Anne: I hope everyone in the United States had a great Thanksgiving holiday! Damn… where did all that time go? At least on my end, everything ended up in my work. And… my little hobby of building these miniature “houses”.
This is my last big project. I actually finished another one that I haven’t taken a photo of yet. This one is a birthday/Christmas gift for my mother-in-law. So… yes, I spent a lot of time at work and my silly and sometimes very frustrating hobby.
Between the last time I posted and now, a ton of stuff has come out. It seems like everyone is trying to get on the air before the end of the year. Problem is, no other shows held my interest…so…while I was building my little miniature fantasy empire, what’s playing in the background are the YouTube drama shorts.
Let’s review some of the shows on the air…and my first impression of them.
The land of warriors
Of all the season 2 I was waiting for, I don’t think this one was at the top of my list. In case anyone is interested, here is the rest of Continent Doulouwhich had Xiao Zhan as the lead in 2021. From just a glance, they didn’t keep any of the original cast for the 7 main leads, but truth be told, I doubt it matters. I barely remember the story from the prequel. And without Xiao Zhan in the first one, I probably wouldn’t have started.
I took a quick look at this one…I hate to say it…it looks like a live-action anime. Not really my style. So…this might be a rough patch for me. (Fangs of Fortunehad better visuals. Yes, I know the plots aren’t the same, but it’s still fantastic…)
Let me know if anyone else has taken a look and if you think it’s worth a look or not.
Pretty boy
The title doesn’t have an “s”… if you put an “s” in boys… you’ll get a completely different drama. This is a comedy starring Darren Chen, who has just enough of a slender figure and face to look like a passable woman.
The story is about Qing Cai, a “manly” man who takes care of all the hooligans who dare try to attack his town. One day, his adoptive father disappears, and to find out where and what happened, he decides to follow the “women” who have invaded his house. And the trail led him to a “cult” that only recruits women as disciples. So… in order to infiltrate, he decided to disguise himself as a girl to enter this sect.
From the first glance, it’s passable. I might FFing this one since it’s almost finished.
Brocade Odyssey
This has the same flavor as the female-centered growth story. Ji Ying Ying’s father was framed and then killed. However, I am a big fan of ML and 2nd ML, Zheng Ye Cheng and Jing Chao. The dramatic plot is quite bland. The first impression is not great. I love the tone and pacing of this drama, especially the siblings. Let’s see how this evolves.
And that’s about all I could understand from the new dramas airing. I’m going through the shows I liked in 2024 and I come up with a very limited list. I’m reading some of my previous posts and trying to remember what I liked about the dramas I watched. My memory is bad and the dramas weren’t much to remember.
I really, really like the plot of The doubleand obviously Duke Su’s style. I like the attempt to solve the crime and mystery of In bloom. I liked the slight role reversal of Fight for love (except the ML turned out to be an idiot of the highest order), but Oh my generalStill remains one of the best role reversal stories to this day. Blooms in adversityhad some of the best side character storylines. And I realized that one of the only Korean dramas I managed to finish this year was Love next doorwhich I liked, but for the over-the-top family feuds.
Wow…and that’s about it for me.
I’ll try to post a longer article next week. Unless there are any surprises… the 2024 drama cycle is a little disappointing (which says a lot compared to last year…)
Hope everyone has a great rest of the week!