Musings of the Obsessive Kind

In my not-so-humble opinion, TEM is the best drama airing right now (of the ones I've seen). Sure, I love K2H and enjoy Rooftop Prince, but TEM is just pretty much perfect (except for the soundtrack, which is toned down in ep 2 but still should be cut in half).

The performances are top-notch (especially from Lee Hyun Woo, who plays the younger version of Sun Woo, Uhm Tae Woong's character. That kid is going places) but even more interesting are the characters. I adore Sun Woo the way I don't often adore a character but I find Jang Il even more interesting, even if I don't like him much - take his crush on Ji Won - it is indubitable he's sincerely smitten, but he's smitten, in very large part, because she's an aspirational model - a rich young woman impeccably dressed and singing a song in English. It's not her, it's her status.

I am probably pushing similarities where they aren't, but in a way, Sun Woo and Jang Il remind me a bit of the protagonists of Mawang (my favorite drama of all time) - one is warm-hearted, immediate, prone to violence in just cause, and one a whip-smart, cold, calculating one who finds it hard to open up.

Only the roles have been somewhat reversed - in Mawang, it was the seemingly cold lawyer who was a wreck irreparably damaged by the horrific wrongs done to him and his family (and, in turn, made things only worse when he went for vengeance) and the warm-hearted cop was the perpetrator of the wrongs who has spent his life trying to right the past. Here, this is not the case - clearly, Sun Woo is the victim of the situation, doing everything, even some things that may damn his soul (the bargain offered by the Mob at the end of ep 2 was chilling) for a person whose father killed his (on orders of possibly SW's birth father? Eeeep, this is dark). And Jang Il's ambition and moral ambivalence are not a result of repeated horrific trauma as was the case with Joo Ji Hoon's character in Mawang - no, it's his hatred of poverty and desire for power, understandable but much less sympathetic.

Maybe it is more like Resurrection - I foresee Sun Woo going much darker once he finds out the truth - in Resurrection, Uhm Tae Woong's character morphed from a warm and loving man into a ruthless, ice-cold, terrifying carrier of vengeance who knew he was turning into a monster but could not stop. I wonder if his character here will experience the same trajectory.

Anyway, this is amazing, you should watch!

In my not-so-humble opinion, TEM is the best drama airing right now (of the ones I've seen). Sure, I love K2H and enjoy Rooftop Prince, but TEM is just pretty much perfect (except for the soundtrack, which is toned down in ep 2 but still should be cut in half).

The performances are top-notch (especially from Lee Hyun Woo, who plays the younger version of Sun Woo, Uhm Tae Woong's character. That kid is going places) but even more interesting are the characters. I adore Sun Woo the way I don't often adore a character but I find Jang Il even more interesting, even if I don't like him much - take his crush on Ji Won - it is indubitable he's sincerely smitten, but he's smitten, in very large part, because she's an aspirational model - a rich young woman impeccably dressed and singing a song in English. It's not her, it's her status.

I am probably pushing similarities where they aren't, but in a way, Sun Woo and Jang Il remind me a bit of the protagonists of Mawang (my favorite drama of all time) - one is warm-hearted, immediate, prone to violence in just cause, and one a whip-smart, cold, calculating one who finds it hard to open up.

Only the roles have been somewhat reversed - in Mawang, it was the seemingly cold lawyer who was a wreck irreparably damaged by the horrific wrongs done to him and his family (and, in turn, made things only worse when he went for vengeance) and the warm-hearted cop was the perpetrator of the wrongs who has spent his life trying to right the past. Here, this is not the case - clearly, Sun Woo is the victim of the situation, doing everything, even some things that may damn his soul (the bargain offered by the Mob at the end of ep 2 was chilling) for a person whose father killed his (on orders of possibly SW's birth father? Eeeep, this is dark). And Jang Il's ambition and moral ambivalence are not a result of repeated horrific trauma as was the case with Joo Ji Hoon's character in Mawang - no, it's his hatred of poverty and desire for power, understandable but much less sympathetic.

Maybe it is more like Resurrection - I foresee Sun Woo going much darker once he finds out the truth - in Resurrection, Uhm Tae Woong's character morphed from a warm and loving man into a ruthless, ice-cold, terrifying carrier of vengeance who knew he was turning into a monster but could not stop. I wonder if his character here will experience the same trajectory.

Anyway, this is amazing, you should watch!

I finally got a chance to watch ep 6 with subs and despite the fandom opinion I really like it.



Perhaps this is because I am not really watching this for romance/as a romance story, but a lovely, slice-of-life tale of growing up. And it had so many lovely lovely scenes.

( Some of my favorite scenes and caps )

These are just some random thoughts I keep having about Bad Guy. Pardon me as I ramble.

Whoever tried to advertise BG as a revenge story did it a disservice. At its heart, it's a family story/melodrama. It is best at showcasing interactions/connections between its damaged characters - the revenge plot is not only not tightly done at all, it's not even a driver of the story or takes too much space. Let me put it this way, if you are a revenge story junkie, you are better off with Green Rose or Resurrection or (the best drama ever made, IMO) The Devil (I am lazy and will from now on refer to it as Mawang).

Revenge stories in kdrama are often a conduit for other themes - forgiveness and change and one's own culpability in Mawang and Resurrection, passionate dysfunctional love in A Love to Kill and Queen of the Game, the suffering motivating such vengeful behavior - Green Rose, Dog/Wolf etc. But still, the revenge and its effects are the main driver in these stories. Bad Guy uses Gun Wook's plans almost as a mcguffin to create its emotional interractions and connections. Its vibe reminds me much more of classic melodramas like Something Happened in Bali and I'm Sorry, I Love You (MiSa). Nobody can claim that the revenge plan in MiSa is in any way anything but an excuse to have So Ji Sub's character meet the girl he loves and slowly become a human being. It's not a revenge drama at all - very little time is occupied with any revenge. And Bali, which is the drama BG reminds me most, has never been described as a revenge drama.

Actually Bali and BG have eerie similarity. We have the prevailing, corrosive power of wealth. We have a powerful, soulless rich family which ends up being brought down by a combo of a smart, poor man who has a grudge (after he realizes he will never be accepted and always used). There is a whole subplot between the poor man and an icy rich woman (though unlike the vulnerable Taera of BG, Young Joo of Bali really does have ice water in her veins). The heroine is a warm-hearted, conflicted gold-digger who draws both of the damaged male protagonists to her through her sheer humanity in contrast with what they normally deal with. The other male protagonist is a horribly damaged rich boy who is emotionally very open and very unstable. Etcetcetc. I could really be here all day but I believe I made my point - Bad Guy, like Bali, is IMO a melodrama and just as I had little interest in seeing So Ji Sub's financial machinations to bring Jangs down, I don't really care about the details of Gun Wook's plans to bring down Hongs in the end - I just like seeing the situations as they develop. Interestingly, just as in Bali, I am all about the damaged rich boy in Bad Guy and the smart poor man leaves me rather cold. Bali is what made me a Jo In Sung fangirl for life - I guess I am drawn to off-kilter vulnerability.

Ironically, I find the protagonist of BG the story's biggest weakness. Even though Kim Nam Gil is a great actor, Gun Wook himself is rather a cypher and not a fascinating one. If you compare BG to Mawang the differences are stark and not just because Mawang is the epitome of the revenge drama. Mawang is a story which really shows the damage and the cost of revenge and what sort of damaged person would be consumed by it. Joo Ji Hoon's avenger in Mawang is arguably even more self-contained than Gun Wook but he is a dynamic, interesting character anyway and as the story goes on you quickly see that this tight control hides a destroyed little child within. Reserved and restrained doesn't have to mean so controlled as not to show anything more than the controlled mastermind facade but that is a problem with BG - so far, after 6+ episodes, that is how Gun Wook comes across to me. He is not an interesting character because the feelings of anger and his background causing his desire for revenge come across fine on paper (i.e. I don't think it's illogical he wants to bring down Hong family) but they lack any emotional connection to me as shown and do not feel dramatic.

One does not need to spend episodes showing the hell that the avenger was put through in order to decide to become an avenger (Green Rose goes that route but something like Mawang reveals the truth stingily, slowly, in scattered flashbacks that probably take 5 minutes combined). But there has to be some sort of an emotional connection and I do not feel any. In part it's because Gun Wook's story is made so bizarrely evil and OTT it makes me roll my eyes at kdrama melodrama - sure, his evil adoptive parents realized they made a mistake and he wasn't the illegitimate son so they dumped the little kid in the rain, he hurt his back badly through being shoved, his parents died trying to pick him up, even his dog got run over. I mean - what???? It all seems a bit silly. Contrast it with e.g. Green Rose, where protagonist is a collateral damage for a corporate murder gone wrong and ends up having his family destroyed as a result and see himself convicted for life for a murder he did not commit , and then, when he goes on the run, almost starves to death in China - it's not just Go Soo's amazing anguished acting that sells this, it's just the story is explained in a number of eps, it immerses you. No crazy brief OTT flashback. One can get away with a brief flashback if it's something fairly simple (like in Resurrection - bad guys killed hero's father to hide their corruption and later his brother. Not much explanation is needed) but if the story is crazy OTT, you better spend more time on it.

But ultimately, what fails to sell me on any sympathy with Gun Wook is not the inadequate background stuff, it's his present-day demeanor. I could overlook a backstory that is lacking if the present-day revenge stuff is interesting either in being clever so the viewer is piecing together a puzzle or emotionally connecting because you are invested in the protagonist, or both. (All the best revenge dramas have both). But here, Gun Wook is so self-contained and so well-put-together and functional, I have little patience or sympathy with him and want to tell him to move on and do something productive - the drama fails to show that whatever happened to him in the past truly screwed him up enough to make him want to go all-out for revenge. The protagonists of Mawang or Dog/Wolf or A Love to Kill - they are all wrecked people and if not for revenge there would be no meaning to their lives. Alternatively, in Resurrection or Green Rose, you see how revenge slowly destroys the protagonist. It all makes for a sympathetic, emotionally grabbing story that has dramatic tension. But neither is the case here. Gun Wook is not particularly symathetic because he is not damaged nor does he become damaged by his vengeful actions. Let me put it this way, if Gun Wook walked away, I can see him living a perfectly fine life - I have not been sold on such a dysfunction which would make revenge necessary. And so the tension in the story is gone.

I cannot identify, sympathize, or get interested in emotions of the protagonist when he has so little of them.

The above is not a bash of Bad Guy or even Gun Wook. It is all a very long way of saying that BG does not work as a revenge story, but what it does work brilliantly as, is a melodrama. Gun Wook is boring as dirt in most vengeance-related stuff or by himself, but his scenes with Taera which sparkle with desperate sexual chemistry and her desires or his scenes with Jae In when he shows vulnerability (i.e. melodrama scenes) work beautifully. And I find the family dynamics of the Hongs and the Hong siblings themselves a lot more interesting than Gun Wook anyway. Taera's cold loveless marriage and her desperation for some genuine warmth and love before it's too late. Mone's spoiled sheltered self-centeredness. Tae Sung's self-loathing and childlike craving for love. Jae In's pressing her nose against the window of the rich people's lifestyles. Madame Shin's cold, socially-calculated scheming. This is what I find really interesting. Gun Wook is interesting to me only insofar as he is a catalyst for any of these people. If Gun Wook randomly fell of a bridge, provided the rest of these characters would remain 'stirred up', I could be just fine. To be honest, I think I would love BG even more if it was a Tae Sung show, instead of Gun Wook show (yes, Bali all over again).

One last quick comment - I have a problem with GW's choice of revenge. He can extract all the revenge he wants from the Hong Parents who wronged him and are monsters. But he is purposely hurting Taera (he is wrecking her life), Tae Sung and Mone, and they have never done anything to him. Tae Sung got torn from his family just as Gun Wook was - he did not choose to come into cold abusive household at 8 on his own. Mone was a baby when all the bad stuff was going down. And Taera was a teen with not much agency either. Leave them alone!

Phew, this was long.

These are just some random thoughts I keep having about Bad Guy. Pardon me as I ramble.

Whoever tried to advertise BG as a revenge story did it a disservice. At its heart, it's a family story/melodrama. It is best at showcasing interactions/connections between its damaged characters - the revenge plot is not only not tightly done at all, it's not even a driver of the story or takes too much space. Let me put it this way, if you are a revenge story junkie, you are better off with Green Rose or Resurrection or (the best drama ever made, IMO) The Devil (I am lazy and will from now on refer to it as Mawang).

Revenge stories in kdrama are often a conduit for other themes - forgiveness and change and one's own culpability in Mawang and Resurrection, passionate dysfunctional love in A Love to Kill and Queen of the Game, the suffering motivating such vengeful behavior - Green Rose, Dog/Wolf etc. But still, the revenge and its effects are the main driver in these stories. Bad Guy uses Gun Wook's plans almost as a mcguffin to create its emotional interractions and connections. Its vibe reminds me much more of classic melodramas like Something Happened in Bali and I'm Sorry, I Love You (MiSa). Nobody can claim that the revenge plan in MiSa is in any way anything but an excuse to have So Ji Sub's character meet the girl he loves and slowly become a human being. It's not a revenge drama at all - very little time is occupied with any revenge. And Bali, which is the drama BG reminds me most, has never been described as a revenge drama.

Actually Bali and BG have eerie similarity. We have the prevailing, corrosive power of wealth. We have a powerful, soulless rich family which ends up being brought down by a combo of a smart, poor man who has a grudge (after he realizes he will never be accepted and always used). There is a whole subplot between the poor man and an icy rich woman (though unlike the vulnerable Taera of BG, Young Joo of Bali really does have ice water in her veins). The heroine is a warm-hearted, conflicted gold-digger who draws both of the damaged male protagonists to her through her sheer humanity in contrast with what they normally deal with. The other male protagonist is a horribly damaged rich boy who is emotionally very open and very unstable. Etcetcetc. I could really be here all day but I believe I made my point - Bad Guy, like Bali, is IMO a melodrama and just as I had little interest in seeing So Ji Sub's financial machinations to bring Jangs down, I don't really care about the details of Gun Wook's plans to bring down Hongs in the end - I just like seeing the situations as they develop. Interestingly, just as in Bali, I am all about the damaged rich boy in Bad Guy and the smart poor man leaves me rather cold. Bali is what made me a Jo In Sung fangirl for life - I guess I am drawn to off-kilter vulnerability.

Ironically, I find the protagonist of BG the story's biggest weakness. Even though Kim Nam Gil is a great actor, Gun Wook himself is rather a cypher and not a fascinating one. If you compare BG to Mawang the differences are stark and not just because Mawang is the epitome of the revenge drama. Mawang is a story which really shows the damage and the cost of revenge and what sort of damaged person would be consumed by it. Joo Ji Hoon's avenger in Mawang is arguably even more self-contained than Gun Wook but he is a dynamic, interesting character anyway and as the story goes on you quickly see that this tight control hides a destroyed little child within. Reserved and restrained doesn't have to mean so controlled as not to show anything more than the controlled mastermind facade but that is a problem with BG - so far, after 6+ episodes, that is how Gun Wook comes across to me. He is not an interesting character because the feelings of anger and his background causing his desire for revenge come across fine on paper (i.e. I don't think it's illogical he wants to bring down Hong family) but they lack any emotional connection to me as shown and do not feel dramatic.

One does not need to spend episodes showing the hell that the avenger was put through in order to decide to become an avenger (Green Rose goes that route but something like Mawang reveals the truth stingily, slowly, in scattered flashbacks that probably take 5 minutes combined). But there has to be some sort of an emotional connection and I do not feel any. In part it's because Gun Wook's story is made so bizarrely evil and OTT it makes me roll my eyes at kdrama melodrama - sure, his evil adoptive parents realized they made a mistake and he wasn't the illegitimate son so they dumped the little kid in the rain, he hurt his back badly through being shoved, his parents died trying to pick him up, even his dog got run over. I mean - what???? It all seems a bit silly. Contrast it with e.g. Green Rose, where protagonist is a collateral damage for a corporate murder gone wrong and ends up having his family destroyed as a result and see himself convicted for life for a murder he did not commit , and then, when he goes on the run, almost starves to death in China - it's not just Go Soo's amazing anguished acting that sells this, it's just the story is explained in a number of eps, it immerses you. No crazy brief OTT flashback. One can get away with a brief flashback if it's something fairly simple (like in Resurrection - bad guys killed hero's father to hide their corruption and later his brother. Not much explanation is needed) but if the story is crazy OTT, you better spend more time on it.

But ultimately, what fails to sell me on any sympathy with Gun Wook is not the inadequate background stuff, it's his present-day demeanor. I could overlook a backstory that is lacking if the present-day revenge stuff is interesting either in being clever so the viewer is piecing together a puzzle or emotionally connecting because you are invested in the protagonist, or both. (All the best revenge dramas have both). But here, Gun Wook is so self-contained and so well-put-together and functional, I have little patience or sympathy with him and want to tell him to move on and do something productive - the drama fails to show that whatever happened to him in the past truly screwed him up enough to make him want to go all-out for revenge. The protagonists of Mawang or Dog/Wolf or A Love to Kill - they are all wrecked people and if not for revenge there would be no meaning to their lives. Alternatively, in Resurrection or Green Rose, you see how revenge slowly destroys the protagonist. It all makes for a sympathetic, emotionally grabbing story that has dramatic tension. But neither is the case here. Gun Wook is not particularly symathetic because he is not damaged nor does he become damaged by his vengeful actions. Let me put it this way, if Gun Wook walked away, I can see him living a perfectly fine life - I have not been sold on such a dysfunction which would make revenge necessary. And so the tension in the story is gone.

I cannot identify, sympathize, or get interested in emotions of the protagonist when he has so little of them.

The above is not a bash of Bad Guy or even Gun Wook. It is all a very long way of saying that BG does not work as a revenge story, but what it does work brilliantly as, is a melodrama. Gun Wook is boring as dirt in most vengeance-related stuff or by himself, but his scenes with Taera which sparkle with desperate sexual chemistry and her desires or his scenes with Jae In when he shows vulnerability (i.e. melodrama scenes) work beautifully. And I find the family dynamics of the Hongs and the Hong siblings themselves a lot more interesting than Gun Wook anyway. Taera's cold loveless marriage and her desperation for some genuine warmth and love before it's too late. Mone's spoiled sheltered self-centeredness. Tae Sung's self-loathing and childlike craving for love. Jae In's pressing her nose against the window of the rich people's lifestyles. Madame Shin's cold, socially-calculated scheming. This is what I find really interesting. Gun Wook is interesting to me only insofar as he is a catalyst for any of these people. If Gun Wook randomly fell of a bridge, provided the rest of these characters would remain 'stirred up', I could be just fine. To be honest, I think I would love BG even more if it was a Tae Sung show, instead of Gun Wook show (yes, Bali all over again).

One last quick comment - I have a problem with GW's choice of revenge. He can extract all the revenge he wants from the Hong Parents who wronged him and are monsters. But he is purposely hurting Taera (he is wrecking her life), Tae Sung and Mone, and they have never done anything to him. Tae Sung got torn from his family just as Gun Wook was - he did not choose to come into cold abusive household at 8 on his own. Mone was a baby when all the bad stuff was going down. And Taera was a teen with not much agency either. Leave them alone!

Phew, this was long.

1. I don't care whether Ma Sang Tae killed that guy 15 years ago or not, he is a freaking awesome father and I love him. If In Woo's machinations land him in jail, I won't forgive IW. I don't care about his justification and all. But I still don't believe he is a murderer - he is a lousy husband (even if a great father) and an unethical businessman but a murderer he is not - not on purpose at least. And it's nice to know whatever else he didn't frame In Woo's father - he just falsified his own alibi and that led to IW's father conviction.

2. How much do I love that there is no love triangle. I so appreciate that I have never got a romantic vibe from Jenny, In Woo's friend - all her reactions, even her dislike of Hyeri, read as reactions of a close friend. She dislikes Hyeri because she is the daughter of MST who caused all that trouble for IW and because she is making IW conflicted, but I do not see even a hint of jealousy there.

3. In Woo, oh In Woo, what shall we do with you? He is the most fascinating character in this - he makes me so torn. Half the time I want to make it all better and adore him and the other half I want to stab him in the face.

I remain convinced that PP came about when someone wondered "how would it be if we made Mawang into a romantic comedy?" (For a kdrama defition of comedy - i.e. more tears than an Elizabethan tragedy, just with a happy ending). And that is why I am so torn on shipping him with Hyeri. It's the same reaction I had for Joo Ji Hoon and Shin Min Ah's characters in Mawang - I adored them so much, all that torment and restraint, but I couldn't ultimately sign off on them in any long-term way because JJH was simply too broken. And I get the same thing here with In Woo/Hyeri. I adore them together but no - no. No. It's not workable. He's simply too messed up for a functional relationship - what he needs is a decade of therapy before he can be in a romantic relationship that works. And while in some ways In Woo is better off than the protagonist of Mawang (he has not caused deaths of anyone), in another way, he is much worse. In Mawang, JJH's relationship with SMA was the most healing thing in his life - she was not connected with the badness of his past at all - in fact she tried to help even when they were kids. If fate left them alone, who knows, she may have healed him eventually, with enough time and peace. But Hyeri is no external angel of any sort - she is the daughter of the man who as good as killed In Woo's parents in front of his eyes. That relationship wouldn't be healing, it will be a flaming trainwreck - they will end up in a psychiatric unit. Hyeri's loving heart or not, I cannot see her being with a man who put her loved father in jail (and there is the residual familial guilt mixed in) and for In Woo - the same - no matter what, she is still Ma Sang Tae's daughter. It's as if in Mawang, Uhm Tae Woong had a sister and Joo Ji Hoon fell in love with her. Total trainwreck.

That is why I keep thinking Ma Sang Tae isn't really a deliberate murderer - because unless the writer is insane, PP will have a happy ending and not a Mawang one. (Though even then, honestly, I still think In Woo needs MAJOR therapy. This is one drama that needs a time jump). I think it would be lovely if MST is innocent of the murder - it will teach In Woo to use people and jump to conlcusions. Just as I loved that he had to promise Ma Sang Tae to leave Hyeri in exchange for MST confessing - now he has to pay with something he greatly desires too. In fact, when he offered MST choice between past and future (i.e. he can protect his past and hide the murder or he can protect his future -i.e. Hyeri - In Woo will disappear out of Hyeri's life in exchange for a confession), he has the same choice - his past - the memory of his dead father cleared, or his future - letting go of past hurt and chosing to be happy with Hyeri. Ma Sang Tae chose the future and In Woo chose the past. Which just goes to show that whatever his faults Ma Sang Tae is way better adjusted and with knowledge of priorities than In Woo. I felt like screaming at the screen during that scene - sure clearing Daddy's name is praiseworthy, but the man is dead, it makes no difference to him, so how can you pick the dead against chance of present happiness? (The same I felt in Mawang and many revenge dramas. It's different with something like Green Rose, where protagonist is trying to clear his own name, but when it's just the dead people's honor, I want to shake the avenger and tell him to snap out of it and actually live).

4. Serious Prosecutor and Lady Prosecutor bore me. I am glad they will get together but they are sort of dull.

ETA: Because this reminded me of my undying love for Mawang, have a shippy MV:

1. Viikii is being ridiculously slow and so I cannot watch my Prosecutor Princess eps which is driving me INSANE. I am solacing myself with Personal Taste but even though I genuinely like PT now, it is not the same! Need my Ma Hyeri fix now!

It's interesting because out of all the dramas I am watching this season, PP is the most heroine-centric for me. What I mean is I love other characters (In Woo! He is my drama guy of the spring season) and find them interesting (Prosecutor Yoon, Lady Prosecutor, Hyeri's family). But for me it is all about Hyeri emotionally - I am ridiculously emotionally invested in her. Part of the reason I adore In Woo so is that he hasn't yet done anything to hurt her or make her miserable despite whatever his hidden agenda is (I bet the moment he does I will want to stab him, even while slurping his angst). I mean, even when In Woo brought in evidence that cleared his client I got annoyed because it was a cherry on top of a very bad day for Ma Hyeri though In Woo didn't do anything wrong - of course he wants to clear his client. It's interesting because whatever his revenge plan, even before he fell for Hyeri (I looove the angst), it's clear it was never targeted at her. She may have been a tool to achieve it but she wasn't the goal. Btw, In Wooo, I rec you to watch Mawang - it's a warning masterpiece for smart lawyers with revenge schemes.

Still hate her frelling coworkers. Their needling about her weight - I want them all to die hideously. I don't think Hyeri has a healthy relationship with food to start with - she's two steps away from an eating disorder - and the frelling horrible jerks do not help. I spent the whole of ep 6 enraged.

2. After trying my hardest to stay away from watching the raws of Sunao Ni Narenakute ep 2, I caved. It's even better than ep 1!

Though a confession. Everyone on my flist is about Keisuke/Tsukiko but I confess (though I do like them and ship K/T), I am all about suicide girl/sextoy guy instead. Sorry, but they ping all my buttons. Every single one.



Also, though I know Seonsu will never get Tsukiko, I am glad he got a hug at least. I want him to be happy the most!



3. I am soooo behind on all my dramas!

1. Viikii is being ridiculously slow and so I cannot watch my Prosecutor Princess eps which is driving me INSANE. I am solacing myself with Personal Taste but even though I genuinely like PT now, it is not the same! Need my Ma Hyeri fix now!

It's interesting because out of all the dramas I am watching this season, PP is the most heroine-centric for me. What I mean is I love other characters (In Woo! He is my drama guy of the spring season) and find them interesting (Prosecutor Yoon, Lady Prosecutor, Hyeri's family). But for me it is all about Hyeri emotionally - I am ridiculously emotionally invested in her. Part of the reason I adore In Woo so is that he hasn't yet done anything to hurt her or make her miserable despite whatever his hidden agenda is (I bet the moment he does I will want to stab him, even while slurping his angst). I mean, even when In Woo brought in evidence that cleared his client I got annoyed because it was a cherry on top of a very bad day for Ma Hyeri though In Woo didn't do anything wrong - of course he wants to clear his client. It's interesting because whatever his revenge plan, even before he fell for Hyeri (I looove the angst), it's clear it was never targeted at her. She may have been a tool to achieve it but she wasn't the goal. Btw, In Wooo, I rec you to watch Mawang - it's a warning masterpiece for smart lawyers with revenge schemes.

Still hate her frelling coworkers. Their needling about her weight - I want them all to die hideously. I don't think Hyeri has a healthy relationship with food to start with - she's two steps away from an eating disorder - and the frelling horrible jerks do not help. I spent the whole of ep 6 enraged.

2. After trying my hardest to stay away from watching the raws of Sunao Ni Narenakute ep 2, I caved. It's even better than ep 1!

Though a confession. Everyone on my flist is about Keisuke/Tsukiko but I confess (though I do like them and ship K/T), I am all about suicide girl/sextoy guy instead. Sorry, but they ping all my buttons. Every single one.



Also, though I know Seonsu will never get Tsukiko, I am glad he got a hug at least. I want him to be happy the most!



3. I am soooo behind on all my dramas!

Finished Resurrection.

Excellent excellent excellent. It got rather dark by the end but I loved the hopeful ending (I nearly had a heart attack because for a while it looked like it was heading into Mawang-ending level trauma. Never again).

I loathed all the bad guys through to the end (felt bad for their dependents though).

Poor poor messed-up Haeun. Get better, woobie! The stuff with Haeun/Eunha (once she found out) was so ridiculously awesome and angsty and hot and comforty and perfect. When he is basically crying at her that he's not Haeun and she is so gentle and tells him if he says he isn't, he isn't and that's what breaks him? OMGSQUEE. And then all the adorableness after.

For a change of pace, next is finishing up Lawyers of Korea. I had some major problems with the male lead of that one but it looks funny so we'll see.

Am through ep 20 of Resurrection, with a lot of marathonning and selective fastworwarding. It's such a solid, well-written, well-acted drama even if it doesn't (IMO) approach Mawang's masterpiece status.

It is brutal to see what his complex revenge plot and using people for that plot is doing to Haeun, who started as one of the sweetest, sanest drama heroes ever. It's an interesting parallel/echo of Mawang - we meet Seung Ha, Mawang's avenger, once he's already been destroyed by revenge but with Haeun we slowly watch his fall. (There are other differences of course - Haeun did not have as long to dwell on vengeance and powerlessness and started from a much more stable place as he only discovered the need for vengeance when an adult and not a frightened hopeless boy. But perhaps that makes Haeun less excusable - he was a whole person when he started so he should have known better. Except I can see how he could not take it, could not let it go. And I can see he also did not have much choice - if not for his masquerade, the bad guys would have killed him without a second thought).

It hurts to see Haeun turn into this monster, this dark mess, and he knows his transformation and is horrified by it (biggest reason he is hiding from Eunha - he does not want her to see what he has become) but he can't and won't stop it.

Honestly, by now, I'd rather Eunha was with Jinwu (who is such a heart-breaking character. He is going to go down so badly in Haeun's revenge against his father, isn't he? Even though he is innocent and is actually a good person). I rather despise Haeun for what he is going to collaterally-damage do (knowingly) to Gangju, the intrepid girl reporter, and to Jinwu, and to Heesu the swindler and even to Haeun's former friend the cop. But at least the cop is in possession of all the facts and is free to choose. The others are not. It's despicable. It makes me want to stab Haeun. But then I see how tortured he is, how he literally is not sure of his own identity any more, how he tries to create outs for himself, and I just want to comfort him and send him to a shrink and make it all better.

But he is still not worthy of Eunha. Sane, good-hearted, strong, pure Eunha. Not any more.