TV Show Reviews

Love and Fortune Review

June 14, 2022April 21, 2026HalsdollLeave a comment

Have you ever eaten anything that tasted sweet and then the more you bit into it, it became bitter and tangy? I just described my emotions for Love and Fortune. Love and marriage are happy endings for most women. But some are just unlucky–meeting the wrong guy at the right time, and meeting the right guy at the wrong time. The maternal clock is always ticking. Women have one shot at finding “happiness” and sadly some may never achieve it at all. Oh, the pain of having a period in life! Sometimes, it hurts so much that we need to take painkillers.

If this show sounds all doom and gloom, far from it. It’s a sweet little show that made me laugh more than cry. All thanks to the great cinematography shots, my eyes were glued to the screen. It’s a show about a woman in her 30s who is conflicted with societal expectations (i.e., getting married, having children, being successful) and who happens to fall in love with a 15-year-old boy. Yes, I said it, a 15-year-old boy. Now, I know what you are thinking–she is a pedophile. She is gross, but let’s look at her situation with a magnifying glass–the detail.

Wako Taira, the protagonist, is aware of her age. Like any normal woman, she wants to get married, but her relationship with her boyfriend of three years is in limbo. The romance is not there. He looks down on her, constantly nagging her to quit her part-time job at the cinema and find a real job. She does all the housework. He comes home late drunk wanting to have sex–but never returning the favor when she wants it. So, what happens to a neglected woman? She finds love and hope elsewhere, and that’s where Yumeaki Iko (the high-school boy) comes into the picture. She strikes gold when she learns that he shares the same love for cinema as her. Finally, she found someone who understood her and her passion! But unfortunately, he is half her age! This series do question patriarchal society and gender inequality with seriousness and humor. If men can fall in love with younger women, why can’t women fall in love with younger men?

Don’t be fooled though by my light approach to this review, even though it may seem as if I’m endorsing the female protagonist’s behavior as female empowering, I don’t think the relationship between a high school boy and a woman twice his age would work out (the same can be said vice versa). For one, there’s no equality in that sort of relationship. The woman becomes someone like a mom to her young lover, and that’s not fair and romantic at all! I’m speaking from a feminist standpoint here. Despite my beliefs, I appreciate how this series prompted me to ask those big societal questions: Why is it more acceptable for a high school girl to fall in love with a man twice her age and not the other way around? Why do women have to sacrifice their creative pursuits because their maternity clock is ticking? Why is a woman’s worth measured by her childbearing capability and not her talents? And the most important question, which coincides with age, why is a woman’s worth determined by her beauty. If she doesn’t reach all of her dreams within her prime, she becomes less valuable in society. Think about why the terms old hags, old maids, and old witches are so offensive. Well, that’s because most likely they can’t conceive, and therefore, they are “bad apples”.

Love and Fortune is an interesting show if you are looking for something intelligent, well-crafted, and horrifyingly comical but very real to the problems that some women have to go through. The show makes me wonder, why is life so bittersweet? If you ask me, I kind of like biting into bad apples. They sure make a good story.

Note: Originally posted July 31, 2020; Revised and edited June 13, 2022.

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Reflecting on The Duchess of Duke Street Season 1

August 2, 2021February 21, 2026Halsdoll2 Comments

Lately, anything that inspires me to cook, I watch. And this English show is no exception! Cooking is something I’m not good at which is why I came up with Halsdoll’s Diner. How’s my progress so far you might wonder? My mother would have been proud. I gained 7 pounds since I started cooking, considering the fact I used to be shapelessly thin. And yet, I still have yet to find recipes I enjoy. You see, you got to have a passion for cooking and mine is not as strong as the protagonist Louisa Trotter who is known as the Queen of Cook and who is actually based on the real-life character, Rosa Lewis.

“I want to be a COOK!” said Louisa. And that’s all she ever wanted even till the end. Sadly, along the way she had to deal with the politics that come with it, especially being a woman in the 1920s when women are expected to walk in the shadow of their husbands. What I find so intriguing about The Duchess of Duke Street is to see an ambitious woman rising from the bottom as an assistant cook into a proprietor of a famous hotel in London. Of course, she didn’t do it all alone. The circumstance she was in led her to success. She caught the attention of royalty and got involved in an affair. Simply because she is a great cook and attractive. To cover up the affair, she was persuaded to marry her husband, a butler to whom she had no love. They moved into a house, and soon needed to make a living. So, they took over a hotel business. Unfortunately, her husband was a lousy manager and a drunk. Instead of bringing in revenue, he brought debt. As a result, she kicked him out and took up his manager position to turn the business around. Who says women can’t manage? Louisa Trotter can!

Not going to lie. I love strong resistant women. All she ever wanted was to be a cook and she had to work twice as hard to get where she wanted to be. Sometimes she didn’t always get the moral support from her female kinds. For instance, when her respectable trusted employee named Mary got into a dispute with her over a male guest, she called out the most hurtful thing to Louisa. She said Louisa “slut” her way into acquiring the hotel. It was a big blow to the ego. Louisa knew it was partially true. She was young and passionate when she started out and so there were a lot of male admirers. Trying to fend them off was not easy. After all, “Men are born to chase after women, otherwise, there’d be no human race,” said Louisa. Clearly, not only did she display a concern for her business but she also protected those around her. That’s what I called an amazing woman. Of course, it didn’t stop there. People started spreading rumors that the hotel is a brothel when it started to gain popularity. Working girls, you say? Not quite but they were indeed working hard to make a living in the hospitality industry. It’s not uncommon to see Louisa boldly surrounded by men.

Overall, The Duchess of Duke Street is a show about management, friendship, food, hard work, and love which made me realize not much has changed in regard to women’s struggles in the male-dominated industry. Luckily, I don’t have sophisticated big dreams. As long as I can find metaphors to write about on this blog and cook a nice meal that alone makes me very happy.

Halsdoll eating breakfast — Halsdoll’s Breakfast

Halsdoll’s Grilled Cheese Sandwich with strawberries on the side

Thanks for reading my thoughts on this T.V series. As mentioned, I am open for business on the day I say I publish a post. Perhaps, there’s something more worthwhile next time. For me, it was a comforting show because a bit of Louisa personality reminded me of my mother. I wouldn’t mind being her apprentice.

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Netflix Series Detention (2020) Review: It’s More Than Meets the Eye

May 17, 2021November 16, 2025HalsdollLeave a comment

Based on the video game Detention, released Jan 12, 2017, developed by Red Candle Games for Netflix, the T.V show comprises 8 episodes that tell a detailed story of a transferred student who suffers from mental illness. Oddly, I experienced a sense of familiarity after taking so many social science and history courses back in the day when I see literacy references appearing in the show. Great writers (Plato, Orwell, Walden) helped me understand quickly what the plot was about. It gets an A + for using influential books as props to illustrate that point. I was entertained all the way.

This show is worth checking out if you are into East Asian horror and also if you are a big fan of poetry, which I think is an outdated art form, but when incorporated with other mediums, it becomes extremely powerful. Poetry is the form of using words to paint an image and evoke feelings; its rhythm helps create memorable lines too. There are some emotions that you cannot describe alone just through the use of prose. Only poetry can deliver powerful images to abstract concepts such as life and death so that we can understand them on a deeper level.

I like how Detention glorifies the power of poetry through the use of a dead schoolgirl’s poem. It allows me to see and feel the political oppression in a small Taiwanese town through its high school. Thus making it a hauntingly political tale that gives me a glimpse of the culture on the island. As a horror fan, horror is a genre that is very difficult to execute so when a rare one comes by, I can’t help but want to share I with the rest of the world. I wrote a short review on the game a few years ago. Please check it out. No spoiler I promise.

For my final thought, the show made me wonder why grownups imprison students with their outdated ideology. What purpose does it serve other than complete control of one’s sovereignty? Perhaps going to detention may not be such a bad thing because it’s “in the pursuit of freedom [against the authoritative government, we find] inner peace,” I quote the counselor from the show. The school was just a training ground for a more authoritative political system. But even if we escape, “outside this place is just a bigger crazier world,” says Liu Yun-hsiang, the main female protagonist. So what is the solution? Death? Overall, if you are looking for a thought-provoking horror title on Netflix, I highly recommend this one.

My Husband Won’t Fit Review (2019): Let’s Talk about Sex

February 22, 2021October 30, 2023Halsdoll1 Comment

I’m a few days late like usual. Valentine’s Day has passed. I could learn how to prioritize my blog posts to sync with the holiday, but I guess I missed the opportunity. In my mind, I thought reviewing Cuties was more important. But at least I got my punctuality right. Punctuality is a great trait to show people we care. On second thought, I don’t know. Throwing panties at any sexually starved man will make any man punctual. Okay, maybe I am stretching a bit there. You can blame the media for my biased views. Enough exposure in the media will make anyone believe that all men are hungry wolves who jump at any piece of meat they come across.

So let’s talk about the birds and the bees because that’s what love birds do during Valentine’s Day, right?! I heard in Japan, many couples are in a sexless marriage. If you are asexual, this is probably the perfect type of relationship you want to be in. After all, for some folks, there is more to the relationship than just sex. But for the majority of people–sex is important in a relationship. This quirky Japanese TV show explores the concept of love, relationship, and sex. What does it all mean? I found this show amusingly fun to watch and I think you should give it a try too.

There are 10 episodes total, which is the perfect length for nowadays shows–not too short, but not too long. The amount of content in this TV show is decently covered. I found myself binged watching the show because it was entertaining enough even though I did not agree with its content. As a westerner, I find the relationship between the couple quite unique. They successfully separate sex from lovemaking. So cheating is not really considered cheating if feelings are not involved. Do you agree with that? Now that is a hot discussion for couples! We all know that most women don’t like their men having secret affairs behind their backs. But the protagonist in this TV Show has no problem because her husband simply doesn’t fit! She just wants him happy. She is the perfect wife for those men who have a big appetite for a variety of women. Who can say no to a sweet timid, considerate wife who does not object to her husband’s external affairs? She’s always thinking about her husband’s happiness. How honorable…not! I hope you could tell I was being sarcastic! For most women, it’s a deal breaker that sex is out of the equation and there’s is a lack of respect for the marriage when one seeks others to fulfill sexual needs. Not being able to satisfy our significant other sexually could cause a severe blow to one’s self-esteem. In fact, this is what led the female protagonist to seek comfort from other men. In this show, both husband and wife are guilty.

So this brought up many questions about relationships: What is love? Isn’t love about the other person? Think about it, does that sound rather heartless and harsh if people get into a relationship to fulfill their sexual gratification only? This show explains how unique one marriage can be between a couple. It’s the biggest argument in this show is that sex is not everything for a lifelong partner. Clearly, both main characters are always thinking of each other’s happiness.

Well, I hope I’m not the opposite of cupid. Hope I did not spark a heated debate between lovers. I just thought this show is worth watching. I like its lighthearted approach to asking tough questions about what marriage and love are. I found myself experiencing different emotions–shock, anger, happiness, and sadness for the couple. Isn’t love supposed to make us feel like we can be our true selves and our partner is always having our interests in mind and vice versa? It’s a sweet little show.

As my final thought, the only love we need is self-love if you ask me. Once we love ourselves, we can love others in a healthy way. So, pop those self-loving pills and Happy belated Valentine’s Day. And if no one loves you, Halsdoll loves you. So come back again for some more insightful reviews!