#iconic and beyond reproach

[taishaunas]

wlwpride23 ☆ favorite non canon ship ≡ eleanor & drea (do revenge)

[vvitchy]

[fadeintoyou1993]

[tendercoretroglodyke]

when was the last time you guys watched addams family values

[livvyofthelake]

it’s like yes well your bad guy will never be coriolanus snow. so what are we doing.

[riverdalians]

whats your fav thing abt riverdale?

omg a lot. its literally iconic and beyond reproach. but i think probs how insanely tongue in cheek it is w everything like how it references all the tropes and genres and other media and just its whole vibeee like how can people not get its joking when there's literally an episode where jughead gets rabies and hallucinates a rat king in the nyc sewers. ALSO its extremely problematic gay rep. where else can you get 30 plus queer characters most of whom have killed or at least maimed people. evil gay wizard percival. gay "you dragged me away to get a lobotomy" kevin. cunty gothic heroine keeps brothers corpse in her house and has led several cults lesbian cheryl. the list goes on. truly dedication to insanity. love her

[iconicpnytail]

"And I'm bad like the Barbie.I'm a doll, but I still wanna party"

Independent & Selective Betty Cooper from the CW's Riverdale Written & Loved by LA

template by : calisources

[fendergender]

love that veronica and jughead are back together a day and he's already like veronica you have to become a teenage witch and help me put on the best comic this town's ever seen

[bireggiemantle]

my favorite genre of riverdale promotional image is cast photo where cole sprouse is the only guy squatting in a very noticeable and out of place way like

why is this his default pose? is he choosing it? is he being told to squat? why is nobody else on his level? literally iconic and beyond reproach

[scare-ard--sleigh]

no one;;;

impel down buggy;

[bedlund]

iconic and beyond reproach etc

[laylakeating]

#riverdale is iconic and beyond reproach

[fadeintoyou1993]

glee rewatch — 1.05 "the rhodes not taken"

[nadjaofstatenisland]

now that the show's over, top 10 parentdale lines?

I'm actually an idiot and posted the draft last night instead of the ask. Why did no on ask for context.

Anyway I only did 8 but some are more than one line. I also kept it to s1.

"Okay, what is wrong with you people?" "Will you just spare us the middle-class morality? It's not like they were brother and sister." - Hal Cooper, Clifford Blossom (all the dialogue from this scene is gold tbh)

"Slut shaming. It's what they call it when sluts get shamed." - Alice Cooper (iconic and beyond reproach)

"Alice Cooper - no longer lactose intolerant I see." - Hermione Lodge (been haunted by this line for six and a half years what the FUCK does this line mean)

"There's the sticky, dark, dirty truth. Maple syrup. Drown in it why don't you!" - Penelope Blossom (she's literally SO dramatic in this scene especially considering what we find out scenes later happened)

"I'm so sorry to interrupt your adultery, Fred." - Alice Cooper 

"You remember our Homecoming, Alice?Hal? Back in the day? Your mom ever tell you about that night? ("Just that she and my dad were king and queen.") "Yeah they were - of hell." - FP Jones (this whole scene is also great but you KNOW this bitch thought he was so clever coming up with this little quip)

"I mean is there not a nice gay kid at your school?" - Tom Keller (#1 ally) 

"I didn't realize that you were a polyamorist." "I don't think that's an actual word." - Alice Cooper, Mary Andrews 

[fierceawakening]

The other thing that’s kind of irksome about the idea that if I don’t understand the Jewish yearning for Israel it’s because I have a white perspective is…

Guys, most of my family except my parents is Greek Orthodox. I thought of myself as pure blooded (though jokingly, not in a “this makes me superior” way) until my aunt discovered through DNA testing she’s 75% Italian.

Greek is right there in the name. I KNOW what an ethnoreligion is.

It’s true I was personally not RAISED Greek Orthodox. But why wasn’t I?

Not because my mom was white. Because my mom was a feminist, and deeply offended by patriarchal religious traditions. And also was deeply offended by the idea that Greeks should have our own enclaves, when as she understood Christianity “it’s about Gods grace for all people.” She left the Orthodox Church in disgust. I was raised Methodist instead.

So I wasn’t raised in an ethnoreligion. But I’ve BEEN to St. Katherine’s many times, and my keepsake from my deceased grandma IS an icon OF ST KATHERINE because that’s the church that gave it to her in thanks for pious community service.

Im not leery of homeland rhetoric because I do what other whites tell me to do without thinking of ethnicities. I’m leery of homeland rhetoric because I very literally was raised by someone who rejected it and was very frank with me about why.

So when someone says I don’t understand ethnic identity I hear my older relatives who loudly lament people “not understanding that the traditions are beautiful, not stuffy” and nudging in unsubtle ways and not understanding why I… went back to… being… a Methodist.

I think of the food I eat, the holidays I celebrate, the anger I still carry that no one taught me Greek. The yearning to visit… and the fear I won’t belong.

Does that mean I find ethnic pride unpalatable because of white culture? I mean maybe, white culture has a way of slithering into people’s brains and sticking there.

But like… I remember reading Plato’s Apology for the first time in college, and just spending the evening sobbing because Socrates not only thought like me and talked like me and got pilloried for asking the Wrong Questions like me but was one of my people.

That has never stopped being one of my Important Memories and it never will.

So I think I’m maybe not as oblivious as people want to think. I’m leery of “these are Our Traditions and thus they are holy and beyond reproach” because I was raised by someone who was also leery of it, and taught me to be, and explained it in ways I still find deeply convincing.

Please don’t boil all the complexity off and say “it’s because they’re white” or “Methodism is Christian and Christianity presents itself as universal so it can stick its nose in everywhere and therefore so do they.”

Disagree with all of me, not a paper doll of me.

[ikjun]

AL'S DRAMA RECS VOL.1: these recs will solely focus on the writing of the shows, which to me comes down to two things: how well does the plot accomplish what it set out to do in the beginning? and how compelling are the characters written, no matter if their character arc means they become better or worse through the story or even remain who they are? my favourite dramas usually succeed in giving us a satisfying answer to both questions and these are the ones you will see on this list!

★★★★★ dramas (aka the greatest hits):

SECRET FOREST / STRANGER (2017-2021): the pinnacle of all dramas. follows the duo of no-nonsense prosecutor hwang si-mok (the acting star turn of he century by cho seung-woo) and police detective han yeo-jin (the ever-exceptional bae doo-na) investigating a murder case that blows open several scandals in the prosecution. season 2 follows several cases leading to an internal investigation on police bribery. it just does not get better than this and i fear it won't ever will. this drama has the understated styling of nordic noir, the classic shenanigans of an unlikely leading kdrama duo, and one of the tightest scripts ever seen in any tv show ever. | genre: thriller, melodrama, crime procedural

MY LIBERATION NOTES (2022): following the yeom family's three siblings living in the small town of sanpo on the outskirts of seoul, and the stranger moving into the house next door to theirs, this story navigates questions of sibling-hood and family, the purpose of life, as well as the sacrifices we make for the relationships in our life as well as our own happiness. this show earned its hype from the central love story between mr. gu and yeom mi-jeong (son seok-ku and kim ji-won acting the house down) but every one of the three main storylines is well-paced, gives the main actors moments to shine and grow, and ties neatly into the overarching plot to render you either moved or comforted, or even both. | genre: slice of life, melodrama

VINCENZO (2020): at this point are there still followers on this blog who haven't at least seen me talk about vincenzo? the writing of this show is maybe the peak of genre-blending done in kdrama, a culmination of years refining this skill to sharp perfection in a biting black comedy. vincenzo cassano (song joong-ki), consiglieri of a mafia clan he got adopted into, goes back to south korea to recover a frankly unholy amount of gold and fights a gigantic conglomerate (babel) to get there. if you watch past episode four, you will finish this drama, because everything ensuing from then on is just one iconic story beat after another. | genre: black comedy / satire, crime, romance

HOSPITAL PLAYLIST (2020-2022): a medical drama beyond reproach. this show is on this list for the way it wrote its characters and achieved the most satisfying character arcs in any kdrama, maybe, ever. a group of five friends in their fourties all working at the same hospital and navigating their professional and private lives, this drama doesn't shy away from eclectic backstories (and the leads all playing music together in a band) as well as truly heart-tearing moments of friendship and romance. never have i seen character growth done as well as i have seen it in the characters of yang seok-hyeong and kim-jun-wan. | genre: medical, slice of life, rom-com

D.P. / DESERTER PURSUIT (2021-2023): d.p. to me is a no-notes kind of show. it depicts the work of the military police pursuing army deserters through freshly enlisted ahn jun-ho (jung hae-in playing years below his age and leagues above many his actual age) who ends up empathizing and working to help and save the deserters he and his team partner han ho-yeol (an exceptional koo kyo-hwan) are meant to bring back to the army instead of incriminating them further. d.p. is much better for its tone, its writing and the risks it takes in its no-nonsense approach than some of the drivel revered solely for being more flashy and showy in this genre. | genre: military drama, action

★★★★☆ dramas (aka near-perfection):

PRISON PLAYBOOK (2017): the perfect prototype of the bromance as romance formula and one of the best found family dramas that really focuses on that. star baseball player kim je-hyuk (park hae-soo in his career-defining role) loses his career and lands in prison after he assaults the ex-boyfriend of his younger sister to protect her. the show centers on je-hyuk's time in prison, where he reunites with his childhood best-friend-now-prison-guard lee jun-ho (a supreme jung kyung-ho) and assimilates himself with the people he meets in his cell. this show hits all the beats so well from a stellar supporting cast to a great comeback kid narrative for je-hyuk from his time in prison to being released. glaring flaw: the age-gap / childhood friends romance, the conclusion of hanyang's story arc, who gets the short end of the stick while being the one out gay character in the show. | genre: black comedy, found family, slice of life

GOBLIN: THE LONELY AND GREAT GOD (2017): the defining kdrama for many. it may be the one drama that really delivers in answering its plot's defining question twice over and then some. goblin kim shin (gong yoo), cursed to immortality, gets his life upended once a grim reaper (lee dong-wook as wang yeo, a performance never to be seen or repeated again since) and the young woman (kim go-eun as ji eun-tak) who turns out to be his fated bride enter his life. an immortal man resigned on life finds purpose while knowing he will fatally die once the woman he falls in love with cures him of his curse. glaring flaw: the age gap romance between eun-tak and kim shin. could she have not been in college at least? | genre: melodrama, romance, fantasy

CRASH LANDING ON YOU (2019): the romance drama that could, and did. based on a real life incident, ceo yoon se-ri (son ye-jin, an acting veteran near beyond reproach imo) accidentally crash lands in north korea after a paragliding flight gone wrong. there she meets active duty soldier captain ri jeong-hyeok (hyun bin, thank you for your service) and has to stay with him and his military company. the fated love story starts there, but neither of them know they have met before, and already changed the courses of each other's lives before doing so again. minor flaw: is this drama romanticising the military? or is depicting of that on screen just that and nothing more? that is up to you to decide. | genre: melodrama, romance

HOMETOWN CHA CHA CHA (2021): the series remake of a korean rom-com film of the early aughts, this remains my favourite romance drama over all. dentist yoon hye-jin (shin min-a blessing our screens) moves to rural gongjin, a seaside village where nothing happens at all, after her professional life in seoul goes up in flames. it's not all sunshine in gongjin either as ye-jin meets hong du-sik (kim seon-ho),a handyman who is called chief hong by everyone and fixes all the big and small fires in the village. the two start as enemies that eventually fall in love. the romance is well-handled and paced and the second lead (lee sang-yi) is the best i have ever seen in a show, especially because of the arc written for him. minor flaw: the plot is not as tight as the respective character arcs, so sometimes sacrifices are made for the sake of a more emotional scenes. | genre: rom-com, slice of life

THE GLORY (2022): when you put the revenge in revenge drama, this is what you can get. song hye-ko returns to small screen brilliance in an incomparable performance as moon dong-eun, a woman who decides to infiltrate the lives of her school bullies and take them down one by one. this show delivers on plot even more than on characters, following through on every step of moon dong-eun's revenge without shying away from how gruesome or painful that path of vengeance can be. dong-eun gets help from plastic surgeon joo yeo-jeong (a delightful lee do-hyun), and the main cast is rounded out by lim ji-yeon and jung sung-il as dong-eun's grown up tormentor and her reluctant husband respectively. minor flaw: the show does spend a big chunk of its time on the group of school bullies and their interpersonal relations, which sometimes takes time away from the main plot. | genre: psychological thriller, revenge drama

♡ more specific genre watches (beware: usually crime):

LIFE (2018): written by the writers of secret forest, life is another thriller with understated direction and a more sombre tone. i would have put it in the greatest hits category, but watching it with other people made me realise how niche it actually is in genre. a corporate hospital thriller, the show revolves around the newly-minted ceo of sangkook university hospital, gu seung-hyo (a once again flawless cho seung-woo) and a dedicated ER doctor (lee dong-wook, stellar as ever) who depict the two sides of the patient care vs. profit conflict in the hospital. i can't even say more about the show because every other plot point is basically a spoiler. sharply directed and written, this is one of the best genre pieces i have ever watched, and is mildly reminiscent of hbo prestige television of the decade before. | genre: medical drama, corporate thriller

THE WORST OF EVIL (2023): are you even surprised? this was the drama of 2023 for me, one of the most stellar scripts i have seen. the worst of evil is very firmly a noir show and you have to treat what you are watching as such. it is heavily entrenched into its genre tropes and arcs, even more than most crime shows i have seen, and that can be off-putting for people unfamiliar with the genre, but if you are up for it, you will not be disappointed. opportune violent crime detective park jun-mo (ji chang wook, korea's finest new gen action actor) infiltrates a drug ring lead by jung gi-cheol ( fantastic and emotional tour de force by wi ha joon) and the lines begin to blur when neither of them knows if what they bargained for is actually what they want. the show lets its main plot dictate the pace, focusing on park jun-mo's descent into crime, and it is all the more better for it. | genre: noir, crime thriller, action

BEYOND EVIL (2020): the story about dejected and grieving small-town detective lee dong-sik (baeksang-awarded veteran actor shin ha-kyun) being partnered with elite detective and spinster seoulite han joo-won (child actor prodigy turned actor to watch du jour) has made its waves online for its very apparent gay subtext, but to reduce beyond evil to this would be a crime in itself. following lee dong-sik and han joo-won as they are tasked to solve a reoccurring serial killer case, the framing plot then fans open the age-old wound of dong-sik losing his twin sister and being blamed for her disappearance with joo-won having taken an obsessive fascination with the case. the two crime cases are exceptionally interwoven and the stories of the people in the small town of manyang, and how they all somehow tie back to dong-sik, is the perfect example of turning the small centrepiece of a plot into the binding force of every thread. | genre: procedural, psychological thriller

OUR BELOVED SUMMER (2021): i put this into the genre-piece category because obl is majorly focused on its main trope. romantic dramas can easily be trite to me, as this obvious list of crime shows doesn't tell you, but our beloved summer is one of the few that did everything right. it plays out the best trope ever done - exes to lovers - and does not back down from embracing the whole shebang to the nth degree. high school / college sweethearts choi woong (known beloved actor on ye-xiu tumblr dot com, choi woo-shik) and kook yeun-soo (the ever great kim da-mi) have to unite to replicate, or rather continue, the viral high school documentary they filmed years ago. the show shimmies its way from one moment of reconnection to another, culminating in the best kdrama kiss to ever be put to screen, and concludes in one of the most satisfying and, yes, romantic endings ever. the things a show can do when it just sticks to its main narrative, huh. | genre: rom-com, coming of age