I was on a flight Sunday that was massively delayed, which worked out to allow me to chill at the airport lounge and watch all three of the new TW-dramas premiering that night. SETTV had Love Around with Annie Chen and George Hu, going up against CTV‘s Love SOS starring Daniel Chan, Jian Man Shu, and Patrick Li, and both of those joining the already airing GTV drama Fabulous Boys with Jiro Wang. CTS wisely decided to leave the Sunday night at 10 timeslot and premiered its new drama at 8 pm called Lucky Touch with Calvin Chen and Do Hua Mei. Everyone expected Love Around to be the nightly leader since the leads were just coming off another popular daily drama together, and indeed the ratings came in with LA almost hitting 2, following by Love SOS breaking 1, and Fabulous Boys bringing up the rear still not able to break 1 even with this new line up. I watched all three new dramas and was so horrified I lost my appetite and later on ended up hungry on the plane. There is suck and there is even more suck, but in general if a drama merely sucks its already bad enough. Of the three new dramas that premiered, Love Around sucked the least and Love SOS was baaaaaad, but it was Love Touch that was so horrendous as to defy description of how bad it was. I have no expectations of CTS or CTV dramas in general, but for SETTV to premiere a Sunday night drama that I thought sucked donkey balls on the first episode was truly shocking to me. Normally SETTV dramas start off winning and interesting, and its only later that it becomes a runaway train to crazytown. LA is everything mediocre and dull, with Annie over-acting like she would get paid more for mugging, George so stiff I thought he was auditioning for Lurch and he enunciates every word he speaks (Like. This. Is. That. Not. Annoying?), the directing was absurdly jarring with weird shot angles, poor scene construction, painfully contrived reaction shots, and the music was pretty much playing Bii‘s song over and over again. I couldn’t even find any chemistry between the two leads because both their characters are pathetic and annoying I wanted them to fall into a ditch. All of this was bound together by not having a story AT ALL. None, zip, nada, episode 1 shows us two people dealing with breakups and hangups over very horrible exes and then hanging out by happenstance. Good lord does that pass for a narrative these days? Oh Taiwan, why so much epic fail in one night. Can I have my King Flower back, at least it tried even if the powers that be kept jerking it around.
I’m pretty flummoxed over why Daniel Chan is doing a Taiwan drama and chose Love SOS as the vehicle to do fluffy fare. He plays a marriage-averse doctor on a small island who ends up pretending to be engaged to Jian Man Shu’s character to get all the marriage-minded mamas away from him. The acting in this drama is bearable, but really all the characters are annoying and exaggerated and the story doesn’t have anything remotely interesting about it. Yet. It could get better, but who knows and who cares. Lucky Touch is just so painful to watch I suggest folks inhale some laughing gas beforehand. Or consider having a colonoscopy, that might be just as painful but at least you get a medical check up out of it. Calvin tries and doesn’t suck, but he’s paired with one of the two least talented leading ladies in Taiwan right now in Do Hua Mei (Mike He got stuck with the other one being Da Yuan in Spring Love) and watching her act is line nails-on-chalkboard cringing. Funnily enough, Fabulous Boys just might be the best of the four Sunday night Taiwan dramas airing right now, but sadly its remake status and being so cutesy probably lowers the interest factor in people checking it out. I’m officially taking a break from Sunday nights and will check back occasionally to see if things change but for now, it’s across-the-board crap. The only reason to watch is if you don’t care about the story, good production values, or even passable acting, and only want to watch for your favorite actor or actress that is starring in these four dramas. That is a perfectly valid reason to watch so go right ahead. Those who want some emotional connection with the story or characters of a drama, I suggest avoiding these three like the plague. I actually don’t think Annie or George are as awful at acting at they appear in Love Around – I thought George was excellent in Summer Fever with Gui Gui, very natural and affecting in his performance, while Annie was best in Inborn Pair. They were both alright in Love, Now, and as boring as LN was, it feels like a third base hit compared to Love Around’s pointless inanity.
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Koala-same! Have you been watching the No Name Patisserie one?
I have! It's absolutely lovely, a work of art and lots of love. It makes me laugh and cry and sit back to soak up the dessert porn. The taxi-dad and autistic boy storylines are thus far compelling on its own, and I'm hoping the return of the ex-boyfriend doesn't ruin the lyrical mood of the show with unnecessary romantic angst. I love Tian Tian, finally a leading lady who is admirable, unique, sarcastic and smart, and cool. Her two sisters are pretty hilarious and heartbreaking as well. I love all the women in this show, which makes it already groundbreaking that its not about hot men but instead about unique women.
I am interested in this, too. Does anyone know where I could watch this online? Do they show Taiwanese shows in Korea? I could watch this with Korean subs while I am there and pretend that I am reviewing vocabulary. (sneaking off the denial truck)
trotwood - you can watch No Name Patisserie at sugoideas.com! (It's called Amour et Patisserie there) I love it too!
Thanks, Atsu-chan. Now I have been sucked into this world. The only reason why this is okay (much better quality on sugoideas.com than viki or gooddrama.net) is because I do not understand Taiwanese (at all) and will have to watch shows raw. sigh. But the food on this show may make it worth it. I already started baking something after one episode. I don't know if my waistline can handle watching much more:)
I also tried with all these new dramas. Actually, I had no idea that Love SOS was premiering. Watching it was the first I had even heard about it. When Daniel first appeared onscreen, I was like huh? (I didn't watch any credits). Is that Daniel? What in the world is he doing in a twdrama - LOL. And then I went what the what? He is starring opposite JMS? LOL. Anyhow, ep 1 was terrible and I wasn't expecting much. I was mildly interested in how this would play out btw them. It will be a good FF exercise.
I have been FFing, somewhat following FB. It has basically followed the original YAB almost verbatim, except the ferris wheel, which I knew they were going add in. Something is missing for me - some magic between the OTP more or less. Otherwise, I agree with you - it's not a bad idol drama.
I absolutely agree with you about SETTV usually have fantastic beginnings and then it all goes completely downhill after about ep 8 or what not. That is one reason why I keep getting screwed over by Sanlih time and time again. Love Around - oh my. I think part of it was my disinterest in the OTP to begin with. The other 90% is what in the world is this drama about. I FFed quite a bit of it and then just dropped it. I wanted to give it a try cause I have pretty much watch every single Sunday idol SETTV drama since 2003 or something. Episode 1, 9 times out of 10, has hooked me even if I felt nothing before. This one is one of the few that did not. I know it will still be popular in TW.
Lastly, LT - I have zero expectations for this one. I wanted to see if anything would catch my interest. I have strange viewing habits anyways. Nope, will not be revisiting this one.
Do you want me asking what job you have that requieres you to travel so much? Because it sounds kinda great. You get to travel, work and have time for dramas. What do you do and how can I do it too? :)
She is a lawyer and has somehow being able to stop time because I have no idea how she balances work, travel, motherhood, recapping and maintaining a blog like this. It makes me tired just thinking about it.
shiku knows me well. ^___^
Actually, she has one of those Harry Potter time turner thingy's. And I have dibs on being Captain Koala's assistant. I already asked last year, but she says she has a niece (or other relative) who has alrady asked. I'm holding out for when that relative also becomes uber successful; then I will be the replacement. I won't be too old by then. Right? right?
I am only watching 沒有名字的甜點店。。
I am also waiting for 遇見幸福300天 to finish, the plot looks interesting.
Furthermore, I always liked Kingone and tammy chen..
遇見幸福300天 - I am watching this. I love Tammy & Kingone separately. I was excited to see them finally pair up. I must say that it takes some patience with this series, esp Kingone's character. Sometimes I want to hug him, sometimes, I want to smack him. Waiting for it to end before watching it is a smart idea.
Best title of a post in the history of posts.
Made me LOL after a day of suck.
HUGS, hope the rest of the week is better. I always gets better, yes?
should i watch love around just for Bii's songs? or is that not worth it...
Koala,
This doesn't have to do with taiwan tv, but have you checked out Heartless City (Undercover) yet? A month ago you talked about Jung Kyung Ho, but haven't heard anything more about it. Did you forget?
I highly recommend you watch this show. If it were a movie, it would probably be rated R. I don't know if you like "gory" shows, but this one is so addicting and it is really well done. Really takes the time to introduce all the characters and start the story right. So I think this one will be good.
Just a suggestion, because it seems like your disappointed with the drama selections at the moment.
Miss, are you still watching Cyano dating agency. I like your opinion and I will watch this drama based on your recommendation. So can you give me your opinion?
Ugh. Thanks for the inputs on these drama. Plan to watch Love Around after several eps aired, but with this review... is it still worth checking/watching?
I miss Tdrama lately, I'm Jo Cheng deprived to be exact.. ^^
It was interesting to see all the 3 new "LOVE" going up against Fabulous Boys in one night. I was still undecided of which to watch & wanted to start with Love Touch, but your review gave me a second thought. Perhaps I should just stick with Fabulous Boys on Sundays. Surprisingly, I find the Taiwan version of FB quite addictive even though I have watched the original version. Plus, it's obvious that this is a rather big budget drama with nicely setup of the Boys' hostel, their concert venue & clothings. The only issue with FB is it's a remake, that drives audiences away since we know what will happen next.
I'm also watching Fabulous Boys and find it's getting better with each episode. Having watched the Korean version doesn't take away anything since I'm used to watching remakes (Meteor Garden, Hana Kimi, Jin Yong novels, etc.) and always watch with no expectations. The story is the same, shown in a different way. It's fixing most of the issues I had with the Korean version, so it's two thumbs up from me!
I tried to watch Love Around and Lucky Touch, but couldn't even make it to the end of the first episode. Love SOS was so bad I didn't even finish watching the preview!