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Over the last few months, I\u2019ve been watching a lot more television instead of burning every single evening playing League of Legends<\/em>.\u00a0 I still enjoy the game, but I\u2019m not going to pretend like my interest in the game is nearly what it was a year or three ago; it\u2019s kind of like how my baseball mania peaked and tempered back down a happy medium, to where I wanted to pursue other interests instead of letting myself get so completely absorbed in it.\u00a0 I don\u2019t follow professional play anymore, and I don\u2019t even bother reading patch notes, and have gotten blindsided by some new in-game mechanics here and there, but I just don\u2019t care.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I could easily write more about why I\u2019ve grown distant to the game, but that would be long enough to be another post for another time.<\/span><\/p>\n Television, has kind of filled the space in my free time that was so fervently accounted for by playing League.\u00a0 Every now and then, I feel like I\u2019m falling behind the ever-growing libraries of content being produced at a breakneck pace, and sometimes I just want to sit back and watch something and not be so interactively vested in my entertainment.\u00a0 Sometimes it\u2019s just nice to have stories told to you, without having to exert any more effort than pulling the tab on my recliner to sit back and enjoy television on my projection screen.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Needless to say, I\u2019ve watched quite a few things, and since I feel like I\u2019m in a position where I feel like writing, but don\u2019t really feel like I have anything to write about that isn\u2019t somewhat related to current societal events, and frankly I get conscious about how often I write about sports and wrestling, so I may take a break from those topics, so it boils down to writing a little bit about some of the things I\u2019ve been watching throughout the last few months.<\/span><\/p>\n Bad Guys<\/em> (Netflix) \u2013 The only reason I started watching this show was that during that particular episode of choice paralysis, I stumbled across the thumbnail for this show, and in the two seconds of trying to judge a book by its cover before you quickly scroll before the preview auto-plays, I saw that Ma Dong-Seok<\/a> was in this show.\u00a0 And since he is everyone\u2019s hyung<\/em>, mine and all of yours, I decided to give this show a flier.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s a fairly weak plot about an unhinged but effective police detective, being given the authorization to assemble a team to catch a serial killer terrorizing Seoul, so he recruits a gangster (hyung), a hitman and an accused genius serial killer with the idea that it takes killers to catch killers.\u00a0 The pacing of the show is pretty quick and lacks a lot of the fluff that Korean dramas tend to instill in their stories, and there\u2019s even a respectable plot device revealed at the end that showed a surprising amount of foresight from the Korean show runners.<\/span><\/p>\n Overall, as far as K-Dramas go, Bad Guys<\/em> goes pretty quickly, doesn\u2019t require a tremendous amount of thought involved while watching, and wasn\u2019t bad.\u00a0 It\u2019s not going to be everyone\u2019s cup of tea, but as far as watchability for those not accustomed to Korean television, this one is probably an easy one to try out.<\/span><\/p>\n Dark<\/em> (Netflix) \u2013 I was interested in this show, because it was drawing a lot of comparisons to the acclaimed Stranger Things<\/em>, but made in Germany.\u00a0 But I\u2019ll be perfectly honest, I tend to prefer to go into shows completely blind, without knowing much beyond synopses, but in the case of Dark, I think it would help everyone going into it, to maybe look a little bit into what the show is kind of about.\u00a0 Otherwise, you leave yourself vulnerable to being in the dark about Dark\u2019s slow developing plot, and abandon ship when it takes 2.75 episodes to really begin to be given some ideas about what\u2019s going on.<\/span><\/p>\n Seriously, I threw in the towel on Dark halfway through the third episode.\u00a0 Shit was happening, but there were still no hints or clues to what was going on, and I was getting bored being kept in the dark so long.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t until I actually started reading some spoilers on the internet in an attempt to get some closure on the story I had started, did I read a very interesting concept that re-kindled everything, and made me think \u201chmm, that\u2019s<\/em> actually kind of interesting,\u201d prompting me to cease reading any further, and then go back to start watching again.<\/span><\/p>\n And it was a good thing too, because once you kind of have a general idea of what the show is actually about, Dark actually becomes one of the more creative and compelling shows I\u2019ve seen in a while.\u00a0 It definitely has a Stranger Things vibe, as it deals with specific periods in time and everything is visually appropriate, and the plot unfolds in a very thought-provoking manner that people like me tend to think a lot about afterward.<\/span><\/p>\n In the end, I ultimately got sucked into the show, and once the plot gets going, this becomes one of those shows where the second the credits show up, you quickly look at the time, and do everything to justify and rationalize \u201cok, one more episode.\u201d\u00a0 It starts off at a snail\u2019s pace, but becomes good pretty quickly, and before you know it, you\u2019re on the last episode wondering how the show is going to end.\u00a0 A definite recommendation for those who like thought provoking thrillers.<\/span><\/p>\n Kakegurui<\/em> (Netflix) \u2013 after watching 10+ hour+ episodes of Korean and German dramas, I wanted something of a pallet cleanser that was mindless and quick.\u00a0 Which is pretty easily exactly what anime is, and considering I hadn\u2019t watched anime since like, Soul Eater<\/em> or season 4 of Initial D<\/em>, I figured a show about gambling would be something somewhat interesting to help clear the brain of any intelligible thinking.<\/span><\/p>\n Ultimately, Kakegurui is a widely forgettable series with weak characters, weak writing, lots of fanservice, and almost a formulaic cast of tropes.\u00a0 Including one character in the show that\u2019s uncomfortably gun obsessed and suicidal that I kind of had a difficult time enduring, but the rest are pretty safe and standard.\u00a0 Despite being advertised as a show about gambling, I can\u2019t really say that it is a show about gambling, and out of courtesy to anyone whom might actually want to watch this after reading my blunt review I won\u2019t state what it actually seems to be about. But every episode is 22 minutes, so it flies by very quickly and I didn\u2019t feel like I wasted that much time imbibing in it.<\/span><\/p>\n **<\/p>\n The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel<\/em> (Amazon Prime Video, pictured featured<\/em>) \u2013 I didn\u2019t know a thing about this show going into it, and watched it at the strong recommendation of a close friend, but ultimately it turned out to be a very strong show that I\u2019m glad I took the time to watch.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s the story of a spunky 1950s housewife who when her picturesque family life comes crumbling apart, discovers she has a penchant for comedy, and embarks on a journey of pursuing the talent while picking up the pieces of her family life.\u00a0 Mrs. Maisel is cleverly written, moves at a smooth yet pretty fast pace, the visuals are Mad Men-like good, and the acting is superb.\u00a0 Rachel Brosnahan, who plays the titular Mrs. Maisel, is a starlet in the role, and I think it\u2019s kind of impossible for anyone to not fall a little bit in love with her throughout the journey through the show, whether it\u2019s through her plucky acting or just how her presence and look captivates the viewers\u2019 eyes.\u00a0 Frankly, I always remembered her as the sad side quest character for Doug Stamper in House of Cards<\/em>, but now she\u2019s kind of this mix between Annie Edison<\/a> and Leslie Knope<\/a>, which is very much a good thing in my book.<\/span><\/p>\n Depending on my mood, this is easily the best show I\u2019ve binged recently, and I\u2019d recommend it to anyone who likes strong writing, captivating period visuals, watch a strong female lead, or all of the above.\u00a0 It\u2019s a great show, and I hope there\u2019s more of it in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n Prison Playbook<\/em> (Netflix) \u2013 the primary reason to why I watched yet another Korean drama, was that my sister told me that my mom had recently watched the series, and for once, I wanted to actually have a show that we could talk about together.\u00a0 Otherwise, it was a show that caught my attention, since it was somewhat baseball-related, but at 16 episodes at nearly 90+ minutes each, the sheer time commitment was as intimidating as picking a fight with Haku<\/a>, and I doubt I would\u2019ve pulled the trigger without a good reason.<\/span><\/p>\n TL;DR, it\u2019s about a Korean baseball player on the verge of Major League superstardom in America, who gets tagged on an \u201cexcessive self-defense\u201d charge, rescuing his sister from an assault.\u00a0 Instead of heading to the Boston Red Sox, he instead goes to prison for a year, and it\u2019s the story of how he goes about his business and the other inmates around him during his incarceration.<\/span><\/p>\n The plot is weak and fairly predictable, and it doesn\u2019t help that there\u2019s a definitive timeline in the story, so you kind of know what is to come of the fate of the characters.\u00a0 But the acting is superb, as Korean actors do know how to drama, and they\u2019re really capable of evoking strong emotions and feelings with their own subplots and back stories that are revealed throughout the series.\u00a0 However, pretty much everyone gets some back story time throughout the series, regardless of what their roles are in the grand plot, and it goes without saying that the show most certainly did not need to be 16 episodes long much less at 90+ minutes apiece.\u00a0 I could only really stand to watch an episode a day, since two episodes would mean three hours, and I just don\u2019t have three hours to spare on a regular basis.<\/span><\/p>\n But the variety of characters is pretty well mixed, and it\u2019s a pretty easy to show to watch in spite of the sheer volume of show there is.\u00a0 It\u2019s an eternity to get through with a predictable plot, but wasn\u2019t the most terrible thing in the world I\u2019d ever seen.<\/span><\/p>\n Midnight Runners<\/em> (DramaFever) \u2013 this is actually a feature film I watched while my mom was visiting my house, but when the movie ended, I can say that I enjoyed it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s a straight-forward story about two young police recruits who become friends during initial training, and during a night out on the town, they witness a kidnapping.\u00a0 When they realize how much procedure, bureaucracy and red tape gets in the way of the ultimate goal of helping people, they utilize all of their initial police training to take it upon themselves to solve the crime and uncover a more sinister organization.<\/span><\/p>\n The pace of the film is quick and doesn\u2019t waste a lot of time with fluff, which I can appreciate, especially from a Korean production.\u00a0 The plot is fairly predictable, but it\u2019s still a harrowing look at the darker trades of the black market, and how frighteningly in plain sight their effects can be out in the open.\u00a0 And this is definitely easily a buddy-cop film, but the acting is good and the sentiment is understandable.<\/span><\/p>\n Ultimately, it\u2019s a film that\u2019s easily enjoyable by anyone already fan of Korean culture, but it\u2019s also a flick that\u2019s probably enjoyable by those who aren\u2019t that familiar with Korean cinema.<\/span><\/p>\n Needless to say, I have been enjoying the pursuit of good television and movies, since I have such a sweet setup for watching things.\u00a0 And hopefully my blunt and quick review blurbs might influence any of my zero readers to expand their horizons and give any of these things a whirl if they already haven\u2019t seen them.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Over the last few months, I\u2019ve been watching a lot more television instead of burning every single evening playing League of Legends.\u00a0 I still enjoy the game, but I\u2019m not going to pretend like my interest in the game is nearly what it was a year or three ago; it\u2019s kind of like how my … Continue reading Danny\u2019s watch list, winter-spring 2018<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[103,41,69],"class_list":["post-45728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-motherland","tag-movies","tag-television"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45728"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45735,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45728\/revisions\/45735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/totfc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/badguys.jpg\")
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![Annie Edison<\/a> and](\"https:\/\/vignette.wikia.nocookie.net\/greendale\/images\/0\/01\/Annie.png\/revision\/latest?cb=20101008175611\"){kind=link}