jpny01

Try Cherry Magic and The Man Who Defied the World of BL. Both are much better than this. I really liked Life Love on the Line, but some people didn't. If the beginning draws you in, you'll like it, so I would give it a try.

Japanese BLs are generally more coherently written with tighter and more concise plots, and a little less full of tropes, oddly enough, since they invented all of them. There's a level of creativity lacking in Thai BLs, like Life Love how the boys meet because they're both imagining they'll die if they fall off the line painted on the street (in a funny way, not scary).

I can give you specific reasons. The writing was poor with the characters behaving in bizarre ways and making decisions that made no sense - why break up? Just lay low, or put it on hold for four months. Gene had no agency in the story - he was just the writer inserting herself into the story with her fantasy man - if the last episode didn't make it clear enough, they actually ended with sterotypical fantasies, then had the actual writer in the show to literally insert herself as Gene. It was also painfully predictable.

There were no stakes. Gene and Sib are filthy rich - if neither of them were ever able to work again, they would still live lives of luxury doing whatever they wanted. So why care about any of this?

The editing was not good, with scenes dragging on forever. Tum, Tiffy, and Mork served no purpose and could have been left out.

The show pretended to address issues in the BL world, but with such shallowness as to be meaningless, and then made the story so formulaic that it really just reinforced the nature of BL.

WTF was that? This series was just pretending to be a critique of the BL culture, but it was really just a reinforcement of it, and as if it wasn't plain enouogh that the writer was inserting herself into the story as Gene as a self-indulgent fantasy, they had her ACTUALLY show up to insert herself into the story as Gene, and just to make triply sure it's clear, the ending was all about sterotypical fantasies.

The writing in this was terrible. Aoey was the only person who acted like a real human being. A damaged and complicated human being, but at least a realistic person. Gene made no sense and had almost no agency in the story.

The story itself made no sense. Just tell everyone the incomplete truth. Gene and Sib are childhood frriends who are very close. That explains why people "misunderstood" their relationship. All the drama was ridiculous and artificial. Why lie and say it was because of Tum? Any fan or reported can easily uncover the childhood angle, and then they're caught lying again. So there was a lie to cover up the truth which would have solved the problem.

And why break up? It was pointless and just manufactured. Just lay low. Gene in Sib could just reach into their giant bags of money and install a door between their apartments. Or they could commute from one of their family estates where they could live in privacy.

What was the point of Mork? Or Tum and Tiffy? None of these added anything to the story and just chewed up time. They could have replaced all of their screentime with Tum in the changing room trying on shirts (sorry, I have a one-track mind when it comes to that body on that boy).

I was enjoying some aspects of this series, but the last two episodes killed it for me. If the acting weren't so good I would rate this with What the Duck? Up, Bruce, & Kenji were fantastic - everyone else was good but not great, and I thought Kao was especially flat, but all he had to do is look pretty and be the writer's fantasy man, so I guess mission accomplished. The guy who played Gene's dad (Nu) seems to dominate anything he's in - you may remember he was the program head/gardening fanatic in 1,000 Stars.

That's not villainous. If it is, Sib is worse because Gene said no to him way, way more times and he still went hard-court press. Inviting Gene to a bar and propositioning him isn't villainous, especially as he was drunk out of his mind, and sainy he drugged the drink was not nice, but nobody was hurt because he didn't do it. If he had really done it, that would be horrible.

In the instagram, he was trying to tow the party line - he said that all of them get along together, but he was being bombarded by hundreds of people and he lost it. When did he say Gene had stolen Sib from him? Other people on the livestream were saying that, but Aoey didn't.

Nobody likes Bruce or Aoey - people have even called him a bad actor, even though he's probably the best of all of them.

Aoey is being played as a complicated character, not a 2D villain, but audiences have slotted him in the villain role, and so he could spend all day rescuing puppies and people would still condemn him. "What a fake- he's just doing that to build sympathy!" "I'll bed he drowns the puppies just for fun!"

Oh, you meant general racism - that's a different subject. I was strictly talking about entertainment & media where everyone sprays themselves until they're orange so they don't look pale. There is a lot of hypocricy for sure - everyone imitates Black style and music, and Black stars and athletes are venerated, but nobody wants to live in the same neighborhood. Homophobia is alive too, but more subtle - everyone wants the gays around, as long as they're totally de-sexed, and not in management positions.

That's actually a great point - there was nothing offensive in this, a real rarity. No screeching ladyboys pawing at every half-attractive man, so misogyny, no "I'm not gay, I only like________". And since he's a ghost, no tripping falling catching staring until they turn gay, not even the tired seme/uke dynamic - just two guys. One of them is dead, but that's not particularly unusual in BL.

Actually, it's a little less a problem in the West, where we start out pale as f@#$. Tans are considered attractive, because rich people have time to be out in the sun. It used to be the opposite - poor people were out in the sun (farming), but now they spend all their time in cubicles.

But I've noticed in BL audiences everyone swoons over pale guys like Sarawat in 2gether. He does nothing for me. I don't know why everyone doesn't love perfect golden Asian coloration - it's so beautiful. Why does everyone want to look like pasty imperialist oppressors?

I'm almost tempted to watch I Am Your King 2.

1,000 Stars did a good job of addressing poverty and how rich people that do what they want mess things up for them. I liked 1,000 Stars, I just didn't like the drama at the end which I thought was artificial and made everyone behave out of character (and teleport all over the place) - I wish they had stuck to the story between Tian and Chief, which had enough drama built into it.

I almost fell into a coma in the first half, but the second half was cute - Pao is so adorable. That first half - there was so much extraneous stuff in there - the second seance and that really long discussion about a bracelet were totally irrelevant. The pool scene didn't have any real purpose either.

I wish Mon would just go away - his overacting drains all the life out of everything, and he's so icky with what's-his-name that he's dating.

Anyway, this is easily the best story so far. For me, Thu, Tue, Sun Mon. I didn't get why everyone liked Sun - it was just some entitled brat sexually harassing someone for two hours. The Tue story was awful, but I liked looking at Tue.

Maybe not "filthy rich", but Gene owns two dwellings in his mid-20, so at least "normal rich". Having dreams of being a writer is great. Losing a gig with one publisher and having to choose which home to sulk in is not exacty "stakes". That's sort of the definition of '1st world problems', when a majority of Thais are considerably less comfortable. He really only has the luxury of pursuing a writing career because his family is rich.

Even disowned Aoey surely has resources, and none of this is his fault, so he can likely get another acting gig, and in any case, he's the villain of the story (even though I'm at a loss to think of a single villainous thing he's done) so we're not supposed to feel sorry for him. Or so I'm told by the overwhelming mass of people on this site.

So we're back to Gene and Sib, who created this mess with their own carelessness and selfishness, and they just don't have anything serious at risk - if they're decent human beings they won't abandon the project and hurt a lot of people. Gene wanted to take the "decent person" route, Sib, as usual, is a monomaniacal looney-tunes who would burn down the entire planet if it would get him with Gene.

So what's my investment? Why did they need to break up? They can just reach into their giant bags of money and hire a contractor to install a door between their adjacent apartments. They broke up to create artificial drama, which by now I should have learned to expect in every ep 11 of every BL that will ever air.

In any case, it's bad writing. An element of fantasy is fine. I'm OK with ghosts, reincarnation, body-swapping, horrible little trolls like Pi getting hot guys, etc., but not people behvaving in an incomprehensible way just to create penultimate-epsode drama. Even 1,000 Stars did this, although at least the stakes were life or death.

I love that better or worse than Amore is our scale.

Anyway, worse than Amore, hovering just above getting cancer.

I might have to hide your gun. Could they at least have Tum go back to the mall and try on another shirt? Or maybe several? They could just do that for the entire last episode and it will be way more enjoyable than what we're likely to get.

Anyway, Gene is just the writer inserting herself into the story as a self-indulgent fantasy. That's why Gene isn't a real character, and why Sib isn't really either - he just really, really wants the writer, and he's really, really attractive.

I think Up has done as good a job as anyone could with this material, but his character is static and childish, and as you mentioned, joins more or less everyone else except the producer woman (whose side I'm totally on. She should slap Tum again. Then send him to the mall to try on shirts. [Sorry, I havea a one-track mind]) in making decisions that are so batsh#$ ridiculous that I'm past being irritated. Now I just sigh wearily with great frequency.

I was watching a Vietnamese series and the sponsor was marketing skin-whitening cream. They ACTUALLY had a character show up in blackface (really brownface), then the next day was all white and sparkly. He literally sparkled, with special effects.

At least they could point out that all the production staff will lose their jobs if the show is canceled. Also, maybe Sib is too young to have the perspective, but four months is not really that much time. And couldn't they just install a door between their apartments, which are adjacent?

I forgot this series is really long - you're right, there's plenty of time for development.

I'm satisfied with naked sweaty Kim tied to a chair scenes, but that's about all that pairing has going for it at the moment - it's too bad, they were cute at the beginning of the series.

Wit & Win are my favorites too. But I don't think anyone is going to beat Kim in nearly-naked sweat-sheened tied to a chair category. Although I agree - Kim/Tha is so boring I forget it exists. It was kind of cute in the first episode, but it hasn't gone anywhere.

The writing makes no sense. Just tell everyone Sib & Gene are childhood friends. It's easily verifiable and everyone will believe it and think it's cute. All this drama is completely artifictial. There are so many ways they could have demonstrated the problems with BL fan culture, and they went with this.

The problem is that BL is always about rich people so there are no stakes. All three actors and Gene are filthy rich. If they were dependent on the money there would be motivation, or if they highlighted the loss of jobs for normal people on the production. But here all we have is that two gazillionaires are being asked to hide their relationship for a measly four months. Don't all Thai men have mandatory military service? 20% men go into the military, so a large number of m/m couples have a one-year separation to deal with (or 6 mo if they volunteer). I suppose rich Thais can get out of it, and since all BL characters are rich... but nobody cares about poor (or even normal) people in BL world.

Even if they don't use the childhood friend solution, they could just rent a place in Nepal or somewhere for Gene and Sib could commute to BL promotional events. There are a million solutions. I doubt every BL actor is giving up having girlfriends, so what are they doing? Probably just being discreet.

From what I can tell, people hate the director because he works with the actor Art Pakpoom, who Mew Suppasit fans hate because the two had some past falling-out. It's all inexplicable to me - I've never been able to invest in actors that heavily, not even when I was a teenager, so I have a hard time putting myself in the shoes of someone who can get that worked up over light entertainment.