AudienceofOne

Oh I'm not one of the hosts of DoF. I'm Lee Tennant so I've just joined in on the blog posts on Stranger. I'll check out your podcast though and I'm sure that Saya, Anisa and Paroma would be interested too.

We've been having conversations about this show over at Dramas Over Flowers and today's episode is now up
https://dramasoverflowers.net/

I normally don't show up to prop my own work but if you want a genuine answer to your question I wrote a blog post that answers it.
http://invisibledragon.home.blog/2020/09/10/distant-lights-in-a-fog-forest-of-secrets-season-2/

I personally think in terms of what the writer (seems) to be trying to do, the writing is far superior to season 1. It's more nuanced and more mature. But of course a persons' subjective enjoyment of a show is going to be about more than whether it's objectively 'good'.

I didn't realise until S2 started that for some people S1 was about some kind of victorious justice warrior. That was the opposite of what it was about. But if that's how you read the text then of course you're going to be disappointed in this season. But if you saw S1 as being about how corruption is ever-present and the fight against it constant and ultimately unrewarding then this season is brilliant. Take that forward three years and of course people are dispirited and disillusioned.

Completely agree

Agreed

You literally said "some of the stuff might not seem that awful for someone who's used to watching a lot of western dramas".

The comment section is active because most of the people here come from English speaking countries and this kind of exploitative kiddie porn is gross to a Western audience. Add in the racism and you have a twofer. The fact that it has also offended Korean audiences is because of the kiss. As we've seen from the popularity of other Ajusshi dramas, Korean audiences are fine with it as long as there's no explicit sexual activity. But they included a kiss between a child in a school uniform with an older man. So the Korean audience is also put off.

Parasite was social commentary. You were supposed to be upset at his behaviour. This isn't social commentary, it's a gross piece of paedophilia developed from a webtooon that's porn.

God this argument was annoying the first 50 times. Heaps of people had a problem with Goblin and those same people have a problem with this and for the same reason. Goblin was skeevy and the main OTP was creepy borderline paedophilia. So is this.

Racism, sexual harassment, sexualising of minors, fetishising school uniforms and upskirting your female characters is considered just as gross in the West btw. In fact most Western dramas don't fetishise school girls in the way that many Asian dramas do and we'd see most of these Ajusshi romances as being paedophilia - Goblin for example was gross af. So please don't act as though this is "western", it's not. Western dramas may have a lot of sex and violence but the sex is usually between equals without the awful power imbalances seen here. This is not "western" it is in fact the worst of Asia.

Name a male character who hasn't been victimised. Now name a female character who hasn't. There is your problem. Even the only female cop on the team has had her memory violated (that scene could have been any cop, but the writers chose the female one). This was Psychometric's problem too. You can't claim to have "strong female characters" if every single one ends up a victim. At least Memorist hasn't done it to its female lead (yet). I don't trust it not to. This perpetuates a cultural norm that women need to rely on men to protect them from other men. In reality, the men closest to them are the ones who hurt them.

No that's the one I was referring to. You can see my review as well here https://kisskh.at/profile/ChinguMode/review/64293

"if you hated it so much how could you finish it?"

People keep asking me this question and I've never found a satisfactory response. Some people say I'm just a masochist.

Isn't this just about the industry pumping out huge volumes of dramas every year? In 2013 when Secret aired, Wikipedia lists 104 dramas that aired over the year. In 2018 it was over 150. It's no surprise at all that they're going to choose dramas that are easy to make and don't take as much development - like medical dramas - and ones that lend themselves to sequels so that they can keep up the number. Those dramas that you can invest in are still there, you just have to wade through so much more generic, under-developed and mundane dramas to find them.

And I say this as somebody who has yet to find a 2019 drama she loved.

I'm not sure what they were going for with Tin/Can in LBC1 but what I saw was a straight guy being railroaded into a relationship he didn't want by an overbearing man. I could possibly ship a couple less but none spring to mind off the top of my head. Meanwhile, Pete and Ae's relationship was really good.

Perth is a fantastic actor and deserves better than the average BL script. Well, that's true of Saint too actually. He's quite wasted in Why RU IMHO. Is Thailand even making dramas worthy of an actor like Perth?

Okay so... this is a parallel universe where he's still a creepy stalker but gets to change the way in which he manipulates, controls and gaslights her? Oh yeah, that's awesome. Can't wait. #sarcasmfont

What is this? A two-part abuse manual? "Fake cancer not for you? Try this instead!"

Hard. Pass.

I have watched the final episode and was unimpressed. You'll find that review under my profile too.

Lhong wasn't just some guy that tried to keep Tharn to himself or break up his relationships. Lhong is a violent sexual criminal who should be in jail. I sat through that whole scene with Thorn just stunned at him treating Lhong like that. It was horrible.

*looks around furtively*
*whispers*
Me no pay