Been using this series to discuss some long time favorites of mine and yours who has (semi) disappeared and hasn't had a post in a while. Doing that made me work hard to do a post for Manami Higa a few months back and it paid off as she did have a post after a year gap, was hoping to have another but forgot all about it until now. But posts like those are a rarity as Manami hasn't disappeared but doesn't do a lot of activities you I can include in posts. About two weeks ago did a post for Yuzuha and said in it that she was finally the woman that toppled Miyuki from her throne! Which was of her being my all time sexiest/alluring/desirable/etc. woman and she held that honor for over eight years, Yuzuha grabbed that honor about four months ago and is certainly a deserving successor.
But the woman who came so close to first taking away Miyuki's crown back in the period of 2021-23 was Miyu Kitamuki and if she didn't pull a Houdini act on us she would have been my all time sexiest/alluring/desirable/etc. woman and in all honesty she still could be! When I first laid eyes on Miyu late in 2018 I was in a state that's hard to describe, seventh heaven perhaps? At first Miyu was not popular with you viewers but that changed after doing so many posts for her up until late 2023, the only posts since then were for a few missed digital books. EDIT: I actually began this post in December but put this version on hold though you have been seeing posts in this series. So hopefully I was able to edit things correctly such as talking about her December birthday but then again just may leave things as they were. Even though a lot of the intro was written up in December all of the dramas and one movie have bene watched within the last two weeks.
I tend to be a bit streaky with things though am consistent with that and that may make zero sense! As far as my viewing habits go it's mainly been dramas I've been watching and that's been the case for about two months now. My 'Need to Watch' list is still very massive, no matter how many I view the list somehow keeps growing! But it should be decreasing soon as I haven't bought any boxsets for at least three months as what I have will be good enough for a long while. The format seems to have become of me talking about a pair of American series and that's because those are most of my boxsets. Then I've been ending off with a Korean drama or two and sometimes a movie, that sums up what this post will consist of! My Japanese drama viewing has dropped off but it will be back to normal soon, have a couple of longish and classic older series to view. The last few months have been on a huge Korean drama binge and the shows from that country are the best but are often way too long. In the last few years they have gotten shorter, now they usually have 12-16 episodes and because of that they've reacquired me as a fan. For today didn't include the final two episodes of "Undercover High School", they ended up being one of the top dramas for 2025 and may devote a single post to it. Let's have one more last look at the close to perfect Miyu and how I hope the posts can start up once again for her soon... wowowow!!
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This series was intended to go five seasons to tell a long story, it did accomplish that and there's also been a few TV movies since the show ended, there were 22 episodes a season. The setting is deep outer space and the year is 2257, the show continues until 2262 so 240 years from now. Above and below are some pictures of Babylon 5 which is a massive space station, it houses so many thousands of living beings and is in the orbit of the fictional Epsilon planet. The station is mainly controlled by humans from Earth, it's still a planet with people inhabiting it but things are so much different than they were during our time. In the future there was much warring between planets and it really seemed Earth would be defeated by those from the planet of Minbari who for some reason didn't deliver the final blow, even by the end of the first season it's unknown why that happened.
But besides Earth's humans the station is also ruled by four other major planets which are Minbari, Centauri, Narn and Vorlon, there's also some minor planets who have ambassadors upon the ship. The mission of the massive ship and for all of the alien races is to ensure peace for the universe which of course has proved so difficult. For there's a lot of infighting between the planet's ambassadors plus there's many planets and species who never joined Babylon 5 and are still at war with seemingly everyone. So there is a lot of action in this series but not as much as other sci-fi shows, I'm not a huge fan of the genre so a show that relies more on stories over action is the kind I prefer. Each season has 22 episodes, in this first season there was only one story that ran for two shows so there is no main ongoing storyline or at least for this season. All in all this was a decent beginning and I've heard it does get better as the seasons go on, that's common for most dramas.
My plusses for this show would be the stories which were mainly interesting and also believable. My favorite part has been the alien characters and there's some photos of them below. Many look similar to humans and all speak English on Babylon 5 though there are some species such as the Vorlons that look so unique and can't breath oxygen. It's called Babylon 5 for the first two malfunctioned when put in space, the third was destroyed by aliens and the fourth did make it to space for a while but that too ended in a failure. My only real negative about this show will be one that is about to be fixed, the main character of Commander Sinclair was not likable at all, I didn't hate him but then again can't think of anything positive to say about him. But Sinclair left at the end of season one and will be replaced by a younger captain named Sheridan so from what I read that's a huge improvement so am looking forward to picking this back up for season two which will be.... who knows(?) but sometime soon.
This is the third time I've talked about "Gunsmoke" in this 'My Current Watches' series and will probably mention it another ten times! Above is the gigantic boxset I have of this series, it may have set me back $185 but was worth every penny. When you think about it that is a bargain in a way, look at how much you get for your buck! Six boxsets are in this massive box and there's a total of 143 discs that contain 635 episodes plus special features. Of the episodes 233 were 26 minutes in length, decades ago a show would have only four minutes of commercials per episode. Then there 402 episodes that were fifty minutes in length for a grand total of 26,158 minutes and to break it down further that equals 436 hours in the box set not including special features.
So to me $185 is actually a good bargain, a set like this I'll have for the rest of my life and the amount of money for it is what I used to spend going out to my watering hole five times.... and those lagers are long gone! Last week wrapped up the eighth season, have now viewed 305 episodes and am not even halfway through the series which I hope never ends! Have been taking my time with this ultimate classic series, even if I watch a season per month it'll still take me another year to finish it up! There hasn't been much difference in the first eight seasons, after the sixth an episode went from 26 to 50 minutes and one character has been added in but not much else has changed. But it will soon as the ninth season will be the final one for Chester Goode who is Marshal Dillon's slightly inept deputy but then again he has been invaluable on occasion. If you know who Burt Reynolds is he was added in for season eight playing the character of Quint Asper who was a half white/half Comanche Indian. After the ninth season two more newbies will be introduced, one will be taking the place of Chester. The biggest change by far will be taking place in the twelfth season, it ran for twenty from 1955-75. In that season the format changed from filming in B&W to Color and not sure how I'll like that. Call me odd but in a way prefer older things being in B&W but sure after the initial shock wears off it'll still be a must watch series!
My biggest shock could be seeing Amanda Blake as Miss Kitty for in real life had red hair, there's no way to tell that in non-color shows. She's below and what an attractive woman she was in real life and died a bit tragically at the age of sixty. Dodge City in Kansas is the setting of the series, it is a real city and the writers tried to make things as realistic as they could for the West was a mighty dangerous place. Learned in episode 301(!!) that the time is the year of 1875 as it was mentioned the Civil War had been over for a decade but you do see gravestones on Boot Hill that show people were buried in the early 1880's! No big deal though and even if I never watch another episode this would go down as being my all time favorite TV show, even when it was cancelled the series was still fairly popular. My second fave drama is "Supernatural" and it's about time I picked that series back up so will do very shortly and will start on the twelfth season. Sure many know who John Wayne is and I do so it's kind of odd that I've never seen any of his films but think that will be changing soon. He was good friends with James Arness who played the hero Marshal Matt Dillon on "Gunsmoke", for it's very first episode in 1955 Wayne did an intro for the episode which was a surprise to the cast and that's after the pics.
In the last post for this ongoing series talked about viewing my first ever Elvis Presley movie "Spinout", it's from the above boxset of four films, two TV specials and a concert which aired on TV. To get in the mood am listening to one of his greatest hits CD's I have, there can't be too many Rock and Rollers who recorded as many tunes as he did! Perhaps none did but don't think the Elvis songs from his films were nearly as successful or remembered as his hits before and after his stab at being an actor. In total Elvis starred in 31 films and recently read if you've seen one you've seen them all! Most have the same format or formula which must have worked as the movies were popular enough and for almost a decade 3-4 of his movies were released.
Working backwards on his films, "Spinout" was released in 1966 while this came out in the Spring of 1964. Besides Elvis there was another that appeared in both films who was Shelley Fabares, I think she is one of the most attractive and desirable women from the 60's though she kind of had that 'Nice Girl Next Door' image, she also starred in one other Elvis film. Shelley played the role of a 21 year old college student named Valerie Frank who was from Chicago, her father was one tough man who owned a nightclub plus may have been a bit of a gangster. Valerie and her two close friends were planning to spend their Spring break in Fort Lauderdale, the elder Frank blew his top hearing of those plans! Starring at his club was Rusty(Elvis) who was the leader of a rock and roll band, they were so popular their stay was to be extended at the club and it was the dead of Winter in Chicago. Rusty talked Mr. Frank into letting him and his mates also travel to Florida to keep tabs on his only daughter Valerie, soon the high jinks would begin! This had to be the first time Valerie had ever been on a vacation as an adult, it was her first time getting a bit tipsy and being around girl hungry men, she even did a burlesque dance at a night club! Each time bailing her out was Rusty and for most of the film Valerie never knew him and his mates were sent there to protect her.
Every Elvis film will contain much of his music, all were new tunes for the movie. Though they weren't as popular as his classic hits I think the songs in the two films been decent and they're much more upbeat than most of his pop hits. Also in every Elvis movie will be romance and so many of the women swoon over him but something always happened to Rusty that prevented him from hooking up with a woman, it may be the same way in all of his 31 films. So while the two films I've viewed are no award winners they've both been extremely entertaining and it makes for a nice change of pace compared to the movies and dramas I usually view. There is no ultimate boxset of all 31 movies and I would think about buying one if so, will be on the lookout for any other mini sets of his movies. Watched the film on my TV so of course couldn't take any screenshots, below are some pics from it but couldn't find many photos but I think the lobby/promo cards are better. The best new tune in the movie to me was "Do the Clam" and if it was to inspire a new dance then it failed! But the song and scene were rather good and deserve to be seen, that's the video after the pictures.
Up until 2015 most Korean dramas would have twenty episodes that were usually an hour or so in length. Since then the amount of episodes a series has is often 12-14 but sometimes sixteen such as this drama "From Now On, Showtime!" had. But with the decrease in episodes came an increase in how long a show is, have viewed the first four episodes of this drama which averaged 73 minutes! So I can only watch two episodes at a time which is not a bad thing for when any drama has Jin Ki-Joo 😍 as the main actress I hope they never end. Just wrapped up her early 2025 series 'Undercover High School" and she'll be in two more dramas this year! When an episode is 73 minutes in length it takes so long to write up a recap plus I know it has to be tough for you readers checking those recaps out as I have a hard time also reading very long ones at other sites. So instead of giving a blow by blow description of what took place in each show will just try to have two paragraphs talking about the key points of the story, will have this first section of episodes one and two, then the next hopefully mini section will have three and four.
Cha Cha-Woong is a popular magician and that level of popularity has really been rising, how can he do such tricks that no one else has ever been able to perform? With the thanks of three and soon to become four Ghosts who help our quasi-hero out at his shows. Cha was raised by his grandfather Cha Sa-Geum, that's him in the first two screenshots below and he's recently died after performing an exorcism. Like his grandfather Cha can see Ghosts and not just the three that 'work' for him, they also reside at Cha's massive and elegant mansion. Cha has no clue why he has this ability but is taking advantage of it using these Ghosts to make him a star and Cha does love money to no end! Cha does come off as a bit of a creep and has said often in the first four shows how he does despise people and his dream is to live on a deserted island. But deep down us viewers can see that Cha also has a soft side to him and he hates to show it though that changes if there's money involved. Of course Cha can't let the secret of three Ghosts helping him out during his magic shows and this trio are a huge positive to this show! The biggish man is named Ma, he was a former gangster but is a bit of a wimp. The oldish ghost is Nam and it hasn't been revealed how they died and hooked up with Cha. The third Ghost is the ultra cute A-Reum who is in her young twenties and is a bit of a techie, she loves playing games on her phone. Only Cha can see his mates though am thinking somewhere down the line the other main character will be able to, she supposedly has special powers but as of now we're unaware of what they are.
Ki-Joo 😍 was a good choice to play a police officer, she often acts a bit quiet in other dramas but does have a mean streak about her! She hooked up with Cha and his three Ghosts when her character of Go Seul-Hae began to investigate the death of her neighbor Min-Ho. Seul-Hae is an officer for the Kangguk police and an excellent one who had once again been bypassed for a promotion to being a detective. The death of Min-Ho had been a hit and run, shortly after Cha passed by and it appeared as he was the driver at the hit and run scene. But with the help of Cha and his three mates Seul-Hae was able to solve the case though once again her promotion was denied. Naturally Seul-Hae didn't believe that Cha had Ghosts working for him but soon the actions of the trio made it impossible for Seul-Hae not to believe Cha, could this be the start of a new investigative team? In a way it will for being able to talk with Ghosts or dead victims will be such a boon to solving cases, Cha doesn't think that way as he just loves money but as it turns out he will be Seul-Hae's unofficial sidekick at the force though he often helps her out for greedy reasons. For the most part that wraps up where things stand after the first two episodes, even if I added in a third paragraph it still wouldn't be too long of a review and doing so is my future goal. The below screenshots are from episode one, what took place in show's three and four are after the batch. Was just thinking it's not that I haven't been able to describe what took place in fewer words and it's that I usually like to have fifty or more screenshots to show you what took place which makes a post large, there's less than half of that below.
One other thing Lee has an edge at is that he's more respected so he's does many more commercials and such which has helped his popularity and of course his bank account! So to make himself appear to be a regular and helping man Cha volunteered to be a member of the Kangguk civilian police force, that was by the urging of Seul-Hae who will lead the volunteers. While helping out at the local senior citizen agency it was discovered by Seul-Hae that an elderly man named Kim had hoards of cash buried in his yard, over ten billion won worth of notes! Kim has been suffering from dementia and couldn't say how the money got there but the odds were high his estranged son has been hiding the loot there. The son was such a whiz at technology which isn't a crime but running a corrupt website for gambling is, the profits from that are what's in the bags of Won notes! Unknown to her superiors Seul-Hae and Cha went undercover at a gambling den to take down the younger Kim and his cohorts, it would have worked out well but the police raided the joint though our heroes escaped, to the dismay of Cha he had to leave behind his massive winnings. That was courtesy of his Ghost friends telling him what the other players were holding at the Poker game. It took a while but in the fourth show the team of the ghosts, Cha and Seul-Hae were able to nab the criminal. At the gambling den Seul-Hae was clad in that loudish red attire which is below and that made blood boil to the Nth degree!
Final segment and a lot more does take place, in five paragraphs it's hard to explain everything that took place in 290 minutes! The first episode and the last bit of the fourth were of a group of fishermen, the first scene showed them at a wharf. But the second at the end of the fourth episode was of the group out on a boat about a week later in the middle of the night, one crazed son of a fisherman appeared to become possessed and was killing all of the crew, that short scene was how the fourth episode ended. So that'll be a good yet eerie way to begin off the fifth episode and there's also a few other ongoing storylines in this drama. One is that Seul-Hae's father had been an detective and ten years before was killed at a stakeout. At the time the police were chasing a serial killer called the 'Full Moon Killer' and as of now don't know much about it, did that culprit kill Seul-Hae's father? It was also a full moon when episode four ended, could that crazed fisherman be under the moon's curse? Plus there's plenty more to learn about Cha and his three Ghost mates, how did they get killed, why are they with Cha and why haven't they moved on to Heaven? It's only been four episodes but so far what a fabulous drama this has been, it is a very serious series yet also lighthearted at the right moments, so far so good! This is the kind of drama were I may be able to recap 2-4 episodes in one post so this may be the guinea pig for when I attempt to start reviewing dramas that way. Have one small batch of pics after these episode three screenshots.
Jin Ki-Joo was the biggest reason for watching this drama, she's my top current actress and has been terrific so far through four episodes. Playing the young female ghost Kang A-Reum is an actress who I hadn't heard of who is Park Seo-Young and what a cutie she is! Below are some pics from the 2022 'MBC Drama Awards' show that took place on December 30th, aren't those some superb photos?! In two weeks Seo-Young will be celebrating her 24th birthday and wonder if I could somehow whip up a post for her? After the pics is a short yet fun video from the show featuring the quartet of Ghosts that help out the magician Cha and the rockin' tune playing is fairly good.
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