jpny01

Well, I certainly wouldn't throw him out of bed. I think sexiness is also attitude, so to me he's more huggable than @#$%able, but I suppose that changes a bit when the shirt comes off.

That makes sense too - although even if Shi De didn't tell Shu Yi he was in love with him, he was very persistent in trying to get close to him, and they were now in an actual committed relationship. In any case, these series are not going to win Nobel prizes for literature, so I can put up with some plot holes, but this has a few too many to be plausible.

Yes, and none of those people mind that in a huge proportion of BLs, one boy is more or less stalking another that has said "no" multiple times, and explicitly states that his sexuality is not compatible with what the first boy wants.

Addicted at least told you up front there would be toxic behavior - the title is "Addicted Heroin", and I think it was deliberately written to be messed up (hard to mistake that after the abduction scene), I think that series is a hard 18+, and sometimes I like an antidote to the sickly sweet prince-charming "standard" BL (which I also like). But in too many BLs targeted at early teens or younger, dubious and even non-consensual events start relationships and are normalized. If the middle-aged women writing these series are into rape fantasies, that's fine, but don't write them for children.

I was confused about what was going on because everyone kept calling the hostel Rafael's house. I thought at first Mara was being sarcastic, but I don't think so. It came off as a little silly that the whole lobby was passed off as the entryway to the house, and then Rafael's bedroom was tiny and shabby.

Camera work and editing should stick to the basics - the variety of scene/perspective changes was distracting and disjointed, and I didn't understand the strange use of slow-motion - why was it being used when that guy at the end was getting out of bed and putting on his clothes? Also, while the scene just before that was really good in term of content, slowing it drained the passion, especially since the scene was wordless - which also made it look a whole lot like it started out non-consensual. They did rate it 18+, at least.

The subtitles cut out halfway through, and although there wasn't much dialog to miss, it seemed really random to have Rafael do that - I hadn't seen any previous expression of interest. Also, Mara was in the bed, but then disappeared somehow. I was a bit distracted thinking, "Are they doing that in front of their friend?!?"

I admire the effort put into this. Kelly is more natural in this than he was in Even After - I'm sure every successive project will be better and better.

OK, so it turns out a 3 score is way too generous. I was hoping it would be so bad that it's good, but nope. This might actually be the worst thing I've ever seen. At least half of this episode, and I am not exaggerating, is trans and fem characters vamping and sexually harassing boys. It's so incredibly offensive and tired that I am unable to believe that anybody non-homophobic was involved with this production. If I could give this a -10 I would.

The Philippines dominated last year in BL - but so far in 2021 there's been almost nothing worth watching. What happened?

Wow, I've never seen a 3 score before, and that's with 799 viewers, not just a handful. I have to watch this now.

All BL is indexed here with links and schedules.

http://world-of-bl.com/index.php/Main/Schedule

This gets point for passion, but it's a bit heavy-handed. They really made Andre too horrible - I will never be able to see past his behavior.

Anyone who's that abusive to someone he has power over is not a good person, full stop. He's not just rude, he's cruel. I hope he gets cancer. There, I said it.

Anyway, other than that, I like this - I didn't have to put it on 2x speed just to slog through it like BxJ.

I've broken up with someone for being rude to a waiter - only bad people do that. Andre is so loathsome that I don't want him to get together with Kai.

That was excruciating to watch. I don't think I can do this anymore, even with Royce Cabrera and Ron Angeles.

The only thing I've really been watching this for is Olan, and now they're making yet another character fluid. I think they already have representation in that regard - I'm starting to feel discriminated against for being gay. I don't really have anyone left to identify with. Maybe Val?

Speaking of which, Jim & Val have like 1,000 times better chemistry than Jim & Ben. Ben only has one facial expression, and that looks pasted on.

The twist at the end made me groan. Seriously?

Who could possibly be bored watching this? People without a beating heart, that's who.

Has everyone lost their minds? How is this only rated 7.9?!? I cried all the way through Ep 4 - this is so beautiful and wonderful.

I wasn't sure about the actor playin the debt collector at first, but he has certainly delivered these last two episodes.

They need to do some 'splainin' pretty quickly if they're going to hold onto me. Or at least keep having Shi De take his shirt off. I don't think we got to see that in the first series.

I thought his acting was good, too - I just didn't find him as attractive as I do in this series.

Good point about the script - I guess it's really the implausibility more than the acting, although I've always found Sam more compelling and able than Yu, who is not bad by any means.

What was off-putting about Shu Yi's characterization is that it's been four years since he was hurt, but is burning with a rage that would have made sense right after it happened, but not now. By making him so cartoonishly psychotic, it made the whole story, well, cartoonish.

To make this story even remotely plausible, we'd need to actually see Shu Yi deleting all of Shi De's emails, texts, and VMs before reading them. Even then, Shi De would have flown home to talk to him. It's not like he had to board a ship for three months - he could be home in a day. Well, two days. But he could return to the USA is zero days!

Oh I agree - I don't want all the questions answered, but we didn't need any more raised before they started on the previous ones! Lack of communication is indeed a real-life problem that ruins relationships, but there's a point where communication failure is totally implausible and inconsistent with a character, and becomes contrived.

Shu Yi would have confronted Shi De, not run away and sulked - remember that in the first series Shu Yi was the one who aggressively claimed Shi De - screaming his love on a public bridge. And Shi De would not have left the situation unaddressed for four years - that's just not who he is.

Shu Yi was over the top, though - it's been five years, four since he saw Shi De with the woman. If you're still burning with that much intense hatred, there's something really wrong with you - that's nearly sociopathic. Pain doesn't last that long in normal people. He should still be hurt and upset, and seeing Shi De again could aggravate that, but not the point of acting like a maniac and being totally irrational.

Shi De doesn't know that Shu Yi saw him with the woman - from his perspective, Shu Yi abruptly dumped him and refused to discuss it - I don't see how he's in the wrong in any way. He's trying to talk it out with Shu Yi, who keeps hitting him in the face.

That could be handled with poachers or a natural fire - I think too much energy is taken up by the villain, when the interaction of the main characters is complex and interesting enough to drive the series.

In any case, my only real complaint about the villain is that it's way too predictable. Because I knew what would happen so far in advance, it colored my viewing of the rest of the episode, and it robbed the actual event of its impact for me. I even pointed to my screen and said "cue the fire" at the right moment.

I don't hate that there's a villain, and it doesn't really diminish my love for the series, I could just do without it, or at least if his motivations were more complex and less cartoonishly evil.

I didn't mean that Pha doesn't know his own feelings, I meant he's clueless that Tian is also really into him. His cluelessness isn't about his feelings, it's how to act on them to get what he wants, and it's a facet of his character.

I was not saying that there's anything that doesn't make sense - it all does, and the realism and consistency of the characters is what makes this series so powerful & special.

I love that Pha isn't a standard BL "I'm not gay, I only love______" characters - he's more or less explicitly gay and actively (but incompetently) pursuing Tian.