jpny01

Well, let's be semi-objective about k-pop.

Autotune - heavily used to diguise singing way off pitch, i.e. they don't know how to sing, which is to be expected from people with virtually no musical training - which ideally starts when you're 5 years old and takes many years to master.

Audience - the audience is overwhelmingly female and very young. Good music should attract both sexes and a variety of age groups in large numbers.

Dance - the dancing is good, but that's not really related to the quality of music, although it suggests the performer can keep a beat

Longevity - if k-pop were good music, the artists would remain in music past the age where they appeal to 14-year old girls. Bob Dylan is still active at 82 years of age. Radiohead has been around for almost 40 years. Do you think any k-pop stars will still be performing when they're 82?

Superficiality - are you aware of any serious musical genre where every single musician is incredibly good-looking and very young? Why is that? Why no ugly k-pop stars, or even so-so looking? The reason is all sounds the same is because it fundamentally is, using the same simple chord progressions (usually I-IV-V-I) and a limited selection of beats.

k-pop is certainly a phenomenon, but it's characterized by simple upbeat repetitive music - generic and forgettable. The chances of anyone still listening to any of today's hits 40 years from now approaches 0%. Note that people still listen to Back, who died in 1750.

k-pop is really about dance and cute boys, not song-writing - Maggie is right, the music is generic crap and irrelevant to the sucess of the genre.

TBH, it was lol funny to me that he had such heavy autotune singing "live" - the production couldn't even count on him to sing in tune for a few seconds and had to prop him up electronically.

The way Thana was standing and the lighting made him look like he was a rent boy - I wonder if they'll go in that direction over the money issues he's having. I think we know the answer is "no" because this is a BL, but it would at least be interesting.

What was more unbelievable to me is that after being together for 10 years, Thana actually fantasizes about his boyfriend, which to me means the author has never actually met a man. By that point, if you're still picturing your significant other when you're actually having sex with them it's a minor miracle.

I think her veering between kind and angry was supposed to be disconcerting, but the problem is that despite the lights flickering, it just wasn't scary when she was angry and it only made her seem like a crazy person with odd mood swings. Like you said, it made us uncomfortable, but probably not in the way intended.

Wow, Dome looked hot - what a difference a couple of years can make at that age.

OK, so this was a good idea with some faulty execution. It needed to begin with something supernatural to keep us interested through the dreary, endless exciting-as-watching-paint-dry mess that the rest of the episode is. Is that 5 seconds tickling Gun the happiest memory in his 10-year relationship? Because he reviewed it about 30 times. That's just sad. I'll bet Dome could give him much hotter memories than that.

The cafe doesn't quite work - while the barista is really weird, Thana doesn't react to her like a normal person would.

The other problem is the score - it veers from video game music to something from a horror movie. The big dramatic flourish when Thana took a puff made me lol - what is this, 1950's reefer madness? That's a heck of a lot more mild than the usual horrendous binge drinking we get in BL Anyway, the music was way overdramatic for what was happening.

I'll probably continue watching in the hopes that Thana dumps Gun for Dome, or at least cheats in a few hot and heavy scenes, but I suppose that's too much to hope for.

On the topic of the other couple, smashing is model was an accident, but stepping on his hand was deliberate and isn't really forgivable. I can get over his punching Reaow because he was likely quite distraught at being locked in, but he really needs to apologize.

If Thana were my bf and he wanted it, I'd call in sick for a week and let him do whatever he wants 24/7. He can choke me, I don't care.

Gun was fine this ep - I agree, he's improved. On the other hand, we haven't really seem him do anything yet.

Yup.

Of course it's only my opinion - what else could it be?

Yup.

By fake, I mean a lack of authenticity to his acting - it doesn't flow naturally or feel realistic, whereas I don't get that with Gawin. For example, if you look at Kawi's smile, it doesn't reach his eyes. That would be effective if the character were faking a smile, but his character is genuinely happy because he's in love.

What an inane and pointless comment. Criticisn isn't negativity, it's offering a reaction to something. Only people with a lack of maturity and fragile egos get bent out of shape by strangers on the internet having different opinions thatn theirs.

That was OK - I'm not sure about Krist in this role - he seems kind of fake. That smile was enough to scare children. Didn't he say he wasn't going to do BL anymore? They all seem to come crawling back.

Gawin, on the other hand, was great. I hope this gets less silly as it progresses - Krist is better at serious roles, I think.

The actor playing Miss Becky is a man, not even a trans character - she's just a drag queen without the edge. Also, he's guilty of making trans characters ridiculous and clownish - that's extremely misogynist, if not homophobic.

That's different - that actually has relevance to the plot. I liked that too. I like anything with Lomfon.

Title is great in this - so sexy, and he has subtle expressions. Definitely above average for a BL actor. Suar and Copter are also really good. Lomfon is so expressionless, and yet Suar managed to convey a crush on Saengtai.

But "thin" is too mild a word to describe the plot. This series is doing the live-action equivalent of telling instead of showing. There is nothing to the main couple's relationship except being extremely polite to each other and staring a lot. There's a lot of staring in general in this.

The result is a lack of romantic chemistry. Their relationship is romantic, but it's bloodless and I don't feel any passion, except for when they held hands in the cafe. There isn't really a basis for a relationship other than that they can hear each other when it rains. Well, and they're also both hot, so there's that. But there's nothing in the story that brings them together - no obstacles to overcome, nothing to bond over.

The exeption to that is Tai needed to get over his refusal to engage with his soulmate because of his parents. The flashback to the separation only underscored how silly that is - Tai wasn't eight, he was in his 20s. Nobody wants their parents to divorce, but it's very common - I just don't buy an adult behaving like that.

The end result is a pleasant but forgetable series. In fact, Saengtien and Lomfon made a stronger impression on me and they've barely been in it.

That's the danger of having a gimmick, like "the boy who lost his smile" or in this series the soulmate thing. It's limiting, and unless you're a good enoiugh writer to integrate it into the story in a meaningful way, it remains just a gimmick.

Also, Bow is unwatchable - I +10 seconds through all of her. The ridiculous overacting and the amount of screentime that she chews up is irritating. That time could be spent on Tian & Lomfon.

The editing needs to make the passage time more clear because in a compressed format like this it seems like they're constantly fighting, when we're really getting a couple of fights over an extended period of time.

As for the fights themselves, it's actually interesting that they're over pride or the perception thereof, rather than overhearing something that is misinterpreted, which is one of the laziest moves in writing.

As for Yoo Jae's reaction, what would you expect it to be? They've known each other since they were small children - he must be shocked. He didn't punch him and call him the "f" word, he merely had a flight reflex. Hearing it from Han Joon not only lays bare something he didn't know, but it also forces him in an instant to recognize with shock what his own feelings are on some level, and will need to sort that out, especially as he was furious over something else and that was the last thing he expected to hear.

I think BL audiences may have trouble identifying with how enormously difficult it is to understand what your feelings are at that age, especially in such a conformist culture. For example, I just thought it was a feeling of close friendship, although on some level, locked behind a nuclear-bunker thick door, I knew.

Well, Miko's heart is certainly not in this - but how could it be?

Zeke not being able to make the show was so telegraphed - like a sledgehammer over the head, that it would have been more dramatic if he HAD showed up. It was way too strong a reaction by Fifth, and normally if someone doesn't show up, you want to know why - but Fifth wouldn't let him explain. That's just the bad writing but a writer should have basic knowledge of human nature,

I would say, without exaggeration, that the Chukchuk story would not appeal to anyone past the age of six or so. I can't even watch the Sky/Win scenes - besides the total lack of chemistry, their boss is the worst actress I've ever seen. I generally try not to criticize actors, because sometimes it's the directing - like I wanted Book's character to get cancer in Enchante but he was charming in Boss & Babe.

You are right about the tonal problem - is this a comedy, a drama, a musical? You've probably heard the saying that anything that is both shampoo & conditioner is neither - that applies here as well.

Watching this show actually produces rage in me. I still like Zeke & Fifth, although their storyline plunged into a toilet this episode. All that was just a high school talent show? WTF? If you won't speak to your boyfriend because he couldn't come to your stupid high school show because he had to work, you should absolutely not be with anyone, because you're a sociopathic narcissist. Good Lord.

But that's not the real problem. WTF are they thinking with the Ms Becky storyline? W the F-ity F? It's horrifying. And I love animals, but I want Chuchchuk to be one of the dogs in the Chernobyl miniseries. I cannot tell you how much I loathe this self-indulgent garbage. Fortunately I don't have to because 99% of you feel the same way. There is a positive comment below, but I have a feeling that person can see the positive in the Holocaust, which is the only thing I can think of that's worse than this series.

OK, I got that off my chest. It's not THAT bad, but seriously, this is a mess - Oxin needs to write a coherent story with a clean narrative and go with that instead of this disastrous hodge-podge that is apparently even confusing the actors, because they seem to be wandering around in a daze. The only time this shines is when the actors are allowed to ad lib, which is cute, and makes even Kim feel genuine, and that's an accomplishment.

Speaking of high school, that fashion show was lame and tacky even by high school standards. Maybe if they cut the Becky & Chuchchuch budget they could afford sets that don't look like a junior high school project.

Sometimes an inexperienced director produces something that's not too good but you can feel the passion in it, and that director improves over time, which is wonderful to watch. Not Oxin - they seem to get worse with each series, and rather than passion, the main pair look like they'd rather be anywhere else.

I can't get into this - it's so dull. It lost me in a long scene where characters were texting each other. Do they not teach basic writing in school anymore? I suppose that could work in a Manga where you're reading the conversation anyway, but in live action it's just momentum death.

There is nothing whatsoeve about this that is original. High school, boy is in love with friend, boy is implausibly unaware that love is reciprocated, hit with a ball, carried to infirmary, staring, texting, wash, rinse, repeat.

When you're in love, your instinct is to read more into the object of your love's words and actioins than is really there. In BL, he can undress you with his eyes, get jealous if you even speak to another man, hangs all over you all day, and still, totally clueless. Now it isn't unrealistic for the boy to not take any action, because that's frightening and many people are shy and/or insecure. But the universal obliviousness in BL seems to be a result of writers with no life experience, or at least of a lack of creativity and imitation of other stories.