Split Screen: Truth or Dare or Summer Camp Scare?

Thanks for tuning in to Split Screen! It’s your intro host Madelyn here, basking in some spring weather in real life and some summer fun in TV world! This week, we have one of the most cohesive (and consequently, delightful) episodes of Boys Over Flowers in recent memory, and a visit to My Hero Academia summer training that makes me glad that I spent my summers at drama camp. Truthfully, it’s an action-packed edition of Split Screen! Read on…if you dare!

(New to Split Screen? We’re happy to have you! Catch up on all the twists and turns here.)

 

Boys Over Flowers Episode 19 (from minute 33)

M: As halves of a Boys Over Flowers go, this was pretty well constructed!

E: Yeah, the only things I’d say that was a little weird was how little fallout there was from the Yi-jung and Ga-eul stuff. And also it ended in a bit of a weird place. But otherwise, very solid.

M: Almost everyone was in the same place for once. We really only had one storyline running through this half, which is rare on this show.

E: It stopped to have some fun too, which I feel like has been lacking on Boys Over Flowers lately.

M: No one is actively dating, so there’s not as much silliness.

E: But, I mean, there was the makeover montage (of a house this time, but still) and some nice F4 and others shenanigans, which are staples of the show and yet have been absent as of late.

M: What happened at the beginning? The truth or dare scene was so good that I forgot.

E: We also had some technical difficulties, so I wasn’t super paying attention to the first scene, but Jan-di and Jun-pyo had an argument, Jun-pyo ate raw noodles…

M: Oh right, that scene was a joy. Think about them filming that, he’s just chomping down on a block of ramen.

E: Those things are really hard and sometimes sharp too, just from breaking them apart to cook myself. So, I honestly don’t know how you can just chomp into them.

M: Good save there. “Just from breaking them apart, uh, I don’t eat them by the brick or anything, ha ha, never!”

E: I don’t! I’ve actually scraped my skin like cracking them though.

M: Jun-pyo has a stronger jaw than you.

E: My hands! But also, yes probably. I grind my teeth.

M: I cannot imagine a world in which Jun-pyo isn’t a chronic teeth grinder.

E: That’s fair, that’s a valid headcanon.

M: I almost forgot about the true highpoint of this episode, possibly the highpoint of the series. Domino’s! Eat as much as you want! Enjoy it!

E: That logo for the brief second it was shown really did look like Domino’s even if the pizza was fancy.

M: I’m so disappointed that Kang-san didn’t spill the beans. Or the pizza, if you will.

E: I’m so disappointed that we won’t get more Kang-san for a while!

M: Her parents will be back.

E: I don’t really mind if her parents don’t come back.

M: Good riddance, gambler dad!

E: They’ve had some good moments in the show, but I also don’t miss them.

M: If they don’t come back, it will be because the Chairwoman had them murdered. If they do come back, the Chairwoman will have them murdered.

E: See, it sounds like a joke, but I honestly believe the Chairwoman would do that. She got demolition to begin on Jan-di’s apartment complex before they were even evacuated.

M: She came to Jan-di’s house in the middle of the night and quasi-accused her of selling her body to every single member of F4 in the presence of her little brother?

E: Yeah, and then she insinuated that all of Jun-pyo’s actions are Jan-di’s fault because she didn’t explicitly tell him to go away. Which is a little…eh?

M: Weird pivot from those kinds of blatant scary threats to suddenly begging Jan-di to stonewall Jun-pyo.

E: Her character is really one that just swings wherever the plot needs her.

M: I wish she could stay consistent, at least within a single scene. This wildly oscillating characterization might be more interesting, honestly, but it’s hard to track.

E: Maybe she’s just realized in the course of that scene that threats aren’t really going to work and she needs to change her tact, but I don’t know.

M: She ruined the first housewarming party attempt. I don’t know what Ji-hoo thinks went down with Jun-pyo and that apartment.

E: Ji-hoo is an enigma. But I don’t think he thinks anything scandalous went down.

M: I know, but has he figured out that his so-called best friend bought an apartment next to their shared ex-girlfriend?

E: I mean, yes, likely.

M: Fortunately we got an excellent second housewarming party. Surely better than the potential first.

E: The apartment was very cute until it was demolished in the span of fifteen minutes.

M: I was so sad for the scenic team who had to revamp that room only for it never to be seen again.

E: Boys Over Flowers, you could be putting your budget in so many other places if you just hadn’t written this small thing.

M: It was delightful to watch them all put up wallpaper only about sixty percent in character.

E: I wish they could have stayed in this set a little longer, whether they arrived earlier or left later.

M: It was pretty. The paint dried crazy fast, but I’ll ignore that.

E: Anyway, the real main event, the crown jewel, the mainstage, the pinnacle of the cake was the truth or dare scene.

M: There was a mixed metaphor or two in there.

E: I don’t know what you’re talking about.

M: That scene was not only a really nice reminder of the fact that everyone in the crew is a teenager (and I love me a good “everybody plays some kind of a game” scene), but it also neatly brought together so many different aspects of the characters, while also advancing the plot a bit. Nice work, writers’ room.

E: I feel like it was missing one light question to kick it off, but overall, yeah, very solid work.

M: What game is Ji-hoo playing, asking that question to Jun-pyo?

E: Jun-pyo doesn’t know exactly how much pressure his mother has been putting on Jan-di, the scene on the rooftop just being the latest in a string, so I feel like he was just wondering how far Jun-pyo wanted to take this.

M: I guess so. It’s a weird question to ask, especially coming from someone who’s obviously interested in Jan-di. It’s just a risk.

E: Define risk?

M: I thought that Jun-pyo’s answer hat he is going to keep fighting as long as it takes, basically, left a real opening for him and Jan-di to finally kind of reconcile? Granted, she shut that down on her turn, but it seems like it could have mortally wounded Ji-hoo’s chances, if she had reacted differently.

E: I agree, but I feel like he’s settled into the position of he just wants people he cares about to be happy- Ji-hoo, I mean.

M: That’s why I was confused. I didn’t know if he expected Jun-pyo to say no or if he was trying to get the two of them to admit they still had feelings for each other or what. It was interesting.

E: I think he was feeling out that situation because he wasn’t sure.

M: That would explain my confusion. Bold move of Jun-pyo to mention a romantic promise he had made to Jan-di while literally sitting two feet from his fiancee.

E: They promised to make kimchi together again one day. Or something like that, no need to worry.

M: But now Jan-di’s shoulder is hurt, and she can’t! That person is gone.

E: That explains it!

M: Nothing to see here.

E: Let’s move on to asking which member of F4 Woo-bin would like to marry.

M: That was a prime use of Woo-bin.

E: What did he say about all of them? I only remember fourth-dimensional for Ji-hoo.

M: Egotistical…maniac, I think. And cold-hearted Casanova.

E: Oh right, can’t forget that slick alliteration in the subs.

M: Also spotted: Ji-hoo smooching Yi-jung.

E: I guess because he “no commented” even though he kind of said something.

M: It was a good way to play it off, like he wants a romance with Yi-jung.

E: The most unexpected love triangle. I was shocked when there was a small scene with just Ji-hoo and Ga-eul. It felt so wrong.

M: She’s from 2008, he’s from 2000 and late.

E: We’re all about Bang Bang Boom here, not Boom Boom Pow.

M: I didn’t even think about how similar the titles are. Shall we track some romance?

E: I don’t know! We know that somehow Jan-di will become a maid in the Gu household, somehow with the Chairwoman there? That’s what’s most confusing.

M: Kang-san is on her side. That’s all that matters. Fighting!

E: I think we’re going to have some sort of Jan-di and Jun-pyo endgame, I just don’t know how we get there.

M: Please, let me have one episode at the end where they’re happily together. I don’t want to have to wait until the last five minutes of the series finale for them to work it out.

E: I feel like you’re wishing on a monkey’s paw.

M: Uh…yeah. That’s the kind of thing they’d sell you on Jun-pyo’s private island.

E: No, they don’t sell things there, they display them for rich people to look at like Ji-hoo with that small child and the flowers. Do you remember that?

M: Yes, I do. What’s going to happen with this lucky charm, and Ga-Eul, and Yi-jung, and the pottery teacher?

E: See, that part ended on a weird place. Because he arrived while Ga-eul was working, cut to Jan-di and Kang-san at the train station, end episode.

M: Next week is going to be a big one. I can feel it.

E: They’re all big ones!

M: Non-romantic prediction: do you think the grandpa died?

E: Oh yeah! What happened to the grandpa!

M: Radio silence.

E: I don’t think they’d kill him off-screen. We’re not locked into a perspective in this show, so I think they’d milk his death for all it’s worth.

M: We shall see.

 

My Hero Academia S3E2: “Wild, Wild Pussycats”

EDITOR EMMA: We decided to skip season 1 episode 1 because I could not take a whole blog post of Madelyn whining about flashbacks. Thank me later. If you’re watching along with us and also skipped it, here’s what you need to know.

It’s a pool episode! Mineta and Kaminari drag Midoriya along with the intention of seeing girls in bikinis and instead get roped into hardcore training with the rest of the boys. Well, almost the rest. Bakugo and Kirishima come late because Kirishima went out of his way to drag Bakugo there. All the boys then have a race in which everyone cheats. The final three are, of course, Deku, Kacchan, and the Hand Crusher but their race is cut off by Eraserhead. What a terrible man.

In the shadows, the villains are plotting. UA decides to move their training camp to a new location at the last minutes, but Shigaraki in his shady villain karaoke bar seems confident about something….

Now on to episode 2!

E: So, this is the one episode of My Hero Academia that really just does not work for me on any level. I don’t know if I can really describe why I don’t enjoy it so much in words, but everything just feels off. I don’t know.

M: It’s overly nasty! After they put so much thought into the final exam pairings and executed that elegantly (with a few exceptions), just throwing the first years into a forest is pretty weak.

E: For me, I feel like there’s too much stuff happening that’s all very different tones and so none of it really works. Like, the action’s fine but not great, none of humor really works for me, and then the serious stuff at the end just feels like tonal whiplash.

M: Especially because it’s about characters we’ve never met before. These weirdly sexualized cat ladies the show introduced ten minutes before. 

E: I personally don’t find them particularly sexualized, but I guess I understand. And I also understand the point is to continue adding viewpoints of heroism to Deku’s mind, but it just doesn’t build correctly.

M:  There were nice character moments here and there. A lot of gratuitous nudity, which is new for the show.

E: This is like the only episode where it’s gratuitous. I mean, there’s been fanservice-y stuff before and there continues to be that stuff, but this one (and it’s on both sides to be fair, although the girls are way more exposed), is just weirdly out there- literally.

M: Nice one! They were just all so naked. It was scary.

E: That’s the other part about the serious stuff at the end- Deku is still in the little towel they give for you for the hot springs. Like, somebody give this teenager some pants.

M: Are there no robes to put on when they get out? Full-sized towels?

E: There are, but he was probably worried about Kota who had passed out, so I understand him not grabbing one at the time. But there was more than enough time for one of the heroes to brew some tea from when he brought Kota in, so he could have gotten some pants.

M: I wouldn’t want to be walking around like that!

E: #GiveOurHeroStudentsPants2019

M: When did Aizawa become a mean teacher?

E: He’s always been a mean teacher.

M: It’s been getting worse and worse. At the beginning, he was a competent teacher compared to All-Might’s ridiculousness, but now he’s just nasty.

E: I don’t feel like he was particularly worse than he usually is or even particularly bad at all this episode.

M: He wouldn’t let Mineta pee.

E: He just didn’t stop somewhere with an actual bathroom. Mineta could have gone whenever he wanted. I’m sure the bus had a bathroom, maybe?

M: Didn’t seem that way.

E: Well still. Go before you leave Mineta.

M: And that seemingly eight-hour-plus-long forest journey? In school skirts?

E: Well, he picked heroes that aren’t good at teaching, sure, that’s his mistake. But the actual lesson plan itself was more the Pussycats’ idea.

M: He didn’t let them shower before dinner!

E: They were hungry! Did he actually say, “you are forbidden from showering?”

M: He didn’t say they were literally forbidden, but he did say dinner THEN you can get cleaned up.

E: Oh, you’re right. Get this man fired. I mean, I’m all for the Aizawa hate train usually, but I don’t think he was particularly at fault this episode.

M: #FireAizawa2019

E: But this is supposed to be an intensive training camp. He said they’re trying to cram a whole semester’s worth of work into like a week.

M: Whose idea was that? What idiot decided that was okay?

E: Principal Small Animal

M: He’s supposed to be a genius.

E: He also likes dropping rocks on his students.

M: Remember when all the kids got blasted down into the forest?

E: She can control the earth, I’m sure she made sure the landing was safe.

M: Sure, yeah. Totally.

E: She can control it well enough that she can make monsters out of the earth, I think she can handle a landing.

M: I still think they could have worked together to fly people to the camp.

E: I don’t think so. I’m doubting this plan you came up with.

M: Might have taken multiple trips, I’ll acknowledge that, but they could have done it.

E: Okay, just logistically. Bakugo probably would have refused to carry anyone. Uraraka could probably make a few people weightless at a time, so that would help. Momo could maybe make some sort of flying device. Todoroki can sort of ice skate in the air maybe? I’m out.

M: Okay, look, this wouldn’t be comfortable, but we’ve got, if we lump Deku in there, (and let me explain why), and also Dark Shadow–

E: I don’t think Dark Shadow can carry Tokoyami though, and I don’t know if he could extend it carrying someone all the way across the forest in day time. And Deku couldn’t get above tree level with his dashes, so that doesn’t remove the threat of the monsters.

M: Fine fine fine. Uraraka makes three people weightless at a time. Tape Man ties them to Todoroki. He ice skates them across the forest. Rinse and repeat.

E: There are just some flaws. I don’t know.

M: Like a flying ice balloon.

E: You know what, that would at least have been fun to watch so I’ll agree with you and say its flawless.

M: In the meantime, Momo makes a belly-button airplane, everyone else flies over.

E: The three people strapped to Todoroki stare up at the sky in betrayal.

M: Now that I’ve rewritten the whole episode,  let’s talk about lawsuits and I’ll see if anything else comes to me.

E: Uh, Jan-di maybe has a case against the demolition crew depending on her lease? She at least should have notified.

M: I think she has a case regardless. Obviously she’s subletting from that woman in the doctor’s office, but you can’t knock a building down when someone’s in it.

E: I wouldn’t say there was anything particularly special lawsuit-wise in My Hero. It was the normal danger level. Below average even.

M: Yeah, the avalanche was a little uncool, but not as bad as your house collapsing around you.

E: Mineta can get a time out or something.

M: Oh yeah. Poor Mineta.

E: No.

M: Even calf-boy Iida couldn’t stop him.

E: Stop.

M: No, he couldn’t stop him, that’s what I said.

E: 🙁

M: Should have done a Mineta face, missed opportunity.

E: I had enough of Mineta’s face this episode.

M: So, season three, here we come!

E: Ready for the next episode title?

M: Yeah! I do want to throw out there that I wasn’t a huge fan of the opening sequence yet. There’s too many characters.

E: This is because Madelyn has bad taste and should be judged.

M: The music is too light! There’s the evil league of evil villains out there!

E: YOU GOTTA FEEL THE BASS.

M: I didn’t.

E: Your headphone aren’t advanced enough.

M: Maybe once we resolve the technical difficulties next week, I’ll feel it. The cosmos.

E: Okay, the next episode is called “Kota.”

M: That’s the kid’s name, right?

E: Yes.

M: Isn’t one of the class members named something like that too?

E: Koda.

M: That’s not allowed.

E: Sorry.

M: Great. I’m sooooo good with names, this is going to go great.

E: I don’t think you’ll get small horned boy and bird-talking boy mixed up. Maybe you will.

M: I don’t know anything about either of them, so it’s possible.

E: Do you need to know more than horns and birds?

M: We shall see. Prediction one: Koda and Kota become fast friends and they decide to leave this hero thing behind, go to the seaside, and eat cheap seafood.

E:

M: I want Kota to be like Kang-san. Not a prediction, just a wish.

E: Fair enough.

M: Prediction two: Kirishima got a pretty prime position in the opening credits, so he’s going to improve super-duper fast at this camp.

E:

M: Prediction three: There are fun camp activities like tug of war and capture the flag, which are also class assignments!

E:

M: Prediction four: we need some new crushes on the show. It’s fun to have Deku and Uraraka fumbling around each other, but that’s been foreshadowed since like episode one. Give me an unexpected pairing!

E: Anyone in particular?

M: Uh…man, I wish it could involve Bakugo. But maybe something more low-key. Like, Tail Man and Mina. Maybe they’ve been dating the whole time and no one noticed.

E:

M: And finally prediction five: the school is going to get attacked while the kiddos are training, and they’ll have to fly back on their ice balloon to save everyone.

E:

M: Couldn’t have said it better myself.

–

Hey everybody! Thanks for checking in to Split Screen. We’re watching the My Hero Academia dub on Funimation and Boys Over Flowers on Netflix if you want to hop on board this hot air ice balloon. 

Next time! Jan-di makes a new career choice after failing to find a new place to live and intense training continues in My Hero Academia. But wait! What’s this? The unexpected? Oh well, we always expect the unexpected on Split Screen. Tune in next week!