any_anka

😅 Allow me to feel proud of that unintentional comedy 😊

So we're getting a cliffhanger, huh?
The only thing I wished for was a somewhat conclusive ending... I dared not to put my hopes on s2 happening, I was willing to accept certain plot points not being addressed (mostly about the corruption in the police force part and the second couple development), but at the very least I had hoped for something of a closure for the main two protagonists... 😞
Let me wallow in my sadness/anxiety for now...

To me it's very clear that people who were responsible for making this drama really put a lot of care and passion into making it. It's evident in the visuals, in composition of every shot. I heard the budget was low... Even more respect to the creators.

But what you're mentioning is a different thing to me. To complain about the quality of a work and then point out that it relies solely on the fact that "sex sales" when having terrible writing, acting etc. is a valid criticism about the overall quality of the work. It's akin to complaining that... I don't know, an action movie has only explosions and CGI, but no suspense and logical plot.
It's not the same as coming to the series and having no constructive criticism, just complaining that the presence of sex scenes ruin it (which was what I was referring to as not really coming across).
I don't know if I'm expressing myself well 😅 but these are not the same things to me.

Anyway, I haven't watched any of the titles you mentioned, so I confess to being rather ignorant about them and people's opinions of them.

You can most definitely have all those things. The thing is though (speaking just for myself) I have not come across people in the MDL comments come complain under an explicit BL series that it has too much intimacy, too much skinship etc. (I did see such complaints under my favourite GL movie, but that was a) an exception and b) a different main target audience after all).

However, I keep seeing such people come and complain under a show that they deem has too little "spice" for a BL. Not just here, with Soul Mate I can still understand there was a certain confusion with the Netflix genre tags changing etc., but under other series as well.

Now, I don't know about others, but for me, once you read one comment too many going on about "nothing is happening, they still haven't kissed, were there any spicy scenes in the last episode?" despite the story progression, emotional connection depicted, solid acting etc... you kinda start getting irritated 😋

And with Soul Mate, we have not seen a single episode yet, just a trailer, and I already saw people criticising it for not being gay enough. Which is also kinda... well... premature (trying to be polite in my word choice).

So yeah, a show can totally be good while having explicit sex scenes. And a person can totally be fed up with obsession with such scenes while not hating them themselves 🙂

I just made my peace with it being 40 minutes and now you're telling me it's even shorter?!

Finallyyyy. I thought it'd never get released 😋 They will devour in the acting department, I can tell from the trailer alone.

Not our business 🙂

Summarizes my experience with each episode of this drama pretty accurately ;)

40 minutes is scandalous... Isn't it like the shortest episode yet?!
I lowkey expected them to give us 1,5 hour long finale 🙁

The only benefit I could possibly get from this exchange is actually just the enjoyment of having a debate (which was what I thought we were doing).
You asked me for examples of straight dramas, so I tried to provide those. Since my response apparently didn't inspire anything new you'd want to say, let's agree to disagree and have a nice day! ;)

I don't keep a registry of dramas-that-are-slowburn-and-don't-involve-kisses-up-untill-episode-8-but-include-trips-and-falls-beforehand...
I can tell you, however, that this sort of thing where a proper kiss doesn't even happen until very late in the story (and sometimes might not happen at all) is *very* common in cdramas. Straight ones. The characters might have tension, tension, tension, and share like one or two kisses somewhere towards the second half of the show, making the audience wait sometimes 20 episodes if not more.
Oh, actually, a big current title, Pursuit of Jade, has the main couple not share a kiss until episode 10 or 11, and when they get somewhat intimate before that, it's always through them being thrown into a situation by people around them who expect them to consummate the relationship (hence it's often borderline absurd and comical in it's nature, even though the chemistry is there).
I haven't finished the drama yet, but from the spoilers that I have seen, the kisses and more intimate moments that follow later on will be happening when one or both characters are under the influence...
It's a straight drama, but clearly follows certain tropes that - if they were to happen in a BL show - one could include in your little theoretical essay about deprecating depictions of the gay in fiction (saying something like: "the intimate interactions never happen with characters having full vocation of their actions or carrying responsibility for them, as they're always either influenced by others or under the influence of alcohol/drugs, which clearly indicates that whatever romance happens between them, is not fully greenlit by the storytellers as a thing they both want to pursue and see as correct" - or something of that sort).

Anyway, my general point being. Calling SCD homophobic based on the fact that it heavily relies on "gazes and flirtations", while not having watched even 1/3 of the show feels like relying solely on confirmation-bias on your part.

Chusan (the nerdy guy) is probably one of the most confident, self-assured gay dudes I've seen in a BL story in some time (without being too overbearing or forceful). The issue between the two protagonists is not even gay-panic really, it's mostly the gangster guy feeling inadequate more than anything else (even if it's veiled as him being stupidly oblivious).
As for the moments of affection, there are kisses earlier than episode 8 too. However, I suppose they wouldn't meet your standards, as one is a make-out session happening in a dream and the second one is a stolen kiss, when the gangster is (pretending to be) asleep.

Either way, you disliking the drama is fine by me (though I do think you are missing out and 1/10 rating is btw crazy to me, just considering the cinematography and acting alone), but throwing big words like "homophobic" felt like something I wanted to address.

Oh, come on... What exactly is homophobic about glances and flirtations, even if accompanied by silly sound effects?
So if the show happened to be a straight romance with a focus on slow burn, eye contact and with a touch of comedy etc. - would you be making an argument that it's made by someone hating hetero people or something sounding equally silly based on a similar logic?
It's not homophobic just because it's not to your liking...

P.S. There are gradations between the extremes and this drama actually falls in-between the two extremes, as it's neither of the two.

That's what I keep saying... The cinematography is so frigging pretty in this one. I could just watch it for the beautiful shots alone.

I mean, you might wanna wait a bit with the disappointment then, because didn't they just say that they don't wanna give any empty promises without an official confirmation? That's not exactly the same as saying there's no season 2 😉
And didn't Changxi say in the same live that he *thinks* there will be a second season? (Unless the subs were wrong, I'm nowhere nearly proficient enough in Mandarin to be able to confirm it).
Personally, I plan to celebrate only when I actually see episode 1 of the second season released, but not everything is definitively doomed, isn't it? 😋

Personally I can relate to cliffhanger-induced frustration, but the comments about how nothing has happened for 8 episodes are beyond my understanding. There's not a dull moment, each episode goes by so fast and is eventful, and as you've said Liuyi and Chusan's relationship has progressed so much.

From them being strangers and Liuyi forcing Chusan to work for him, to Chusan saving him, nurturing him to health and helping him with the internal gang power struggle, to them missing each other, to becoming "friends" and Liuyi finding a place he feels safe at Chusan's home, to the whole emotional disorder mess 😂to finally Liuyi slowly realising his feelings and Chusan coming clean with his.
Like, so many things has happened already and it all progressed so naturally, without anything feeling like it's forced. And I do second your comment that it also doesn't feel like they're going in circles (which is not a given in a romantic story, quite the contrary - it's a common thing to happen).

So yeah, I kinda wish works that actually take time to make the relationship make sense were appreciated for it, not the opposite happening 🙃

And maybe it's just me being biased considering how I like this show, but each interaction between the two is either entertaining or awww-inspiring or touching - I never feel bored or that I'm just waiting for something else to happen.

I felt almost cathartic reading this... You basically said everything I wanted to, but didn't 😋

Besides, there are tons of dramas where characters jump e/o's bones in the first episode, there need to be some shows allowing for the slow burn and gradual development of feelings. For a healthy balance, if nothing else 😋
And another "besides": I actually feel like SCD's creators have already planned in advance for people being disgruntled and impatient. Hence, they literally gave the audiences a two minute long make out session in episode 5 (while keeping it a dream to safeguard the story itself). Aaand they added two BTS clips for those who might've thought the final cut was too vanilla.
Like, what more do you guys need? The story is so captivating because the characters are how they are and behave the way they behave...

You're fully endorsed to do so 😉

For the period drama being undone... just look the other way, e.g. focus on the good looking cast when in need😋)

But I enjoy the slow burn too 😉 The only thing I could do without is those cliffhangers, everything else is chef's kiss for me.

Are we being nitpicky now? Yay, finally someone decided to do it, cause I kinda wanted to, but since I adore this drama so much, I felt somewhat reluctant on the other hand.
Well, let me join in on the fun 😉

The car thing bugged me too. I even tried to explain it away by maybe Liuyi having a stolen imported car, but I don't think that's the case since it's the same for Chusan's car too 😋

I'm also like 80% sure that I've seen some simplified characters here and there during the show, which I think shouldn't be the case in Hong Kong, especially in the late 80s (?).

Another thing - correct me if I'm wrong on this one though - I don't think the touchless faucets were a common thing in the 80s? Yet in that bathroom scene between the righteous and not-so-righteous cop, there totally is a faucet working on infrared sensor (or sth of that sort).

Bubble/Boba tea Chusan brings together with food for Liuyi in episode 6/7. Now it's ever-present globally, but it was invented in the late 80s in Taiwan (I actually double checked 😋). I do wonder if it already crossed over to HK and became a popular thing back when the show takes place 😋

Kowloon Walled City itself - the air pictures we get of it in the drama are just sooo far from the actual thing. It's not like I expected a low budget show to CGI a faithful replica, but what we are seeing look way too orderly. It's just a densely built area, nothing special about it, whilst the real Walled City looked like a concrete... tumour (for the lack of a better word) - so asymmetrical and totally chaotic.

Having said that, as I mentioned, I adore this drama. These don't really ruin the experience for me at all, but they did make me stop and think for a moment or two.