So, what are we all watching this week?
What kept you reaching for more (or agonizing when there was no more), and what made you want to throw your remote through the screen? Time to weigh in…
javabeans
Lovely Runner: This is my happy pill of the week. I’m trying to hold off watching the new episodes for as long as possible, saving them up as motivation and reward to push through the stresses of corporate worklife — I need that light at the end of the tunnel. So far I’ve made it to Tuesday. I can see intensifying angst in our future, but the deepening relationship between Sol and Sun-jae is so sweet and earnest that it buoys my spirit even when I fear what’s around that corner. (Well, the earnestness is mostly on his side, but that is like 90% of his appeal and I’m not complaining. Such a pure and lumbering sweetheart is he, and his failed attempts to play it cool give me inordinate amounts of joy.) I can appreciate that the time-travel mechanism makes it extremely difficult to change one’s fate, but I won’t give up hoping Sol’s faith moves metaphorical mountains and gives us a happy outcome. I won’t even contemplate the alternative.
Queen of Tears: I’ve hit the Episode 13 slump, which is really more like the Episode 10 slump stretching past its borders by dint of its prior momentum. But there comes a point where momentum runs out, and I’m wondering if I have enough interest left to tackle just three more. It’s like that feeling when you jump on a bicycle and pedal away enthusiastically, breezing through flat terrain until you notice the strain of a gradual incline that grows increasingly effortful until you’re huffing and puffing with exertion and your legs start to burn and eventually you wonder, maybe it’s time to let the hill take me. The terminal illness storyline is a drag, of course, and I am not a fan of characters lying to loved ones “for their own good” (that plot twist is so 2006). But what really rankles is the whole arc around these chaebols trying to beat their enemies in locating their misplaced stash of hidden funds — their embezzled, laundered and illegally funneled funds. Is it not enough to enjoy your obscene amounts of legally obtained profits that you have to steal away yet more obscene amounts of money while the rest of us dutifully pay our taxes on our meager, arduously earned proletariat incomes, and I’m supposed to root for you to sneak away with even more filthy lucre on top of that? Honestly, eat the rich.
mistyisles
Currently covering: The Midnight Studio
Lovely Runner: This show just continues to be exactly what I didn’t know I was craving. I’ll admit I could do without the brother/best friend scenes, but I love the rest so much that I don’t find those parts as annoying as I probably would otherwise. I adore how Sol is simultaneously so protective of and exasperated with her younger self, and I can’t blame either of the boys for swooning over her — though I appreciate the distinction that Sun-jae likes *both* versions of her, while Tae-sung didn’t seem to find her interesting (let alone anything else) until the version of her from the future rejected him. Speaking of Sun-jae, watching him come to terms with losing one dream (swimming) and finding another (singing) is beautiful and heartbreaking even without knowing how tragically it ended the first time around. I know Sol is just desperate for any way to save his life, but I really hope she can find a way to do it that doesn’t prevent him from joining Eclipse. He was SO happy on that stage, and it kills me that he apparently lost that joy somewhere along the way.
DaebakGrits
Queen of Tears: I got sucked into this drama, and now that I’m here, I can’t let go — even though the villains are insufferable and the incurable-but-curable brain tumor with a side effect of amnesia has edged into the ridiculous. At this point, I just want a happy ending, and I’m willing to accept whatever BS the writer pulls to get me there.
Lovely Runner: This story is bringing me life, and Byeon Woo-seok is giving me so many squees. The last time I looked forward to Mondays this much was when Business Proposal was airing. What can I say? I’m a sucker for a male lead who’s secretly been in love with the female lead for a long time (in a non-stalkerish way) and finally gets his unrequited crush requited.