jpny01

It's not about supporting the Chinese government or not, it's about not supporting censored LBGT material. If people watch it, there's no need to change anything.

I agree with all this. I'm certainly not dropping it!

Not liking violence is no the same as expecting someone to stand there to be beat up - and all Juyeong did is push his father away.

And even then, it absolutely does not justify ghosting someone without discussion - but it's not a matter of justification or not, it's whether or not something makes sense, and this doesn't. Dohoe has never objected to any violence in Juyeong's nature - in fact in several cases he found it funny and cute. So why all of a sudden does he run away for 12 entire years? I could see him having a negative reaction and needing a couple of days to process, but this is just not credible behavior from him - unless there's something we don't know that would make it make sense.

If you read the post, I said that was my first thought but I think it's totally untrue. But men and women will have different reactions based on socialization and perhaps even genetics - but what those reactions are will vary too much between individuals to be of much use in a discussion like this.

I totally agree - it's not a matter of taking sides, it's a matter of whether or not the writing makes sense for the characters as drawn, and many people feel it doesn't.

I don't like fluff and prefer darker series, but suffering and pain can be just as shallow as fluff, as it appears to be here. Liking sweetness after suffering is no different than just liking sweetness - it's just sugar vs saccharine.

Maybe it's just sucky editing, but the 12 years of ghosting with no communication or apparent motivation is just suffering for suffering's sake to preceed and magnify the impact of fluff, much like TMS2, where the resolution of the conflict didn't really exist - it was just a light switch going on.

There is enough that's good about this series to keep me watching, and I hope I'm wrong and there's more to Do Hoe's motivations than we've seen, but I'm dubious. As for Hwang Da Seul's work, To My Star S1 wasn't like this and I really enjoyed it, so is she really known for this type of series? Neither was Blueming or Where Your Eyes Linger. the former of which I didn't like at all, and the latter which I enjoyed very much.

I've thought a lot about this, and my iniital thought was that women might assign more weight to "feelings" and how authentically they're portrayed by the actors, and men assign more weight to the plot and how much it makes sense, but at least anecdotally that doesn't seem to be true at all.

I found it completely incomprehensible that anyone liked To My Star 2, for example, because there was no consistency between the characters between S1 and S2. For S2 to work, you'd have to accept that Ji Woo was simmering with anger and resentment this whole time, when there's zero evidence of that. Even failing that, and accepting S2 on its own without reference to S1, the way the conflict was resolved was so unearned and ridiculous that I could only stare at the screen in shock.

Then it was followed by a lengthy bit of fluff - which brings me to another theory, which is that women like fluff - especially when it's preceded by suffering - more than do men.

In the case of this story, there is no possible motivation for Do Hee to ghost the man he loves intensely for 12 years with zero discussion over anything we saw happen. That's a caveat, because there might be something we haven't seen yet behind it, but after TMS2, I'm dubious.

It is a treat when actors let loose and are comfortable with what they're doing.

I do sometimes get tired of fluffy BLs, especially if they lean too heavily on cliches, but you can also have a shallow "dramatic" BL. The acting is brilliant in this, but the characters aren't complex and neither is the writing. Pain olympics aren't any better than fluff olympics, and incomprehensible misunderstandings and lack of communication aren't more plausible in "serious" dramas than they are in fluff pieces.

Maybe there's more to this story than there appears to be, and perhaps we'll get some of the missing details filled in, but after To My Star 2, I don't have much confidence - I'm prediction a light-switch at the last minute where all the pain and anger goes away with as little motivation as it came on. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm probably not.

You kind of did when you said "don't waste your time". I don't see how this is oversexualized - there's more than a typical BL, but it's limited to innuendo and Su An needing a stuffed animal in his lap to hide his erection. Gay life until recently was generally highly sexualized until women took it over. In real life, two beautiful young single men who are attracted to each other would most likely have got it on from the beginning.

There's a significant segment of the BL audience that can't tolerate ANY sexualization. I'm not sure why, but maybe people don't get out enough anymore.

There are legitimate flaws to the series - it's repetive and relies on misunderstandings, which is a tiresome staple of almost all BL. There is also no character development, and it would have been better to make it clearer earlier that Mr Han is socially incompetent so he doesn't come off to some people as predatory. But it was Su An who initiated the kiss.

I worked at Samsung, and there's zero chance anyone would behave like Han - even a senior person. He could do it to women, but even that would catch up with him eventually.

There are other companies than Samsung, but it's a third of the entire S. Korean economy.

But I do agree with you on your main point. The boss is using a lot of non-subtle innuendo, and the employee probably thinks he's being mocked (as of Ep 2 where I am now).

OK - thanks!

I'm confused. Why was Shao Peng in the shower at the end of Ep 1? Was that a fantasy or something?

Are you serious? It's not OK to call a PERSON mediocre because you like someone, but it's perfectly OK to call a work of light entertainment mediocre and compare it to another - what weird bubble world would a person have to live in to think that at a site designed for people to discuss dramas that it's unacceptable to compare them?

I thought Empire Strikes Back was one of the best scifi movies of all time, but Return of the Jedi was mediocre. Both the Godfather and Godfather II were among the greatest masterpieces of cinema, but Godfather III was mediocre at best, and comparative to the other two, it was terrible.

There is nothing wrong at all with either statement.

However, this statement is a personal attack and is rude and unacceptable:

"t's not okay to call other people mediocre because you like someone. i don't think this comment was necessary lol. i've seen a lot of series worth watching this year, but there's no need mentioning them because it's difficult to ease the opinions of critics like you. appreciate the series for what it is, not shit on others just because you feel every series should be about realism.

or just stick to straight dramas, hollywood sci-fi, or whatever helps you sleep at night."

Whoever wrote that needs to grow up, lol.

In this case it's actually set up from the beginning (i.e. it's being narrated by someone ten years in the future), so it doesn't bother me and I'm hoping it's well-handled, and so far the writing is strong.

But in almost all cases, rather than writing the resolution of a conflict, the author just skips over it until it isn't relevant anymore. That's bad writing and endemic to the genre.

I suspect in this case - and I don't know at all as I have no knowlege of the plot, that one of them is going to end up in major trouble because the situation with the father doesn't feel like it will end well. That would be an "earned" separation as the separation itself would be the resolution of the conflict.

Yes, but he's not dating someone and in love with a different person. Phun is a bad person. If he didn't understand that he was in love with Noh, that would be one thing - but he explicitly said he likes Noh, so he's an emotional cheater. I'm not one to judge because I was a monster in my youth, but it does make Earn a better person than Phun, plus he has a better body, which I care about because I'm shallow.

Noh should dump Phun and go with Earn. Phun is a dick - possessive and jealous while having a girlfriend. He's selfish and confused - Earn is confident and knows what he wants, and doesn't spend all day being mopey.

BL needs to break it's addiction to time jumps. I like the idea of this, but time jumps are a good indicator that you can expect lazy writing - instead of resolving the conflict, just jump over it so that's no longer relevant and you don't have to do anything!

I'm very surprised because I thought it would be awful, but it's actually really good. The acting from the new Noh is excellent and it has a lot of charm. The iQIYI version is better as its uncut.

Imagine how overworked the Legal department must be at that company.