Feardorcha

Fingers crossed that there is either no romance, or it's so negligible it can be skipped entirely with the handy FFW button.

He really showed up to that modelling shoot looking like he mugged a terrible Beatles cosplayer.

That competition scene was something else. If we hadn't watched him practicing on poor JJ, I wouldn't be convinced Plawan had ever seen a kitchen nevermind knew how to use one. Could skip the whole sell-the-restaurant plan by just leaving him unsupervised for five minutes; he'll have that placed burned down faster than the claims adjustor can park the car.

So the person guarding the food didn't see or hear them take all those bags of EuroCakes and swaddle them in fabric? That had to have been either the slowest or loudest theft, depending on how they did it, but I'm guessing the food guard was also maybe blind. And was there a reason the bus couldn't drive them up to the camp entrance? I thought perhaps that road was only for deliveries and emergency access but apparently not, so why road?

Does it matter? No. But those elements actually held my attention, at least. Except for the "School Rangers: The Outdoorsying" parts, this episode was dull. This whole series feels weirdly draggy and undercooked, despite it moving at the same story pace as the JBL. I am trying to make it to the new material but this series is so bad that I may give up and just read the manga.

I am so annoyed with Thanwa. Everything else aside, it's obvious he doesn't want to be with Max, full-stop. Even if Max is a jerk, it's still shitty of Thanwa to lead him on and pretend there's a chance. Sure, Thanwa, move out of the house, but you can also do that and just be single. Are you allergic to living alone or are you literally just using Max for a place to crash? Either way, you're coming off as a complete loser.

Seriously, what has Lee Long Shi done that he keeps getting punished like this? What powerful Thai entertainment executive has he so wronged to keep getting saddled with awful scripts and/or characters?

What the hell was that scene?

See, Joe, that's what your dumbass gets.

The series is making a grave mistake assuming I'm anything other than indifferent about what happens to Joe, or if he and Ming stay together. Ming is a domineering narcissist in a family of manipulative sociopaths, and Joe's spine is made of lubricated water. His inability to walk away from Ming cost him one life, and if he's going to be stupid in the same way all over again, seems only fair that stupidity cost him the second one too. Obviously it won't but still, I rolled my eyes through this whole episode. It was trying so hard to make me care.

And are they honestly trying to make us feel bad for Tong? I don't give a shite that he's going to be a father, the dude's a monster. Kid's better off without him, let's go ahead and put a bullet in Tong too. That would take care of his money woes, I'm positive he's got enough life insurance to cover his debts if the loanshark goes after the wife, and a movie star being brutally murdered right after a cinematic release would certainly drive up ticket sales. Win-win for everyone. Well, except for Tong, but he doesn't deserve to win.

This is definitely MeenPing's best series yet but that bar is so low it's subterranean. Still, it's nice seeing Meen get better material, even if Ping still makes acting look incredibly hard. I'm beginning to think most of that is just the unfortunate shape of his face. The boy has the most vacuous eyes, like his elevator doesn't go all the way to the top.

Boss Tos is so laughable. I thought sports gambling was just some sideline in his illegal empire but, no, he really is just running an off-license betting ring on basketball games played by high school dropouts but rolling around with a gun and hoes like he's Thailand's answer to Tony Montana. Go commit real crime, you poseur.

I wish we were spending more time with Ryu and Q. They are both more interesting than Zen, their relationship is far more complex and engaging, and I much prefer their story to the dull domesticity of Zen, Atom, and Grandmother.

Also, where did all the butts go?

Do not get me started on trans representation in Thai works. I will rage so long and so hard and so vociferously in every language I speak, and it will all be heavily laced with cussing and disappointment. Thailand has Jennie Panhan RIGHT THERE: she's talented, smart, gorgeous, authentic; why are there still so many Thai productions fucking it up? "Only Friends" did a decent job of telling a trans character's story but it felt, and still feels, like that series was well ahead of the country itself in depictions of transpeople.

Please, do try MoD again. Grit your teeth through the parts you hate, as I do think you'll enjoy the rest of it.

I shall be frank: it's dumb. It is. But it's sexy toxic fun dumb. I have spent my entire watch rooting for all the worst aspects: the sociopathic Top, the spineless Bottom, the I-Swear-to-God-Tong-Murdered-Someone-Once.

It's a good deal of fun, and you do mostly want these characters to be happy. It's just that your definition of what "happy" means may vary.

Anyway, scroll long and deep to find my episodic comments. I think you and I may absolutely sync on this one.

Out of curiosity, are you watching "My Stand-In"? I haven't seen you on the boards but I feel like, surely, you'd have views on that one. I'd like to hear your opinion.

Fair, and I get what you mean. For myself, though, I give a lot of leeway to Thai acting. They, like everyone else, have a performance style that is connected to and informed by their sociocultural artistic history. While I preference the more naturalistic modern styles of Korean and Indonesian cinema, and I don't enjoy the Thai broad style as much as I do, say, Kabuki-influenced Japanese or Kathakali-derived Indian forms, I do understand the Thai model and can orientate myself within it. So, I give kudos to Thai productions that bravely tackle engaging/complex/exploratory plots and themes, even if those productions have other shortcomings. None of the works I mentioned are perfect but I appreciate the presence of actual plot and plot-significant stakes that expand beyond "pretty boys in lust/love".

I hope you consider giving MoD another chance. Yes, there are aspects of silliness throughout, but it is, overall, a good story with an engaging mystery and compelling characters, even if the collective production itself wasn't quite up to snuff. Afterall, if we don't support the better content, can we really expect to be given the best content?

No sex in this episode. Shame.

I think the formula is for every twelve abysmal series, we'll get one solid good one. I don't think we've hit the quota yet.

Thailand doesn't have to concern itself with producing quality work. Their BL industry churns out complete shlock because they know their primary audience will squeal in delight so long as there are pretty boys and it's "cute" or "fluffy". It's so frustrating. There is real talent in front of and behind the cameras, as well as engaging stories to be told, which we've seen in works like AToTS, MoD, Not Me, and DDICfS, but brainless, low-quality glitter is what fills the coffers.

Well, I suppose everyone's got to make a living, especially if those quality works requiring quality budgets are going to get made.

This series is just boring. Reading comments here that the source material is sexually explicit just makes it even more dull. Why take that type of work and reduce it to this type of plodding, prudish series? It's not like BL novels are great literary works in the first place but if sex is all one has to offer, keep it in and add "plot" around it. And what is wrong with the leads? Salin acts like he hasn't even started puberty, and I have no idea why Sun finds that appealing. Salin isn't "cute" or "innocent", he's just frustratingly immature, and all his mincing about makes me want to throttle him.

And why are we spending so much time with the Board of Directors? Do they live in that conference room or what? This company manufactures jewellery not weapons, why do they even need to meet so often?

Well, maybe something of interest will happen next episode, as it appears the series has remembered its premise. The opening scene of episode one with the naga is still the most engaging thing that has happened so I'm looking forward to more sexy water monster shenanigans.

I'm here for the sex. I freely admit it. The plot isn't even in the top five reasons I'm watching.

....this thing's kind of falling apart in the third act, isn't it? And for there to suddenly be so much story, it really feels like the series resents having to tell us about any of it.

I need a Dr. Plakao special or spin-off or something. I have just so many questions about how this man is living his life.

The soundscape in this series is reaching "Dinosaur Love" levels of obnoxious. Just a ceaseless, pointless wall of noise. It makes an already youthful story seem downright childish. Can we please have sixty uninterrupted seconds of the actors being allowed to talk, gesture, emote, and enter or exit a room without all the ruckus?

Well, at least nobody sang this episode.

A definite decline from the first season, particularly as regards certain production aspects. Elements that annoyed me the most: the main characters feel shoehorned into their own series, the murder mystery reveal is weirdly convoluted, and the makeup is frequently appalling.

There are three primary stories at play in S2:

Story #1:
delves into questions of reintegration, following Fang’s Daughter as she attempts to establish a life on the other side of her crime and punishment from S1. Her story is a melancholy yet persistently affirming journey through forgiveness of one’s self despite eternal condemnation from the world. Her arc interrogates questions about what “rehabilitation” means in a society that neither forgets nor forgives, and whether/how reformed offenders find new footing. Fang’s Daughter’s story is a beautifully compelling meditation on the overlapping essence of criminalization and victimization, and whether absolution is an inherently external gift or an intrinsically personal choice. This is all a compelling character-study drama, but it is not what I signed up to watch. I signed up to watch a gory murder mystery. That brings us to:

Story #2:
is the actual murder mystery. The murders are beautifully gruesome but the obviousness of the perpetrator is frustrating. It’s so obvious who the murderer is that you keep hoping their identity isn’t the point. It ultimately both is and isn’t, but the plot point about identity is…perplexing. I won’t elaborate here but I will say it was rather stupid. What sticks the most is how, once the main mystery is resolved, you don’t really care what happens to the lead character(s) while the series, meanwhile, is still carrying on about them. Hence, the third story:

Story #3:
is about Fang handling the conceits of others; essentially, his arc this season is about the ways in which we may compromise our ethics to rescue the ones we love. Which was the entire point of last season with his Daughter, so…? Seriously, it’s boringly ridiculous. And the loveline between Fang and Reporter Chick is just tedious. S1 barely sold the idea that Fang is capable of having a romantic relationship that leads to marriage and children, but S2 is convinced there was ever any chemistry or attraction between Fang and Reporter Chick. As a result, we’re also following Reporter Chick’s side-story about purpose and ethics, which feels lifted wholesale from an entirely different script and only present here to justify Reporter Chick’s presence. Seriously, why is she here? They’re supposed to be a couple this season but it’s laughable on many levels. Honestly, you can skip any scenes in which our three ostensibly main characters are alone together in whatever configuration and miss nothing important. The series has to go so far out of its way to include them in the main narrative that you can practically smell the script rewrites from whatever original property this season was squeezed.

In summary:
Story #1 should’ve been a spin-off.
Story #3 is extraneous to proceedings and demonstrates how our main characters are surplus to requirements.
Story #2 is serviceable but continuously undermined by trying to make Stories #1 and #3 matter.

I get the sense that the first season was meant to be a self-contained narrative, a complete story with no intentions of subsequent seasons. In fact, supporting characters in S2 have to keep making excuses for/articulating shock at the main characters’ involvement in the story to the point it becomes comical. I am so disappointed that after years of waiting for the sequel, this is the best we get.

EP09 is already making me mad. We've watched Wandee be repeatedly charmed and seduced by all Yak's overt, cheesy romantic gestures. Yet, not only are we supposed to believe that they're not "official", despite all evidence to the contrary and how we've seen them communicate, we're also supposed to buy that Wandee would get upset about being aggressively wooed by tasteful bouquets and table-side music dinners?

Just stop, series. Just stop it.