DCU ~Tejou wo Motta Diver

Another drama I checked out that hasn’t really grabbed me is the new Hiroshi Abe crime Drama “DCU ~Tejou wo Motta Diver”. Seems to be a variation of the same old detective shows we see over and over, only this time underwater.
We have Abe in another one of his “brash and snarky but outstanding leader” roles as Masayoshi Niina (Abe), a deep-sea water diver and his right-hand man, Takako Nariai, played by Anne Nakamura in the same kind of role she did in “SUITS” and “Rental Kyuseishu”…

On the team we have the hot-headed guy Nishino (Mitsuomi Takahashi) who disagrees with everything Niina says, as well as a guy named Seno (Ryusei Yokohama) who idolizes Niina and faithfully follows him everywhere…

We have the usual "Butting heads with the chief” scenarios common with these kind of dramas...

… as well as “Clashing with the local police”, led by Shimizu (Ikusaburo Yamazaki)…

A sort of “Cold Blue” Diver-style, but I can’t say I was very invested while watching it…with so much on my plate already, I'm probably going to pass on this one this season....

Mayonaka ni Hello (Project)

 Very bizarre drama about a Mom and daughter who run a guest house with a variety of troubled guests. The Mom (Momoko Kikuchi) is a Morning Musume fanatic, blasting the pop tunes at all hours of the day, driving daughter Misaki (Yuno Ohara) crazy!

Mom starting off the day having her morning coffee while listening  to "Morning Coffee" on full volume!

...'til daughter comes to tell her to KEEP IT DOWN before she wakes the guests!

Too late, this week's guest (Ono Ito) is already woken and bothered and wants them to be quiet!

"Sorry!"

We are then presented with this week’s problems, and then the Mom plays a special song to "enlighten" the guest, saying it will make them feel better....

Whether is works or not is not apparent...but later when she is walking down the street, a mysterious door appears to teleport  her to a magical world where Morning Musume (?)  sing the guest words of encouragement/enlightenment and she gets the courage to fight on!

She then leaves the Guest House a happy and satisfied guest!

LOLOL,What a wacky drama!

I say “Morning Musume" and I assume that’s who these singing girls are(???), but though I was a HUGE Momusu fan in the early days, I have no IDEA who the current ’22 Morning Musume girls are or what they look like. so they could just be random Hello Project girls?

Truth be told, not really a drama I’m too wild about (and probably gonna skip), but I freely admit that if this drama came out during the Gen1-4 Morning Musume when I was still a rabid fan, I would have EATEN this drama UP!

A Tale Of Two Specials: "Dekinai Futari"

So I watched the Special “Dekinai Futari”, starring Maika Yamamoto and Mizuki Itagaki as two competing co-workers who hate each other's guts (but of course secretly like each other), and after finishing, I went onto Mydramalist to check it off…

Dekinai Futari

...only to find there was another Dekinai Futari SP called “Muzukyun-hen”. 

What the heck was this?
Thought it was a spin off or perhaps even a complete series attached to it, but reading the synopsis description of the show and looking at the screencaps, it seemed like the EXACT SAME Special I had just finished watching???  What WAS this?
Fortunately for my confusion,  a reviewer in the comments section pointed out that the first SP (called Dizukyun-hen) was a truncated version of a longer special, and that was Muzukyun-hen. They explained that in the longer version, more time was made to set up scenes, characters and relationships, etc, so I knew I had to get it!

WELL, just finished watching it and MAN, more than being a longer version of the first, it was almost like the other HALF of it! One special focusing on Maika's side and the other on Mizuki's, and BOTH specials had scenes NOT in the other! You really needed to see BOTH to get the complete picture!

 
Very glad I watched both, and though, admittedly, Dekinai Futari is a VERY cliched and rote storyline, the leads really hammed it up in their spazzy ways as two awkward and frustrated dorks destined for love…and of course, the MAIKA YAMAMOTO goodness is on full blast!!!

That's ALWAYS a good reason to watch!