Somusing

Several months ago, I went through a new and different phase. I'll call it my Korean Drama phase because that's what it was. My friend Veronica wrote to me on Facebook and said, "You should try a Korean drama. They're usually only about 20 episodes long and like a Spanish-language soap opera, but clean." This sounded weird to me--I had never watched a Spanish soap opera and I had no interest in anything Asian--but I was a fan of Hulu and it turns out there are several Korean dramas (subtitled in English) available there. Veronica recommended I start with a show called Pasta , and thus it began. Pasta is about a girl who works in the kitchen of a high-end Italian restaurant. There are some fun cooking scenes and assistant chefs yelling, "Yes, Chef!" There are also some quirky, funny characters. It's mostly a romance, though. I'll warn you that, according to wikipedia and this show, it's typical for Korean dramas to feature a sweet girl fa...

I would like so much to enjoy the Temperance Brennan novels as much as I do the TV show, but I don't. I can't even remember what Bare Bones was about, except that it's not the one about the motorcycle gang. I think. Anyway. I found it entertaining, but just barely.

Here's another movie that got lame reviews that I liked pretty well. Of course, the Wyoming characters were stereotypes, but there was some familiar stuff that made me chuckle. For example, it's true that in small towns, a lot of people work several jobs. Also, it's a nice story about a married couple figuring out how to get past their troubles and mistakes, and for once, the mistakes and troubles seem realistic instead of completely retarded and baffling. I liked it.

Seems like this got generally bad reviews, but I liked it. For one thing, it's almost entirely clean. One point. For another, it's not set in New York City. Two points. Third, it's set somewhere crazy cold just like Teton Valley, Idaho. Three points. It really is different living in a place where snow and ice rule for half the year, and I thought this movie captured it pretty well. Sure, the story was pretty formulaic, but the setting and characters made it fun. (And no, I don't actually have a grand point scheme for movies.)