Things are not looking exactly up my alley over at SETTV for its upcoming TW-dramas that are slated to replace the two current duds – Sunday night’s Love Around with George Hu and Annie Chen and Friday night’s Just You with Aaron Yan and Puff Guo. Love Around is boring and insufferable, but Just You has a sliver of dramatic value by showing some cute chemistry between the leads. Even in the bargain basement requirements of TW-dramas, these two are basically duds. Thankfully both are ending soon, around the same time since both happened to premiere one week after the other. Both casts held their wrap party last week with plenty of hugs, kisses, and drinks to go around. I’m sure there is plenty gossip for the fodder. Coming up on Friday night will be a college-themed drama set in the 90s called My Generation of Freedom (我的自由年代). Starring Kristen Ren, Lego Lee, Jay Shih, Tzymann Weng, and newbie Steven Sun, the drama is set in a college campus in the 90s, which sounds just like Answer Me 1994, the college version of Answer Me 1997.

The production is digging up 90s Mando-pop as the soundtrack and finding the decade specific outfits for the cast. Lego Lee is the popular campus jock who rides a motorcycle and plays basketball, while Kristen is the country girl from Ping Dong who goes to Taipei for college along with her best friend played by Jay. Tzymann is the campus beauty while Steven is Lego’s best friend and a total ladies man. Over on Sunday nights, the network is airing Return to Love (回到愛以前) starring Yao Yuan Hao and Mandy Wei. She plays a ballerina and he’s her fiancée that dies to save her life. She gets a chance to go back to the past and this time she makes a different choice that leads to her not having a ballet career anymore and her fiancée ends up in love with her older sister played by Jenna Wang. I think both dramas sound interesting enough, nothing new or groundbreaking but armed with a chance to deliver something entertaining. Sadly I am severely allergic to Yao Yuan Hao (real life giant douchenozzle) so I’ll be skipping the Sunday offering and checking out the cute as a button Kristen & co. take a stab at the Answer Me concept. Check out the first cast pics from both upcoming dramas. Continue reading →