BradBluddy16

Gotta love how Keen is starting to be typecast as the disaffected teenager ever since he learned to curl his upper lip for the “Bad Boy No Do” video. I swear P’Aof saw that MV and thought “there’s my perfect straight, seemingly homophonic (but not) character to misdirect the TTH audience”.
For those of us Moo stans, who can’t help but see no “do” in his “bad boy” characters, it’s cool to see Niran has a very believable, raw edginess. Keen continues to grow and amaze.

So much better than trailer led on…
The face acting is A+
We already know Keen never stops face acting, but Sea’s eyes are killing me…
Already bringing back first flush of feelings from Covid watching 2gether the Series - C’mon Champ!

Fourth’s Ep 5 performance, alone, deserves all the awards; the layers he gives to his character are truly impressive. As the tension ramps up, Tanrak gets smaller and smaller, reversing his four episode expansion arc in one, compressed tour de force.

The MV is giving 2gether vibes in all the best ways. As much as time has been unkind to 2gether the series, it will be interesting to see if Champ can channel some of the magic that first turned the wider world onto BL. And the music was a big part of the draw.
The fact that there is a music club, a big OST setup point in 2gether, and it’s members are Clo’ver “no code”, lays fertile ground for musical storytelling.

Ok. Your dreaded 2gether is a 7.7, so if you consider the MDL mean, you are voting that TTH is not as good as 2gether. Ticket To Heaven has likely settled in at 8.8, at the high end of the BL average. Even if you disregard your heart, and vote with your head, that is likely where it belongs. And for those of us who can’t help using our hearts; still at the restaurant; still crying healing tears after multiple rewatches; still feeling that P’Aof, GemFot, and team have pushed BL to a new level; who still can’t find a more suitable word than “masterpiece”; we just can’t help calling for that elusive 9/10.

100%
But before we start writing off Sea, I think it is worth noting that some of his introverted nature gets misconstrued as a lack of caring, and his nonchalance, because it doesn’t read as Barcode’s disaffected cool, can come off as slovenly (Dude, you couldn’t wear socks to the interview?). But he has yet to falter when guided by a director’s vision. So here’s hoping lightning can strike twice, the 2gether director can grab the world stage for a second time, and the discussion will be a moot point.

Definitely, the chemistry is already there. But still, the thought of Barcode’s grumpy nonchalance rubbing up against Keen’s sunshiny charisma, the tension that already fuels Clo’ver, might be fire in a CP 🔥. And their singing voices could rival GemFot’s.

Hmm…interesting and thoughtful take. I do have an affection for Sea, and he does bring his face card to the mix. I also don’t think GMMTV would break them up in the middle of their upward trajectory. But, if Weirdo-101 falters...
and Barcode’s ship doesn’t sail…
ok ok this sounds like fan fiction, but Barcode brings the face card and the ambition; and the acting and singing talent on display, mixed with the baked-in tension, would make BarcodeKeen a ship for the ages.

For those of us who had a peak experience with Ticket to Heaven, the second, reactionary wave of comments and down-rating is a little disappointing. But P’Aof himself did expect a range of reactions to the series. For those of us locked in since 2024, a little religious trauma was not going to colour our reception of Ticket To Heaven. For the latecomers, some drawn in by the hype, their personal traumas may be more of an obstacle. Make no mistake, any folks complaining that the writing isn’t “risky” enough are really saying that the series didn’t represent their own experiences with Catholicism or religious institutions in general. Valid, but not, characteristically, BL.
My hope is that these people will find themselves returning again, with tempered expectations, to experience Ticket to Heaven in all of its 10/10 glory.

Ooh girl. You get a pass here for whatever religious trauma you may be carrying, but you cannot objectively argue that the acting is not top shelf in Ticket to Heaven. No disrespect to Moonlight Chicken, where both actors displayed a preternatural ability that should have tipped us off to what they were capable of here. I agree that the stakes were high coming into Ticket to Heaven; GemFot were last seen fighting way below their weight class in the extended promotional vehicle that was My Love Mix Up, and for the first time the golden ship was showing signs of wear and tear. They both dug in here to come up with sublime performances for the ages.

GeminiFourth is not my favourite ship (although not liking GemFot is a bit like not liking the sun 🌞), and when their shows have floundered (My Love Mix Up, Our Skyy 2) I, personally, have not been kind with my rating. I do feel a little sad, though, when I see that some people are not having a peak experience with Ticket To Heaven. But religious trauma is real, and where you are in your personal journey with it surely affects how you receive this media. Your Name Engraved Herein is a beautiful piece of art; as a romance lover, as many of us are in this space, I wish the relationship between Jia-han and Birdy could have been more fully developed; in that regard I don’t consider it a BL. And I think that explains the lower rating here.
Ticket To Heaven may well be YNEH done BL-style, and, in my eyes, is all the better for it.

Does anybody know how many times you have to rewatch before the tears stop? 😭 Asking for a friend…

If you’re struggling with the focus on Catholicism, it may be less that you’re too woke, but asleep to the history of Protestantism or other reformative religions rooting the culture in which you grew up. A hack is to focus on the spirituality and not the religion itself. In the end it’s all about love; if a person is loving they are connected to their spirituality, no matter how they get there; and that is the message being conveyed here.

I might be too soon to say, but it feels like this show will be a generational touchstone.
I understand some people, especially ex-Catholics, having Last Twilight flashbacks; Tanrak and Barth aligning their love with their faith could feel like another unlikely and reductive retinal transplant.
But because P’Aof smartly grounded this show in his own experience, you can’t really make a case that the ending feels forced or unbelievable. It is an ending that was clearly hard fought for through his own personal odyssey.
And that personal touch is what elevates Ticket to Heaven from a beautifully written, directed, filmed, scored, edited and acted showpiece by a top-tier BL director, to a masterpiece people could be talking about for decades to come.

Only six cries, bruh? Easier for me to count the times my eyes weren’t full of water. Once. During P’Aof’s cameo. I was too busy admiring his strawberry blonde hair colouring, and having a hard time believing a bus station agent would have choosen that particular shade.

And I think the writers were using the riddle as a device for Barth to subtly, but powerfully, call out Tanrak on his sexuality. Barth, the lost one, was always being truthful about his interest in Tanrak, while Tanrak, the believer, was lying to himself about his attraction to Barth. What made that peeing scene so powerful, besides the ominous score and Barth’s knowing, almost demonic delivery of the riddle’s answer, was the inference that Tanrak’s body’s response gave him away, and that no amount of averting his gaze was going to quell the physical manifestation of his desire. The horse had left the barn, as it were.
The third part of the riddle, the lover(s) who always lie, may take on resonance as the story unfolds.

Be ready to cry a thousand, healing tears and to have your brain chemistry permanently altered.

Because Ticket to Heaven is serving Bad Buddy redux, in all the best ways, I wonder if we will get a similar twist for the ending. "You might think one man can't change the whole world. But I want you to know that this world can't change someone like me either." This would be very much in P’Aof’s conciliatory wheelhouse.

P’Aof is a master of misdirection; everything may not be as it seems.

Oh that damn“Heavenly” OST, making me tear up faster than thinking about my dead dog. What a masterful display of musical storytelling. Fourth delivers the first verse/chorus with an angelic voice, almost perfect but infused with longing for a world not yet known. Gemini brings his more dusky, worldly yet world-weary tenor to the second verse/chorus; a little more animated but still full of longing. The third chorus is absolutely transcendent. The harmonies hit hard, as Gemini weaves in and out of Fourth’s steady melody, adding dazzling colours and overtones; just as Barth transforms Tanrak’s world from black and white to radiant technicolor. Absolutely brilliant!