Nice Guy: Post-Episode 14 Thoughts

I'm not as excited about NG as I would like anymore, which disappoints me. It's still a gorgeous drama to watch, but I'm just not feeling the characters and instead getting bored by the amnesia + schemes. Not to mention, episode 14 felt like torture to watch - all the irrational stubbornness, the screaming, crying, moping, combined with the wastefulness of food and glasses...

Faith: Pre-finale RAGE

Alright, Eun Soo is officially pissing me off. For the past few episodes she's done NOTHING but sit around and cry, mope, cry more, and essentially be a wet towel. Seriously, when I think back to the first few episodes of Faith, I feel like we were watching a different drama altogether. Not only did LMH have much better hair earlier on (seriously, wtf is with his randomly shorn hair?? Did they run out of time to put the wig on everyday? And why has his hair changed more than our leading lady's dyed do?), Eun Soo used to actually have a personality. Now both her and him are "madly in love" and consequently endlessly depressed on a daily basis.

Snow White and the Huntsmen

Wow was this a strangely plotless movie, despite being so pretty and having such a kickass trailer. I didn't want to believe all the online reviews about how not-good this ended up being, but unfortunately they were right.

Week of Premieres: Fall Dramas

One of the best things about this time of year are all the long-awaited season premieres. This year is one of the first in a while where I've been so excited at all the returning and new shows. It definitely has to do with the many series I binge-watched in the past year (Vampire Diaries, Hart of Dixie, Revenge, and many others), and at the surprisingly strong quality of many recent shows. Yet one thing I've noticed is that season premieres tend to be among the weakest of episodes in terms of plot and acting quality, just as season finales tend to be among the most exciting.

I think it has to do with the cast and crew coming back rusty after months off (like any job) and with the oftentimes anticlimactic resolution to whatever conflicts surfaced in the finales. Not always the case, but usually. The most boring premiere in my memory? Smallville season 2, where we end up following Clark on a dull stroll of probing about and post-tornado busywork. One of the best? Gossip Girl season 4 in Paris, and Mad Men's season 5 opening in mid-life with Don and Megan (heck, all of their season premieres were strong).

With that, I've been busy making the rounds in catching up with my favorite shows and peeking at some new ones. Here's my thoughts:

Faith: Post-First Kiss Thoughts

I'm not sure why I'm as fond of Faith now as I am. It remains the drama I'm most excited to watch each week, even though I keep peeking at the clock while I'm watching. Truthfully, it's not all that fun to sit through, as our characters have been behaving dully and the plot is suffering from the expected repetitiveness of a 24-episode run. I think it's my lingering hope that it'll somehow get better, and my still-strong goodwill for the two leads. Neither Choi Young nor Eun Soo have been all that great lately, but there's always flashes of the earlier qualities that made me love them (Eun Soo's humor and CY's broody coolness).

The Avengers

I finally got around to seeing The Avengers, after watching all the lead-up Marvel films (here and here). Even though some of those were painful to sit through, I'm glad I did, because it made all the character interactions that much more meaningful and fun to watch in this film.

Nice Guy: Episodes 1-8

Finally, I'm caught up enough to do a review of Nice Guy. I saw the first two episodes the week they aired, but didn't get a chance to watch the rest til this week. Now that I'm done with episode 8, I can finally weigh in on the show.

Overall, I'm impressed. It's a clear winner in the cinematography, acting, and general attractiveness department. It's so refreshing to find a director who knows what he's doing, and I love the score. It's so very reminiscent of Bad Guy. The big plus here is that the women are able to hold their own - Eun Ki and Jae Hee are incredibly nuanced characters, and even more fascinating to watch than our titular Maru. Plus all three are stunning.