ShortCircuit

This has now reached The Darkness Supernatural levels of stupid, LOL.

Yeah, I watched 8th by now, it improved (no more strange spacey pauses between lines. I hope 7th is the only one filmed like that.) But also, 10 minutes or so of flashback scenes and lots of slo-mo scenes too. I think they really did have a break in filming sometime, hopefully the situation didn't repeat.

Whenever I see the ghosts, I keep thinking "this is where most of the budget went" LOL, the ghosts are pretty scary. But NOW I don't really like how most of the later ones have sob stories - I want some real exorcism, come on!

...And I could see some less of the ghost hunting club, seriously. The taller one is becoming annoying. The short one - Junior? - is cuter.

And the police... OMG the police are soooo silly. All those scenes, wasted. It's like those two officers never investigated a murder ever before. They waited until the student's funeral to talk to her BF?! Like, what? And then that silly threaded panel with victims' photos. And the way they're fixed on Jade, even if he IS the actual culprit. No self-respecting policeman would do that. It's taking a lot out of the tension in the series.

Though, if this one wraps nicely, I can see myself going to check out the original, even if the leads aren't among my faves.

That unsync'ed dialogue is one of my pet peeves, sorry. It's glaringly present in some BL series, and I was actually pleasantly surprised not to see it here in the first 6 episodes. It feels like they're dragging out the dialogue to make up some time in the episode, which now makes me wonder if that's the period when they got caught up in Covid-19 restrictions or something.

I didn't watch the original series, so I don't know what the focus is there. But even the romance was better - subtle in the beginning, clearer later - in the first 6 episodes. Something's different in 7th. I hope things improve in the 8th...

Something's off with episode 7. Haven't watched 8th yet. But their dialogue feels forced, there are those strange pauses after each character's lines, like they do in (bad) romance series, and there's a general lack of tension. Is it because they're switching the focus from the ghost-hunting to the romance side?

I expected more, coming from the first 6 episodes, which weren't actually bad at all.

Se7en with a lot of twists and turns that want to be edgy and mysterious, and then we get to the gaggle of psycho killers I kind of anticipated.

So disappointing. I really wanted to like one LSG drama again. Too bad for LHJ - by this time, I'm kind of fed up with his random "detective" associations that the writer has him pulling out of his ass at the last possible minute EVERY TIME, and calling it intelligent. And the way he falls apart with only hours until the kid is supposed to die - yeah, that's a pro right there. One motivated by hatred of the killer too, after his whole family was wiped out.

And then they go and leave the HH alone in the freaking prison med bay, I so do NOT wonder if that's going to become important along the way.

And those buckets of blood, yeah, no.

Let's not even bring in the freaking TIME it would have taken to take off the priest's clothes, sew the rocks into his stomach, close it and dress him right back, hung him high... in the time it took the karate girl to get a cab to the church she knew, which should mean it's a church close by her house.

Too many psychos at this time. And oh, the psycho no. 1's GF is oops, pregnant. I mean, SERIOUSLY?

I might continue watching if ONLY to laugh at the extra drama. It went from the bait-and-switch frustration I had with it to the MEH level very fast. Nobody's acting like they have a working brain in this drama, except for the policeman's GF, the one with the fender bender. She was pretty fast on her feet, considering she's probably not a cop. Is she someone making a special appeareance? She looks familiar, I almost thought she was Suzy, but I guess Suzy wouldn't be in this just for a look-see. (Edit is she Uhm Hye Soo, credited as police woman in ep 5?)

PS. The psycho no. 1 is a righty, and LSG's psycho no. 2 character is a lefty, if I remember correctly. Or he keeps using his left as a dominant hand anyway. Which begs the question - if he is the lefty killer, how come the P.NO.1 is the one framing out the seven anti-sins? This writer is taking so many turns and spinning it so many different ways, I don't have a lot of confidence the final resolution won't be something extremely improbable.

Yup, this is turning into...

You know what's scarier? High-rated dramas that are just... foam. Nothing but foam.

There are a lot who deserve the praise they get, but then there are the duds, waiting there for someone to try them based on high ratings, when they're all about the cast, the glitz, the brainlessness. I could name a few that really made me sour on high ratings, but I'm sure some of them have fans who actually like them and I don't want to chip away at their pleasure. Tastes aren't negotiable, they just are.

As for low-rated dramas... It's like with books. Before trying one, I'll have to take a look at the reviews and see what exactly is wrong with it, according to its public. And if it's something that would also make me put it away, I have to say I don't tend to invest the time in it. There are so many others that might fit my tastes better, and I have so little free time...

I love Ye Bai Yi bickering with Wen Ke Xing. They're like a cat and dog, LOL, and neither can resist provoking the other. If I didn't know WKX is head over heels for ZZS, I'd wonder :D

Can YBY really find a cure for ZZS? I bet that's driving WKX mad, no knowing if he should be kowtowing to YBY or cursing him out. So far he's sticking to cursing him out... probably for the hope he raised and then crushed in ep. 14.

Also, it just skipped right past me that Scorpion was even in this story until ep. 15. He feels slimy.

Cheng Ling is still a cutie, I hope he gets lots of love. WKX called him his child, LOL. And then he had such an expression when he looked at ZZS when he wasn't so affronted as WKX probably expected - who's the mommy and who's dad, hmm? :D

The actual wuxia plot is making me phase out, but the fighting choreography is amazing. I want to see more of those. And maybe even ZZS losing his senses a tiny bit, because that would definitely impact WKX. I'm a sadist like that.

WKX's expressions though... I see something tragic happened to him to twist him into who he is and I want to learn what it was, the sooner the better.

Last for now, CWN's eyes are amazing. I have no idea who this actor is, but his eyes are exceptional, it's like he has stars in them. Beautiful!

After episode 16...

Drop it anyway, probably. As I said, I'm just sticking with it for two more eps (at most) just to see what direction the writer's picking. Even if it's something completely different than what I'm imagining, it's still a bait-and-switch story that still struggles to make sense, 4 (long) episodes in.

I mean, the gene expert died - his body not found yet - because why? The doctor is the one he was investigating. The friend who got tricked into showing the HH's son isn't innocent is dead - because why? His death is pointing a finger at HH's son, not taking suspicion away. The cop couldn't have done it, he's in the hospital.
The granny is dead because she saw the picture - is the writer going to pretend that she - the granny - died because of an "innocent" pic that the doctor got (showing a dead body, picture not publicly released as far as we know), but that the cop is the actual killer, as per the last scene of ep 4, and snips of the preview?
The room that the stairs lead to and the picture panel is in the doctor's house (and he went down it in perfectly good steps, so the kid is NOT there), but the cop is the one keeping the kid hostage? Then why would the doctor kill granny?

There are way too many lying plot lines, and scenes I suspect will get retconned in the next few episodes for this to be an honest mystery drama.

If it wants to be a thriller, well then, let it be a thriller. But it's already a plot mess and I don't want to get lied to for 16 more 1.5 hour-long episodes in order to have some kind of resolution.

And I have to admit it - the ONLY one I am interested in learning about is KMC, and that's because of Lee Hee Joon's acting. I never saw him in anything, but he has presence and is rather convincing - all the rest of the drama is from another movie, as the saying goes. But one good character and a lot of twists and turns do not a good drama make.

TL: DR. Yes, I'll probably drop it very soon - unless there's an actual story that gets my interest going again... which I don't hold much hope for at this time.

Edit: just checked the writer - I've actually seen two of her 4 credited dramas (Mouse is the third). Black's ending was a total mess, Iljimae turned kind of too melo even for me, despite Lee Joon Gi and Lee Moon Shik's presence (LMS is one of my favourite support chara actors ever). I am not ready to credit her with the know-how of delivering a good, well-plotted, sense-making ending at this time. IF - a big IF - I don't drop this.

We'll see how it goes.

That dreamy, a bit lost-in-his-world hyde voice... mmm. It's so easily to recognize. I knew about them from RuroKen, too, but oh I went obsessed with Daybreak's Bell (yup, Gundam fan here). And they HAD to go and have an OP for FMA too (I mean... one CANNOT not watch FMA if one's an anime watcher, LOL.). I had a crush on hyde at the time :D

And TMR... Also met through anime OP songs - but that voice and that scene presence, he's incredible. I can sing along with INVOKE too hehe. And also with INNOCENT SORROW, and JAP, and Howling, and From Dusk Til Dawn (had a crush on Hei, too :D)

I feel I'm missing a lot, not having found so many new anime series that I want to watch these last few years. The only band I found that was at least in some way related to anime was One OK Rock, and that was only because of RuroKen again...

I want my mecha anime back and those awesome OP songs!! T_T

OMG I know - and can hum along pretty well with "Change the World"! I feel so old now, LOL.

Then again, it's been 25+ years, and I seriously did not expect a boy-band to survive into a man-band, they had a long streak! Wishing them all the best and success in their individual careers!

Now, if you're going to tell me Takanori Nishikawa (of TM Revolution and Abingdon Boys School fame) is retiring, I'm going to actually cry. (Just so you know, I checked already, he's still releasing music in all kinds of combos, LOL.) So is Gackt, and so are L'arc-en-Ciel, and so many more, happily.

I need to go back to more anime and anime music...

I wish I was part of the survey. But lacking that, it's not too late to answer now :D

I do not NEED a happy ending (not even to a romance drama). It just NEEDS to make actual sense. None of that non-communication misunderstanding leading to forever separation, please. No last-minute wonder drug to save someone who's in love and dying. (Though I won't be mad if it happens, it's just going to detract some points LOL).

For ratings, and for more watchers, a HEA for beloved characters makes sense too. I mean, the producers want return on investment right? So they'll feed us soma and HEAs. Though if I may add, some of the most successful stories - even romances - were tragedies. Just look at Romeo & Juliet's timelessness. It only needs to be presented in such a way that the watcher agrees with the ending, even if painful.

Which leads me to CHEMISTRY. Even with no HEA/HFN, if the characters have chemistry together... we're all set to have a beautiful experience. I've endured dramas that ended not so great for everyone just because of chemistry, and also dropped or barely ended series/dramas that actually made some sense plot-wise because the actors were painful to watch together, despite most of them being very talented. For a quick example: Gu Family Book (loved the intro and everything about the gumiho's story, was meh about almost everything about the half-gumiho son's story.)

Anyway, one last thing: regarding understanding certain dramaland situations because I'd been there. Are we watching the same dramaland stories?! Real life is actually pretty tame, considering. I've yet to witness or be part of any whirlwind romance between pauper and rich, or cutely stalk/get stalked by my love interest, or having the free cash to wave around a huge mall buying stuff I don't need, or be part of a police investigation of any kind etc. I'm watching dramas FOR these things lacking in my life, LOL. There are way too few real-lifelike stories that I've seen in dramas, and most of them aren't there as a main plot (like bullying and the like.)

My 2 cents.

"I'd also like to note, that people who may have psychopathic tendencies don't always know that they are different from the rest. You don't just wake up one day and realize 'oh, I'm this kind of person.'"

I would ALSO like to note that EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US ARE DIFFERENT. And that - particularly in psychological analysis - motivation and behaviour CANNOT be judged based on a common standard. Yes, there are easily made associations that can be recognized and used in dealing with other people, and there is mental health awareness that identifies more "normal" and less "normal" behaviour... but there's no set-in-stone standard.

And the society changes over time, too, so what's normal or not also changes over time.

But each and every one of us is learning by mirroring what other people behave like in most situations, and our own minds supply the rest of the behaviour, which COULD have abnormal results, and they're not WRONG anyway. Because the normal is always changing too.

I hate it when certain asocial acts are linked to "certain mindsets" - more people were ever killed by perfectly - by all societal standards at the time - "normal" persons who were either drunk or drugged or having a fugue episode due to anger and/or stress or frustration than any killed by "abnormals". But TV and movies always point out that there's something that was always "wrong" with someone comitting a crime, and that something usually - in TV land - turns out to be psychopathy or sociopathy, so basically, NOT something that a NORMAL person could ever do. That's one of the biggest lies we tell ourselves.

Also struggling with this drama - but not necessarily because of the "psycho gene" thing. But I seriously, really-really HATE bait-and-switch (wrote a longer comment above). I had hopes it found its groove around episode 3, but now it's back to stupidland and I don't really want to follow it to the end. Will probably wait to see if any of my possible scenarios happen... but it's a miss for me. Too bad for Lee Hee Joon, I'd stay for him if possible.

This can go more than one way right now, but most of the ways will not be pretty.

A) An all psychopath fest - the psycho gene boys got together and decided to have a party because that's how psychos act and they're all evil inherently anyway, in the writer's head. Which means the doctor and the goody-two-shoes officer will combine forces to make a fool out of first psycho's dad's only surviving victim, KMC. Which meh. It's been done before, it's not a favourite trope for me.

B) Goody-two-shoes is only there with the boy because original psycho called and roped him into it in exchange for the boy's life. This is another bait-and-switch. KMC will identify his reasons and they'll be wrong, so the boy dies. But then, goody-two-shoes could very well release the kid - if GTS isn't evil himself - UNLESS the original psycho has someone hostage over GTS. Probably the niece with the dead grandma.

C) The third piece of the psycho act - the newswoman who's in a relationship with the doctor would turn out to be someone who creates news instead of finding it or something, and they're all helping each other while also fulfilling their need to do evil stuff. Which also meh.

Edit, thought of another:

D) All these psychos are acting INDEPENDENTLY, because why not, and all of them just HAPPEN to be close to KMC one way or the other. Which would be the suckiest plot twist to ever suck.

Which all being kind of obviously obvious, there might come something later on that links back to KMC after all, and he's the only central piece all the possible and impossible psychos in this drama focus on. That will either have his brother become the final psycho probably, or himself cleaning house LOL.

What I am raving MAD about is that any of these little scenarios imply that the scenes we were shown were invented - like if GTS is actually a psycho killer, then he didn't chase the doctor after the granny died, but we were fed this storyline and "presented" with the doctor as the killer anyway. IF GTS isn't the killer, then the doctor killed his friend who got fooled by the policeman into letting him give a call... etc.

If this is supposed to be an honest mystery show, then let all the scenes be true and don't feed us lies, writer.

But then, I'm about really fed up with it anyway and I repeat, I do not like being made to follow a bait-and-switch even if I actually like KMC as a main leading character. The rest of it is too sloppy and edgy for my tastes and I predict a close drop of it in the future, for me.

I'm so MAD at myself for even starting this show. And not for the right reasons. This is going to be not so great for me, too bad for Lee Hee Joon's performance (so far, only his storyline isn't completely FUBAR). I HATE bait-and-switch stories, and this will be one of them. Considering dropping it, just need to confirm a hunch about the next two episodes.

I hope it was "Word of Honor"'s obvious success that pushed the airing date forward, and I hope to whomever that "Immortality" performs to expectations. Keeping fingers crossed the date is respected, and that the drama is up to par to what it should be.

Jiayou, team! I'm SO ready to see LYX become Chu Wanning!

On episode 9.... OHshit! WKX, NOW you've done it!!

Particularly LSG's way too overdone mellowness. Nobody's that sickly sweet unless they hide a secret, and the show so far doesn't particularly make me want to discover it.

KMC so far is the one interesting character - and I don't mean his take-him-away-from-me-or-I'll-kill-him approach to catching criminals. His rather easy lack of conscience when disclosing investigation details to a NEWSWOMAN, just because she happens to have a picture or two to threaten him with (not that it seemed he cared about his career so far) - that's the most interesting thing about him.

Older brother being (probably crippled?) the Head Hunter's prison priest, well, that could go the way of him proving to be the HH's disciple, or him trying to "save" him from perdition. No Castiel vibes so far.

The HH is overacting his bit, too (he was rather okay in the first episode) and the overacting detective from episode 1 returned too... quite too much overacting there.

There's a somewhat lacking professional acting attitude for a few main and support charas that keep getting me out of the mood. And the episodes are way too long for what they have to say, so far.

I WANT to enjoy a LSG good drama again, dammit. This might not be it, though. We'll see.

After episode 2, still not convinced... I might give it another episode before my final decision, but something's not gelling right for me.