Welcome to my weekly blog post where I give thoughts on dramas I’m watching but not recapping.
This week I recapped the last episode of Love Between Fairy and Devil and will add some final thoughts next week. I’m still recapping Utsukushii Kare Season 1/My Beautiful Man Season 1.
This week I finished watching Hoshi Furu Yoru Ni/On A Starry Night, and I liked it so much I think I’ll go ahead and make it one of my next recaps. Expect to see that along with Midnight Chicken in the next week or so.
This week I started and rapidly binged through nearly the first season:
The Glory – 더 글로리 – 2022
A recently aired modern Korean thriller, I’ve watched 7 out of 8 episodes of part 1.
A woman who suffered horrible abuse at the hands of a group of peers during High School wants revenge.
At some point this week I discovered everything I was watching was light and I was hungry for something dark and intense. This show was the perfect meal of hateful, horrible bad guys, injustice, and cruelty. Our main character has been twisted by what has happened to her and it feels completely justified. There’s no romance about the power of good to transcend horror (a plot I’m often good for just not right now), just the harsh bitterness of knowing evil people can get away with doing horrible things.
There are also interesting mysteries being set up. Our female lead seems to be a cool mastermind, but not everything is under her control.
If I had one complaint, and this could be an issue of translation, the way the characters talk can be very stage-y. This mostly bothers me with the female lead and the male lead, where their conversation gets so vague I’m not sure what they’re saying to each other.
On the other hand, something this show is doing that I’m loving is showing the true power of wealth. The evil characters don’t get away with it because they’re clever masterminds who’ve worked out how to manipulate the system where others haven’t. In fact, none of them seem very smart. Their wealth is inherited and they just need to throw it around to get what they want. They’re really easy to hate and I look forward to their downfall. Don’t be surprised if I have my final review of this next week.
And I also started:
The Starry Love – 星落凝成糖 – 2023 (Pictured)
A recently aired Chinese Xianxia, I’ve watched 8 of 40 episodes.
Twin sisters of the human realm are destined to marry into the evil Void kingdom and the good Heavenly kingdom. Things get a little confused on the important day and each sister ends up going to the wrong kingdom.
One caveat, so far this show is very light and silly but I’ve got a feeling it’s going to get angstier and Xianxia-er as it progresses.
But right now it’s a ton of fun. My favorite part is how well the ‘good’ twin is doing in the evil realm while the ‘evil’ twin is suffering horribly in the good realm.
Neither twin is truly ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and despite a lot of silliness each of them has depth. The ‘evil’ twin, mistreated within her own family, has more than once given the virtuous male lead longing eyes when he helped her out. She has a touching vulnerability under her bluster. Her male lead may be the fussiest and most fastidious male lead I’ve seen, and his frustrated attempts to deal with his new bride are easy to laugh at.
Meanwhile, the ‘good’ twin is winning over the evil guys of the Void kingdom with her clear, honest, and kind nature. She’s good and virtuous and assumes others are honest as well, but she’s not stupid. Her male lead is a lying, rascal who is starting to feel very guilty.
The switched-twins plotline, the hellion and the straight-laced guy, the virtuous woman and the scoundrel, are classic romantic tropes that fit very well in the fantastical setting. There are also lots of places where it seems to be poking fun at Xianxia tropes that are a treat if you’ve watched even one of that genre.