jpny01

American. Which is a little embarrassing at the moment, but there's an election in a few weeks that may help fix that.

Well put!

I'm not sure why it didn't work for me either - it was innovative and well-acted. I guess it seemed repetitive, but I think maybe one reason is that I live in California where it's socially unacceptable to be homophobic - in fact sometimes the "political correctness" can be exhausting because you have to be very careful how you express everything. Which I'm not complaining about because it's a necessary corrective to thousands of years of oppression, and certainly benefits me as a gay man - but it does make the political correctness of Gameboys less resonant because it's "so 2004" by our standards. But I can see why it would be so powerful to people in less tolerant areas of the world. If you look at Thai BLs, they're downright offensive in their fetishization of straight men, racism, and the overt and toxic misogyny and fem-bashing. If a Thai BL were airing as an American TV show there would be boycotts and protests. That would not happen to a Philippine show.

Gameboys also was the first BL to air with a gay sensibility, i.e. much of the creative force was gay men and the audience was more general, whereas Thai BLs are 19th c romantic fantasies written by women aimed at 12-year old girls, so it made a splash. People get stuck on their first loves, right? That's why SOTUS is still so many people's favorite even though much better shows have followed.

I'm also responsible for COVID response at a large corporation and the portrayal of COVID in Gameboys really bothered me. And the attitude of Cairo's family made no sense to me - it was inconsistent and didn't ring true, which is another issue - consistency of character was often abandoned for the sake of cliffhangers, like Pearl (who annoys me too) sabotaging Gav at the end of Ep 2 by introducing herself in a hostile manner as Gav's girlfriend.

I think modern audiences are also strongly influenced by the online cultivation of fandoms by show producers and the online personalities of the stars - Gameboys invested a lot into that, and Thai BLs do as well. The aforementioned Hello Stranger didn't so much, and it's two stars are boring IRL.

Why are Thai BLs so totally lacking in modern social values? It's like they were written by Protestant ministers in the 1950s, and then somone dropped a boy into the girl's role. They need to get more gay people involved in the productons like in the Philippines. I think as a fandom we have to support the position of gays in Thai society and stop consuming dreck that perpetuates sterotypes, homophobia, and misogyny. These shows fetishize heterosexuality by hiring all straight actors (or at least all straight-acting) and making effeminite people ridiculous for vicious throw-away humor. It's gotten a little bit better, but not much.

Don't forget Gaya Sa Pelikula - it's amazing!

I agree with all your comments, although I do like PhuKao, largely because the big macho guy is the pursued instead of the pursuer like in all other Thai BLs. Totally agree about New & Bright in DBK & 2Gether - but I'm surprised fans haven't come burn your house down for saying that out loud, LOL. My Day surprised me - I thought it was a total trainwreck, and it's evolved into less catastrophic trainwreck lately - that love scene... yowza. The boys do such an amazing job of making their relationship look natural and unforced - I'm really impressed with the improvement in the show.

If you watch the actor who plays Solo elsewhere, he's cute and charming, so I wonder if he's just being directed poorly - he reminds me of an acquaintance I have that studiously avoids facial expressions because he's afraid of wrinkling as he ages. Personally, I think smile lines are sexy, but to each his own.

LOL too - I'm ranting about how bad it is, but I'm ranting about Ep 8, so I'm clearly watching every week. I'm not sure what that says about me.

No - but I'm not sure if you're saying it's fluffy & cute or it's not fluffy & cute? Do you mean there's some fluffy & cute and some drama and you don't want them to add unnecessary drama? If so, I'm with you - I hate added drama if it doesn't serve the plot or is inconsistent with the characters' personalities. For example, I thought the second half of the original 2Gether series was ruined by the jealousy of a girl plotline.

If it's fluffy and cute I will completely lose interest. Without drama, it's just Yaoi porn.

I aim to please!

Your last sentence is a perfect description. PhuCow has a bit more Bara flavor and it's refreshing to have the big macho man being pursued rather than pursuing. Also, they are much better actors than the main pair.

I know that I'm in a small (scared) minority, but Gameboys was just "meh" for me - it wasn't my thing. Holy COW did I get rained on with hostility, as if my thinking it was good but not the best thing that's ever happened invalidated them as a person. I was actually confused - I was accused by more than one person of having ulterior motives, and I couldn't understand what possible ulterior motive I could have. I guess because I liked Hello Stranger better? There seems to be some really weird fandom competition with these two shows that baffles me. I'm allowed to think HS is OK but not think it's great or like it better than GB. I don't even think HS is BETTER, I just LIKED it better. (GB is too sanitized for me - I love the absence of misogyny, but people behave poorly at that age and if the drama is almost entirely externally generated rather than internal, I tend to lose interest. Also, my job involves COVID response so it's easy to put me off when that topic is involved.)

If someone thinks I would criticize aspects of GB because I'm trying to tear it down as some sort of HS loyalist, then that means they do the same thing the other way around - otherwise I can't understand how that thought would even occur to anyone.

Anyway, there's nothing wrong with getting heavily invested in a show - I just think some people are investing in the wrong ways.

How can this... calling it a trainwreck would be unfair to trainwrecks... this apocalyptically bad show also have a sublime scene like this?

https://tv.line.me/v/15355426_นิยามรัก-so-much-in-love-ep2-4-5/list/629274

I mean, this is breathtaking. When I first watched this ep I played this dozens of times I was so entranced. It's not even technically perfect, but the image, the way North is walking - good Lord. Of course it's ruined because of what happens later, but at the time it was really, really moving.

There are huge and critical parts not subbed, and while the subs that there are may not be totally incomprehensible, they're not totally comprehensible, either. It's hard to believe they couldn't find someone to competently sub it - it's not like English is a rarity, and Line has produced many series with perfectly serviceable subtitles. If they had invested a little more in this, they'd have way more international viewers and thus more revenue.

LOL every single time.

This show is TERRIBLE! OMG, I just watched 15 minutes of 8 different people all sitting together asking in succession why North is close to Ongsah? Why do any of them give a flying f#$%? WHO WRITES THIS CRAP? Just have ONE PERSON ASK and we GET THE POINT! FUUUCCCCCCC&&&&&&&&&!!!!!! MOVE ALONG!

Seriously, this show is really bad. They never even take their clothes off and go swimming and anymore. If I don't get to see any hot bodies, there's really no point to watching this. And how many nearly identical scenes with nearly identical dialog do we need with the ladyboys? Why are they even in the story? How do they drive the plot? It's like someone threw random words in a pile and tried to connect the dots. "Ghost. Jedi. Coma. Roommates. Ghost. Dragonlady. Ladyboy. Jealousy. Pointless."

Thank you for listening. I feel much better now.

Jedi has a sexy body too - and Ongsah's not bad either. But the subtitles are so bad I have no idea what's going on. I appreciate subtitles, but the show makes about the same amount of sense without them, so not good.

I agree about the gay POV - that's why I was so excited about the first episode - such a refreshing change from Thai BL, which has zero. Whatever the opposite of queer POV is sums up Thai BL. Gameboys just got repetitive to me - I think maybe they should have left it at 8 episodes instead of stretching it to 13. The plot is well laid out, but there are some holes, like why did Pearl sabotage Gav by introducing herself as his girlfriend? A couple of eps later there was a communication failure (about Gav's grandmother) that felt contrived to me and although she saw the problem she conveniently decided not to interfere, even though it would have been easy for her to repair the problem without intruding. Then there was the cliffhanger where Gav's car arrives but it wasn't him and everything had gone wrong to prevent him from letting Cairo know - it just felt contrived - but again it feels a little like the show suffered from being expanded beyond what was planned - they did a good job of filling the time, but it would have been better to leave it at 8 and have another season.

Elijah Canlas is a great actor - I appreciate people who effectively play guarded and introverted people - it's much harder than crying all the time, which any actor can do.

Like I said, I'll go back to it before the next season comes out and retry it - maybe I'll have a more positive reaction. I will also say that you're the first Gameboys fan that didn't have an absolutely toxic reaction to even minor criticism of the show, which probably puts me off as well. I don't even dislike it, I think it's good - certainly better than any Thai BL. But I preferred Hello Stranger and that's apparently not allowed.

Hook Up is not for everyone - but it's something different and I really liked it. I feel a little dirty when I watch Marky Erasga because he looks like a boy but is sexy as f#$%. Gaya sa Pelicula may end up on your elite list - it's amazing. And the two leads - one is too hot for words, and the other one is so cute it should be illegal. My Day is a trainwreck, but it's grown on me and THAT WAS A LOVE SCENE HOLY F%$&. I mean they really committed. It took me days to cool down.

I'm that one person who didn't really get into Gameboys, but I'm going to try rewatching it. The cliffhanger of the 2nd episode really turned me off, and I found the COVID casualty contrived and manipulative, but it's a bit close to my career field. I may not be being fair - but it does seem a bit to heavy into fan service and I like good writing. So even thought the acting wasn't as good on Hello Stranger (except JC), I preferred it to Gameboys. But I'm also American and specifically Californian, so the socially conscious aspects of Gameboys, Quaranthings (which I love anyway), etc. don't resonate as much with me since it's been so long since homophobia was socially acceptable (it's absolutely not now). Definitely watch Quaranthings and Gaya sa Pelikula - you will not regret it. Be warned that Quaranthings gets dark.

The only Thai BLs I actually look forward to at this point are YYY and Friend Forever. The rest are just formulaic and boring, and they need to hire better actors. I agree with you that Oxygen is better than Sakristan, but that's like saying heart attacks are better than cancer.

Tan is stunning - the boy is just gorgous. It actually hurts to look at him. So far he hasn't had much range, but it's not easy playing an emotionally reserved person. I did feel the conflict in him over Oil, which I think he pulled off. But Oil looks way too much like a child for me - it's hard to invest in them as a couple.