etoks21

I started this but then realized Machida Keita is the cowardly, lame actor who took a co-starring role in the supposed "BL" "Cherry Magic," but refused to so much as smooch his male co-star, making the show feel like a cheap cop-out at the end. He wanted to "play" gay but not lower himself to actually BE gay as his character, presumably to protect his career.

I have no interest in anything this guy does. Probably a closet case.

Dropped.

meh...I'll wait to see Machida Keita naked in something better.
Dropped.

1/10

YES. He is creepy-manipulative to a scary degree. As soon as he saw F4M feeling a teeny bit safe again, he made sure to knock him just a teeny bit off-balance.
The scary part is that it seems he might even believe his own bullshit, as in getting all teary when he sees F4M dancing with BB....as if he cares about him other than as a toy to play with.
At this point I believe that we see him that way is the intention of the script.

I don't care if you care or not.

Times in episode 7 I saw characters showing emotional growth but then falling back almost immediately:

F4M scraping his nails clean of all that plastic crap as he sought to scrape his mind free of Chian following the latest torture episode, but then falling right back into his old pattern. I was thrilled to see him freeing himself of at least one trapping of nonsense, but moments later he was having his nails done again by Satan himself.

Baabin scraping his walls and room clean of all that stupid BlackPink and other pop/consumerist culture crap as he freed a part of his head from same, but then seeing him soon after in a skirt at the group dance (that look did not feel like a Baabin thing to me), dancing (badly lol) to (I assume) BP crap music and right back into the scene, then rushing off to have the evil Chian do his nails AGAIN.

In nearly every scene, indoors or out, characters are surrounded, immersed, buried in STUFF on their walls, floors, ceilings, tables, beds. STUFF/STUFF/STUFF on which many, many $$$$$$$$$$$ have been spent.

Everyone is missing how Boss is dissing this milieu even as he seems to be celebrating it.

Things I feel a great many commenters are missing:

The degree to which this show COMMENTS ON this lifestyle simply by showing it in fullness. An example is the extent to which this social media/Internet/entertainment/tech culture exists for the main purpose of encouraging CONSUMPTION, as in $$$$$$$$ spent, which all goes to corporations. The nail products; my god, that scene in ep 7 before the handjobs in which F4M/Monkey Face lay on the floor, nearly buried in and surrounded by glittery shiny STUFF, plastic/paper/liquid chemical/stickers stickers stickers/etc. it was amazing and revealing. There were multiple similar scenes throughout the drama.

The music, the videos, the time online and on phones, going to concerts ($$$$$$$), buying all the merch FOR the concert, then again AT the concerts. The mountains of clothing in all varieties, colors, styles, shoes, etc. that shit is not cheap. And corporations love that they buy it all. The show is about CONSUMERISM as much as it's about SM culture or these individual characters.

I'm feeling that young people see all of the above as a kind of wild freedom, when to a large degree it's about a new and very expensive kind of slavery; slavery to fads/style/peer pressure/consumerism in service to capitalism/etc. Thing is, it can be both of those things at once, but what a price to pay. These characters would come mentally unglued without their phones/chargers/makeup/fingernail shit/laptops/hair dye/Tik Tok/IG/on and on...they would not know how to exist. It would be a living hell for them. There is NO respite, and they don't know enough to even want one. Scary and sad.

This has been the way it has been for decades in America, and then increasingly all over the world in developed countries, but there is no doubt the Internet and rise of SM has intensified and multiplied all of it exponentially. Perhaps the most horrible aspect is how SM enables bullying to monstrous proportions. What used to happen during school recess and afterward now goes on 24/7 on SM.

Bravo. 90% agreed! (Are we not speaking?)

"masterpiece" Most abused word on MDL.

"The script treated their emotions with respect no over the top drama or unnecessary exaggerations." LOL There were endless scenes of OTT drama and exaggerated suffering throughout this series. How about the four-way cam showdown complete with chair-urination?

This show was on my mind from week to week, and I looked forward to each episode.
Yet, I understand why you feel the way you do about it.
It caused me to think and feel a LOT but, in the end I"m not sure I can say I'd recommend it without a lot of qualifications.

Bua grew and grew ON me a lot in the last three episodes, even considering that unfortunate scene in the chair, but yeah, I wasn't feeling the realness in the Bua/Baabin wrap-up. Seems like a plot device, not an organic reality. BB is still in love with F4M. Maybe in the sequel...

"Personally, I don't want Fourmod and Chian to end up together because it would only become more and more toxic."

That's what the sequel will be for. :D

Not until they deal with their shit and stop sadistically messing with others. Chian will be right back to trashing F4M and F4M, having zero self-respect, will be there for all of it. It's quite sad, actually.

How did Chian "come to his senses?" He hinted right at the end at how he would soon be up to his old, sadistic tricks. If recognizing your bad behaviors but resolving to continue them can be considered "coming to your senses," I suppose that's a way of looking at it.

I was OK with that too...but when I saw them together near the end it didn't ring true to me.

You find F4M/Chian "well rounded," or the end/plot wrap-up as a whole?
To me, this has SEQUEL written all over it.

I had hoped for Baabin/F4M endgame, but was OK with how BB/Bau came about. Then, when I saw them together as a couple in the last couple of scenes, I just didn't quite believe the vibe was real. A feeling I have, nothing more.

You consider that, especially in the case of F4M and Chian, to be "sorted out?"
F4M, as much as I like him, is sadly self-destructive and insecure.

Yup.

End of episode 7:

The most beautiful visual in this show was F4M walking away from __________ near the end.
The ugliest visual in this show was _________ walking back into frame AT the end.

This director never makes it easy for me. He tortures, disappoints, frustrates, and angers me.
Unfortunately, I am a masochist so I love all the above.

I could spew up all I'm thinking right now in a near-endless rant or I could let this settle and come back later. I choose the latter.

The BEST thing about this show is being able to debate myself to no end regarding who is the best actor on board: F4M, Baabin, or Bua. That is a debate I never have the luxury of entertaining during 99% of BLs.

Thanks, Boss. You're a dick but I love your work. :)