Flypsyde

I'm curious as to why the totality of the trope/cliche/fluff/predictable writing and plot don't annoy you at least a little bit. Do you not get tired of seeing basically the same BL story over and over and over again?

I haven't read through the comments yet, and I'm a late-comer to this series, but as someone who is now invested in it, I STILL am annoyed at the utter lack of originality, the total predictability of every step of the plot, the trope after trope after trope, each matched with two or three cliches, that drag this show down. I don't know why people would be "angry" about that, and perhaps the complaints are completely different from mine, but I'm just stumped by lazy-ass writing like this.

I actually dropped this one part-way through the second episode a few weeks ago. It struck me as utter Disney-fied fluff, totally by-the-numbers plot, complete with numerous trip-catch-stare tricks and all the other tropes and cliches from the very start, and those BLs annoy the hell out of me. The sets are all over-lit, it has the vibe of a cheap American sit-com, etc. But an MDL friend whose opinion I value kept insisting it was a good show despite all of the above, so I gave it another shot and ended up binge-watching through episode 7.

The show really is all of the above to me, but the leads have great chemistry, the supporting cast is funny and engaging and here I am now giving a shit what happens with these people. Aaron Lai is unbelievably beautiful/handsome in an unusual, very striking way, but he's also a fine actor. I had seen him play a loathsome gay lead character in a feature film; I think the effectiveness of his portrayal there stuck with me and I was still mad at him from that movie. lol But it is Hank Wang who has endeared himself to me. I want to take care of him. haha. Despite the continuing, paint-by-the-numbers plot, somehow these two have me buying into their developing relationship. Wang's character's slow realization that he is falling in love with a man actually feels authentic to me.

The few moments during which Lai woke up to find Wang sleeping on his arm and Lai's hand on his chest, after which he startled a bit but then just lay and gazed, blinking, at Wang's sleeping angel face, was a real beauty of an instantly classic BL moment. Visually stunning, emotionally tender...I teared up just looking at them.

The workshop student/worker and the coffee shop owner side-couple are spectacular in their sweet, shy/bold flirting, pouting, verbally sparring a few times, all leading up to that gorgeous first kiss at their apartment relationship development. Another quietly thrilling moment; I just sat here and smiled like a crazy person, gawking at the computer screen, which is as it should be. It is BL moments like those that are slowly healing this way-too-long-in-the-closet, damaged-little-gay-kid heart of mine. I feel, that through BL characters like these, I'm experiencing situations I never allowed myself to have as a young man. These portrayals and stories, when done even partly well, are profoundly moving to me.

So now...I'm all in with this series. It continues to baffle me why so many BL writers don't even TRY to be original in their story-telling, but this is one of those cases where I choose to just accept the negatives for the sake of the overwhelming positives. It is still disconcerting to find myself writing the script in my head as we go and watching what I anticipated unfold on the screen. lol

I don't know...to me, that never seemed like much more than Bas Taxi Service to get Oh to and from school. Oh never loved him. He tried pretending to love him, but it was never real. Bas is cute as a button with a really, really good heart, MUCH more forgiving and interested in Oh's ultimate happiness than the many commenters here who want to see Teh suffer and die more than they want to see Oh happy.

(Takes bow...)

That is beautiful. I'm happy for you!

Based on your first comment, it's clear you are a judgemental, bitter, angry person with a heart of concrete. Good luck living your life that way.

Beautifully stated.

lol hahaha I agree! I do want to acknowledge that while I believe Billkin to be a very fine actor, there is no denying the uniqueness of his facial expressions. I've never seen anything quite like it from an actor before either. There were lots of times he seemed to me to be about to smile and about to cry all at the same time. I often felt there were multiple emotions kind of roiling around on his face, fighting each other for domination. He has a very individualistic sort of smiling grimace that forms when he is beginning to tear up...his face seems to be simmering on the surface, emotions at the boiling point beneath. And he starts to move his head just a tiny little bit in a circular manner; it's very hard to describe. I usually noticed that when Oh was rejecting him and it seems his eyes were trying to reach out of his face to take Oh in his arms. All this while his eyes brimmed with tears or they ran down his face.

To me, ALL of the above is a good thing. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing a unique way of conveying emotion I had not encountered before, and it all felt natural to me. I don't think Billkin has invented those facial expressions. I think he has learned how to control and use the natural means of expression he already possessed and yes, they are very unique. I loved that I was sometimes confused by what i was seeing until his words made clear what was going on.

There is only one time I think things got out of hand. It was during ITSAY at the end of ep 3 and beginning of ep 4, I think, when the hysterical crying/wailing got to be way too much for me and needed to be dialed back about 50%. Those unusual means of expression at that point became a distraction and I found myself thinking about how odd his noises and such were instead of feeling the devastation Teh was feeling. On the other hand, I commend any actor who is that willing to give up all pretense of remaining attractive/cool/studly for the camera and just let their instincts run wild, unbridled. It was the job of the director to step in and pull him back a few notches and that didn't happen.

Other than that, I give Billkin an A+ for both series.

There's this one problem though, and it's kind of amusing that you refuse to accept it, even though in the world of the series, this is the way it is: Oh does not love Bas. He loves Teh and he always will. It always seems so bizarre to me wen viewers get so worked up and get a grudge against a character, even to the point of holding it firm when another character they adore has chosen to forgive and love again. Teh clearly touches a nerve with you. Is there someone like him in your past that he reminds you of and with whom things aren't resolved?

To me, this series separates the audience into those who are open to forgiveness, redemption, change and growth; and those who nurse grudges, can't forgive or look for the best in people, and would rather hurt themselves too than let mistakes go.

I don't think the play was supposed to read as super-romantic; I think it was supposed to be Teh reaching out to Oh in the way that he felt Oh had encouraged him to do by using his own life as material for the play, which is what he did. As for the photo, that was Teh making it plain as day to Oh that he, Oh, was and always had been his most important thing and he wasn't going to hide Oh from the world anymore, no matter what. I loved seeing the joyful reactions of their friends when they all saw that post online. It's kind of sad that they were all happy and delighted and here you are, nursing that grudge.

Oh only objected out of concern for Teh's career. Teh's answer to that was beautiful: "well, here' the first thing we get to deal with...together." And Oh took his hand and that's what they went off to do. He already knows the acting is not fulfilling to him if it requires that he not acknowledge Oh as his partner.

Well-said. And I agree with you about the churning emotion. I don't think I was as swept up in ITSAY as I was in IPYTM. Especially the last three weeks I worried and wondered for seven days between each episode. I think that's a first for me. I've probably been just as weepy over quite a few feature films, but with those the torture only goes on for a couple of hours or so and then whatever time it takes to recover. What made the waits so angsty for me was that I knew this series wasn't playing by any BL rules whatsoever, and that anything at all could happen. I wanted Teh and Oh back together but I really didn't think I was going to get that. Oh hell, I'm all misty just writing this now. This show has wrecked me. lol

He never asked, but he made it clear to Oh with his longing stares what he wanted. However, he's a remarkable character in that he never said those words out loud and put that kind of pressure on Oh. Neither did Bas, once it was clear to him where Oh's heart had landed.

Who COULD forget that? As a viewer, you're not intended to forget it, but to hold it against Teh. Thank goodness Oh didn't hear that nasty little conversation. I felt embarrassed for Teh, since Jai had ALREADY clearly shot him down and yet there he was again, practically begging. Pathetic. However, I can't ever forget Oh's orange hair, so I think we can call it even.

Where do these couples live? They should be doing television interviews for pay. If you're in a committed relationship, WHY are they waiting? WHAT is going on with that? Of course, they can do whatever they want; have sex, don't have sex, do it once a year, whatever...but I have always regarded sex as a very natural important part of a relationship, providing the most powerful expression of love there is. Why would people not want that in their lives? Almost all of us have sex drives. Don't these folks feel any urges to satisfy their. I must admit to being baffled. And I've only ever seen this assertion that a commenter "knows quite a few" who don't or didn't have sex on BL comment boards here on MDL.

I'm suspicious it is more the fantasy of people who have issues about sex than it is a reality.

As far as you know...

Meh. For me this is one of those series that included some great elements and possibilities, almost all of which were screwed up and/or wasted entirely. I got some great laughs, a few misty moments and a lot of eye-rollingly terrible stuff.

Just this episode we had Pi, for the thousandth time, freaking out over something it was entirely obvious Mork would NEVER have done, then the instant resolution in the form of the evil ex-gf plotting and planting the pics. But even after that, Pi says, "oh well, I thought you posted those Mork, but even though you did not, I don't care, let's stay broken up." The entirely stupid "fandoms" conceit...good god, vying fan groups both appear and attend Mork's public birthday party, complete with silly props and signs and stuff? Really? Old photos of Pi, looking exactly as everyone already knows he used to look, cause some kind of cataclysm among the fandoms and they turn on Pi because he is unworthy? Stupid, stupid, stupid. The university theatre program puts on a play on par with a lower-grade school production? After months of "seeing each other," Mork and Pi have apparently still never had sex? Yeah, right. Same for Duean and Meen?

I kept feeling sorry for the actor playing Mork because he's talented and somehow kept his dignity through 12 weeks of terrible writing and direction. There really has still never been presented a believable set of reasons why Mork is so smitten with Pi. Shouldn't there be something? But Pi turns on him over and over and goes off in a huff because of his terrible insecurities. It was clear long ago that if they became an item Mork would spend all his time mollifying Pi's worries and concerns. Screw that.

The slapstick was occasionally hilarious, but not nearly often enough. In this episode, the office chair on wheels as a crutch of sorts was funny for two minutes, then it was dragged out for 20.

5 stars.

"Cheaply" lol Whatever. Your alternate story included forgetting eps 3 & 4, or is that not what you wrote? What, specifically, is it about cheating that so disturbs you as a plot device, when you've as much as agreed there is no other story line that hasn't been done before. What is it about cheating that upsets your boat? OK, maybe one of them cheated on a major test and got kicked out of school, so they couldn't complete college together. THAT would be exciting! Not.

I DON'T 'expect' you to come up with an original story line, because there is no such thing, that was my point.

Many dramas involve relationship/sexual cheating because it is one of the most POWERFUL emotional human situations people find themselves in.. That's not hard to understand. Why do so many shows feature robberies and murders, kidnappings, extortion, deceit, blackmail, torture, and a million other things humans do to each other. They are emotionally powerful acts and can have dire consequences. Why is it "cheating" alone that you think is "cheap" and easy to use? You said you'd take almost anything else. Did someone cheat on you once and you can't stand to see it onscreen? I mean, that would make sense. Do you just think sex is icky?

I'm glad you enjoyed it. I agree about the actors; I think both will be major BL actors and then hopefully go on to adult careers in stories across the spectrum. I do have to say that poor Oak made one of the homeliest drag queens I have ever seen. ;) :)

I thought it was a bit much for Bank to say, after at least a semester of handjobs and blowjobs in the men's room and the full-scale episode in bed, that he was "straight." Come on, buddy...you're at least gay-curious. But I do think in many cases it's amazing the degree to which some bi or gay men will go to hang on to a semblance of their straight identity. Maybe I'm a weird case: I stayed in the closet until 37, but even as an adolescent I didn't kid myself that I was completely straight. I knew better.

"f you try to ignore Jai and the 3th-4th episodes and just think Teh and Ohaew are somewhat separated because they realized they both needed time to grow and come back stronger, you can like the ending better."

Sounds like an alternate story line to me, babes.

The story of the near-cheating and how it developed and continued emotionally even after Jai turned down Teh is ENTIRELY original, at least to BLs. Please name me another one that followed that story line, babes.
While you're at it, could you please name me another plot device to bring conflict into the story that has never been used before in the history of civilization? Thanks. I'll wait.

That is correct, but this commenter is saying that Tharn raped Type during the time line of TT.