etoks21

Are you seriously asserting that the only valid romantic, gay stories are those that include explicit declarations of one's sexuality/sexual preference? Because if you are, you are beyond ridiculous.

What about all the many people whose sexual identity falls somewhere along the continuum from 100% gay to 100% straight, like me? It may be news to you but a lot of people are not ALL gay, ALL straight, or 50% each. I joke about being 95% gay and maybe 5% straight, given the fact that women I'm attracted to are very few and very far between, that's probably about right.

So, yeah...the more I think about this, maybe you're correct: ALL romantic stories in which any characters are less than 100% straight, the characters really SHOULD be required to have a scene in which they explicitly declare, at length, what percentage gay/straight/bi they are to an assembled group including all the other characters, say a big banquet scene.

The characters could go around the room, and one by one proclaim their sexual preferences to the group, along with positional preferences for HAVING sex, and the ease or difficulty with which they can achieve orgasm, depending on the sex of the partner present and the position in which sex is had. Of course, if sex toys or spanking, bondage, that type of thing are an issue, that could be part of the sexual preference speech also.

Would this system of drama screenplay writing meet your expectations and requirements?

Depends on how you define "agenda" now, doesn't it?
My problem with your comments is that you have a clear social/sexual politics agenda of your own, and in pushing that, you are seeing and hearing things in a story that are just not there.

Consider acknowledging that when you write a comment, you're expressing only YOUR opinion, unless you've been elected spokesperson for a group of MDLers.

Don't waste your time...BubblegumBrain up above is seeking to police this series, making demands that it and other shows provide explicit, comforting, stupid plot devices that make them "comfortable" as they watch. Having each character get on a megaphone and declare "I am QUEER and take Queer Studies courses at Seoul University, my major is How Heteronormative Thinking In a Heteronormative Society Have Destroyed My Life Before I Turned 20" is just part of what BubblegumBrain needs to feel like they're in a Safe Space.

"heteronormative leanings..." lol You're a piece of work. The "gay for you" thing is in your head and nowhere else. Quit trying to police BLs to deliver stories within certain boundaries that keep you feeling comfortable. You have an agenda; doesn't mean the show does.

Who the hell is "we" and "our?" Is that the "royal" we? Are you an monarch of some kind somewhere?

Your argument is BS. You jumped the gun and you know it. You were eager to play the offended game, so you leaped right in, clueless guns blazing. Admit it, at least. There were no "gay for you" elements in 1-4, none whatsoever.

It's MDL. Good stuff gets low ratings, bad stuff gets high ratings. It's that simple.

What a stupid serving of word-salad your comment is. My mockery of you with the "IA" thing was tongue-in-cheek, but of course you don't have the sense to pick up on that.

It's simple: I like my gay stories to unfold in a real-world type environment, and guess what? In the real world, straight people exist. I don't need my gay content presented in an artificial "safe space" where everyone is gay and Pride is every day of the year.

Rhetorical question: Why tf do you use numbers to spell words like "Intersex, homophobic, and heterophobic." Do you honestly fear that some tender flower is going to read them spelled out, be triggered, and have a massive panic attack? lol I get that it's trendy to do that, but it's also infantile and stupid.

You're not reasonable or especially bright, so I'll leave it at that.

I'm back to mock the disturbingly hilarious, post-rape hospital scene in which Shin's doctor spilled all the private details of the assault, his physical condition, and his treatment in front of his two school friends, and then delivered a 15-minute Public Service Announcement on the existence of PREP, how it would be administered, and in detail, every single possible side-effect he might experience, which in reality happen in very few cases.

lol Only in a Thai show...that scene could only have been MORE Thai-BL-preachy if the doctor had been an unattractive trans woman with a five o'clock shadow and a bitchy line delivery.

Oh stop...you know it's true.

You write very well in English, don't worry about it.
But given what you just wrote, why are YOU bothered by MY comment written from halfway around the world? And what difference does our geographic location make to any discussion being had?

I'm not "making" Shin gay, he IS gay. (Are you under the impression that Shin is not a fictional character, but an actual person?) That you deliberately slap aside all the cues to that reality in the screenplay indicates to me that you feel his being gay is a negative conclusion to draw, which makes you an unwitting homophobe.

Were there some scenes in "The Effect" showing Shin mooning over the IG photos of university girls that I missed? Where were the scenes in which he flirted with girls, or even LOOKED at girls? Oh well, there was that ONE scene where he made out with that hot chick...oh wait, that never happened either.

Kheng has deep psychological/emotional/anger issues but at least, unlike Shin, he has the courage and strength to come out of the closet, beginning with his hateful homophobic parents.

But let's assume for a silly moment that Shin is straight (lol): Why did he step into traffic to cross a street to get to the GAY man who raped him and who he hates (in YOUR fantasy)? Was that merely his effort to be a good, straight LGBTQIA+ ally?

Oh...you're one of those incapable of grasping that the only information that applies to the story in an adaptation of a novel is what is shown and heard on the screen. NOTHING in the source material that is not included in the adapted screenplay makes any difference to the story in the series. As far as the show goes, material left out of the screenplay does not exist.

Got it? So if you want to create a fantasy version of "The Effect" that combines the series and the novel in your mind, go right ahead. However, that fantasy has nothing to do with this series.

Oh, well if you want me to leave, by all means, I'll do that right now. I'll never watch another BL again, and for sure I'll never comment on MDL again, just to make sure you don't have to read one of my comments, you know, since you told me to GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE and all, cause my first priority is to make sure you're OK.

NOT

Who's "we," you dumbass? I'M "we." I'm gay af and have been gay and out and having big old nasty gay sex since long before I suspect you were born.

It's not my problem that you are too dense and too eager to act out your faux homo-rage to understand that my use of all the gay slurs above was to make a point that obviously, your tiny mind is incapable of picking up on. Thus, I'll not be wasting further finger/key strokes to try to get thru the homo-haze that surrounds your one brain cell.

"LGBTQ+ representation..." hahaha...since you left off the "IA," it's clear you hate Intersex and Asexual people, so you know, f**k off. What are you doing in OUR space, spewing your stupidity in our sacred regions of the Intertrons, giving straight people the excuse to assume all rainbow folks are as stupid and bigoted as you?!

GTFO of heeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shin is gay af. Let me count the ways:

1. Mooning over the huge posters of Keng hanging around campus. Bright immediately picks up on the fact Shin is crushing on Keng and asks him about it.
2. Shin obsessing over Keng's IG account which behavior, again, Bright calls him out on, in an amusing way. Shine is mooning over Keng's PHOTOS, not the lists of his accomplishments.
3. Shin's physical and emotional response/affect to the attention he begins to receive from Keng. He isn't just thrilled that such a popular Senior is paying attention to him, he responds like someone surprised but happy to be receiving attention from their crush.
4. Shin's body language/manner/affect is, in every way, gay. I am gay. I have great gaydar. Shin sets it off at its highest alarm rating. Even if Shin honestly does not reciprocate Keng's romantic feelings does not automatically mean he isn't capable of having them toward other men. Can you name even ONE instance in the show when Shin displays interest of the slightest kind in a female character?
5. Shin HAND WASHES the tie loaned to him by Keng before returning it, as if it's a sacred object (why you would wash a freaking tie after one use is another matter).
6. Shin lies to Keng, telling him he isn't interested in him romantically, to PROTECT Keng from all the crap coming down on him because of the exposure of their flirtations to the campus masses.
7. Finally, did you not hear what was going on in Shin's mind at the end of the show, in the final scene? Among other things, he wonders what might have become of their relationship had things not gone so insanely wrong.
8. Shin sees Keng across the street from him. Does he run the other way in horror, fear, and disgust? NO, he gazes into Keng's eyes for several long moments, obviously drawn to him, then steps off the sidewalk and walks toward him (not something you do if you're afraid of someone).

I am NOT saying this affection Shin has for his eventual and actual rapist is a HEALTHY thing; not in the least. But just because it is unhealthy and makes some viewers "uncomfortable," and god knows we can't have viewers feeling discomfort while watching dramas, does not mean it is not there. LOTS of things, feelings, actions, behaviors that are not healthy appear in dramas and IRL.

To me, the idea that Shin is straight is laughably ridiculous. In every possible way, Shin, and the actor who plays him, projects "GAY" to the world around him, everywhere he goes. Obviously, this is not a bad thing, hell, I think it's a good thing, but again, it nevertheless IS. I believe the actor who played the part was cast for his very soft, effeminate, gay demeanor.

BTW, even IRL, some rape victims DO fall in love with their rapists. Just because you don't like seeing it, doesn't mean it doesn't happen or that it is not "appropriate" as part of a drama plot.

oh dear Leeeeeeni, your poor thing.

I don't feel a "need," but I do indulge a desire to say what I think about people who watch "these kinds of dramas," ie. bad ones. I get that you don't like that, and I don't care. Don't read my comments.

My behavior is "just too much," eh? MDLers watching BLs that present young gay men as sexless, fluffy Teddy Bear toys rather than human beings, is "just too much" for me, too. I am allowed to express that observation, just as you did. Deal with it.

"...go touch some grass..." lol Did you get that out of the Internet trendy cliche terms dictionary, or did you make it up on your own? How about you touch my a*s, you bitter, unhappy person?

Pretty sure the reason I ever thought this series had redeeming qualities is that four years ago I was entirely new to BL, so blown away that this genre and its subject matter even existed, and so thrilled to be watching gay-themed/coming out stories that my standards for the category were nonexistent.

Well, that was four years ago. I now have standards, and this show meets almost none of them. When the blocking/direction/acting in a show's pivotal/violent/traumatic scene elicits giggles rather than horror, you know things are not going well.

As bad as the writing, direction, acting, blocking, and cheesiness all are, the WORST thing is the freaking PACING. I had forgotten how in this series, as in so many other Thai BLs, the director asked the actors to pause at least three seconds between each and every line. The dialogue, even in intense, confrontational scenes, CRRRRAAAAAWWWWWLLLLLLSSSSS at the speed of a special-needs snail.

Two glowing aspects of The Effect save it from a rating lower than I'd otherwise give it:
1.The character of Bright, and the actor who created him. That smile and shock of hair!
2.The blossoming love between B & P.

During my four years as a fujanshi, I have also learned how many clueless people stagger the hallways of MDL. Many of them are in these comments, and believe that Shin is straight and that he does not love Keng.

Not recommended.

6/10

My guess is a great many MDLers see a dark, endlessly depressing, dull storyline and assume it must be "deep," and thus of good quality. lol By extolling its alleged virtues, they too become "deep." :)

Hell, I don't know...but they sure as shit overlook the bad writing and plotting in which we are repeatedly faced with behaviors and choices from the MLs that make no sense or come out of nowhere, the biggest one being WHY the idol is so freaking hung up on the psycho chef, who is not only depressed, but also an asshole. I might have been OK with more of the plot if I was ever told WHY it was happening.

And then, at the end of season 2, the chef turns on a dime and it's all good.

BTW, BOTH seasons are on my worst BLs of all time list now.

Is "Bright" the perfect name for him or what?

Keng loved Shin deeply, still does.
Who are you referencing with "...if the person isn't gay...?"

Well, since we already had repentance and apology, one strong possibility combines forgiveness and reconnection.

I see it as an open ending...very much so. Think about what we actually see and hear in that scene. There are multiple possible interpretations.