CursedXistence

Jam X Jelai were last season and Jerome is the addition to that relationship this season because apparently Xion is practicing his relationship shapes this year since every relationship is a triangle or more sided.

The funny thing is when I was in school I had a substitute English teacher for a couple of months who was a published writer (yes this was before the time of being able to easily self publish so it still had some weight being a published writer) who said I would never make it as a writer and there was no point in trying. Several years later I submitted two poems I had written just for the laugh of it and they did end up getting published, but beyond that I never seriously wrote. Over the years I've had a lot of people tell me the little bits I write are really good and I should write.

NO DAMNIT....WE'RE SUPPOSED TO HATE KEVIN AND BE ROOTING FOR FIFTH AND ZEKE WHO WERE SUPPOSED TO FIGHT TOGETHER TO STAY TOGETHER UNTIL THEIR DIEING BREATHES!!!! LOL

and this point....fuck it let Fifth and Kevin get together, that makes more sense than any magical poof everything is sunshine and rainbows ending they'll inevitably come up with.

Whelp....we all knew that was coming from day 1.

there's only so much cussing that MDL let's you get away with in a post so the very very very very very abridged version of my feelings on Prae is that she deserves to rot in her own special level of hell for all eternity for what she is doing to Sky. There is no excuse, no justification for it, and I certainly don't want to to come around in the end and have a redemption arc....I want to see the flesh melt from her body ever so slowly as the fiery pits of Hell dine on her heart blood and her tears scream as they hit the molten ground. lol

Chalarm you may be the "Bad Boy", but Prae makes you look like nothing more than a whimpering puppy in comparison. lol

Speak of "Bad Boy", I've heard that song covered numerous times now, and this is definitely my favorite version of it, they really killed it.

Every week I am continuously amazed by Boss. The way he perfectly nailed the flood of emotions on his face when Sky saw Prae during his solo was absolutely brilliant.

Poom is absolutely killing as Tonkla, his line delivery and timing is absolutely perfect and his actions/reactions are the right balance of adorable ridiculous without ever going to the obnoxious side. Anyone that ever gets cast as the comedic sidekick / support role really should be made to watch him in this series.

Yup you caught that right.

Well it's not like they're going to fly all the way to Germany to film Tonkla taking a leave so he can go play with Baitong's Thai version of a wienerschnitzel and there's only so many more rooms that J and Bom could screw in so do we really need any more special episodes?? lol

I don't read Thai so I have to rely on subtitles, etc. some places have it spelled Bomb some have it Bom and that's happened across several series with that character name. There's been many times where the MDL list has also had character names spelled wrong compared to official subtitles / social media so it's always hard to know which is the correct spelling with not knowing the language.

But thanks for clarifying that so I know from now on the right spelling of it.

The rumor mill is he left his BL projects because he's dating another BL actor IRL.

This wasn't a special episode, this was a softcore porno minus showing their bits and the happy ending. lol

Bom and J....cat role play....seriously....

A role reversal role play of Bom being the boss banging the employee in the stock room would have been so much more fitting for those two after all the drama during the series of J being like I'm the boss, it's all my responsibility. The most fitting part was of course poor Bom not getting to well bomb because Vee walked in on them yet again....think Vee secretly has a thing for watching those two go at it. lol

Considering this is airing on the same day and has a similar story plot with training groups / competitions it's hard not to compare "Beyond The Star" with "Across The Sky". Unfortunately that's where the similarities end and the gaping divide in quality of the two series begins.

"Across The Sky" spent no time getting you emotionally connected to Sky, the rest of the characters even including the support characters that wouldn't even typically be given anything to do other than be scene filler. Every character has their own story that actually gets told and they all get their bit of screen time. Even in the very first episode you got a good idea of their character, dream, what drive them, their strengths and their weaknesses. In the subsequent episodes this was built upon even more to the point where you root for poor Tonkla (support character) just as much you do Sky who is the main lead character. not only did they waste no time getting you emotional attached and introduced to the characters, but they set up the plot in a way that really let them focus on the characters and the story instead of constantly spending so much time in the world building.

"Beyond The Star" on the other hand spent the entirety of the first episode on a bunch of meaningless small talk, long gazes, and setting up "magic moments" of character we don't even know or care about yet. If you asked me to name as many characters as I could think of, I honestly couldn't tell you the name of a single character they had in the first episode. This episode was 39 minutes long and having just finished watching it I couldn't even accurately tell you what happened because it was so boring that even my short term memory shut off after a few minutes of watching it. The only memorable thing about the episode is the "Hey look an Asian sprained their ankle because Asians are weak muscled / bone because they don't drink enough milk and we have to help the damsel in distress assumed LGBTQ character because they're equally as weak" Thai BL trope. That's obviously not something you want an episode to be remembered for and certainly not the only thing you want a first episode / first impression to be built on.

Because I'm a sadistic glutton for punishment I'll give it a couple of more episodes and some series just have a rough start and get better the more episodes it goes in, but off of first impressions, this is already either a don't watch it at all or a don't survive more than 3 episodes series.

In some alternate reality Xion is nothing more than the production company owner and producer and there's actually competent writers and directors creating amazing series with Jericho and Hiro Shimoji who have both shown us what they are capable of as actors.....

unfortunately we haven't figure out how to cross realities and bring things back yet. lol

After what they've done with the characters this season, I hope Zeke does try to get back with Fifth but Fifth goes off on him for the way he treated him and the whole situation and then promptly tells Zeke to go f himself and be with his beloved Kevs and Fifth finds someone that deserves him.

Our collective virtual rage room where we can smash to our hearts' content over the travesty that is this season, the way they've treated the characters and actors. lol

I had to get that weekly zinger in there to help everyone laugh through the pain of suffering through another episode. lol

I hate watching reality dating series, it's always a bunch of drama filled bs and ridiculously set up "dates", but boy is this and HIS Man so completely different that they are truly addictive to watch for all the right reasons.

Every one of the dates have them going out and doing some kind of craft or activity together that really gives them a chance to interact and get to know each other better in a very no pressure setting.

Eri and Bobo really have found something so much more important than love and it's amazing to see this series actually spending the screen time to show that. The western dating series are always if it isn't love or drama than it's not worth showing whereas this is love and support comes in many different forms and just because the goal of the series is to help find romantic love, that doesn't mean anything else is less important.

Three days in and Gino and Guan Yu are already like they're been in a long term relationship, but still in their always cute as hell together phase. I'll be very surprised if they don't end up giving it a go after the series, but even if they don't, I think they'll end up being friends for the long term.

I'm really surprised with how well Nio and Shih Fueng get along that there isn't more of a romantic spark between the two. They actually seem like they would be a great fit together, maybe this non-date day will change the way they look at each other.

Am I the only one that thinks it's weird that Susu is now interested in Shih Fueng? It almost seems like he's afraid of missing out and just picked the one out of the four that he gets on the best with more than any type of genuine interest.

Episode 8 would be some simple misunderstanding between Gino and Guan Yu and then Eri and Bobo would jump into action as the supportive bestfriends getting them to talk things through in episode 9 if this was a BL drama. lol

Once is a fluke, twice is a coincidence, thrice is a pattern and the first parts of episodes eight, nine, and now ten all feel like they were written and directed by someone completely different, however that's unfortunately where the positive ends.

Now for the weekly "WHAT THE F, WHY THE F" rant that has become watching this series...

In this episode of "WTF x2" we have

1) Linda yet again giving the most ridiculous and seriously potentially dangerous "advice" you could ever give to any LGBTQ+ Teen/Young adult. Linda has two grown LGBTQ+ children of her own (not to mention four LGBTQ+ boarders), so if anyone of the characters in this series should understand what LGBTQ+ go through and the danger that LGBTQ+ face not only from some members of society but also from their own family members, it should be her. Yet her advice is oh he loves you no matter what, you need to pray and to fix things with him, blah blah blah blah. NO JUST WHOLE F'ING STUPID AND DANGEROUS NO!!!

LGBTQ+ suicide, depression and other mental illnesses, homelessness, and hate crimes are still huge problems that just wont go away and putting the extra pressure on Fifth to fix things, especially in a situation where there was physical violence prior is just a very dangerous message to put out. Instead the message should have been that his health, safety, and happiness comes first, to hold on to and lean on the people that support him, and to know when to let go of the ones that don't. Yes, some people take time to come around, but that's on them to deal with their own shit, get over it, and for them to make the first move in fixing things and then respect the decision of the other person if they also want to accept their apology, etc.

I didn't think this series could get anymore ridiculous with Zeke's mom saying that she had to forgive herself first for being cheated on and that Zeke had to forgive himself first for being rejected by Kevin, but now this has just gone from ridiculous to down right dangerous in it's messaging.

2) Yet again Xion trying to pay every one of their actors under contract all with one series, keeping completely irrelevant characters way beyond their shelf date, and now beyond the point of spoiling. Kim, Sean, Mr. Park, Jelai, Jerome are all completely unnecessary this season. Kim giving Zeke freelancer photography work could have at least been used as to how Kevin found out where Zeke was, but that was never established so there was no need to keep the character around this season. By extension of that, Sean and Mr. Park were completely unnecessary characters and continue to be so even more with the rinse and repeat out of the blue pop up scene in every episode.

Jelai at least has some excuse for existing this season as they are the dean of the university, but their scenes should have been relegated to a couple of cameo ones when the student storylines needed it. The way the character behaves towards the students is absolutely disgusting, unprofessional, and unnecessary. The whole Jam X Jerome X Jelai storyline again is all unnecessary character bs that should have ended last season and/or never been continued this season.

The whole Iris X Lorraine story this season is nothing more than a thinly veiled "Hey look at us we have a GL couple so come watch us" gimmick that not only is poorly utilized but feels like an after thought thrown in to pad out the episode length.

Kendra is the absolutely most frustrating add-on character this season, not because of the actor or the character, but because of the absolutely no purpose usage through this season. Kendra should have been the slightly older been through what the guys are going through fountain of experience and advice half of the Linda knowing what a parent of LGTBQ+ goes through and also sees around them super support / advice duo. Instead we get Linda giving out dangerous "advice" and religious centric bullshit and Kendra is nothing more than a finally not an obnoxious stereotype trans character at best and a background prop at worst.

3) The whole Jason X Joel X Oliver whatever the f you want to call it. I'm all for some long game revenge, but this whole thing was executed like it was a little kid wrote up the revenge plot in crayon while pretending to play adult while having no understanding of the actual situation they were pretend playing. The whole thing was as thin as rice paper to begin with and got more wholes in it than the finest swiss cheese the longer it went on, but again Xion wanting to get everyone a pay check all in one shot. There were a million things better they could have done with Jason, Joel, Oliver, and Matt to keep the characters around this season, but of course they went with the worst executed half-assed option possible.

They could have gone with a Joel had a crush on Oliver, Jason had a crush on Joel, Matt had a unrequited crush on Oliver that he was too scared to confess to him tangled mess. Matt knowing how painful an unrequited love is and not having the courage to confess could have been an amazing ally for Iris and the whole Matt being homophobic towards Iris could have just been a plot by Matt and Iris to get Lorraine to finally see Iris and create an emotional spark between them. Messy as hell, sure, but not outside of the realm of desperation logic. Matt could have continued his middleman role and helped Jason with his crush on Joel and then finally to return the favor Jason could have helped Matt with his crush on Oliver completing the whole horny teenager love fest mess.

4) Lastly he biggest WTF x 2 remains the whole Zeke X Fifth X Kevin cut out all of the completely unnecessary characters, story plot, etc. from the season and there might have been enough screen time to even remotely make this whole thing make some kind of sense. There's nothing coherent here, it's a bunch of brainstormed ideas of what to do with the characters that all got tossed together and thrown on the pages without anything done with it beyond the original brainstorming session. Fifth knowing Zeke doesn't have many friends at least made sense in the beginning as to why he wanted to try to help Kevin mend things with Zeke when he thought they were nothing more than childhood friends, but that's where it should have ended when Zeke told Fifth about what Kevin did to him way back in episode two or three. After that point is where the script got put in the paper shredder, blender, soaked through with bleach, hung out to dry and fade in the sun for a few centuries and then lastly set on fire. Now it's just become an incoherent fever dream of a madman bouncing off the walls of their padded room thinking they're really flying with the angels.

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Weekly rant over, thanks for sticking around for this week's episode of "WTF X 2". I'm sure next week's episode will be filled with just as much WTF content and we'll all be a few thousand hairs balder from ripping our hair out and trying to stop the blood from gushing out of our foreheads from hitting up against a brick wall all so we can say we survived watching this series and because we want to support the actors we like.

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PS: WE GET IT KEVIN, IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME AND YOUR NAME IS KEVIN AND YOU'RE AFRAID TO BE HOME ALONE BUT HOLY SHIT GO HOME ALREADY!!!!!! lol

Considering the past works of the writer/director I'm not holding high hopes of this one, although I did like "Dear Doctor, I'm Coming for Soul" so there's the slimiest chance it could come out good....of it could end up being another "Work From Heart" aka dear gods why in the hell was this made other than to be a new form of eternal torture in the lowest depths of hell. lol

That being said, I'll still check it out just because of some of the cast at least.

Another series like that is "180 Degree longitude Passes Through Us". The writer/director for that series is a veteran stage writer/director which unlike novels and adaptations is even harder to write for because it's a one and done live production that has to spend every second focusing on exactly what the characters are trying to portray in a very simple scene, etc. It's another series that absolutely emotionally destroyed the audience, yet you eagerly waited through the tears for what was to come next. "Eternal Yesterday" handled it through open dialogue and inner monologue between the two characters and "180 Degree Longitude Passes Through Us" handled it through word play, open dialogue, and emotionally charged saying so much without verbally saying anything and both series did it through such deliberately focused means. There was a lot to handle both emotionally and information wise and yet everything had a purpose that was clearly understood not only by the characters but by the audience.

In seven episodes of "Absolute Zero" we still don't even have the most basic of understanding of why certain actions or motivations are even what they are and there's not even an implied understanding of those by the characters themselves.

Personally I love it when a series, movie, or novel only gives you bits of information at a time and gives you the chance to figure things out as they develop, but they actually have to give you something to work with and at least a basic understanding of again the foundation of who, what, why, when, where.

There's so many great books out there on how to properly write characters, stories, scripts, novels, etc. yet so many lately are completely ignoring even the most basics of who, what, why, when, where.

LOL

GMMTV finishing out an otherwise whimpering BL year with a bang. This is what happens when you have an excellent script, actors that know how to connect and portray the material properly, and most importantly a director that has the respect of everyone and knows how to help bring out the very best.

They should all be sued for causing severe global sea level rise from all of the tears flowing ever week by their audience into the waterways and making its way to the sea!! LOL

Take nails on a chalkboard, water torture, you're least favorite music blasting at 500 db 24/7, and being forced to watch white paint dry in an all white room, then mix then together and that's the level of annoying they turned Jade into for this series.

With any luck, King and Uea have one of those ball gages that they can use on Jade and his smartwatch can deliver all of his lines for however many episodes of this series until Jade and Mai fall in love and he's no longer hyperactive, overact man. Even with this being only eight episodes I'm not even sure if I'll survive that long