Team Dramabeans: What we’re watching

by DB Staff

How was everyone’s week in drama-watching? I told myself this week that if I stopped rewatching my favorite parts of School 2017, I would have enough time to watch a whole other show. But then I would be depriving myself of the one thing I really want to watch, so where’s the fun in that, right? Six hours of YouTube clips later… –girlfriday

javabeans

Father Is Strange: Daaaaaad! I totally understand why he wants to be punished for his ancient wrong and how getting off easy is actually worse for his guilty conscience, but man it was so hard to watch him just sit there and not fight for his defense. But I realized that Unni is my moral compass (and the show’s moral compass), because I looked to her reactions and thought that if she could find it in herself to respect her father’s wishes, I could deal with it, too. I actually find myself feeling disappointed that we only have two weeks left, because after 48 episodes I still want so much more happiness and resolution to happen and I don’t know if four more episodes is enough for it all!

Rescue Me: Agh, these characters! They’re so well-drawn and well-motivated, and it’s so riveting to watch this trainwreck happen to Sang-mi in slow motion while also being really hard to take sometimes. I was SO MAD at Taec for not saving the day when he could, and I totally get why things had to happen that way and why it’s a necessary backdrop for the current-day cult setup, but I was just so mad at him for not being a hero and then sorry for being mad at a simple-minded 17-year-old kid, and then grudgingly impressed with the show for making me care so much. I don’t know if I can take this show with all its intensity for twelve more episodes, but I also can’t look away.

Reunited Worlds: Why is everyone so readily accepting of the fact that Hae-sung died twelve years ago, and yet completely unaffected at being confronted by him now, in the present, in the flesh? This has been bugging me all series long but it wasn’t as bad when it was more like a secret held by a few close friends—but now he’s revealing himself to everyone, including his killer, and they’re all, “Oh, you’re back, huh.” I’m pretty sure if someone I saw buried came back into my life, I’d be feeling more along the lines of terror, confusion, and chaos rather than “Yay, you’re back from the dead! Let’s go to the movies!” Or “Yeah, I killed you, so what?”

Criminal Minds: This show is really disjointed, and not in a good way (is there a good way?). When they dedicate a full episode to one case, I like it—the cases feel rather crude and simple, and the show feels a little like it wants to be cleverer than it can pull off, but the hour flies by because I want to see how things go down. However, when an episode covers multiple different cases or running threads, it feels totally scattered and my attention lapses.

Bride of the Water God 2017: This show does seem to be going in circles, doesn’t it? Or maybe more like walking a treadmill—there’s technically movement happening, but at the end of the day you haven’t actually gone anywhere.

girlfriday

School 2017: I was so moved that in the midst of getting pushed around by a jackass, Eun-ho cared more about protecting Tae-woon than herself. She’s one badass ball of sunshine. I’m ecstatic that other boys are noticing her too, because you know how much I love jealous shenanigans—Tae-woon going all CSI on his male classmates’ handwriting samples had me in stitches. What I love most about the way that Kim Jung-hyun is playing Tae-woon is that he’s an intimidating threat to everyone else, but around Eun-ho he’s jumpy and nervous and an awkward, flaily boy who’s terrified that she might get mad at him for something. It’s just. Too. Cute.

Live Up to Your Name: Funny! The fish-out-of-water hijinks were as amusing as advertised, and Kim Nam-gil is perfect casting. I thought his reactions to time-travel were pretty believable, and though I think the whole Eastern vs. Western medicine conflict needn’t be such a diametrically opposed war, so far there’s enough amusement in his character’s discovery of newfangled gadgets and misuse of words like “boyfriend.”

Bride of the Water God 2017: I finally caught up on this show, but I think that was pointless, given how little has happened. I’m thinking I could’ve just skipped ahead to the final two episodes to see how it ends.

Rescue Me: My heart sank when Dad finally snapped too, leaving Sang-mi essentially all alone in the world. I didn’t expect the time-skip, but now the stage has been set for regret and a chance to right wrongs, not to mention for the cult to have amassed more influence and power over the town. And a chance to mend broken bromances, right? RIGHT? If Taec and Woo Do-hwan can’t be besties again, there is no more good left in this world!

Falsify: Go team! Yoo Joon-sang’s character seemed kind of superfluous at the start of the show, given that Namgoong Min already covers the reporter side of the good guy team. But this week he proved his worth when he masterminded that awesome front-page snafu by the country’s biggest newspaper. Now I see why we needed an inside man. Also, nicely done.

Reunited Worlds: Erm, I’m disappointed. This show promised me healing, but the plot is so lame that any healing I would’ve experienced is marred by that annoying voice inside my head going, But… you’re dead and you have limited time to be here! Stop buying knife sets for your chef job and start doing things for the people you’re leaving behind!

Manhole: Tell me if Jaejoong ever stops whining, then maybe I’ll pick it up later at that episode. No wait, tell me if he stops whining AND gets a job. Why do I feel like that’s never going to happen?

tineybeanie

Currently recapping: Falsify

The King Loves: Ooh. I’m intermittently watching this. It finally got good this week, primarily because I have bad Second Lead Syndrome, and Hong Jong-hyun/Rin is surging from behind. Gogogo—I’m rooting for you! Otherwise, acting is still mainly meh, but the costumes when they’re in the palace are beautiful. I can’t take my eyes off the hanbok. And at one point, I even started researching if embroidered masks like that were available to buy because they’re so elegant and mysterious!

tipsymocha

School 2017: Kyaa, Kim Jung-hyun is killing me here. He was always more of a lite version of the typical teenage rebel, but his transformation into a rom-com lead is still totally swoony, not only for the way he’s constantly trailing our heroine like some duckling, but also because it feels like he’s evolving as a person in front of our eyes, all due to his crush on Eun-ho. This was a pretty great week for character development in general, and I really like where we are with Bora and Dae-hwi’s redemption arcs, who both delivered some pretty satisfying blows to resident prick Kim Hee-chan. On my wishlist now is a friendship between the ex-besties on the mend, and more cute shenanigans between Eun-ho and Tae-woon, who can keep on flouting boundaries as far as I’m concerned.

Rescue Me: I am simultaneously so creeped out by this show, but so invested in the characters (well, maybe just Dong-chul) that I can’t help but keep tuning in. It’s almost hard to watch at this point, ‘cause all the good guys are so beaten down, and Sang-mi especially is having to deal with a boatload of problems she has little power to change, not least fending off the disgusting Disciple Jo. It’s a miracle she’s gotten this far without being assaulted. Speaking of which, I was pretty surprised at the time jump, but I’m also eager to see how much Dong-chul’s changed in the interim. I just want him back on the streets on his motorbike, being the knight-in-shining-leather-jacket. Is that too much to ask?

 
RELATED POSTS

• Team Dramabeans: What we’re watching (August 12, 2017)
• Team Dramabeans: What we’re watching (August 5, 2017)
• Team Dramabeans: What we’re watching (July 29, 2017)
• Team Dramabeans: What we’re watching (July 22, 2017)
• Team Dramabeans: What we’re watching (July 15, 2017)
• Team Dramabeans: What we’re watching (July 8, 2017)