Review – Black

December 18, 2017December 18, 2017 / Lady Divine / 3 Comments

Review – Black

Black was a giant twisted MESS of a show. Honestly, it’s like the writers were suffering from schizophrenia. It’s a show about… rape? Corruption? Lost souls? Grim Reapers? Death? First loves? Child murder? Familial problems? Romance? Revenge? Cop stuff? Who knows! It just stuck its hand in a big bag of ideas, grabbed as many as it could get its fingers around, then scattered them across the table and said, “Perfect! That’s our show!” And everyone else looked down and said, “Wait, what?” I am hard pressed to think of a more chaotic show than Black. Despite the great actors and the cool fantasy aspects of the afterlife, it failed in coherence and theme. For 20 freakin’ episodes… it was like untangling Christmas lights, except when the whole thing unraveled you discover half the bulbs are dead.

And Black, Grim Reaper 444… or is it 420?, was a disastrous character. What exactly happens to you when you die that makes your personality turn into a cartoon character? His behavior was so hammy, so on the nose, so “Ha, Ha, Ha, I Don’t Like Humans Thus I Must Act Like A Childish Moron.” It was groan inducing.

I have nothing else to say about this show. If you want to throw away 20 hours of your life one day, like I did this Saturday, then feel free to watch this mess.

THE REAL MYSTERY OF THIS SHOW (besides trying to figure out why I watched the entire thing) is the conundrum of Kim Dong Jun… and how he’s the male mirror image of Han Ga In. Seriously. I thought, “they must be twins… It’s uncanny!” But nope. They’re not related. Maybe they have the same plastic surgeon, I don’t know, but geepers… it’s unnerving!

Overall Rating – 4/10. The Afterlife Is Full Of Plot Holes.

Review – Hwarang

April 9, 2017July 8, 2017 / Lady Divine / Leave a comment

Review – Hwarang

So, I knew going into this it was going to be cute guys and silliness and romance and hopefully a pretty decent plot. I expected to be won over with non-stop light amusement, an occasional tear, some excellent bromance, and cool costumes. I was not disappointed.

The writers of this show, thankfully, paid attention to the success & failures of other ensemble shows featuring a heavy cast of men and managed to not make the same mistakes. Instead, they repeated the tropes we love (estranged brothers coming together, best friends with loyalties tested, sons having to stand up to the tyrannies of their fathers, the injustices of the caste system, and so on) and made them shine. We got our favorite stereotypes (the flirty guy, the stern guy, the sincere guy, the girlish guy) and of course our main love triangle where the two dudes invariably end up besties. Honestly, there isn’t much to review. It was a good with just the right amount of drama to keep you interested but not enough to make you lose sleep. 20 hours flew by. It had synchronized dancing and “nightclubs” and political scheming and secret identities. The female characters were enjoyable and interesting, even the bitchy ones, and I actually can’t find anything major to complain about.

Everyone pretty much loved this show and I pretty much loved this show too. If you haven’t seen it yet – go ahead and pop it in your que. It’s not my favorite historical drama, but it’s definitely up there in the top ten.

Though all the men in this show were charming and you’ll end up adoring them all, I looooooved Go Ara. She was the best thing about You Are All Surrounded and she saved this show as well, if you ask me. The two male leads were excellent (and handsome), but it was her hysterical facial expressions, her playfulness, and her natural stage presence and comedy that brought the love triangle together and kept my interest.