Just Wright, Inside The White Tower Eps.2-3

I have watched Just Wright more times than I care for. Well in my defence not only I'm a rom com fan but also I do like watching Queen Latifah in rom coms (and yes I even watched that film she co starred with Gerard Depardieu, I have not yet watched U.S remake of Taxi but I'm not that far from it). Latifah is a pyshio therapist and basketball fan in this one and she falls for a NBA star who of course needs her psyhio therapy skils at one point. This film is nothing special really but I like it for some reason.

The two episodes of White Tower was very good and I'm getting sucked into the vortex. The social structure and the workings of corporate health care are very similar to Turkey not to mention how and for what purpose people interact. Office politics, back stabbings etc. are pretty much the same too and some of the scenes were close to real life. Dr.Choi is the one I feel closest to since he pretty much symbolises everything I brought up with and stand for. There just are not men like that in real life. In real life they are like Dr.Jung - maybe not as good looking- and to the credit of the story and the writers I have started to root for him despite not agreeing with anything he does (very much like Dan Draper). Dr.Choi is good and well but a bit boring to watch on screen. Not only the character lacks a bit of a spark so far but the actor is not one I really like (he is known and liked for his silky voice but I don't see/hear any of it). He is not bad but it is more my bad since I don't care for him.

So far Dr.Jung tries to manipulate, fails, cries to father in law and father in law introduces him to a bigger arena of greed and power. At least he got what he wanted. He is not really that smart when it comes to politics though since he is impatient and emotional. He is always unhappy and anxious and when he went to Dr.Choi he gave him the advice I would have given. I seriously do not understand why Dr.Jung wants to be surgical chief so much. Dr.Choi is more like me, the only professional ambition is to do his job better and he genuinely doesn't care for being a higher up (of course while doing that he misses the chance of making things better but it is a miss he can live with). He doesn't get the financial support he deserved due to an angry higher up but he still stood his ground of integrity and honesty. I really hope that Dr.Choi is going to be allright.

Meanwhile in a totally different medical drama April turned out to be the one who failed the exam. I rooted for Meredith and Karev :)

The Good Wife keeps going the downward route but I really like the titular character so I stick to it.
I finally dropped Revenge since Madeline Stowe's surgically (or collagen or whatever) enhanced face is really too much.

Meanwhile The Europeans is going great.Very suprised at my reaction.

White Tower Eps - 1

This drama has ended my rather long K-drama break. The first episode is instense, complicated and very interesting.

I have a fondness for medical dramas. But this one -adapted from a Japanese manga & drama- is beyond that. So far it is like Mad Men in a hospital but with that particular Korean drama naivete. Everyone is trying to protect their own interest and the lines that are certainly not drawn anywhere. It also reminds me a bit of A.J Cronin's The Citadel - one of my all time fave books-. An ambitious and talented surgeon is next in line to be Chief of Surgery at a prestigious teaching hospital but his predecessor (currently working but expected to retire any time soon) is not happy because a) he actually doesn't want to retire and not looking forward to a life where he is not the influential person he once was b) Dr.Jung is very talented, capable and already surpassed him and it hurts his pride that everyone seems so eager for him to retire and Dr.Jung take up the job c) his wife who is equally fond of her influence feels angry and frustrated now that it seems to wane.

Dr.Jung is a bit like Don Draper. He wants power, he wants to be Chief etc. and has no qualms about not being so moral in order to achieve these. On the other he is not without a conscience (one of the reasons why the episode ended on a cliffhanger) and he genuinely likes his job - although he has a tendency of not being close to the patients this is a style that is preferred by some very talented doctors.

And then there is Dr.Choi, who is the type of man I like and fall for (and I think we are meant to sympathise with him and be fascinated by Dr.Jung). He is also very talented in his field - not a surgeon but specialises in internal medicine I think but he has great bedside manners and also he genuinely cares for the patients as human beings. But he is honest and not very political, certainly is not ambitious in that certain way people are with their careers, so as a result he is not thought very highly and his considerable talents as a doctor go unnotices.

Dr.Jung and Dr.Choi have a professional relationship. Maybe they are from the same school or something and Dr.Jung is also very honest to Dr.Choi about his ambitions and how they are more important than a patient's life if/when it comes to that. Aaaaand after a simple conversation about nothing in particular with his mother he decides to help Dr.Choi in secret trying to do it under the blanket without alerting powerful doctors in the hospital admin. This fight with his conscience and his ambition is going to be very interseting I think.

Also the other good thing is that I was able to stop after one episode. Not because I didn't want to watch more - I did, very much- but I didn't want to be wreck at work this morning. And it is rare but I was able to make the right choice :)

Also The Europeans are going very good. 

Mockingjay -End, The Europeans, All Good Things

Mockingjay ended and I simply loved all three books. The ending was fitting and I always shipped Katniss with Peeta so was happy that way too.

I have started Henry James' The Europeans. After liking Washington Square very very much, I have started reading The Golden Bowl which turned out to be one of the few books that I simply cannot finish. After that I have stayed away from Henry James until I have found this little book in a second hand bookshop in NoHo NYC. First off it was really a bargain, secondly it is a rather short novel by the looks of it and I have started it this morning. I'm now just past Chapter 2 and loving it. Always wondered why Donna Leon keeps singing praises to Mr.James in her Brunetti novels (which are decent reads). Well maybe I was too young to appreciate Mr.James back then. Now I enjoyed his prose so much so that I didn't want to stop reading even after the shuttle arrived at work.

Last night I have watched a film called All Good Things. The dvd is a bargain bin deal and I do like Ryan Gosling (after Fracture, not The Notebook) and have a fondness for Kirsten Dunst ever since Little Women. But even though the film had a very interesting story (based on a real life mystery) and the actors were all good, the story telling was stale. I ended up not liking it as I would have if it was another director telling the same story with the same actors. 

Catching Fire - End, Mockingjay

Well I have finished Catching Fire last night and liked it a lot. Of course I immediately started Mockingjay and I like it even better. These books are smart without being to obscure. The types of book I want the teens I know read.

Kushiel's Dart & Mad Men 4 - End, Catching Fire, Karate Kid, Flipped, A Team

Kushiel's Dart ended up being an ok fantasy novel and nothing of the trashy romance with a little S&M I was shamelessy expecting. I'm happy with it though.

Mad Men 4 ended up with a bang and I really like this show. It is so rare that a show maintains same level of goodness in all seasons and episodes (I can only recall Sopranos and Sex & The City) and so far Mad Men is doing a good job of it.

I have watched Grey's Anatomy (which got good again after getting really bad) and The Good Wife which started to detoriate.

As for the films

The A-Team This is not a good film but it was kind of entertaining in a leave your brain out kind of way.

Karate Kid Maybe it is the nostalgia but I loved this film in this second viewing. Everyone looked so real flaws and all and more importantly there is a story very well told. I remember the new one was a decent effort but this original is much better.

Flipped This TV film about first love in the 50's charmed me. The film pointed out the things that are important to me and I have found myself falling for it.

Started to read Catching Fire now since I have finally come to terms with it not going paperback soon (and now that I have bought Catching Fire and Mocking Jay I know that I'll see them in paperback at a bookstore before even finishing the last book) Returning to the book I'm enjoying it very much so far and glad that this is also a book young adults are reading and not just Twilight.

Mad Men 4 - Some left over films

Moneyball Now this was not a bad film but it was also not a story that interested me. I can't warm up to Brad Pitt. Not fair really since he is a good looking man, decent enough actor and I do like his entertainment persona, but watching him on screen doesn't make me feel anything. Not even annoyance.

Pain That film was indeed painful. It has a silly premise, average actors (of course even an average Korean actor is better than many of the regulars) and blatant melodrama that somehow made me feel sorry that I was crying so much.

Meanwhile I have watched another 3 episodes of Mad Men and I like this show more and more. I still wouldn't want to be friends with any of those people but it is fascinating to watch them.

The Other Woman, Jane Eyre, Préte-Moi Ta Main, Mad Men Season 4

The Other Woman Only got this since I have a girl crush on Natalie Portman. And the film suprised me in how emotional and melodramatic it was (disguised as a Indie US film).
Jane Eyre Zefirelli is a good director even if he chopped the second half of the novel (but in a film adaptation you have to chop without mercy) I wish this was a TV drama though then we would have watched everything. I loved Charlotte Gainsbourg as Jane. She definitely looks the part and William Hurt suprises me everytime. How come this man is such a good actor? He has such a washed out entertainment front but everytime I watched him, he delivered and he is excellent as Rochester. Anna Paquin was great as young Jane. Anyway, I'm happy.
Préte-Moi Ta Main This French rom com entertained me and once again Charlotte Gainsbourg gave a very good performance. I like actors who can be very serious and/or very funny and do all sorts of films. Now I still cannot erase the memory of Ms.Gainsbourg cutting her clit with a pair of scissors in Antichrist but this is the fault of Von Trier for making such a, a ... well I don't know how to describe that one. I guess a memorable film would be apt in that regard. Anyway this one is good, at least the people look like real people.

Yesterday I have started Mad Men Season 4 and it is as good as I remember it. First three episodes were killer. This show is one of the best I have seen on TV.