This season on Taiwanese TV...

[uisceros]

Summary of ratings for Taiwan's Idol Dramas: Performance of 'ToGetHer' is mediocre

First off, they changed the name of Superstar Express to "ToGetHer"?! No wonder the ratings suck... I hate it when there are those last minute changes to drama names (in english)... while the original titles aren't always great, the alternative titles are always 50% worse. Like, when they changed "Invincible Shan Bao Mei" to "Woody Sambo" (which is totally 'wtf territory' to me). Why can't they just do direct translations of the Chinese name?

But yes, I'm sad that Superstar Express (I REFUSE to call it ToGetHer) is doing badly. It stars some of my favorite people (Rainie, George Hu, and JIRO), is a love story involving an agoraphobe, and the theme song is one of my favoritest songs ever (越來越愛 by Fahrenheit!!). Even if it really DOES suck, I'll still watch it because OMG Jiro.

The article also mentions how Starlit is apparently pretty good. I'm glad, it's one of the dramas I was/am most looking forward to this season. I love Jerry Yan passionately, and Terri Kwan is amazing and beautiful. Plus, the ANGST! I just can't possibly watch it as it airs. Doing that with BBF is hard enough.

And how come I didn't know that Ethan Ruan had a new drama, Defeated Queen?! It sounds really good too! Older woman, younger guy... an eight year age difference too! I really liked Ethan in Fated to Love You. Watching him in other dramas (Hua Yang Shao Nian Shao Nu & Green Forest My Home) only proved to me that he was someone to watch out for. I'm looking forward to this drama, and all his future projects. Also, the main lady, Cheryl Yang, is beautiful.

Lastly, The Concerto has been getting good reviews, which really REALLY makes me happy, because I love Lee Wei, and wish him nothing but goodness and rainbows, and puppies, and butterflies. Esther Liu is in it as well, and I was impressed with her in Green Forest. And EDDIE PENG ♥♥♥♥♥♥!

When Black & White comes on, I AM going to be live-watching. It stars Zai Zai (love of my life), and Chuan Yi (not the love of my life, but close). Btw, the wiki.d-addicts site for this show has the BEST engrishy sentence ever used to summarize a drama ever; "When a case brought these two top crime solvers together, sparks flied and a little light peeked into this dark city where the nation's President is on friendly terms with the local mafia and twins kill people while drinking milkshake."

I've seen videos of Zai Zai practicing shooting guns, and holy shit is it hot. I also have recently discovered I like his shorter hair a lot better than I like his longer hair. It took me months to get used to it though. Oh Zai Zai, I still love your Mars era Farrah 'do as well.

Comments

[omizu.livejournal.com]

Well I liked Ethan in Fated to love you (currently still watching it) but I love love love Baron Chen! I really hope he does more.

[uisceros.livejournal.com]

It's funny, I didn't like Baron Chen at all (I didn't hate him, but I liked Ethan FAR more). I'm sure he will though, a lot of people really liked him.

Yay FtLY! The sex scene with the rockets and trains will never not be funny! (Plus, Chen Qiao En is my number 1 girlcrush)

[omizu.livejournal.com]

Excellent! I hope so. ^__^

My brother watched that with me, we were laughing HYSTERICALLY!!!

hhmm I don't know if I have a girlcrush on anyone.

[uisceros.livejournal.com]

That scene firmly established my love of Taiwan FOREVER. In the 'sequel' Invincible Shan Bao Mei, there's a scene where there's a naked photo of a guy, and they post a picture of a rocket over his penis. Not kidding. Refer to aliaspiral's post

[omizu.livejournal.com]

omg! I have to see that!!!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

You totally are my twdrama guru!

I have been excited for Black and White ever since I've heard of it - I am definitely watching live (and raw, if need be). When is it starting?

I've loved what I've seen of Starlit so far. But I have so little time lately, it's hard enough to keep up with BOF. I do look forward to binging at the first opportunity.

[uisceros.livejournal.com]

Hehe! Thanks! I try ;)

I wasn't terribly excited about it. It's not really my type of thing (my thing being romance), but the cast is making me excited. I guess it starts (tentatively, of course4) April 11th.

Hah, your lack of free time is totally understandable! I'm waiting until it's fully subbed. I really hate the wait between episodes, so I prefer to watch all at once.

[ambergold.livejournal.com]

...and here is where we diverge, as I can't STAND Ethan Ruan(FTLY ruined him forever for me). however, how did I not know that Superstar Express had already come out?? is it subbed yet? I was really excited about this one, I'm hoping the ratings are wrong :( And yeah, I don't get Woody Sambo either, I just call it Invincible.

Also, how are you going to watch Black and White(which I've been waiting for more impatiently than Superstar) live? I thought you lived on the East Coast?!

and yup. I've seen those pictures. ;) YUM. I'm STILL getting used to his hair though. Think I"ll always cherish the Mars do most.

[uisceros.livejournal.com]

I can see why FtLY would ruin him. His character is an asshole. I do not deny that. I still love him though. He's utterly charming in Green Forest.

It JUST came out. Only two episodes have aired, and as far as I know, there are no subs up yet. I don't care much about ratings on the whole (look at the best rated tv here. It's crap!), so I'll still watch it! Plus Jiiiiiirrro!

Well, not LIVE live, I just meant I'll watch it as the episodes air/are subbed, like how I'm doing with BBF now.

I LOOOOVE those pictures. God, Zai Zai, why are you SO AWESOME?!

It's taken me nearly 6 months to get used to his hair... but now I actually really like it. His Mars hair amuses the hell out of me. It will forever remind me of Farrah Fawcett. I love it as a novelty, but I wouldn't like him to have that hair all the time.

[your-insomnia.livejournal.com]

Hi, just wanted to drop by and say that the first two episodes of Superstar have aired and have been subbed (mysoju has it I think) and it's great! I really like it and don't understand how it can have bad ratings while mindless mess of a drama that was Miss No Good (lol the title sucks so much) showered in good ratings.

[uisceros.livejournal.com]

Oh thanks! I know that the first two have aired, but wasn't aware they had been subbed yet. Unfortunately I HATE to watch dramas streaming, so I'll just wait until they have them for download. It's not like I don't have anything else to watch... *eyes super long list of dramas I'm in the progress of watching* It's good to know that it doesn't suck though, as inevitably I WILL watch it because OMG JIRO!

I haven't seen Miss No Good yet either, but I will watch it solely for Michelle Chen because she is awesome. (Hah, even the translation of the Chinese title is horrid! Oh twdramas and their english titles...)

[your-insomnia.livejournal.com]

actually I believe that it's in really good quality on mysoju since it's somehow a dvd burn (I also hate streaming twdramas. why are they always in such low quality?)
Those dramas lists are so useless, for me at least because I watch dramas so randomly all the time. XD
Jiro is so freaking hot in Superstar I have NO WORDS. I've never seen him so sexy and charming. I liked him in ISWAK but his haircut and his clothing are to die for in Superstar.

I don't know who comes up with the title translations for those dramas but they should be fired. Miss No Good? Really? WHY?? What was wrong with Bad Campus Belle (original title)? Okay it doesn't make any sense but at least it sounded somewhat nice...

[ambergold.livejournal.com]

Mm, the quality on mysoju is actually pretty bad imo - not the worst I've seen, but very far from DVD quality. I'm sad :(

[uisceros.livejournal.com]

It might be TAIWANESE DVD quality. I have the original DVDs of Why Why Love and ISWAK, and I was surprised at how sucky the picture was... The quality of Taiwanese dramas continues to baffle me.

[your-insomnia.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying it is DVD quality it's just a rip from dvd as opposed to TV. Mysoju doesn't really put on good quaility videos (well of course cuz it's a site for streaming videos) but compared to some other examples (like iswak, is so bad you can't distinguish faces), the quality is not the worse. ^^

[uisceros.livejournal.com]

You're right, it's actually not bad at all. (I've resigned myself to the suckiness of twdrama production quality. Even the non streaming stuff sucks in comparison to jdramas or kdramas)

I need lists in order to remember what I want to watch, and how many episodes of each I've watched. But I usually don't plan what to watch next... they're just a reference.

I'm REALLY loving his new look for the new Fahrenheit album (and it looks like it's translating into the drama as well).

Hehehe! I know! Usually the Mandarin translations are a ton better (Bad Campus Belle is the closest thing to a translation of the Chinese... it does sound better than Miss No Good though!)

[ambergold.livejournal.com]

yes!! you are my soulmate(practically) I was gonna watch Miss No Good for Michelle Chen(high five uisceros) but that idea faded after one episode of it. Absolute crap. I never understood how it could possibly be getting such good ratings. Superstar on the other hand is adorable..I watched the first two episodes last night

[your-insomnia.livejournal.com]

lol I was just about to comment on your journal about how I also thought that To Get Her is somewhat similar to Mars. And I think that Jiro Wang is so hot in it. His haircaut, his glasses, his PINK jacket. I'm dying. XD

[ambergold.livejournal.com]

I KNOW, right?? they're really playing up his sexuality, too...all those ridiculously open-necked shirts and random shots of his...I won't say anymore so we don't spoil uisceros ;)

[uisceros.livejournal.com]

RANDOM SHOTS OF WHHHAATT?! Gah! I need to watch this NOW! Tsk tsk! Tempting me with awesome Jiro action. Mmmmm Jiro.

[uisceros.livejournal.com]

Yay Michelle Chen! I loved her SO MUCH in WtSYA, and WWL.

ToGetHer

[(Anonymous)]

aww, ToGetHer doesn't sound THAT bad!
And honestly, i don't really see why its ratings aren't good.. I think it's really cute! Maybe the start wasn't so great.. but the later episodes are really nice!
So maybe i did initially only watch it for Jiro, but the story isn't bad..
It's getting better, actually!
*..Mars & Momo..* <3


Oooh, talking about TW drama's to look forward to, Calling Big Star (another weird name) starring Mike He!
I can't wait! =)

Re: ToGetHer

[uisceros.livejournal.com]

Hehe! I first heard of this drama a few months ago, and it was called Superstar Express. I got used to that name. Suddenly changing it kinda bothered me. ToGetHer isn't horrible, but it's a little too kitchy for me.

I'm pretty sure competition is why the ratings aren't great. It plays at the same time as My Queen, which is hugely popular in Taiwan. As much as I love Superstar Express, I do think My Queen is a better quality drama on the whole.

Hehe! I think a lot of people starting watching for Jiro, and stayed for the lovely chemistry between him and Rainie. And Geroge, or course!

Hehe! Calling Big Star does have a strange name! I'm a little confused on the plot on that one, but I think I'll watch it eventually (though I'm going to be busy watching Black & White for awhile!). I adore Mike He, so it's only natural for me to watch it!