Not For Everyone, But . . .

Bad Guys is a korean mystery/thriller series that works off this premise: what would happen if you took a disgraced, almost deranged police detective and put him in charge of a team made up of an assassin, a gangster and a psycopath in order to solve a serial murder case? That's the story in the beginning, but this series goes from there to a lot of other dark places.

After the murder of his daughter, Detective Oh Gu-tak (Kim Sang-joon) follows a downward professional and personal spiral into ruin, at least until his old boss comes and asks him to head up a team in order to hunt and stop a prolific killer. Gu-tak demands three members for his team, all seriously dangerous prisoners who are offered reduced sentences in return for their help.

When they agree, the convicted bad guys -- gangster Pak Un-cheol (Ma Dong-seok), hitman Jung Tae-soo (Jo dong-hyuk) and brilliant psycopath Lee Jung-moon (Park Hae-jin) -- are all given ankle bracelet trackers and two are briefed on the case. The third, psycopath Lee Jung-moon, decides to ditch the assignment and go see his ex-girlfriend, who was responsible for sending him to prison (he's also my favorite character in this series.) The team tracks him down, of course, but from there you begin to realize things aren't quite what they seem. The bad guys also prove remarkably effective as detectives.

I liked Bad Guys because it was so different, having basically everyone be a villain right from the start. The four journeys of redemption for the guys include a lot of complications and entanglements, but I found them very convincing. All the actors were superb in their roles. For me Park Hae-jin played the most complex character, and as the psycopath had the most heart-wrenching story; I was completely caught up in his storyline. Some of the fight scenes were unrealistic, but exciting to watch all the same.

I don't feel the series is something for everyone, as the violence and bloodiness are constant and sometimes fairly graphic. That said, I felt most were appropriate to the story, and the use of blurring during the most violent scenes helped. Available on Netflix in the US.

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Stuff

After finding this Caron one pound skein of lovely peach yarn in my thrifted lot I raided my stash for two cakes of Mandala in Pegasus, which matches it perfectly. For practice and hand therapy I'm going to make another Worth Street Afghan with this free pattern , but this time I'll use the yarn that was recommended for it plus the one pound skein. I'm not quite ready to do the vintage/recycled linen quilt I had planned (still a bit too nervous about the idea), so I'm going to use some color therapy and make a quilt from these thrifted green fat quarters. I considered doing another Yellow Brick road patchwork pattern, but I might go with a split rail fence like this one.

Journal Find

This is a page from my 2010 poetry journal. My handwriting isn't the best, so I'll transcribe it: If my heart survives to tell all the secrets kept inside it will be an abalone shell in which the beauty did reside. But I think I will always be lost to the tides that rage in me . . . humbling and polishing . . . I don't write many self-portrait poems, but this one isn't too embarrassing. A bit overly dramatic, but the girl I was eleven years ago went through some tough times. I'm in a much more peaceful place today.

The Numbers

Back in March my diabetes doctor changed my medication and encouraged me to alter my diet and exercise more in order to bring down my A1C, which at the time tested out at a dismal 8.3 (normal is 5.8.) So for the next two months I dealt with the increased meds, stuck to my decidedly grim diet and added a lot more walking to my exercise regime. P.S., it's never fun to be a diabetic, but over the last couple of months I've really tried to keep a good attitude about it. Attitude isn't everything, but it helps a lot when you have to make significant changes while battling a disease like this. Yesterday I performed a home A1C test, and I'm currently at 6.5. That's pretty amazing results, even for me. If I can get it down another half point before I see the doctor in July I'd be over the moon, but I feel like I've already done great. Image credit: Image by Daniele Liberatori from Pixabay

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