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puddlesharkThe re-organisation at work continues. Another stressful, exhausting week. Evenings have been devoted only to escapism. Drug of choice: Chinese costume dramas, Korean melodramas...
I will do better next week.
But in the meantime, television watched & not watched...
Still watching the Chinese costume fantasy A Dream of Splendor on YouTube, which is very pretty & quite fun. Now on episode 13(?), but just one episode being loaded a day, when it's the sort of series you want to binge all at once.
A lot of new Korean dramas came out in June, most of them available on viki.com... but sadly, so far, nothing has lived up to expectation.
Not watched:
Eve - revenge melodrama, which is usually my cup of tea. But this is all about revenge by seduction, and the pacing is glacially slow, and the characters not engaging. Quickly gave up.
Insider - prison/gambling/revenge melodrama. Excellent actors, but really messy writing makes it hard to follow, & the secondary characters are hardly more than cartoon characters.
Jinxed at First - contemporary fantasy romance. I didn't think it was possible, but it is - a female lead who is even more annoying and toe-curlingly cringeworthy than the female romantic lead in The K2... Ouch. Ouch. Ouch.
Still watching:
Why Her? - legal drama. The investigative bits of the drama are actually quite watchable, in a brainless undemanding way. But this would have been so much better without the noona romance element, which is horribly forced and just falls flat. There is zero chemistry between the male and female lead.
And seeing the preview for episode 6, it looks like its about to go all "Girlfriend in Peril" on me. *sighs*
***
I ended up re-watching the second series of cop-and-prosecutor drama Stranger on Netflix, not for the second or even the third time. Because I love, love, love the writing of both these series:
- the seriously twisty politics and plotting
- the sheer depth of character. Every single character, no matter how minor, has this depth. And the criminals are not cartoon villains. They're just people who do bad things, for perfectly believable motives.
- Hwang Si-mok's character, revealed in so many tiny telling details: the way Hwang Si-mok's superiors, in a display of dominance, casually lay a hand on Hwang Si-mok's shoulder or arm, and the look Hwang Si-mok gives that hand, startled and offended.
- the relationship between Hwang Si-Mok and Inspector Han, which is so refreshingly not a romance. There is such a depth of respect between the two, in their formal mode of address, in their quiet concern for the other's well-being. The kindness of Inpector Han's gentle teasing when she senses Hwang Si-mok is in distress.
- and of course, Hwang Si-mok pissing off his superiors (again) in every conceivable fashion, just by being Hwang Si-mok...
I will do better next week.
But in the meantime, television watched & not watched...
Still watching the Chinese costume fantasy A Dream of Splendor on YouTube, which is very pretty & quite fun. Now on episode 13(?), but just one episode being loaded a day, when it's the sort of series you want to binge all at once.
A lot of new Korean dramas came out in June, most of them available on viki.com... but sadly, so far, nothing has lived up to expectation.
Not watched:
Eve - revenge melodrama, which is usually my cup of tea. But this is all about revenge by seduction, and the pacing is glacially slow, and the characters not engaging. Quickly gave up.
Insider - prison/gambling/revenge melodrama. Excellent actors, but really messy writing makes it hard to follow, & the secondary characters are hardly more than cartoon characters.
Jinxed at First - contemporary fantasy romance. I didn't think it was possible, but it is - a female lead who is even more annoying and toe-curlingly cringeworthy than the female romantic lead in The K2... Ouch. Ouch. Ouch.
Still watching:
Why Her? - legal drama. The investigative bits of the drama are actually quite watchable, in a brainless undemanding way. But this would have been so much better without the noona romance element, which is horribly forced and just falls flat. There is zero chemistry between the male and female lead.
And seeing the preview for episode 6, it looks like its about to go all "Girlfriend in Peril" on me. *sighs*
***
I ended up re-watching the second series of cop-and-prosecutor drama Stranger on Netflix, not for the second or even the third time. Because I love, love, love the writing of both these series:
- the seriously twisty politics and plotting
- the sheer depth of character. Every single character, no matter how minor, has this depth. And the criminals are not cartoon villains. They're just people who do bad things, for perfectly believable motives.
- Hwang Si-mok's character, revealed in so many tiny telling details: the way Hwang Si-mok's superiors, in a display of dominance, casually lay a hand on Hwang Si-mok's shoulder or arm, and the look Hwang Si-mok gives that hand, startled and offended.
- the relationship between Hwang Si-Mok and Inspector Han, which is so refreshingly not a romance. There is such a depth of respect between the two, in their formal mode of address, in their quiet concern for the other's well-being. The kindness of Inpector Han's gentle teasing when she senses Hwang Si-mok is in distress.
- and of course, Hwang Si-mok pissing off his superiors (again) in every conceivable fashion, just by being Hwang Si-mok...
