Month: Apr 2026

The Manipulated (조각도시)

Back to some K-Drama with The Manipulated but can it manipulate you into watching?

What’s the Show? The 2025 Korean series, The Manipulated (조각도시)

What’s It All About, JG? Genial, mild-mannered delivery guy Park Tae-jung (Ji Chang-wook) is going about his normal life when he gets a call asking him to return a mobile phone that’s been lost for the promise of a reward. Deciding to, indeed, return the phone, he is instead framed for a murder and sent to prison. This is all a dastardly plan by An Yo-han (Doh Kyungo-s00), a sculptor/bad guy who is paid by very high-ranking clients to frame someone else for crimes they’ve committed. In this case, the son of an Assemblyman killed a woman in a drug-and-sex-fueled rage, and Park Tae-jung is framed for it, so the son gets off scot-free. The rest of the show is Park Tae-jung’s attempts to escape, clear his name, and bring down the whole conspiracy. He’s helped on the outside by a friend he made in prison, No Yong-sik (Kim Jong-soo), imprisoned for murdering his wife and trying desperately to reconnect with his estranged daughter on the outside. Along the way, there’s a fight to the death via car chase, assassins a-plenty, all the high-speed chases one could reasonably expect, some really strong character work, and a great collection of characters. Can Park Tae-jung clear his name and get his life back?

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Project Hail Mary

Can Ryan Gosling save the sun with the aid of a sentient pebble?

What’s It All About, JG? The Earth’s sun and almost all nearby stars are getting eaten by microbes – a plot so believable it’s possible it was a rejected sequel to The Core – but it’s discovered that one isn’t. That means it’s down to a small team of astronauts to go figure out why. Unfortunately, only one survives the trip, Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling), and he’s got amnesia, the better to explain the plot in flashbacks. Orbiting Tau Ceti e, the only star without Space Cooties, he encounters a stone-like alien he dubs Rocky. Between the two of them, they have to figure out how to save the sun (well, lots of suns), get their cure back to their respective civilisations, and survive long enough for a feel-good ending. Do they make it? Yes. Yes they do.

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