jpny01

1. Acting. 2. Writing.

This feels like it was written as a screenplay - too many BLs are adapted from meandering novels that end up just being frustratingly drawn out as a visual series. That's why ITSAY and IPYTM worked so well too - written for the visual medium. BL can get formulaic, and even if we like the chemistry between the actors, there's a part of you that knows you've seen this 1,000 times already and it's a little like if you take a document and copy it, then copy the copy, copy the copy of the copy, etc. It just gets faded.

This series isn't particularly original, but it avoids a lot of the cliches, and the relationship between them develops naturally instead of because Best tripped, War caught him, and they stared at each other uncomfortably long until War turned gay, like is usually the case.

Best seems to have won War's heart through music - doesn't it mean more when it's for a substantial reason like that rather than a shallow cliche?

So then did the girl end up with the notebook and think Dew had written the song about her, then realized at the performance that Best wrote it forabout Dew, and that Dew was digging it? I don't know how else to take the last scene with her sitting in the bleachers and conspicuously plopping down her attaché case.

But it seemed like Dew had read it from the note he left.

Anyway, I liked this. I sill thing War is too... mature, I guess, but he's such a great actor I can overlook it. They had the trope where any uke that ventures anywhere near a basketball court will get beaned every single time, but it was woven into the plot and made a "thing", rather than a throwaway "check the box" trope. And Dew intercepting it was a nice variation on a theme.

They put way too much makeup on the guys in some scenes - it was marring War's beauty so it was hard not to notice. I loved his giant collection of skincare products. I guess he's out to his mom - but if he isn't, she knows. BTW, there were some scenes where his calves looked like they'd been mauled by a pack of irate weasels. I hope he didn't get an infection.

Yin has improved a lot as an actor.

You taped a photo of a guy you had a crush on to a page in your notebook you'd written a love song on, then crashed into him and left the notebook which he read and realized he felt the same way about you?

In the opening, I was amazed at how seamlessly the product placement was with the plot - I barely noticed it. That was sarcasm. I get that they need sponsors, but come on. Although X naked and wet helps soften the blow.

To me, it feels like there's one good BL, the one with Than and Din, with two really awful ones stapled to it. The one with X makes no sense, and the one with the teacher and the other guy is so badly acted that I suspect they were given the script seconds before filming started and so they just decided to stare at each other unenthusiastically for a really fairly astonishing length of time.

But Than & Din do have screen presence, I mean come on, have you SEEN Din? And there's a bit of chemistry there, too. I'm not sure I can make myself watch the 2/3 bad parts, but if the stories barely intersect, maybe I can watch the good 1/3 and not miss anything.

I love how expert grandma is at manupulating hot boys to do everything for he while she sits around living a life of leisure.

Do you mean Mean's joke? I apologize, I'm not sure what you're referring to. But if it was Mean, I also read into his comments that he was taking a poke at the way fans of ships mercilessly assault actors who "betray" their ship. How many people refused to watch He's Coming to Me, even though Singto had a way better partner that he has a lot more chemistry with? Doesn't matter, because he was cheating on Krist.

He said he won't appear in any BL outside his ship - so he didn't really say he's totally leaving BL forever. Although he effectively is because who would chance another love story with TinCan after the last disaster? And he's appearing in this, which is a BL...

I will also admit that was a funny scene, and it prevented it from being literally exactly the same scene we get every morning after. The paper thing was witty and I really wish we'd get more of that in BL.

The affable earnestness doesn't come from the copy couple, and certainly not Both & New Year - it's because the main trio are so f#$%ing cute I can't stand it. So why couldn't they have made it just about them, and not thrown in a billion other characters that have nothing to do with anything else? It's like they ripped a chapter each out of a high school and a college BL and stapled them to the script of this one. Why? Because if there are no blue shorts or engineers, it's not a BL, so let's put them both in just to be safe.

The dad thing was so badly written it surprised even me. There needed to be just one short scene to lay the foundation for that, like Mom lecturing Dad and telling him not to be like their parents.

That's why I liked Brothers so much - the plot was a meandering mess, but people always acted like, well, people.

But I'm with you - I do like this. I'm obsessed with Aof, and I really like Simai and Eak too. Even Lukmo when he's not scowling and sulking, which is beyond old at this point.

If a significant other tried to stick his fingers in my face in a restaurant I'd slap his hand away - nobody does that. That's why sometimes it's hard to gauge things in BL - people don't act like actual people, so it's hard to connect to what they're feeling or intending. Since everyone that's ever eaten anything on a BL has gotten a chunk of food stuck on their lip and someone has invariably wiped it away, it's so normalized that it has no significance anymore.

That's more or less why I get irritated by tropes. They're lazy writing and directing, as if the production doen't trust their actors to portray things like being attracted to someone without having to catch them when they trip.

So maybe Daon likes Tae, or maybe he's just really nice to him as a red herring. We won't know until they use their words because important things like that aren't portrayed by acting, they're portrayed through tropes and sound effects, or that stupid triple-take shot to let us know something important is happening, as if we couldn't figure that out ourselves when there's a first kiss.

Ask yourself WHY you're rooting for Shin Woo - were you in the first couple of episodes when he was a total asshole? A lot of people were - because we're programmed by the formula to root for the two people we know are going to get together from the first 30 seconds of the series by the tropes. Like accidentally shoving a bottle up someone's ass, as if that were actually possible. How do you trip and land so that you're shoving a bottle up someone's ass? Humans put out their hands to break their fall, not thrust them upward.

In 1,000 Stars was there one single trope that told you Chief was in love with Tian? No. It was done through acting and the interaction between the characters - and it was very subtle - but we knew it. We didn't need Tian to shove a bottle up his ass.

Yes, but in BL you never see anything but the palacial rich-people areas. Nobody takes trains, nobody lives in a middle-class place, etc. I get that's part of the BL "thing", but it's nice to see characters that are normal every once in a while instead of so rich that they have a bodyguard raised from early childhood to protect you and supply you with his blood, or when people can't figure our whose father sent an army of henchment to beat someone.

Right - I thought it was refreshing that these are normal people that don't drive luxury cars everywhere or buy last-minute plane tickets to resorts. BLs are often so sanitized that it barely seems like they're in Thailand.

I might agree about Boat & Gun vs Pond & Phuwin, but it's early yet. I thought Pond & Phuwin had good chemistry early on and it got stale later. We'll see with these two. I'm not sure I'll ever get tied of Boat's soulful eyes, and I'm very sure I'll never get tired of... never mind, you know me already.

I'm mystified that people thing his behavior is hurtful, but maybe it's a generational thing. To me, you tell someone if you're interested in they say yes or no. I guess things are differerent now.

I get what you're saying - but there are different kinds of shy. I'm not shy at all socially, e.g. I can work a room very well - but I'm very shy about more direct things like that.

A group date isn't some sort of commitment. Are you saying that if you're at a dance, dancing with someone you're not romanically interested in is leading them on? Daon hasn't done anything remotely fliritatious with anyone (except maybe Tae) except be nice to them. If Sohee hasn't figured out he's not into her, that's really her problem. It's frankly weird to keep coming to someone's school and stalking them. If she has business, she can text him, or tell him why she wants to meet him. If she is romantially interested, she can tell him that, not lurk in the hopes that he'll fall for her.

How do you know he didn't shoot her a text message to apologize? Also you could just as well say she's being rude by putting obviously unwelcome pressure on him. If someone shows no interest in you, why is it his fault? You need to back off if that's the case. Why does Daon need to feel concerned? I would agree with you more if hervisit were a unique event - but she's outright stalking him.

Sohee should tell Daon what she wants and give him the opportunity to tell her yes or no. If she does and he equivocates, then I would think you're totally right. But that hasn't happened.

I'd like to see a character bite someone for trying that move one of these days.

Well, this was better than last episode. Also, COVID is better than polio.

I'm starting to buy into J100s theory that BLs are generated by AI algorythms that follow a checklist and spit out a random scattering of tropes.

The first scene was exactly the same wake-up-after-being-drunk scene that has ever aired in a BL, which bears almost 0% similarity to reality. The only variation here is that there was commentary about a hard-on, which I will grant is unusual - BLs like to pretend men are all neutered and have no sexual desire other than holding hands or, if absolutely necessary, hugging.

I've been watching this show mostly for Aof (Phob), but he's hardly in it. I like Lukmo & Simai, but they're hardly in it too, at least by the standards of main characters. I can't stomach Nampu's gross smarminess, and I still have no idea why the basketball couple are even in this. They have absolutely nothing to do with anything. And Both and Newyear make me want to break things.

I'm really disappointed in this show - it started out with some nice qualities, like not being set in high school or engineering school, but of course they had to throw in a high school couple and a college couple for no reason whatsoever except to check BL boxes. All they do is chew up time that should be spent on the main characters. Phob gets a maximum of 30 seconds per week. SImai & Lukmo get more, but it's the same thing over and over. When it started it was one of the shows I anticipated most every week, and now it's something I might as well do while I'm trying to wake up on Fridays.

Is anything ever going to happen? The only progress this ep was that what we all knew was going to happen happened.

About Lukmo - Mix has a strange face, which needs a smile to balance it out, at which times he is really cute. All four main characters are really cute. A shame they're not in this more.

I would have left 30 minutes into that party, if I could even last that long. Have you ever been to a really bad office party? The worst office party I've ever been to was still more fun than that.

I loved your comparison to BL love with a cult. "Love knows no gender" means that it doesn't matter which gender you love, all love is equal. It does not mean that the gender of the other person doesn't matter, because it most certainly does. I am totally incapable of loving a woman - it doesn't matter how perfect and compatible with me as a person she is.

If gay kids tried to pursue straight boys hoping committed persistance would make them turn gay (if only just for them), a lot of gay kids would end up beaten to death. It's not a healthy message to be endlessly repeating. Yes, I know, there are bisexual and genderfluid people. Less than 5% of people, not 100% of all men.

I think it's OK to use plotlines like that sparingly, but it's 95% of all BL plotlines, and it's just old and tired.

I know that you're right, but Hank Wang is so my type that I can't look away.

I feel transgressive when I reply to you with that ID, although I do love it.

Oh - I'll have to go watch that.

If you can't tell the difference between someone being nice and someone showing romantic interest in you, who's problem is that, right? If you're not sure, you can ask him, or ask one of his friends. And he's not "flirty nice", he's just nice.

I do think he's led on Tae a little, but it's not clear yet whether or not he has a crush on Tae, although it's hard to imagine anyone having a crush on a muppet caked with white makeup when Shin Woo is like right there as a 1,000% better option. Or wait a few months to graduate and then snag that hot teacher.

I think "shitty" might be a little strong - it's very, very common to exchange numbers - and I don't see how it's his fault that people misunterpret his kindness. He never said he had any interest in anyone after the group date, either - if anyone is deeply hurt, that's their problem. Did he deliberately lie to Sohee, or did he just forget? If somoene asked him if he was interested in them, and he said "yes" to avoid conflict, then that would be shitty. And is it better to be a total asshole like Shin Woo? Or a boring robot with a terrible haircut like Tae (sorry, I should resist urges like that).

It's very difficult for shy people to deal with situations like this. Daon has never done the slightest thing to lead on So Hee or anyone else - he's just nice to everyone, and it seems strange to criticize that. Well, OK, maybe he's led on Tae a little - but then every single time anyone's ever had anything on their lip in a BL, there's always someone right there to be sexually aggressive by suddenly touching their face to wipe it off, so is even that his fault? I think he was required to do that by BL law.