aleyna lectures

np. Ded Chaplin – Mona Lisa

Ah, time to publish my views of some Jdramas this season.

Galileo has been the leading star when looking at the ratings and the publicity. It’s also got quite nice reviews. Well, something that’s got 福山雅治 [Fukuyama Masaharu] involved in as many ways as Galileo, I don’t think it could go wrong.
The plot isn’t that ‘wow’, actually. I, who have always had a soft spot for the American TV-serie ‘Numb3rs‘, could find Galileo lame. I don’t, though. It’s not maybe worth all the praises it gets, but it’s decent.
Galileo’s finger-thing + counting-scenes are retarded. David Krumholtz beats anyone in being the genius.
For me, any show that has 北村一輝 [Kitamura Kazuki] in them, gets a huge plus. He’s got quite an ok role in here too. Though, I’d love to see him have the lead in a very successful drama soon.
Worth mention is 真矢みき [Maya Miki], who’s trapped in the role of a weird lab-woman.
The guest stars are also very much worth saying a few words. 香取慎吾 [Katori Shingo, who locked the show's highest ratings to-date], 深田恭子 [Fukada Kyoko], 堀北真希 [Horikita Maki], 甲本雅裕 [Kotomo Masahiro]… The list goes on. And I expect them to get a really big shot for the final ep. Waiting for that.

歌姫 [Utahime] has been my highlight of the season, no doubt. The show’s ratings have been very low (most to blame are some big-shot movies that have constantly been airing at the same time with this drama), and I even had my doubts that this might have to undergo the same horrible destiny of Sushi Oji!. I’m glad it didn’t.
長瀬智也 [Nagase Tomoya] is the lead, of course. He gets back-up from 佐藤隆太 [Sato Ryuta] and 大倉忠義 [Ohkura Tadayoshi]. Don’t blink and miss 小池栄子 [Koike Eiko]’s appearance.
The drama started terribly slow, but after the first episode (which was kind of bad and boring) the things sped up and the ‘old golden days’ -universe sets in. The atmosphere of this drama is calming and it gives me constantly reasons to smile. The settings are beautiful and the cast does good job with making them alive. That and the ‘air’ of this drama are the things that make ‘Utahime’ truly stand out this season. The plot isn’t the strongest, but rather than script, this drama plays with the feeling it can create within the wievers.
I am happy that this has gotten quite a few praises among critics.

Yukan Club’s ratings have been sinking (…what have I been telling you ever since the 1st episode? I won’t go back and quote, just figure it out yourself) steadily. Not that it would deserve the 10 it got today either.
Well, it just proves my point that the fangirlism (which is the reason this… “thing” even exists) can’t hold the ratings up if the drama is totally plotless and mostly acted flat. Too bad, that the sad thing’s already done, since the most of the eps have had ratings around 12. Makes me feel really bad.
They’ve been trying to make the show maintain it’s undeserved viewers by some known (?) guest actors. First it was the adorable 忍成修吾 [Oshinari Shugo, who has been in f.e. 太陽の季節 and YTM, now stars in 死化粧師, more of it later in this post], then 小山慶一郎 [Koyama Keiichiro from NEWS], who btw ended up being just as awkward as the show itself; and now Mike He (I actually have seen 惡魔在身邊 [Er Mo Zai Shen Bian], that aired back in 2005 and rather liked it. A typical teen-drama? Definetely yes. But it’s not that bad).
..And a few people actually had the nerve to ask me, why on Earth are the show’s ratings going down.
*sarcastic smile*

死化粧師 [Shigehoshi] wins easily the title of ‘The weirdest drama this year‘. I mean, that if the plot itself would’t be creepy enough, I really fail to understand quite a lot in this drama. The pretty-boy 和田正人 [Wada Masato] has got his first lead role, but frankly does a pretty good job.
And, it’s got 忍成修吾 [Oshinari Shugo]. I am weak for this boy’s works. Hope he’ll get a lead soon.
I really thought about giving up on this drama, but I’m still hanging on.

働きマン [Hataraki Man] hasn’t gotten a lot of praise nor critique. Could the reason be that not really many watch it? The ratings have been approximately 12, so it’s doing fairly good. It is a comedy, and for me it’s really nice to see the relations between love and work, work and love.
I have only watched the first few episodes yet, but I think I’ll get going with this during the winter pause. Or sometime.

Mop Girl is not bad. But it’s so much like the American show Tru Callin’. I didn’t like that one and somehow I don’t think this is my piece of cake, after all.
It, though, has 谷原章介 [Tanihara Shosuke] in it, and that might be a trigger for many to watch. He does excellent work so maybe I’ll end up watching this later. Don’t know though.

Dream Again was so hyped up from the beginning and look where it stands now. Ratings overall under 10. It’s got the same problem with Utahime; some movies that got the ratings over 20, have been airing simultaneously with this. I’ve seen a few episodes and can’t say that this is bad. Actually it’s kind of promising and I’m definetely going to finish it someday.
It doesn’t have any really outstanding people in the cast for me, but it’s easy to say that this isn’t the worst drama this season. Not even close.

Security Police [SP] rides the recent police/detective -wave in Jdrama. With 岡田准一 [Okada Junichi] in the lead, I think the show is ok. It’s nothing special (agents having special abilities is pretty.. used idea already). My start with this drama wasn’t the best possible. Let’s just say that when a note appears on the computer screen, it shouldn’t look like this:

1 new massage !

*eyepalm*
Overall, this is not bad. It’s just generic and the world is filled with better or same-status police-dramas already. Okada does a very nice job, anyway, and the fact that he can hold his messed-up character together and reveal his past and motives bit-by-bit deserves some respect.
And well~, it’s always nice to see men in suits.

Those are the normal dramas I’ve given a try this season. In the end it seems that I’m holding on only with a few of them, thosde being 歌姫, 死化粧師, Galileo and SP.