Drama Burn Out? Please Help

K-Drama, C-Drama, J-Drama, T-Drama, Th-Drama, A-Drama, UK-Drama burnout?

I am genuinely wondering if I am having drama burnout. I usually watch in the moments when I am home after a hectic day or week (which is every day and week) to relax and be entertained. I watch a lot of Asian dramas but really I watch shows and movies from all over the world. As long as they are interesting, fun and/or funny I’m in. I have a long My Drama List list of plan to watch shows, but somehow I haven’t been able to settle on a show. Maybe I am burned out or my attention span has become so small it’s invisible or maybe the shows I have left to watch just aren’t as good. I’m not sure.

This week has been a little crazy because I was sick and now I am working to make up for the work I didn’t do while I was sick and there is nothing I would like more than a great drama I can kick back too. Maybe one I can watch on the weekend since we have a house rule that Saturdays are lazy days where we don’t get out of our pajamas if we can help it. But I HAVE NOTHING TO WATCH 😲😲😲

I am currently watching one great Taiwanese drama which is a billion episodes as usual. I love it but am not always in the mood for it. I also have another half dozen shows I have been shuffling between that are varying degrees of good.

One show I want to watch is Itaewon Class, but I know if I start watching before the final episode I may get addicted and I am a complete fail at waiting patiently for new episodes to air, same with the Thai BL drama that is ending in March. So what else is there? New? Old? Asian? American? European? Australian? African? South American? Anarctican, I’ll even take that.

For reference my fav (type) shows are comedies al a Arrested Development, Coming to America and The Big Boss, competition shows and movies and dance dramas like Dance Academy and Dirty Dancing, slice of life dramas like Fight for My Way, romance such as This is My First Life and Some Kind of Wonderful, Romance slice of Life’s like Coup de Foudre, K-Historicals like Scarlet Heart Ryeo, Mr. Sunshine and Rebel and any good action movies with obvious villains and badass good guys/ladies.

If you have a show you recommend PLEASE tell me because I’m dying here.

TY,

Rachel

The Drama I’d Rather Have a Root Canal than Watch Again

Oh where to start…

I really like the actor Blue Lan. My opinion is that he is a talented actor who doesnt know how to pick non-action dramas to save his life, which is why most of his work rates between 6-7. So, if I want to watch anything with him in it, I have to lower my standards – a lot. This is exactly what I did when I watched Apple in My Eye which is Taiwanese and rated 7.

Honestly, the plot sounded akward as hell (i.e. quasi incestuous), but the main pic for it was cute, it sounded like something with some depth, with prospects for a happily ever after that would make my heart happy.

Plot (care of MDL):
The Zhou family has high hopes in giving birth to a son, but was disappointed when Zhou Ji Wei was born a girl, making her the third daughter in line. Because she was a disappointment to the family, she was only ever given hand me downs from her sisters. She felt no love from her family, but luckily she feels the love of a family from her neighbor especially Dai Nai Nai. There she meets her ‘brother’ Dai Yao Qi and follows him around trying to be the best sister ever, however he has never wanted to have a sister. As she tries her best to be close to him as his sister, she slowly realizes the feelings she holds for him are not love for a brother but something more.

As far as production value and acting goes, I think it was pretty good. Both leads did a great job! So why would I rather put up with a horrifying dentist visit than watch it again?

Reason 1) There are two love triangles. One is fairly normal where two females fight for the guy. The other is CRAY. The guy is a nutcase with violent tendencies.

Note: Spoilers ahead, ones you should read if you want to be saved from the nightmare of watching this drama.

Reason 2) After the pair were separated for a long amount of time due to misunderstandings etc etc, they finally met back up and their love started to blossom, and the 3rds in their love triangles were vanquished, and the only thing left to do was to get married and live a life of happy mediocrity together, BUT THEN they break up so the guy can save face or some such blather. The girl is heartbroken which makes me as a viewer heartbroken. Then the writers add insult to injury and hint that the girl ends up married to the other part of her love triangle, THE PSYCHO! I mean WHAT? SMH. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? HOW IS THIS OK?

That was the ending I got after investing hours of my life into this drama, and getting excited that the end was close and the leads would finally be together. That ending left me so unfulfilled, and sad, and mad. WORST ENDING EVER.

Aaron Yan – How I went from flinching at him to fangirling.

My introduction to Aaron Yan was in the drama Fall in Love with Me, which I found on Netflix.

To be honest, my first impression wasn’t great (don’t tar and feather me yet #Yanfans). In the first scene the man had more makeup on than a pageant queen and his clothes were just as frilly. For this reason, I didn’t find him at all attractive. I also assumed he was a boy who liked boys. I don’t know if that was based on his costume or if my uber fantastic gaydar, which is always on point was going off. Either way, I found out about the scandal with his bf later on and it all made sense.

Truth is, I believe wholeheartedly in #loveislove so I am neutral on his orientation, but feel heartbroken for him that he got kicked out of the closet the way he did. I also feel bad that he has to make a living kissing girls, although that won’t stop me from watching him do it (bad me ;). That said, I will hope beyond hope he does a BL drama one day which would be the most epic BL ever.

After my introduction to him, Aaron Yan grew on me FAST. The first half hour of Fall in Love with Me included a shower scene, where his six pack abs were in full view, and if you all haven’t figured it out by now, I’m a MAJOR sucker for some rock hard abs. Then Yan switched out of the froofy clothes since he played an Ad Exec. pretending to have a doppelganger – for a fringe, glasses and student clothes, which, although not my type, made him way more attractive to me.

Then I was acquainted with, what I now think is Yan’s very best quality. He has the ability to act using only facial expressions. It’s amazing!

Basically, what I have realized is that despite being typecast into certain kinds of dramas, he is a really and truly talented actor. He is the reason why I watched every episode of Fall in Love with Me, despite the story getting overly dramatic and draggy towards the end, because he continued to wow me. I also recently found out that he did the OST, which is pretty good.

I followed it up with a Yan weekend, which included Just You and Refresh Man. I liked both plots slightly better than Fall in Love with Me, although I did like FILWM’s actress Tia Li.

Refresh Man was interesting to watch, with an actual plot involving a company where people actually did work (hard to find in dramas amirite?), and of course Yan repeatedly did his yearning face, which is all it took for me to root for his relationship with Zhong Yu Tang, played by Joanne Tseng.

Then I fell completely in love with Just You. Aaron Yan + Puff Kuo are a fantastic combination, one I hope beyond hope to see again. The story was cute, interesting and funny. It is my favorite Yan drama so far and one of my favorite dramas period.

Oh and apropos of nothing, I give Aaron Yan the prize for best kisser of any Asian drama star. Let me know if you have other nominees (My runner ups are Koreans Ji Hyun Woo and Lee Min Ki and Thailand’s Off Jumpol Adulkittiporn and Lee Thanat Lowkhunsombat). Not that I pay attention to any of that lol. Yan is also the very best at “whoops, I accidentally fell on you and now we’re in lust”, which he has perfected into almost a stunt move. His only downfall, in my opinion, are his clashing suits and his dancing on fast songs, which is just too awkward to watch.

In short, I’ve become a giant #YanFan, desperately waiting for his future projects to come out. The next one I am watching is Please Give Me a Pair of Wings where it looks like he gets to highlight his acting abilities in a more serious drama focused on a really important topic, and I can’t wait to see it.