Me & Media Update

Drama Watch

There's a lot of traitor style shows on TV recently, and I watched quite a few of them with my parents. The German version, Die Verräter, was pretty good! The Mole was also fun. I forget the name of the other one, but that one had less pizzaz... (also, watched stupid reality tv dating shows like Bachelor in Paradise while sick. Entertaining, in a horrifying way.)

Love Between Fairy And Devil

I started watching this while it aired last year, and then I had to move and start at my new job and didn't have time to keep up. So this summer I pushed myself to catch back up, but I kept dying of second hand embarassment during the episode 12 escapades ^^"

However, since I was chattering about this story so much, my parents got interested - and we watched the entire series together! It took me a bit to realize that Viki has German subs, at which point the watch was much easier for them (the plot is complicated enough, and while my brother and I are used watching subtitled media, our parents aren't.

It was great! I absolutely love all of the characters! The romance was amazing and oh my god the way it slowly grew stronger over the show, how they changed - especially the dilemma of "I love you, and I love that you want to do right by your people, but that means hurting my people, and I cannot condone that". That battlefield scene when Moontribe go to war against Fairy Immortals? Best climatic scene of the entire show (especially Xiao Lanhua's sacrifice! I cried! (and not just me, but pssst, you didn't hear that from me). The actual final climatic battle didn't land nearly as well, which was a shame. It just fell flat in comparison.

Honestly, I was a bit meh about those last episodes - they felt like they dragged too much (especially all that time spent on rehashing the early show moments during the "amnesia" arc) and then too rushed in others (DFQC's return felt kinda unearned, idk? Maybe I was just all emotionally burned out, we did binge the last 7 or so episodes in one evening.)

If anyone's got fic recs, I'm all ears! I'm in love with all the characters and would love explorations of any their dynamics, though shipwise, I would prefer XLH/DFQC end up/stay together (though, adding Changheng to the mix... well. I requested that for fandomtrees for a reason xD I LOVE their threeway dynamic!)

Dimension 20: A Burrow's End

I know, not technically a tv show, BUT. I didn't want to add an additional category xD

I'm caught up to episode 7 (I think) - the one with the battle against the first stoats? It's quite the rollercoaster and very tense! I love the family dynamics the most (and could really do with less horror/gore or a bit more of a warning; episode 2's bear caught me off-guard in a bad way I had to listen-but-not-watch for quite a bit there and would've prefered Aabria's content warning had been extended to viewers as well as cast members.

REALLY curious how Tula's secret came about! Gonna have to find some time to watch more episodes soon 👀

Mysterious Lotus Casebook

I've only managed to watch episode 3 with the group, I should catch up on it soon. I loved what I've seen so far! Fang Duobing is such a clever puppy, so earnest and determined! And Li Lianhua is a sly fox with the BEST expressions :D I'm really looking forward to meeting the third of the trio, too.

Music

Really, this section should just be titled "Dreamcatcher" because I'm still obsessed with their latest album. Brain empty, only "shut up, no more questions", "shall we start this game?"

warning, gifs ahead!

gif from tumblr user dreamcatcher-daily

I want to learn the OOTD choreo so bad! I can already do the part from "Shall we start this game?" to "cruising my rollie" (the "cash in the backseat" part refuses to stick lmao I freestyle it usually when the song comes on. And I really need to doublecheck my footwork, since I learned while sick so mostly upper body movements). Nevermind the Shatter choreo! Speaking of gorgeous, flawless:



But seriously, all of the songs have grown on me more and more, especially "Shatter" (which I was a little more meh about than the others - which really doesn't mean much since the other songs are BANGER). The fourth song is the one I listen the least to, "We Are Young", even though it's a decent bop too.

Podcasts

I've been listening to more and more podcasts this year, it's been fun! And makes chores easier to finish, too. I was already listening to Maintenance Phase with Aubrey Gordon and Michael Hobbes, so when Michael started his new podcast If Books Could Kill, I gave that a shot immediately too! I quite like it, the banter is nice and the topics are interesting (especially for books that I've vaguely heard of but never knew what they were). And because his co-host Peter Shamshiri seemed like a decent guy (and that other legal podcast, I'm blanking on the name, took a nosedive earlier this year) I started listening to his law podcast 5-4 as well. That one is more of a downer, all about stupid supreme court decisions and the bigotry/politics that motivated the justices to make them, but it's interesting all the same.

And then someone recced me Kill James Bond! by Alice Caldwell-Kelly, Abigail Thorn (AKA PhilosophyTube) and Devon, and I binged the entire first season of all the James Bond movies and why they're bad xD I learned so much about the Bondverse's continuity! Definitely a fun romp, would recommend.