Black &White and The Quiz Show (PS GUESS WHAT TOMORROW IS. :D)
I started Black & White awhile back and it was one of those shows that was pretty awesome from the beginning, a cast full of gorgeous people and all the right touches of humor and action and it was just beautifully shot, but it took until about episode 03 for me to become really rabid about it. I hit episode three and I only meant to watch that one, save episode 04 for later, but I could not stop.
This is everything I want in a drama, seriously. Action drama with cops and chase scenes and guns and run away trains and drug busts? Shit yes I am there. A cast full of gorgeous people that you all want to make out with each other? It's got that, too! Snappy dialogue and moments of humor that actually made me LOL? Yes! A HOT ASS TINY LITTLE TAIWANESE BADASS MAFIA DAUGHTER? HELL YES I LOVE CHEN LIN.
Like, I went in for the slashy vibe between the two cops (which you're going to get in spades and it's delicious) but I actually REALLY LIKE the female lead, SHE IS SO GREAT. I cannot even tell you how badly I want her to make out with everyone.
Anyway, the usual spoiler warning for anything listed. I had to write a flaily post about it because I don't have a download link for episode five yet (at the time I wrote this) and I am CLAWING AT THE WALLS.
Black & White - episode 01-04: I will get my criticisms (well, crabbing I should probably say) out of the way first. I am ALL OVER Ying Xiong/Chen Lin, but it was pretty obvious from episode four that the final couple in this drama is going to be Zai Tian/Chen Lin, which I just... idk. I can be won over to that sort of pairing (look at how Kamen Rider Kiva turned out for me, which this reminds me strongly of) but I'm never going to love it as much as I loved the original bad ass couple. I just. I have been there and done that with the flirty free-spirited guy and the chick who can kick his ass.
I much prefer the hardcore cop with the bad attitude and the mafia daughter who can kick each other's asses and then go shoot some shit up with guns together. I think it was the scene where they arrested her that really sold me on it--Zai Tian is trying to flirt with her and she just tosses him over the hood of the car and it's totally lolzy, but then Ying Xiong grabs her and she starts really fighting back, but he's bigger and stronger and pins her against the car, but she's seriously trying to get her elbow in his face and he really has to get on top of her to keep her down and just. a;sldkjfa;lsjk oh my god it was the hottest thing ever.
And then in episode four he JUMPS ONTO A FUCKING MOVING SUBWAY TRAIN and the first thing he does is goes right to her and checks to see if she's okay and is obviously really concerned about her before Gao Yi interrupts and they get into that super awesome fight on the subway. He JUMPED ONTO A FUCKING MOVING SUBWAY TRAIN JESUS FUCK and yet. Zai Tian is the one who carried her out of there, like that makes it so much more touching than JUMPING ONTO A MOVING SUBWAY TRAIN.
In the hospital scene, when Ying Xiong doesn't say that he wasn't the one who carried her out, when he lies about it to her, and Zai Tian overhears and lets him take the credit and then gets in Chen Lin's face about her feelings afterwards, that was pretty much when Ying Xiong/Chen Lin was doomed and it kind of frustrates me to the point that I have trouble expressing it.
It doesn't matter that they like each other, that their dynamic is based on way more than that. It doesn't matter that Ying Xiong put his life at risk to save her and the others. It doesn't matter that he feels guilty about lying like that. None of that matters because Zai Tian carried her unconscious body out of the train. Like that one gesture means more than anything else.
And I keep coming back to that and how I'm pretty sure I know exactly how all of this is going to (ultimately) play out and it's just. Really frustrating when I love everything else so, so much.
Because any drama that starts out with your main character having a one night stand who gets a call from her chief police officer mother who, later that morning, CHASES YOUR MAIN CHARACTER WITH A SHOTGUN, INTENDING TO SHOOT HIM, well. You know it's going to be pretty goddamned awesome. Or when, in the very first episode, they wonder what to call your new team and the chief sarcastically comes up with The Universal Super Mighty Invincible God of Investigation Team. I was crying at that.
And I know I was supposed to be all over Vic Zhou and I actually do think that Zai Tian is probably the most interesting character in the series after episode four when Gao Yi recongized him from before and he made sure to be out of sight when the Northern District cops showed up and when he saw the girl in the cab that he chased after. (Which was a total bitch of a cliffhanger, too.) I suddenly really want to know what's up with his character and where they're going with him!
And I love his interaction with Ying Xiong, they are totally my favorite Zai Tian pairing. The FACES Ying Xiong makes at him! That universal, "What the fuck are you doing?" with the hands thrown up in frustration face/gesture. I LOL EVERY TIME, IT IS SO GREAT. Of course I wanted to ship them as soon as Ying Xiong stepped in front of Xi Ying when Zai Tian went to hug her for figuring out where his Dreamer reaction was coming from and their faces were about two centimeters apart, but.
(Speaking of which! I love this show and it's actually amazingly well put together and the scenes are all so slick and gorgeous to look at, but I kind of question the intelligence of some of them. I'm willing to cut Zai Tian some slack because he's obviously not the brightest crayon in the box sometimes, but seriously. As soon as he opened his refridgerator door--after testing positive for Dreamer--and gave it a thoughtful look, I was like, "Ah. So the Dreamer lab is in the basement and its filtering up, right?" I wasn't precisely right, I thought it was in the freezer, but I was close enough.
The thing is. I can understand missing that, it'd have been a hell of a coincidence inside the show but I'm an audience member, so I'm expecting something like that. But when you look at the three addresses you have to pick from, how do you not look at them and go, "Ah! I live next door to one of these places! I have mysteriously tested positive for Dreamer! MAYBE THERE IS A CONNECTION."?? What's even worse is that, after the lab is indeed right next door, Zai Tian offers Ying Xiong and Xi Ying a beer at his place, since it's so close. No ulterior motive or anything.
Just, hey, they're close, so why not? And it's not until Zai Tian offers Xi Ying a glass of water that she starts thinking about it. I thought Zai Tian was being dramatic and had put two and two together, but was going to make a show of how OH HEY SEE I LIVE NEXT DOOR TO THE LAB, BIG HINT RIGHT THERE at them, since Ying Xiong never trusted him or believed anything he said. But no! He was totally clueless until Xi Ying figured it out. *headdesk*)
I kind of got distracted with how much I loved Ying Xiong/Chen Lin, because that's kind of my OTP for the series. And then episode four came along and Zai Tian has to go pull the lever while Ying Xiong is crazy in the head and JUMPS ONTO A MOVING SUBWAY TRAIN and Zai Tian says to him, "Ying Xiong! There are lots of ways to stop a train, so you better not die on me." al;sdkjfal;skjkls way to hit my shipper buttons, especially after all the looks Zai Tian would give him throughout the episodes.
But most of all. After everything is done and Gao Yi has been arrested and Ying Xiong is trying to find a way to say something nice to Zai Tian and it's obviously like pulling teeth. And he tries to still be a hardass, asking why Gao Yi talked about him from before and Zai Tian is like, oh, I had plastic surgery. I can recommend the doctor to you as well to fix your hateful face. a;sldkfja;lskjsl;kj I love them so much, you guys. But then. Ying Xiong finally manages to say something nice, if grudgingly, and what does Zai Tian do?
"EVERYONE, LOOK! YING XIONG IS BEING SHY!" he yells to everyone within earshot. asldk;fja;slkja I want them to make out so bad.
I mean. When Zai Tian is asked why Ying Xiong hates him so much, he says, "I don't know. Maybe it's Wu Ying Xiong's weird form of love. I have pretty good feelings about him." And I know he's being silly. But I do kind of ship Ying Xiong <-- Zai Tian. But, then, in my personal head!canon, Zai Tian is totally bi and would hit anything that had a pulse.
Though, what I'm pleasantly surprised about is that it's not just the characters/shipping that I'm interested in. All the gun fights and hand to hand fights and chase scenes and stuff? So delicious. I loved the entire storyline with Dreamer and trying to hunt the drug lords down, enough that I would have watched that storyline all on its own. I'm also intrigued about Zai Tian's mysterious source--for the first couple of episodes, I thought it might have been Chen Lin, since she obviously cares more than she lets on and she would be in a position to know a lot of the things his informant knows. But I'm not entirely sure about that after episodes 03-04. Not discounting it, but... waiting to see where things go.
as;dlfkjasl;kj dammit, if it weren't for the shipping thing and how I know I'm not going to get what I want, this would be my perfect show. T__T
I'm also watching The Quiz Show, which I've watched the first seven episodes of, so I'm a little more than halfway through it. I debated on which version to watch first, the original or the remake--do I watch the original first, possibly ruining the remake for myself? Do I watch the remake first, despite that the original was already finished, possibly getting attached to that version instead? Eventually, I decided on the original since there was more of it finished, and then tonight I watched The Quiz Show II and I think I made the right choice.
What I was worried about is that I would love the original more and the remake would only pale in comparison, but I think the opposite happened--seeing the original and getting the point of it, that helped me to come into the remake with a better perspective about what I hope will be their point as well. I was actually pretty impressed with Sho here!
....goodness that's vague. It's hard to know where the line is when it comes to spoilers, which there will be for anything listed after the cut.
The Quiz Show 01-07 + The Quiz Show II 01: I wasn't really sure what to expect when I started watching The Quiz Show and I'll grant that the first couple of episodes weren't as engaging as it would later get, but it was short and easy to get through and the actors had some good chemistry. It's not really until the second episode that I found myself getting intrigued because pretty much everyone was a total creep in this series! Except Tazaki (the host), but I'm not really sure WHAT'S going on with him yet.
There are a couple of things that makes the show work for me, but they both sort of come down to that I think the show really knew what it was trying to do. It telegraphs a lot of things in advance, it has to because the questions are so loaded and are used to wear the contestants down, you kinda have to see what's coming. But I was talking with Wolfie (who was the one who said to pick the original over the remake first, which I'm glad she suggested) and she said that she thinks the show does that on purpose, that it's the slow, inevitable trainwreck against the wall that is the whole purpose of the show.
And I think that's it. You're supposed to know what's going to happen, you're supposed to gawk at the show that's being put on and not be able to look away. The show is really good at this.
The second thing that they do on purpose and Katagiri Jin is really good at is that Tazaki this silly host of the program, all this wild hair and crazy gestures and everything is exaggerated, so he's just another harmless, toothless Japanese variety show host, right? He acts goofy and you hardly think twice about his barbs because he's just trying to act it up for the camera.
It's not until you're cracking under the pressure that you realize every comment was barbed and deliberately placed to get under your skin, it's not until you're getting to those final questions and all your secrets are crumbling around you that you realize he had teeth all along.
And I think that's what makes The Quiz Show II and Sho work for me. I love Sho, but he's not the greatest actor and so I was wary of him getting this role, but you know what? He's not precisely Tazaki, he's not supposed to be, but he does have the same spirit. He's supposed to be this harmless boyband-style host, the pretty boy who only asks the fluffy, silly questions and acts like a goof and says things just to act it up for the camera. And then suddenly you're backed into a corner before you know it.
I can't say it was as well done as some of the later episodes of The Quiz Show and they definitely padded a ton more in (since they had to fill an entire hour, while the first episode of The Quiz Show only had to fill 23 minutes or so), but the first episodes of The Quiz Show were kind of not as well done as the later episodes, too. And Sho works really well for me here because this is what Sho does, he plays the MC of a variety show program nearly every day of his life, he's a natural at playing the seemingly harmless, fluffy host.
I feel like The Quiz Show also revealed a lot more ahead of time, both in the contestant of the week and with the host character's memory fritzes, but it's a remake and it worked well within the style of this show. I was sort of "...." when Kamiyama clutched his head and fell to his knees from the flashback in his head, like, "Ugh, they're not supposed to show that this early!" But then a) remake and b) they pulled it off kinda super slick with him playing it off as a reaction to the contestant's horrible music skills.
I also gave the remake a lot of points because I was SERIOUSLY LOLLING HARDCORE at the first contestant's introduction and how I'm pretty sure they were making fun of Gackt in the most hilarious way just about ever. Seriously, I was just about crying over it.
I do miss the invitation guy being a little weirder (I miss the flood pants and the weird little thing he did with the bowtie) and I'm not sure what to think of Ginga TV not being made up entirely of creepers in the same way, but, eh, remake. Yoko's character didn't get that much screentime in the first episode, so it's hard to see where his character is going to go in this version, but I really like Yoko a lot and I think he's got the chops to pull off the creepshow character.
Because Yamanobe was one of my favorites in the original, just because he was such a TOTAL CREEPSHOW. Just seeing him smile was creepy as all get out, he managed a lot more from across the room than a lot of actors could do with getting up close and personal to the person they were being creepy at. (Not that I don't appreciate the slashy vibes, TQSII, but I do kind of miss Yamanobe being able to do all of that with just a smile.) Doubly so because Totsugi Shigeyuki was Himuro on Uta no Onii-san and just. a s;dlfkjas;ljks the dichotomy! And yet the two characters are entirely different and I don't think that much about Himuro while watching!
I'm hoping that TQSII's contestants will get to be just as interesting/disturbing as the original's because, wow, episode 2's was kind of horrifying. They were deliberately messing with a young girl who had bulimia, which she developed out of guilt for not being there when her boyfriend died. It's one thing to mess with a murderer and break him down until he confesses, it's another to mess with a trauamatized girl who was basically forced into sleeping with some guy she didn't know because she wanted to be a mangaka and couldn't be there when her boyfriend died, which so traumatized her that she developed an eating disorder.
But that was also kind of the point. That the staff of the show were a bunch of creepshows who were only interested in getting a good reaction. But at least the show gave Nitta (the aspiring mangaka) a good ending and she got her dream chance and I think... as much as it hurt, as much as they were creepshows for exploiting her, it was a little like rebreaking a leg to let it heal properly, because she seemed to be doing better at the end.
Then you had the Mars astrologist guy and it's not like he was as hateful as the guy who murdered his ex-partner or anything, but he was scamming people and lying about who he was and was greedily trying to get into politics and it was really interesting to watch him be deconstructed bit by bit when Tazaki didn't play into his hands the way most people did. It was especially interesting because the guy started out so polished, you finally had someone who could spin words as fast as Tazaki could, someone who had to be danced around a little more carefully. But Tazaki's teeth were still sharper and the guy was still undone in the end.
And then there was the hostess whom you started off disliking because she was so fake and using people and then you saw her story and just. I know I should probably be a little more weirded out that the only two people who've gotten their dream chance are the female characters, but I kind of liked both their stories and I'm glad they got something of a happier ending. All the flashbacks with the hostess were just. T__________T inducing.
Right now I'm in the middle of the storyline with the NEET otaku guy and as;ldkjfa;lkjs it is so interesting. You put Tazaki up against professionals like the astrologist or the hostess and he comes away having gracefully ripped away all their lies. Then you put him up against a slacker who just doesn't care and it starts completely undoing him! "Nothing good will happen even if you go outside." the guy says and Tazaki just stares at him, thinking about how he hadn't wanted to go out earlier, either. That he didn't think he could do his job today.
So interesting. So interesting just to see what they're going to do or what the mystery is. I do strongly get the feeling that Tazaki isn't really there, even when he's so sharp and bright and blinding on the show, like it's second nature for him to slip into this other mindset/persona that takes over, that's not really real, but is almost flawless. Watching him start to crack like this is kind of feeding that idea and I'm fascinated with it on that level.
Whereas with TQSII... well, I'm open to it being just as interesting to watch Kamiyama slowly come undone the same way, I think I'll probably be more interested in it on a level of "an enjoyable drama to watch", because it's very... well, drama-like. A lot of that is the padding they had to do, all the extra running around and focus on Andou having run away from the stage and how they're going to fix it and Maya Miki's character's inclusion in the series.
Because I don't remember a character like her at all in the original, pretty much everyone was a total creeper, but she seems to have a conscience here. Plus Yamanobe was the guy in charge in the original, but Maya Miki is the producer here, even if Yoko is the director. This changes things a lot most likely, I'm not sure how I'm going to feel about the constant struggle between them (which is a lot of where the drama-esque quality comes from, I think) but... well, remake. It's not supposed to be the same as the original.
Also, MAYA MIKI. *__* I will never complain about her inclusion in a series ever. *___*
So, yes. I think the original will probably be the stronger version and there's not going to be a lot that "surprises" me in the remake, I suspect. But the remake is going to be an enjoyable drama I think and that's all I really ask for. :Db
This is everything I want in a drama, seriously. Action drama with cops and chase scenes and guns and run away trains and drug busts? Shit yes I am there. A cast full of gorgeous people that you all want to make out with each other? It's got that, too! Snappy dialogue and moments of humor that actually made me LOL? Yes! A HOT ASS TINY LITTLE TAIWANESE BADASS MAFIA DAUGHTER? HELL YES I LOVE CHEN LIN.
Like, I went in for the slashy vibe between the two cops (which you're going to get in spades and it's delicious) but I actually REALLY LIKE the female lead, SHE IS SO GREAT. I cannot even tell you how badly I want her to make out with everyone.
Anyway, the usual spoiler warning for anything listed. I had to write a flaily post about it because I don't have a download link for episode five yet (at the time I wrote this) and I am CLAWING AT THE WALLS.
Black & White - episode 01-04: I will get my criticisms (well, crabbing I should probably say) out of the way first. I am ALL OVER Ying Xiong/Chen Lin, but it was pretty obvious from episode four that the final couple in this drama is going to be Zai Tian/Chen Lin, which I just... idk. I can be won over to that sort of pairing (look at how Kamen Rider Kiva turned out for me, which this reminds me strongly of) but I'm never going to love it as much as I loved the original bad ass couple. I just. I have been there and done that with the flirty free-spirited guy and the chick who can kick his ass.
I much prefer the hardcore cop with the bad attitude and the mafia daughter who can kick each other's asses and then go shoot some shit up with guns together. I think it was the scene where they arrested her that really sold me on it--Zai Tian is trying to flirt with her and she just tosses him over the hood of the car and it's totally lolzy, but then Ying Xiong grabs her and she starts really fighting back, but he's bigger and stronger and pins her against the car, but she's seriously trying to get her elbow in his face and he really has to get on top of her to keep her down and just. a;sldkjfa;lsjk oh my god it was the hottest thing ever.
And then in episode four he JUMPS ONTO A FUCKING MOVING SUBWAY TRAIN and the first thing he does is goes right to her and checks to see if she's okay and is obviously really concerned about her before Gao Yi interrupts and they get into that super awesome fight on the subway. He JUMPED ONTO A FUCKING MOVING SUBWAY TRAIN JESUS FUCK and yet. Zai Tian is the one who carried her out of there, like that makes it so much more touching than JUMPING ONTO A MOVING SUBWAY TRAIN.
In the hospital scene, when Ying Xiong doesn't say that he wasn't the one who carried her out, when he lies about it to her, and Zai Tian overhears and lets him take the credit and then gets in Chen Lin's face about her feelings afterwards, that was pretty much when Ying Xiong/Chen Lin was doomed and it kind of frustrates me to the point that I have trouble expressing it.
It doesn't matter that they like each other, that their dynamic is based on way more than that. It doesn't matter that Ying Xiong put his life at risk to save her and the others. It doesn't matter that he feels guilty about lying like that. None of that matters because Zai Tian carried her unconscious body out of the train. Like that one gesture means more than anything else.
And I keep coming back to that and how I'm pretty sure I know exactly how all of this is going to (ultimately) play out and it's just. Really frustrating when I love everything else so, so much.
Because any drama that starts out with your main character having a one night stand who gets a call from her chief police officer mother who, later that morning, CHASES YOUR MAIN CHARACTER WITH A SHOTGUN, INTENDING TO SHOOT HIM, well. You know it's going to be pretty goddamned awesome. Or when, in the very first episode, they wonder what to call your new team and the chief sarcastically comes up with The Universal Super Mighty Invincible God of Investigation Team. I was crying at that.
And I know I was supposed to be all over Vic Zhou and I actually do think that Zai Tian is probably the most interesting character in the series after episode four when Gao Yi recongized him from before and he made sure to be out of sight when the Northern District cops showed up and when he saw the girl in the cab that he chased after. (Which was a total bitch of a cliffhanger, too.) I suddenly really want to know what's up with his character and where they're going with him!
And I love his interaction with Ying Xiong, they are totally my favorite Zai Tian pairing. The FACES Ying Xiong makes at him! That universal, "What the fuck are you doing?" with the hands thrown up in frustration face/gesture. I LOL EVERY TIME, IT IS SO GREAT. Of course I wanted to ship them as soon as Ying Xiong stepped in front of Xi Ying when Zai Tian went to hug her for figuring out where his Dreamer reaction was coming from and their faces were about two centimeters apart, but.
(Speaking of which! I love this show and it's actually amazingly well put together and the scenes are all so slick and gorgeous to look at, but I kind of question the intelligence of some of them. I'm willing to cut Zai Tian some slack because he's obviously not the brightest crayon in the box sometimes, but seriously. As soon as he opened his refridgerator door--after testing positive for Dreamer--and gave it a thoughtful look, I was like, "Ah. So the Dreamer lab is in the basement and its filtering up, right?" I wasn't precisely right, I thought it was in the freezer, but I was close enough.
The thing is. I can understand missing that, it'd have been a hell of a coincidence inside the show but I'm an audience member, so I'm expecting something like that. But when you look at the three addresses you have to pick from, how do you not look at them and go, "Ah! I live next door to one of these places! I have mysteriously tested positive for Dreamer! MAYBE THERE IS A CONNECTION."?? What's even worse is that, after the lab is indeed right next door, Zai Tian offers Ying Xiong and Xi Ying a beer at his place, since it's so close. No ulterior motive or anything.
Just, hey, they're close, so why not? And it's not until Zai Tian offers Xi Ying a glass of water that she starts thinking about it. I thought Zai Tian was being dramatic and had put two and two together, but was going to make a show of how OH HEY SEE I LIVE NEXT DOOR TO THE LAB, BIG HINT RIGHT THERE at them, since Ying Xiong never trusted him or believed anything he said. But no! He was totally clueless until Xi Ying figured it out. *headdesk*)
I kind of got distracted with how much I loved Ying Xiong/Chen Lin, because that's kind of my OTP for the series. And then episode four came along and Zai Tian has to go pull the lever while Ying Xiong is crazy in the head and JUMPS ONTO A MOVING SUBWAY TRAIN and Zai Tian says to him, "Ying Xiong! There are lots of ways to stop a train, so you better not die on me." al;sdkjfal;skjkls way to hit my shipper buttons, especially after all the looks Zai Tian would give him throughout the episodes.
But most of all. After everything is done and Gao Yi has been arrested and Ying Xiong is trying to find a way to say something nice to Zai Tian and it's obviously like pulling teeth. And he tries to still be a hardass, asking why Gao Yi talked about him from before and Zai Tian is like, oh, I had plastic surgery. I can recommend the doctor to you as well to fix your hateful face. a;sldkfja;lskjsl;kj I love them so much, you guys. But then. Ying Xiong finally manages to say something nice, if grudgingly, and what does Zai Tian do?
"EVERYONE, LOOK! YING XIONG IS BEING SHY!" he yells to everyone within earshot. asldk;fja;slkja I want them to make out so bad.
I mean. When Zai Tian is asked why Ying Xiong hates him so much, he says, "I don't know. Maybe it's Wu Ying Xiong's weird form of love. I have pretty good feelings about him." And I know he's being silly. But I do kind of ship Ying Xiong <-- Zai Tian. But, then, in my personal head!canon, Zai Tian is totally bi and would hit anything that had a pulse.
Though, what I'm pleasantly surprised about is that it's not just the characters/shipping that I'm interested in. All the gun fights and hand to hand fights and chase scenes and stuff? So delicious. I loved the entire storyline with Dreamer and trying to hunt the drug lords down, enough that I would have watched that storyline all on its own. I'm also intrigued about Zai Tian's mysterious source--for the first couple of episodes, I thought it might have been Chen Lin, since she obviously cares more than she lets on and she would be in a position to know a lot of the things his informant knows. But I'm not entirely sure about that after episodes 03-04. Not discounting it, but... waiting to see where things go.
as;dlfkjasl;kj dammit, if it weren't for the shipping thing and how I know I'm not going to get what I want, this would be my perfect show. T__T
I'm also watching The Quiz Show, which I've watched the first seven episodes of, so I'm a little more than halfway through it. I debated on which version to watch first, the original or the remake--do I watch the original first, possibly ruining the remake for myself? Do I watch the remake first, despite that the original was already finished, possibly getting attached to that version instead? Eventually, I decided on the original since there was more of it finished, and then tonight I watched The Quiz Show II and I think I made the right choice.
What I was worried about is that I would love the original more and the remake would only pale in comparison, but I think the opposite happened--seeing the original and getting the point of it, that helped me to come into the remake with a better perspective about what I hope will be their point as well. I was actually pretty impressed with Sho here!
....goodness that's vague. It's hard to know where the line is when it comes to spoilers, which there will be for anything listed after the cut.
The Quiz Show 01-07 + The Quiz Show II 01: I wasn't really sure what to expect when I started watching The Quiz Show and I'll grant that the first couple of episodes weren't as engaging as it would later get, but it was short and easy to get through and the actors had some good chemistry. It's not really until the second episode that I found myself getting intrigued because pretty much everyone was a total creep in this series! Except Tazaki (the host), but I'm not really sure WHAT'S going on with him yet.
There are a couple of things that makes the show work for me, but they both sort of come down to that I think the show really knew what it was trying to do. It telegraphs a lot of things in advance, it has to because the questions are so loaded and are used to wear the contestants down, you kinda have to see what's coming. But I was talking with Wolfie (who was the one who said to pick the original over the remake first, which I'm glad she suggested) and she said that she thinks the show does that on purpose, that it's the slow, inevitable trainwreck against the wall that is the whole purpose of the show.
And I think that's it. You're supposed to know what's going to happen, you're supposed to gawk at the show that's being put on and not be able to look away. The show is really good at this.
The second thing that they do on purpose and Katagiri Jin is really good at is that Tazaki this silly host of the program, all this wild hair and crazy gestures and everything is exaggerated, so he's just another harmless, toothless Japanese variety show host, right? He acts goofy and you hardly think twice about his barbs because he's just trying to act it up for the camera.
It's not until you're cracking under the pressure that you realize every comment was barbed and deliberately placed to get under your skin, it's not until you're getting to those final questions and all your secrets are crumbling around you that you realize he had teeth all along.
And I think that's what makes The Quiz Show II and Sho work for me. I love Sho, but he's not the greatest actor and so I was wary of him getting this role, but you know what? He's not precisely Tazaki, he's not supposed to be, but he does have the same spirit. He's supposed to be this harmless boyband-style host, the pretty boy who only asks the fluffy, silly questions and acts like a goof and says things just to act it up for the camera. And then suddenly you're backed into a corner before you know it.
I can't say it was as well done as some of the later episodes of The Quiz Show and they definitely padded a ton more in (since they had to fill an entire hour, while the first episode of The Quiz Show only had to fill 23 minutes or so), but the first episodes of The Quiz Show were kind of not as well done as the later episodes, too. And Sho works really well for me here because this is what Sho does, he plays the MC of a variety show program nearly every day of his life, he's a natural at playing the seemingly harmless, fluffy host.
I feel like The Quiz Show also revealed a lot more ahead of time, both in the contestant of the week and with the host character's memory fritzes, but it's a remake and it worked well within the style of this show. I was sort of "...." when Kamiyama clutched his head and fell to his knees from the flashback in his head, like, "Ugh, they're not supposed to show that this early!" But then a) remake and b) they pulled it off kinda super slick with him playing it off as a reaction to the contestant's horrible music skills.
I also gave the remake a lot of points because I was SERIOUSLY LOLLING HARDCORE at the first contestant's introduction and how I'm pretty sure they were making fun of Gackt in the most hilarious way just about ever. Seriously, I was just about crying over it.
I do miss the invitation guy being a little weirder (I miss the flood pants and the weird little thing he did with the bowtie) and I'm not sure what to think of Ginga TV not being made up entirely of creepers in the same way, but, eh, remake. Yoko's character didn't get that much screentime in the first episode, so it's hard to see where his character is going to go in this version, but I really like Yoko a lot and I think he's got the chops to pull off the creepshow character.
Because Yamanobe was one of my favorites in the original, just because he was such a TOTAL CREEPSHOW. Just seeing him smile was creepy as all get out, he managed a lot more from across the room than a lot of actors could do with getting up close and personal to the person they were being creepy at. (Not that I don't appreciate the slashy vibes, TQSII, but I do kind of miss Yamanobe being able to do all of that with just a smile.) Doubly so because Totsugi Shigeyuki was Himuro on Uta no Onii-san and just. a s;dlfkjas;ljks the dichotomy! And yet the two characters are entirely different and I don't think that much about Himuro while watching!
I'm hoping that TQSII's contestants will get to be just as interesting/disturbing as the original's because, wow, episode 2's was kind of horrifying. They were deliberately messing with a young girl who had bulimia, which she developed out of guilt for not being there when her boyfriend died. It's one thing to mess with a murderer and break him down until he confesses, it's another to mess with a trauamatized girl who was basically forced into sleeping with some guy she didn't know because she wanted to be a mangaka and couldn't be there when her boyfriend died, which so traumatized her that she developed an eating disorder.
But that was also kind of the point. That the staff of the show were a bunch of creepshows who were only interested in getting a good reaction. But at least the show gave Nitta (the aspiring mangaka) a good ending and she got her dream chance and I think... as much as it hurt, as much as they were creepshows for exploiting her, it was a little like rebreaking a leg to let it heal properly, because she seemed to be doing better at the end.
Then you had the Mars astrologist guy and it's not like he was as hateful as the guy who murdered his ex-partner or anything, but he was scamming people and lying about who he was and was greedily trying to get into politics and it was really interesting to watch him be deconstructed bit by bit when Tazaki didn't play into his hands the way most people did. It was especially interesting because the guy started out so polished, you finally had someone who could spin words as fast as Tazaki could, someone who had to be danced around a little more carefully. But Tazaki's teeth were still sharper and the guy was still undone in the end.
And then there was the hostess whom you started off disliking because she was so fake and using people and then you saw her story and just. I know I should probably be a little more weirded out that the only two people who've gotten their dream chance are the female characters, but I kind of liked both their stories and I'm glad they got something of a happier ending. All the flashbacks with the hostess were just. T__________T inducing.
Right now I'm in the middle of the storyline with the NEET otaku guy and as;ldkjfa;lkjs it is so interesting. You put Tazaki up against professionals like the astrologist or the hostess and he comes away having gracefully ripped away all their lies. Then you put him up against a slacker who just doesn't care and it starts completely undoing him! "Nothing good will happen even if you go outside." the guy says and Tazaki just stares at him, thinking about how he hadn't wanted to go out earlier, either. That he didn't think he could do his job today.
So interesting. So interesting just to see what they're going to do or what the mystery is. I do strongly get the feeling that Tazaki isn't really there, even when he's so sharp and bright and blinding on the show, like it's second nature for him to slip into this other mindset/persona that takes over, that's not really real, but is almost flawless. Watching him start to crack like this is kind of feeding that idea and I'm fascinated with it on that level.
Whereas with TQSII... well, I'm open to it being just as interesting to watch Kamiyama slowly come undone the same way, I think I'll probably be more interested in it on a level of "an enjoyable drama to watch", because it's very... well, drama-like. A lot of that is the padding they had to do, all the extra running around and focus on Andou having run away from the stage and how they're going to fix it and Maya Miki's character's inclusion in the series.
Because I don't remember a character like her at all in the original, pretty much everyone was a total creeper, but she seems to have a conscience here. Plus Yamanobe was the guy in charge in the original, but Maya Miki is the producer here, even if Yoko is the director. This changes things a lot most likely, I'm not sure how I'm going to feel about the constant struggle between them (which is a lot of where the drama-esque quality comes from, I think) but... well, remake. It's not supposed to be the same as the original.
Also, MAYA MIKI. *__* I will never complain about her inclusion in a series ever. *___*
So, yes. I think the original will probably be the stronger version and there's not going to be a lot that "surprises" me in the remake, I suspect. But the remake is going to be an enjoyable drama I think and that's all I really ask for. :Db