jpny01

I don't know. I think maybe there's a miscasting issue here. All the characters are the same - totally calm, talk incredibly slowly, and stare for 15 minutes between each line uttered. Mark doesn't have the charisma or interest to pull this off IMO - and I still feel no chemistry between the leads, or rather I don't feel it from Aek. I don't really feel any connection to his character at all. I almost wish he'd go away and Aue could marry his mother, who is a much more compelling character to me. She says and does even less than Aek, but the actress is way more capable.

This was better than last weeks' ep, but Aek's weird reaction to Aue telling him he wants to enter him in the contest was unmotivated and unexplained - why would he get that upset? If Aue had said "I have entered you", then yes. But that's not what happened. There was never a discussion, nor did we see any processing from Aek - he was so upset that he cried and fled all the way across the country, then suddenly he was OK with everything. And the line about hating himself... What? Shouldn't we explore that a little? It seems completely at odds with everything we've seen so far.

Again, all style, no substance. The style is beautiful, but we're five eps in now - nearly half over - and so little has happened that the only thing I really look forward to is food porn and the happiness that comes from Aue being on my screen. I think it should be a requirement that he take at least one shower per ep. Preferably more.

I'm watching it on Viki which doesn't have 1.5x, but it does have the advance 10 seconds button which is even better - if you hit it every time Aek says something it makes him almost sound like a normal person. There's still his vacant stare, though.

Not "something" about him, everything about him.

Why do you hate soup?

The acting in Ep 4 was excellent, but the writing was terrible. That was a mess that didn't really make any sense - really disappointing. What is with all the staring in all the Thai BLs these days? Instead of having the emotional climax the story needed, they just stared at each other for 5 minutes, then did a time jump. Why? Ugh! So much potential. Well, at least we know Boun & Prem weren't a fluke in UWMA and the boys can both seriously act. Earth was really good in this too.

That's the Tower Bridge in London, not the Golden Gate Bridge.

There's no wrong answer when it comes to music and art, but I didn't get that - was it the whispery opening with some music box tones? I hearthat, but to me the melody was very much like French cafe music, but darker. Although I don't understand the lyrics, so those might give it a different spin.

Neither - this is an expansion of the same story - all the key scenes from this ep are in the short film

OK, so far that was amazing. The acting is quite good, the cinematography and directing are superb, and it has all the visual symbolism that I love and gives a story that extra layer that can keep you coming back for repeat viewings.

And it has the second-best theme song of any BL ever (first-place being He/She/It).

Note the shower scene, which was not explicit at all, but one of the hottest things I've seen in a BL - the way Wu Zheng is trying to be comforting and then totally loses control.

Those two (three?) have amazing chemistry. I'm excited for the rest of this.

Sure is! I hope it's handled well.

Yes, the one flaw in this is that was 3 tired cliches in one ep. At least they weren't the worst ones (piggy-back ride, which actually fit the characters in this case, blow-drying uke hair - what is with that lately? - and the fake out kiss. At least it wasn't the fastening the seatbelt variant.)

Yes, he's very cute - he needs more screen time.

That is kind of weird, but this series appears to have been written by drawing random plot points out of a bag,

Who is Nam?

I think maybe the problem is the characterization. BL always has an element of fantasy - and I'm fine with ghosts, reincarnation, etc. - but people still need to behave like people. For example, 20-year old men generally don't have fights with 9-year old girls or have to be carried to bed every time they're upset. Or sulk, literally for hours, because his bf's brother teased him. This is the captain of a college basketball team, not a small child.

In this ep, what Fiat is dealing with is serious - emotional abuse as a child - but we've gotten absolutely zero set-up for this - it just dropped out of the sky - and they way eveyone talks about it is ridiculous. It makes zero sense that his father and stepmother just make vague statements to someone about why he should stay away from his own mother, when they could just tell him.

Everyone says this is the most wholesome BL relationship they've seen - well, no, it's not. Leo's infantilization of Fiat is a classic symptom of a major narcissistic personality disorder, and Fiat's tolerance of it is likely due to very low self-esteem, because people are generally rather upset about being treated like that, but he seems to love it. It's a creepy codependent relationship.

That's what I was thinking. That's all they let him do (and pout and sulk), and he went from kick-ass star athlete to totally useless person who has to be carried like a baby whenever he has a setback of any sort. Does nobody ever talk about anything on BLs? How has everything that went down this ep never turned up in conversation? "Hey dad, what happened to my mother?" "She's insane and in an asylum. She tried to brainwash you into slavery, so I think you might want to steer clear of her." "Thanks dad, that's good advice." What grown man doesn't know that forbidding something with no context will 100% make them do it?

Or "Can you please try to be nicer to your stepmom? She forgave you for trying to kill her while pregnant, so maybe you should cut her some slack." "Gee dad, you're right - I'll pick up some flowers on the way home."

I guess they took him to the vet offscreen and then forgot about him.

I don't think the cat was in this ep - they were never at Pob's apartment. I'm a little afraid for next episode, though, based on the preview.

Thanks. I just think it's strange that Leo treats him like a child rather than a boyfriend - if Fiat were a woman, I think it would bother a lot of people. Fiat used to be an interesting character, but now he seems like he's just an uke on steroids (i.e. totally useless and unable to deal with anything unless his seme saves him). It feels like we're going in circles - something upsets Fiat, he sulks, Leo rescuses him. Something like that can be dramatic if it happens once, at the climax of a plotline. Here there's no plotline, just a repeating series of crises that a grown man can't handle by himself.

That was actually fine, and interesting for once - it's the other stuff. And it also doesn't explain the being carried like a baby thing.