Tag: madame antoine

Dramaland Forecast: Feb 2016

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So, I started this just idly last month, but maybe it might be a good thing to do monthly. Maybe? I dunno. I’m going to give it a shot to try and be more organized as well as chart my interests/commitments/where Dramaland has failed in meeting my expectations. Gonna stick with “Dramaland Forecast” because it makes for a nifty unique tag (for me) and will be useful to go back and weep over the “what could have beens” versus the reality of casting choices and writing flops. Yes, I’m so optimistic.

Actually, I ought to be a little optimistic because so far 2016 has been absolutely delightful. 2015 was a disappointing drama drought, so to be awash in shows that interest me and that I genuinely enjoy and make a point to watch (even sacrificing sleep!), well, that means something.

Right, so let’s get caught up from where I left off last month:

Completed:

  • Imaginary Cat – overall thoughts here. The cat was cute and I thought the story had potential, but it felt like a confused mess most of the time.

Currently watching:

  • Remember
  • One More Happy Ending
  • Signal

Currently watching, kinda, I swear I’ll get caught up eventually:

  • Six Flying Dragons – I made it to ep 22! There’s still hope for me yet. (I mean I’m only a little over a dozen episodes behind.)

Skipping/dropping:

  • Moorim School – I said I wanted to check it out for Sam Okyere but that was pretty much it, and honestly that’s not enough to get me to watch. Which means I won’t.
  • Madame Antoine – this show could turn out to be better than its introduction but wow yeah I just couldn’t get past that and there are other dramas I’d rather spend my time and fury.
  • Cheese in the Trap – I downloaded the first two eps when they first aired and they’re still sitting on my hard drive, untouched. I haven’t deleted them to free up space because I think that I’ll eventually watch one day but we’ll see how long it’ll be for that day to come.
  • Neighborhood Hero – I’m not not-watching it, it just isn’t high on the list and I have too many dramas right now as it is. I’m still curious about it, but I’m also aware of the drama surrounding what’shisface. But I also want to see Soo Hyuk in a different role. Plus based on the teasers, I have a feeling it’ll be more Fugitive Plan: B than Basketball, and that intrigues me (I put most of my stock in the production team, y’know).

Upcoming:

  • Tyrant Monster – AIIIEEEEEEE!!!! I am so excited!!! I’m Park Ki Woong’s #1 fan and to read the news that he’s signed on to a new drama pretty much immediately once he’s freed from army life is definitely reason to do the happy dance, not the least because the last time we saw him on the small screen as Full House Take 2, and, well, I feel I’m owed another Gaksital or Story of a Man or something. (Okay, the fictional small screen, because he was also in Beating Hearts which is a reality show about a bunch of actors/entertainers learning what it takes to become a cop/fireman/paramedic. It has a bunch of familiar names but also Choi Woo Shik for you flower boy fans). POINT IS this was a show I’d already decided to keep an eye on because it’s by one of my favorite writers and that was even before Kang Ji Hwan signed on and much much before the news about PKW broke. I wonder if he’s taking the role that was originally offered Seo Kang Joon because if so, I bet the production team are thrilled that SKJ passed on it because now they get PKW which is a better deal no matter what. Still a little bummed there’s no word about a leading lady (and they’re going to start filming next week!), but they’ve managed to find amazing actresses for their other works, so I hope the production team won’t let us down.
  • Hwarang – when I last wrote, nothing was confirmed, but now this historical flower boy drama is actually set to air this summer and it will indeed star my girl Go Ara with her boy toys Park Seo Joon and Park Hyung Sik. It’ll be pre-produced, which… okay, I love Harvest Villa and What’s Up?, but the last pre-produced drama I touched was D-Day and, well… pleaseletthisbegoodpleasepleaseplease. At least the director knows his way around historical matter, plus the cast and the production company (that brought us all our favorite “Flower Boy” branded shows!) should make for a pretty (literally) and entertaining show.
  • Come Back Ahjussi – this is one of those dramas that I feel like is doomed to mediocre failure, but… it’s Rain. Possessed by a ghost. Who is apparently delighted to be in such a handsome body. How can I resist that? IMAGINE THE SHENANIGANS. It’s supposedly based on Jiro Asada’s novel, and a ghost haunting happens in Oh Yeon Seo’s body, too, so I guess it’ll follow it, kinda, maybe? I dunno. Point is I’m pretty sure I’m guaranteed some shirtless Rain, and that’s what really matters.
  • Vampire Detective – it has an airdate! March 27th! Other than that the only thing I know is it’s started filming. I don’t care. I will watch a vampire drama on OCN any day.
  • Pied Piper – I’m still all-in for this (despite my general misgivings about Liar Game, it was a well-produced drama), and now I know that it’ll follow Cheese in the Trap.

I don’t think I have any other updates beyond what I’ve mentioned previously. Any dramas not on the list aren’t there for a reason, because why waste energy hunting down information about a show I’m not going to watch (or even maybe kinda think about watching) in the first place.

odilettanteLeave a comment

dahliabunches:

obsessivedilettante:

I need a gif of when the woman slapped Sung Joon’s face with her purse and made his nose bleed, ‘cause that pretty much sums up how I feel about this drama. I can’t root for a show when I want to watch one of the leads go down in flames. Even if supposed “character redemption” is part of the plot, if I don’t like the character, I’m not gonna care about him being redeemed.

Also the whole episode felt totally flat. There was no spark, nothing to grab me and capture my attention and make me want to root for any one. I didn’t anticipate sticking with this drama in the first place, but I thought the first episode would start out a little bit better. The direction, surprisingly, feels the weakest to me – none of the characters feel lived in. It feels like actors reciting their lines. That probably disappoints me the most (well, second most after the rage-inducing “experiment” of the first few minutes… okay maybe third-most because seriously there’s no reason for the random white dude. There are universities in Korea, c’mon now). The concept sounded like it had such potential, but the show feels like any typical drama stereotypes, just gussied up in a different premise.

I feel like I could really like Han Ye Seul’s character, but she also didn’t feel a fully realized character – more like the writer was just checking off boxes in a description to give us the short-hand of what she’s supposed to be like (messy, poor, etc.). Which, again, is far from being a novel character, but I thought with the whole “being able to channel the spirit of Marie Antoinette” she’d be a little more… unique.

I’m especially grumpy because I used this hour that could have been better spent on the Signal premiere, but I thought I’d be “productive” while I waited for that download and now I’m just angry at Dramaland, which is not a good place to be when you want to watch a show you’ve been anticipating for months.

Oh goddammit, is Madame Antoine trash? I wasn’t hoping for the moon and the stars, but at least something watchable, especially after High Society.

*flips table out the window*

Okay, here’s the thing – I’m not sure. All I know is had a visceral reaction during the first 5-10 minutes about SJ’s character and was full on ready to close the window and never look back when the lady walloped him in the face with her purse (literally seconds after I’d muttered to my screen, “I want to punch you SO HARD”). So, in that way, I suppose the show is self-aware and purposefully created the character to be like that.

Buuuuut I just don’t want to deal with watching his character grow and change as he discovers “love” and all that nonsense because I really, really didn’t like him and none of the other characters were compelling enough for me to get over how much I really didn’t like him.

It’s not that I don’t like the heartless scientist, because, hey, Chi Hoon! One of my favorite characters who is unable to feel things and lives for science! But this character is such a smug jerk that, ugh, yes, all the purses to the face, please.

So that just set the tone (and I felt that the first scene was a bizarre choice in and of itself – I think it was to get across the underlying point of the show, but I really don’t need any random white dudes to give a show an apparent scholarly validity), and the rest of the direction just never was good enough to erase it. I really wanted to like Han Ye Seul’s character because she totally seems like my kind of girl, but in my bitter jaded way I saw her more as a convenient amalgum of those kdrama girls who are poor and quirky and messy, and not a person unto herself. Even though she’s got this amazing trait to explore – hello, communing with Marie Antoinette? Con-woman or not, that’s a fun thing to play with, but she just didn’t have the off-beat zest I was hoping to see in order to effectively counter-balance the ass-hat that is SJ’s character.

It just made me really bitter and angry, watching the episode, and even the moments of cute and fun were overshadowed by it. There’s some potential there, but there isn’t enough to keep me watching. I need to either feel an immediate connection with the characters in order to tolerate a weak script and clunky directing, or vice versa. Something needs to grab me, and I didn’t get that here (well, I suppose something did, but it wasn’t the thing to keep me watching). I didn’t feel any magic in the show – just actors hitting their mark and saying their lines. I didn’t feel the chemistry, and not just between the leads, but between most people. Except for HYS and the cute girl from Let’s Eat 2 – they are adorable.

Honestly, if the show opened up with them in the cafe and “Madam Antoine” doing their thing before going to SJ’s jerk-tastic explanation of his “test subject” and his experiment to prove that love doesn’t exist, then I might have been more generous in my interpretation. But that’s why I think the directing fails me as much as the script (and the acting, because SJ smirks are not winning me over). The show could have been better introduced and the subject matter and conflict woven in a more organic and interesting way. Or at least a way where I didn’t want to reach through my screen to throttle a character.

odilettanteLeave a comment

I need a gif of when the woman slapped Sung Joon’s face with her purse and made his nose bleed, ‘cause that pretty much sums up how I feel about this drama. I can’t root for a show when I want to watch one of the leads go down in flames. Even if supposed “character redemption” is part of the plot, if I don’t like the character, I’m not gonna care about him being redeemed.

Also the whole episode felt totally flat. There was no spark, nothing to grab me and capture my attention and make me want to root for any one. I didn’t anticipate sticking with this drama in the first place, but I thought the first episode would start out a little bit better. The direction, surprisingly, feels the weakest to me – none of the characters feel lived in. It feels like actors reciting their lines. That probably disappoints me the most (well, second most after the rage-inducing “experiment” of the first few minutes… okay maybe third-most because seriously there’s no reason for the random white dude. There are universities in Korea, c’mon now). The concept sounded like it had such potential, but the show feels like any typical drama stereotypes, just gussied up in a different premise.

I feel like I could really like Han Ye Seul’s character, but she also didn’t feel a fully realized character – more like the writer was just checking off boxes in a description to give us the short-hand of what she’s supposed to be like (messy, poor, etc.). Which, again, is far from being a novel character, but I thought with the whole “being able to channel the spirit of Marie Antoinette” she’d be a little more… unique.

I’m especially grumpy because I used this hour that could have been better spent on the Signal premiere, but I thought I’d be “productive” while I waited for that download and now I’m just angry at Dramaland, which is not a good place to be when you want to watch a show you’ve been anticipating for months.

Planning Ahead

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When I made the vague resolution* to become more organized, this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, but procrastination knows no bounds.

*tbh this organizational battle is just a continual thing in my life, nothing new for 2016 – just a skill my ADHD brain will probably never master yet it’s essential for being a responsible adult, apparently.

So here’s what the Dramaland forecast looks like:

Currently watching:

  • Remember
  • Imaginary Cat

…I’m not a Yoo Seung Ho stan, I swear. But Imaginary Cat is only 8 eps so why stop now, and I’m obliged to Remember (but I’m not complaining. Yet).

Currently watching, kinda, I swear I’ll get caught up eventually (curse you busy holiday season!):

  • Six Flying Dragons – I still haven’t gone past ep 10! My life is a failure.

Plan to watch once drama is over/is already completed:

  • Reply 1988
  • Oh My Venus – mebbe; the only draw for me is Shin Min Ah and Henry-puppy, which is never enough for get me to stick with a show, but it could make for some decent background noise while I’m pretending to organize my household.
  • Awl

Dramas I’m anticipating for 2016:

  • Signal – the only that really matters, tbh, because one of my favorite writers paired with one of my favorite directors with an awesome cast and intriguing concept, on tvN? Yeah, pretty much has “FAVE DRAMA OF THE YEAR” written all over it. Fingers crossed it isn’t as disappointing as Three Days, although I have high expectations for this director (*clutches Misaeng tightly*), so if nothing else it will be absolutely gorgeous to watch. 
  • Moorim School – I’m iffy on the production team and cast, but I’m curious about the premise and I want to see Sam Okyere play a teacher – with such shallow reasoning, there’s a strong chance I won’t last past the first few episodes unless the show pleasantly surprises me.
  • Madame Antoine – I know I should probably walk away from Sung Joon forever, but I just can’t give him up. Not yet. Despite my bitterness, my hope remains that he’ll finally get the role that does him justice. At least the production team seems dependable, even though it’s about 50/50 for a hit or miss just based on their previous works.
  • Lightly, Ardently (or whatever the heck we’re calling it) – tbh I am only excited about this because of Im Joo² – not only do I always need more Im Joo Eun in my life, but to get Im Joo Hwan as well is just a little too much for my eager heart (and What’s Up? obsession) to handle. Pretty sure I’ll hate the drama but love them. Yep, I’m calling it now. Not even gonna take bets on whether or not I stick with it because the odds aren’t that great.
  • Descendants of the Sun – not planning to watch, but I am anticipating the reactions of everyone else watching, because I’m curious to know if pre-production (plus a co-writer) has tamed KES’s predictably frustrating ways.
  • Vampire Detective – it’s on OCN, which is where all vampire dramas should be hosted; it has Oh Jung Se, Lee Chung Ah, and Lee Joon; and it has my attention, if not an airdate as of yet.
  • Pied Piper – trustworthy production team, on tvN, and Shin Ha Kyun back on my screen? I’m in!
  • Dear My Friends – Noh Hee Kyung’s love fest starring Go Hyun Jung, who definitely deserves my attention because she’s amazing, and it also has Shin Sung Woo who’ll you’ll remember me adoring as Shin Umma during the first season of Roommate. Tbh the whole cast is excellent – the ahjummas and ahjussis deserve some prime-time lime-light. I am excite, even if Noh Hee Kyung’s dramas sometimes leave me cold.
  • Tyrant – there’s not much out there on this yet, but it’s from one of my favorite writers Jang Young Chul (or at least one half of my favorite writing team, because he and his wife were responsible for Giant, History of a Salaryman, Incarnation of Money, and Empress Ki), so I have hopes.
  • Mermaid’s Prince – again, not much about this, but it’s an adaption of a webtoon that is about a contract marriage between two opposite personalities and sounds like it could be either cracktastic or a lackluster failure, but still holds that classic rom-com potential.
  • Hwarang – an historical drama presumably about flower boy warriors, from the production company that brought us treasures like Flower Boy Ramyun Shop, Flower Boy Next Door, Shut Up Flower Boy Band, and Cyrano Dating Agency. My interest is definitely piqued, especially since roles have been offered to Park Seo Joon, Park Hyung Sik, and Go Ara. (And I need Go Ara on my screen some time this year; why not let her be surrounded by the pretty?)

All around, 2016 is looking much more exciting compared to 2015, and hopefully that remains true. I need to believe in Dramaland again!