Musings of the Obsessive Kind

I confess I would have not checked out Can We Get Married (crazy Mom tries to get daughters married off rich, upset her youngest chooses a regular salaryman - that set-up is not my thing) except for two things:

1. It's on jTBC and I've been liking a lot of the cable dramas I've seen
2. Sung Joon (Shut Up Flower Boy Band) and Jung So Min (Playful Kiss) play the leads - the salaryman and the youngest daughter. I adore both of them separately and the thought of them together just fills me with so much glee, I couldn't pass up this chance to watch them. (Also, for once, an age-appropriate pairing! I was wondering if under-25 actresses were a dying breed).

I have just finished the first episode and overall, I really enjoyed it.

THE GOOD:

* Sung Joon and Jung So Min are awesome in their roles and have ridiculous amounts of chemistry. Plus, their characters just feel real and flawed and adorable and guuuuh. I could watch them forever. For some reason I keep seeing this a twdrama with Ariel Lin in JSM's role and Bolin Chen in Sung Joon's (yes, I have In Time With You hangover).
* The directing is assured (though cuts to flashbacks without signalling are a bit of a hiccup) and the cinematography is crisp.
* It's on cable, so there are twdrama-level makeouts.
* This is a rare drama where I feel like I could run into these people on the street or have them as coworkers. Especially Jung So Min and her friend - I have a feeling they could have been some of my 20-something friends...
* I really like Jung So Min's friend, whose name escapes me at the moment. She is awesome.
* The drama seems to avoid cliche 'oooh, misunderstanding' possibilities - people behave in sane fashion.
* I like Jung So Min's aunt and Sung Joon's family.
* Did I mention make-outs? With Jung So Min and Sung Joon?

THE BAD:

* I hate an awful lot of characters - I want to strangle Jung So Min's mother. I think she is supposed to be funny, but I find her so irritating, I stick the volume on mute whenever she appears. If I could, I'd minimize her role as much as I could. Ugh. Nails on chalkboard.
* I really hate friend's (ex?) boyfriend. He's hunky as hell (looks like a younger Kim Rae Won, mmmm) and I have a lot of goodwill for the actor (who played Yoona's suitor in Love Rain), plus his makeout scenes are epic, but that character is such a douchebag (in relationships - he is actually a pretty good friend for Sung Joon)! I want him to be kidnapped by hoodlums from May Queen and beaten half to death. I am pretty sure the drama is going to get him and friend back together but they will have to work hard on making me OK with it.
* Oldest sister and her horrid marriage. Feels like it belongs in a much darker, drearier drama. It's well done and acted but I want sugary cuteness not two miserable people being miserable together.

VERDICT: I am keeping this puppy but I really hope they cut down on Mom and oldest sister, and make the sexy douchebag grovel. Preferably shirtless.

(Hey, I said makeouts. Do you need evidence? I have evidence!) (   )

I am reading Christopher/Valentine fanfic. I am officially around the bend.

But the thing is, I haven't really shipped a Western TV couple in years! Not since Ten/Rose and that was over in 2008. So that's quite deliciously novel to me.

Oh, and speaking of shipping. While I haven't yet watched Faith 19-20 properly, I did peek at the end of 20, and nobody is going to convince me that the scene didn't get x-rated the moment after the episode ended. I mean, seriously!

I am so watching more tonight!

Posted via m.livejournal.com.

I have caught up with the latest INR2012 eps (how I am managing to keep up with 5 airing dramas, I'll never know) and as always, quite a delight.



The thing is, the more this goes on, the more I don't see their viability as a couple despite their chemistry and feelings - she is a little clingy and temperamental but it's not really her fault I see this never working out.



He is where the problem is - it's very clear he loves her, but he is maddeningly non-verbal and non-communicative about either his feelings (bad enough) or his expectations (fatal to a relationship). Sure, he doesn't like her pushing - then maybe articulate what it is he would like, and how he sees whatever relationship they have? (Not to mention she won't be as clingy if she knew where she stood). Reading between the lines gets exhausting, especially since she's not privy to the things we see as the audience (such as him buying up all of her pictures). I mean, she tells and asks him point-blank and still gets no response. Who wants to bare your heart to no reaction? The way he is right now, I don't think he can have a functional relationship with any woman, really. I can't say I am enthused about heroine with secondary guy either because there is little chemistry and he's so bland.

This was the coolest break-up ever though:






Serves you right. If I were her, I'd do a sex tape with Guy N2 and mail it to him.

I swear, this drama has more makeouts than every other kdrama I've ever seen put together. But shallowness aside, I think it has interesting things to say about relationships - LJW and JYM are sexually compatible and are also very close friends, plus, she is falling for him again and reading between the lines, so is he, so you'd think they would be the perfect couple but that is not the case - she is impatient and very hot-tempered (pretty clearly, every breakup was initiated by her in a fit of temper), plus awful about reading emotional subtleties and he is emotionally shut-down and abysmal about either articulating his feelings or letting her in to see anything vulnerable. Unless they work it out, any attempt to become a true couple again is doomed. It's not that a person with either of their tendencies cannot be in a happy and successful relationship. It's that it would be hard for people with those tendencies to be in a happy and successful relationship with each other. They either need to change or affirmatively accept that this is the way the other person is and work with it, and they haven't so far.

( Caps - mainly of makeouts and sexy sexy Lee Jin Wook )

I swear, this drama has more makeouts than every other kdrama I've ever seen put together. But shallowness aside, I think it has interesting things to say about relationships - LJW and JYM are sexually compatible and are also very close friends, plus, she is falling for him again and reading between the lines, so is he, so you'd think they would be the perfect couple but that is not the case - she is impatient and very hot-tempered (pretty clearly, every breakup was initiated by her in a fit of temper), plus awful about reading emotional subtleties and he is emotionally shut-down and abysmal about either articulating his feelings or letting her in to see anything vulnerable. Unless they work it out, any attempt to become a true couple again is doomed. It's not that a person with either of their tendencies cannot be in a happy and successful relationship. It's that it would be hard for people with those tendencies to be in a happy and successful relationship with each other. They either need to change or affirmatively accept that this is the way the other person is and work with it, and they haven't so far.

( Caps - mainly of makeouts and sexy sexy Lee Jin Wook )

( See a lot of evidence )

Joking aside, I have finished ep 2, am in the middle of ep 3 and adore it - the characters feel modern and relatable and with sex drives and I love the former couple/current best friends/living together/going for friends-with-benefits-with-ridic-chemistry thing that the leads have going. I wonder if I am imagining things though in ep 3 - LJW looked quite disappointed, though he concealed it quickly, when she told him she wanted just no-strings sex, though he was all 'great idea.' Am I alone in thinking that? He did yank her sushi away :P

Secondary dude is incredibly boring to me but I think it may be the actor - I liked his character OK in Chuno and disliked his character in Personal Taste but in neither did I find the actor in the least memorable or characters interesting.

I confess that when news of INR2012 came out, I had zero interest. Its thematic predecessor, INR2011, pretty much took everything I dislike in dramas and stuck it in one package. Chances of my considering INR2012 would have been nil, however the flisties raved, except for the fact that the makers cast Lee Jin Wook and Jung Yu Mi as the leads. I am a ridiculous fangirl for LJW, who not only does something funny to my hormones, but who also was the lead in one of my all-time favorite dramas, the ridiculously underrated Someday (or as I like to call it, the closest Korea came to 'Mars'). And I've had a huge soft spot for Jung Yu Mi since Que Sera Sera. With that and the flistie raves, I decided to check it out despite my misgivings.



What can I say? I just finished the first episode and the love cannot be contained! It's funny, sexy (hello there, cable!) and fresh. The story involves two former lovers who ended their long-term, on-again-off-again relationship 3 years ago but have remained best friends. CAN YOU SAY MY CATNIP? My big problem with INR2011 was that it revolved around a couple whose spark has gone out and where the boyfriend was a serial cheater - ummm, I am not rooting for that. Here I like both LJW's and JYM's characters - both are quirky and have faults, but are also cool and with ridiculous chemistry - I am simply salivating for them to get their act together and get back together. tVN has done it again!

( Caps of two make-out scenes. I know what's important! )

My only regret is that I got 450-with raws for this ep because while this isn't using a Red One camera or wallowing in a huge budget, it is pretty and I love it enough to want HD raws. Next time!

I confess that when news of INR2012 came out, I had zero interest. Its thematic predecessor, INR2011, pretty much took everything I dislike in dramas and stuck it in one package. Chances of my considering INR2012 would have been nil, however the flisties raved, except for the fact that the makers cast Lee Jin Wook and Jung Yu Mi as the leads. I am a ridiculous fangirl for LJW, who not only does something funny to my hormones, but who also was the lead in one of my all-time favorite dramas, the ridiculously underrated Someday (or as I like to call it, the closest Korea came to 'Mars'). And I've had a huge soft spot for Jung Yu Mi since Que Sera Sera. With that and the flistie raves, I decided to check it out despite my misgivings.



What can I say? I just finished the first episode and the love cannot be contained! It's funny, sexy (hello there, cable!) and fresh. The story involves two former lovers who ended their long-term, on-again-off-again relationship 3 years ago but have remained best friends. CAN YOU SAY MY CATNIP? My big problem with INR2011 was that it revolved around a couple whose spark has gone out and where the boyfriend was a serial cheater - ummm, I am not rooting for that. Here I like both LJW's and JYM's characters - both are quirky and have faults, but are also cool and with ridiculous chemistry - I am simply salivating for them to get their act together and get back together. tVN has done it again!

( Caps of two make-out scenes. I know what's important! )

My only regret is that I got 450-with raws for this ep because while this isn't using a Red One camera or wallowing in a huge budget, it is pretty and I love it enough to want HD raws. Next time!

I need to check out Triunfo del Amor if for no other reason than apparently it stars my new favorite on-screen couple Maite Perroni/William Levy as unknowing stepsiblings (according to wiki)! Who seem to spend all their time doing this:



I believe in making family members welcome. So do they, in a slightly different way.

AAAAAAAAH HOW DO THESE PEOPLE KNOW TO CATER TO ME????!!!

In semi-related conclusion have an deliciously angty vid from CCEA with yummy makeouts and shirtlessness. I foresee dramas being supplanted by a new obsession....



Worst honeymoon ever, y/y?

In conclusion, don't ever say I am not sharing with my flist :P

Is this going to get me drummed out of the ranks of drama lovers? I am enjoying the new Huan Zhu Ge Ge. I've never seen the original so have no comparisons, and while this isn't emotionally searing or deep, it's so pretty and fluffy and ridiculously good-natured. Though I confess, I was kinda blah-ing about it until I got to the meeting of Zi Wei (illegitimate Princess) and Er Kang (royal bodyguard). Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. SHIP!!!! I confess I kinda skim any but their scenes (am on ep 6).



Luckily for me, they are one of the two main OTPs and, skimming, we apparently get scenes like the one behind the cut.

( I approve of his dedication to duty )


He's kissing the scar on her breast? In a period cdrama? Now I know the world is about to end.

Hmmmm, I am way curious as to how they got matching scars. I want!