all the movies and tv shows that i watched in 2024 (Movie & TV Show Talk)

 hello, everyone! it's the end of the year again and i feel like it's the first time that i actually post something that is not a story/alternate universe, so, hi, how's your 2024 so far? not that good? yeah thought so. but we're not gonna talk about how 2024, there is another post for that, coming, instead we're gonna do another tradition that i've started last year, which is talking about all the movies and tv shows that i watched for the first time in 2024, well, there is a movie here that is technically a rewatch but i'll let it pass. so here they are, all the movies and tv shows that i watched in 2024!

disclaimer : spoiler alert for every movie and tv show that are mentioned here

MOVIES

1. A Quiet Place : Day One

so as the movie title suggests this is a movie about the prequel of the famous a quiet place duology. i've watched most of a quiet place but haven't seen part 2 but i got somewhat of a grasp on what the main threat of the story was, and since this movie tells about the day one of the alien invasion so i guess the fact that you only know that the aliens are triggered by noise is enough. the story is about a terminally ill woman named samira being in the center of the alien invasion. she lived in a, i wanna say a sanatorium for people with cancer, but please correct me if i'm wrong and was friends with one of the caretakers. the caretaker asked her to join on a field trip to new york city to watch a play with the other sanatorium residents. she was about to say no but she went anyway because the caretaker promised her to stop for pizza in her favorite pizza place. right when she was about to go home, the invasion happened. she didn't realize what was happening as she was listening to the music. then it was chaos. she had her cat, frodo with her, and man, i was stressing out about frodo more than them making any sounds in the movie. but thankfully, frodo didn't really meow so i was glad, a little. throughout the movie and samira and frodo's journey, she met a law student from the uk named eric, then there were three of them venturing all around new york city while an alien invasion was happening. while visiting her apartment one night, samira told eric that she wanted to eat new york pizza in the place that she used to go with her dad while going to the pub next door with no intention of going to the ferry that will take them to the safe place and eric agreed to help her to get her pizza. there was a scene that got me most anxious and it was the scene in which eric and frodo just got samira's medications from the nearest drug store and frodo went on his own adventure that forced eric to come get him. the place that frodo went to was coincidentally the lair of the aliens, like good job, frodo, you took as right in the center of the danger. the moment eric got frodo and they got out from the place, so much relief. then at the final act of the movie, the three of them arrived at the pizza place only to find out that it had been blocked off and mostly burnt. then eric asked her to wait in the pub next door and he got her a pizza from another place but with the box from her favorite pizza place and gave her a little bit of a magic show which was sweet in my opinion. the movie ended with eric and frodo got on the ferry ship and samira basically committed suicide by playing the music in her ipod out loud to trigger the aliens.

i actually really like the movie. i enjoy the storyline and the acting, like lupita nyong'o's acting was top class as usual and i love that in my opinion joseph quinn could keep up with her acting. i know he's an exceptional actor from his role as eddie munson in stranger things but to see him here, acting with lupita, having an amazing on-screen chemistry with her. i really thought it was somewhat romantic but then the writer of the movie revealed eric to be gay, so i guess i was just touch-deprived. the story was a good prequel material for the original movie but i was kinda sad that we didn't get more explanation on them as a creature, but then again, it was day one. i really gotta pay attention more to the original movie and watched the second one. anyway, my overall review for the movie is that it's a solid movie with a solid storyline, amazing acting, great sound design (when the scene had them). so it was a great start of the year in term of movies.

2.  the net 

the movie tells about a freelance systems analyst named angela bennett who does her work from home with most of her contacts being on her mom who was hospitalized for alzheimer, on her phone and the internet and a little amount of interaction with her neighbors and landlady. she was sent a floppy disk of a website for a band with a "π" logo on the bottom corner not knowing it would be the gateway to her problems in the movie. angela went on a holiday then she met a guy who seemed interested with her but later in the night it was discovered that this guy named jack devlin was about to take the floppy disk from her and that he was part of a cyberterrorist group. knowing what was happening, angela tried to save herself by running away but was hit by the speedboat tat jack drove and she lost her consciousness. when she woke up 3 days later she realized that the floppy disk was melted by the sun and became inaccessible. then she went back home to find out that the house that she lived in was moved out and her social security number was now assigned to a woman named ruth marx with criminal records for whom jack devlin has entered an arrest record by using the Gatekeeper backdoor to hack the police computer system. her neighbors also couldn't confirm her identity as angela bennett because of how seldom she came out of her house. the movie was about how her fighting jack and a group of cyberterrorist and getting her identity back with her skills in computer. 

this movie was technically a rewatch for me as i've watched it with my mom a long time ago it was aired on tv and it was an introduction for me to sandra bullock, which i'm a big fan of, at least for her works that i've seen. what fascinated me was the idea of identity theft by an essentially terrorist group, in the 90s when computers and internet weren't as big. the gaslighting in this movie was insane. there was a time in the movie that frustrate me so much that i almost turned it off, not because the movie was bad or anything but it was stressing me out a lot. also the hopelessness that angela felt when she became a fugitive because of the identity theft. she asked for her ex's help but then her ex was killed because the cyberterrorist group changed the details of his medications. she couldn't go to work because the actual ruth marx was sitting in her place as angela bennett. she knew little to none of people that could help her, not even her mom. it was really sad when she was about to be caught by the police for the crimes that she didn't do, she kept repeating to herself that her name was angela and not ruth so that she didn't lose herself. she could've just give the cyberterrorist group the floppy disk and it would all be undone, but if you remember, the floppy disk was burnt, she couldn't do anything. but then again, angela was a woman in stem she could play the cyberterrorist group's game and leaked the presence of the group to the public and deleted her identity as ruth marx with the virus that was sent by a coworker (who was also killed by devlin's group, mind you). the moral of the story is that, go out more guys, meet new people in real life. identity theft is a dangerous and a very real thing. 

3. the substance

the substance is a body horror movie that came out this year. it's about an actress named elizabeth sparkle (played by demi moore) who was deemed "too old" by the showbiz and was basically out of what seems to be her only job which was a workout instructor for a workout program on tv. she was really upset by it and her unluckyness didn't end there, she got into a car accident because she saw a billboard that had her face was taken down. in the hospital, she met a quite young nurse and he told her that she got the perfect vessel for "the substance" and how it changed his life. he gave her a very mysterious business card with only a phone number on it. at first elizabeth didn't really think much about it but she realized how the beauty standard was eating her alive so called the number on the card and was instructed to take the kit for the substance. she followed the instruction which was to inject the activator which was only a one time use, when she injected herself with the activator, this was when the body horror part started. a new whole set of body came out of her back which became her other self that was later called "sue" (played by margaret qualley) who was much younger and "prettier". elizabeth, who was now sue, read the instruction further which was to take nutrition from her main self (elizabeth) so that her other self (sue) could live. there was a rule that she needed to obey which was she only got to live as sue just for every other week. so if this week she was sue, next week she gotta go back to be elizabeth and so on. if she didn't do that, she wasn't respecting the balance and the consequences will be severe. her first week as sue, she got her job on tv back and so much more that she actually enjoyed living as sue and got more job opportunities. after a few weeks, sue wasn't letting elizabeth lived and just kept on taking nutrition from her body. then when she actually changed back as elizabeth, this is the second part of the body horror in my opinion, elizabeth's body became very old and frail, almost no bones  and muscles in it. she complained to the substance company and the company asked her if she wanted to stop to which she said yes. elizabeth was asked to retrieve the what i would call "cancellation kit" and injected it to sue's body. but just before the kit was all injected, elizabeth realized that it was a big night because sue was the host of the new year's eve event that she brought sue "back to life" with cpr. now both elizabeth and sue were awake which never happened before. sue saw the syringe of the cancellation kit and decided to kill elizabeth, brutally. then she went to the event like nothing happened but her body was rotting from the inside because the source of the nutrition was gone. with missing teeth and ear, she went back home and injected the activator again which was only a one time use and then became a monster that i felt like the whole final act of the movie was so insane i had to sit back and thought of what just happened. 

this movie i felt like it got a lot of buzz when it came out and it became everyone's favorite when it came out. it's no surprise because the theme of the movie with the whole unattainable beauty standard of the showbiz and how ageist the industry is toward women that elizabeth would go length to the point of harming her own body, losing her mind, and killing herself at the end just to follow the unattainable beauty standard. there was also a tone of greed and self hatred when in the movie it started feeling like there were two main characters instead of just one. like sue saying margaret was taking up space and did nothing and elizabeth making fun of the interview that sue was in. i also like how they picked margaret qualley to be demi moore's younger and "more beautiful" version because they don't look like they're twins per say, but margaret could work if they ever needed someone to play a younger version of demi moore. i'd like for this movie to be nominated for the big awards but the awards have never been kind to horror movies but let's just see what's gonna happen because everyone LOVES this movie. 

4. primal fear

for this one i'm not gonna say a lot, in fact i'm gonna copy paste the synopsis from imdb just so that i won't spoil the movie too much. 

As the brutal murder of Chicago's beloved archbishop by the hand of the shy nineteen-year-old altar boy, Aaron Stampler (played by edward norton), makes the headlines, the high-profile defence attorney, Martin Vail (played by richard gere), takes the opportunity to be in the spotlight. Pro bono, Vail is eager to represent the penniless defendant and the case's seemingly obvious murderer; however, Aaron appears to know more than he lets on. Under those circumstances, is Stampler truly guilty of murder, or was he framed? Above all, is the arrogant and cynical lawyer prepared to dig deep into the popular priest's past to unearth the truth?

this movie was the latest one that i watched on my list. i'm not gonna talk a lot about the movie in fear of me spoiling too much of the storyline, but that doesn't mean i don't like the movie, it's quite the opposite, i genuinely love the movie. but there's like a plot twist to the storyline that i'm not gonna reveal. i'm gonna talk about the acting especially edward norton's. for him to be nominated for the oscars for his acting debut is insane but it wasn't that unreasonable because his acting was genuinely so good to the point that if he weren't on screen, i got bored. and lately i've been liking courtroom drama as an element of a movie and/or tv show, like the ones on hannibal which i'm gonna mention later in the tv show section, but yes the courtroom scene was so interesting in how martin vail knew that he was losing but he was doing everything that he could to win, and i'm gonna stop there before i spoil more. but if you like this kind of story and have never heard of the movie, i suggest for you to check it out. it's dhiradorable approved. 

5. Olivia Rodrigo : Guts World Tour

disclaimer before any of you come at me, i'm a fan of olivia rodrigo's music (and her boyfriend but whatever) especially the first album and some of the songs in the second album but with that being said i'm not gonna talk a lot about the movie because it is a tour movie so i'm gonna talk about the vibe of the concert and the songs that i like. 

so yeah, i watched this because as i said i like a lot of olivia's songs and was curious on how the concert goes. visually, it was pretty. i like to look at the color purple and purple is basically her brand so it was pleasing in the eyes for me. i like how we got a little bit of the backstage footage, eventhough it was just of her running to the stage but i do like that she took us to see what was happening behind the scenes for a bit. also, if i'm not mistaken, she opened with "bad idea right?" which was genius because well, the song is about meeting up with your ex to hook up with them but i guess the main topic that she's talking about is meeting someone here and what you thought would be a bad idea which is watching the concert, turned out to be the best idea you ever had. my favorite songs that were performed in the concert/movie were "teenage dream" and "so american". "teenage dream" was because of the set up, like they showed videos and pictures of when olivia was younger and the lyrics of the song had me tearing up a bit, not gonna lie. "so american" i liked because the way that she introduced the song. i didn't realize it was gonna be that song, i really thought it was gonna be "all-american bitch", which was my favorite off of the guts album. the way that she twisted the meaning of the song a little bit, i like the way you're thinking, girl. of course, last but definitely not least, miss chappell roan!!! love love LOVEEEE the hot to go stage. i sang and danced along to the performance. as i said it's not gonna be a long one with this one but i did enjoy watching it. 

6. A Nonsense Christmas with Sabrina Carpenter

this was so fun! i would describe the show as a musical comedy holiday special(?) sabrina performed songs whether it's classic christmas pop songs with other artists or original songs from her christmas ep, fruitcake and comedy skits with sabrina-esque jokes. 

i like that the show started with a monologue rendition of the song "it's the most wonderful time of the year" but it's sabrina's version so instead it was "it's the most nonsense time of the year". most of the skits were, okay in my opinion, they're giving snl skits. though i really like the naughty and raunchy jokes that they slipped in like how sabrina said "you're in luck, i trimmed my bush just for you" in the begnning while showing off her christmas tree or full on explicitly said like when her friends suspected that her boyfriend was santa claus. also when she received a gift in the end and the box buzzed, then she said "oh a massager" in panic. she also mentioned how the show was rated tv-14 so she could only say "fuck" three times and she accidentally said twice in the beginning so me as a viewer was so excited to hear the last one. but my favorite unironically was the "what the fuck do i get my brother in law" song. it's just so addictive. i found myself humming or full on singing the title part a lot. but the one that stole the show for me was of course, sabrina and chappell roan's cover of last christmas. last christmas is my favorite modern christmas song so to hear them singing it with their own style was epic. i love their dresses while performing this song. love the velvet. i also loveeee the cindy lou who stage. the black and white filter added the melancholy vibes of the song. buy me presents and santa doesn't know you like i do were so good too. i genuinely can't pick. the concept of a comedy musical holiday special for sabrina was a genius concept. it really suits her brand and her 50s cutesy aesthetic. so props to the team and sabrina for creating the special and executing it well. 

TV SHOWS

okay now we are at the chaotic and unhinged part of the post. so buckle up, everyone. 

1. House of the Dragon Season 2

where do i even begin with this one? i genuinely don't know but i'm currently writing the long overdue tv show talk on this season so i'm not gonna talk too much on it in this post. but i can say that i do not like the finished product of season 2. some parts were good like the beginning of daemon's harrenhal arc, jace's insecurity on his parentage, the red sowing, the acting. but other than that, i'm just, i don't know how to feel other than disappointment. the showrunners deliberate decision on just ignoring canon and george rr martin's work is their undoing. i don't even have any hopes for season 3. i might drop it but i don't know. please wait patiently on the tv show talk. 

2. My Lady Jane

on the other hand, my lady jane is my favorite 2024 released show and my second favorite show that i watched this year. the show is an inaccurate retelling of lady jane grey's 9 days reign as the queen of the england. i love how they mentioned that it is an inaccurate retelling because they would have more freedom in writing yet they executed it so well (take notes, hotd showrunners). and boy, freedom did they get. so i wasn't that aware of lady jane grey's history. i know that she was queen for a very short time due to the politics that happened at the time. i know the painting of her execution, that painting makes me feel things. but i didn't really know what happened in detail, like why was she actually dethroned and executed. and i'm not saying that this show is gonna help you learn on what actually happened but it will make you interested to know what actually happened at the time. the show also tells the story of jane grey as a person more, like her life, her family, what she believed in. in fact, the first issue of the show that was shown was how jane didn't want to be stuck in an arranged marriage or even being married at all because she was more interested in medicine, potions, and other things that women at the time were supposed to learn. then the story evolved in to her marriage with lord dudley and the fantasy aspect that i didn't see coming. so the main issue of the show (other than jane and lord dudley's love story) was there were two races that existed at the time. they were verity, that's just human and ethian who were human/animal shapeshifters. there were many discriminations toward ethian that they weren't allowed to have basic necessities because they were thought as "unmannered beasts". more chaos ensue when it was revealed that lord dudley was an ethian himself (horse was his animal form, so a lot of horse girl jokes) but he couldn't control his transformation like other ethian, so he spent his time as a horse from when the sun rose until the sun set, and as human starting when the sun set. then it was revealed the reason the marriage happened was because the dudleys needed her brain to find the cure for his "condition". but the plot thickens yet again when the previous king, i wanna say king edward VI named jane who was his cousin to be his successor in his will when he was presumed dead by mary I (also known as bloody mary). during her short lived reign, she made some controversial decisions, which is her decision to make ethian has the same rights as verity. then there were some tension (other than sexual tension ofc) between jane and her husband because jane's intention with making england a better place to live for ethian was good but lord dudley being all "i don't care about england, i want to be healed" was also valid. then there was the drama of jane being dethroned and the reveal of dudley being an ethian to the whole court was so so good. my heart was beating so fast when both jane and dudley were looking at each other while being apprehended. 

anyway, that was quite a long one but i went in the show, only thinking it would be like a cute enemies to lovers historical romance because of a scene in episode one which i'm not gonna spoil but then being surprised with the fantasy element of the show and then was like "oh yeah this is actually really good,". it was a roller coaster of emotion but it was a welcome roller coaster of emotion. the chemistry between the actors that played jane and dudley was soooo good. they were good as enemies but even better as lovers. the banter between them, especially during their wedding night when jane said, "missed!" was addictive and hilarious. the yearning after their fight when dudley went missing for days. they did it so good. i also like the dynamic between jane and dudley's father aka her father in law. they started off being each other's pain in the ass but he ended up being jane's advisor while she as queen and they were able to meet in the middle. possibly my favorite platonic dynamic in the whole show. i can relate to jane and her mother's relationship dynamic as well. in the sense that she started off being in a lot of arguments with her mom but sometimes especially at the end of the show, they could be the best of friends, which is how my mom and i interact most of the time. there were also some sisterly love between jane and her sisters. part of the reason why jane agreed to marry dudley was so that katherine, her younger sister number one wouldn't be married off to their family's benefactor who was much much older. jane was also close with her youngest sister, margaret. she often helped her with jane's plans. these are all such good points of the show but what is the downside of the show you may ask? it's cancelled after season 1 which was a surprise to me because i saw how big it was on the internet and how many people talked about it. it's got a perfect plot to continue for season 2 as well but i guess the demand wasn't that high? well, we could all blame prime for not promoting it properly. 

3. Hannibal

this is my number one tv show that i watched in 2024. it told the story of will graham, a special agent for fbi, so basically the behavioral science unit which was lead by jack crawford consulted in will to find the motive, pattern for murders because of will being an empath, and as the story grew further he was intertwined with the psychiatrist dr. hannibal lecter who was also a cannibalistic serial killer. the connection that will had with hannibal lead to his becoming in being what i wanna say a serial killer. i'm sure you all know who hannibal lecter is from the movie silence of the lambs, hannibal the tv show is the prequel to the movie. so if you didn't know already, the hannibal lecter story is based on a book series and hannibal was based, well i wanna say almost loosely based from the book titled "red dragon" which was featured heavily in the second part of the third season. the show consisted of three seasons and it ended in 2015. but i heard that there's been efforts on finding a new home for season 4, so let's just wait and see for the updates. 

anyways, the reason that i wanted to watch hannibal was because people said that it was giving bbc sherlock but so much more, and boy, was it really more. because yes, the romantic undertones between will and hannibal were much more apparent than john and sherlock, but man, there were some scenes and hannibal's manipulatons toward will really got me fucked up. at first, i was still trying why hannibal did what he did to will but at the end i was like, "eh, it's just the way he is," i felt like the descent of will's sanity in season 1 was so scary. it was actually giving psychological horror. imagine actually being accused of murders that you know you didn't do, just because of guts, but all the evidence pointing at you? and then the person that you know actually did the murders made the false evidences just walking around freely and everyone believed them because they're more "approachable" than you are in public. that's what will had to deal with in the second part of season 1. that is so scary i felt like i was the one losing my mind. the way that i was so locked in during the final episodes of season 1? you had no idea. 

then in season 2, which i think was the best season out of them three, will who was imprisoned in the mental hospital came up with a new plan, which i called "if you can't beat them, join them," and all i gotta say, it's lucky that will is pretty and hannibal got a crush on him because at some point i was like "okay this is good", but sometimes i was like "will, what are you doing?" there were some courtroom drama aspects in season 2 which i really loved. it was my second favorite episode throughout the whole show. but not long after the unfinished court, will was freed because there were new evidences that said that he was not the murderer. which i think was because hannibal was lonely and felt bad that his crush was imprisoned. after he was free, will started moving forward with his plan. he was getting closer with hannibal, he helped hannibal murdering people. they were eating what appeared to be human meat together. it was as alana bloom said (another psychiatrist that sometimes worked for fbi, used to be friends with will until he accused hannibal of murders, hannibal was her mentor and lover during the most duration of season 2), "a courtship" which i wholeheartedly agree. i knew they (hannibal and will) were romantically talking as well, because you just don't talk about patroclus and achilles wanted to destroy everyone so that they could be together to your protege of murder and compared them to you. but then it was revealed that will was being a double agent for fbi. it was all a plan to catch hannibal for murder which him and jack crawford planned. but i felt like part of will was actually genuinely wanted to get closer to hannibal. the season finale of season 2 which was the best episode in my opinion was the proof. they were planning to runaway together but the night was not a good time because the fbi wanted to catch hannibal. it was a bloodbath in hannibal's house and in between all of that will showed that he wanted to go with hannibal but hannibal felt betrayed. like oh my god, everyone's acting during the last 10-15 minutes of the episode? insane, gave me chills, that i needed to collect myself after i finished the episode. 

the increase in budget for season 3 was apparent. not only for the settings but also in the camera and the way that they shot the show, felt like a feature length movie. the theme for season 3 was yearning because will and hannibal were separated for most of the time but hannibal finally gave himself to the fbi after will rejected him so that will knew where to find him, like???? peak romanticism. they were apart for 3 years. will actually got married and had a step son. but he was pulled into the crime scene again by jack crawford and by that he was also meeting hannibal again. it was like will was obviously happily married but at the end of the day (or the show) he was still looking for hannibal. because at the last episode of the show, they ran away together (let's pretend this was the actual ending for my sake) 

so that was a long one but damn it was a good show. i know i talk a lot about will and hannibal's connection but it was actually the main topic of the show and not me being an old men yaoi enjoyer. also i recently read on the internet that hannibal had different genres depends on whose perspective you're watching it from. if it was will, as i said earlier it was a psychological horror. for jack, it was almost like criminal minds, like procedural legal, criminal show. as for hannibal, it was a romantic movie. be it monte carlo because he was basically having a holiday in europe. i really like how will isn't actually a reliable narrator of the story. you thought that he was but as he became more and more of a killer, you actually questioned will's narration of the story. so if this kind of story is up your alley, i'm 100% recommending you to add it to your watchlist. you wouldn't be disappointed by it. 

4. When the Phone Rings (ongoing) 

this kdrama is about an interpreter who has selective mutism named hong heejoo due to a trauma of a car crash that happened when she was a kid. she's married to the korean presidency spokesman, baek saeon. it was an arranged marriage so there was little to no love shown between them, they weren't even allowed to reveal that they're married to the public due to saeon's job and the fact that his father is a presidential candidate. he was supposed to marry heejoo's sister, hong ina, but ina went missing the day before the wedding so heejoo took her place. the news that went to the public was that saeon was married to ina, but the alibi to ina's absence and just the truth to who saeon was actually marrying was that ina wanted to have a private life away from the media. three years of marriage, both heejoo and saeon acted more like a roommate that you hardly ever met because of the difference in the routinity than a married couple. but it all changed when saeon received what seemed to be a prank call of someone terrorizing heejoo, claiming that it was his wife that the perpetrator was terrorizing. but saeon was acting dismissively, even saying "well, call me when her dead body surfaces," to saeon's overly confident self, the terror was actually happening and the phonecall between the perpetrator and saeon was put on speaker so heejoo could hear everything that was happening. it lit up a sense of anger in her that the dynamic of their relationship changed after. 

i watched this kdrama because i happened to come across one of the scenes of the prank calling that heejoo did after getting a hold of the perpetrator's phone that had a voice changing equipment to it. i was like, "oh this would be a nice light watch to sensitize myself after watching hannibal," also this storyline is basically every fic that i read on wattpad/the kind of romance novels that i read so i had some expectations about it, in fact i could already predict how it was going to go in the romance plot of the kdrama. i was impressed with the acting, the writing, and the kdrama overall. but once heejoo and saeon got all lovey dovey with each other i was starting to be bored. then they changed the focus of the storyline to saeon's backstory, his relationship with his family who aren't actually his family. the shift in the storyline keeps me interested to the kdrama. i think it's fun to shift from your typical romcom kdrama to a murder/family mystery to keep the viewers entertain which is the formula of recent kdramas that i've been seeing lately. at the time of writing this, there are two episodes left and i haven't watched the latest episode. so i have to catch up on it. but i just hope. that they're not going the easy route of making it a sad ending or like a bittersweet ending or having a major character death in the ending which seems to be the trend in kdramas recently. 

5. Nevertheless : The Shapes of Love

if you're familiar with the title, it's because this jdrama is a japanese remake of the kdrama "nevertheless" that was big in i wanna say 2021? i didn't watch the original version so i didn't know the detail of the storyline but because of  how big it was i know a little bit of the story, at least the tropes, which was a girl who was involved in a casual sexual relationship with a guy that she met in university after she got out of a toxic relationship. so i was walking into the jdrama with that knowledge. turns out they did some changes. the premise was still the same. the girl, her name was miu in the jdrama, met a guy, named ren, who just got back in japan after holding art exhibitions all around the world. they met in a bar, he was flirting with her and such. then the next day she found out he was her substitute professor. this was where it was kind of different from the korean version. in the kdrama, if i'm not mistaken the male lead was also a university student in the female lead's university. so there was more of a professionality and age barrier with miu and ren when they were in public. like they were physically unable to be close in public. but they were just, i wanna say 5 years apart max so it wasn't like ren was much more of an adult and miu was in her last year of university as well. ren had an affinity with butterflies. he had a butterfly tattoo, some of his works had butterfly vibes to them, he kept butterflies as pets in his place that he showed miu. they got much closer at one evening to the point that miu slept in ren's place. but ren acted like they were acquintances the next day so it was frustrating for miu. to add to her stress, ren introduced his partner in making art who was also his childhood friend, a girl named chiaki. then miu also found out that ren was at least helping a mural artist who had been displaying somewhat controversial murals throughout the university area. miu confronted ren about it with chiaki being there as well. that put a bit of distance between miu and ren. ren was seemingly closer with chiaki, miu started going out with a guy, named riku, who works at the restaurant near the university more. the latest episode ended with miu telling riku that she likes ren and ren telling chiaki who was later revealed to be terminally ill that he likes someone, and both riku and chiaki telling their respective love interests to go tell the person that they like their actual feeling. miu and ren were about to meet up but then a phonecall informed ren that chiaki passed away. with ren still grieving he was pushing everyone away, including miu until she has had enough of him. 

the reason why i wanted to watch the jdrama was because the actor that played ren, yokohama ryusei. i watched him in another jdrama that i watched a few years ago, and i was head over heels over him. when the news of him playing the male lead in the japanese version of nevertheless, i knew that he was gonna serve and i was gonna be eating. and obviously i was eating it all up. the way that he portrayed ren as a character was much more interesting and believable than the korean version. i felt like he actually cared about miu because he wasn't one of those cold, emotionally unavailable men. he was being so sweet with miu when they were alone that i felt like, if i were in miu's position, just let me be, i know what i'm doing. there was a discourse on twitter about this. basically the original poster was saying that compared to the cold, emotionally available to the front, male lead in the kdrama version the sweet when together, really gentle with the female lead, ren. even the way that they were looking at their respective female lead was so different. people said that they prefer the japanese version more and i actually agree. i feel like it's also due to ryusei's experience in acting compared to song kang (the actor for the male lead in the kdrama)'s experience in acting at the time he played the role. i was kind of afraid on how they were going to say that ren is a university student. i mean, ryusei didn't look that old and could still pass as a uni student but there were an apparent age gap in how they look. so i was a bit glad that they addressed it by making ren a substitute. 

there were also some side couples within miu's friend group. there's the friends to lovers, grumpy guy and sunshine girl which i think was really cute. their confession scene being on the rooftop during when the sun rises was so sweet. there was also a sapphic couple between miu's senior and miu's happy go lucky friend. they were roommates so their relationship evolved by themselves without miu being involved in it. i kinda forgot that nevertheless has a sapphic romance in it so when i watched it, i was like "good for you".

with the length of the episodes and the duration of each episode, i was quite happy. jdramas tend to be shorter than kdramas both in the duration of each episode and the number of episodes. there are 8 episodes in this jdrama with 20-35 minutes each. the downside to it is that some of the subplot wasn't that fleshed out but i don't really mind, honestly. as the time of the writing, 7 episodes were already out and i haven't seen the last one. i hope that it would be a good conflict resolution for miu and ren. 

so those are all the movies and tv shows that i watched this year. i finally managed to finish it before the year changed. they are good media to consume in my opinion. it's been a good year for media consuming to me. i hope that it'll be this good or even better next year.

i'll see you on the next post!