jpny01

The endless exposition is lazy, though. They should show us what happened, not have someone rattle it off awkwardly in a conversation. But you're also right, that it's also the opposite - so they're both lazy and too ambitious. It sounds contradictory, but I do it all the time. :)

I have no idea what you're talking about - not because there's anything wrong with what you said, but because it went totally over my head. What happened?

I'm not sure what you're saying - the problem is the lazy writing and plot holes, not the drama & angst - drama is good, it just needs to make sense. The costume design is certainly spectacular, and the acting is still good - even better all-around.

It's good, it's just that the writing is weak compared to last season. Or rather the attempts to connect what seems to be a totally different story to last season is weak with too many gapin plot holes, and whereas last season was a wonderful character-driven story, this is an over-the-top melodrama. It's fine as a stand-alone, but a mess as a sequel.

We know who the baby is, it's his brother. The blonde is probaby just the women his mother mentioned. I think his sister in law or something?

ZX is the CTO. If he wanted to steal it, nobody would ever know. There's no chance it was him. I hope it's one of those useless gossipy people, but we all know it was Dad.

Youth and Ambition will always lose to Age and Treachery.

I think it's still a class issue - when they were in college their class gap was just as big or larger than now.

They should probably have just used makeup to make him look pale and sick. It's just a minor point - in a show like this teeny things are more noticeable whereas in a "normal" show something like that would probably be the least of their problems.

It's not Phupha's decision where Tian goes to school or what he does with his life. He should have discussed the situation honestly and come up with a solution together. He can still go to school and stay in the village - they just need to get a better connection installed, and it's not like Tian is lacking for money to do that. You don't even need to install a land line - a satellite connection would the simple and afforable.

"Across the entire country" is still only an 75 min flight - that's not really a roadblock. The point is nobody even tried to come up with a solution - everyone just gave up, because that's what the plot needed, whereas up until now, the plot followed the characters - in other words, the way characters behave needs to be consistent with who they are, and that has been the case until Ep 8, when everyone started being dragged around by the plot, not to mention teleporting all over the place to show up at just the right time.

This is still one of the best BLs ever, but I thought from the first 7 eps that it would be THE best BL ever - it's fallen a few notches for me. If this were any other show I'd barely notice, but when something that perfect has a falling off it's jarring.

I like this series, but to me it doesn't approach ITSAY in anything except Earth's acting. ITSAY was written for the screen, whereas this is adapted from a mediocre novel, so ITSAY has a big advantage from the start, plus the cinematography is far more layered, laced with visual metaphor and symbolism, and the story is more realistic. But this has Earth, so it's nearly even.

I probably had pre-supposed drea because everyone always gets nicked when shaving. That wasn't really a complaint, although the beard looed really bad. The should just have used makeup to make him look haggard and messed up his hair. Although then he would have been too sexy.

Tian can just use his giant bag of money to get a good internet connection, take remote university classes, and go home whenever he wants. If they didn't want that to be possible, they shouldn't have made him rich and powerful.

He can just have a reliable connection installed at Phupha's place and study remotely, then go see his parent on weekends. Nobody is bothering to come up with a solution - they're just all surrendering because the plot needs them to do that. That's what is starting to bug me. I loved the way the first seven eps flowed, but now they're not flowing - they're just dragging the characters from plot point to plot point, regardless if that character would actually behave that way or not. I'll still watch Earth assemble cardboard boxes for 90 minutes if that's all they'll give him to do, because there would still be more emotional authenticity on display than 99% of the rest of BLs combined, but I'm disappointed that this is not as perfect as it could be.

It would actually be cute if he just didnt get the irony of his words - unfortunately, I think it's just bad writing.

However, I still don't think anyone has every approached Earth's performance in this series - it's more than worth watching just for that - I doubt you'll find anyone, anywhere who can disagree with that!

It was a tad specific, I'll admit.

Absolutely yes. Give it a couple of eps to grow on you and you won't be able to live without it. That sounded like hyperbole but I really like this show. I know it's only about .01% as good as 1,000 Stars, but I look forward to this more.

It's Chon's father. You thought he was the only straight male character in the entire series, but you were wrong.

Did he have a heart attack? He was vomiting this ep, so I thought he had a bad flu and fainted or something. In any case, his illness's purpose in the plot was to reveal a DARK SECRET (cue evil-sounding organ music and lighning flashes).

I would have left the intern teacher out of the shirtless credits, which is mildly creepy - other than that it's cute. They're not bumping and grinding or anything, they're just goofing around. It would actually probably have been better to show their full forms instead of only waist-up, because people like me with dirty minds tend not to assign them clothing below the frame.

They do seriously go into the circumstances of the weird marriage - although it is just getting resolved now in Ep 8. There is a reason for it, and it appears to be a bit dark, but I suspect there's a misunderstanding that will be resolved quickly because on this show people actually talk to each other and clear up misunderstandings, which is one of the appeals of the series.

I don't see how the stepbrother thing is remotely weird. They just met - it's not like they grew up together. As long as nobody is harmed, either love is love, or love is only love when some people approve. The majority of humanity thinks same-sex love is sick, so keep that in mind. Dispproving of something because is makes one uncomfortable is what bigotry is. That's different than simply not wanting to watch it, which is a matter of taste. For example, I don't want to watch a lesbian scene, but I don't think they're wrong.That's why I would hesitate to refer to the stepbrother plotline as "wrong". You first referred to it as "not to my taste" which is non-judgmental, which I think is perfectly fine, if that makes sense. Anyway, if there was a large age difference, it would bother me, but they're a year apart so I don't see any issues.

As you mentioned, the teacher isn't a teacher, he's an intern. It's still not good, but it's not quite as bad as if he were a teacher, as they're likely only a couple of years apart in age and the authority gap is not as great - but they also haven't resolved the story yet, and there are cues that it's not OK - whenever he touches the kid in a remotely transgressive way, the music turns dark, so I suspect they will treat this appropriately. I hope. I actually don't mind transgressive storylines, but I think it would be wildly out of place in this particular show. If it were TharnType I wouldn't bat an eye - it would be lowest on the list of disturbing things happening.

So there are a lot of things that happened this ep that are reasons why I like this show. Prab was sensitive to the possibility Chon might be jealous if he brought Nick along, so he asked permission even though he didn't need it, and then disinvited Nick when Chon prefered he not come. I felt terrible for poor Nick (he's so nice and always ends up a kicked puppy), but it's a miracle that there's actual communication instead of endless implausible misunderstandings. Likewise, Chon's direct honesty with Sam - that would have been mined for as much cringey drama as possible in a "standard" BL, but everyone was mature about it.

Second, they addressed the pressure kids have to go into "respectable" fields instead of pursuing their own interest (although as someone who majored in music, I would probably pressure my kids NOT to do that, lol). With all the burnout I'm sure we all feel about engineers, this is a welcome plotline!

And it's just so relentlessly positive and good-natured. How sweet was the dinner scene, between Chon's gesture to his step-mother and the brotherly teasing with Prab? Ugh, so cute it kills me. But even that "darker thing" going on is being approached rationally - Chon asked a friend for help, who gave him good advice to go to Prab, who handled it sensitively.

Good drama can result from people acting like people act. You don't need characters to totally fail to communicate for 5 years, be cruel to push them to go away because you think it's for their own good, and for God's sake, you don't need to insert a toxic female character in Ep 8 to f@#$ everthing up.

And the acting has notably improved, to the point that both leads were actually pretty good this ep - especially Prab.