aghst

Just started watching this. It didn't dawn on me that the opening credits are all the characters from the different timelines, Sunja as a little girl, as a young woman and as granny are all in there. Obviously they were mistreated under occupation and scraping together a very modest standard of living in that fishing village. But in the modern period, Sunja's son owns pachinko parlors and they have a nice home, while the grandson is a rising banker with all kinds of ambition in NY. Sunja tells Solomon that Japanese still discriminate against Koreans living in Japan so he's better off living and working in America -- of course you had the very obvious racist meeting where Solomon is denied promotion and he has to come up with a big new deal to get the promotion this year instead of waiting another year -- and probably being screwed over then. I knew about this show since it was released. Been in my queue for awhile. But as it happens, started watching this after watching the first K-drama (Crash Landing on You). Quite different at least in the pilot, in terms of tone but I see that the show creator and creative staff are Korean. It doesn't seem likely there will be as much comedy or social satire as Crash Landing on You.

Why kill Eugene after all this time? Why would he run off without his backpack. Presumably had his money in there too. They said season 2 was the final one, so 4 episodes left. They bring in this who killed the wife plot and enlarge this cop's role. And he shoots Eugene in front of all those witnesses? First it was Gina, now it's her father questioning Jimmy's manhood. Did this old mobster really say "sack up!" to Jimmy? So Jimmy beats up the ginger mobster. Now some NY mobsters want to bring in drugs and women through the NOLA ports so add them to the party with the cartel, Desire and Jimmy's organization. It's a lot to wrap up in 4 episodes. Mo has to move heroin, wants to cut the lethality but someone still dies. Michael, the only thing he may have to look forward to is justice for his wife. Despite the losses he suffered, he has a grandson. But the problem is he can't stand the grandparents in-laws.

Loved the show and Qualley's performance. Her attractiveness does seem to be a factor in this story. Not just a case of casting some young, pretty actress for a lead role -- she doesn't have heavy makeup but presumably she had some light eye makeup and lipstick on when she's suppose to be cleaning houses. She's attracted not only Nate but that college student who was her Tinder date, so she probably had other options, including dating someone who was in a higher socioeconomic class. Maybe young women aren't so status conscious -- Alex is suppose to be in her early to mid '20s?. But they might be more inclined to date someone who has a steady, relatively well-paying job. She tells Nate that they can't date because they're unequal and at the time, he was providing food and shelter for her and her daughter. But she started dating Sean, stopped working and was utterly dependent on him financially. There was that early scene where she looks past Nate and sees Sean at the restaurant where she waited tables and it seems like the reason she was interested in him was that he was reading Bukowski. Maybe she was consciously trying to be different than her mother, who seemed to attach herself quickly to men whom she thought would provide for her. Yet it turns out she chose an abusive man, just as her mother had chosen her father. It's not clear how long Alex and Sean were together before he showed his ugly side. The argument they had over her not having an abortion should have been a big red flag but she stayed. This is when she could have left and even consider not going through with the pregnancy if she found no way to provide for her child. But also it's not just providing for the child's immediate needs. It's about being able to support her for almost 20 years at least, maybe planning to save for college for the child. Still a difficult thing for a young person to decide. Unless I missed it, they didn't say why she went to Missoula, enjoyed the area around the campus, and then didn't stay in college. That's another decision that could have changed the course of her life. Maybe there was an emergency with her mother or maybe taking out a huge loan was daunting. After she started cleaning houses, she said Maddy is her whole life, which didn't sound too promising, because she was still young herself and she would probably burn out doing backbreaking manual labor without anything else to look forward, the prospect of bettering herself -- finding work she enjoyed or was passionate about -- as well as improving their standard of living. Then Alex became focused, not just on writing but learning all the things she could do to go back to college. Otherwise, she might be exhausted at the end of the day to do anything else than be with Maddy. She believed that her happiest days were ahead of her, as she looked to a new life with her daughter in a new place, a new metier.

He was never aggressively anti-vax from the beginning. IIRC, he didn't have a strong position on the initial vaccine doses but then turned against boosters as he got more strident about masks. Maybe he was pissed that he got infected after being vaccinated and had to miss a show. Yeah he can take a victory lap over the fact that hundreds of thousands of people in this country died because they weren't vaccinated. Still remains the case that the unvaccinated are more likely to die than vaccinated, if any prior infection was over a years old. If you survive infection without vaccination you might have better protection vs. re-infection, though past studies showed that infection didn't produce consistent levels of neutralizing antibodies like vaccines did. Or you might have survived it but you have acute long covid symptoms or may have aged your organ and immune system, even if you don't have obvious lingering symptoms.

The corn maize was completely random, due to luck. At the first fork, 2 teams went right, which turned out to be the longer way. Banany went left and they beat Jordan and Aneesa, who had taken the right fork earlier than them. But then for the maze, Banany went left again and they hit a dead end so they had to go back and follow the path that Devin and Tori took. Aneesa might have won but she probably would have struggled to carry and lift those cinder blocks so could Jordan have done most or all of the lifting?

I lot of CYE plots, especially early on, were about the main characters misbehaving, just like in Seinfeld. So of course he was going to drag Cheryl out to a former porn star's place. Of course he was going to bicker about little money problems when he's filthy rich. Of course he's going to nitpick about trivial things.

I think Mike White himself said he was looking at Tokyo. In fact that may have been the location for season 2 until he changed it to Sicily.

Too many of the characters are doing schtick, not conversing in any normal manner. The whole teasing of Brian about proposing seemed performative, not the way people would really talk about something important to one of the characters. Brian walking backwards out the door and Gaby betting he'd hit the door, also obvious attempt to be funny and likable. Maybe Alice is the only one who gets some normal lines? Jimmy of course is always doing things with faces, rarely if ever speaking in a professional manner. Yes he's grieving so he's not behaving normally. But the entire cast is trying hard to be noticed with virtually every line reading. Scrubs was like that, but the characters were suppose to be young so they're like doctor bros or something. I don't recall noticing it being quite like this in Ted Lasso, they can still have great dialog there without always speaking with some unusual affect. Can people sustain this jovial and smirking demeanor all the time?

It’s one thing for his mother to live with them, quite another thing to be in the same house. Which gets more sunny days, Ontario or Ireland? Missed why they wanted to leave Canada, other thAn he had Irish ancestry and citizenship. May be warmer even if wetter?

He should complain to the producers too then, because they have as much say in who and when a cast member is "fired." Probably more, a lot more.

What is Nelly doing there in a World champions edition?

They could collude completely off camera, have a pact to toss some nominal amount to alliance partners if any of them won and the others made the Final. MTV wouldn't have to know. For all we know, they've already been doing this.

Challengers could have pacts going forward, to share some of tHe winnings with each other. That will guarantee votes. how much training can you do between seasons if you have to do any kind of job? Previous winners may not have to get jobs between seasons but everyone else, maybe living with parents or something?

They changed the rules on that elimination game. You just have to get into the circle, not put the ball in the receptacle? That changes from strength/endurance to agility. Nany was easily juking by Aneesa, who'd have difficulty staying in front of her even if she wasn't injured. Whenever that game was used in non-Final elimination. the defender was in the circle, near the receptacle, so it was a wrestling/tackling fight. Many had all that room outside the circle to go back and forth. Hell if she couldn't juke, she could just sprint around until Aneesa fell behind and then go into the circle. Jordan and Johnny just tried mostly to go through each other, though they might have had trouble running past each other. But a football player is trained to either evade tackles or in the case of a bigger player vs. a smaller defender, go through them, "truck them" as they say. I guess Aneesa wasn't going to run full speed into Nany and trample over her, even if she didn't have injuries. The puzzle won the this round. Devin was more methodical and Tori didn't argue with him, just trusted that he was right, while Johnny and Nany bickered because they probably didn't have the same plans until they'd stacked almost all the bricks to discover their mistake. I'd be curious to see how much they ran in this Final compared to previous Finals. Aneesa with her ankle and Nany with her knee problem may not have been able to run the distances that previous Finals required, including going uphill a lot. Jordan and Aneesa may not have even made it to third if Olivia didn't get injured but somehow, the endurance part really didn't eliminate Aneesa sooner so it seems like they were just able to jog some distances here and there but it wasn't a continuous slog climbing a mountain like a lot of other Finals. Not sure how I feel about eliminations at the end but they did it before with Kaycee eliminating Nany and most of the people who make the Final have been avoiding eliminations most of the season to make the Finals so it's good to see them have to survive elimination. This tunnel thing I guess was a combination of endurance, strength and puzzles. Visually it looks better to run long distances in the wide open with helicopter shots and such. But there's more suspense here because getting a lead in this 4-rooms deal is no guarantee that you will win. Banany might have been able to come back if they only had to rebuild once. But having to rebuild again they had no chance to catch up. The money sharing is cool. Devin and Tori are each giving up 1/4 of their winnings before taxes. This is their first time winning money. When CT did it, he'd won so many times it wasn't as big of a deal. But I suspect the strategy is to buy loyalty or allies for future seasons. Probably also they could convince others to protect them because they keep their word and are generous. Wow $38k is significant for all the pairs who didn't win but made it to the Final and came close to winning like Banany. That suggests MTV is really cheap and making the Final isn't some great windfall.

So other than volleyball, trying to remember other team building. Adventure had them do a zip line as a crew. Maybe there were times when they scuba dived together in Down Under? And then usually a day at a resort or getting to use all the water toys for a couple of hours between charters -- that's why it's ridiculous Camille went swimming on her own, clearly in previous BD shows, using the yacht's amenities during work time clearly needs permission. Those amenities may include boinking each other in the guest cabins. Like who cleaned up after Ross and Katie? If the interior had to do that, clean up a shower or a bed which otherwise was cleaned and ready to host guests, you'd think they'd have made more noise about it. Presumably, during their off time, they could go swimming or maybe rent a little boat on their own or do some land excursion to see the island. But having to go drinking together seems like it would be required, like the volleyball thing, because production had bothered to set up cameras and lighting and blocked out what kind of shots they wanted to film. So if the cast members were free to skip these events and do their own thing, producers probably wouldn't be happy.

Who won Challenge USA anyways? Already forgot it. Main thing I remember was that the women were more made up, seems like better-looking but also they upped their hair and makeup and lighting game. So Johnny will probably be tied to one of the young hotties, because star fuckers are a thing and he's suppose to be a star in this universe. Give him credit though, he doesn't have babies here and there and has never come to The Challenge saying "I gots to feed my baby!"

Getting panned in early reviews. Does it have more than interesting production design?

Wait were Tori and Johnny even in Challenge USA? I thought it was only winners from the national Challenge editions.

The wife in the Utrecht episode wanted to be near the city, as opposed to being closer to his school. Rationale was that her consultant business would be better there. In the 3 months later segment, she claimed to be making income to pay the bills rather than them spending their savings. So being closer to the train station probably helps. Now did Floor jump into the water for TV? Obviously that shot was staged, with them up in a bridge and Floor being in a dock some distance away, having to yell at each other.

The captain isn’t choosing these activities.

Does Sandy micromanage because that is her personality or working style? Or is she being prodded to do it, to create more stress for the chef and the interior?

I think insubordination is going to become more common on these BD shows. First Benny on BDDU, then Kyle on BDA. I don't remember the casts on the last seasons of BDSY or BDM. Now Alissa. Okay, she may have had horrible upbringing and maybe she really does want to appear like an ass on TV. But it's hard to shake the sense that she and some other cast members are being goaded into copping this attitude. They may realize that the captain is just another role on the show and they're not in the military or for that matter, a real working yacht. In the case of Benny, the producers weren't going to let the captain fire him and his bosun was powerless. In any event, Bravo may have realized the "chain of command" has such huge potential for melodrama. The captains on BD used to be able to rise above the little petty bickering that the crew/cast was encouraged to indulge in. But the producers may try to push the envelope on alienating the captains because they probably see characters such as Benny and Alissa as gold when it comes to drama.

I did not write that quote about losing respect for Cranston. Of course BB is a superior show to this. But BB probably led to this role for Cranston, about a guy endangered by criminals.

Finished watching Crash Landing on You, the first K-drama I've seen. I've watched a couple of Korean movies but this was 16 90-minute episodes so it was a lot of exposure to Korean customs and mores. Noticed that other K-dramas also have 16 episodes so maybe it's a requirement to have enough hours of content per show, even though this was partially financed by Netflix. I did like most of the secondary characters and it seems to be an attempt to depict life in North Korea, how they view the South, capitalism and the world. Don't know if it's accurate but no doubt there are elites who don't have problems with food and other shortages. The supporting characters provide comic relief and it shows how loyal they are, how they bond over things common to the human experience. But maybe they overdid it and that's why you have so many long episodes. The two main actresses are very good at crying. The actress who plays Se Ri is very expressive, able to pour out the waterworks or just have her eyes well up but she's very convincing. I wonder if it's common, to have such emotional characters. The love of the main couple is very seductive, how they fortuitously meet years ago in Switzerland and then meet again in North Korea because of some freak tornado. They both see it as fate, or some greater forces bringing them together, making the notion of each of them being with others unbearable, even though there is no way they can be together long term -- maybe if and when his parents pass away, he might defect. The series does show how little by little, despite themselves, they bond, become completely vulnerable to each other. That is also a seductively Western idea. The other North Korean characters also bond with Se Ri, maybe the writer or show runner is pro unification, or believes human connections can overcome ideological differences. But in other ways, this show is foreign to American and modern values. For instance, Se Ri was probably going to pine for the rest of her life for Ri Jeong Hyeok. Can't imagine a Western and modern female character doing that. Se Ri would be constantly approached and even though she went through some intense experiences with Jeong Hyeok, her yearning would lessen over time. It doesn't help that he leaves a year's worth of instant messages for her and suggests a way to meet in Switzerland. Se ri says it's the center of music or something like that. Actually that was neighboring Austria for classical music. But maybe the symbolism is more that Switzerland is famously neutral so it's like neutral territory for them -- though Se ri learns to paraglide in Switzerland, leading to her fateful arrival in North Korea. Are two weeks a year enough for a couple to sustain a relationship? Maybe, even for modern, Western couples. But more likely, they'd both be married to other people and then flying off to Switzerland to have their annual trysts -- wasn't until towards the end of the last episode that they finally kiss passionately. That's the other thing, PDAs may not be a Korean thing but the expression of love is pretty chaste. Movies from the '50s had more passionate onscreen kissing. Is this tame kissing also in other K-dramas or movies? If it is, it makes it puzzling that K-dramas have found popularity outside of Asia. It's not just Se Ri who was destined to pine away for her man. Seo Dan falls for Jeong Hyeok when she was under 10 and then gets engaged to him but he delays the wedding and she waits ten years. Then she falls for another man, who is killed. Now she's going to be by herself, at least for awhile? If she goes to Russia, she'd attract a lot of men. For that matter, she should have suitors at home as well. It took a long time for Western popular culture to depict modern female characters who take control over their own destiny when it comes to men. Hell even depicting women who have many sexual relationships is still relatively uncommon in TV and film. So these female characters in this show may seem jarring to Western audiences, how they fixate on one man, willing to wait years and years for him. French Lieutenant's Woman with Meryl Streep depicts such a female character waiting year after year for some man. But the story is based in the 19th century and it turns out it's a film within a film. They show Meryl and her leading man having a more modern relationship when they're not shooting the film within the film.

I agree that people can be horrible with each other. There are civil wars all over the world. I remember in Bosnia, people who had practically been neighbors were taking part in ethnic cleansing there. Sure people could be whipped up to hate, as we've seen with various nationalist movements, some of them lead to the worst brutality against other ethnic groups. Usually though, these kinds of attacks are carried out by paramilitaries, normal people who join up in the fervor to scapegoat and destroy out groups. Now many of the right-wing militias, such as those who took part in Jan 6 are former military. But it doesn't seem to be widespread. Rank and file military are inclined towards a certain political ideology but so far, there hasn't been some widespread insurrection led by former military and certainly not active military. In other countries, you have the military leading coups, usually because of corrupt generals to whom soldiers have greater loyalty than the rest of the country. That's why I wonder how FEDRA came into being, it's composition and so on. There won't be a backstory on this so I guess we just accept that they were corrupt and acted in ways that we hope US military and federal officers wouldn't act.