jpny01

The production company is doing another BL, with the guy playing Tae in it, which is great because I love him

Vietnam is the only country that routinely uses more effeminate gays in major roles - if you haven't seen Nation's Brother, one of the mains is fairly effeminate, but also a strong character. I agree with you - we need more roles for non-straight acting characters, and especially trans characters that aren't ridiculous and pathetic like they almost invariably are in BL.

I loved Prab's burn the previous episode - it's an important issue to address in Asian society. I live in California in the SF Bay Area that's about a third Asian, and we even an expression "Asian F" (The American system of grades is A is the highest and F the lowest, with plusses and minuses sometimes applied, like C- or B+) An Asian F is an A- I've had friends grounded for getting one. Anyway, in the context of the series, Prab shielding Chon from the teacher over this issue was a very big deal, which is why it was a turning point in their relationship.

My interpretation is that Mork is in the closet and that has caused past issues between them. Why Aey returned the kiss is a mystery, other than HAVE YOU SEEN MORK? If he were a total stranger and walked up to me and kissed me, there's zero chance I'd have any objection.

I have no idea what's going on with Gene and Sib, and I've frankly lost any interest. I'm not sure if Sib is being directed to be so flat in his acting, or if he just can't act - but if it's the former, we can't be half way through a series with almost no movement in the relationship of the main pairing and still have me care - it feels like hamsters running in a wheel, except even the hamsters are bored.

Even in really small moments, Aey has captured me since the first ep - I think it's because Bruce is an exceptional actor and every expression and gesture is loaded with feeling - I think he's badly underrated because of his looks - he's not exceptionally conventionally cute or handsome, and is more effeminate than most BL actors - but I think he's one of the very best and tbh his story is what keeps me watching.

I think the situation itself holds more power, and since Gene is the writer inserting herself into the story, we have a tendency to sympathize with him, even though he's kind of an immature dick. Anyway, in the Gene scene, he's watching the actual object of his affection being kissed by someone else. In TT2, it's hard to have much sympathy. You don't really need to get married to be in love or share a lifetime, and in any case, whether or not his brother is getting married doesn't change that something is happening that nobody cares about and that he's upset about something that nobody cares about that he could probably fix with a serious conversation instead of throwing passive-aggression at Type all day.

But frankly I wasn't moved by the Gene scene either. Who cares? Aey and Sib are just acting, and Gene has already seen that Sib is reluctant to kiss Aey, and Sib has both explicitly said and demonstrated relentlessly - I mean RELENTLESSLY - that Gene is the only person he's interested in, so if Gene is angry, he's immature and absurd, which does not make me care about what he's feeling. There are millions of people starving or dying of COVID and some guy from a privileged background is upset because someone is doing their job. How intimate is a kiss in front of a hundred people with camera and lighting people and equipment all around and a director telling them how to do it?

Directing certainly matters, but so does writing - I had hoped this would be a clever satire, and while it does have occassonal moments, the show doens't seem to be able to decide if it wants to be a satire or a very, very coventional BL, and it usually veers towards the latter. The thing I like best about this series is the title of the fake BL. I also liked it when Tum was in the changing room, and everyting having to do with Aey is compelling to me, but if Gene and Sib were killed in a car accident, I'd shrug and say now there's more time for Aey and Mork.

Acting also matters, and other than Aey, nobody in this is really moving me. Up and Kao are good at doing two or three things, in Kao's case heavily dependent on his looks - you can't help but look sexy AF leaning over someone in a muscle tee with arms like that - but we're halfway through the series and almost nothing has happened - ironically we've only had real movement with Aey, who I thought was just a stock villain character.

I probably have expectations that are too high, but based on the trailer this was the BL I was most excited about this year, and it's not what I was hoping for.

He's certainly not lacking in the looks category - and maybe it's better to say his bag of tricks is limited - he does what he does well, but it gets flat and repetitive, whereas Earth in 1,000 stars can say "good morning" 1,000 times in a row and each time would be unique and make me feel like crying.

"Lazy writing" is an expression that doesn't mean lazy like a teenager refusing to do chores, it generally means a lack of creativity that leads to overuse of tropes and exposition instead of showing us a story.

But I also agree with your analysis about them trapping themselves and making it the only way out.

I dropped the series a couple of eps ago and came back here to make sure I'm not missing a big improvement - nope, definitely not missing anything. The only thing this series has had going for it is one of the few non-ridiculous trans characters, and even then it's not really a positive, because she has nothing to do with the plot and is just there for representation - which is not representation, it's tokenism, and is starting to bog down Filipino BL, and especially this one. You aren't being "woke" by throwing the whole rainbow into a show, you're being preachy and pretentious. Having a character like Miray in Stranger's Kiss is inclusion - this show is just a bunch of upper-middle class brats whining about their First World problems. Who retreats to a beach cabana to have Royce Cabrera service them for several months because they have a few minor personal problems? Is this the writers indulging their own fantasies, or good drama? It's definitely not the latter.

I hope I didn't come across as remotely suggesting you were homophobic - I apologize if it sounded that way. I was just drawing an analogy and distinguishing between personal taste and what's morally wrong.

I agree with you about the teacher - I'll be disappointed if they normalize that. I still think the show is treating it as wrong based on the music cues and the way the kid acts when the teacher is touching him too much.

As for History 4, that's quite a different situation and there are many serious red flags there - they grew up together, there's a huge age difference, and one of them is mentally disturbed and (I think?) underage. If they got together, I don't feel that would count as consensual, and you certainly couldn't say it wasn't harming anyone. I'm watching, but I'm nervous about where it will go.

No, except for calmer scenes that focus on Earth. The plot isn't doing too much for me this ep and last due to way much implausibility - I'm getting stuck on "how much time has passed that someone just shot in the torso is perfectly fine now? Or "why doesn't Tian want more detail about the relationship between Earth and his father?" There's so much of that it takes me out of the story, whereas in the first 7 episodes I was so drawn in I almost forgot it was fiction and I was either in tears or on the verge all the way through.

I feel like the producers don't trust the actors to carry the drama just on their interaction and relationship. I could watch 10 full episodes of Earth writing forestry reports because his inner monologue would be readable on his face [sexy and heart-rending far-off look as he's thinking, "Did I leave the iron on?"], but instead we get manufactured drama based on implausible events, out-of-character behavior, and failures of communication. Drama is good, but drama that makes sense. There was plenty of drama inherent to the setup of Tian getting Torfun's heart, his complicity in her death, his struggle for acceptance by the villagers, Earth's fear of intimacy, and Earth's involvement with Tian's father. That's enough material for two seasons of compelling drama. We didn't need all the messy and out-of-character detours of the last two episodes. What was the best part of today's ep? It was the quiet interaction between the two leads when the writing let them behave in character.

It certainly wasn't Pha's magical recovery from a near fatal shot to the torso ("He's lost so much blood!!!") Having your appendix out would land you in the hospital for way longer than that - he should have been out for several weeks. If that doesn't fit into the plot, then write something different - don't throw something ridiculous in to try to heighten the drama. What is special about this show? Is it Pha getting shot, or is it Pha scribbling a personalized note on Tian's kite? Hint: it's the latter. Or getting him a new mosquito net. This show is spectacular for subtle intimacy and amazing acting, not OTT melodrama. Apparently I feel strongly about this lol.

His father seems to understand Tian's stubborn nature to the point he had to enlist Earth to help him get Tian home. I think if Tian were firm and made a commitment to get his degree and come home often his father would relent and compromise, especially since he seems to hold Earth in high regard. His father controls the money, but Tian is his only child - that's fairly powerful leverage.

In that last scene, the lighting on set was illuminating extremely fine hairs on Earth's left cheek, which made me laugh and think exactly what you said - 6 months of growing a beard would probably only give him a scraggly. thin, and barely noticeable fu manchu. That's a small price to pay for skin that puts porcelain to shame.

You know, it's funny that it never occurred to me to check out a Thai reactor, especially since I often watch Filipino reactors. Thank you for that!

I agree with that - I think we have a tendency to view his actions in a negative light because he occupies the "villain" position in the Standard BL Formula (tm) which makes it more likely he'll be a problem for the main pair. For me, he's the best actor in the series, and I wonder if I'm viewing him more positively because of that - I can really feel his pain & loneliness, whereas I don't feel anything at all from Sib and Gene is just irritated all the time - and they both seem self-absorbed, whereas Aey seems motivated by a desperate need to be loved. If I were him I'd look no further than Mork, because that boy is hot AF and obviously into him.

I haven't decided about Kao - I think he's being directed to act as if he's hiding something, but I think you may be right. I was just watching some of his scenes in UWMA, and I forgot how bad all the acting in that show was. It probably seemed good for the time, but it's been so badly eclipsed by much better shows since. Earth & Fluke are OK, but they're kind of one-note "look how cute and virginal I am!" I might be in a bad mood or something.

Some fans (likely the Sib/Aey shippers) were speculating that Gene was Sib's driver because he's driven Sib to work so many times. The Sib/Gene shippers are using the hashtag because they believe their ship has sailed. They're wrong - the ship is still in dock and boarding, but give it an episode.

Oh I totally agree - it definitely gave me secondary embarrassment - I even had to ff through it because it was stressing me out. I think it was pressure to Gene because of who Gene is, not necessarily because Aey meant to pressure him. As far as he knows, they're friends and Gene has no reason not to help - even if Aey has an idea Sib likes Gene, it would look to an outside observer that Gene does not reciprocate at all.

The amount of aggressiveness Aey has shown so far is totally normal for someone who has a crush, even if it's uncomfortable for us. I'm sure we've all been where he is in terms of wanting to believe you have a chance with someone you like, especially at that age. But if he pushes harder, it will start to become creepy.

Anyway, I'm curious to understand why Sib is such a dick to Aey - I hope it's not that he's upset that Aey has horned in on tiny amounts of his alone-time with Gene, because that would be kind of sociopathic - he already has Gene virtually to himself, and when someone tries to isolate the object of their affection from other people, that is a Red Flag with sirens blaring.

I like all of this except I'm a bit mystified by your negative interpretation of Aey, since he was more or less the POV character this ep and it's clear what his motivations are, and they're not shallow or exploitative.

I feel like Sib said he wasn't a virgin, but I can't find it anywhere, so I might have imagined or misremembered it. But he doesn't act particularly virginal - it comes off as hard-court-press seduction to me.

If you go back and rewatch with the mindset of looking for it, you'll see that a huge proportion of his lines are like that. It's definitely intentional, the question is if it's intended by Sib or if it's accidental, because Gene's reactions make it 100% clear he's hearing the comments that way.

That might have been a confusing paragraph. The double-entendres seem intentional. I don't know if Gene just keeps letting his mind go to a sexual place, or if Sib is deliberately flirting. I was hoping in was clearer based on the Thai, or if it's meant to be ambiguous.

I would probably go traveling and look for him - but after that I would give up and move on.

You point out exactly what the problem is. They both have lots of mutual friends and acquaintences. There's no chance they would not connect somehow and straighten everything out. Heck, you could just google "Gao Shi De" and find out everything you need to know to fix the situation. I think one of ZSY's sidekicks would have tracked down GSD long ago to try to help their friend. It makes no sense and stretches credulity beyond the breaking point.

I think it's possible to enjoy the show, you just have to give up on logic and go with what we're given, which would be fine if it were not connected to S1. Fortunately the acting is still good and the costume design makes my eyes pop out of my head, and as I'm shallow, that and Sam taking his shirt off keep me coming back.

Yu is androgynous AND fierce. Sam is gentle and passive (but with a hot muscular body). In an action movie Sam would just wander around being confused by everything and believing everything people tell him, leaving Yu to rescue him from himself all the time. Which I would definitely watch.