jpny01

You don't even need a tonal language to demonstrate the effect.

You LIKE this series?
You like THIS series?
YOU like this series?

When you're speaking, the word in capitals isn't accented as strongly as it "sounds" when you're reading it - but if you can't hear yourself, think about the difference between gently accenting "like" in the first sentence vs strongly accenting it. The first would indicate mild surprise that who you're speaking to likes the series, but the second indicates you're stupefied that the person you're speaking to could possibly like something so awful, and they're likely to be offended.

I imagine the lack of ability to adequately "intone" words in writing is probably the source of a large percentage of fights on the internet.

Now imagine if you're speaking and people constantly misunderstand you because you intoned it in a way that caused them to interpret what you said differently than you intended. You'll end up feeling more frustrated and isolated than if you don't speak at all.

That's actually not true. You feel like that's the case because you speak every day, but if you didn't hear yourself speak for months or years, you'd have no idea what you sound like. Just think about when you're wearing headphones and listening to music, and someone asks you something - you're likely to scare the bejeezus out of them by responding too loud, or if you're trying to compensate, most likely you'll overcompensate. Also, hard of hearing is not the same thing as deaf - even a small amount of hearing is a huge leap from total deafness.

And even if you get it right, it takes a lot more effort, and if you had to do that all day every day, it would be exhausting. You don't think about it, but your tone of voice and the minutiae of volume are a huge part of vocal communication.

You can always try it - get some noise canceling headphones and don't take them off for a day or two - you will find that you are not controlling your volume, and if you do it long enough, you'll start slurring your words, too.

It was OK, but a little all over the place, and it was a little unpleasant to watch people being bitchy to boys who are doing their best. It's legitimate to critique specifics of their performances, but not uninformed judgments about their character.

I think I'll wait a while to watch this and see what y'all think first.

OK, so I'm old and my memory is failing.

That's Jim's character arc - he feels old, run-down, depressed, and stressed out. Because this is a quality story, he will have character development, and wasn't born perfect like Botticelli's Venus emerging from the sea.

That's why Earth's performance is so wonderful - he is able to project depression without being OTT like it usually is acted, while allowing peeks at his longing and his fear. Men are expecte in most cultures to be stoic - they don't talk about their feelings, and they don't display them easily. That's one of the reasons Earth is compelling - he behaves like a man, closed off and subtle, instead of a neurotic boy like 75% of BL characters. Although the sighing is not subtle and MAKING ME CRAZY. But again, I wouldn't have noticed it if not pointed out (actually, I'm fairly sure I would have this episode, because everyone was doing it, really loudly).

And if he's really nearly 40, that's a tough time for a gay man - very similar to what a single woman feels - you're getting to the age where you find people's interest in you start to fall off a cliff, because gay men are no different than straight men in valuing youth. That's actually probably the real problem. Earth is so patently NOT nearly 40 that it strains credulity. How hard it must be to look like you're 28 with poreclain skin and a perfect body. Who would want him? Poor baby.

That's exactly how I interpreted Win's dad's line - I don't know how else to interpret it. If you're not sharing your life, you're dealing with a crush, not love, which is simple and usually easy to get over. The line was about both of them - Win for his current situation, and Jim for the trauma he dealt with in the past.

There's nothing wrong with a one-night stand. It's probably not a good idea to be a serial player, but sometimes things like that just come up and you do it, and it can be very nice. It was fairly clear Jim wasn't looking for that - it literally fell into his lap.

Fourth may become painful to look at in about 5 years. I never really understood BrightWin - actually I don't really get the whole "ship" thing. I'd like to see actors pair off with a variety of others instead of trying to recapture the lightning in a bottle that the first time usually is. Even EarthMix - they're both good, but I don't get a strong romantic vibe from them - more like friends. Fourth & Gemini may be an exception - they're no less enthralling in MSP than they are here.

My retinas still haven't healed after that dance scene at the pool in MSP. I feel a little dirty, bu he IS eighteen.

Although in fairness, I AM watching this for glimpses of Hai Yi with his shirt off. :)

Yes, it's important for a secondary couple to have a purpose in the story - it couldn't be better written than this.

I think they're de facto broken up, but not de jure.

How can Wen be cheating? They haven't done anything.

Who was the terrorist who complained about the sighing? I hadn't noticed before, and now I can't NOT hear it, and it's getting on my nerves. Thanks. A lot.

But other than that this was fantastic. Fourth and Gemini - jeezus. Those two are unbelievable. You never really see a pair that can play young love with that much authenticity - to the way they lean into each other, the awkwardness, the shy smiles, all of it - it's actually a little painful because it evokes that age for me.

Any of you who think Earth is stiff... I don't know what to tell you - that was a perfect performance from begining to end. EXCEPT THE SIGHING. Dammit!

I can't tell you what it feels like to me to watch something that's actually well-written - I probably don't need to because I'm sure you feel that way too. "Love is not complicated - what's complicated is falling out of love." An excellent line, and also brillliant and not hammer-over-the-head foreshadowing.

Oh, good. Now we have COVID in the story. Just what we needed to ramp up the energy.

I'm not sure I would want to make out with someone who hadn't brushed his teeth yet and was eating an eel. Unagi is almost as good as sex, but I still wouldn't mix them.

There is nothing I loathe more than the implausible misunderstanding trope. First of all, if you think someone is cheating on you because his assistant straightened his tie before a meeting, then you're probably a big cheater yourself. People who can't be trusted don't trust people. Second, does it really make sense that Liang hasn't cleared up whatever the misunderstanding is over the office politics? It's not a difficult conversation to have. That's just lazy and terrible writing, not that I expect better at this point.

Apparently the trope of the month is the aggressive nonsensual hug from behind when someone is trying to leave - every single BL airing has this happen. Grrr. Why is this genre so imitative? At least it's not full of basketball or engineers lately.

If Linus Wang didn't have dat a$$, I doubt I could make it through this. Johnny is just too annoying, the writing too weak, and the energy just low. Some people had problems with H4, but at least it was well-written and acted. This is just a shallow pile of cliches.

It has nothing to do with whether or not there's sex. Why does everyone always say that when people don't like a series? In this case it's because it's stuffed full of cliches, Johnny is an annoying and self-centered cartoon character, and it's so boring that I have trouble keeping awake except for when Hai Yi is working out or taking a shower.

Because the former chairman funded his orphanage and gave him a life, so he's intensely loyal to Hai Yi and overheard Vincent scheming with the vice chairman. But this is a BL, so almost certainly it's not what he thought, and there is a totally implausible misunderstanding causing the drama.

I suspect there will not be a happy ending for Chopper, but I'm sure Palm & Nueng will be fine.

I had that same reaction to the cuff scene in KP - I watched it twice wondering if I missed something.

I had a feeling we would see eye-to-eye on this one. ;)

I get what you're saying. I didn't think KinnPorsche was all that great, but for me, it worked better because it didn't take itself seriously - it embraced being ridiculous and was fast-paced and full of humor, so it's ridiculousness was an intentional feature of the story, and therefore less objectionable. (Ignoring for the moment Pete & Vegas).

NLMG takes itself 100% seriously, while also trying to be a PG version of KinnPorsche, which for me doesn't work. If you're playing a story straight and seriously, then you can't be that full of plot holes, and you need better acting. KP didn't feature good acting either, but how well do you need to act to be slammed against a window and f#$%ed?

An example of a KP plot hole: do they expect us to believe that Kinn's father managed to hide his sister in the attic for 15 years without anyone noticing? Nobody heard the water running or the toilet flushing, or wondered why food and water kept being taken up to the attic? But that was part of an absurd soap-opera twist that the writer knew was absurd and wrote it that way on purpose.

A plot hole in NLMG: why is a billioniare heir people are trying to kill attending a public high school? Why is the story set in high school at all? Why didn't Palm's father just get all those bodyguards to begin with instead of having a teenaged fisherman who can't even protect Nueng at a ballroom dance at a senior center? For that matter, why is there a gang of bullies at a ballroom dance at a senior center? Etc. It's hard to think of anything about this series that isn't a plot hole.

As far as what we all enjoy in series, there is absolutely nothing wrong with focusing on moral and psychological parts. For me, I need a well-written and coherent story and good acting, but those are not superior or inferior criteria to yours. It does mean that I'm a lot less likely to enjoy this series than you, however.

Fortunately, I'm also shallow and Pond and Phuwin look really good in swimwear, so that plus Perth's acting and character arc are enough for me to stick around.

I don't disagree with anything you said - as I mentioned, I thought the relationship was coherent and realistic. My problem was that it was tedious to watch. It's quite obvious that Mon was suffering from serious depression - in fact I said so in my review - but did that make for a compelling character? I don't feel it did, which was compounded by the incredibly laborious way that each scene was structured and paced. For Mon to work, Soh needed to be more contrasting, and he was just as dreary. Also, I felt his character was ruined by the very badly overused cliche behind his rejecting Mon, which made no sense for his character and is the opposite of what he'd been working for the entire series.

I agree it's not in Mon's character - or Soh's - to speak in long sentences. That's not the problem. The issue was the extremely long pauses between short sentences that made every scene feel like having my teeth pulled.

I don't think I said Mon was blunt anywhere above - I'm not sure what you mean. I said he was dull. If the series had been a study of depression, then sure, it wasn't bad. But it was a BL romance - and as that it was a failure. Even if it had been about depression, it had nothing to say if it just had two depressed main characters - that's all there was. Not how Mon coped with it, or how it affected his family, what treatment he got, or the consequences of not getting treatment.

Sometimes BLs feel like an author inserting herself into a story, and because of that, the uke is often dull and underdeveloped, because his only purpose is for the author to fantasize about being with an attractive man. I feel like that's the case here - Mon is merely a cypher who's sole function in the story is to sit around and be wanted by Soh and Saint.

I did soften the second paragraph based on your input - thanks for commenting.

Got it - I agree with you. I don't like saccharine fluffy dramas (like Meow Ears Up), and I do like flawed and realistic characters, but I don't like it when awful behavior is glamorized and romanticized, unless it's a dark comedy. Bad behavior needs to be part of a character arc or at least we need to be shown a motivation we were unaware of at first.

I'm also not a big fan of murder being forgiven with an apology. I don't know if you've seen He's Coming to Me, but that's an excellent example.