xylaar

is there a particular order i need to watch the light on series in? or are they all not related to each other?

thank you! i'll check these out. i have to say, "A Murderous Affair in Horizon Tower" sounds a lot like a dark enid blyton novel hahahaha

any other suggestions that aren't romance or wu xia? only bad kids stood out to me. maybe its because i grew up with my family watching trashy taiwanese dramas with over 100 episodes like '爱' but i have a strong dislike for c-drama romance lol. as for wu xia, i had a phase where ended up reading like 20 different wu xia man huas over 2 months and now i just dislike the genre altogether lol

(btw i like kdramas like my mister, stranger, and sky castle)

yep i agree with you about that. "... a huge disapppointment to the fandom who had thought they were gonna get another thrilling criminal investigation, but instead got a bunch of sitting and talking."

i even commented somewhere wayyy below about how i couldn't understand why the writer was going in a direction completely different from stranger 1 and not giving us what we liked so much about the first season (hwang-han action and investigations). back then, it almost felt like it was set up to fail.

but i of course changed my mind :)

(sorry for the essay)

if you're talking about exciting tension, suspenseful reveals, and criminal investigations, you're right it's far inferior. stranger 1 sucked me in right from the first episode with its realistic, crime thriller setting. the way the characters were set up so that they could all be suspected, yet all feel human and not cackling evil villains, frankly blew me away. i loved it so much that i even went for round 2 a mere 2 weeks after i had finished the first season (i've only ever done that once, for my mister which i gave a perfect 10).

however, if you're talking about a slow burning, politics and corruption focused drama, s2 is superior to s1. the first 7 episodes were boring, yes. they were a huge disapppointment to the fandom who had thought they were gonna get another thrilling criminal investigation, but instead got a bunch of sitting and talking. if i didn't like stranger 1 (and cho seungwoo and bae doona) as much as i did, i don't even know if i would've continued past that, and that's coming from someone who likes realistic political dramas.

despite that, stranger 2 would never have been as good as it was without those 'boring' episodes. because of those episodes, the police-prosecutor relationship, and corruption within the prosecution became focuses throughout the rest of s2. i don't know about you but i started to look more closely at evey interaction between prosecutors and police, and between prosecutors. and especially the parallels between choi-woo and hwang-han. because the frosty relationship and long history had already been established, when it finally became time for hwang simok to work with the police, you intuitively find see the inefficiencies in the system and how that had manifested into contempt for the other party. same thing for corruption within the prosecution, and how deeply rooted it was (i absolutely loved the contact list telephoning scene between kim sa hyun and woo tae ha)

one of my favourite styles of writing is when the writer doesn't assume the audience is stupid by explaining everything, but instead gives enough clues to let the audience catch on (makes us feel smart when the brilliance is really all on the writer). and i've never seen better examples than in my mister and both seasons of stranger

not only that, csw accepted it when he was essentially facing an existential crisis about his career as an actor. truly amazing

a genius at his craft. whenever he acts, 'cho seung woo' disappears and you only see his character. can you imagine what we would be missing out on if someone like him didn't become an actor?

oh wow his profile picture finally got changed to one where he doesn't look homeless

"the devil is in the details"

dude the fake pictures was done by the fake witness, under the orders of woo tae ha. this was stated very clearly lol. well known actors are often used as cameos so we can't expect too much there, for all we know if there is a s3, it could set after a time skip too. the only thread left completely hanging is seo dong jae's answer, which i think will be a 'yes'. (there is also director park 's unrequited love which has been VERY MUCH left hanging, but hey...)

can you believe that stranger s1 was the writer's debut piece? and s2 was only her third work? because i fking can't. we need more of these geniuses in the industry

really? i just took the loaded pause as yeon jae perhaps realising his feelings for her. the way i look at it, her father is completely out of the picture. the secretary has not been shown anywhere near the residence at all so there's no reason to believe he's in contact with her father.

from the way he loyally carries out all of her demands (especially during the scene where he's filling up the bag and doesn't take a single wad of cash for himself), and constantly makes sure she takes care of herself, i have no doubt in my mind that he is dedicated to serving yeon jae, and only yeon jae.

season 1 ended that way too though :(

in this silence - ha hyun woo?

i found it really interesting how you said "in 2008, if television wanted to make their characters feeling ‘down’ they needed to justify it. With actions such as cheating, such as death, such as harassment" in regards to park dong hoon.

funnily enough, after i finished that masterpiece, i wrote this exact line "i love that life isn't hard for him because of some great misfortune or trauma that happened, but that its hard for him because its hard for him, and that doesn't make him any less valid of a person". from how i saw it, park dong hoon has always been depressed and even sucidal, long before he even entered the company.

i feel like they hinted at this through his conversations with his monk friend and his mom. since young, he has always been 'sacrificing' himself for his family, and carrying the pressure of having to be the 'success' of the family. never complaning, never lashing out, never opening up, just constantly bottling it all up within himself. sounds a lot like the repressed and depressed person he is now right?

so season 2 has finally ended. my heart is full, and broken, and torn up into pieces all at the same time. i can't believe watching an emotionless prosecutor made me go on such a rollercoaster of emotions. see you again, hwang si mok (please)

can we just talk about how han yeo jin just casually referenced lee chang jun’s suicide when talking to choi bit??? and the parallel between hwang si mok taking down his role model lee chang jun in season 1, and han yeo jin having to take down her respected senior choi bit in season 2?? my heart is broken into pieces

i like and pity him for the very fact that he's a rat. he's possibly the most human human in the series and i think we see parts of ourselves in him. that's why we root for him even though he's a rat. also his personality is exactly as weseal-ly as it was in season 1, but his methods has changed. he isn't corrupt anymore (si mok saying he wears the same watch and shoes)

i'm not saying he's an angel. but how incredibly morally flawed he is, and how persistently dilligent he is, makes him a very compelling character.

so the final is tomorrow. who's ready to curl up in a ball in a dark room after it ends?

this show just keeps uping the ante. i love love love the way they portray how invasive corruption is, and just how easily it is to get caught up in it even when you aren't intending to. it all starts with "just this one time".

its everywhere but its so natural no one blinks an eye, so much so that even one half of our pillar of justice got caught up in it. the one who said she'll never turn a blind eye to corruption. the one who said corruption is allowed to exist because people let it exist. the one who said she'll never compromise.

people aren't infalliable; even the most upright among us. but the difference is that some catch themselves as they are falling, and some just give up along the way and enjoy the plummet down the void. and this journey is rarely walked alone, for the better or worst. i could give the writer a kiss for representing it so eloquently

seo dong jae has always been a weasel of a human being. but this time in season 2 (because of lcj), he was being an HONEST weasel; shady but never corrupt.

i think what pains me the most about his character is that he lives so dilligently, but for what? estranged from his wife and kids, sleeps in the night duty room most nights, and hardly ever garners respect from the people around him. he works harder than anybody else but just because of deep-seated favouritism within the prosecution, even with his efforts, he only barely manages to hang on.