Flash Review: Your House Helper

One of the struggles that I keep mentioning to my friend Timescout, is finding the just-so, perfect balance between just watching what I want to watch, and liking what I like, and paying attention to positive buzz on – and therefore trying out – dramas that I wouldn’t normally have on my radar.

Sometimes, that curiosity serves me well, and I end up finding gems that I would’ve otherwise missed (OMG I freaking loved Money Flower, and My Mister, and neither of those were really on my radar to begin with).

Other times, though, I’ve lived to regret my curiosity, when the show in question just doesn’t grab me the way it’s grabbed other people.

So here’s the thing. Originally, I was going to give Your House Helper a pass, since the premise didn’t appeal to me that much.

But then I saw a fair number of comments floating around, saying that this one is surprisingly good, so I felt almost compelled to give it a chance.

Long story short, I had to work to get into this one, and while it had its moments in the middle stretch, by the time I got to the end, I have to confess, I felt a tad underwhelmed.

Not underwhelmed enough to give this show a terrible review, but underwhelmed enough to feel like I could’ve maybe spent those drama hours better elsewhere.

I don’t know if I’ll ever find that elusive balance between having the gumption to fly solo, and wanting to follow positive buzz so as not to miss any of the good stuff, but I’m certainly gonna keep trying. In the meantime, let’s dive a little bit into my experience with this show, shall we?

Disclaimer: Like I said, lots of folks liked this one, so your experience might vary from mine.

Continue reading

Flash Review: Mask

If Mask had a report card, and I was its teacher, I would write on it something along the lines of, “Mask displays strong potential in many areas, but seems to have a short attention span and does not work to maximize his potential.”

That, and maybe also, “Mask would do so much better if he would seriously apply himself.”

Yes, this does kinda-sorta sound like what I recently said about High Society, but I think because Mask managed to show more real potential, the disappointment here feels, well, more real, too.

I mean, for a good stretch, I actually really enjoyed watching this show.

Continue reading

Are kdramas getting worse / “dumbed down”?

So recently, a couple of comments on the blog have combined to give me pause for thought.

And instead of just answering the latest question in the comments section, I thought it was interesting enough, and thought-provoking enough, to put it all in a new post, and see what you guys think.

Well ok, that, and the fact that as I chewed on my answer to the latest comment, I realized that there were just too many facets to the answer than I felt could fit reasonably into a simple comment.

Basically, the question is, have kdramas gotten worse / more “dumbed down” in recent years?

Let’s dive in together to take a look, shall we?

Continue reading

Pure Pretty: Eric

Blame my previous indifference to Eric on the facts that:

(a) I’m technically still a complete kpop noob and know next to nothing about Shinhwa, the legendary group of which Eric is leader and rapper; and

(b) I’d never seen him in anything of significance, since I’d bailed early on Myung Wol The Spy (2011), and hadn’t been terribly impressed by his outing as second lead in Phoenix (2004). Fine.

That last bit was also coz I’d been so completely distracted by Lee Seo Jin at the time, who was basically the only reason I even decided to watch that show, heh.

Now, blame my current state of spazz-puddle on Eric’s wonderful performance in Discovery of Love (2014). I mean, just, where had this manly man, oh-so-sexy version of Eric been hiding, all this while??

I likey. I likey very much.

Continue reading