Exactly Like A Car Wreck (In That I Could Not Look Away)
I have to admit that I actually DNF'd DFF after two eps on the first try. But I gave it a second try and just could not stop. Watched the whole thing in one weekend even though I had stuff to do. It's one of those books that takes ~30-50 pages to get interesting... but, boy, does it.
I think there is a slight structural problem here. Don't get me wrong: I like when a writer trusts me enough to drop me into the deep end. But I was having a hard time following at first. If I had to guess it probably came down to some bad PR decisions, to try to hook viewers with sex and violence upfront rather than building up to it. I GET IT. I know this is tBL.
But I would actually recommend watching in this order (especially if you think you're just here for a glimpse of Barcode...):
Episodes 5-11
Episodes 1-4
Episode 12
The "How We Got Here" device muddied the water. Not necessary. If you trust me as your audience, then trust that I have the patience to wait for the sex and violence.
Onto what I liked... Come for the Barcode but Stay for the Experimental Horror!
This show is extremely genre aware -but in a good way. It uses the vehicle of high school setting to provide some interesting social commentary, rather than being "about high school." This was approached in a highly subversive way. Very bad things happen to these high schoolers. In a market flooded with school setting, this is not your run of the mill high school BL. Rather than "dunking" on the school setting, tho, the writers really transformed it.
Even though the timeline gets chopped and screwed, there is still very much a buildup hat takes place. I love when a narrative takes time to elaborate on the making of a vengeful ghost. We are intimately aware with what created this evil by the time we're fully confronted with it.
The characters themselves are not genre aware/genre savvy, which I also found refreshing. I really liked this persistent thread of a character who is interested in horror finding themselves inside of one - though it does not set them up to be prepared for it necessarily. (Compared to like, for example, a character who already reads comic books about aliens, then meets an alien and is thus not freaked out by it.) Previous experience with horror does not set anyone up to survive it here.
I like stories where you have to be kind of "along for the ride." It felt like the writers must have, at some point, sat around a table asking each other "what's the worst possible thing that could happen next?" CAR. WRECK. But if you can let go of the fact that this is not a story about redemption, there is no retribution, and everyone is bad, then you can just enjoy the descent into madness and the genre subversions.
I'm not sure I understood the ending, or who I was even supposed to ship half the time, or who to hate - or that I needed to. Again, comfortable in the uncomfortable got me to the end. I enjoyed that I had no idea where it was going. It was unpredictable. The pace was... Fast. Hope Barcode got (whatever the thai equivalent of an Oscar is... a golden swan?) for this shit.
I had no choice but to write fix-it fic as soon as I finished it. (Even though, like I said, I was busy and had other stuff to do. I couldn't stop.) Please know there is some fix-it available on AO3. Thank me later.
I think there is a slight structural problem here. Don't get me wrong: I like when a writer trusts me enough to drop me into the deep end. But I was having a hard time following at first. If I had to guess it probably came down to some bad PR decisions, to try to hook viewers with sex and violence upfront rather than building up to it. I GET IT. I know this is tBL.
But I would actually recommend watching in this order (especially if you think you're just here for a glimpse of Barcode...):
Episodes 5-11
Episodes 1-4
Episode 12
The "How We Got Here" device muddied the water. Not necessary. If you trust me as your audience, then trust that I have the patience to wait for the sex and violence.
Onto what I liked... Come for the Barcode but Stay for the Experimental Horror!
This show is extremely genre aware -but in a good way. It uses the vehicle of high school setting to provide some interesting social commentary, rather than being "about high school." This was approached in a highly subversive way. Very bad things happen to these high schoolers. In a market flooded with school setting, this is not your run of the mill high school BL. Rather than "dunking" on the school setting, tho, the writers really transformed it.
Even though the timeline gets chopped and screwed, there is still very much a buildup hat takes place. I love when a narrative takes time to elaborate on the making of a vengeful ghost. We are intimately aware with what created this evil by the time we're fully confronted with it.
The characters themselves are not genre aware/genre savvy, which I also found refreshing. I really liked this persistent thread of a character who is interested in horror finding themselves inside of one - though it does not set them up to be prepared for it necessarily. (Compared to like, for example, a character who already reads comic books about aliens, then meets an alien and is thus not freaked out by it.) Previous experience with horror does not set anyone up to survive it here.
I like stories where you have to be kind of "along for the ride." It felt like the writers must have, at some point, sat around a table asking each other "what's the worst possible thing that could happen next?" CAR. WRECK. But if you can let go of the fact that this is not a story about redemption, there is no retribution, and everyone is bad, then you can just enjoy the descent into madness and the genre subversions.
I'm not sure I understood the ending, or who I was even supposed to ship half the time, or who to hate - or that I needed to. Again, comfortable in the uncomfortable got me to the end. I enjoyed that I had no idea where it was going. It was unpredictable. The pace was... Fast. Hope Barcode got (whatever the thai equivalent of an Oscar is... a golden swan?) for this shit.
I had no choice but to write fix-it fic as soon as I finished it. (Even though, like I said, I was busy and had other stuff to do. I couldn't stop.) Please know there is some fix-it available on AO3. Thank me later.
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