What Are You Watching?

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Wed Jun 23, 2021 4:46 pm

Watched an HBO series called Mare of East Town. It was good, suspenseful, funny at times, and threw a few curveballs. Kate Winslet demonstrates her acting chops, as do many of the other actors.

I was very angry about the ending of the Mad about Each other Korean show, because it did not end the way it should have. In some ways it looked like they were going to give the audience satisfying moments of drama to wrap up the investment in the show, so we got a few of those, but then they did a bunch of other dumb stuff. I was mad.

I was so mad that I immediately started watching another ridiculous show called My Sassy Princess, set in the mid-to-later part of the Joseon dynasty (?), which I thought was going to be a frivolous romp - and it is - but I was sucked in by the first episode full of violence and intrigue and ninja s***. I need to figure out what the proper Korean term is that is an equivalent to ninja s***. Whatever that is, we see a lot of it in the show. It's actually quite well done. My favorite character in this show is actually the lead government ninja during the present-day portion of the action (the lead government ninja in the past historical portion of the action is also wonderful but we don't get to see much of him). I can't stand the smug main character guy, but he is able to ninja a dozen guys armed only with a fan so I'm inclined to let it pass. I've done a full month + of Korean lessons on Duolingo and can explain that the boy's food is not a cat, dog, or house, but I don't know how to say the word for ninja and they don't seem inclined to teach me these useful things I need to know.

Stan · Post by **Stan** » Thu Jun 24, 2021 8:30 pm

Phoebe wrote: ↑Wed Jun 23, 2021 4:46 pm I was very angry about the ending of the Mad about Each other Korean show, because it did not end the way it should have. In some ways it looked like they were going to give the audience satisfying moments of drama to wrap up the investment in the show, so we got a few of those, but then they did a bunch of other dumb stuff. I was mad.

I started watching this last week because you mentioned it. I, too, found the ending screwy. It was pretty good, overall, but no Rookie Historian.

I recently finished Penny Dreadful, which I had been watching to get in the mood for a Ravenloft campaign. It was alright but not a must see. Timmy Dalton was good but Eva Green carried the show.

Tahlvin · Post by **Tahlvin** » Fri Jun 25, 2021 7:31 am

In addition to watching the old Buck Rogers series, I'm interspersing that with episodes of the HBO documentary, Q: Into the Storm. Man, these people need some deprogramming.

Post by **Mike** » Fri Jun 25, 2021 8:04 am

Watching Loki, Sweet Tooth, and Lego Masters.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Fri Jun 25, 2021 11:12 am

Stan wrote: ↑Thu Jun 24, 2021 8:30 pm It was pretty good, overall, but no Rookie Historian.

This is essentially my life motto and also pertinent for evaluating every television show or related entertainment.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Sat Jul 10, 2021 6:57 pm

Stan wrote: ↑Thu Jun 24, 2021 8:30 pm I, too, found the ending screwy.

I still miss this show now that I'm done with it - I like to chop it off about 3/4 of the way through and come up with my own preferred endings for the story. I really did like the fact that his name in her text messages was aggressive dog and she was the dog owner, lolllll! There were so many cute things about that show that I liked had they just stuck the landing a little better.

My Sassy princess is okay - it appears to be keeping some of the intrigue in the follow-through, and I am still rooting for Lieutenant Gang, so that's helpful.

Since there is only so much of My sassy princess I can take in a week, and because I sat on the remote control by accident while trying to fix a problematic row of knitting, I found myself watching a somewhat disturbing show called "it's okay to be not okay". That might not be quite right but close enough. I don't even know how to describe this. It's about a woman who is some sort of sociopath, or maybe she just acts like a sociopath convincingly because she is covering up for worse pain and suffering from her youth. She also happens to be a famous author of children's books and nursery rhyme story type books. They treat her as a celebrity on par with a major movie actress or pop singer which I find extraordinarily unrealistic, but maybe South Korea likes its authors, I don't know. Or we just have to suspend belief on that point and imagine that she is a celebrity. Maybe she's just a very minor celebrity, who knows. Anyway, there's a guy and some event happens in their youth and it doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense until a few episodes in, but it does start to gel together in a disturbing yet meaningful way later on as you get more revelation from the past. The question is whether you want this revelation at all?

I find the mean woman character, ha that was an accident I meant to say main woman but in fact she is a mean woman as well - I like her. She is interesting. We root for her while watching the show even though she's supposed to be a bad person. Her fashion sense is truly on point, as they say - she is super tiny but wears THE most amazing outfits - like if there was some way I could manage it I would wear those outfits too. This woman's fashion sense is essentially my fashion sense if all I had to do was dress my right arm. Unfortunately there's more of me to dress and it is much sturdier than these particular fashions can withstand.

But I do not like boyfriend in the show at all. He has a brother who is supposed to be autistic and I'm honestly not sure whether they're doing a good job of portraying that or not. In some ways yes, in other ways no. However, they do not flinch from the disturbing aspects of examining what it takes to be the caregiver of another person or to be a person who needs to be cared for in one way or another. It doesn't really have to be realistic to be thought-provoking, in that sense. Some people require a lot of energy for different reasons. It is interesting that the caregiver comes off initially as very flat and inscrutable, and turns out to have some unpleasant layers of his own. Keep in mind I don't like him on any level so maybe I'm biased in calling it unpleasant. I waffle back and forth between finding these characters interesting and trying to figure out what the writer was trying to say, but also thinking that the struggle of the writer to say something is too obvious and intrusive, and I'm not sure I care what the writer is trying to say. One of the interesting things about the show is that the non-sociopathic characters are often horrible, fundamentally selfish and boring people, making it clear why the sociopathic characters don't want to have much to do with them. And the sociopathic characters all have a reason for being the way they are that makes sense. But again, do we care?

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Thu Jul 15, 2021 5:55 pm

It turns out that yes we do care! Even though the story starts to get a little slow after the main couple gets together, it remains good because a lot of interesting things are happening, and the show invites you to reflect on various aspects of the human condition that are not often reflected upon in such shows. It's one of those shows that gives you examples of happiness (in this case in the midst of a bunch of people who are very much not happy), and presents as a question what conditions render happiness possible or likely? It raises questions about which emotions (if any) are necessary for us to experience as a part of happiness, and which ones are detrimental, and whether we've been correct about this. It raises questions about what people have to do to grapple with their own histories or achieve a kind of self-actualization that allows them to live the sort of life they ought to live. And what sort is that?
So this is why I keep watching even though the "exciting" parts of the plot have become a bit predictable at this point and the rest of it is moving fairly slowly.
I also love the actor who plays the main guy's autistic brother. I don't really like the main guy at all still but it doesn't interfere with enjoyment of the show because I love the main woman so much. She is wonderful. They could be screwing up the presentation of the autistic character in various ways (like is there any hint of South Korean TV 'rainman' stuff where if I spoke Korean or better understood Korean culture I would perceive this negatively?) but I find him so powerfully sympathetic a character, with whom I fully identify, that I have a hard time raising a critique. We love him and I think we are meant to love him not in a condescending way, but in a way that grants the full complexity and capacities the character has as a human being. For example, a lot of hay is made over what it means for him to take on the role of being a big brother, given that in some respects he needs others to take care of him. Yet he still is able to perform the role of caretaker to them in ways that the other characters may not have expected but that are rather profound. Given the fact that many of the other characters are involved in providing or receiving psychiatric care, the whole series presents an interesting comment on the nature of caregiving. On the one hand I see that this is just a TV series with flaws, but on the other hand it has been very powerful to me and I completely abandoned the sassy princess in order to finish watching this one!

Mando · Post by **Mando** » Fri Jul 16, 2021 6:07 am

I started watching WandaVision with the youngest daughter(19)

poorpete · Post by **poorpete** » Fri Jul 16, 2021 6:20 am

Finished Loki. I think in terms of banter, characters, and story structure, it's been the best of the three Marvel series so far. There's a lot that I liked about the Mandalorian S2 that turned into Wandavision that turned into Falcon and the Winter Soldier that turned into Loki, but all seems to kinda not get their finales right -- most have been interested being a jumping off point than a conclusion. Loki did ok. After all these I'm starting to wonder if it's impossible to make a great television finale, or is it just the ones on Disney+?

poorpete · Post by **poorpete** » Fri Jul 16, 2021 8:35 am

Rewatched "Portrait of a Lady on Fire" and it's still amazing. Maybe my favorite film of the last decade.

poorpete · Post by **poorpete** » Mon Aug 02, 2021 10:13 pm

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

My first film I've seen in the franchise.

Been watching and loving or at least finding a lot to enjoy in all the films I've watched over the last four years. I'm definitely in a joy of art phase but I wondered... am I wrong about some of those films (or songs)? Are they bad and I just can't tell anymore?

Well I'm proud to say Tokyo Drift had some bad acting; I could tell! To celebrate here's the five best performances

5. Dom - shows up, has a line or two, is amusing
4. Henchman to the bad guy. He kind of did what he had to do
3. The LA detective who chewed the lead guy out
Then a big jump to...
2. Twink - Bow Wow does good, he's a fun watch!
1. Han. The minute he appeared he was a breath of fresh air. His charisma made otherwise stodgy scenes enjoyable. No surprise he's a fan fav.

That said, not a terrible film. That's right, there was stuff to enjoy! This film won't turn me back into a grump! Mainly what was great was the action sequences which were exciting (even one scored to Bawitaba dang it) and the beautifully shot Tokyo (pretty city pretty).

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Thu Aug 05, 2021 4:51 pm

Thinking of watching Portrait that you recommended above, but I also want some Netflix movies. Anyone have a good netflix movie or series? I am of course willing to watch any Korean show but my family members might lose their minds, so non-Korean shows preferred for recommendations. I don't know why Korean shows are better, folks, I don't know why they match my own personal sensibilities so closely, but I have some theories.

Mando · Post by **Mando** » Tue Aug 17, 2021 12:45 am

just finished Loki

Starting Falcon & Winter Soldier as well as Bad Batch

Mando · Post by **Mando** » Tue Aug 17, 2021 12:48 am

poorpete wrote: ↑Fri Jul 16, 2021 6:20 am Finished Loki. I think in terms of banter, characters, and story structure, it's been the best of the three Marvel series so far. There's a lot that I liked about the Mandalorian S2 that turned into Wandavision that turned into Falcon and the Winter Soldier that turned into Loki, but all seems to kinda not get their finales right -- most have been interested being a jumping off point than a conclusion. Loki did ok. After all these I'm starting to wonder if it's impossible to make a great television finale, or is it just the ones on Disney+?

Remember the 8th Season of GoT???
No I think that writing today has problems...like a baseball team that has no "closer." It is easy to start a story but hard to finish one.

poorpete · Post by **poorpete** » Tue Aug 17, 2021 8:03 am

How true. I have my one story that I've been working on in my head on-and-off for 10 years, should probably write it down at some point... and the first two acts I have down and the third one keeps changing.

John Wick
Came in expecting to be blown away and I dunno if it completely lived up to expectations. There were some pretty awesome scenes, but a lot of stuff that was "cool" but didn't sit well with me, mainly all the graphic head-shots. The film really enjoyed not looking-away from the violence. Put the responsibility of looking-away on me.

Laying with my doggy while watching the film felt weird.

It was good, but I'm not itching to watch the next two. For now.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Tue Aug 17, 2021 4:23 pm

Watched the Val Kilmer movie, obviously, and it was worth watching.

I'm now most of the way through a K-Drama for which there is simply no excuse whatsoever, "Her Private Life". "Her"/she is the curator of an art museum and it turns out the private life in question is spent as a rabid kpop fan. The audience is definitely rooting for her to develop romance with the new art museum director instead, who is one of these smart, polite, wounded, pensive, and ridiculously hot men of the kind that populate the kdramas. Yet we have so many perplexing possible outcomes: getting together with the pop star she worships? Her old childhood bestie? And what of the other ladies in the show, of whom there are many?! Fellow K-pop worshipers and K-pop fan rivals! Co-workers! Rivals from the past! What will become of these women? Will any of them end up with the poor silver medalist in Judo, or the kpop trainee moonlighting in the coffee shop?

Not only is "contemporary art" key to the plot in a way we simply do not see from Hallmark Christmas specials in the US, but the main heroine's parents are obsessed with knitting/crochet and rock collecting. You just can't make this stuff up, people. Her mom is essentially me, except I would be a lot more appreciative of a husband who collected rocks. There's also an episode revolving around the plot device of a deadly allergy. I mean, come on. Do these people write the show for me, personally?

Many of the actors have appeared as supporting cast in other shows and it disturbs me that I am starting to get very familiar with the regular actors of the Korean drama world. They're really good ones in this show, though! I'm also pleased with myself because this is the first show I've watched where I organically recognize a large number of words and phrases spoken in Korean. It turns out that 5 minutes of duolingo a day actually does something for you. I could certainly extricate myself from a situation demanding politeness, or refer to some basics for emergencies. It's very exciting! Some of the puns and names now make a lot more sense to me too - like the main character goes by an online handle for her K-pop fandom website, and her rival has a very similar name but with opposite connotation.

Apparently it's a trope in these K-dramas to compare the gentleman to some sort of animal, both to solidify his qualifications as a strong, protective object of desire and give a whiff of the lustful about his muscle-bound and potentially-violent person. In this particular show, our hero is compared to a lion, because his English name Ryan is often pronounced, to his chagrin, without a hard R (L and R being part of the same letter-sounds in Korean) and he bears a certain resemblance to a lion. Dude I don't know, I do totally get it though.

Show = 10 out of 10. I absolutely would date that man and our heroine is very pleasant. They know how to get you to wait eight episodes to see your couple have a little bit of a kiss and holding hands.

Post by **Mike** » Tue Aug 17, 2021 8:56 pm

poorpete wrote: ↑Fri Jul 16, 2021 6:20 am Finished Loki. I think in terms of banter, characters, and story structure, it's been the best of the three Marvel series so far. There's a lot that I liked about the Mandalorian S2 that turned into Wandavision that turned into Falcon and the Winter Soldier that turned into Loki, but all seems to kinda not get their finales right -- most have been interested being a jumping off point than a conclusion. Loki did ok. After all these I'm starting to wonder if it's impossible to make a great television finale, or is it just the ones on Disney+?

I see it differently. I find their endings satisfying. They always leave me wanting more, but I also always know more is coming. The MCU is, by it's comic book nature, a serialized world. So it is their nature to leave plot hooks available to tie them into something else later. But WandaVision was about Wanda processing her grief, and I felt like it did that. It told that story and wrapped it up. So what happens to Agatha and White Vision eventually? Where does Wanda go now? None of that is relevant to the fact that she achieved closure and came to terms with the future that was closed off to her.

Same sort of thing in Falcon et al. They had two major storylines/themes that resolved in a satisfying way (for me) and the fact that there's obvious hanging loose end and a clear "to be continued" doesn't bother me. They resolved this story in a living property that promises dozens more intertwined stories to come.

I find it interesting that you singled out Loki as the one "okay" finale of the bunch, when it was the one that left me most wanting, because its major storyline is literally unfinished and promises a season 2 to continue the story.

Obviously we watch things differently, so when I say I find your take "interesting", I mean that literally. It's not a critique or challenge. Tastes are different.

Loki is still my favorite so far. I dearly love time travel and parallel worlds, and Loki had a lot of fun with them.

Stan · Post by **Stan** » Wed Aug 18, 2021 12:21 pm

Ok, I'll have to give Her Private Life a try.

I've watched the 3 Marvel series. For me, Wanda was the best but Loki was also very good. Winter Falcon was ok but felt like a regular TV show. One limit/feature of these shows is that they tie into movies and the movies are a bigger deal for Disney. I think that's where the lack of total resolve comes in. I think Wanda and Loki are partially prologues for Dr. Strange and other things. But they are working far better than Agents of Shield which was just hamstringed by the movies instead of leading up to them.

I finished Bad Batch. Watchable but not was good as Rebels or later Clone Wars.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Wed Aug 18, 2021 10:12 pm

Stan wrote: ↑Wed Aug 18, 2021 12:21 pm Ok, I'll have to give Her Private Life a try.

I don't know... It's a very idiosyncratic taste. Some writing instructor told me once that happy is difficult to write because it becomes boring, but I am not bored by the endless hours of watching these two people pat each other on the face and coo. Judging from how repulsed my family is by my viewing preferences, it could be on the only one who can tolerate this.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Tue Aug 24, 2021 2:34 pm

Stan wrote: ↑Wed Aug 18, 2021 12:21 pm Ok, I'll have to give Her Private Life a try.

Well, I have finished the series and I don't know if it's worth doing that. Although I really liked it for my own idiosyncratic reasons, even I could tell that it was becoming extremely boring as the show's writers carefully traced the union of our main pair back to all sorts of fated and traumatic events in their childhoods. It was really a lot. I dig this type of contrived b******* but I recognize that it's awful.

I watched that six episodes Sandra Oh Netflix series everybody is talking about called The Chair. I couldn't help feeling like I would much rather see Sandra Oh in that show about her relationship with Villanelle, what is that called? Something to do with Eve. Oh who can remember all these things. Dementia, exhaustion, stress. The important point is that it's a much better show than this one, which is flimsy and had some laughs but didn't interest me.

Post by **Mike** » Tue Aug 24, 2021 3:25 pm

Schmigadoon. You need Apple TV, but we have that for free for a few months.

Cecily Strong and Keegan Michael Key are a couple whose relationship has become humdrum. During a couples' retreat, they stumble into the town of Schmigadoon, which is a classic Rogers and Hammerstein musical brought to life. They are trapped there until they find true love.

Episode 1 was funny and lovely. The cast is ridiculously strong, and the musical numbers are 100% sincere. The highlight of this episode is when the town "bad boy" gets his own song. Totally sold me.

Tahlvin · Post by **Tahlvin** » Tue Aug 24, 2021 3:54 pm

Schmigadoon is awesome!

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Tue Aug 24, 2021 4:11 pm

I hate musicals. And Schmigadoon is awesome.

Post by **Mike** » Fri Aug 27, 2021 6:50 am

Invincible on Prime. Superhero animation. I'm hooked hard. Just watch the first episode all the way through, and that will tell you if this is the show for you or not.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Fri Aug 27, 2021 2:07 pm

Okay I'm going to give that episode a try because it sounds cool and I liked your other one that was partially animated, I forget the name but it was that series about the woman Oh jeez. Dementia.

Stan · Post by **Stan** » Mon Aug 30, 2021 3:42 pm

Netflix recommends that I watch D.P. Netflix thinks it knows me but it's not quite right.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Mon Aug 30, 2021 4:13 pm

Stan wrote: ↑Mon Aug 30, 2021 3:42 pm Netflix recommends that I watch D.P. Netflix thinks it knows me but it's not quite right.

What is DP? Oh it's an entire show!!! With good looking actor at least one! Dude netflix thinks you are ME maybe! Do I want to watch a TV show full of hot Korean guys pretending to be in the military? Lol why are you even asking me this? What's that you say? You didn't ask and don't care? Ah.

In the meantime I've been watching Fleabag season I again for like the third or maybe fourth time, because I need something I can listen to in the background without having to go back and rewind parts that were missed, and the show is freaking hilarious and never gets old.

Mando · Post by **Mando** » Mon Aug 30, 2021 10:05 pm

NCIS Season 16
ST:TNG season 3
BSG Season 1- My favorite quote "No more Mr. Nice Gaius"

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Mon Sep 06, 2021 2:00 pm

I'm not sure what this darn show is called but it's another k drama, I believe DoDoMiSolLala or some similar string of notes.
I think we must be about 2/3 through this thing because we have managed to officially pair up the main couple as a couple, but now they are experiencing conflict and danger, even though they haven't managed to tell their full life stories and resolve their past crises yet!
So now we've got to get through this danger period and then presumably the stories will come out in some unexpected way.
The first part of the show is extremely wholesome. Indeed I announced to my spouse, who wanted to watch that 9-11 documentary - which by the way was very good and we did watch it - but was instead watching a scene with an extremely cute dog and people playing the piano, "this is the type of wholesome s*** I love!"
And it is.
There's a cute dog which is maybe the cutest dog I have ever seen.
The heroine of the show is a pianist, but what's especially charming is she's a very good one without being a great one. She has various misfortunes and trials but manages to be, as she puts it, "a resilient weed."
Two of the characters are played by actors who also appeared in My Shy Boss, which was a great favorite show of mine so far.
They are in a fictional city that is supposed to be in the southwest of Korea near the coast so many are speaking this wonderful Jeolla dialect. I am still just at the point of making out simple words and phrases but the sound of that dialect is very distinctive and it is 100% my favorite of all the various regional Korean dialects! No coincidence I'm sure - it happens to be where J-hope is from and the sound of his voice and the way he talks is so distinctive and awesome - I mean he's not from a fictional city but he's from that area with that dialect.
There is also an adorable old man in the show who gardens and is trying to help everyone, and an adorable small child who is a piano prodigy.
There is also an extremely hot guy who plays a small part as a private detective hired by one of the character's mothers. Right now he is in the hospital but I am very much hoping he gets together with the hairdresser because that's the love story we needed in this show, given how incredibly wholesome the main romance of the young main characters is.
There's just a hell of a lot going on here with a lot of layers - It really follows the structure of a complex Greek tragedy except with a happy ending, but there's a chorus of women to represent the viewer and various judgments. It's just... K drama is a cultural expression way beyond anything we are experiencing in the US these days. I would like to know what normal South Koreans think about K-dramas because to me they are the sign of some kind of superior and fascinating civilization and maybe it's even more profound than I imagined if people in South Korea think of K-dramas the way that we think of the type of soap operas we used to have here.
I just don't know what to make of it.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Mon Sep 06, 2021 2:20 pm

Watched the 9/11 show, Turning Point. It's actually pretty good. It's hard to watch in many places even though you already know what you're about to see. It is extremely unflinching about replaying video of all the terrible things that happened. On the other hand I learned things that I didn't know about that day. It really is interesting to see how this event has shaped the last 20 years, particularly now that this withdrawal from Afghanistan has happened.
I would say it's worth watching but you got to be careful who's in the room when it's on if you have the kids you know.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Mon Sep 06, 2021 11:58 pm

Oh My God: do NOT under any circumstances watch that DoDoSolSolLaLaSol show discussed above. I don't care if this is a spoiler because it's not ethical to do this to people:
This show presents itself (and rolls on for MANY episodes like this) as a light, frothy comedy-romance that lures you in with an obscenely cute dog.
It turns out after you invest your life and emotions in this for several days (lots of episodes! you have little time for TV!), one of the characters is terminally ill. They did not have to choose to write this, direct or produce it, act in it, film it, or put it on Netflix. Some kind of perverse sadist did this. Nobody should ever do this.
They kill off an important character.
They also LIE to you. Repeatedly! Cruelly!
The main characters lie to one another as if it's the right thing to do under the circumstances, which it IS NOT.
I cried for two straight hours tonight while finishing the last episodes. I mean I wept, I was drenched in my own snot, I had to change all the bedsheets so as to have dry, unsnotted, unwept sheets and pillowcases.
What The F#ck????!!!
This is not a charming romance; this is some sinister, sadistic bs.
I will find out who is responsible. They chose to do this to the audience.
Also we were promised the hairdresser and PI and they didn't even bother to finish it.
Maybe I'm vulnerable to this because I fear people disappearing and dying without my knowing it, but no. What the hell? I hate whoever wrote this script, I mean, hate, even though they also gave us endless scenes of people growing lettuces and playing piano together as part of their love. My God they wrote in symbolic mini-delphiniums. What monster decided to end the show like this? Who did this and why?

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Tue Sep 07, 2021 12:13 am

Also the Obama-centered part of this Turning Point 9/11 show is utter bull hockey written by someone who hates Obama. (Probably same wicked person who wrote the other show.) The other episodes have all been good - the ones about 9/11 proper. Now we're a decade into the aftermath and the goal is apparently to paint Obama as a failure despite actually making the decisions leading to the most important objective of the post 9/11 war being completed.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Tue Sep 07, 2021 9:37 am

I wasn't in the mood to write about this last night given the disappointments of two other shows that started off so well and then ended so poorly! What they did in that k drama is unspeakable and the Turning Point 9/11 documentary started off strong, directly confronted the question of our participation in torture and rendition, Guantanamo Bay etc. So I was expecting a more even-handed treatment of what went on in the Obama and Trump years, but we got absolutely none of that. If those people weren't Trump supporters who can't stand Obama, they did a great job of pretending, and presenting a completely false portrait of the last decades history through omission and cherry picking of all kinds.

Anyway, with fresh eyes on new pleasant things let me just say, I finally figured out what it was I had watched last week and didn't know at the time: 8:46 films. These are short films which as the title indicates are based on the George Floyd death, but the inspiration for the project was to create films about Black love and joy. I saw three of them and the ones I saw absolutely did that and were profound and magical. If you can see these online I would highly recommend watching - there's one in particular about a boy taking care of his great aunt that is really moving and spectacularly done. So there's the good TV you should be watching instead of watching The last half of that new 9/11 documentary and the sadistic dodosoletc K-Drama.

I'll cut through all the crap and give you the only two things worth preserving from that show:

The cute dog Mimi and this wonderful song they continue to play as a theme which was also made famous in the US by Judy Collins:

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Tue Sep 14, 2021 10:28 am

Oh Lord heavens there is a show called "That winter the wind blew", and it sucks you in because it's about a con man with a heart of gold who was abandoned as a baby etc etc, he's swindling the truly bad criminals of his neighborhood. Now they're after him and he's going to die unless he can come up with a lot of money quickly!

He is also wounded because his best friend and girlfriend have both recently passed away and terrible accidents that he feels complicit for even though his blame in this regard is minimal. Was he callous or reckless? Yes. But could anyone have predicted these accidents were going to happen and that the people would die? No. He blames himself of course.

It just so happens that his dead friend shares the same name as him. A very common Korean name. The friend also just so happens to be the heir of a wealthy clothing company, but has been estranged from his father and sister for many years after the parents divorced and his mother took him away to be raised separately.
Yes I have a lot of questions about all this too. The important thing is that Oh Soo, wealthy heir to clothing company, is now dead and so when the father now dies and the sister is inheriting the company and family fortune, it is pretty convenient if long estranged brother shows up to obtain some of that sweet sweet cash. Nobody even remembers what he would look like as an adult since they last saw him as a child! And after all he has the same name! And he knows a lot of things about his friends former life so he can fake this s*** and after all he's a professional con man so this should be a piece of cake!

Wouldn't his sister recognize him and realize this is not her brother, even after many years? Well guess what, she can't see! How convenient. This leads to the usual offensive hijinks related to whether the blind person can sense things blah blah blah. This show handles it more delicately and less offensively than most English-speaking versions of the blind girl in distress trope. But let's be honest, the whole trope is fundamentally offensive insofar as it is central to a plot.

The twist in this Korean version which makes it truly disturbing relative to its Western iterations, is that the blind girl thinks this dude is her brother! And yet... They are very attracted to one another. How weird is that? The show walks right up to this line and plays around with it numerous times - plausible deniability because she suspects him and other people have told her of their suspicions so maybe she doesn't realllllly think he's her brother, but he's a very clever con man who has come up with excellent insights into the past that only she in the brother would know and so she also has excellent reason to believe he is her brother! Dun dun dun! They come about as close to having them do very inappropriate incest as you can imagine in this show under the circumstances. Disturbing!

But of course the whole thing is resolved because it is revealed that he's not really her brother and then of course she's pissed and wants to kill him and she wants to kill herself and there's all kinds of things. Other people are trying to kill him, etc.

The major subplot of all this involves her father's mistress who has been caring for her for 20 plus years despite the fact that this blind girl is not her own daughter. She has both treated her as a daughter but also it turns out is responsible for her blindness through her inattention and trickeries and whatnot. Maybe she manipulated this situation so that she wouldn't be cast out of the household and would have to remain to care for the girl? The only way any of this would make sense is if it turned out that that woman is actually her mother. It does not. I don't worry about giving you spoilers because nobody should watch this show. My God. Anyway, massive shit happens and we get to the last episode and you think finally they're going to have some kind of resolution. One thing is good: she does not magically recover her eyesight but she does gain enough of it through a medically accurate explanation of her condition that she is able to see him a little bit. So she is still visually impaired but she can see a lot better than she did before, when they finally get to the reunion.

The inexplicable part of all this is they leave our hero stabbed and bleeding out and we think he's going to die, and she's meanwhile having her operation to save her from a brain tumor blah blah, and then apparently a year passes during which they don't even try to contact each other and figure out what happened! We get no information about how dude was saved from clear death right there on the balcony where he was stabbed. We have to assume that it all worked out somehow and then they just ignored each other for a year despite their violent protestations of love that is tearing them apart and she's super pissed about etc. Inexplicable.

When they finally get back together again it's the most senseless and unsatisfying ending ever.

Why would anyone watch this terrible mess through to the end? Well, the guy is just that good looking, I'm sorry. I don't know what to say. He doesn't have the special eyebrows and special alpaca something that Jin has but I'm pretty sure he's at least the second most good looking man on the face of this earth. I wish he had a little more meat on the bones but you know how it is, he's too young. I normally don't like this tall drink of water type of guy (with the obvious exception of, you know, my husband who is the tall gorgeous guy everybody else wanted to date for that reason, except me who picked him only for his ornery personality) but he is definitely a tall drink of water, like you were parched in the desert for a year and then he came with a pitcher.

Mando · Post by **Mando** » Wed Sep 15, 2021 7:04 am

I am a fan of Richard Ayoade.

I am a fan of him because of "The IT Crowd"

He does travel shows where he visits a city for 48 hours. He brings along an actor/actress friend and they visit various sites and dine on local cuisine.

Best of all he is even more entertaining as himself than his character from the show.

The show is called "Travel Man" and if you have Amazon Prime, you have access to all the Travel Man goodness the world has to offer.

Watch Travel Man. It will soothe your brain.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Wed Sep 15, 2021 9:57 am

Ahh! I look forward to it with pleasure. We sometimes see ("watch" seems excessive) a Netflix show about three annoying millennials who travel places, and all they do is run in a place and exclaim WOWWW this is so amaaaaaazing, even if the place in question is a rickety looking, doorless and windowless treehouse in a near tropical climate with flying roaches and snakes and such. They'll have the same reaction to a dirty shack in a mud field as they do to multi-million dollar floating mansion that doubles as a boat or a fabulous 20 acre oceanfront estate. It's wild. Yes I love millennials who have lately en masse rejected the rejection of democracy, but they're still three annoying millennials oohing and ahhing over all kinds of mess.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Thu Sep 23, 2021 10:27 am

Squid Game- My 13 year old told me he was going to watch this Korean show about a mashup of the Hunger Games and children's games (lots of people die when they screw up on red-light/green-light). I decided to watch it last night on a lark and then binged the first four episodes. Really good. It's got the right blend of light humor and grim social commentary. It's a hard balance, but it pulls it off. Well done.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Thu Sep 23, 2021 2:54 pm

I saw the ad for it but I'm not in the right frame of mind to watch it at the moment. Instead I am watching a different K-drama that keeps putting me to sleep, and you might think this is a bad sign for the show's quality but in fact it's a very good show, it's just that it's quiet and so it puts me to sleep because anything short of being constantly forced to drive will put me to sleep these days. Last night I started watching season 2 of the love with autism or whatever the hell that is, spectrum romance, some BS. The point is that I went to sleep after about 5 minutes and the TV kept playing episodes on and on that have infected my innocent brain that was laying there unable to turn off the sound. While I was sleeping I dreamed that I was doing very intense workout involving lunges and burpees. I think it's a sign that I shouldn't watch the show, which reinforces the unpleasant feeling that I'm weird in a way that will never make sense to anyone else because the categories we have assigned to these things just... do not work. They aren't doing any good for me, anyway.

Mando · Post by **Mando** » Fri Sep 24, 2021 7:40 am

SOLOS on Amazon Prime *****/*****

NCIS Season 17

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Sun Sep 26, 2021 10:03 am

Oooh that Solos show looks good, I should watch that sometime. It also looks possible to break into small chunks, which is the essential of my viewing experience. I have been watching two kdramas, one that people here might actually like this time called "My Mister", which makes it sound like yet another romcom but it's nothing like that. It's about an engineer who works as a safety manager and is drawn accidentally into intrigue and conflict in his company and other people's difficult lives, particularly a young temp worker in his company. Very intense so far as a character study of a good man dealing with unexpected strange problems, and a desperate woman trying to be good while on the edge of survival. It is rather suspenseful and unpredictable so far! Will post more when done but it's worth a try in a way I would not recommend most of the other kdramas I watch unless you are already into the genre and enjoy it.

Speaking of which, am also watching a romcom of this type called Hometown Cha Cha Cha, the name giving you a decent idea about content, but it's SO GOOD and it's a CURRENT show, alas, so I have to wait for the last half of the episodes and I might not make it through the wait in one piece. Our heroine is a dentist, who like a Disney princess lacks a mom, but our hero is even more of a Disney princess who lacks all family yet somehow has superhero powers to do any job around town for the people who live in this picturesque seaside village, which is a real place I wish to travel. Things are getting serious to the point where I need to finish learning as much Korean as feasible and then travel there. I dread the trans-Pacific flight and probably should go to Japan as well if I'm going to travel that far. I thought I could live without ever having to do that long a flight and I'd be content never to see e.g. New Zealand or whatever, but I think I have to visit Korea and particularly the southwestern and southeastern portions, no idea why. Not clear why. It's a calling of some inexplicable primal sort. It's not because I am passionately in love with the main guy in this latest show although that incidentally happens to be true - I am out of ranking slots for these guys, there are now so many of them. I don't even know. I don't know if it's that good-looking guys of this level exist everywhere but South Korea just happens to be best at casting them as main characters in exported TV dramas, or if there's something in the water there that isn't as good anywhere else... I don't know what to tell you. I have no explanation but this is how it is. I don't think it's me; I think it's that these guys really are that good-looking. Their tv and film industry must have some system for hunting these guys down and diverting them into acting careers, in a way that doesn't happen elsewhere so that the beautiful are left to their own devices as accountants and plumbers and whatnot. I might be a bit unusual in my specific hetero desires but these guys fall into a category that is atypical for me but definitely appeals more to other women, many of whom tend to like a tall guy with dark hair and eyes and chiseled jaw and such. The sheer charisma of this guy - the sad pensive faces, the charming smile faces, my God.

Mando · Post by **Mando** » Mon Sep 27, 2021 7:53 am

SOLOS should be viewed in order or at least the last one MUST BE VIEWED LAST...This is the way.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Mon Sep 27, 2021 8:08 am

Ok, I will keep that advice in mind when I am bark upon the viewing. This is the kind of thing my phone does to me all the time, perhaps in its witty effort to make a joke about the dogs. Yet I also think it does so out of spite because it knows better, occasionally. Enough times to demonstrate that it can do better when it wants to.

Post by **Mike** » Thu Sep 30, 2021 9:44 am

Episode 1 of Squid Game has me hooked. Thank you.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Thu Sep 30, 2021 10:20 am

It's great. The mood reminds me of that comedy/tragedy of Bong Joon Ho's the Host

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Sat Oct 02, 2021 10:13 am

I finished watching this drama called My Mister, a title which does not translate well. I will paste a more accurate version of it below. Although it gets very slow during the last few episodes, it's a very different sort of drama from the ones I have been watching and I think it would be more appreciated by people here, but I honestly don't know. It starts off kind of dramatic and action-packed and then turns a corner into a profound examination of the meaning of human existence, but that part takes its time creeping along. The main character of the show is also played by the guy who plays the rich dad in Parasite, and he is such a good actor it just blows my mind.

The basic gist of the story is that we have a good man who is truly good - like he is the epitome of the Kantian Good Will. Yet s***** things are happening to him in spite of or perhaps even because of how good he is. Good things also happen to him, or we would lose all hope for life. But the show addresses how a truly good person deals with some very negative drama in his own life and how he solves problems for other people who are important to him.

About a month ago or so maybe I developed this inexplicable obsession with a certain Buddhist monastery in Korea that has a long history. I stumbled upon it while looking for something else on the map. I ended up fully Google earthing the place and just scouring all around it every possible picture I could get. There was something inexplicable about the place, something that screamed out home and familiar. For the last few weeks I have looked at this place again and again. Imagine my shock when it turns out to be the same location of a Buddhist monastery featured in this show! A different man has left the woman who loves him to become a Buddhist monk. She still loves him and he still loves her so I don't know, man. Their story is a terribly painful subplot to watch. It left me completely gutted like a dead fish, lying there deteriorating into its own horrid stench. My God, why the suffering of life?

The show did not break my heart - my heart is still here, but it no longer functions as it did before. Life is emptiness yet somehow also joyful. I don't feel like I can live the same life again after watching this show. I thought well, it's not really that I'm in love with this man the main actor, even though he is closer to my age, but he is already married and so am I, and more importantly he's just pretending to be this man and isn't really the man in the script. The script also just happens to be about, in part, a woman who cheats on her husband, and it illustrates exactly how profoundly wrong that is no matter what, and why he shouldn't do anything to avenge himself or even the scales either. So that slightly dampens your enthusiasm for running off with the main actor. I decided probably my love is the person who wrote the script and that I would dedicate my life to this person henceforth once I figured out what to do about the fact that (see above) I am an a old married lady and the person who wrote this probably lives on the other side of the earth. Then I looked it up and I found out the person who wrote it is a woman. And I can't help it, I was born heterosexual. But the fact that this script was written by a woman, if you will pardon my sexism for a moment, explain so much about why it is superior to any other script ever written in human life.

아저씨 • (ajeossi)

middle-aged elder male
uncle
mister, gentleman
(North Korea) sister's husband
Usage notes Edit
The term 아저씨 (ajeossi) is used to refer to a male several years older than the speaker, often as a polite replacement for a second person singular pronoun 너 (neo) or 당신 (dangsin).

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Mon Oct 04, 2021 12:17 pm

Convinced husband that Squid Game is a good way to split our TV differences. At the first sign of blood I rolled over like a millbug until it was over, but I fell asleep right away and now he is three full episodes ahead and wants to Talk About It. Wait! Plus there's no way I'm watching this show until I finish the new episode of hometown Cha Cha Cha, which is causing me to have some kind of vicarious sexual pleasure just from looking at that man's face! I feel guilty just for looking at his face.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Mon Oct 04, 2021 5:47 pm

Attention please re: Squid Game: mild generic spoilers and request below.
Cannot cannot cannot cannot handle that level of violence in a show!
I don't think it's an inappropriate spoiler to say that this is an extremely violent show. Does it stay this way, for those of you who have watched more than an episode and a half? If it goes onward to something better I will stick with it but if it's going to be more of this again and again I'm not interested in watching someone's little philosophical thought experiment played out at this level of horror show. Please advise or will consult with the spouse but he'll probably just say that if I made it through episode 1 I should keep watching, since he now wants someone to discuss with. Like I thought the very first scene where we see blood was this too-disturbing violent scene, and that was just in the preliminaries where he meets his creditor before the slapping etc.

Update: there is some kind of "version" of squid game, some reference back to it, on Roblox. Thus my youngest knows all about it and wants to watch the show or find out what this show is. Now that he knows we're watching it he is full of the questions, and his friends apparently know all about it and people at his Elementary school have seen it, oldest child there being age 11.
Age 11.
On the other hand I guess there's more disturbing things in shows that kids watch all the time. I just don't know what to say. I like shows about gardening and chance meetings in a seaside village full of charming villagers.

Post by **Mike** » Mon Oct 04, 2021 6:59 pm

My wife teaches in elementary school. I long ago ceased being surprised at what children are allowed to watch completely without adult guidance or context.

As for the show, I have only seen 2 eps, but there are 9 total episodes containing 6 games, and we still have 201 contestants to whittle down to the winning few. So my guess is there will be much more of what you saw in #1. Kyle can offer more, I'm sure.

If your husband wants to talk, he's always welcome here.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Mon Oct 04, 2021 7:28 pm

I cleared my throat slightly and approached with these words:
"Well, I watched episode one of squi-"

At this point the man started in with his loud booming laugh you know well. HA HA HA and it went on and on.

It turns out more violence may be anticipated, so I don't know. He also finds it hilarious this was my attempt to bridge the chasm between "War Documentary" and "Charming Seaside Villagers in Korean with Subtitles". The bridge is less on my side you know?

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Tue Oct 05, 2021 5:36 am

The violence continues. This is not your show.