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[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Golden Tower" Episode 8

Well, Chuseok is over but "Golden Tower" is still using that weird 2/3s of an episode format so I guess we'll just have to get used to it. While the pool table action is still being shot from somewhat frustrating angles, it quickly becomes clear that this excuse for cue stick tomfoolery was really just leading to a heartwarming message about the importance of brotherly love.

No, not that kind of brotherly love. Well, actually, kind of yes. Of the several similarly silly storylines running in this episode of "Golden Tower", two are an obvious humorous juxtaposition, as they deal with the same basic emotional issue from completely opposite poles of sincerity. Can men love each other without it being gay? Well of course they can you idiot just because someone plays a love theme doesn't mean there's actual sexual tension going on.

"Golden Tower" also continues to do a good job with the fundamental basics of humorous misunderstanding. It is, in fact, really obvious now that anytime anything happens that whatever the obvious explanation may be for an apparently strange set of events, it's actually something a lot more mundane and it's just bored farmer imaginations making something weird out of it. This is important because, well, otherwise there wouldn't be a joke.

But note in particular how the farmers' assumptions are almost identical to our own. That's the main thing I like about these characters is their general sense of relatability. Even when one of them is wrong and actually kind of racist, it's much easier to see the situation as him just being a jerk than it is something terribly sinister. There aren't really villains so much as there are guys who simply don't know any better,

On the educational front, the Top Gear parody at the end mixes fact with humor this time as we get into a basic explanation as to what a combine is and why they're super important in the process of modern farming. It's amazing the technical details that show up in a comedy show that I've somehow never run into in an actual textbook. But more importantly, it's funny, and "Golden Tower" continues to do an excellent job on that front. Sadly, I'm not sure how old the domesticated headine is, so we probably won't get a definitive answer as to whether the next conflict is going to be about goatnapping or kidnapping...look, if you don't like bad puns why are you even watching this drama in the first place?

Review by William Schwartz

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"Golden Tower" is directed by Min Jin-gi, written by Jeong In-hwan, Jo Seung-hee-I and features Choi Jong-hoon-II, Lee Yong-joo, Kim Jae-woo, Baek Bong-ki, Hwang Je-sung and Bae Seul-ki.

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