Good Casting

Since I finished up Put Your Head on My Shoulder, I thought I'd try something that had a bit of a noona feel to it and maybe some ridiculousness. Good Casting is a drama that's currently airing that looked like it would fit the bill and is getting good reviews. I don't normally watch stuff that's still being released, but there are 9 episodes out now and I thought I'd give it a try (and maybe alternate it with another new release called Oh My Baby that also looks good). Since it's an hour long one, I'm adding in episodes of Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories to get to my 80 minutes (more on that in that show's post...er, which I'd started apparently in February 2019. Oi. It's been a while.).

So...after the first episode...basically, 3 lady agents (and I guess you really have to use the term "lady" loosely as only one of them is remotely delicate) have been assigned to a new mission to bring down an impossibly hard dude to catch named Michael that has evaded capture for a long time. Two of them had been on a mission three years prior when they had "lost" him -- which also resulted in the death of another agent, who was the baby daddy/maybe husband (but they possibly hadn't gotten married yet) of the third lady. Though none of them know that connection yet.

So. The three ladies. One, Hwang Mi-Soon (played by Kim Ji-Young) is in her 40's and complains of arthritis (EFF ME, I'm older than her by a year in real life). She's tough, man. But funny. Not sure of much else yet about her other than that. I get the feeling she's going to be the comic relief. And kick ass with her sass.

The young one who lost the husband is Im Ye-Eun (Yu In-Young) and she has a three year old daughter and has that whole single mom being ostracised thing going on (Korea, you really need to do better if this is the way things really are). She's a computer expert but has never been out in the field before.

The last is Baek Chan-Mi (Choi Gang-Hee) who is the extreme crazy one. We first meet her when she's undercover in a prison and she's seriously badass. She was also in charge of the mission three years before and husband/baby daddy dude was shot protecting her.

Dong Gwan-Soo (Lee Jong-Hyuk) is their team leader and he used to date Baek Chan-Mi apparently. He's not confident he can control her. Honestly, I'm sure he can't.

And, though I haven't met him yet in an episode, I know that Kang Woo-Won (played by Jun, who, since he has just a single name as his name, I'm sure is an Idol) is an Idol that somehow is in the plot because I saw a clip where one of the three ladies (either the young one or the crazy one; not sure as I saw the clip before I saw the episode and didn't pay that much attention) is escorting him. And that there's probably some kind of noona romance thing going to happen there. I am on board for that.

So far, it looks promising. Production quality is good. Fight scenes are sharp. Like that the ladies are all good...but also crazy. I like crazy ladies. Also a bonus that two of the actresses were at least born in the same decade that I was. Ha.

Most of them are also new to me, which is fun. The only one I'd really seen in anything before is Yu In-Young who was in a few episodes of My Love From the Star as the girlfriend that Shin Sung-rok's character killed and in Oh My Venus as the evil beyotch. She's not even recognisable in this compared to those and I didn't realise it until I looked her up. It's interesting to see her in something so different. She was pretty detestable in both of those roles. Oh, and Lee Jong-Hyuk I'd seen in A Gentleman's Dignity (which I didn't finish because I wanted to burn it with fire).

Edit 25 May: (86 minutes, 947 calories) In some ways, this show is going fast and in others, slowly. A couple more flashbacks, setting up Chan-mi's breakup with her current boss 10 years previous and that the CEO guy she's assigned to had a crush on her back in late high school/college? Bit coincidental, but okay. Mostly enjoying it, but man, why'd they have to make the young lady Ye-Eun be such a clueless, kinda spineless klutz other than with computers. She's so barely competent that you wonder how she makes it out of her door in the morning without managing to break something. I get that it's for laughs, but come on.

Edit 28 May: (65 minutes, 659 calories + 20 minutes yoga--would have been longer but iPad ran out of battery) Okay, episode 3 picked things up and moved them forward. Lots of slapstick in this one, which is good. The viewer knows already that two of the guys they are staking out (CEO guy who was once in love with Chan Mi and baby Idol Woo-Won) are good guys who have no clue as to the shenanigans, which is probably a good thing for a drama of this type. I don't mind knowing who the bad guys are right off the bat (though pretty sure the big chief at the NIS is also dirty) when the point is the funny journey and not the destination. Looking forward to when the crazy hijinks with the Idol baby get going too. And I feel for poor Mi-Soon.

Edit 29 May: (85 minutes, 1105 calories) Still liking the show and wah! they upped the stakes more than I had anticipated this early on (and have possibly killed off Gwan-Soo, which was unexpected). But am still really frustrated with Ye-Eun. She's so frickin' useless. She'd really better get better. I mean, the other two ladies have their moments (mostly as plot humour devices) but at least they pull through. So far, Ye-Eun's character is just pretty much a dead weight. I was actually looking forward to a whole noona romance plot thread with her and baby Idol dude, but right now I'm so frustrated seeing her flub everything that it's kinda meh. But we'll see.

Edit: I watched another episode yesterday and I just wanted to add that Ye-Eun is literally about 98% useless. They're literally in the middle of a car chase where the team leader was shot by who they are chasing (he didn't die, by the way...which was kinda ridiculous...they clearly showed him being shot and then ret-conned that to him being "grazed" in the next episode. WTF.) and she's driving and misses a turn and then DOESN'T make a u-turn because "it's not allowed here." Seriously, she's like the world's worst secret agent. Actually, she's just absolutely useless so far as a character. And we're reaching the halfway point as I've finished episode 6 of 16.

Actually, I'd say that I'm watching now for Chan Mi and CEO guy (Lee Sang Yeob). Action sequences are good too. The rest I'm kinda 50-50 on. Why does every Korean drama that features their secret service or the police ALWAYS have the boss be one of the bad guys? Seriously? I've watched maybe 5 or 6 shows at least with this as part of the plot.

Edit 9 June after episode 7: (90 minutes, 1171 calories + 25 yoga) Ah, grrrrr. Even the two "good" agents were acting  like idiots this week. I mean, seriously. Other than the kick ass martial arts stuff, I would make a better spy than any of these people! Right now, I'd say I'm enjoying basically all the parts that are NOT related to the spy/crime fighting work but not the on the job stuff. I'd like them to be more competent, please. Like, at all.

Edit: after episode 8. URGH. I feel like every episode I watch I am more disgusted with how incompetent they are as agents. If I could, I'd forward through all of those bits.