.


Duel 

So this airs on the weekend but where I watch it doesn't show up until Monday/Tuesday...and I can't remember if what I remember is last week or the week before. I may be behind a week. I think I am.

Forest of Secrets/Stranger 

I like. I think our protagonist is a straight up good guy, but the end of episode two left me a little iffy on that. Everyone seems like they exist in a world where every day is cloudy and a little damp, and the cinematography matches that perfectly. I have no idea what's what, yet. Someone died, people in the prosecutor line covered up some key facts, the guy who got put away for the murder killed himself in prison but not before writing an incendiary 'J'Accuse!' that fires things up a bit. I like it.
 

Teacher Oh Soon Nam 

It's an excellent daily with all the drama and good acting (for change, considering daily drama actors are usually super-wooden) but the real star is the third male lead, Lee Ro Woon.  Everyone, meet Cheekos! 
We loves Cheekos. Enough to maybe even check out a daily. Maybe.
Worried Cheekos
Cheekos has to see for himself, I have to see Cheekos.

Protesting Cheekos

Suspicious Cheekos
I also really like Weird Angry Elf here: 
But Cheekos is the main attraction.  Just look at the cheeks!  And the extra chin!
I'm exhausted!! Because of this face I ff through nearly 30 eps trying to catch up. Now I've been sucked into this daily world instead of starting Forest of Secrets like I planned. The Red Woman needs to go down, but I hate the MIL most of all.  She's the reason her son is such a horror.  he needs to start blaming her and not everyone at the school for his woes. Spineless Weird Angry Elf. Once again, where does Korea find kids who can cry on the drop of hat? When Cheekos brings in all the kids from the school for the grandfather's funeral, I teared up even though I wasn't that invested in the show yet.
The Elf is cute but I'm going in prepared to throw shoes at him.
His weird ears make me feel things.  Agreed that horrible MIL is the real problem.

My Only Love Song

This is a Netflix original and it's kind of funny, starring Byul, the Alien from Circle, plus cuties from CNBlue AND FT Island, plus a host of well-known character actors. Spoiled actress time travels back to the period of the drama she's acting in and meets the historical figure she marries in that drama. Of course history didn't have things exactly right, and she introduces a lot of words, concepts, snack foods, etc, that didn't exist. It's easily digestible and available in full now. Thirty-minute episode snack food.

Not-Korea

Waiting for Chao

Ice Fantasy Destiny

Sorry, everyone, but when episode 6 gets subbed, I'll work hard and recap both it and 5. In any case, 5 doesn't have any Shi or Yan Da.
I hear we might not get subs at all for 6, because the episodes all disappeared from the internets. Not sure that's true? Anyone? 
No clue, but considering the uncertainty and knowing that if it ever shows up, Saki will be the one to know - I'll just drop this from the RAWR until there are eps and subs available.  Sounds good?
Fine.
..
...
subs for 6 are out, guys

Princess Agents 

Yeah, I'm done.

Rush to the Dead Summer 

Dropped within 10 minutes. I really can't stand school shows.
I like them, but I haven't seen this yet.

American Gods (Season Finale, or maybe start of hiatus but it's done for now, regardless.)

Everyone is at the House on the Rock and Austera has confiscated Spring all over the land. Dead Wife has learned that all the troubles that have befallen her and Shadow Moon were caused by Mr. Wednesday, now revealed as Odin, because for some reason, Shadow Moon is someone he needs. That's it, and here we sit until it starts up again. 
I quite like this show. Am on episode 4.  

Fear the Walking Dead