jpny01

I agree with you on all of that - but that's what I mean by telling us rather than showing us. It's cheating if your twin can detect it despite a total lack of evidence to the audience. But even so, you can still communicate youthful attraction, awkward or not, without touching or saying anything explicit. I didn't feel any of it. That scene on the lawn is where something could have gone down - it almost felt like it was written to be more and edited down. I mean they more or less said it.

But I don't just mean this show - it seems like a general trend to me. Take a look at these guys - 5 years ago they were playing the same age characters as these and having a LOT of sex, even if not shown onscreen.

It looks the same to me - he's several years older, so maybe he just grew into his face. When I was a teen I felt like you could see my nose from outer space, but by my 20s it worked with the rest of my face.

Didn't ep 6 feel completed? Or did you mean the first 5?

What's going on with BL lately? I don't think it should be soft-core porn, but there's absolutely nothing now. Are they trying to market to the Chinese audience? This was well-written and I enjoyed it, but it wasn't a BL, it was a bromance, and that's becoming the norm, it seems.

I didn't feel that way with the Earth/Santa story, which was almost equally mild - there I felt it. Here the romance was surprisingly missing given the history of these two. The "BL" was dependent on us being told it was there - we needed to be shown. Even the hug was bloodless (unlike Santa's).

Peak seems to have surpassed Boom as an actor - and in looks, IMO - I was all about Boom in Make It Right. Both of them have improved, though. I think overall this was the best ep (although as a romantic pair, I think Earth & Santa win hands-down). The writing was economical without feeling rushed, yet more happened in this brief ep than often happens in entire series. That's how it should be done!

I see what you're saying. I think that's largely true of early BL, but the genre has broadened and there are many BL characters who identify as gay from the beginning. Especially in the case of Filipino BL, which is a lot more progressive when it comes to representation of sexuality.

Ooh, I have Sei no Gekiyaku on my list - I have to watch it now. I really liked SOTUS when I saw it because it was the first BL I saw (and I thought New was super-hot), but SOTUS 2 was such a waste of time for me that it retroactively downgraded the original for me. Plus everyone copied it and now were stuck with engineers forever.

As for anticipation, I'm not allowing myself any expectations for KinnPorsche because of all the troubles the production has had - I don't believe it's happening, so if it does, I'll be happy. Bad Buddy is up there because I love Ohm. The Couple - I really love Mon Hatsawatchon. Cutie Pie looks interesting, Love Stage, Middleman's Love (although it seems ridiculous to cast Tommy as "a very average guy") and The Miracle of Teddy Bear.

To me, Gameboys was a series of manufactured external crises thrown at the boys, whereas Hello Stranger was an organic coming-of-age story, so it had more depth and meaning for me. Plus, I like the extensive use of symbolism - like after Mico Pushes Xavier back to his straight life, this is indicated by his X going back to a "straight guy" backward baseball cap - but it's pink, symbolizing that his true self is knocking on the door.

The HS movie was OK, but I was a little disapponted that it was more or less rewinding back to Ep 6 and playing foward again - I was hoping for new development in their relationship.

I haven't seen the GB movie yet - I want to rewatch the series first and see if it does more for me. It was well-acted and scripted, it's just the plot didn't do much for me - I think it was originally an 8 ep story and they stretched it to 14, and that may have made it feel a little repetetitve.

What are your top BLs?

This looks refreshingly different. I love the cast - I'm looking forward to this one.

What on earth does that mean? Are you saying BL characters have to be straight?

I agree, but about half of BLs start out like this where you hate the lead and then he turns out to be wonderful and everyone loves him.

I like it, I just don't think it should be marketed as a BL because it's not. But they need to get moving with the cooking plot too - food porn is great, but not if that's all we get for 12 eps. The series is half over and nothing's happened yet! It's a beautiful nothing, though...

In order is tough. The top two are close for me and quite a ways above the rest. It's hard to come up with the rest, so I'll list the ones that I enjoyed most at the time.

ITSAY
GSP

Hello Stranger
Addicted/Heroin
A Man Who Defied the World of BL (favorite comedy)

For shorts, probably Country Boy and all of the Jump the Boy minis - they're silly but super-cute. I forgot He/She/It, another good miniseries.

I might have put in Make Our Days Count if it weren't for the awful last two episodes. I liked Trapped, but I don't remember it too well. I liked History4 Close to You. I'm enjoying Bite Me, but it's only half through and I'm not sure yet. I really liked Peach of Time, but I can't put something I just watched on here. I just saw Restart After Come Back Home which I really liked too.

For serious dramas, I like the ones that take advantage of the medium and use visual symbolism & metaphor - like ITSAY, GSP, Hello Stranger, and History4. I think adapting from novels doesn't work as well, because literary gimmicks often don't work well onscreen, like "a boy who lost his smile".

But I do enjoy random other series that I know aren't very good, like I enjoyed Brothers a lot. Or I enjoyed Ingredients.

As for favorite trainwrecks, the winner has to be So Much In Love, which had two totally unrelated ghost plotlines and a school principal out to destroy a volleyball team for no apparent reason. Cupid Coach was a good trainwreck too.

That was definitely better than last week - but again, it's not so much the pacing of the scenes as it is of the whole series. It's half over, and so far it's a bromance, and we haven't really gotten anywhere with the main plot. This should not have been a BL - I think that's what makes it disappointing. There is just no progress between them - if you have to tell us what they're feeling with a love song over flashbacks, then there's something wrong.

This would have been a great third episode - they need to move the plot along. I don't know if the nightclub was a product placement, but it was totally unnecessary and with the lead up took up a lot of time - that's the knd of thing that doesn't need to be there - or showing Aek at the airport. Was the airport authority a sponsor?

The individual scenes themselves are great - I really like that they take their time to develop - it's a macro problem, not micro.

I am intensely relieved that Aue is gay and not just gay for Aek. That one flashback scene was like letting out a breath I'd been holding. The knowing look he exchanged with the pastry chef was more or less confirmation.

Mark was better this ep - I felt like I was watching a person and not a malfunctioning robot. I think the actress playing his mother elevates their scenes, and since she speaks naturally, it takes him along too.

You're probably right. Or it could be an artistic flourish by whoever wrote the summary.

Did you read what I was responding to? It was a condescending post from someone who thinks he/she/they have special knowledge of D/s relationships and is excusing the problemmatic aspects of Leo & Fiat's relationship. There's nothing wrong with enjoying that, as many people enjoyed Tharn & Type's story, Tin/Can, etc. - but don't tell me I'm some sort of sexual aggressor because I don't think Leon ever crossed any lines with Pob.

I'm totally fine with people liking Leo & Fiat more than Leon & Pob, The latter are just supposed to be a cute side story to contrast with the heavier Leo/Fiat story.

It wasn't triggering, just wasn't quite right. I might have typed an exaggerated response for the sake of drama. You should also love someone for who they are, right? If you only love someone for how they make you feel, that's not really love.

In any case, that's now what this show is about, so it doesn't really matter. This is really the opposite - Zheng Wu loves Yu Shi for who he is - both of him.

Sorry, too boring to watch, and again it's posted as "eng sub" and it's not. Disappointing as I like Kaleb and Axl, but I'm sure they'll be in better productions in the future.

The directing seems to drain the life out of the production - and that nothing ever happens doesn't help.

And good God, when are we ever going to get past using trans characters as pathetic comic relief? How can a genre that exploits LGBTQ+ characters be so transphobic? It's disgusting.

It was OK. A bit on the slow side, and the usual half of the runtime chewed up by fem and trans shaming. The lead is very, very cute. Overall, worth a second look, but not I'm not super-excited.

There was a study done - I tried to find it but couldn't. When it came out, the headline was "What you suspect is true: your cat really does hate you."

Popular knowledge is that dogs recognize their names, but cats don't. This is untrue. The cat knows what it's name is, it just doesn't give a sh#$ if you're calling it or not. They've attached cameras to cats, and they spend fully a third of their time trying to kill things for fun. When they bring you a dead animal, it's not a gift of love, it's "OK, I did my job. Feed me. I certainly don't want to eat this gross thing."

You know how when you pet a cat, it will eventually bite you? That's when it's laziness is overcome by it's loathing of your touch - it then goes away to wash your stench off it. When they rub up against you, it's not affection, they're marking you as their possession. "This is MY food/shelter source. Back off."

That's a bit one-sided, but they don't love you like a dog does.

We domesticated dogs - cats domesticated themselves. The stuck close to human settlements for the free food and warmth, and they evolved the mousing instinct because it was what made us tolerate them. But note the prevalence of cats superstition. Our forebears knew cats were evil, we just forgot, and that's entirely according to their plan.

It's a TV show, and their story is supposed to be comedy relief. I feel you might be overthinking it. The point is Leon has asked for permission for every escalation and been given it. You can't expect someone to understand where boundaries are if you haven't established any. If everyone were that bizarre about boundaries, the human race would die out because nobody could ever get together. You seem to have some fantasy that two strangers have their eyes meet, and they fall in love at exactly the same pace and in the same way. How is a romance story supposed to work if nobody is pursuing anybody and everyone feels the same way? It wouldn't fill as single episode. And you don't seem to mind the horrendous violations Leo commits, like discussing Fiat with his father without his consent or knowlege, not to menion having him abducted and tortured to "help" him, which somehow is not as bad as Leon's puppy-dog crush on Pob, who is, BTW several years oider than him and perfectly capable of fending for himself and setting whatever boundaries he wishes.

As far as Leo & Fiat go, all Mame's relationships are D/s because that's all she's capable of, albeit incompetently and IMO without any actual experience with it. And speaking of boundaries, sorry, but you can't have a D/s relationship without ever discussing it. I'm perfectly familiar with BDSM relationships and I've been in them. At no point had Fiat ever given an indication that this is what he wants, and given their age, maturity, and mental health imbalance, I think we can call into question whether or not Fiat can even consent.

Finally, Fiat obviously has serious problems that include PTSD - that Leo thinks he can fix all this himself without professional help is nearly criminal in abusiveness - actually maybe not 'nearly'. Mental health is as real and important as physical health, and not even really separable. If Fiat had cancer and Leo insisted he only be treated with herbal remedies under his control, he'd be thrown in jail. How is this any better?