squidgestatus

TV finished

We watched all of Bridgerton season 4 part 2 in March.

not very spoilery opinions

I am not Benedict's greatest fan, but his important scene in ep 5 was extremely well acted. Kudos. To nobody's surprise, the Queen's scenes almost all made me cry. She (and Agatha) had the best scenes this season. The main couple were getting more interesting, but sadly I couldn't quite follow their logic, especially not Benedict's. I also couldn't quite follow Francesca's character development. She seemed way too outgoing for a while there, but I liked her storyline a lot. I'm not sure what to think about Violet, but it was certainly unusual for the expected Bridgerton theme, so I was surprised but not put off. I loved seeing Jonathan Bailey again. The cameos by Kate and Anthony, and Colin and Penelope's continued presence were wonderful. Of course we did a lot of crying over ep 7, so much so that I had a headache for the rest of the evening, and then we cried again over ep 8. Oi, man. They did a great job making the season work, despite the Cinderella setup. All the ensemble plots pulled it together, and all the jabs at society helped, and while the ending conceit did not seem plausible, I wasn't invested in it enough to argue (and it was book-accurate).

Overall, while the season is still my least favorite of the four, it was much better than I had feared it would be.

I cheated and counted until this Friday (April 2), so I could add The Cross-Dressed Union to this category! Not that much happened in the last episode that wasn't already in the episode trailers (omg cdrama why, every time), but at least the penultimate episode managed to hold my attention. I'm happy to have crossed it off the list. Overall, it was a really sweet drama with 24 half-hour episodes. My short review is in my January post, and I can now wholeheartedly recommend it.

TV continued

Almost finished The Long Ballad, episode 48/49 was a bit meh. Spoilers: *Her rescue of Ashile Sun from decapitation was way over the top, but the worst thing was that the evil Kathun made no sense. Either have her susceptible to threat to her son's life or not! Don't change your mind midway through! Also, of course they had *a ton* of time for mourning while in the middle of an escape. Omg.* I really do like The Long Ballad for its relatively logical plots, but this one, nu uh. Bad. I still enjoyed the parts where Ashile Sun's braids were flying during his fights. The braids outweigh pretty much everything. :D And now that I've watched this episode, I can let it lie for a few more weeks, postponing the inevitable end. (I love that show entirely too much.)

The Company (28/30), the time-traveling cdrama. Still very much enjoying it. I didn't really care much for the game transmigration case of the week, although I did appreciate the lesson it taught the characters. Also, it had a hilarious Tan Jianci mention: the characters mention going to his concert and they show his concert tickets. :D I liked the chess game case that came after the transmigration case. Their loving glances were so great, I am actually considering watching more of the older ML's work just to see him make that face again. He's very good at longing. <3 The BL vibes have now been put on hold for plot-related reasons, but I'm sure that won't last to the end. We'll see. I very much recommend it. It's on viki.

I tried to continue Love on the Turquoise Land, but ended up just rewatching the last ep I had already seen because it's been so long. I'm still planning on finishing this.

Rewatches/Watchalongs

I ended up rewatching the Wu Lei movie Upcoming Summer (which I am still absolutely planning on writing up a review for) plus a few videos that I had previously only seen unsubbed - now with Migaku-generated dual subs - including a lot of Wu Lei bts interviews from dramas and movies and his birthday livestream that I'd already watched unsubbed a few times and now could finally properly understand. \o/

My two Nothing But You watchalongs were my happiest times this month. They both bring me immense joy. I just love that show so much, and it's great to see other people come to like it, too. They're on episode 26/38 - one of my faves, we're both squeeing along at this point :D - and on 5/38, respectively - my watchalong partner for this one has so far not voiced any displeasure. *fingers crossed*