Judge From Hell: 8.5
Gyeongseong Creature s2: __ (ep 7) An unearned sequel which will probably spawn its own unearned sequel. It deserves to be buried in an unmarked grave with a splintery stake thru its heart. Crap sequels are all over Kdramaland now — where’s Buffy The Sequel Slayer when we need her?
Dear Hyeri: 2.7 but YMMV. Day 5 – I can’t quite bring myself to drop a Shin Hye-sun show (yet) especially since I don’t have any other Mon-Tue show now, but it’s a terrible slog. Day 6 – out after 27 minutes.
Bring It On Ghost: 9.0 (rewatch day 1 / 9) The antidote To Hyeri. Show could have been a 9.9 with a little less dumb & dumber, and like many shows it’s not quite as good in the middle as it was earlier.
– It seems like the leads are comfy enough with each other to speak informally, but if they weren’t, who would have to use honorifics in which situations? He’s older but she is senior in terms of acting career. Or does kpoping count towards show-business-seniority as opposed to just acting-seniority.
– Asianwiki thinks Kim So-hyun has an upcoming show with the same writer. They must not have hated working together here.
– I’m also going thru the recaps. Back in the days on the old site you couldn’t give likes, so if you happen to go there and see some thumbs-up, they’re probably from me, but feel free to add some of your own. There’s also a bit of nostalgia for the old-style recaps, and it’s sad to see so many once-familiar names who haven’t been active recently.
– FWIW this is my 3rd watch. The 2nd was soon after it came out.
Seoul Busters: 8.0 Not in the running for Show of the Year, but excellent comfort food.
Dog Knows Everything: 8.5 Cat was awfully tame. Dog continues to be great. Show is largely about getting old, but show itself doesn’t get old, if you know what I mean.
Family By Choice: __ Chose to wander away after about 15 minutes.
Doubt: 6.0 I Doubt I will continue.
Pachinko 2: 8.0
Back to the Gyeongseong series: S2 wasn’t as big an offender as S1, but…
I can happily accept supernatural gods/vampires/demons/Judges in fiction. And I can accept strictly natural parasites or viruses that turn humans into zombies or somesuch. After all there are parasites that makes mice easier prey for cats, funguses that zombify ants, and demagogues who turn susceptible humans into half-zombified fanatic followers. What I CANNOT accept is any allegedly natural parasite or other critter that violates basics like gravity, conservation of mass, etc, etc. When a human suddenly changes shape and becomes 5x larger and then reaches out 30 feet to pick someone up without tipping over, I start to suspect that a lazy writer thought that pushing the special-effects dept to its limits was a valid substitute for pretty much everything else. Cut the effects, obey physics, and have the baddies be strong, fast, mean…