jpny01

I think Gaya sa Pelikula is my favorite. In general I'm enjoying the Filipino shows more because they have an LGBTQ+ sensibility and are more original (or were - I'm starting to see more copycat shows as more and more productions jump on the BL bandwagon), whereas the Thai shows are aimed at teenaged girls so they are more fluffy, formulaic, and fantasy-like.

They also insist on a strict seme-uke dynamic which I find untrue to real life and makes the story feel like some Victorian romance novel with a passive boy dropped into the female role. There's a disturbing undercurrent of misogyny (even Khim, who is a caricature rather than a real character) and even homophobia - effeminate characters are almost always jokes, and the mains are all so straight that it reaches the point of fetishization of heterosexuality.

I tend to prefer shows where there's a dramatic arc and not just 14 episodes of fluff. There needs to be character development and something to overcome, some sort of drama. Other I've liked are Hello Stranger, TharnType, He's Coming to Me (if you ignore the ending) the first half of 2Gether, The Shipper, & Quaranthings among others. I'm fine with characters behaving badly like in TharnType if it's properly set up and motivated - watching saints interact is boring.

I may be investing too much into this.

On the other hand, Oxygen has four times as many votes as GSP but is running even, which is like saying the movie Plan 9 From Outer Space is as good as The Godfather. And even then, Plan 9 is entertainingly bad, whereas Oxygen is like watching paste congeal, other than one pair of side characters.

Just as long as you have GSP at the top, I won't object to any ranking. :)

That's a pity - thanks, I appreciate the explanation.

That's a good point.

For some reason, they always seem to cast beginning actors in the main roles and experienced ones in the side roles, when it should be the other way around. I think that's part of it. Also, they aim the main pair at early-teen girls, so they need to be bland, unthreatening, and pretty. Take Ram in My Engineer, a towering, tatooed pile of muscle - I doubt it would have occured to them to cast him in the main pair, even though he's talented and can convey so much without even talking.

By far (and to me, also by far the hottest). I think the Phu actor is a little underrated - it's hard playing a stoic character and show what he's feeling, but I think he pulls it off, unlike the Solo actor.

Soap-opera medicine. Prediction: At some point, a doctor will say "the next 24 hours are critical".

Bisexuality exists, but in Thai BL, straight guys will fall in love with a guy - only one guy, ever. That's ridiculous and not Bi. If a guy starts off identifying as straight, then we need to see his internal conflict and self-realization. Take Theory of Love - that made no sense at all.

Isn't it obvious? Who hasn't had someone with no facial expressons creep into your workplace after it's closed and then emotionally blackmail you into moving in with him just after meeting and reveal he has a crime-lord father who wants to kill you? If I had a dollar for every time that's happened to me...

Me too, at funerals.

I would respect it more if my bf told me his father was a mafia lord who wants to kill me a little earlier than Solo did. Also, I would respect it more if he didn't emotionally blackmail me into giving up my home to move into his two weeks after meeting.

What are you all talkng about? How could you possibly romanticize a relationship and make it more unrealistic than Solo & Gui? A boy that has lost his smile wanders into a coffee shop because he sees a barista with a cute smile and returns every night for warm milk? That's realistic to you?

How about one of them having a crime-lord father that will kill anyone his son tries to date but he conceals that until they move in together a couple of weeks after meeting?

I'm not sure concealing you have a homophobic crime-lord father that wants to kill your bf and asking him to move in just after meeting him is exactly uncomplicated or normal - and for that matter, something being uncomplicated is abnormal already, not to mention crushingly boring. Ram and King were not uncomplicated, and they haven't gotten together yet, so while you're correct that they have fantastic chemistry and are a compelling couple, I don't think they fit the description you just gave.

I guess you could say Gui and Solo have great chemistry if you consider that when you put water and flour into a bowl it will eventually congeal into a colorless & flavorless lump before hardening and never developing into anything.

You've seen worse acting than Nut's? Now I'm going to wake up screaming knowing it's out there ready to ambush me at any moment! Actually, the actor is cute and charming when he's not on Oxygen, so I wonder if it's the directing. I think they told him to be expressionless, which can work in a novel, but not in live action.

Is this a trick question? Just click onthe actor's name and his birthday is right there. Or was there a particular actor who's birthday is missing?

I'm not ashamed to admit that was my first thought too.

I'm not sure anyone actually likes characters like this, but they're part of the overall formula that works, so the producers see no reason to change it.

Take a poorly-written fanfiction novel, hire talentless but cheap amateur actors, throw in a couple of pretentious affectations like having lost your smile or liking pink-I mean warm milk, have vastly more interesting side characters but torture everyone by giving them only minimal screen time, make sure there is no plot or character development, unearned happy ending, wash, rinse, repeat.

At the beginning, Kao asked for Phu's permission to pursue him, and defined absense of a no as consent before he asked. Phu did not say no, nor has he since. He's been making Kao work for it, and he even said he's been playing hard to get to make sure Kao was serious about him. So I get why Kao appears to be a stalker, but he really isn't, he's just persistent. The pickpocketing is a bit naughty, but don't we all like our boys to be a little bad? :) Better that then characters that would be more entertaining to watch if they were replaced by mannequins or better, muppets.

To me, the mystery is, how did Phu know Kao was being assaulted, and how did he get there that fast? He would have to be monitoring him... and he was caught on video running to the scene, so me must have been aware of the attack from the second it started.