Split Screen: Get Quote Unquote Roasted

Thanks for tuning in to Split Screen: A Watch This! Off-Topic Corner Production. Your trusty intro host Madelyn here. Just like on the podcast, where we talk about one old game and one new game each week and then try to mash them up, on Split Screen, we talk about one k-drama and one anime and try to decide which fictional school is more likely to be sued! Yep, exactly the same format.

Return viewers/readers will remember that last week, we watched our Boys Over Flowers romantic leads almost freeze to death thanks to employee negligence, and saw as nothing happened on My Hero Academia. Here’s hoping for some warmer weather in Korea and some non-flashback action in future Japan this week!

(New to Split Screen? No worries! The blog is best enjoyed by watching along, but we think we’re funny even with minimal context. If you want to catch up, check out previous entries here)

Boys Over Flowers Episode 4 (from minute 33)

E: I’m so disappointed that she’s evil

M: I mean, I think we should have seen it coming. She was such a bad friend last week

E: I mean, I know, and I did see it coming, but I wish that we’d been wrong

M: The moment she faked sick to manipulate her friend’s relationship choices was the moment I knew something was not right. Also, she’s super rich, which on this show, is basically a guarantee that she is at least a little bit evil. 

E: Anyway, just in case you read these discussions but don’t watch the episodes, we pick up with Jan-di visiting her quote unquote SICK quote unquote FRIEND. You know, the one who almost had to lick Jun-pyo’s shoes. Said friend freaks out the minute Jan-di picks up her kindergarten yearbook.

M: Cue ominous music.

E: We didn’t see what was in it yet, but I imagine it’s hearts around Jun-pyo.

M: 100% Or crazy voodoo or something.

E: This episode, going back to last week too, was just Emma’s nightmare scenarios. First, getting stuck in a cold with a person who literally might die, then waking up in an unfamiliar room with no idea how I got there.

M: To be fair, I don’t think those are anyone’s idea of fun.

E: But I’m hoping that her friend only staged the photos and nothing else happened. For the quote unquote PROOF of cheating. I mean, she’s evil, but I hope the show isn’t making her that evi.

M: Yeah, there’s already a lot of evidence that she’s a full-on villain. One: she roofied her close friend. She arranged that. That’s effed up. And two, later in the episode, and this is jumping ahead quite a bit here, she has a tremendously embarrassing meltdown in front Jun-pyo where she confesses her jealousy of the commoner. I don’t think this episode is the last of that nonsense

E: I’m sure the storyline will continue, despite it not being on the “next on” for whatever reason.

M: The thing I’m most excited for is to see the results of F2’s sleuthing!

E: I want an F2 detective spinoff please, thank you.

M: It was far more entertaining and, on a technical level, interestingly shot, than anything else the show has done so far.

E: Except for that weird dancing. It was shot like there was a strobe light going on or something. It was weirdly jerky.

M: On a related note, what happened to Jan-di not wanting to be Jun-pyo’s girlfriend? Can the detective team solve that mystery for me?

E: Her reaction to being quote unquote EXPOSED for cheating might be more in response to the inherent humiliation of the situation than anything to do with liking or not liking Jun-pyo.

M: I get that, but especially based on the “Next On” montage, it seems like we’ve made a hard right turn into full-blown romance. I’m not entirely displeased, because it’s completely validated my assertions that this is really a Pride and Prejudice adaptation.

E: Nothing more Pride & Prejudice than skeet shooting and k-pop

M: Darcy would totally skeet shoot. Doesn’t he take Lizzy’s uncle hunting in the book? When she’s randomly visiting Pemberley?

E: You’re right, you’re right. On second thought, skeet shooting and k-pop are very Pride & Prejudice.

M: In both Pride and Prejudice and Boys Over Flowers, our female protagonist is humiliated by a sex scandal, and only then does she realize that she’s in love with the snooty love interest. It matches up. Darcy never gave himself a normcore makeover though.

E: I couldn’t figure out if the straight hair was another wig or his real hair

M: It’s a much better wig, if so. By which I mean more realistic, not like “better” more attractive.

E: Speaking of that whole scene, I felt like the tone jumped all over the place this episode. The normie makeover needed to be before the club scene, even if it fell out of chronological order. I got whiplash from that.

M: I think it reads differently in 2018. Jan-di waking up after having been drugged at a club felt like a very very dark development to me, and it’s pretty clear from the way the show handled this event and the aftermath that it wasn’t intended to be that way. 

E: The background music and the way it was shot particularly made it seem like something less than I perceived it to be.

M: The stakes were whether or not she cheated, not whether or not she was literally assaulted. Definitely not how that scene would go down on a post-Me Too show. Objectively, it’s probably good that we don’t see Jan-di’s mind go there, because it seems like it was all just staged for photos and nothing actually happened. 

E: That’s what I’m hoping, yeah.

M: The real question is: will F2 have the accomplice guy murdered?

E: They got very into their detective gig. Speaking F2, we know one name now! Yi-jung. Maybe. This is a huge accomplishment for me, and I am very proud of myself.

M: Do we think Yi-jung is going to date Jan-di’s friend? Her real friend, the poor one, not her fake friend with the chronic illness of jerkhood.  

E: Yes, the one that works at the diner, I know. Sure seems that way! They’ve introduced that plot at least, so they’re probably going to follow it somewhere.

M: So it’s like a Jane Bennett and Mr. Bingley sitch.

E: Except he’s not quite as quote unquote puppy dog as Bingley.

M: True, at least that we know of so far. Hopefully the writers hook Jan-di’s boss up with a rich lady too. 

E: I enjoyed that the manger thought the tattoo in that photo looked like dust because it really didn’t.

M: He’s not involved in this whole conspiracy; he doesn’t understand these crazy dealings. Speaking of conspiracies, let’s talk about the Tomato Party.

E: There were no tomatoes so far. False advertising.

M: I thought the balloons were going to be full of tomato sauce, but they weren’t. Missed opportunity there. 

E: I guess it’s like a metaphor for “get off the stage?” But I expected real tomatoes.

M: Instead all we got was brutality. Jan-di’s family, in this episode alone, could sue like a dozen different people.

E: Her family can definitely pull themselves out of middle classness now just with a few good lawsuits.

M: They do not have to do laundry anymore. Although her dad would probably gamble all of their pay-outs away, so maybe it’s for the best. 

E: Even though they were clearly fake once I looked at them, Jan-di falling off her bike and getting her knees all busted gave me flashbacks to that one time I skinned my knee bad by falling off the bike. I still have a scar from then.

M: I knew that’s why it was bothering you.

E: Having had that experience, I’m super impressed that she could stand. I mean, maybe it was shock setting in, but still.

M: She’s taken a lot of beatings the past few weeks, maybe she’s increased her tolerance.

E: It’s supposed to show she’s resilient, right? When she says “do more,” that’s actually pretty effective for me. She did it with the eggs and flour last time too.

M: It mostly showed me that she’s not that smart. It’s a real tough guy move to ask for more punishment, but how is your family going to pay to replace that uniform…again?

E: Well, if I had to guess from the “next on,” Jun-pyo’s gonna pay for everything.

M: Related question: is Jun-pyo going to have everyone at the school whacked in retaliation? I have a lot of murder-related questions this week.

E: Would not put it past him. Every F4 member could take them out with a snap of their fingers.

M: Speaking of F4, can you believe that Ji-hoo is back already?

E: Well, not yet!

M: Yeah, but almost certainly next episode. I thought he was following his heart!

E: Clearly something went wrong.

M: He left for a fully half an episode. Some romantic gesture.

E: He might not come back until the end of next, so it could be a whole episode and a half.

M: Wow. That’s not even the length of a solid vacation.

E: Anyway, Ji-hoo returning is a good transition to the Romance Tracker. Madelyn, you go first

M: It’s so hard! Am I picking who I want to prevail or who I think the show will pair her with?

E: I think it’s pretty clear at this point who the show is going to pair her with.

M: But this is what, episode five? We’ve got a long road ahead for it to be so obvious. 

E: Maybe they’ll do the revolutionary thing and show a couple in a relationship instead of ending with the resolution of the “will they, won’t they.”

M: That’s boring. Insert snoozing emoji here, am I right? (EDITOR EMMA: No, I won’t) Nobody wants to watch them argue about what to have for dinner, or who’s going to do the dishes, or any of the glamorous stuff that Clickbait Boyfriend and I talk about.

E:  Somehow, I think the relationship would be more contentious than yours and CBB’s.

M: We’ve fooled you! All we do is argue about Kingdom Hearts. You’re probably right though, mostly because we are not rich.

E: Mo money, mo problems.

M: Gross. Anyway, my prediction this week is…I dunno, I really thought the drugging guitarist guy was going to be a new love interest, so my intuitions clearly aren’t great.

E: Hey, it’s Boys Over Flowers, don’t count him out of the running yet.

M: You never know. This week, I’m going with some kind of brother-husband harem. I don’t know how Jan-di ever chooses between Jun-pyo and Ji-hoo, so maybe she just doesn’t, and they all live in a duplex mansion.

E: I feel like you make that prediction every week.

M: Usually it’s my back-up guess. This week, it’s the full prediction.

E: I do want a new quote unquote threat to hit the scene sometime in the next few episodes.

M: Maybe someone from her world, who doesn’t have enough money to go to Shinwa and buy expensive goggles. And who doesn’t have a perm or bleach his hair.

E: For my non-romantic prediction, I believe that by the end of the next episode, the evil friend will get a tomato party sans tomatoes. But, because Jan-di’s a nice person, she’ll end up helping her out of it.

M: That’s actually a good prediction. I would buy that. My non-romantic prediction is that at some point either Jun-pyo in his Maserati or Ji-Hoo on his motorscooter gets into a traumatic accident.

E: Neither of them practice good safe driving habits. Drive the speed limit, okay readers?

M: I think it’s a set up for tragedy. Actually, that would be one way to avoid brother husbands. One of them dies. Drama!!

 

My Hero Academia S1E9: Yeah, Just Do Your Best Iida!

E: So, did enough happen for you?

M: More happened this week and there were fewer flashbacks, so I can accept this.

E: The only flashback sequence in this episode was filtered through All-Might’s internal monologue. I tend to find those more acceptable because it is honestly more interesting than just watching someone’s face most of the time.

M: Yeah, I usually feel like internal monologues are unnecessary. Admittedly, that’s my theatrical side talking. I just feel like a good actor should be able to convey a lot of what their character is thinking through physicality. 

E: Um, but isn’t a monologue just an internal monologue

M: You would be mistaking a monologue for a soliloquy. Rookie mistake.

E: Okay, then isn’t a soliloquy just an internal monologue?

M: Yeah, but in theatre, unless I’m going with my good buddy Jun-pyo and have good seats, I’m sitting way at the back of the giant Broadway house and can’t see facial expressions very well at all. Or, throwing it back to Elizabethan times, I’m in a sea of groundlings and I don’t have glasses and I need Shakespeare and his buddies to tell me what they’re thinking. In film and TV, we can see everything a character’s face is doing if the director wants us to, so there’s really no excuse.

I don’t really hold quite this extreme of a position. I got a little carried away there, but I do generally find internal monologues to be a lazy device.

E: Anyway, there was only that one, so let’s not get too hung up on it.

M: in this essay, I will–

E: ANYWAY, the episode begins by letting us know that the media has descending upon U.A. because of All-Might becoming a teacher there.

M: Fake news. Actually, I read an interesting article that I think relates to this, but first, would we consider heroes in the MHA world to be  more akin to celebrities or athletes?

E: What is that distinction?

M: So we can decide how to classify these reporters. Are they sports reporters waiting for a kind of post-game press conference with athletic stars? Or is it more of a tabloid paparazzi situation?

E: That’s actually an interesting question. I imagine there’s a little bit of both. Like celebrity athletes, so you get some personality fluff and some hard stats.

M: I read this interesting article recently about how we take sports journalism seriously and consider tabloid writing trash, even though much of how they write and what they report on is very similar. The author makes the point that the distinction is likely because sports journalism is aimed at men, whereas tabloids are generally women’s media. I thought it was fascinating.

Anyway, this is turning into a gigantic tangent, but basically, on the show, we were not encouraged to take these journalists seriously. They were treated like nuisances, even though it’s kind of a huge story that the biggest hero on the planet is becoming a teacher! Like if a giant sports star decided to coach a college team, that would be big news! 

E: To be fair, the better thing for the media to do would be to call a publicist, not swarm a school of minors.

M: Does All-Might have a publicist? Is he really that put together?

E: You know, fair. I don’t know if he has a publicist. I’m sure U.A. must have a public relations department.

M: Why didn’t they handle it then? Why were teachers pulled from class? UA has a serious management problem.

E: Well, Aizawa’s class was at lunch, so I guess he wasn’t pulled from class. And honestly, Present Mic might be the public relations department, he seems like a solid choice.

M: Tax dollars wasted. Do they really each only teach one class per day? Or not even per day, like one class twice a week? No way. That’s not a job, that’s a hobby.

E: U.A. is all about hip experiential learning.

M: Someone should audit this school. It is not running very efficiently

E: They are also Pro Heroes on the side. So, I imagine they work at U.A. part time in addition to their actual hero duties, whatever those might be.

M: Ahhh, so they’re adjuncts. I take it all back; they’re probably chronically underpaid. Living wage for heroes!

E: Yes, sure.

M: Speaking of management, I heard briefly at some point that UA has other majors?

E: Yes, they have Hero, Support, Management, and General.

M: It’s just like theatre school! Is Support like, sidekick training?

E: I won’t tell you what it is, but no, it’s not sidekick training.

M: I figured. Just trying to make a joke.

E: You think you’re funny, but you’re not.

M: Thanks mom.

E: While the media storm ensues, 1-A is tasked with picking a class representative.

M: Who else voted for DDs?

E: Hmmmmmmmmmmm…………

M: Clickbait Boyfriend just raised his hand in the background here. Yuck.

E: I do feel bad for Momo. Iida just leapfrogged over her for the top position. Talk about being a woman in the workplace.

M: Seriously. Passed over for an outside hire. Still, I knew from a mile away, which is not really the correct phrase here but roll with me, that Iida was going to end up with it.

E: I mean, the episode is titled “Yeah, Just Do Your Best Iida!”

M: That could have referred to him losing!

E: Fair enough, it could have.

M: Iida in a position of power is me in every leadership role I have ever held.

E: Madelyn sees herself in this show too much.

M: It’s just a constant game of “that’s me.” Emma only sees herself in the burrito people.

E: Honestly, just an icon.

M: As the kids say, “big mood.”

E: Once all that is sorted out, the students head for Rescue Training at Universal Studios Japan.

M: If only. How do you do acronyms in a language like Japanese?

E: You know, I don’t know? I mean, there are symbols for syllables, so maybe there’s corresponding hiragana? But they do also say “USJ” in the Japanese version, like with the English letters, so they might just be doing it in English period. USJ is an intentional joke

M: I want to do more research on this, because I feel like this isn’t the first time I’ve wondered. Anyway, if I was in a live training situation, and my hero teachers were like “stay back, this time it’s real,” I would laugh, and dive right in. Not falling for that dumb trick to raise the stakes. Gonna get my A+.

E: Okay. I’m glad that right after the lecture of “be careful with your quirk or you’ll hurt somebody!” you would just dive right in.

M: Oh yeah, “it’s real,” sure, okay, eat my dust kids.

E: So you don’t think it’s real?

M: I know it’s a real threat because Deku told me in a voiceover that it’s legit, but if I was actually existing in that situation, I would have been like, let’s kick…what’s a Universal Studios character? Let’s kick Shrek’s butt

E: Is Shrek a Universal character?

M: Probably not. (EDITOR EMMA: Well, Dreamworks is owned by Universal)

E: Well, I guess we’ll see student responses next episode.

M: Time for Lawsuit Watch! Who’s in the lead this week?

E: Shinhwa. I mean, villains are bad but not as bad as tripwire on your daughter’s bike. And Jan-di got physically hurt this episode while the villains have yet to do anything substantial besides look creepy.

M: I can’t argue with you there. I do think that U.A. is in for a Freedom of Information Act kind of situation, if their government has those kinds of transparency laws. The media deserves to know what goes on inside what is essentially the police academy.

E: I guess so, but isn’t it complicated by the fact that it would involve minors?

M: Yeah, and they could probably redact most of it. So I’m totally wrong, thanks Emma.

E: Ah, just the usual.

M: We should rename this series: Madelyn Gets Roasted. Maybe the whole podcast too.

E: That can be the subtitle this week.

M: Should I make some predictions? I continue to be on a real losing streak.

E: Want the episode title like normal?

M: Lay it on me.

E: Episode 10 is called Encounter with the Unknown

M: Okay first of all, we know what they’re about to encounter, so lame title.

E: Wow Madelyn, not all villains are the same. That’s villainist.

M: Zing, roasted again. Anyway, Bakugo does something idiotic that almost gets himself killed.

E: 

M: Oh man, this is hard because I don’t know anything about the vast majority of these characters.

E: That’s never stopped you before, Madelyn.

M: Stick a fork in me, I’m done. Okay, here goes: they have to use the natural disaster zones strategically to defeat the villains.

E: 

M: That one was lame, but I need at least one correct prediction to bring up my average. The teacher…I was going to say he dies, but he can’t because he’s in the theme song.

E: If it changes your mind, the theme change every 12 to 13 episodes. (The second and fourth openings are my personal favorites).

M: Yeah, but this isn’t episode 12, soooo nice try. I won’t be fooled. He probably has to suck away one of the student’s powers to prevent a massacre. They were just talking about how the class needs to be more careful in a real world situation, so someone is going to go overboard and endanger everyone.

E:

M: One last one: Deku’s mom files a complaint about UA.
E:

M: Deku needs time for an afternoon snack, after all. These snackless, villain conditions are unacceptable. 

–
Hey everyone! Emma here! As always thanks for watching along with us and/or reading our thoughts on the events of each episode! Next week, we’ll be diving into the thick of things with violence on both sides of the screen. Also, we’ll be watching together! It’s a summer miracle. We’re watching Boys Over Flowers on Netflix and My Hero Academia (dub) on Hulu in case you’ve decided to catch up with us!

Tune in for the beginning of Boys Over Flowers episode 5 where we find out just how many people Jun-pyo will have killed. I’m guessing twenty. And then, we’ll also watch My Hero Academia Episode 10 where Mineta makes his first official appearance, and I start wishing for his disappearance. Oh, and I guess some cool things maybe happen. Maybe.

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