Welcome to my Saturday blog post, where I give thoughts on dramas I’m watching, whether at the beginning, middle, or end. Whatever I want, because I’m petty that way.
Except no post last week, because I was still in Japan and didn’t watch enough of anything to talk about it. I’m back in the states now and plan to resume my regular schedule.
I did post recaps of Love Game in Eastern Fantasy episodes 25-26 and episodes 27-28. The episodes focus on a Phantom Demon, but the real phantom is Miao Miao. It’s disappointing she has so little to do in this last arc of the show.
This week, I recapped episodes 7-8 of Pit Babe Season 2. Kenta needs to stop trying to please Pete and start trying to please Kim. Not-Way handles Pete the best by rolling his eyes constantly.
I also recapped The Next Prince episodes 7-8. We get archery, sex, a white horse, some pearls, and a mining protest. What more could a girl want?
What did I watch this week? The show I finished while in a delirium of jet lag is:
Leap Day – วันแก้ตาย – 2025
Recently aired Thai Thriller (kinda) with 12 episodes.
Being born on a leap day really sucks. Everyone you love dies.
The show was an interesting combination of found-family and thriller that fell short for me in a few places. The biggest problem? Leap Day didn’t make for that interesting a villain.
“I’m gonna get you! … In four years!”
As a ticking clock of existential threat, it had a long lead time. Then, after “its” initial failure to kill anyone on Leap Day, it starts trying to kill people on random days that were not leap days.
Which made Leap Day feel less like a horror villain out to kill our heroes, and more like a random act of nature that just enjoys death. Which can be a terrifying thing, like the shark in Jaws or Mike Myers in Halloween. They just want to kill people because it’s what they do.
But those random monsters attack indiscriminately, killing whoever is unfortunate enough to cross their path. Leap Day had specific targets and rules, or at least it seemed to. Enough so that the stars sent Ozone clues about how Leap Day worked. Because of that setup, I wrote in my initial review about being interested in the developing mystery.
That mystery ended up being weak
It was a lot of our heroes scrutinizing the art Ozone created, apparently for months, without figuring anything out.
If Leap Day were more like Jaws or Mike Myers, it would have been about outsmarting it. These kinds of mindless villains can be tricked or trapped. And for a few episodes, that seemed to be what was happening after all. Then they dropped that part in favor of supernatural clues again.
And in the end, the solution to dealing with Leap Day felt arbitrary and random. It was a reaction to some stuff that happened in the last few episodes, not anything they’d figured out based on a long series of clues.
I found these aspects all unsatisfying.
But I do like a good found family
Day and Night were two very different people who built a special relationship out of their shared tragedy. Night’s girlfriend, Dream, and Day’s cousin/brother, Ozone, became a part of this unique family unit. In particular, the closeness between Day and Ozone, who had reasons not to be close, felt very special.
Not only did I enjoy seeing them work together, but I also enjoyed seeing where they fell apart and struggled with one another. The situation was difficult, and they weren’t always on their best behavior.
I think if I’d been able to let go of the idea that the show had a “mystery” to solve, I could have enjoyed it more. If someone wants to watch a found family working together against a weirdly horrible, irrational supernatural being, this is one of your few chances.
It’s a novel, different kind of show, even if it doesn’t hold together in some places.
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