I would say that this is less of a BL, and more of a lakorn with LGBTQ+ elements. BLs usually focus more on the…
I felt the same about the "Maurice" movie ending. Maurice's relationship with Alec seemed rushed, a mere reaction coming from his disappointment in Clive's evolution, with no clear common ground between them apart from being gay and willing to live according to their feelings. Although I reckon this meant a lot within their environment, I also wondered how their love story was going to evolve. Apparently we are not the only ones. I do not know about a sequel by E.M. Forster himself ; according to the following article, he intented to write one, but did not ; there is a sequel, though, "Alec" by W. di Canzio : https://www.edgemedianetwork.com/story.php?306617
I have not yet read "Pride and prejudice" (nor watch the movie). Thank you for reminding me that I should read it. :-)
But I digress. I propose you to become my friend here, if you so desire.
I would say that this is less of a BL, and more of a lakorn with LGBTQ+ elements. BLs usually focus more on the…
@kikuitadaki You are right, I stopped before Jiu and Tian's meeting. After your comment I gave the series another chance and went back to where I stopped. The over-the-top acting is still not my thing, but I went up to Yang's beating ; I could not stand it, plus Tian who does not do much to defend his friend, the whole scene make us understand more the importance of the family but after this beating I can say that I like none of the characters, except Yang and maybe Jiu. They all use family's honor (or whatever) as a way to advance their own selfish agendas, they could not care less about the other's feelings, except Yang and Tian ; I suppose this will help Tian to look outside the noble class to find a companion and eventually to love Jiu. These themes (homosexuality and cross-class relationships) reminded me of E.M. Forster's "Maurice". Hence I do not deny the benevolent intentions of the series, but the acting, the characters (the crazy yet obeyed master-father, the others' selfishness), the lack of humor, and even the themes (there are some ideas I went through and I do not wish to come back to, because I feel it would make me go backwards)… the series does not appeal to me enough. I very much prefer "Addicted", which is also a homosexual cross-class love story. There is a sense of humor and the heroes are more rebellious… I am glad that it appealed to many of you though, especially those who gave some of their precious time to share their opinions. And especially to you, who wanted to give me another chance and were even ready to give me a translation of this Japanese introduction to the series. Tian and Jiu's first encounter is indeed enjoyable. I also like the friendship between Tian and Yang, I hope they will remain friends despite the hardships awaiting them… Long live love and friendship! :-)
I would say that this is less of a BL, and more of a lakorn with LGBTQ+ elements. BLs usually focus more on the…
Thank you very very much for stating that you are not politically/economically blind. I believe that we are more and more to be conscious that the destruction of our planet's ecosystem is the direct and inevitable consequence of our economic system ("an economy based on endless growth is… unsustainable", Muse, "The second law of thermodynamics : unsustainable"). As our political/economical leaders know this very well, they realise that the livings standards we got thanks to capitalism (which was progressive at first) will no longer be possible, even less so with emergent economical countries like China or even Thailand. Therefore, instead of stopping their crazy greediness, they choose to control people ever more. Hence, they support conservative groups even more than before. These groups are infavor of more control over the people and their lives ; they often are against abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, and even freedom of speech (introducing "defamatory" words like "conspiracy theorists" -which by the way is a historical nonsense, conspiracy is not a theory, as in something which never happened, there are many examples in history, in capitalistic societies and in other political/economical systems before- and such to reach this goal). In this regard, the informative piece of sad news about what is happening to gay people in the USA is unfortunately not surprising. But, in my everlasting optimism, I believe that in the USA at least, too many people have evolved in being not homophobic, and relations with others is much nicer this way, that these ideas will not pass. It might serve the leaders as a decoy for the people to not turn their attention towards the real base of the problem (their economic organisation of our societies), and some of them to show their empathy and how much they care about the sufferings of the people… Anyway, you will still need to fight against these backwards ideas if they occur, and to keep your heads high. Obviously, you have nothing to be ashamed of, you can love anyone you want as long as this love is not destroying you nor your lover. Besides, LGBTQ+ struggles owe a lot to the courage of some American people, eg gay prides were born in Greenwich village, Manhattan ; you have come a long way since then, it's not these morons who will make you back off… Bon courage!
LOL dropped in the middle of episode 2. And the thriller hasn't started yet.
ok, I will… I first want to finish rewatching "Not me", but right after I will try ok… I just watch the 10 first minutes, and they are very violent, I hope things smooth out afterwards, right ?
Speaking of Chinese series, I loved and watched thrice "Addicted Heroin"… I also enjoyed "Word of Honor" very much… Have you watched them ?
I would say that this is less of a BL, and more of a lakorn with LGBTQ+ elements. BLs usually focus more on the…
Hello friend!
You are right, gay marriage is still not recognised in Thailand. Worse even, in some countries (eg France), before getting the right to get married there were some adaptations, allowing for example a gay to continue to live in the appartment he was living in with his/her companion if he/she died, instead of becoming homeless, but we are still not here in Thailand ; also gay couples can not adopt children (since only married couples can)… But, obviously, a people is not the same as its government or its laws, especially under a dictatorship.
Regarding the homophobia of the people, it is difficult to say. As you stated, people may say one thing and behave otherwise. Hence my opinion is mainly based on three points : 1. my personal experience. I never hide me being gay if asking and, after a moment of surprise, I have always been accepted with open arms. Also, I know noone who told me he/she knows someone who has been mistreated because of being gay. Agreed, I may have been lucky, almost all the people I know live near Bangkok or Hua Hin, and I know almost no people over 60 years of age. But, in my experience, people are more homophobic in France, where gays can marry, than in Thailand. I believe this to be partly due to religious beliefs (Buddhism has always been much less homophobic than Christianism). Note that I am not saying that homophobia does not exist anymore anywhere in anyone (there even exist some -rare- BL actors that are -were?- homophobic). 2. Also, there are LGBTQ+ politicians here ; and even some transgender women have been elected to different posts (even as member of Parliament) ; I believe not many countries can say the same. 3. And in the media, I have never heard of a prime time series in France in which the two main characters were gay.
I want to stress that I do believe that Thai people have improved these past few years about homophobia. You may find retarded comments in some series, but in my opinion this was something that some of the filmmakers did live in their youth and they want to be sure it won't happen again. In my very limited knowledge, when homophobia is one of the main focus - like in your beloved series - either the series is several years old (mentalities change much faster here), or the story takes place in a distant past.
Unfortunately, transgender people still not receive the same welcoming arms as gay people do experience. Their situation is better here than in most countries but still, some have to flee their homelands to go to Bangkok or the tourists areas, where I believe they still suffer jobs discriminations anyway. If filmmakers want to help to improve the LGBTQ+ social representation, I think they should focus more on transgender people than gays…
And to add, straight people do watch gay romances, just like gay people watch straight romances.
this is not true in France, where I used to live before. Most straight people don't watch gay series, neither do they read gay novels. At least, only one of my friends does, and this is only because he likes me very much, and none of the straight people I met and asked if they do watch or read gay things answered "yes".
I would say that this is less of a BL, and more of a lakorn with LGBTQ+ elements. BLs usually focus more on the…
Hello everyone,
I think it will make more sense if I answer to all your remarks in the post. I do not talk a lot on social media, so I am not sure if every one of you will know that I have answered… Let's try it this way! :-)
1. I thought "To sir, with love" was a BL, and, as such, that it was meaningless to tackle the problem of homophobia, which has already been tackled too many times in BL. I was wrong, and said it already, maybe I was not clear enough…
2. As for the quality of this series, it has many good points, and I can understand that you and many others liked it… The (over-)acting is not my thing, I cringe watching them when they are supposed to play high-society Chinese people, who were and still are very much disciplined and self-restrained… So I do not want to watch more than what I already watched. Sorry.
3. This year two series were aired at prime time (8h30 pm here in Thailand). To me the acting waaay better than in "To sir, with love", and the stories much more appealing too : first, at the beginning of the year, "Not me", a courageaous social satire; and later, "The miracle of Teddy Bear" a beautiful tale tackling many social issues, among them homophobia. Before these two near-perfect series, a good series was aired, a gay and modern "Romeo and Juliet", with Ohm and Nanon, two other excellent actors, also at prime time (the last two episodes are rather bad though).
4. Hence in Thailand, series with main characters who are gays are not uncommon, even at prime time. And most people here are already open minded about LGBTQ+ people. We do not really need series tackling the homophobia issue, as if we were retarded people. Your beloved series might be interesting from a historical viewpoint, if it is well acted according to your criteria. What we need is series tackling other social issues, and opposing political and economical powers, in Thailand or more generally all over the world, proposing alternatives to capitalism. If the main characters are gays, even better.
Anyways, I am glad that you had a good time, grateful that you corrected my mistake, and happy that we can have this respectful and meaningful conversation.
I would say that this is less of a BL, and more of a lakorn with LGBTQ+ elements. BLs usually focus more on the…
Thank you very much both of you for your clear explanations, now I understand everything I wanted to know :-). I almost never watch TV, I never did even when I lived in France, I find more than I can watch on the internet already, and this lakorn is not going to change me on this… ;-) You giving me your time and well spoken explanations is very much appreciated. :-)
I would say that this is less of a BL, and more of a lakorn with LGBTQ+ elements. BLs usually focus more on the…
Thank you again… Since you seem pretty knowledgeable to me on this matter, would you please explain what is a "lakorn" ? In the Thai language ละคร is any type of drama, and even stage performances, so a BL is a type of ละคร, but the best BL actors (Ohm, Nanon, Gun, and others -sorry for not mentioning them all) do play without exaggerations like these…
I would say that this is less of a BL, and more of a lakorn with LGBTQ+ elements. BLs usually focus more on the…
ok, thank you very much for taking the time to correct me. I was misguided by an article I found online (that I can not find again un(?)fortunately). But then, since the purpose was a serious depiction of 1900's China, the over the top acting is even less understandable. At the time, high society Chinese were very disciplined and restrained, weren't they ?
The house, wood works and cuisine look very good indeed… The synopsis and acting are appalling though. How is it that homophobia is once again the subject of a BL ? Straight people won't watch this, the ones who will aren't homophobic, hence there's no point in doing this ; plus it already has been done countless of times, unfortunately… If you want to write something, first know who you are writing for ; if you want to say or show something, make sure it has some interest, meaning it has not been said or shown many times already ; if you use actors, make them play as the characters they are supposed to be, not these over the top caricatures… (dropped in the middle of episode 2)
"Who wants to do the same thing over and over?" you ask... And then you rejoice that this series is full of straight…
I still have not watched "1000 stars". Since I had watched almost every BL Thai series (I am focusing mainly on Thai series because I am learning the Thai language), I took a break. I watched "Light on Me", which I found nearly perfect, except that the series lingers a little too much on Tae Kyung's hesitation between his two lovers. As a result we do not have enough of his story with Shin Woo. Then I spent most of the time I dedicated to watching series to card magic. I will most certainly come back soon to watching Thai BLs to help improve my understanding of the language. And I already know that I am going to start with "Bad buddy".
Thank you for your link to your podcast about "The BoomPeak episode". It is a great idea to discuss about the (Thai ;-)) BL you liked, and I will try your others in a near future. I liked your discussion about Ohm (my favorite actor) and Nanon. You and your friend have calm and sympathetic voices that you used to articulate and discuss the main points about P'New's 6th project. I agree with you, this episode was great (the only one I enjoyed, besides the 1st that I preferred), because it addresses some political issues in the current Thai society. I also liked "Hometown's embrace" (I gave it a 10/10), which condemned corruption in its own way, with mainly new actors. Obviously P'New's project was excellent too, with more experienced actors. I was glad too to see Art, because he is a very good actor (and it would be difficult for me to judge about personal stories I was not a part in). And Boom too, since I did not see him since Make it right 2 (another 10/10 from me). I agree that it could have had a "higher temperature". I feel that the writing took care of the desires of the actors, and that Peak and Boom would not have been very comfortable if their characters had a more physical relationship.
What amazes me is that you could like "Love Sick" 1 and 2 that much. I rated this series 1/10 and 1.5/10 for being relentlessly frustrating regarding the gay stories. As far as I remember, there were plenty of straight couples, not a single gay one in the 30+ episodes of 45 minutes each that I was able to watch, and in the many occurrences when the two main characters were going to (at last!) be together, it was only to be postponed again because they would not want to hurt their girlfriends (?!). 30 episodes of this, I still wonder how I could manage, so I would be interested in your answer. I know it is not the place, so I am going to send you a friend request, just in case you have some free time for me, to defend your cause ;-). In any case, thank you again for your podcast, and good luck with it! :-) Wish you happiness!
I just watched this short documentary and, as you said, we learn nothing. I did not think of all your suggestions, but I 100% agree with them, that would be much more interesting. Just I am not sure about Kris, he has not played in a BL for quite a long time (has he ever? - is SOTUS a BL or a bromance when, as far as I remember there is only one kiss in 28 episodes of 45 minutes each? -)
Thank you very much for your review. I really enjoyed Samantha's acting. I have always liked her (as an actress), I have watched all the series she played in, and she has always been great. This 3rd project shows her interpreting a more complex and sad role, and she was great as usual. I too would have liked to have a great GL, but P'New decided to disappoint me to the fullest and portray 2 of his 3 lesbian (/bi) characters as egocentric scheming demons. Anyway, as you already know, I found the first projects of this series boring, except for the first one, and in fact I stopped at the very beginning of the 5th. You made me want and try the 6th.
I have a question for you, since you mentioned the point and I do not know what you based your "MESSAGE?" part on (I do not read about the actor's real lives nor their interviews). Did P'New direct this series to thank all his faithful actors who wanted to do another (last?) series with him, but in roles more in line with that they wanted to play (so he would not be the only one to blame for this series)? Will we see him now direct other mainly straight series, or rather will Perth and Plan, and maybe others, stop working with him?
"Who wants to do the same thing over and over?" you ask... And then you rejoice that this series is full of straight…
Thank you both for your feedbacks.
Synchronicity, I am going to send you a friend request, just in case. I have read some of your reviews. I gave up on 1000 stars after the first 15 minutes or so, it was too violent, too macho, for my liking ; also I fear the trope of a man who loves another after a heart transplant from a woman. After this bad start, I really did not want to be disappointed in the director of "He's coming to me", like I have been in P'New. But after reading your review, I will try again, I understand I have to go beyond the first episode.
Diva70, you reviewed many BL, so you really are open-minded, and I believe you are kind and have the best intentions. I may be heavy-handed at times, so I am glad I did not hurt you and that you found my comment thoughtful.
I do not know if it is a rare occurrence, but I really like that the three of us gave "He's coming to me" 10/10...
I loved this series. I’ve said it before and I’ll repeat it after seeing Perth in ep 7. So glad to see these…
"Who wants to do the same thing over and over?" you ask... And then you rejoice that this series is full of straight characters... Well, have you noticed that there already are straight people everywhere? and I mean exclusively straight people. In advertisements, in high performance sports (how many athletes do you know that are LGBTQ+ ?), in video games (even in the games in which you can be gay, all the NPC that you are supposed to help are straight, when you know their sexuality that is), and in movies, all the heroes are straight. So what is the point of making another series with straight characters all over the place? LGBTQ+ characters are interesting in themselves because our societies still have stupid taboos, so they ask questions by their mere existence. On the contrary, straight characters are the norm, so to be interesting they need to be something more, rare, like disabled or/and involved in just causes,... In this series they are nothing but normal, so they were boring, I repeat : we already have seen tons of them. And you can rejoice all you want, the figures are here to show that the actors we all cherish will not meet the success they deserve by playing dull characters. Love is love is an absurd tautology and repeating it over and over will not make it true as long as our societies will be homophobic. As I suspect you are straight, think of the beauty of "Romeo and Juliet" if their love was not against the rules of their worlds...
Apparently we are not the only ones. I do not know about a sequel by E.M. Forster himself ; according to the following article, he intented to write one, but did not ; there is a sequel, though, "Alec" by W. di Canzio :
https://www.edgemedianetwork.com/story.php?306617
I have not yet read "Pride and prejudice" (nor watch the movie). Thank you for reminding me that I should read it. :-)
But I digress. I propose you to become my friend here, if you so desire.
The over-the-top acting is still not my thing, but I went up to Yang's beating ; I could not stand it, plus Tian who does not do much to defend his friend, the whole scene make us understand more the importance of the family but after this beating I can say that I like none of the characters, except Yang and maybe Jiu. They all use family's honor (or whatever) as a way to advance their own selfish agendas, they could not care less about the other's feelings, except Yang and Tian ; I suppose this will help Tian to look outside the noble class to find a companion and eventually to love Jiu.
These themes (homosexuality and cross-class relationships) reminded me of E.M. Forster's "Maurice". Hence I do not deny the benevolent intentions of the series, but the acting, the characters (the crazy yet obeyed master-father, the others' selfishness), the lack of humor, and even the themes (there are some ideas I went through and I do not wish to come back to, because I feel it would make me go backwards)… the series does not appeal to me enough.
I very much prefer "Addicted", which is also a homosexual cross-class love story. There is a sense of humor and the heroes are more rebellious…
I am glad that it appealed to many of you though, especially those who gave some of their precious time to share their opinions. And especially to you, who wanted to give me another chance and were even ready to give me a translation of this Japanese introduction to the series.
Tian and Jiu's first encounter is indeed enjoyable. I also like the friendship between Tian and Yang, I hope they will remain friends despite the hardships awaiting them…
Long live love and friendship! :-)
As our political/economical leaders know this very well, they realise that the livings standards we got thanks to capitalism (which was progressive at first) will no longer be possible, even less so with emergent economical countries like China or even Thailand. Therefore, instead of stopping their crazy greediness, they choose to control people ever more. Hence, they support conservative groups even more than before. These groups are infavor of more control over the people and their lives ; they often are against abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, and even freedom of speech (introducing "defamatory" words like "conspiracy theorists" -which by the way is a historical nonsense, conspiracy is not a theory, as in something which never happened, there are many examples in history, in capitalistic societies and in other political/economical systems before- and such to reach this goal).
In this regard, the informative piece of sad news about what is happening to gay people in the USA is unfortunately not surprising. But, in my everlasting optimism, I believe that in the USA at least, too many people have evolved in being not homophobic, and relations with others is much nicer this way, that these ideas will not pass.
It might serve the leaders as a decoy for the people to not turn their attention towards the real base of the problem (their economic organisation of our societies), and some of them to show their empathy and how much they care about the sufferings of the people…
Anyway, you will still need to fight against these backwards ideas if they occur, and to keep your heads high. Obviously, you have nothing to be ashamed of, you can love anyone you want as long as this love is not destroying you nor your lover.
Besides, LGBTQ+ struggles owe a lot to the courage of some American people, eg gay prides were born in Greenwich village, Manhattan ; you have come a long way since then, it's not these morons who will make you back off…
Bon courage!
I first want to finish rewatching "Not me", but right after I will try ok…
I just watch the 10 first minutes, and they are very violent, I hope things smooth out afterwards, right ?
Speaking of Chinese series, I loved and watched thrice "Addicted Heroin"… I also enjoyed "Word of Honor" very much… Have you watched them ?
You are right, gay marriage is still not recognised in Thailand. Worse even, in some countries (eg France), before getting the right to get married there were some adaptations, allowing for example a gay to continue to live in the appartment he was living in with his/her companion if he/she died, instead of becoming homeless, but we are still not here in Thailand ; also gay couples can not adopt children (since only married couples can)…
But, obviously, a people is not the same as its government or its laws, especially under a dictatorship.
Regarding the homophobia of the people, it is difficult to say. As you stated, people may say one thing and behave otherwise. Hence my opinion is mainly based on three points :
1. my personal experience. I never hide me being gay if asking and, after a moment of surprise, I have always been accepted with open arms. Also, I know noone who told me he/she knows someone who has been mistreated because of being gay. Agreed, I may have been lucky, almost all the people I know live near Bangkok or Hua Hin, and I know almost no people over 60 years of age. But, in my experience, people are more homophobic in France, where gays can marry, than in Thailand. I believe this to be partly due to religious beliefs (Buddhism has always been much less homophobic than Christianism). Note that I am not saying that homophobia does not exist anymore anywhere in anyone (there even exist some -rare- BL actors that are -were?- homophobic).
2. Also, there are LGBTQ+ politicians here ; and even some transgender women have been elected to different posts (even as member of Parliament) ; I believe not many countries can say the same.
3. And in the media, I have never heard of a prime time series in France in which the two main characters were gay.
I want to stress that I do believe that Thai people have improved these past few years about homophobia. You may find retarded comments in some series, but in my opinion this was something that some of the filmmakers did live in their youth and they want to be sure it won't happen again. In my very limited knowledge, when homophobia is one of the main focus - like in your beloved series - either the series is several years old (mentalities change much faster here), or the story takes place in a distant past.
Unfortunately, transgender people still not receive the same welcoming arms as gay people do experience. Their situation is better here than in most countries but still, some have to flee their homelands to go to Bangkok or the tourists areas, where I believe they still suffer jobs discriminations anyway. If filmmakers want to help to improve the LGBTQ+ social representation, I think they should focus more on transgender people than gays…
I think it will make more sense if I answer to all your remarks in the post. I do not talk a lot on social media, so I am not sure if every one of you will know that I have answered… Let's try it this way! :-)
1. I thought "To sir, with love" was a BL, and, as such, that it was meaningless to tackle the problem of homophobia, which has already been tackled too many times in BL. I was wrong, and said it already, maybe I was not clear enough…
2. As for the quality of this series, it has many good points, and I can understand that you and many others liked it…
The (over-)acting is not my thing, I cringe watching them when they are supposed to play high-society Chinese people, who were and still are very much disciplined and self-restrained… So I do not want to watch more than what I already watched. Sorry.
3. This year two series were aired at prime time (8h30 pm here in Thailand). To me the acting waaay better than in "To sir, with love", and the stories much more appealing too : first, at the beginning of the year, "Not me", a courageaous social satire; and later, "The miracle of Teddy Bear" a beautiful tale tackling many social issues, among them homophobia.
Before these two near-perfect series, a good series was aired, a gay and modern "Romeo and Juliet", with Ohm and Nanon, two other excellent actors, also at prime time (the last two episodes are rather bad though).
4. Hence in Thailand, series with main characters who are gays are not uncommon, even at prime time. And most people here are already open minded about LGBTQ+ people. We do not really need series tackling the homophobia issue, as if we were retarded people. Your beloved series might be interesting from a historical viewpoint, if it is well acted according to your criteria.
What we need is series tackling other social issues, and opposing political and economical powers, in Thailand or more generally all over the world, proposing alternatives to capitalism. If the main characters are gays, even better.
Anyways, I am glad that you had a good time, grateful that you corrected my mistake, and happy that we can have this respectful and meaningful conversation.
I almost never watch TV, I never did even when I lived in France, I find more than I can watch on the internet already, and this lakorn is not going to change me on this… ;-)
You giving me your time and well spoken explanations is very much appreciated. :-)
Since you seem pretty knowledgeable to me on this matter, would you please explain what is a "lakorn" ?
In the Thai language ละคร is any type of drama, and even stage performances, so a BL is a type of ละคร, but the best BL actors (Ohm, Nanon, Gun, and others -sorry for not mentioning them all) do play without exaggerations like these…
But then, since the purpose was a serious depiction of 1900's China, the over the top acting is even less understandable. At the time, high society Chinese were very disciplined and restrained, weren't they ?
The synopsis and acting are appalling though. How is it that homophobia is once again the subject of a BL ? Straight people won't watch this, the ones who will aren't homophobic, hence there's no point in doing this ; plus it already has been done countless of times, unfortunately…
If you want to write something, first know who you are writing for ; if you want to say or show something, make sure it has some interest, meaning it has not been said or shown many times already ; if you use actors, make them play as the characters they are supposed to be, not these over the top caricatures…
(dropped in the middle of episode 2)
Then I spent most of the time I dedicated to watching series to card magic. I will most certainly come back soon to watching Thai BLs to help improve my understanding of the language. And I already know that I am going to start with "Bad buddy".
Thank you for your link to your podcast about "The BoomPeak episode". It is a great idea to discuss about the (Thai ;-)) BL you liked, and I will try your others in a near future.
I liked your discussion about Ohm (my favorite actor) and Nanon.
You and your friend have calm and sympathetic voices that you used to articulate and discuss the main points about P'New's 6th project.
I agree with you, this episode was great (the only one I enjoyed, besides the 1st that I preferred), because it addresses some political issues in the current Thai society.
I also liked "Hometown's embrace" (I gave it a 10/10), which condemned corruption in its own way, with mainly new actors. Obviously P'New's project was excellent too, with more experienced actors. I was glad too to see Art, because he is a very good actor (and it would be difficult for me to judge about personal stories I was not a part in). And Boom too, since I did not see him since Make it right 2 (another 10/10 from me).
I agree that it could have had a "higher temperature". I feel that the writing took care of the desires of the actors, and that Peak and Boom would not have been very comfortable if their characters had a more physical relationship.
What amazes me is that you could like "Love Sick" 1 and 2 that much. I rated this series 1/10 and 1.5/10 for being relentlessly frustrating regarding the gay stories. As far as I remember, there were plenty of straight couples, not a single gay one in the 30+ episodes of 45 minutes each that I was able to watch, and in the many occurrences when the two main characters were going to (at last!) be together, it was only to be postponed again because they would not want to hurt their girlfriends (?!). 30 episodes of this, I still wonder how I could manage, so I would be interested in your answer. I know it is not the place, so I am going to send you a friend request, just in case you have some free time for me, to defend your cause ;-).
In any case, thank you again for your podcast, and good luck with it! :-)
Wish you happiness!
I really enjoyed Samantha's acting. I have always liked her (as an actress), I have watched all the series she played in, and she has always been great. This 3rd project shows her interpreting a more complex and sad role, and she was great as usual.
I too would have liked to have a great GL, but P'New decided to disappoint me to the fullest and portray 2 of his 3 lesbian (/bi) characters as egocentric scheming demons.
Anyway, as you already know, I found the first projects of this series boring, except for the first one, and in fact I stopped at the very beginning of the 5th. You made me want and try the 6th.
I have a question for you, since you mentioned the point and I do not know what you based your "MESSAGE?" part on (I do not read about the actor's real lives nor their interviews).
Did P'New direct this series to thank all his faithful actors who wanted to do another (last?) series with him, but in roles more in line with that they wanted to play (so he would not be the only one to blame for this series)? Will we see him now direct other mainly straight series, or rather will Perth and Plan, and maybe others, stop working with him?
Synchronicity, I am going to send you a friend request, just in case.
I have read some of your reviews.
I gave up on 1000 stars after the first 15 minutes or so, it was too violent, too macho, for my liking ; also I fear the trope of a man who loves another after a heart transplant from a woman. After this bad start, I really did not want to be disappointed in the director of "He's coming to me", like I have been in P'New. But after reading your review, I will try again, I understand I have to go beyond the first episode.
Diva70, you reviewed many BL, so you really are open-minded, and I believe you are kind and have the best intentions. I may be heavy-handed at times, so I am glad I did not hurt you and that you found my comment thoughtful.
I do not know if it is a rare occurrence, but I really like that the three of us gave "He's coming to me" 10/10...
Well, have you noticed that there already are straight people everywhere? and I mean exclusively straight people. In advertisements, in high performance sports (how many athletes do you know that are LGBTQ+ ?), in video games (even in the games in which you can be gay, all the NPC that you are supposed to help are straight, when you know their sexuality that is), and in movies, all the heroes are straight.
So what is the point of making another series with straight characters all over the place? LGBTQ+ characters are interesting in themselves because our societies still have stupid taboos, so they ask questions by their mere existence. On the contrary, straight characters are the norm, so to be interesting they need to be something more, rare, like disabled or/and involved in just causes,... In this series they are nothing but normal, so they were boring, I repeat : we already have seen tons of them.
And you can rejoice all you want, the figures are here to show that the actors we all cherish will not meet the success they deserve by playing dull characters.
Love is love is an absurd tautology and repeating it over and over will not make it true as long as our societies will be homophobic. As I suspect you are straight, think of the beauty of "Romeo and Juliet" if their love was not against the rules of their worlds...