Latest / Daebak K-Rambles Podcast: K-drama Reviews / Hot Stove League | Full K-drama Review / Ep. 88

Transcript

Hot Stove League | Full K-drama Review / Ep. 88 · Daebak K-Rambles Podcast: K-drama Reviews

0:19
I'm Jessica and this is Taba K Rambles, where a couple of
0:22
friends review Korean dramas and we're back for another sports
0:26
drama episode review. We're going to be reviewing Hot
0:30
Stove League and for this episode I am joined by Emily and
0:35
Raquel from the Play On K podcast.
0:38
How are you ladies? We didn't plan that.
0:46
Just like that. Sorry.
0:48
How are you guys doing? And for those who don't know
0:52
your podcast, maybe just introduce yourselves and
0:55
introduce what maybe you're watching lately.
0:58
Just just a little primer. All right, Raquel, you go first.
1:01
OK, OK. Hi, I'm Raquel with Play on K
1:04
Right now for the podcast. We are watching study group over
1:10
at Play on K. We watch 2 episodes at a time
1:13
and review it and so anyone who's interested around the time
1:18
this comes out, go back to our study group episodes because we
1:21
are having a blast with that show.
1:24
It is. It's so weird and off the wall
1:29
and we've loved it so far and it can be found on Vicki.
1:33
What else have we been watching? We've slowed down a lot recently
1:37
because our schedules are like especially M schedules are super
1:42
jam packed. But I'll I'll let you, Emily,
1:45
like see what else we might be watching.
1:47
What else it have we recently watched in the past?
1:51
We started Family by Choice because we thought we were going
1:54
to watch it for the podcast and we both didn't care for it.
2:00
We decided to avoid that one. Yeah, Before that, we recently
2:05
finished Youngsung Creatures Season 2.
2:08
Season 1 was one of Raquel's all time favorite shows.
2:12
It's a banger. And season 2 was fine.
2:17
So that was. OK, yeah, I love your face when
2:21
you said that. Yeah, I have heard so many great
2:23
things about Study Group and I can't wait to watch later in the
2:26
year when the hip hop podcast season is over.
2:29
I usually leave about 3-4 months at the end of the year to just
2:31
binge my way through everything that came out in the current
2:35
year and study group is on my finish the year 2025 list of
2:40
dramas, so I'm really excited to do that.
2:43
And Kyung Song Creature, yeah, I don't think I ended up pressing
2:47
play on it because it was slated for a season 2.
2:50
So I was like, that's a back burner drama for me, if that
2:56
makes any sense. Yeah.
2:59
Also, it was like really dark and I'm a mood watcher so I was
3:02
like, I'm not feeling this right now.
3:04
But and then what was the other one?
3:07
Family by choice? I refuse to watch Family by
3:10
Choice until I've watched the original sea drama, which is Go
3:14
ahead. I didn't know that it was
3:17
originally a sea drama. Oh girl, yeah, that was a sea
3:22
drama. A very famous, well regarded C
3:26
drama. What?
3:27
Yes. And so they created Family by
3:31
Choice based on that C drama. And I just refused on principle
3:36
to watch Family by Choice until I've watched Go Ahead.
3:40
That's so valid. I think that's fair.
3:42
I'm doing the same thing with Pachinko and the book where I'm
3:47
like, I know in my heart I am going to read this book.
3:52
And so I cannot press play on this show until I've read it.
3:55
I did get a little bit of inspiration because one of my I
3:59
like met my high school English teacher for coffee recently and
4:03
we recommended it to her and she actually reads.
4:06
She actually reads. So as it turns out, and she
4:12
texted me the other day and she was like, I finished the book
4:14
and it's one of the best things I've ever read.
4:17
I'm enamored. I love it.
4:19
Yeah, it's a big book. It's thick.
4:23
I want to read it. I have not been a reader for
4:26
many years because I used to work in publishing, and so I
4:32
used to do a lot more reading and writing and building, like a
4:36
books, basically. And so I was really jaded after
4:39
a while and like, didn't read. Yeah, it like, stunted my
4:43
reading basically for a long time.
4:47
And even though I've bought books recently, I haven't even
4:49
cracked them open. So I feel horrible.
4:52
I resolved to read Pachinko. In the two years since, I've
4:56
watched Season 1, and yeah, that still hasn't happened.
5:00
So I am horrible. I'm horrible.
5:04
I'm following through on that. But I did watch Season 2.
5:07
Amazing, amazing. Love that Apple TV Plus show.
5:11
Highly recommend it. I can't wait to hear from you
5:13
guys when you finally watch it. But yeah, there's so many shows,
5:17
so many great shows, so little time.
5:19
Yeah, yes, 100. Percent and we're going to talk
5:22
about 1:00 today. But before we do, if this is
5:26
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6:00
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6:16
OK, are you guys ready? Let's do it.
6:19
OK, so we're going to talk about hot Stove league like I said in
6:25
the previous episode, which is the C drama Nothing But You.
6:30
I love a good sports drama and we have covered quite a few on
6:35
the Tiba Ki Ramble's show. We've covered 2521, fencing,
6:41
prison playbook, also baseball. Love all play, badminton,
6:45
weightlifting, fairy Kimbok, Drew.
6:47
Obviously weightlifting in swimming run on which is track.
6:52
It's at this point that I have to say I freaking love sports
6:54
dramas and I am so self indulgent.
6:58
And so I was like, oh nothing but you I want to do and I also
7:01
want to do hot stove league. Why the hell not do them
7:04
back-to-back? So here we are.
7:08
Look at you. Yeah, look at me, look at me.
7:11
So here's the My Drama List synopsis for Hot Stove League.
7:16
This is about the preparation period of a Major League
7:19
Baseball team. The drama focuses on a loser
7:21
team that prepares for an extraordinary season upon the
7:24
arrival of their new general manager, and each episode will
7:27
focus on a problem they have as they prepare to become a
7:31
stronger team. Say Young is the youngest head
7:33
of the management team of Dreams, a cellar dwelling
7:37
baseball team. Cellar dwelling baseball team.
7:42
She's highly recognized for her perseverance and intense passion
7:45
for the team. One day, Song SU is appointed as
7:49
a general manager. Although he's been working in
7:52
sports field, the teams he has led to the championship were
7:55
unpopular and some of them were even disbanded after winning the
7:59
league due to the financial difficulties of their parent
8:03
companies. Would this unlucky new general
8:05
manager be able to steer Dreams to the championship with
8:09
passionate Seiyong? And I think I'm just going to
8:12
stop right there. This show aired in December 2019
8:16
through February 2020. It is 16 episodes long and
8:22
directed by Jung Dong Yun. And this guy has directed,
8:27
Wouldn't you know it, Young Song Creature 1 and 2.
8:34
I was like oh they mentioned Kyung song creature.
8:37
He's also directed It's OK to not be OK.
8:40
This is a questionable 1 though because it's listed on MDL only
8:46
and so perhaps maybe he was an assistant director on It's OK to
8:50
Not be OK. So it's not quite confirmed that
8:52
this director worked on It's OK to not be OK.
8:55
Also unconfirmed that he might have worked on heart surgeons
8:59
from 2018. Kind of a weird resume anyway.
9:02
Fates and Furies from 2018, Exit from 2018, which is a
9:06
miniseries, but for sure Kyung Song, Creature one and two from
9:11
Netflix most recently I see Fist Pumping.
9:17
Yeah. So you guys have the most
9:20
experience with this director? Yeah.
9:24
And honestly, when you said he directed it's OK to not be OK,
9:27
but that's questionable. I thought you were saying the
9:29
show is questionable, like that one's OK.
9:33
And I was like, I'm sorry, are we going to fight right now?
9:35
Because I think the three shows those top three on his resume to
9:40
me, bangers. Yeah.
9:41
Gun sung creature one and two. It's OK to not be OK.
9:44
This man can do it all for me. He is untouchable at this point.
9:49
Right. It's what I'm saying is
9:51
questionable is whether or not he's worked on the show.
9:56
We just covered it recently on the podcast like 2 episodes ago
10:01
by the time you're listening to this.
10:02
And that was a really crushing recording because the Kim Suhyon
10:09
drama is still, the scandal is still ongoing.
10:13
It was very interesting to come back to that drama, rewatch it
10:16
and kind of unpack that one. So if you want to go back in
10:19
your podcast feed and listen to it, you can.
10:21
This director, Zhang Dong Yoon, is not listed as a director in
10:25
that episode, obviously. But, you know, hopefully, like,
10:29
that gets cleared up. Maybe as he does more work, they
10:33
can kind of solidify what other stuff he's done, maybe as an
10:36
assistant director or, you know, producer or something like that.
10:40
Hot Stove League was written by Ishenhua.
10:44
This is their only project. This is the only thing they've
10:47
written. Really.
10:49
One and done. I mean, once you're like.
10:52
Why mess with perfect? It is so shocking.
10:57
Nothing else to compare it to. I, I, I don't know, it's crazy.
11:01
This show stars Nam Kong Min, who plays Peck Song Soo.
11:06
He's the general manager that we were talking about in the My
11:10
Drama List synopsis. He's done about 26 TV shows,
11:14
including our movie from this year.
11:17
I think it's going to come out sometime this year in 2025, but
11:22
I think everyone knows him best from my dearest that came out in
11:26
2023 and there is a big deep dive on the tip out feed for my
11:30
dearest $1.00 Lawyer. The Veil awakened Dr. Prisoner.
11:34
Good manager. A girl who sees smells. 12 years
11:38
promise. In need of romance 3.
11:40
Chung Dung Dung Alice from 2012 becoming a billionaire.
11:44
What's your guys experience with this actor?
11:48
Incredibly. This is our first time seeing
11:52
this man I. Know I'm sorry going to hang out
11:54
she's like you're off my bad fast. 300 Thank.
11:58
You guys, goodbye. Never.
12:01
Never. Well, what did you guys think of
12:03
him? I thought he was great in this
12:06
role. I really, really liked him in
12:08
the, like, he's a pretty stoic character for most of it, but he
12:13
was, I think, able to outside. Like sometimes when someone
12:19
plays a stoic character, it can come off as emotionally stunted
12:24
in like a like, there's not as much range that can be given to
12:28
the role, I guess, is what I'm trying to say.
12:31
I feel like he gave plenty of range well, while maintaining
12:35
the core of the character. So I thought he did a really
12:38
good job. Yeah.
12:39
Yeah. Fully agreed.
12:41
Pakkun Bin plays the Co lead in Isayoung.
12:46
She obviously has been a child actress.
12:49
She's got 33 TV credits to her name.
12:52
Hyperknife is currently airing right now.
12:54
In the year 2025 she was in Castaway Diva.
12:58
In 2023 she is the Extraordinary attorney Wu from 20/22 she was
13:04
in the King's Affection. Do you like Brahms?
13:06
And so many more. I have a couple of reviews up,
13:11
so one is for Extraordinary Attorney Wu and the other one is
13:14
for Do You Like Brahms If you want to scroll back in your
13:16
podcast feed. She is amazing.
13:20
I love her as an actress. What do you guys think of Paco
13:23
and Vin? We're going to go 0 for two on
13:25
this. 1 Yeah, we hadn't. So obviously very aware of
13:32
Extraordinary Attorney Wu that has been in the zeitgeist.
13:36
If you're in anywhere near K dramas, as we have been, you
13:41
obviously know about that drama. So yeah, for sure, I've had some
13:45
level of familiarity with her. She comes up on my feed a lot.
13:48
But yeah, we never watched. We never actually sat down and
13:51
put in the time with Extraordinary Attorney Wu.
13:54
So we again, yeah, have not seen her before, but.
13:57
Loved her. There's so many dramas that I've
14:00
pressed play on and watched 2 episodes and then said we got to
14:04
watch this for the podcast and then we never did because our
14:08
podcast takes so long so. Deep diving every two episodes,
14:15
it takes so much time and effort, and it is quite a feat.
14:20
So I completely understand why a lot of dramas don't make the cut
14:24
for your show. Like, you have to be choosy, for
14:27
sure. Well, I love her, and I think
14:31
that you should definitely give a couple of these a shot,
14:33
whether or not they end up on your podcast.
14:36
Do you like Brahms? It's really sweet, really chill.
14:39
It's a music show. I think she's a violinist.
14:43
Violinist in that one, and she has dreams of being, you know, a
14:47
professional violinist, but she doesn't have the talent to kind
14:50
of back that up. So it's one of those about
14:53
pursuing dreams. But, you know, at what cost of
14:55
what time do you give up, Right, Because it's not sustainable.
15:00
So plus it's a love story. So, you know, OK, It's good.
15:05
Yeah, it's good. That is sold.
15:08
Sold. Really sweet show.
15:10
I would recommend that one probably over extraordinary
15:14
attorney boot, to be quite honest with you, even though
15:15
that one's the bigger acting showcase for her.
15:20
Oh Jiang Say is to round out our trio here.
15:23
He is the nephew of the owner of the baseball club.
15:29
He plays Kwong Kyung Min. He's got 55 movies to his name,
15:33
about 37 TV shows he is appearing or has appeared in
15:39
When Life Gives You Tangerines, When the stars Gossip, both from
15:43
2025. Mr. Plankton Sweet Home 3.
15:47
Queen of Tears as a cameo in episode 1 Deaths Game.
15:52
Sweet Home 2. Revenant Little Women It's OK to
15:55
not be OK, which we covered in depth.
15:57
When the Camellia blooms set your heart missing 9.
16:00
You throw a rock. He's been in a drama.
16:02
Yeah. What do you guys think about Oh
16:04
Chung say? We did it.
16:06
We got one. Yeah, we've seen a lot of stuff
16:09
with him in it. Nice, nice.
16:11
Yeah, my personal favorite being Little Women, but I'm trying to
16:17
recall his character even he must have played someone kind of
16:22
far in the background or I'm self reporting as someone with a
16:25
terrible memory but like. Usually Raquel's good at this.
16:29
Though yeah, I feel like yeah, usually I'm really good at.
16:32
It and him fully for not being that memorable.
16:35
How dare you do this to me personally.
16:37
Rude. Live on air, Rude.
16:42
Yeah, I don't look. I don't remember who he was
16:46
either in Little Women. I mean, I can look it up, but I
16:50
think that's counter intuitive at this point.
16:52
There is an episode review on Little Women, so you can scroll
16:56
back in your podcast feed and listen to a much clearer Jessica
17:00
talk about Little Women right when she finished watching
17:03
Little Women. But Jessica today does not
17:07
remember who Oh Jeong Sei was. I just remember there's a lot of
17:12
like financial crime in Little Women.
17:15
That was the whole thing. That was the plot.
17:18
But. It's one of our favorite shows
17:20
of all time. It's so good.
17:22
Yeah, it's really atmospheric. There was like a poison flower
17:25
or something like that. So that's like broad strokes
17:28
what I remember. I don't know if you guys no, or
17:32
if I have ever said on the podcast before, I have a
17:34
horrific memory. I have the memory of a goldfish.
17:37
And so the blog, like the Tabaki Rambles blog and then now the
17:41
podcast is as much about preserving what I think about a
17:46
show as much as it is about having fun and talking to people
17:49
about K dramas. Because I don't remember like
17:53
after a certain period of time, it's gone.
17:55
I don't remember specifics. I don't remember characters.
17:59
I feel so. Sane.
18:03
I love this. God, so get it while you can get
18:07
it while it's hot basically is with the the name of the game
18:10
here with Tampa gay rambles. But we've come to the end of the
18:15
cast list. There's definitely more casts
18:18
that we can talk through if you guys would like.
18:21
You know, the players, the people behind the scenes, the
18:25
management, all these people. But I'm just going to skip ahead
18:30
and ask you guys, what did you guys think of Hot Stove?
18:33
League you go first time. Oh, OK, I hit you up first.
18:37
I liked it. I do think I would have liked it
18:41
better if it were 12 episodes. I think there were a few
18:44
storylines that I could have done without, and if they had
18:48
been cut, the show would have been perfectly paced.
18:51
I would have been interested from start to finish in every
18:55
single thing that happened versus the 16 episode format
18:59
that is pretty typical 4K dramas.
19:03
I liked it, but there was a few too many storylines that I could
19:07
have done without and I was kind of half watching those parts
19:12
being like, it's fine, we'll get through them.
19:14
Yeah, but overall the highs were high.
19:18
Like when we were up, I was fully invested and I was so
19:22
excited to be part of this baseball team for the short
19:25
lived time that this drama lasted.
19:28
I really enjoyed the fun parts of it.
19:31
There were just some slow bits that I was like cut.
19:36
Gotcha. I, I am very similar in the
19:40
sense that like, I guess to specifically identify it because
19:43
I also I like sports dramas. I like sports shows and stuff,
19:48
but we don't watch a whole lot for our podcast.
19:51
This is actually I think is our first one that I can think of as
19:55
far as like K dramas go, which was really cool.
19:58
But I think like there's stuff that have, I mean, they're so
20:04
popular in Western media like we have Ted Lasso was the most
20:08
direct comparison I could give as far as.
20:12
Something that is an ongoing series about a sports team and
20:18
like the people within it. And I think that where this the
20:25
what, like maybe what and what have identified as the slow
20:28
parts. But for me are just like where
20:30
the interest fluctuates is the hardcore politics.
20:34
Sports politics were a little tough for me sometimes where I
20:38
was like, can we just watch the inspirational people do
20:42
inspiration? Like, this one's tough, this
20:45
one's tough when I just want to watch the good boys play
20:49
baseball and be good boys sometimes.
20:52
But I do think that they had a good balance in there where it
20:56
helped with my focus fluctuation, where all of a
20:58
sudden they were like, now look at this character, throw an
21:02
incredible pitch and the people around him that want to help him
21:06
or whatever. And then I'm like, I'm back.
21:08
I'm back, baby. Oh, I think we do have different
21:12
slow parts because I really liked the business stuff.
21:17
That's kind of my bread and butter.
21:20
I, I'm a business student and so I was like, give me all the
21:24
politics of how to make this trade, what stuff had to be
21:29
negotiated in what stuff people felt like they were losing in
21:34
the trade versus what they were gaining.
21:36
And obviously I did not keep up with the statistics of this
21:40
person's ETR was .45. And so I don't know what's
21:46
happening at all here, but the trade negotiations of these
21:50
people as baseball players was so fascinating to me.
21:54
And I liked that they kind of lost me with character
21:58
backstories sometimes. That's where it slowed down for
22:01
me. I loved the PowerPoint
22:03
presentation parts. That's the politics I can get
22:07
behind. Is a good PowerPoint right?
22:09
Break it down for us. Yeah, I come from a 4th of July
22:17
Rocky marathon family. You know what I'm saying?
22:20
Like, I love sports movies. I love the underdog story.
22:25
I was riding high last year with the Challengers movie, The
22:29
Zendaya threesome movie that was like, Oh my God, Coming from A2
22:35
Summers taking tennis lessons kind of person.
22:40
The Challengers movie was like, Oh my God, it was like a drug.
22:44
I love sports movies. The Iron Claw, there's so many
22:49
movies. Jerry Maguire, bring it On.
22:53
Like so many movies, our sports movies and Rudy Radio.
23:00
I'm just like reading through here.
23:02
Stick it. You ever seen stick it?
23:04
Stick it. Are you, do you know who you're
23:05
speaking to? Wimbledon.
23:08
I love that movie love and basketball.
23:11
Like I am constantly over here loving sports movie dramas.
23:18
And so when I realized that this drama was basically Moneyball
23:24
but make it a K drama, I was like sign me up, sign me up.
23:29
I was all in. I was locked in.
23:33
Oh my God, I was locked in. I was like, give me the nuclear
23:36
codes cuz I'm gonna be here a while like this.
23:40
This was literally right up my alley and I loved all the
23:45
business aspect. I loved all of the players
23:48
aspect. I loved when they were talking
23:49
shop and they were talking stats.
23:51
Listen, I don't know anything about stats.
23:54
I don't know what means what. Give it to me anyway.
23:56
Just throw numbers at me. I was living for it.
24:01
I loved the Wheeling and dealing and there was so much that was
24:08
entertaining to me, that was surprising to me.
24:12
And there was something about the team that was really sad and
24:17
pitiful. Like it was like an Angels in
24:19
the Outfield team. It was like a Bad News Bears
24:22
team. Like they were just goofy.
24:23
They were awful. They had no talent.
24:26
And I was like, yes, there's only one way it's up.
24:28
I can't wait. So this show excited me.
24:33
It entertained me and I completely understand how you
24:36
feel Emily, that you were like it was dragging because I was
24:40
watching at a 1.5 speed and that was the perfect speed to watch
24:45
it at. How do you do that?
24:46
Smart. Oh, there's a plug in on Google
24:50
Chrome OK. Yes, we need the plugin.
24:53
We need the. Plugin to add to your Google
24:56
Chrome and that will change the speed on videos for you.
25:00
Pro tip. So because Vicki doesn't have
25:04
that feature, no, to change the speed because they're in the
25:08
Sony age, but that's neither here nor there.
25:11
Anyway. I was watching it at 1.5 speed.
25:13
Wonderful speed to watch it at because I think these episodes
25:16
should have been 4540 minutes. Yeah, that was a sweet spot for
25:21
these episodes. And I'm not sure if anything
25:24
could have been cut out. I just think they could have
25:26
tightened it up, you know what I'm saying?
25:29
So I'm somewhere in between because I liked everything, but
25:33
they just needed to move quicker.
25:36
Yeah, that makes any sense. Something that probably impacted
25:39
my viewing it, it always does. I have this terrible habit of I
25:44
never read the synopsis of a show I'm about to start.
25:48
I don't know. I I go only on vibes.
25:51
I never know what it's actually about.
25:53
I hit play and I was listen, smooth brain over here.
25:59
I didn't know what a stove leak was.
26:02
I had no clue that this show. Thought I knew what a stove leak
26:05
was. You're giving me too much
26:08
credit. You're giving me way too much
26:10
credit. That was the first Google, that
26:12
was the first thing, that was the first thing they put on the
26:14
screen when you press play on episode 1.
26:17
They defined what the stove league was.
26:18
And I was still like, let me Fact Check.
26:21
Let me Fact Check what the stove league is.
26:23
So I mean, I'll just give it to you guys.
26:26
Like right now what? The stove league is a stove
26:29
league, according to Google's AI overview, refers to the baseball
26:33
offseason period when teams make trades, sign free agents and
26:38
discuss the upcoming season. The term originated from
26:41
baseball and players gathering around literal hot stoves in the
26:44
winter to discuss the sport. Because baseball is not played
26:49
in cold months. So OK, that says stove league.
26:55
That that last little detail I had completely missed.
26:58
I also when they gave us the definition, I kind of skimmed
27:02
it. It was one of those things where
27:03
it's like Vicki tells you and you're like, OK, OK, context.
27:06
Cool. Love it.
27:07
Yes, I spent way too long being like, all right, when are we
27:11
going to play some baseball? Oh man, that's the thing, They
27:17
weren't going to play. Baseball exactly because they
27:20
was the. Baseball.
27:21
It was the stove league. That's what it was, the stove
27:24
league. Is the offseason, Yeah, yeah.
27:27
They're prepping and changing things around around.
27:30
Episode 6 I was like, oh. Never.
27:35
They're never going to play some baseball.
27:37
Not you getting almost halfway through the show and then being
27:41
like a weight. We're not going to have any
27:43
games. Like they're not going to play
27:46
baseball. Yep, about halfway through when
27:50
I was like, well, maybe half of it is like the the offseason and
27:54
half of it they'll like show them succeeding.
27:56
No, still no. Raquel, come on.
27:58
OK, that's fine. That's fine.
28:00
Yeah, an absolute fool. I love how you brought up Nam
28:08
Kunmin and his sort of stoic portrayal of this general
28:12
manager, because that's kind of different to his character in My
28:17
Dearest, who's very charismatic and he's got like, I know that
28:22
rizz equals charisma, but like, he's got a lot of rizz.
28:25
In My Dearest, he doesn't have no rizz in the show at all.
28:30
Yeah, you guys are shaking your head.
28:32
So I was wondering for a little bit of the show if he had, you
28:37
know, if he was on the spectrum or something like that, and that
28:40
was going to be some sort of reveal later in the show.
28:42
But they never do talk about his feelings and how his persona is.
28:51
Maybe the reason for it is something deeper.
28:55
I don't know if that was a flaw of the show or if that was a
28:59
positive of the show. Because you have like this
29:01
enigma of a man who's just making moves.
29:05
You know what I'm saying? I don't know.
29:07
Yeah, I love doing that with K drama characters because I do
29:12
actually think that comes up a lot where there's someone who's
29:14
like emotionally unavailable and sometimes it really is in the
29:19
portrayal because I've never seen outside of maybe the
29:24
extraordinary attorney Woo, I've never really seen a whole lot.
29:28
Oh, and it's OK to not be OK. There's not a bunch of like
29:31
identification of if someone's on the spectrum, but there have
29:34
been multiple instances where I've just the way a character is
29:38
reading, I'm like, there's no way they aren't.
29:43
Or if they are, that's very frustrating because I don't
29:48
know. It's, it's one of those things
29:50
where it's like if you're operating outside of general
29:55
social norms and kind of trampling people's feelings, and
29:59
it's not that you don't understand the social cues, I
30:03
think that just makes you a jerk.
30:04
It's like if you understand the social cues and you're still
30:06
being like, kind of right. But if if you're on the spectrum
30:10
and you're just kind of functioning like with the
30:12
information that you have, then it's kind of, oh, that makes you
30:14
like a cool, interesting, diverse character that is not
30:20
being a jerk just to be mean. But I also think he was a jerk,
30:24
too. Yeah, because he was very astute
30:26
and understood why people were upset with him when he didn't.
30:31
You know, he kept saying, like towards the end of the show,
30:34
like, I'm not that soft. You know, I'm not softening
30:38
anything when I give you things to do, when I say my opinion,
30:41
when I'm telling you what's going to happen.
30:44
I've realized that to inspire trust, I have to tell you why
30:48
I'm making these decisions. And I think it's important for
30:53
his character's growth as well to see him do these things,
30:57
change his routine, and it garners trust and rallies all of
31:03
these team members around him to support him and his decisions.
31:08
That's why I was like on the fence about whether or not
31:10
because there was a complete understanding of what he was not
31:15
giving these people. That's true.
31:17
So maybe he was just kind of a jerk, but it's one of those,
31:22
have you ever seen that chart of the United States where it's
31:25
like this section acts nice and is nice.
31:28
This section acts nice is mean. This section he's very like,
31:34
acts mean, is nice kind of guy where it's like he's doing the
31:38
right thing. At the end of the day, he's just
31:41
a huge jerk getting there. Yeah, he has no bedside manner.
31:45
Yeah, yeah. And I think my frustration, and
31:49
I'll try and keep this as non spoilery as possible, came when
31:54
they introduced his back story in the middle of the drama.
31:58
And they were like, This is why he's a jerk.
32:01
He's been through some stuff. And they just kind of left that
32:05
there. They just dropped it on our
32:06
doorstep and we're like, we're never going to talk about it
32:08
again. I was like, oh, so he's just
32:11
mean because he's been through some stuff.
32:13
That's not OK. I put him on the spectrum and
32:15
I'll like him better. That's where I'm at.
32:19
Yeah. We could talk about that in
32:20
spoiler section, because I totally agree that that was like
32:22
a weird thing to do. And then they didn't unpack it
32:28
at all. Yeah.
32:31
But that's why he's mean, because if you go through a hard
32:33
thing, you can just be rude to people, to your life.
32:38
Yeah, pack and bin. A very plucky, kind of average,
32:44
sort of female lead character in this show.
32:48
But she loves baseball. That's how.
32:50
Like, her only shtick is that she absolutely adores this team,
32:55
has a strong affinity for it, and no amount of money is going
33:00
to make her leave to go to another team.
33:02
I'm like, OK, OK sis, like calm down.
33:06
Look, if I got a call from a rival team and they're trying to
33:09
scout me, I would at least take the call, OK?
33:12
I would at least see a contract before.
33:15
I'm like, no, definitely not. I love dreams.
33:19
Don't call me lose my number. But Bakun Bin in this is
33:25
softening Nam Kun Bin's character Sung Soo, and she just
33:31
understands it. Like after a few altercations in
33:35
the first few episodes, she is completely on his side and like,
33:39
trusts him. She trusts his judgement.
33:41
What did you think of Paco and Ben's Seiyong?
33:45
Pretty pretty bland for me. They liked her but I don't think
33:49
they could have done the show without her.
33:52
But also I've got no notes on her.
33:54
She was just kind of there for me.
33:57
I think I kind of agree. I almost feel like she was bland
34:00
in the way that people describe the protagonist of a lot of
34:07
young adult fantasy novels, where she kind of was the
34:12
vehicle with which we were experienced or the lens through
34:15
which we were experiencing the show in a lot of ways.
34:18
So I almost appreciate the like anchor that she provided to the
34:24
show in being very expected, behaving in very expected ways
34:31
or very like pure do it for the love of the game kind of way
34:35
where it she is anchoring like all of the moving parts of the
34:39
politics and everything. And she's like, we're here for
34:42
dreams and I'm like, we are here for dreams.
34:47
Yes, exactly. Aujang says character who is
34:52
super, super interesting. What would you like to say about
34:57
this man and the menace that he is throughout?
35:00
The show I have so many feelings a lot of them I will reserve for
35:05
the spoiler section because I don't want to rail too hard now
35:09
and spoil anything so but what I will say is when I first saw him
35:14
in the show, when I first because again, I read nothing I
35:17
reviewed nothing. I hit play and went into it, and
35:20
when I saw him show up, not knowing, you know, what type of
35:23
character he was going to play, who he was going to be, all I
35:26
could think was, oh, they're. For real.
35:29
For real. With this show, like they, they
35:32
got the actor, yeah. I have to say, when I resolved
35:38
to cover the show and also to cover It's OK to not be OK, I
35:41
had no clue that Ojeng Sei was in hot stove league.
35:47
Obviously knew Ojeng Sei was in It's OK to not Be OK.
35:50
I did not know that he was in hot stove league.
35:55
So when he popped up, I was like, oh shit, we're doubling up
36:01
on Ojeng Sei in this season of tebak.
36:04
He is really brilliant. He's so hateful in the show and
36:10
we can talk more about all his infractions in the spoiler
36:13
section. I have to say they put him in
36:15
like a he's got kind of like reddish hair, almost like Auburn
36:18
ish hair in the show. And then they put him in like a
36:22
maroon suit at one point and I was like, are they cosplaying
36:27
Joker here or like what is? I don't know why, but it felt
36:32
very cartoonish but toned down villain to me.
36:37
But they must have only done it like two or three times that he
36:40
had this color suit on. It made such an impression on
36:43
me. All the suits, every suit.
36:46
So much, yeah. Every suit was a lot.
36:49
It's giving Korean web comic to me where the villain has like
36:55
the same color hair as their eyes and their outfit and
36:59
everything and you're like, OK. This is real life.
37:04
Yeah, I agree. Were there any other characters
37:07
that you wanted to point out right now?
37:10
Maybe a TE Donkyo In this show he plays you Minho, who is one
37:16
of the younger pitchers. He has a smile that beams into
37:21
your soul. He's potato boy from
37:23
nevertheless, and I also had no idea that he was in this show.
37:30
So when he popped up, I was like, Oh my God, Dan Dong Heelp
37:34
is in this because he was the star of love all play, which is
37:38
a badminton K drama that we have also covered on the feed.
37:42
So I was like, Oh my God, doubling up on sports dramas
37:45
with hey Dong heel. What what is this?
37:47
What is this? He's precious in this.
37:52
And I don't think it's much of A spoiler to say like he had, he
37:54
had yips, which I feel like yips, you throw a rock, you hit
37:59
somebody who has gone through the yips in the K drama or like
38:04
a sports K drama, pervasive issue with athletes.
38:09
So yeah, poor kid, but real cute.
38:13
Real cute in this. Just such a small supporting
38:16
role. Yeah, if that's your deal.
38:19
If you like Che Zhong help, then don't miss out.
38:21
You know he's in a baseball. Here he's smiling, he's
38:25
charming, all of us. He's so cute.
38:28
I think you guys wanted to talk about the chemistry.
38:32
Yes. Is that spoiler ific or do you
38:35
want to talk about it now? I don't think it's spoilery.
38:40
Yeah. Like Raquel did Google it when
38:42
she started watching the show. She's like, is there romance in
38:45
this drama? So.
38:47
It was like the first thing. Won't read the synopsis will
38:50
Google. Is there romance in this drama?
38:53
OK. Because the chemistry lends
38:57
itself in our little monkey brains to this is going to turn
39:01
into a romance. This is going.
39:03
We found it, the perfect sports meets romance drama as not
39:08
charismatic, quote, UN quote, as Big Sunsu is.
39:11
He has the riz like he's. It's so quiet.
39:15
It's subdued in this drama, but I still think he has it.
39:19
Yeah. So we were convinced there's a
39:21
lot of people with chemistry in this drama.
39:24
We were convinced there's going to be some sort of love
39:26
storyline. And maybe it's spoilery.
39:30
Skip ahead 15 seconds if you don't want to know if there is
39:33
one or not. There's not one.
39:36
No romance, dry drama, but the chemistry is still there.
39:41
Everyone works so well together. These actors just knew each
39:45
other and we loved to see it. Yeah, and there's like interest
39:50
between characters without their ever.
39:53
It's very ambiguous, similar to us not definitively knowing if
39:58
Sung Tzu is on the spectrum or not.
40:01
We also they gave us. Crumbs throughout where they
40:05
were like, maybe, perhaps, you know, perhaps these two.
40:10
Yeah. But then they said that's not
40:12
what this is about. This is about the hot stove
40:15
league. Write your fanfics on the web,
40:17
OK? Yeah, we're not here to write
40:19
them for you. Keep it in your pants.
40:22
So the last thing I'll say before we kind of break for
40:25
spoilers is that this show, as I said, aired from December 2019
40:30
to February 2020. And I think it just got
40:33
overshadowed because I don't know if you remember what
40:36
happened in December 2019 through February of 2020.
40:40
A little show, I don't know if you've heard of it, Crash
40:43
Landing on You aired at the exact same time.
40:47
So I think Hot Stove League got the short end of the stick here
40:53
and was just crushed, just crushed by the Crash landing on
40:58
you. And I think that's unfair.
41:01
Completely unfair. I had a wonderful, exhilarating
41:05
time with Hot Stove League. I don't know if you guys had any
41:08
thoughts about why it's been so sort of underrated the past few
41:15
years. I mean you just told me the
41:17
reason all. Right.
41:22
Because I feel like if you missed that premiere window,
41:25
then it's really hard to come back from it.
41:28
Yeah, it's definitely about timing.
41:30
And like you said, the crash landing on you was a Goliath.
41:34
There was nothing they could have done other than just know
41:39
that they were going up against something.
41:41
They couldn't have known what they were going up against as
41:43
far as like viewers and stuff goes.
41:46
Yeah, Cuz yeah, I had not heard of it before.
41:49
You said like, hey, should we watch hot stove league?
41:54
And I was like, sure, absolutely will not read about it.
41:57
Can't wait. I have not heard anything.
42:01
Yeah. And so, yeah, I that is kind of
42:04
the only thing I can think that would have kept it out of at
42:08
least mentions and reels and clips and stuff, is that, yeah,
42:14
people were sleeping on it. They were.
42:16
They were busy watching the romance between a North Korean
42:20
and a South Korean. Yeah, that's all I'll say.
42:26
There is a big old episode on Crash Landing on you from season
42:30
1 if you guys want to listen back to it.
42:32
That is with Rico, my OG Co host and yeah, Chloe Biggin.
42:40
It's a Biggin. And I feel horrible for hot.
42:43
So bleak. I feel horrible that I haven't
42:45
watched it because this is this has me written all over it.
42:50
Like evidently this was made for me.
42:53
I'm a huge fan of Moneyball. It's like one of my favorite
42:55
sports movies ever and that is about rebuilding A-Team.
43:00
It is about the modern era of baseball and statistics and
43:05
building a team is because of this era of moneyball.
43:10
Highly recommend Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, I.
43:13
Think my boyfriend was watching it just the other day and I was
43:16
like OK well I'll go up and watch some K.
43:18
Drones watching it, it's so good.
43:20
It's so. I love Moneyball, so as soon as
43:23
I realized I was like, yes, let's get to our ratings and
43:30
then we'll break for spoilers. I don't know who wants to go
43:33
first, but how many Soulju bottles would you give Hot Stove
43:38
League can? We do half.
43:40
Points. Yeah.
43:41
Yeah, you can. Give half points.
43:42
Yeah. I'm at 3.5.
43:45
I'm at 3.5. We didn't have to talk about it.
43:48
It's where we're. At we're up there, all right,
43:50
3.5. I'm going to give it a four,
43:54
maybe even 4 1/2 because I had some a great time with it.
43:58
It was so, so much fun. It didn't lag too much for me,
44:01
but again, I was watching it at 1.5 speed.
44:04
That's not what they intended for us to do.
44:08
So I'm going to go with four. I'll stick with four out of
44:11
five. Hold you bottles.
44:12
And with that, we're going to break for spoilers right now.
44:18
Excuse me? I can't, you know I am.
44:25
I'm sorry, what? All right, we're on the other
44:34
side of spoilers. We're going to spoil Hot Stove
44:37
League, so if you care to be spoiled, please stop now and
44:41
return later after you've watched the show.
44:43
If you don't care, then welcome. We're going to talk about the
44:47
chemistry between characters and who were we rooting to be
44:52
together? Who Who are the ships in this
44:55
show? Top Obviously big Sung SU, Lisa
45:00
Young. Yeah.
45:02
They were just so good together. She believed in it from the
45:04
start. It was instant chem.
45:07
But there was also that little tiny question mark on Lisa Young
45:11
and her subordinate. Her.
45:14
The chairman's grandson. Yeah, he where it's like, I
45:18
don't know, they've got that. Maybe a little too bickery, but
45:23
could be sort of enemies to lovers, a relationship.
45:28
I don't know, It's just there. That one was the one that was
45:31
hinted at the most, that he had feelings for her, 'cause I think
45:35
even at one point he said something like I'm here for love
45:39
and work or something. I take both very seriously.
45:43
When he followed them to America to do recruiting, at which point
45:48
I was kind of like, oh, I did not see this coming.
45:51
You guys were very sibling coded until this moment.
45:54
And now I kind of I'm kind of feeling it all of a sudden.
45:59
Oh. I see, I see.
46:01
Yeah, I wasn't shipping nobody, and I guess that's just me.
46:07
Like reading the show, I guess really surface level because I
46:13
wasn't shipping anybody. I didn't want Pakumvin's
46:16
character Seiyoung to be with Jehi, who's her subordinate, and
46:21
I didn't want her to be with Sung SU, her boss.
46:24
I was like, no, she's by herself, fine.
46:27
Everyone's just by themselves is fine.
46:29
So I don't know. I just took a very simplistic.
46:33
Of a normal person, yeah. Yeah, one of my, I guess, like
46:38
my problematic favorite trope. The trope I acknowledge is
46:42
problematic, but I love the storyline of is office romances
46:47
because in real life I'm like, stay away from them.
46:49
That's messy you gross, but in pretend K drama land where it's
46:55
not real people suffering consequences of power dynamics,
47:00
I'm like let's go fall in love. Oh.
47:04
My God, see, I'm like the opposite.
47:06
Because as soon as you throw in an office romance, I'm like,
47:10
Jack, please, I don't like it. I don't like office romances.
47:16
I have a dark history with shipping characters because I've
47:21
just been burned so I don't do it anymore largely.
47:26
Fair. I'm going to switch gears
47:28
because you one of you brought up the trip to America.
47:32
I have so many notes on this because I was like, what the
47:36
hell is going on here? First of all, this is like an
47:38
episode 4 early episode. They have this business trip to
47:43
the United States to scout and sign a replacement for in
47:46
pitcher. They fly first class, it's a
47:50
first class flight to America and they land what I think is
47:56
they land in LAX even though they don't show LAX.
48:00
So they're in California is what my assumption is because that's
48:04
the license plate on the Ford pickup that picks them up.
48:08
It's a California plate. Then they're driving down the
48:13
road. It's the PCH.
48:15
Like I'm not crazy. It's the PCH.
48:16
They're going South on the PCH since the Pacific Ocean is on
48:19
their right hand side. So I'm like, OK, if they flew an
48:24
international flight and they landed in LAX, now they're on
48:28
the PC. This is several hours, right?
48:31
I'm like, is this the same day like that?
48:34
It takes several hours just to get to where they're at, and
48:36
they're going South on the PCH and it's unclear to me where
48:41
they get dropped off because now their scout, the person they're
48:46
scouting, is in some urban area. Yeah.
48:49
So I'm like, did they go to San Diego?
48:51
Like, are they in Baja California?
48:54
Like I had all these questions. There were just multiple times
48:57
where I was like, I listen, I've never been to Hawaii.
49:00
I don't know that this is the case.
49:02
But every time they were like around the palm trees in the
49:05
urban area, I was like, that doesn't really look like
49:08
California. Wait, but it does look like
49:10
Hawaii. I'm getting there, so just
49:13
follow me, follow me. So then they stay overnight at
49:17
this ratty motel. Like ratty what?
49:21
I was like, what is this? Is this the same K drama?
49:24
So then I was like, are they in the boonies?
49:27
Like where are they that this guy that they're scouting is at?
49:30
They should have flown business. They really should have like put
49:33
some of. This like they flew like so high
49:35
class and then they're staying at this motel.
49:37
It didn't fit. It didn't fit.
49:39
The interior shots of the motel that they're staying at
49:43
comically, in no way, shape or form match up to the exterior of
49:48
the motel. I was like, there's no way that
49:52
this is the same motel. Then cut to the next morning,
49:57
they eat breakfast outside at a Denny's on Kappa Hulu Ave.
50:06
Oh, you spotted it. You scoped.
50:08
It I was like, where the hell is this?
50:11
This is in Hawaii. Let's go.
50:16
I've never been, but I know how to identify it visually.
50:21
This is in Hawaii, OK, clearly. And I looked at the location
50:26
like Denny's on Kapahulu Avenue. I was like, this is it?
50:29
This is the Denny's. So I was like, where the what
50:33
the fuck is going on here? So bad?
50:36
I was so impressed. There's another exterior shot in
50:40
this episode. They're at a restaurant, Blue
50:43
Point Coastal Cuisine on 5th Ave.
50:47
This place is in San Diego, CA. It is now permanently closed.
50:53
I was like OK so it must have closed during the pandemic
50:56
because they filmed this obviously before the pandemic.
51:00
I'm not even done. Then they eat ramen at Robert's
51:04
house. He's the guy that they end up
51:07
signing, the pitcher that they end up signing.
51:09
Robert's house is in no way, shape or form an American house.
51:15
Yeah, it looks like the shelves, like with the open door.
51:19
That looked very East Asian architecture to me.
51:23
It looked like every other Korean house interior and then I
51:28
was mad because the only thing that differentiated it was the
51:32
Route 66 metal wall decor that they put in the dining room.
51:38
That looks so ridiculous. I couldn't believe that they
51:42
thought that would suffice. They were like America.
51:44
Literally, literally, they were like, get some American decor
51:47
just like whatever, and they got a Route 66 sign.
51:50
I was like, I am offended on behalf of my whole culture.
51:54
Then this is the last thing I have about this episode.
51:58
They run out of gas at the end of the episode and they're in
52:02
like this valley, That's the fucking Jurassic Park Valley.
52:07
Yes 100% it is. The only thing I remember though
52:11
about that scene is that they're driving on a road and I know
52:16
they did this for some kind of symbolism where they put a dead
52:19
end sign. Dead end sign.
52:21
On a road that stretches for miles in both direct like the
52:26
dead end, they're actually going like they run off in the
52:30
direction of the gas station they start.
52:34
Running at full speed. Away from away from their truck,
52:39
but like in the direction the truck was going.
52:42
Towards the dead end. Toward the dead end, or they
52:45
were coming from the dead end, at which point it's like, wow,
52:49
what? It made no sense.
52:52
And then so this, this valley is the where they film Jurassic
52:57
Park. It's, oh, I'm going to butcher
52:59
this Kahawa Valley, which is one of the most iconic locations at
53:05
Kualoa Ranch, located in the eastern part of Oahu, Hawaii.
53:11
So I had all these questions. I was pausing the show to figure
53:16
out where they were because I was angry that they were
53:20
location hopping. Yeah, to an embarrassing degree.
53:24
Where it didn't have to happen. You could have just said, let's
53:28
say that the baseball player is training in Hawaii and then will
53:32
go to Hawaii and then there's a million different things they
53:37
really could have done there. Instead of saying we're going to
53:41
say it's California, we're going to go from LAX to a place in
53:47
Hawaii using a clip from someone else driving on the Pacific
53:53
Coast Highway. Like insane.
53:55
I'm like, so in my feelings right now because I grew up in
54:00
Southern California. I clocked none of this.
54:03
We had such a different experience.
54:05
I was like, Yep, looks like California to me.
54:08
That's where I grew up. That's my home.
54:11
All of it looks good. We're all above board here.
54:14
I'm having a good time. I just love how they had the
54:18
Denny's. I was like, Denny's in Hawaii.
54:21
You could have done Denny's in San Diego and nobody would have
54:24
been the wiser. But why Denny's in Hawaii?
54:27
I I was. Because I knew I wouldn't clock
54:31
it. I am the target audience, the
54:33
dumbest person alive. You're supposed to sit there and
54:37
not clock any of this. Anyways, sorry I took us on like
54:42
a wild like chase. I thought it was.
54:45
I am also obsessed with it. I also feel like.
54:48
Do you have a career in like set QA for K dramas?
54:54
No, but I should. You should.
54:57
They should hire me. Send them this clip.
55:02
Send someone this clip. Because this is embarrassing.
55:05
If you want to have a market in the international sphere, don't
55:09
do this shit, OK? Please make it believable.
55:14
Just try at the very least. Have someone look at it and just
55:19
like take a quick review to say like, does this look like Hawaii
55:23
or California? OK, so switching gears, I think
55:29
you guys wanted to talk more about Ho Jung Sei's foul foul
55:34
company man who just keeps sabotaging the team.
55:39
Yeah, throughout the series I. So The thing is, is that he's
55:44
such an incredible actor. Like I said, when I saw he was
55:47
in it, I was like, oh, this is a like, we're for, we're doing
55:49
this, we're going hard, This is serious.
55:52
And it's going to be a work of art because he's in this.
55:55
Yeah. And then as time went on, I
56:00
just. So sometimes I think that the
56:05
best villains are the ones where there's kind of a Gray area
56:09
under which they are functioning or, you know, they're not the
56:12
good guy, but they make some compelling points.
56:16
Or if none of those things, then they've got to be the bad guy,
56:20
right? Like they've got to be like,
56:22
there's no one up above them making them do this.
56:24
There's no one. They are just committed to what
56:27
they believe and it's bad. It's all bad.
56:31
But he was kind of none of those things.
56:33
And I found him to be a very, I, I could not connect with him as
56:37
a villain because every time they tried to give his kind of
56:42
pitiable back story of like, well, his dad is poor because he
56:47
cares so much about the people around him and gives them all of
56:51
his money. And he had to go to the military
56:55
like every other non tribal, non like.
57:00
He's not. A true son of the conglomerate
57:05
Because he's not a draft Dodger. Yeah, right.
57:09
Exactly where I was. Just like, Oh no.
57:16
Let me play you the tiniest violence.
57:19
The whole time, every time they were like, look at how sad he is
57:22
because his younger cousin is a jerk to him.
57:24
And I was just like, I don't care, quit your job.
57:29
But he had to ask for money to go to school from his rich
57:33
uncle. Isn't that sad?
57:34
He had to beg for his tuition fees.
57:38
Not me out to pay back. Yeah, not me out here still
57:41
paying back my student loans 10 years later.
57:43
And he's like, my rich uncle paid for my school.
57:47
And what shame that carries for me.
57:50
I'm just like, I don't care, man.
57:52
Like I don't care. But I do feel like his arc was
57:56
good by the end. It was very believable that he
58:00
has this turn around, becomes a human and starts feeling
58:04
feelings again. I I don't know, I like the kind
58:07
of redemption of his character. It just took 15 episodes for
58:12
them to do anything with it, it was so long.
58:17
Yeah. It took a minute for him to kind
58:20
of gain a conscience because he knew what was right and wrong.
58:26
He knew he was agitating people throughout the show.
58:31
He knew that he was acting on these feelings of feeling
58:37
inferior, right. He always had this inferiority
58:40
complex, and I mean flouting his status in front of Nam Kumin's
58:49
character. He didn't like being
58:52
disrespected. He hated the general manager, He
58:55
hated that the general manager was good at his job.
58:58
He hated that the general manager didn't take direction,
59:01
didn't take orders, and he hated that he was lesser in his own
59:09
house, like in his own family. At one point he says it's much
59:14
easier to crush those below you than to fight those above you.
59:18
And that's in episode 11. And that's like his whole
59:20
philosophy throughout the show is that he's like, well, if I
59:23
can't have what I want in a professional sense, it within my
59:28
own freaking family conglomerate, then I'm going to
59:31
like bitch and moan and stomp on people below me in this ball
59:36
club that my father loved. Yeah.
59:40
That I had a wonderful childhood and grew up around just because.
59:46
Yeah. Like it's so petulant.
59:49
It was so petulant and it was it made him so hard to understand
59:54
in the sense that it was like, sorry, did you get an immense
59:58
outpouring of affection from the people that you are now
1:00:01
committing You're you became a corporate shill for or like
1:00:05
because like his family isn't good to him.
1:00:09
His parents seem to want to have some kind of connection with
1:00:12
him. I don't know.
1:00:13
There was just like, so many moments where it was just like,
1:00:16
I can't even feel like this is entirely believable because he
1:00:21
has every reason to want the club to succeed.
1:00:24
And he's still like, no, I need to impress my rich uncle.
1:00:30
And it's just, it's a lot. And yeah, his redemption was
1:00:35
kind of, there was only kind of 1 moment of it that really sold
1:00:41
it for me. And it was when he was speaking
1:00:43
with the kind of sleazy scouting, not team lead, but the
1:00:48
like Co lead or whatever of the scouting team after he was
1:00:53
trying to get him to commit all the different infractions within
1:00:57
the company or within the baseball club.
1:00:59
And then the kind of the very end, he says, can I just go back
1:01:03
to doing my old job? He being the the scouting
1:01:07
assistant Wade, he says, can I go back to doing my old job?
1:01:11
I would like to do real work and not sabotage people anymore.
1:01:15
And that was kind of the moment where you could see there was
1:01:18
like a a little mechanism turning in his head.
1:01:21
And that was kind of the only moment that that really sold the
1:01:24
he finally had a reason to change because all of the other
1:01:28
reasons had always been there. And he was kind of a brat about
1:01:32
those two. They didn't seem very compelling
1:01:35
for him to change. But it was just interesting that
1:01:37
that there was like that one moment where he was like, oh, I
1:01:40
could be a normal person about this.
1:01:43
This was after this guy also saved his keepsake which was the
1:01:47
signed baseball. Yes, I forgot about that.
1:01:50
Yeah, he like pulled it out of the trash and gave it back to
1:01:53
him. Yeah, it's like 6 episodes
1:01:56
before that that he was visiting the baseball stadium and an
1:02:00
older groundskeeper or something was like, hey, you're that kid
1:02:04
that used to come here. Your dad was the best guy I've
1:02:07
ever worked for in my entire life.
1:02:09
And you think, you think in that moment that Kwan Keung Min is
1:02:13
going to change a little bit, that he's going to be like, Oh
1:02:16
yeah, my dad isn't just a poor piece of shit, he's a nice
1:02:20
person. Despite what my uncle has been
1:02:23
telling me, brainwashing me with for the past 20 years since he
1:02:27
got my dad to quit. My dad was a good person and I
1:02:31
should be a good person. Nope, no change for like the
1:02:34
next 6 episodes. He's like, I'm going to keep
1:02:37
being shit. Yeah, I totally understand where
1:02:40
he's coming from though, because in the culture, well, first of
1:02:44
all, this is a conglomerate family and he is money hungry
1:02:47
the whole show. Like he is constantly putting
1:02:50
people down and equating things to money if they they're not
1:02:54
valuable because they're worth less money and yadda, yadda,
1:02:57
yadda. He's constantly talking about
1:02:59
money. And that's what that's all fine
1:03:02
and good. You add on to that.
1:03:04
His father's poor. His father is righteous but
1:03:07
poor, not very educated, was not good as a businessman, and that
1:03:13
equals unsuccessful and embarrassing in the Korean
1:03:17
culture. Not to mention the uncle is a
1:03:20
successful conglomerate owner. So to to this guy, to O Jiang
1:03:25
Sei's character, he's like, yeah, I don't want nothing to do
1:03:28
with my dad because my dad is an embarrassment.
1:03:32
So it makes no difference that the dad had a wonderful heart
1:03:36
for people and he's well loved in the community or that he was
1:03:42
well respected by these peasants.
1:03:44
Like they don't matter. Like, you know what I'm saying?
1:03:46
Like it it made no difference to him.
1:03:49
So I totally understand where he was coming from.
1:03:51
To me, the disconnect happened when he at the beginning of the
1:03:55
show, he sets up. I want you to create a
1:03:58
championship team. I brought you in specifically
1:04:02
because I loved your resume. You created a championship team
1:04:06
multiple times, and then the owners were able to disband and
1:04:11
sell the team. You increased the value of the
1:04:15
team. Yeah.
1:04:17
So I'm like, OK, me and my business mind, I'm like,
1:04:20
perfect. I understand exactly where he's
1:04:22
coming from. He wants to increase the value
1:04:24
of the team, make it attractive for when he goes to sell it in a
1:04:28
year after the next season. Got it.
1:04:31
Except he kept fucking sabotaging every single thing
1:04:36
that would lead to a stronger team, a stronger season.
1:04:41
So that was when I was like, I don't understand if he was his
1:04:44
own worst enemy. Yes, 100%.
1:04:46
I was the same where I was like, what does he do?
1:04:48
Like what? What do you mean you don't want
1:04:51
him to make them champions? And then kind of near the end,
1:04:54
they started doing a lot of him and his uncle and everyone were
1:04:59
like, there's no point in selling it.
1:05:02
And I was like, that also doesn't seem very business
1:05:05
minded in the sense that like obviously they also were like,
1:05:09
he's been trying for years and he hasn't been able to do it.
1:05:12
But that was, like you said, way later in the show.
1:05:15
Revealed that he had. Tried for many years to sell
1:05:19
this team and nobody in the region wanted to sell it.
1:05:22
It's worth noting this is not a team out of Seoul.
1:05:25
This is not a capital team. This is out of Tongjin City and
1:05:31
Dongjin City. I looked it up is apparently the
1:05:34
AI overview says it's most likely refers to Chong Dongjin,
1:05:39
a town near Kongnun, South Korea, most famous for its
1:05:43
sunrise views in the train station practically on the
1:05:45
beach. I looked up where that is.
1:05:48
It is clear on the other side of South Korea.
1:05:51
So it's on the East Coast of South Korea and that does track
1:05:56
with what they say about this team.
1:05:58
It is like a provincial baseball team.
1:06:01
They already have like three sets of ball clubs out of Seoul.
1:06:07
The rest of the ball clubs are out of these different provinces
1:06:11
and different regions in South Korea.
1:06:14
And this region, they had a strategic interest in putting a
1:06:18
ballclub there all those years ago because of their business.
1:06:21
They were a consumer first facing business.
1:06:24
And so they were like, perfect, let's create a ballclub and
1:06:27
create all this buzz and good feelings towards our chaise on
1:06:31
conglomerate with this ballclub, the dreams.
1:06:35
And so now that they're stuck in this podunk region, they're
1:06:39
like, Oh, no one wants to buy a ballclub on the East Coast, that
1:06:44
all that we have is a nice sunset and like, loyal fans.
1:06:48
Yeah, and our ball club is dog shit.
1:06:51
And our ball club is dog shit. So I can understand like why,
1:06:55
but again, that wasn't a thing. A through line that they had set
1:07:00
up that he was like trying to sell it and was unsuccessful.
1:07:03
It was like on on the last couple of episodes he was like,
1:07:05
good luck selling it because I've tried and no one wants to
1:07:10
take the ball club. Yeah.
1:07:12
So it's like, yeah. Which it if they made it a
1:07:15
through line and that would have explained so much about the
1:07:18
desperate. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:07:21
But because they didn't, it was just kind of like a what do you
1:07:24
mean you don't want to make it more valuable?
1:07:25
This is so weird that you're trying to stop him from doing
1:07:29
everything that you wanted. There was 1 episode where they
1:07:34
cut the budget by 30% and that wreaked havoc on the
1:07:37
negotiations with the players. And I think when we wanted to
1:07:41
talk about paying these players minimum wage and stuff like
1:07:46
that, like it was wild. They were doing wild things in
1:07:49
the show. Insane things like criminal
1:07:53
things. I feel so passionately.
1:07:58
I just have. I've had the conversation with
1:08:01
my boyfriend recently because he's a huge hockey fan.
1:08:04
Our team is the Colorado Avalanche and we watch a lot of
1:08:07
Colorado Avalanche games, but a recent this ties in a lot to
1:08:11
what's happening in hot stove league.
1:08:13
A recent thing that came up was that a long time player ended up
1:08:18
being traded because he wanted a higher salary.
1:08:23
It wasn't really in the cards for them.
1:08:24
They're kind of strategically like doing stuff with their
1:08:27
salary. It was a huge bummer for the
1:08:29
team because he was a probably not fully a franchise player,
1:08:33
but very like Dong Yu type. People knew his name.
1:08:37
He was one of their starters. And so it was a huge bummer.
1:08:41
But he also, my boyfriend was telling me like back maybe a
1:08:46
year or two before the Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup,
1:08:51
their actual franchise player that everybody loves took a
1:08:55
smaller salary. So a higher salary could be
1:08:58
allocated to recruiting high value teammates.
1:09:02
And that was very, I kept thinking about that during the
1:09:06
salary negotiation episodes because there was elements of
1:09:10
that, that there's like a purity in that like do it for the game,
1:09:13
do it for the team. And I really loved that.
1:09:17
And then I saw how little these people were being paid and I was
1:09:21
like, oh, no, I think sports players should get paid a lot
1:09:25
less than they do. I don't think that they should
1:09:28
be paid like $5.00 an hour. I think that's really bad.
1:09:34
Yes. So they came up with some sort
1:09:36
of algorithm to figure out their worth based on their performance
1:09:41
from the previous couple of seasons.
1:09:44
And I think the worst one was the relief pitcher who was going
1:09:50
to retire. He's an older pitcher and they
1:09:53
were going to give him like the equivalent of $42,000 for the
1:09:56
season. It was like crazy talk.
1:10:00
It was wild. He was like, you know what, They
1:10:03
want me out. I see the writing on the wall.
1:10:06
They they don't want me here. They I'm going to retire.
1:10:09
And it's really disheartening to see how and, and you know, Nanku
1:10:15
Min's character says this as well.
1:10:16
He's like, I didn't like how I had to play dirty to get all
1:10:20
this shit done and get this budget approved.
1:10:23
Shortchange all of these passionate players who deserve
1:10:27
way more just because you arbitrarily talking to Ucheng's
1:10:32
character. You arbitrarily wanted to drop
1:10:34
the budget by 30%, which is a outrageous #30%.
1:10:39
Insane. No, no.
1:10:41
So there's no way that he could have run the ball club based on
1:10:46
a 30% deficit in the budget. I mean, the fact that they even
1:10:50
tried, I was like, this show is nuts.
1:10:52
Like, yeah. Yeah, I think Human Ho or at
1:10:57
least some of the newer players were signing for like $23,000 a
1:11:02
year. Yeah, they were getting nothing.
1:11:05
Nothing. I don't know what cost of living
1:11:08
in dungeon is, but it cannot be. It can't.
1:11:12
It cannot be meeting any cost of living that I am aware of.
1:11:17
That's insanity. And he smiled at the end when
1:11:21
they upped it from like $23,000 per year to $27,000 per year.
1:11:26
And I was like, babe, no. Don't.
1:11:29
Don't let them do this. Yeah, it looked like me getting
1:11:32
my first salary job when I was younger and it was like not good
1:11:36
pay, but I would brag about it because I didn't know about
1:11:40
salaried and like how that. It's absolutely true.
1:11:43
Yeah, God, painful. But yeah, those salary
1:11:48
negotiations were painful. And the the conversations I
1:11:53
would say that happened between Old Chung SE and Nam Gumen are
1:11:57
really interesting and powerful because these two guys are
1:12:02
disrespecting each other. You can see how Old Chung say
1:12:04
even the way he speaks is disrespecting.
1:12:06
And he's not talking in the elevated speak.
1:12:10
He's not ending his sentences with like, you're the polite
1:12:13
you're. He is calling him punk.
1:12:17
He's saying like, yeah, like, hey, you.
1:12:20
He's very disrespectful even. He's talking down to him
1:12:24
constantly. And I had this conversation in
1:12:27
episode 10 that I wanted to go over before we kind of back it
1:12:30
up and talk about a couple more things before we get out of
1:12:33
here. And it's this tent bar
1:12:35
conversation that he has with him.
1:12:38
Do you remember this conversation?
1:12:40
I don't have it all because it's really long, but Nangu Min says
1:12:44
to decide what is important and what is not.
1:12:47
Is money the only standard of measurement for you?
1:12:50
And oh, Jiang says yeah, hey, why are you so rude anyway?
1:12:57
Why don't you ever listen, you punk?
1:13:00
And then he says back, If I do listen, does the way you people
1:13:04
treat me change all of these? Like they're constantly
1:13:09
challenging each other, Nungumin says.
1:13:12
If I listen well, you keep telling me to do things that are
1:13:14
unjust in order to keep your hands clean.
1:13:17
He's like, you're a hypocrite. He says.
1:13:20
Any organization that is even a little bit proper, even if
1:13:23
someone doesn't listen, as long as they do a good job, they
1:13:26
leave that person alone. He's saying you're an asshole.
1:13:31
You're even, you're messing with innocent people, even if they're
1:13:34
doing what you want them to. These are humans.
1:13:37
They're people, yeah. All Jiang says, says This is why
1:13:41
all you will ever be is a general manager at the main
1:13:44
headquarters. I'm managing director and
1:13:46
running hotels, EU punk. So again, throwing his status,
1:13:50
his weight around, he's like, I've managed multimillion dollar
1:13:54
companies and you're just, you know, managing a ball club.
1:13:58
It doesn't even matter. So he again, he's such a
1:14:01
freaking elitist, Nam Guman says.
1:14:04
So do you know any baseball? Which is in itself and
1:14:09
condescending question because he's been running the ball club
1:14:14
behind the scenes. He's been acting as the proxy
1:14:17
for his uncle, as the owner of the ball club.
1:14:22
So he says, yeah, I ran the ball club for years.
1:14:24
How can I not know baseball? You were a general manager of a
1:14:27
handball team until last year. How dare you?
1:14:31
So Nan Kunmen quotes Barry Swiser and says some people are
1:14:37
born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a
1:14:40
000. So good mic drop moment.
1:14:47
And then he says, well, I guess this isn't necessary, but seeing
1:14:51
you be so prideful, it's embarrassing for me to see.
1:14:56
He said. You're embarrassing thinking
1:15:00
that you actually earned all of this shit, that you have your
1:15:05
position, and that you're actually good.
1:15:09
So proud of him for this. He said you're embarrassing.
1:15:14
I loved it. I.
1:15:16
Loved it. Felt so.
1:15:17
That was like the moment that was practically a PowerPoint
1:15:21
presentation for me. Yes, I loved how they were
1:15:28
battling each and every one of the setbacks that they had that
1:15:32
whether it was Ultron, say, or some other thing that was going
1:15:35
on. Did you guys have a favorite
1:15:39
like episode or problem that they had to solve throughout the
1:15:42
show? Yeah, I was pretty obsessed with
1:15:45
the Robert Gill arc. Like besides the fact that the
1:15:52
location would switch between California, Korea and Hawaii
1:15:57
every 30 seconds, the arc in and of itself I thought was really,
1:16:03
really good in that it was twist after twist after twist.
1:16:08
And they were able to subvert expectations constantly while
1:16:12
keeping you interested and keeping that underdog theme that
1:16:17
the show was built on of like, we're trying to get Miles.
1:16:21
We want to sign him, but we keep meeting hurdle after hurdle and
1:16:25
it just doesn't seem like it's going to happen.
1:16:27
And then right when they're at the finish line, they're like,
1:16:30
no, can't get him. And you think that's the end of
1:16:34
it. And then there's this turn
1:16:36
around where suddenly there's a new pitcher in the game and he's
1:16:39
been there the whole time. He's their guy, he's their
1:16:42
friend Robert Gill. And not only is he a killer
1:16:45
pitcher, he's he can be the foreign player because of all
1:16:49
these weird laws, and there's still problems with that because
1:16:53
he's a traitor to his own country.
1:16:55
But like. He is a draft Dodger and he's.
1:16:59
Not a tribal, and that sucks, but for a good reason.
1:17:03
He was saving a life and it's like all of it is just.
1:17:06
I liked the intrigue, I liked the twists and that in part,
1:17:14
although Nan Kun Min Big Sung Soo says he's not a humanist,
1:17:19
there is that feeling throughout this arc that he is a humanist
1:17:23
and that he does it obviously because Robert Gill is a killer
1:17:27
pitcher, but also because he's a good person and he's like, I
1:17:31
want to work with you. I want to work with someone who
1:17:34
cares about baseball almost more than anything, but not more than
1:17:38
anything, because family is the most important.
1:17:40
Yeah. How big song, Sue?
1:17:42
I knew you would say that. You're a big softy.
1:17:46
Yeah, softy teddy bear. Something that he says during
1:17:49
the press conference also kind of Harkins back to like, yeah,
1:17:53
the the draft dodging. I love that he calls it out
1:17:56
during the press conference where it was like, I don't know,
1:17:59
like looks one of the journalists in the eyes.
1:18:02
And he's like, it's almost like if a the son of an owner of a
1:18:05
journalism company like didn't do their term in the army as
1:18:10
well, which makes. Me think that specific
1:18:12
journalist, yes, some draft dodging or something, has been a
1:18:16
draft Dodger, yeah, because he looked down embarrassed.
1:18:20
Yes, which I loved. And then I loved that that was,
1:18:23
I mean, he just stands on business and I literally love
1:18:27
that. Yeah, yeah.
1:18:29
Speaking of standing on business, let's talk about the
1:18:31
brother that was in a wheelchair.
1:18:34
Oh yes, he was a great character.
1:18:37
No, you go ahead. No, he was a great character.
1:18:41
He applies for the sabermetrics job, which is basically some
1:18:46
sort of analytics job on the team.
1:18:50
I think this whole episode is for us westerners.
1:18:55
It might be considered rage bait, but it it's tough to get
1:19:00
through because the analytics team leader who ends up being
1:19:04
like a really nice guy like by the end of the show, but this
1:19:08
guy is set in his ways. He's he's a traditionalist.
1:19:12
He doesn't think that a person who has never played baseball
1:19:18
should be on this analytics team.
1:19:21
He thinks that you need that experience, he says during the
1:19:25
interview process for the brother who has been paralyzed
1:19:28
and is in a wheelchair. Well, you'll know once you've
1:19:32
played baseball. Behind the numbers, there are
1:19:36
many different reasons in baseball, period.
1:19:39
And I was like, stop right there, stop right there.
1:19:42
It is such a condescending and ableist way to say how and when
1:19:47
to use analytics correctly. Even if the tone that he set it
1:19:52
in was really even like he wasn't, he didn't say it with
1:19:56
any sort of attitude or obvious malice.
1:19:58
I was like, this is so brilliant because as an audience member,
1:20:03
you're and I think the Korean audience as well.
1:20:07
They want you to sympathize with the person in the wheelchair,
1:20:11
right? With the brother.
1:20:12
They want you to think like Puck and Bin's character is thinking.
1:20:17
They want you to think like her, which you shouldn't say that
1:20:20
that's wrong, That's offensive. But the Korean populist probably
1:20:25
thinks the way that he does. Right, man, I didn't.
1:20:29
Yeah, because like you said, it is very like rage baity
1:20:33
specifically for Westerners that are like you can't.
1:20:37
That's illegal. Yeah, this is.
1:20:39
Very illegal. This is very, like you said,
1:20:42
ableist. This is so frustrating that he
1:20:45
is able to speak this way in an interview and not immediately go
1:20:49
to jail. Or get a suit later on, get a
1:20:53
letter in the mail. Yeah, yeah.
1:20:56
Yeah, yeah, it keeps going. That interview is kind of
1:20:58
painful. And that guy is so provocative,
1:21:03
like offensive and unprofessional and provocative
1:21:06
because he doesn't feel period, that this position that they're
1:21:11
hiring for that they should even hire for a position in in
1:21:15
sabermetrics or whatever the term is.
1:21:17
And so he's taking it out on this guy who's in a wheelchair
1:21:21
and he's assuming he's never played baseball.
1:21:24
Yes, an extra layer of frustration, right?
1:21:27
They're making these just really wild, rampant assumptions that
1:21:32
he has never touched a baseball bat, that he have no clue how he
1:21:37
ended up in a wheelchair. Right, right.
1:21:41
But also they're like, yeah, it's so condescending.
1:21:44
It's so frustrating. Yeah, yeah.
1:21:47
But you get some flashbacks during this time where you see
1:21:51
beforehand what what transpired beforehand.
1:21:55
He was playing baseball, he was in high school.
1:21:58
He had this conversation with Nam Kung Min's character, his
1:22:00
Hyeong. And Nam Kung Min is rude as
1:22:04
fuck. In the flashback, he says you
1:22:07
cannot be as good as at your studies as you are at playing
1:22:11
baseball. You don't have the brains for
1:22:13
it. Yeah, so he got it from both.
1:22:16
You're not smart enough to do this, but also flip side, you
1:22:22
haven't played baseball enough to do this.
1:22:25
And it's like, what do you mean? Yeah.
1:22:28
Can he win ever? Yeah.
1:22:30
It. I mean, it's frustrating enough
1:22:32
for that character, the brother character whom I loved.
1:22:37
But I do feel like I was distracted because this was the
1:22:41
start of Nam Ku Min's back story, which was, to me, a
1:22:47
heinous mess, a crime against the whole show.
1:22:51
But yeah, in his brother's part, it's, I think, kind of written
1:22:57
off where his brother's just like, I am smart enough and I
1:23:01
have played baseball, so problem solved.
1:23:04
Win, win. And then he gets the job and he
1:23:08
does great and he even changes his boss to be a normal person
1:23:12
who no longer harasses his employees to the point of
1:23:16
quitting. It's a win, win, win, honestly
1:23:19
for that guy. Yeah, I mean, in that interview,
1:23:22
he even says that he likes Jackie Robinson, the first black
1:23:26
player in the MLB. He likes that story.
1:23:28
He likes that history and admires that perseverance
1:23:32
despite the abuse and discrimination.
1:23:35
And his quote is, it sounds ridiculous.
1:23:37
Now, if I were to become a disabled analyst, I will
1:23:40
probably be the first. It will be good to release news
1:23:44
articles about this touching story.
1:23:45
So he's even, like, pitching to them.
1:23:49
Hey, this is a feel good story. It's good PR.
1:23:52
Yeah, it's good PR and I'd be good at my job.
1:23:55
You don't lose. Anything right?
1:23:57
Right. Yeah, But it's Puckenben who
1:24:00
says the thesis that the writer is putting forward, which is
1:24:04
dreams. The ball club won't discriminate
1:24:07
based on the fact that you're different.
1:24:09
Hell yeah, our girl, the lens with which we are watching this
1:24:13
show. You're a decent.
1:24:15
Person. That's the message.
1:24:17
Yeah, just be nice. So let's talk quickly about Nan
1:24:22
Ku Min's back story. Because I think that we didn't
1:24:25
like that they didn't expound upon it and it seems like he had
1:24:30
no I'll effects after a while. It was that he lost a child.
1:24:36
He lost. Everything.
1:24:38
He lost everything this same Saturday.
1:24:40
He. Was like.
1:24:41
Hey little bro, Well, good luck at your baseball game because
1:24:44
you've got nothing else going for you in life.
1:24:46
So play hard. And his brother's like, I'll
1:24:48
play so hard I almost die. Does that freak dad almost dies
1:24:54
in another freak accident? The what was it the dad
1:24:58
collapsed or something? Yeah.
1:25:00
Yeah. When his brother had the freak
1:25:02
accident during the baseball game and then his wife also had
1:25:08
a miscarriage or wife or girlfriend.
1:25:10
I don't know. We.
1:25:11
It's unclear all like in the same at the same time then he.
1:25:16
Loses his job. Yeah.
1:25:19
Oh my God. It's so a lot happening for him
1:25:26
and I, I don't know. I don't know.
1:25:29
Yeah, it seems like giving a character a tragic back story is
1:25:34
supposed to serve the purpose of allowing audience members to
1:25:37
feel seen within that character. But I think if you give them
1:25:44
five different tragic backstories, then people don't
1:25:48
feel seen in that. They're like, oh, I went through
1:25:52
this tragic thing as well, and wow, he went through it.
1:25:55
Oh, but he went through that and that and that and OK, we're
1:26:00
playing the Paine Olympics now, and I have lost.
1:26:03
He's winning. He's the most tragic person I've
1:26:06
ever seen. And you lose that connection
1:26:09
with the audience. So then what's the point?
1:26:11
What's the point of making him the saddest man to exist?
1:26:15
I don't get it. Yeah, like, I just didn't see
1:26:19
the point of it. It was like hit after hit after
1:26:23
hit all in the span of like one or two episodes.
1:26:25
They finish it out and then they just keep on going with the rest
1:26:29
of the hot stove league and all the machinations and they're
1:26:32
just like, yeah, that sucked, right?
1:26:36
Yeah. That was it.
1:26:38
Like that was it. I think we even got like the
1:26:41
final goodbye from his girlfriend before we knew that
1:26:47
she had like miscarried and that's why their relationship
1:26:49
was so complicated and heavy. And so it was like, we didn't
1:26:54
even get to process her being like, we shouldn't keep doing
1:26:59
this on the same day anymore in a way that made sense or like in
1:27:04
a linear way where we were like, this is closure.
1:27:08
This moment is closure. Because at that moment it's, it
1:27:11
feels so like what, you don't know what happening with these
1:27:15
two people. Yeah, We just don't know what it
1:27:18
means. We don't know who she is.
1:27:19
Is she a wife? Is she an ex?
1:27:21
Like, what is she a sister? Like, I don't know because we
1:27:26
just don't know her relationship to him.
1:27:27
And he's so closed off. So many more questions and
1:27:32
answers. And then we finally do get the
1:27:33
answers. We're like, I thought this was
1:27:35
multiple choices seen, like fill in the blank, like, you know
1:27:37
what I'm saying? It was like too much.
1:27:41
Too much, too, yeah. Yeah.
1:27:44
And then at the very end, they just like his character.
1:27:48
Yeah. How do we reconcile where he
1:27:51
started and then how it all ends for him?
1:27:55
It's all very ambiguous. It is very ambiguous.
1:27:58
They kick him out again. Well, first of all, the last
1:28:01
episode, they do find a buyer for the team and it's Ejayan.
1:28:05
Yeah, what? I screamed.
1:28:08
I like screamed that cameo. Yeah, I don't recognize anybody
1:28:14
and I recognized that guy. Yeah, yeah, Tech bro cameo, the
1:28:18
tech amazing. So good.
1:28:21
Yeah. And he said, hey, I'm going to
1:28:24
buy the team. Everybody on my team is saying I
1:28:27
shouldn't. It's probably not a good idea,
1:28:29
but I'm fine anyway. But you can't come.
1:28:32
Sorry, why? I And then the reasoning was so
1:28:35
shaky, like that was so wobbly. It was so shaky.
1:28:39
You're too good at your job. He said your history, he said
1:28:42
something about your history and I don't know what he meant.
1:28:47
The only thing I could think of is the whistleblower thing.
1:28:51
What? And what's crazy to me, though,
1:28:54
is that whenever someone is talking about like, oh, you'll
1:28:58
never get hired again because you're a whistleblower, to me,
1:29:02
I'm like, Oh, no, that's very indicative of are you?
1:29:07
Committing crimes. You won't hire a whistleblower
1:29:10
because you're committing crimes like anyone who won't hire a
1:29:14
whistle you. Have to hide.
1:29:16
Yeah, like they should be investigated.
1:29:20
I I agree. This is crazy.
1:29:24
You just admitted to a crime. Not on my watch.
1:29:31
So I was confused about why he kicked him out.
1:29:34
But it kind of goes, I guess, with his flighty nature, that he
1:29:39
just comes in, fixes something, he puts something on the right
1:29:42
path. He put them on the path to being
1:29:44
champions, even though at the end they weren't.
1:29:46
They were just kind of like doing better.
1:29:50
And I didn't like that either. I was like, where's the trophy?
1:29:54
Where's the trophy? You have to tell us he did a
1:29:57
good job that you don't have to tell us where he got employed.
1:30:00
He doesn't even have to work on the team anymore, but at least
1:30:03
tell us they won the championship.
1:30:05
Like please. It would have been such a great
1:30:07
moment if they did like a crossover.
1:30:10
There's so many sports dramas in K drama land.
1:30:14
If they showed, I don't know, weightlifting fairy Kimbok drew,
1:30:17
all of a sudden I'd be like, Oh my God, it's a crossover
1:30:21
movement. No, they didn't even try and
1:30:24
create a sort of a shared universe.
1:30:27
No, he just like, goes through a weird mysterious door and
1:30:32
disappears into the sports fear and I I guess he's on to the
1:30:35
next shot. Like, on to the next one.
1:30:37
OK. Yeah, it again feels like why
1:30:41
give him the most tragic back story I've ever seen in any
1:30:45
drama, only for his ending to be like, he found a family, he got
1:30:50
his place, he's got a workplace with people who absolutely adore
1:30:54
him, and he was forced out again.
1:30:56
Goodbye. Like.
1:30:58
The end just. Give me a happy ending.
1:31:01
Yeah, yeah. I agree.
1:31:05
And his speech about it being the first thing he was able to
1:31:09
protect and that will give him a lot of strength was beautiful
1:31:12
and emotional, but it still was kind it.
1:31:15
I'm still in the. Why did you have to do it like
1:31:17
this? I was still on where are the
1:31:20
prizes, where, where, what sport are you on next?
1:31:26
And I was waiting for him to just come back because it had
1:31:29
been at least a season, right? They were they at the end of the
1:31:33
season? I I couldn't tell if it had been
1:31:35
several years at that point. So because Pac-Man had a whole
1:31:40
different style, like she had a style evolution at the Yeah.
1:31:45
She took great. Yeah.
1:31:47
I was like, is that years? Is that three months?
1:31:49
What? What is that?
1:31:51
They had to have promoted her to general management.
1:31:55
I I was trying to do everything that you did correctly with
1:31:59
figuring out the location situation in America.
1:32:03
I was the same way. But about that moment where I
1:32:06
was like, OK, her hair is longer, but it's also
1:32:09
straightened. So we can't say that it's
1:32:11
definitively been that long. They're still wearing coats.
1:32:14
Everyone's wearing coats and jackets.
1:32:16
No one's in their summertime clothes.
1:32:18
Is this just because it's their business attire, or are we still
1:32:22
in? Is it the fall?
1:32:23
Yeah. Or.
1:32:24
Or is it the fall? Yeah.
1:32:26
I don't know idea. Who's to say?
1:32:28
Not me, I don't. Know not me, I'm not about to
1:32:31
tell you exactly when the show ends, but there is a time jump.
1:32:34
I just don't know how much time has passed.
1:32:37
That is a little bit frustrating.
1:32:38
I I just, I don't think it's enough to again, take points
1:32:42
away from the show. But it wasn't exactly a home
1:32:46
run, no pun intended. At the end of the show.
1:32:49
It was more like we got bases loaded kind of thing, like just
1:32:54
general excitement. So can't wait for season 2.
1:32:58
I'm just kidding. It's only been five years.
1:33:02
Like where's the Season 2? Never do season twos.
1:33:07
Oh God. Oh, I have a couple of stray
1:33:09
notes here. These are always fun.
1:33:11
So in episode 1, there's a fight in the dugout.
1:33:16
They're down by 9 points and there's a fight in the dugout.
1:33:22
The Korean children in the stands are crying.
1:33:27
And I'll tell you one thing, this makes Korean children look
1:33:30
real soft because American kids would be living if there was a
1:33:36
fight in the dugout. OK.
1:33:37
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
1:33:38
If I went to a baseball game and there was a fight in the dugout,
1:33:43
oh, my God, let me tell you, That would be a story I would
1:33:46
tell to my grandkids. OK?
1:33:48
I'd be like, I went to a game, and then these players started
1:33:51
fighting, and there was, and the coaches got in on it.
1:33:53
It was crazy. So no, I was not following the
1:33:59
despair that was running through the crowd.
1:34:02
When the dream started infighting, I was like, fuck
1:34:04
yes. Like, bring it on.
1:34:08
Yeah. I the the kids seemed pretty
1:34:11
soft. I also like if they had just
1:34:15
kept it at the adults were like embarrassed because they didn't
1:34:19
want their kids hyping up the violence.
1:34:21
That would have been fine. And if they had kept it at y'all
1:34:23
should be embarrassed to be doing this when you're 9 points
1:34:26
down right and starting a fistfight with each other.
1:34:30
What's happening here? Like that's hilarious like and
1:34:34
understandable if they were like that's where the disappointment
1:34:36
was coming from. But I totally agree those kids
1:34:38
look like such. I was like what is this?
1:34:43
This is a great so entertaining worth the price of a hot dog so.
1:34:49
You really watch hockey? Exactly, exactly.
1:34:52
They couldn't handle hockey. So any last words before we get
1:34:56
out of here? None from me.
1:34:58
No, I've had a good time. Thank you for having us on.
1:35:01
Yes. Thank you SO.
1:35:02
So nice. Yeah, I'm so glad you guys were
1:35:05
able to come. We could talk about hot Stove
1:35:07
league, a Little baseball offseason show.
1:35:11
Opening season was literally like a few days ago, you know?
1:35:16
Whoa, no. I didn't and I should have.
1:35:18
I got invited to go to like a local baseball game recently and
1:35:23
I didn't realize it was because the season just.
1:35:25
Opened when I saw my because my friends are a couple of friends
1:35:28
of mine are Red Sox fans and you know, Red Sox fans are crazy.
1:35:32
So they were posting all kind of things for Opening Day, and I
1:35:36
was like, Oh my God, I just finished watching Hot Stove
1:35:39
League and it's opening day. And yeah, so I was feeling all
1:35:43
kinds of things, but so timely. So timely that we did this show.
1:35:48
Yeah. We did it in the stove league in
1:35:50
the. Stove at the end of the stove
1:35:52
league. Yes, exactly.
1:35:54
So again, thank you guys for coming on the show.
1:35:57
Where can people find you online?
1:35:59
We're at a couple of places. We've got our e-mail that we ask
1:36:02
people to reach out to us if they, I don't know, just want to
1:36:05
say hi or talk about more about the drama that we just reviewed.
1:36:09
That's play on k.podcast@gmail.com.
1:36:12
Yeah, and we've got a website that has all of our episodes.
1:36:16
You can find all of our links to everywhere that's play on k.com.
1:36:20
And then just our Patreon, which is linked on our website, but
1:36:23
don't forget about that guys. Yes, please, please support play
1:36:26
on K podcast, Emily and Raquel. They are wonderful and that's
1:36:31
our show. I'm Jessica and this has been
1:36:33
the Tiba Kay Rambles podcast.