jpny01

That's a good plan. These episodes are really short, and while I've enjoyed it, I'm getting bored now - too many tropes. I'm still trying to understand why BL characters think a sponge bath can cure cancer.

It wouldn't be BL without a sponge bath and truly awful music.

I laughed out loud at that scene.

I've been enjoying this series so far, but this episode started to feel like a checklist of BL tropes. Enough with the sponge baths already!

Also, do you know how hard it is to carry someone bridal style? A normal person would throw him over the shoulder - you can make five times the speed and distance like that, and much more safely.

Also, I wish I looked that good when I'm sick. I wish I looked that good when well-rested and healthy.

And that's not even getting started on trans representation in BL...

Just as food for throught, though I agree with your point, BL is also hugely reinforcing gender roles with the inviolable uke/seme dynamic, which is not at all true to life, and relegates the more "feminine" character to being the "bottom". I haven't seen one single BL, ever, where the seme was anything but 100% straight-acting. Top & bottom have nothing to do with that, and most couples switch it around at least some. Not only that, but the seme explicitly "takes care of" the uke, as if he's some helpless Victorian maiden with consumption. Besides the poor representation, it's fundamentally misogynist as well as homophobic.

I don't understand what formula you mean. If there's a formula, it's a total lack of physical intimacy, or intimacy that's so wooden that it takes me out of the story. There are maybe what, four BLs where there's sex? Half of them are indistinguishable from bromances.

It is completely ridiculous for people in a relationship to wear trunks in the bath. I'm fine with not showing anything, but that's just silly. The part covered by trunks is the part that most needs washing, right?

I don't understand what you're saying. BLs contain almost zero sexual intimacy, almost to the point of ridiculousness, except in a handful of cases like TharnType, which aren't really serious dramas.

The issue I think people are seeing here is that we never really saw them togther, so it's jarring to skip ahead to where they're not intimate anymore, and perhaps makes it hard to see why they're even together at all.

Oh?!? Teh has been one endless stream of stupid throughout both eps so far. He's horrible - I'm betting on him doing something stupid.

You want to watch a story where nothing happens? I don't know - that sounds tiresome. Real relationships have ups and downs and crises that can make it stronger (or kill it). There are lot of fluffy rainbows and unicorns BLs out there, but does anyone really remember them? Nobdoy will forget ITSAY and probably not this either. But I get the stress - I'll watch it, but I've have to psych myself up to do it.

Yes. I like this and think it's one of the best BLs ever, but I liked the first season much better. This doesn't have the same heart or atmosphere - it's much darker and more of a standard drama rather than the quirky coming of age story we had before. Also, Teh is more of the villain of the story than the protagonist and I hope he gets run over by a truck.

OhAew knos exactly what he wants in terms of love and relationships - that he wasn't clear on what he wanted to study doesn't really have any bearing on his suitability as a bf. But I agree with you completely about Teh. He's a dick. The way he treated OhAew at dinner was unforgivable.

I found it worse every time than the previews made it seem.

In the series, I kept thinking Kao was acting that stiffly to make his character seem Not Quite Right because he was hiding something. As it turns out, what he was hiding was that he only exists to be a fantasy bf for a middle-aged female writer who inserted herself into the story as Gene, and Gene only exists for that purpose. So neither main character is really a character, which is probably why it's impossible to give a flying f@#$ what happens to them.

The first ep is pretty bad - they really should have rethought it. I came sooo close to dropping. Nite II grew on me fast, and Tae is so beautiful after the post-Ep 8 hiatus that it kept me going. I feel bad for all these small productions that had to work around COVID.

That's a really good point. What kind of fujoshi hasn't ever watched a BL? We should send her a link to Fish Upon the Sky.

Well, I can't argue with that - this show is like bad fanfic, and I've been told it actually is a an adapation of bad fanfic (!)

There's nothing wrong with liking people - I didn't mean it as an insult or criticism. I didn't see the in-jokey side of it because I'd never heard of them until this series. I don't really think they're comparable to Louis Armstrong or the ladies in Jack of Diamonds. Have they done anything besides be attractive, gay, and in a relationship? How do you hear about people like them? (Not sarcasm, I'm asking.)

My problem in general with the series is that there are way too many characters, and my only point is that their role is too small to justify their presence. They don't have to have relationship drama, they can face an external issue, or be more woven into the main story. They're neither playing themselves or playing character roles. They're playing characters as themselves. That's not really either a celebrity cameo or acting, so it comes of to me as pure marketing.

One of them could have worked at the office in place of one of the other minor characters (e.g. the HR director) or any number of solutions. Maybe it's just a writing issue, but their advice always sounds like it came off a greeting card, and it's not really affecting the story. Maybe it will and I should just be patient.

There are five pairs in this story - that's too many. The only episode that really grabbed me was this last one which was devoted almost entirely to one couple.

I think the director should make them take a few shots of tequila before kissing scenes so they loosen up. Kao seems to think moving incredibly slowly = sensual, but it's actually just moving incredibly slowly.

Gene & Sib aren't terrible, but I'm not feeling it. Maybe it's because BLs are determined to have ukes behave like they hate sex or being touched. The way Gene backs away from Sib as if he's scared is ridiculous after being together for 2 years - it's not like he's a virgin anymore. Another reason why the seme/uke thing should be thrown out and just have two people.

100% agree - well, 99%, I was 1% hoping for Tum in one of those form-fitting knit shirts, but we didn't get that either. Aey & Mork were a much more compelling couple even though they weren't ever together in this. Bruce is such an amazing actor that you could feel the damage, the toxicity, and the basically good person underneath all that. In the main series his character would have been a 2D villain with a less skilled actor portraying him.

I'm not sure about Chap yet - I can't tell if his acting is good or if it's just that he's so hot that there's apparent chemistry with everything that comes near him. I can certainly say that I never get tired of him...