BadPenny

Don't bother.

The only reason I watched after episode 9 was that I had friends asking me to stay and finish the drama with them. I didn't even review the last 3 eps.

This episode was nice. I loved the extended role of Aaron and Hank. It was good to see Li Gong and Ze Shou get on the same page but with 5 episodes still to go I am betting there are still some rough waters ahead. The breakfast scene was awkward, but in the best way. That way that says today we're taking an adventure and it feels really outside our zone but exciting. I think Max Lin and Shi Cheng Hao are doing a really good job expressing the emotions involved in trying to take an old, established relationship to the next level. But there just wasn't enough. There was no "after" that amazing scene at the ball park. Nothing to bridge to the breakfast scene, and I felt that was a wasted opportunity. They had all that work up and it didn't feel like we got the delivery.

The second couple is a bit of a weird hit for me. They have really good moments, and then they have some drawn out boring stuff that kills the pace. I want to like them, but I don't quite. Something from their equation is missing for me. Hopefully as the show progresses that missing something that makes them feel right will enter the story.

Overall this drama has a lot of charm. But they need to fix the problems with the second couple's story and they need to sculpt out time for more intimate (not sexual but emotionally intimate) moments with Li Gong and Ze Shou. Failing that, this just won't be as good a drama as BLIH:ID.

Hey, I rewatched The entirety of I TOld Sunset About You and I Promised You The Moon this week. So I get hitting older works again.

Y-Destiny was...a thing. It happened. The Y series is weird. You have to know going in that every iteration of that series is bizarre. War of Y is coming out this year and it looks more Extra than any prior. YYY was bizarre as fuck too. Just, if it's part of the Y series, do not expect sanity. I am fully expecting a Cirque du Soleil style horror themed BL in the Y series, eventually. I mean it. Or a reverse harem theme with a troupe of bishy dog groomers who uncover a murder plot.

And I'm about to start Love Class. I have heard bad things. I want your take on it.

As for Plus & Minus, if you liked Be Loved In House: I Do, you will probably like this. It's by the same studio. In fact, Aaron and Hank do drive by guest rolls. Just keep in mind that you will need 2 episodes to get a feel for the rhythm of storytelling and the characterizations. Stick with it for 2 episodes and head into the 3rd ep and see if you feel like it's your thing. If not, that's cool. This company's dramas are a niche thing with a very particular feel.

About all I can say is I would be open to seeing any of the CP couples together in a different drama, so long as Mandee was not in charge of it.

Yes. Plus & Minus is owning my soul. I love this film company's slice of life dramas. They're just plugged into something special, tone wise.

I am also in love with La Cuisine. And as much as last episode had me howling to the skies, as messy as it is overall, I am still wanting to see what they do with the last two episodes of Star In My Mind.

Plus the majestic beast that is Triage.

Exactly. I simply couldn't connect with the characters, or their romance, so I wasn't going to connect with their soft porn moments.

Dayum, Mike. You are a soldier! If I hadn't have had watch buddies who wanted me to continue, I'd have quit weeks before the end. My friends were literally the only reason I was watching by episode 10.

You finished this mess on your own and I salute you!

That's a good tactic. I had to do it at several points.

I was fortunate in that I have online watch buddies and we get on Discord and shitpost about the episode while watching it. This makes getting it out of the way first a lot easier.

Yep. I cursed like a pit fiend the whole time I was watching that shit go down.

It's not just KP. I think most of us have a slew of good Saturday watches and we tend to leave CP for as late as possible. I watch several dramas on Saturday and working Cutie Pie in there around them was no fun. I learned to get the worst out of the way first, so I could enjoy the rest of the evening watching fun stuff.

Yeah, you're very stoppered. Corked up, in fact. ¬_¬

The writers think it's cute to break "bottoms".

Pfft. You? Not say a word?

Never happen. ROFL.

I did an edit that sets us up for Naughty Babe. Check out why the jacket never retires. ROFL. I think no horror film can call itself good horror if the ending doesn't set us up for a sequel.

Also, I can't screen-script write. I'm too busy writing comic scripts. More latitude to do the crazy shit. If they let me write this shit, it would always have ghosts. And 90% of the production budget would end up on animators digging into Adobe AfterEffects for the Special FX.

Poor Hia indeed. Because Kirin died at the hands of a psycho lover and he smells fish with Lian. So this would totally be a horror romance farce. Where Lian loves Kirin, Kuea loves Lian, and Kirin wants Lian to rot in hell, sent there preferably by him.

Lian doesn't really like passive Kuea, he wants Kirin!Kuea, who he does not realize is a completely different person in charge of the meat suit. In the mean time, Kuea wants to be loved for who he is, and is busy fighting off the process of being subsumed by Kirin, the more Kirin runs around using Kuea's body. Kirin hates Lian initially, but eventually starts falling for him against his will. He's never sure whether the love he eventually feels for Hia Lian is something that grew naturally or if it's a sort of emotional pollution from Kuea's love of Lian, as Kuea starts being lost in a mingling of their spirits.

Endgame Lian/Kirin. Kuea gets absorbed into Kirin, and the two spirits blend into one. Which mellows Kirin's near murderous rage left over from his death. He keeps the name Kuea but uses Kirin as his stage name. And Lian eventually finds out the truth of what he's been dealing with. he also learns not to be such a toxic dick, upon pain of death. (Because even now, Kirin will do it.)

And everyone lives happily ever after. The leather jacket never retires. It ends up infested with the spirit of Namphon Nongkee Pahuyuth right about the time KirinKuea passes the jacket onto Diao. Which sets the scene for the next series, Naughty Babe. And a lot of Yi generally getting his ass kicked and being confusingly aroused by it.

Oh! Somebody's a damn philosopher now.

It was very painful. I kept yelling at the TV "Why does ANY of this matter!!!"

They solved the problem of the "No" Kuea gave Lian's proposal, as well as Kuea's hidden hobbies, school major and his other personal stuff he wasn't sharing, and Lian's pathological need to lie for shits and giggles, with a 3 minute "we should be more honest with each other. Love ya!" conversation.

The rest of the episode was filler. Including the "sexual healing" they engaged in, following their magic 3 minute talk that fixed everything wrong with their relationship. Yep. 11 episodes of getting nowhere and they capped it with a 3 minute "we should communicate better" conversation. Then they boned about it. I felt like I needed to apologize to my TV for putting it through this shit. Also, NEVER watch this on a 62" wide screen. There are just some things you do not need to see that clearly.

I've got nothin. I can spoil it for you in one sentence, if you want.

Honestly so little happens that episode that it can be summed up in "They all lived happily after for no fucking reason what so ever."

If I were you'd I'd skip right on to writing your formal review. Because nothing happens in that episode that changes the overall quality of the series.

Fuck, I know I watched it in less time than usual because I fast forwarded through the sex. But it felt like the episode took 5 hours to finish. I've watched 4 hour long Hindi films that went by faster than that final episode.

Also, I think I've figured out what's the deal with doll Kuea vs Kirin Kuea. It's the leather jacket. Kirin is actually the Annabelle, the mischievous spirit that inhabits the doll. Kuea is the doll body. His native personality is boring and passive, as per his upbringing. But the leather jacket is the anchor for the spirit of a deceased musician. And whenever Kuea dons the leather jacket, the spirit possesses him and he becomes Kirin, sass, backbone and all.

*sigh* See, now that could have been a good story.