cdvmty

I remember writing a review when I watched Be On Cloud's "The Hidden Character". That show was scripted to the wazoo and back and was mainly intended to find a partner for Ta. Funny enough, most of the people who appeared on that show are no longer with Be On Cloud, including Copper, who now appeared on this one.

Well, this season of "DMD Friendship" has to be the most scripted and planned in advance yet. So far, we know this show is designed to find BL partners for the new generation of artists hired by Domundi. We know this show is also designed to find new BL partners for artists from previous generations who had a partner and something ended it up (see Tommy-Jimmy for example) or who decided not choose anyone during their own season because they were not mentally ready (see PatJi and Ryujin or TeeTee and Por in the previous generation).

All that is fine, however, it is a bit annoying to have a show when you already know most of the outcomes by episode 1 or 2. We knew Thomas and Kong or Keng and Namping were going to be a couple 2 seasons ago. We knew TeeTee and Por and Save and Auau were being paired up last season. And we also knew Jimmy needed a new partner so Ohm became the main candidate by episode 2, when Jimmy was "surprisingly" brought in episode 2 of last season.

This season was no exception. Ryujin and PatJi were going to be a couple but we needed some possible drama like PatJi not being 100% sure, so their storyline dragged for the whole season without much mystery in the end. Copper remained as fake as I remembered him from "The Hidden Character" so I can't really say I like him, but I do get why many find him charming. Pung acted in "Khemjira" and looked so green in the show but I was surprised when he maturely talked to Copper about not feeling ready to have a partner. Although, I don't think Copper was going to choose him anyway.

Wave looked he was going to cry when nobody chose him. Pete is the youngest if I'm not mistaken, so I think this is like PatJi in the previous season not being ready for a partner yet. Porsche's acting in "City of Stars" was mediocre at best... plus, he is already 30 years old and while age is not an issue, the closest in age to him is Phupha who is 7 years younger. That made it a bit more complicated as he was seen as the "older brother" and not partner material.

The cruelest thing was the Otto-Phupha-North triangle. Phupha and North chose Otto and we had all this mystery of who he was going to choose. In the end, Otto chose North but the writers decided to have him walk in front of Phupha, say goodbye, and just keep walking to find North. If I were Phupha, I would be angry as it was just designed as a scripted plot to showcase their triangle.

In the end, we have yet another season of the new DMD artists looking for a BL partner. The show seemed to revolve around PatJi and Ryujin, Copper-Fifa, and the North-Phupha-Otto story but felt way more scripted than previous seasons and there was no clearly evident chemistry among the resulting BL partners. Ryujin seemed to confident about PatJi but not the other way around. Fifa and Copper give me the same type of vibes, North and Otto might work depending on the roles. Plus, from what little acting they did for one of the missions... I'm not sure about the acting quality we will get.