Of Swords and Parasols

I've been watching MBC's latest sageuk, The King in Love, which is also the latest in the recent trend of youth fusion romance sageuks, though that little subgenre seems to have run its course.  (Hopefully the fact that Rebel: Thief Who Stole The People is the only sageuk this year that's really considered a success will influence future sageuks, though they seem to be over and done with for the year, unless we count Live Up to Your Name, which is very good, but also a time travel drama set more in the present than in the past.)  For the most part, it's been enjoyable, though I'm a couple weeks behind because it looked like it was headed toward one of several endings that I would have considered dealbreakers for the whole show.  (I haven't watched it yet, but I do know it does have my preferred ending, so I should catch up with it this week.)  The one area where it completely fails, unfortunately, is in one of its central conceits:  presenting a love triangle in which a woman loves  two men, and it's unclear which she loves more.  Discussing possible endings with a friend reminded me of the love triangle in one of JTBC's few sageuk outtings, Maids, which also had a triangle in which a woman is in love with two men, but does it much better.



( spoilers for both series )

I have not died, I've just been on a bit of a culling spree in my apartment. I've also been binging on kdramas, though that really means that I've been alternating between multiple kdramas.

They are:

Oh My Venus: Airing drama that's a romcom about an overweight woman and a hollywood fitness trainer. On paper it's everything wrong with romantic fiction, but in practice, it's actually very very delightful, largely because od Shin Min Ah and So Ji Sub. I freely admit that I wouldn't have bothered with it if I didn't like both leads. There's definitely some fatphobia going on, but not nearly as much as I feared, and they do at least try to avoid the worst of it first by having him decide to help her lose weight not because he thinks fat=yucky, but because she's doing harmful things to her body to try to lose weight. They also attach her weight to an initially-undiagnosed medical condition, which I sideeye because the real world medical profession tends to dismiss a lot of issues as being the result of weight instead of exploring other possibilities, but at least they tried. There's also a secondary romance between a boxer who is So Ji Sub's foster son and an idol who is his fan that is simultaneously hilarious and semi-cute, and offputting because she pretty much stalks him. I'm hoping they move past the stalking soon and they have real conversations, because I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to want them to get together. I haven't seen the most recent episode yet because I'm watching on Hulu and they don't have it yet, but am current otherwise.

My only big "OMG NO NO NO" moment was actually entirely unrelated to the romances and all about someone soing CPR by pressing on the top of the sternum. YOU DON'T PRESS THERE. THE POINT OF CPR IS THAT YOU'RE FORCING THE LUNGS TO WORK BY MAKING THEM PUMP AIR. THE INTERNAL ORGANS ARE ENTIRELY UNAFFECTED IF YOU'RE JUST PUSHING AGAINST UNRELENTING BONE AND CAN'T GET TO THE ORGANS. *medical pet peeve to end all pet peeves*

Yong Pal: About a medical student who secretly provides medical aid for criminals to earn money, and an heiress who is being kept in a coma by her evil brother. (Who actually seems very fond of her in the one flashback we had of them pre-coma? WHAT HAPPENED BESIDES HER RUNNING AWAY TO GET MARRIED TO SOMEONE UNAPPROVED?) I wasn't interested in it but tumblr made it look interesting when it was airing, and I like Kim Tae Hee, who plays the heroine. The actor who played Myong Nong in Soo Baek Hyang plays the evil brother, and I still haven't quite accepted that. It's a Sleeping Beauty story, something they keeps hitting us over the head with. Episode 4 literally begins with "here is our version of Our Hero having fought his way through the wall of brambles (or in this case, absurd levels of corporate hospital security) to get to the sleeping princess, and we'll tell him she's Sleeping Beauty in case anyone in the audience has missed it.' Hopefully, now that he's found her, she'll wake up soon and set out to get her revenge, which is what I signed up for. I had just started episode 4 when I realized I should post about the shows I've been watching.

Jung Yi: Goddess of Fire: Drama based on Baek Pa-sun, a Korean potter during Gwang Hae's reign. (And will have what i'm pretty sure is a 100% historically anachronistic romance with him.) I'm still in the childhood parts, so it's pretty much the teenagers who play kids in all the sageuks running around being adorable dorks and the adults who are in all the sageuks doing Important Political Scheming Things while the importance of pottery and ceramics is drilled into us. So, normal MBC sageuk biodrama stuff. Very delightful so far, though I'm only 3 episodes in.

Queen In Hyun's Man/The Queen and I fantasy series about a scholar/swordsman who served Queen In Hyun accidentally travelling through time and meeting a woman who is playing Queen In Hyun in a drama. This was seemingly universally loved when it was airing and I've neber encountered anyone who didn't like it, but I bounced off the first episode several times ober the last few years. I finally finished the first episode (3 episodes, actually), and I do like it, which I always assumed would be the case if I finished the first episode though I can't say I'm in love with it.

Maids: My favorite so far of the completed dramas I'm watching. An arrogant young noblewoman becomes a servant in her romantic rival's household after her father is accused of treason. Romantic interests are her previous fiance and the head servant of her new household. Said head servant is played by Oh Ji Ho (who is likable cardboard in modern dramas, but does the "stoic and serious sageuk action hero" thing very well) so we know who will be the final love interest even when the current plot makes it seem very implausible. As the title implies ,most of the focus is on female servants, with the politics providing the B plot. I hadn't realized this drama had been completed after the fire/death of a crew member made production stop after the first episode aired last year until I saw it on hulu. It's kind of unrelentingly angsty and depressing so far, but then, I'm only watched 4 episodes.

I also watched the first episodes of the Chinese series Perfect Couple, but it was a little too OTT for me, and the first episode of the Japanese series Atelier. I actually really liked Atelier, but it was a bit confusing hearing Japanese when my brain kept expecting to hear Korean because of all the other shows I'm watching, so I'm saving it for when I've finished a few things.

For US TV:

The Librarians has almost finished its second season. I don't like this season's ongoing plotline as much as I did the first season's, but the entertainment level is just as high, and it's been doing some nice character stuff.

Into the Badlands ended and no second season has been confirmed yet. I really really hope there is one. For better or worse (depending of whether or not you cared about them) I probably won't spew a thousand words about the last 2 episodes, but I have a lot of feelings about how incredibly satisfying Quinn's villainous comeupance was, and about The Widow's dual role as protagonist and antagonist, so I may post about those on tumblr. If there is a season 2, I hope they don't keep locking M.K. up in cages and boxes so much. Just let the poor kid go find his mom already!

I'm watching Jessica Jones and it's going slowly because of the content and because of some of my issues with it (mostly race!fail stuff, but also the fact that I'm apparently not meant to hate the entitled annoying Jessica-hating cop guy) but I do like it. I do really appreciate how the writers were clearly aware of fandom's tendency to woobify villains and went out of their way to give nothing to grab onto for woobification or logical sympathetic interpretations of the character, or any reason to find him interesting in and of himself. I mean, it didn't work, but I really appreciate the effort. Trish (which I always type as "Patsy" first) is my favorite, despite her awful taste in men, and I thought she and Hope were the same character in gifs I saw. Pretty sure the resemblance is deliberate for maximum levels of investment for Jessica.

This reminds me that I really need to post of several dramas I bingewatched over the last few months.