squidgestatus

I was way more tired after the holiday vacation than I had hoped. But I had time and energy to watch a few things:

TV finished

Nothing, lol.

TV new (ongoing)

The first eight eps of The Company (8/30), a cdrama about a time-traveler from the future (his tardis is an antique shop, but otherwise... even his face reminds me of David Tennant). It looked fun from the trailer, and even though the first episode threw me off a little with weird pacing and repetitive humor, it also sets the two male leads up as eternal lovers, and I still can't shake that feeling even after eight eps. I think both pacing and humor improved from there, and I think I've figured out the structure of the show, and for now it's one I like? I don't think this is spoilery at all, because I'm not far in, but I will cut it anyway.

what i think this show is about

It seems to be a string of romance-of-the-week cases that all more or less echo the ML's life (and partnership with the other ML). It's quite neatly done, the fact that he caused all those disruptions in the timestream with his obsession over the death of his lover friend, and now all those artefacts are in the hands of other loving couples and he has to fix them, all the while knowing that he would do (and has done) the exact opposite of what he's now supposed to do. For love. I do like the relationship between the two male leads, too. One of them pretends to be all high and mighty but really is the biggest fool for love, as evidenced by the whole artefact mess, and the other is playful and openly romantic, and the combination is just very cute. I love me some unreliable narrators when it's all about feelings, and Bi Zhi is peak unreliable. He finally, in ep 6, got the idea to use his all-knowing time machine to find out the other's origins once and for all, i.e. whether he's his long-lost lover or not, and he said he's not emotionally ready. Heeee. I buy that!

Anyway, I liked all the artefact cases so far, there was finally some timey-wimey-ness, and I will continue watching. It's on viki.



Someone on c_ent mentioned the Cross-Dressed Union, and it drew me in almost exclusively for a while. It's a costume drama about a man who's disguised as a woman who has to marry a woman disguised as a man. It's a new enough take on an old idea that I found it intriguing. The quality is middling, especially the sound is full of background noises sometimes, but the subs are decent (except for the gender shenanigans, they get those only about 50/50 right). There are 24 half-hour episodes, and I'm now on ep 18 and adore both leads. They get the secrets out of the way fast (like by ep 4), and from then on they seem to be smitten with each other. I just enjoy the way they smile at each other. So cute. (I skip all the politics, and so far have not regretted it.) It got a bit too sappy for me in the middle, and I lost interest what with the grasslands tribes sidequest. But as long as the leads are in the same scene together I'm happy (sappiness or not), and I'll likely watch the rest of it soon. It's on youtube.



Bridgerton Season 4! It's been two years since season 3, so this goes under "new". :D Watchalong-ing that one. I hope they'll manage to make it more interesting than the book was. It's Benedict's book, and I'm never a fan of Cinderella retellings. So far I've seen one episode and am planning on keeping a one-a-week schedule for the first half-season. That first ep was very sumptuous, the ball room looked much better than it had any right to :D, very much like a fairy tale, which fits the theme I guess. My favorite parts were the Queen being unreasonable as always, Eloise, and Penelope in her excellent pirate costume. (Note that neither Benedict nor Sophie make my list. Sophie is too new, I think. I don't dislike her like I do Benedict.) Fwiw, I did like what they let Benedict do before he came to the ball. Better a little fanservice than no fanservice. On Netflix.

TV continued

Still The Long Ballad (47/49), and I still don't want it to end. I watched exactly one ep in very small parts throughout the month and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Love on the Turquoise Land (28/32) - I watched eleven eps of that this month O_O, and I'm not even skipping anything, the pacing is all good. Once I got over my "omg these vampires are so illogical" reaction, I really started enjoying it, and am just cackling at them by this point. She goes to a sword fight with a waterproof (blood-repellent?) sacrificial robe omg! :DD The small moments are still what make this show for me, the lead couple are great together, and the subterfuge is amazing. They meet in a restaurant, carrying on two completely unrelated conversations! Something I haven't seen done since the old 1960s British crime capers. There was a torture scene I really could have done without, but I enjoyed the kidnapping plot line quite a lot, and I warmed up to the doctor and sister characters. The vampire hunters are now moving towards the final confrontation, and that part is a bit... um... ridiculous again.

mildly spoilery details

Weird riddles that apparently none of the hunters bothered to memorize, long treks through the woods, a living mountain which is really icky (but cool!), and the vampires being as overdramatic as ever. The romance made a tiny little step forward, and I really like their relationship, but I had expected a bit more sexytimes than I got (which is none).

I am looking forward to the ending, I really enjoy the show despite its ridiculousness. It's on viki.

Our Times (03/38), the 90s retro "IT students go professional" cdrama with Wu Lei and Hou Minghao. I lied apparently misremembered last month when I said I was on episode 3. I only watched that episode yesterday. Oh, well. I enjoyed it, the retro vibe is wonderful, and old computers are an interest of mine, so that's also a point in its favor. Wu Lei plays an overconfident idiot, I'm here for that, too. And the bromance between him and Hou Minghao's character is strong. It's on wetv and youtube.

TV (dropped)

I'd really been planning on finishing A Moment But Forever, let's see if that's still happening. I made it to ep 27 in November and nothing since.

I started The Demon-Hunters Romance and watched five episodes. While I like the idea of it, and the demons were both good and bad and extremely different in size and shape, the character details put me off. Too many identical demon fights (the same demon is fought more than once too), relatively one-note secondary characters (her cousin and his nemesis, the policeman), both leads have stupid sidekicks, and both leads love to not speak up when asked (even when they were clamoring for attention a second earlier), instead they just pout and make the other run after them. So annoying! I gave up. It's on youtube with French hardsubs (and English softsubs).

Another mention from c_ent: Angry Wind, a modern cdrama with some kind of time-skip. I tried only the first ep, so I didn't quite understand what it's about. The quality reminds me of early 80s Hong Kong action movies, and the sound is really bad. It has a long-haired ML, but he's so much not my type that even the long hair isn't helping. The first eps are on youtube, but I'm not sure how many are (there is no playlist), and the rest is on wetv.

Not quite dropped, but also not really picked up: I started both Shine on Me and Riverside Code at QingMing, about 20 minutes each, and did not get the appeal of either. I will likely try a bit more of both before I give up, though.

Movies

On maggie33's repeated rec, I finally managed to find the movie Upcoming Summer with Wu Lei and Zhang Zifeng (it's on Netflix), and fell in love. With Wu Lei. Again. :D What a wonderful movie. It's a coming-of-age movie, and as such fleeting and bittersweet. The leads are crying *a lot*. I loved it. The ending is a bit abrupt, some things I would have loved to know more about, but most things are explained, and you know that this was just a glimpse into their lives and an important step in their journey of growing up. It does get its message across beautifully, so I don't mind the ending too much. There's one big reveal very near the end that is easy to miss and very unexpected, and it made me rewatch almost the whole movie again the next day, and I'm still not quite free of it even now. I'll likely write up a review.

Rewatches/Watchalongs

The Nothing But You watchalong is now on ep 15 (*sobs*). They are so adorable, even this early on. This watchalong is so much fun. <3

We're going to split our time between that and Bridgerton for the next four weeks, though. I haven't seen the new season yet, and it's unusual for me to do a watchalong for something I haven't seen. But we'll see how it goes.

The When A Snail Falls in Love watchalong is almost done, only two eps left. Omg those last eps really drop the ball on the logic big time. Much better than Parallel World, we both agree, but I think we'll be happy once it's done.