jpny01

You're bolder than me - I was thinking "What happened to Copy?!? There's 20 kilos more of him!" But then COVID has been cruel to us all.

Eak also surprised me - we've never really seen him in anything but a baggy sweater, and that's a nice body he's got going there. I like his personality issues - his character is consistent and there's something helpless and childlike about him. It's also a nice departure from the standard seme/uke dynamic. Either he's the seme, in which case he's weaker and needs to be taken care of by the uke, or Phob is the seme, in which case, for the first time ever, the uke is taller than the seme. Or even better, no uke and seme at all.

Agree on lazy writing. Dramas that do that tend to have static characters who never develop. For straight dramas, at least the jealousy makes logical sense. In these I'm always asking "why are you jealous your gay boyfriend is talking to a girl?" Maybe that's the downside of I'm Not Gay (I only like butt sex with one guy).

Besides the plot being different, Given also has complex characters that have to overcome internal obstacles in character development arcs. So did ITSAY, which was wonderful despite being yet another Thai BL set in high school, blue shorts and all.

In short, writing and acting matter.

I agree - I really don't care much about James or Ait after all this - I hope they can just have a nice boring relationship off-sceen and let us see more of Bas & Marco.

"Chef kiss"? Also, there's a movie version of this?

I'm starting to think that maybe people LIKE the tired formulaic BLs. Robot Love has an 8.4, but this is a 7.9.

Maybe, but I wasn't expecting anything from TT2 or LBC2 - I WAS expecting something from this because the first season was so good, so this is a much greater disappointment and a much greater fall in quality.

That makes sense. I'll have to get creative. If can't be The Holocaust>Cancer>Amore - more gradations are needed.

I got as far in this as I did with TT2 - LBC2 I didn't even bother with. I'd say this is better than TT2 because the leads are more attractive, but that's about it.

I don't know what happened - the first season was really good.

I'm with you - other than two very hot leads, there's nothing going for this. I can't do much more than skim it for sex stuff. The plot is an uninteresting jumble, and they've completely lost the complexity and social commentary of the first season. I don't know what happened.

7.9? Really? This is one of the best BL series I've seen - if it keeps this up, surely in my Top 3.

The music in Japanese series is so much better than the two-chord ballads that all sound the same. There's real harmonic complexity here, and they've obviously involved musicians in the production.

Anyway, this is hands down what I most look forward to every week.

Murder-suicide is a term used in the media for when someone murders their partner than commits suicide. Did you see the "not really" immediately after? Sorry for being patronizing if you're a native speaker.

I'm not sure Mean could have absorbed much of use doing LBC. But UWMA was unbearably slow too (and very well shot), so I see it there. I agree the dialog is much better than freshmen efforts, and better than almost all large-budget mainstream BLs as well.

That's the huge advantage to writing original screenplays instead of adapting novels. You're writing from the start for a visual medium and you've already taken advantage of its possibilities. My goto example is Oxygen, where "the boy who lost his smile" works much better in a written medium than it does in a visual one. Or at least they are adapted without really rethinking the presentation.

Or how since you're reading anyway, people texting each other in novels is fine, but it makes you want to hurt things when it goes on forever onscreen.

Yes, but "classist soap" doesn't have the same comedic ring to it.

Classicm & racism are more closely linked in multi-ethnic countries like the US or SE Asia & Philippines, where paler races are usually considered superior. There's tan vs not tan, and dark skin vs light skin - similar but not the same, because the gradations of color may distinguish desirability within one race, it doesn't necessarily make much difference when you're dealing with people of different ethnicities. A pale Korean is likely to find a tanned Korean superior to a pale Vietamese person.

It seemed like it, but it wasn't.

This might be straying into "so bad it's good" territory. It's at least not boring.

I enjoyed it too! You did help change my mind a little, so that's a bonus for me.

What I find homophobic is that the main characters are always specifically defined as not-gay, and to make sure that's clear, they include explicitly gay characters who are always very effeminate and predatory, which are very negative stereotypes. The actual story itself isn't homophobic, but there's no reason for everyone to keep saying "I like girls, I'm not gay, I only like _________ [insert name of boy]"

If they don't want to define characters as gay, then don't define them at all.

I don't think it's homophobic to have homophobic characters as long as the story makes it clear that it's not acceptable, which they did in this series. Although it can be unpleasant to watch.

I'll tire of him eventually and then you can have him.

Big Eden was certainly a gem. I was actually dating a guy from Montana at the time, and I said I thought their tolerance was really unrealistic and he said I was wrong - if someone gay moved there from somewhere else, they wouldn't accept it, but they're fine with THEIR gays. That does make sense. It's a little like casual racism. You've probably heard an old relative say about someone of a racial minority "he's one of the good ones". My grandfather said things like that a lot and it took a lot of self-control to let it go.

I agree that was awful for Maro, but James assumed the answer was a strong "no" and was trying to treat the situation lightly to put Ait at ease. So while I would agree he's incredibly stupid, I don't think it was really wrong. His EQ (E for emotion - I'm not sure if that's an expression where you are) is certainly low if he didn't even realize Marco liked him after all this time.

And James did say to Ait ahead of time that he was going to ask Marco with Ait so he could hear it for himself. If I was dating someone who was jealous of my best friend, I wouldn't treat it very seriously either, although I think I'd be aware of it if there was a crush involved.

Marco is not blameless here - he never discussed this with James and has been wanting more from him for years - that's not right either - Marco is sitting in James' "boyfriend seat" and that leaves no room for an actual boyfriend, as we've just seen.

The more I've thought about it, the more I think Ait did have reason to be jealous, but he handled it very poorly.

If I found a genie in a bottle, my wish would be to make So Hee real so I could run her over with a white SUV. Not really, but it's fun to think about and it really shouldn't be.

I hope so too!

If Bas reports Tee, his name will be dragged through the mud, he'll likely never work again, anything gay he's ever done will come to light (even if he's never had a girlfriend that will be enough to condemn him), his family will cast him out, and Tee is unlikely to be brought to justice, even if there's evidence, because people will say that Bas wasn't resisting, therefore he must have been willing.

Bas is in a hopeless position, and his decision is probably right for him, even if it's not the best for Tee's future victims. He'll have to endure Tee for a limited period of time, as opposed to doing something that could ruin his entire life.

The USA is quite a bit further along in this regard, and yet it wasn't until very recently that people began to speak up, including about things that happened decades ago, and it all mattered. Bas can in the future be one important voice (and video) of many that collectively can finally bring people like Tee down, but it won't happen today - at least outside the plot of a BL. Look at the real-life situation - who has suffered, the actor, or the producer?