Finally restarted my Netflix account. First show I tried watching was Caster just because it was an Abe Hiroshi show. The problem is I completely ignored the fact that it was a TBS show. Ok, Vivant did not suck which was a freaking miracle, Trillion Game was surprisingly fun and I really liked Warau Matroyshka. (Sidenote, why isn't Warau Matroyshka on Netflix?)
Fact is, after years and years of watching jdoramas. There are certain qualities to TBS shows.
1. They are really lit super with the power of a hundred suns so the actresses can show how smooth their faces are and sell whatever products they are promoting.
2. There will always be a scene in episode 1 where there is a huge venue and TBS likes to show off how they can get 100 extras to the venue.
3. The stories will start to stretch the limits of probability the longer you watch it. TBS shows will never be accused of being realistic. There is always a certain unrealism to them.
4. The story is written by committee for the lowest common denominator and tries way too freaking hard to be touching.
So did Caster get everything in the TBS Bingo card?
Caster is basically about news anchor Abe Hiroshi who is trying to figure out the truth behind certain events. Nagano Mei is the inexperience staff from variety who has been tasked with keeping Abe Hiroshi in check but Nagano Mei discovers that the first rule of journalism is to assume that everyone is lying.
The first episode about a big shot politician going to hospital was ok. The second episode was when alarm bells really started ringing for me. The story was about this betting site that had a 80% accurate prediction of the Japan men's volleyball team.
The first two episodes has Abe Hiroshi telling Nagano Mei to always get supporting evidence (uradori) and next thing you know, he has Nagono Mei randomly questioning a volleyball player about this random betting site. If a random betting site got 80% correct for dog racing over a few months, you going to accuse random dog for colluding? Get your supporting evidence first FFS!
Episode 3 was about the fakest lab growing some sort of revolutionary cell. The story was about data falsifying and for some reason the story came down to a random post it note which could have been forged anyway instead of experts looking through the records and checking the laboratory that looked more like a school science lab.
The ending of episode 3 was like some stupid kid's fairy tale trying to be touching but I just kept thinking how dumbed down they made this discovery that could change everything forever and they turned it into a footenote.
Caster is full of the bad things that TBS does and for some reason Abe Hiroshi keeps doing doramas with them and they are all shit, except for Dragon Zakura. The writing feels bad and there are way, too many leaps in logic. I have too many things to watch and do to waste my time on this and I suggest you do the same. Do not watch.
On an unrelated note, it is funny how Abe Hiroshi has a movie Showtime 7 which came out earlier this year with him playing another news anchor. That one is bomb threat terror show and hopefully it is better than Caster.
1 comment:
I was going to watch it on Netflix but I think I’ll pass. I love Hiroshi Abe as an actor but this drama looks meh to me.
I would like to recommend “AARO” though. I watched it earlier this year on Netflix and really loved it! It was so different than what I expected but in a good way.
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