jpny01

I guess the 12-year old girls that Thai BLs are aimed at are put off by the grittiness and sensuality of Philippine BLs. So they'd rather have sexless carboard cutout boys in their dramas.

And yet this is rated 7.4 while the Oxygen has an 8.6. I do not understand. I suspect that younger viewers don't want realism - they want the polished Thai fantasies. By "polished" I mean sanded down. Philippine BLs seem to have lower budgets, but they have a creative edginess that's totally lacking in Thai BL. They're also way more socially conscious and set in the real world. And are way more gay.

You're more concise than I am. I'm not sure I understand how someone can be so invested in a (low-quality) fictional series that it's a serious personal blow if someone, somewhere doesn't like it as much as they do. I've seen people give a 10 rating and claim it's to counterbalance unfairly negative reviews. Huh? WTF is that? That's like snatching your spouse's mail-in ballot out of the mailbox and burning it because he/she's voting for the wrong candidate.

Our job isn't to write reviews that agree with your opinions - if you don't want to hear contrary opinions, then don't frequent discussion sites. There is nothing wrong with being disppointed with a boring and uninspired show, and nothing wrong with expressing it in a discussion forum.

In the case of Oxygen, there's not much constructive criticism to give, because the producers are not interested in creativity, quality, or orininality, they're interested in exploiting a tried-and-true formula, which in my mind has produced an incredibly boring rehash of every possible BL trope and adds nothing to the genre.

There is this repeated insistence on casting people with no acting experience in main roles and adapting the work of untalented fanfiction writers, leading to uninspiring characters and stories. In the case of Oxygen, the main pair are poor actors, and in the case of Solo, embarassingly bad. If you're going to cast talentless actors, at least find hot ones so there's eye candy.

You're right, Solo is supposed to be flat. But a good actor would still be able to convey what he's feeling. Nut's eyes are dead, and he can't even use body language effectively. Even if that were intentional, why would I want to watch someone that boring, and why do I care? Why would Gui be into someone who gives him no emotional cues? The only reason fans don't find him incredibly creepy is because they know he's in the main pair and so they're predisposed to view him favorably.

Have you noticed how most viewers are way, way more into PhuKao (literary note: I keep writing that as PhuCow thanks to James Joyce) than Solo/Gui? Why? Gui is annoying and Phu is dour and unpleasant. It's because the actors are good, and in the case of Phu has managed to convey a complex and intriguing personality with almost no dialog and only a handful of scenes. His expression is flat too, but you can see the pain, lonliness, and repressed longing in his eyes. Solo is supposed to have lost his smile because his mother died. Where is that pain? He's lost his smile, not his entire emotional range.

So constructive criticism:

1. Dump all the authors you're adapting and write something original - a screenplay meant for a visual medium, not a novel, which is not. That's why the loss of smile is a failure. It works in a novel, not on screen, at least not without high-caliber actors.

2. Hire experienced actors for the lead roles. If you want to groom actors, put them in less challenging side roles until they gain experience.

3. Do not ever set another BL in an engineering, medical, or musical faculty. Does anyone in Thailand study anything but these three subjects? My Gear Your Gown is more or less a proclamation of tiresome and lazy unoriginality right there in the title.

4. Stop writing the more passive character as a 19th c 12-year old virgin girl. The B in BL stands for "boy", not "old-fashioned boy meets girl story with a boy dropped in the girl role without rethinking it at all". Abandon this silly seme and uke business. It's not that simple. It's even misogynist, because it's equating femininity with the need to be taken care of, even setting aside the top/bottom implications.

5. Create a list of tropes and ban them. No accidental kisses, no tripping and the other catches him and their faces are close together than they stare meaningfully for 5 minutes and then act embarassed, no evil gf, no ridiculous bubbly fujoshi, no OTT ladyboys homophobically exploited for laughs, no "I'm not gay, I only love X". If you're going to use something like 'friends to enemies', put an original spin on it. The Shipper was a brilliant commentary on BL tropes and upended them all - it was barely a BL and it's one of my favorites.

6. Concentrate on prodution values. Invest in good cinematographers and editors. Dark Blue Kiss wasn't very good story-wise, but the production was fantastic, with every shot artistically framed. It elevated the series.

There are things in BL that I don't like, but I can at least grasp why people do - for example, I think Saint is low-talent an uninteresting, and he's not attractive to me, but I can see that his looks are objectively pretty and he invests in his fandom, so I'm not surprised he's so popular.

But I can't understand how anyone could like the Solo & Gui story. There's just no connection or chemistry that's not situational, i.e. the plot puts them together so they're together. And if the main couple is uninteresting, what's the point? That's why I'll wait for a PhuKao cut, or wait till the series is over and then ff throguh everything that's not them.

Your argument in favor explains why it could work, but not why it should. You are actually arguing that Gui can abandon all his personal ambitions because Solo is rich and can financially support him. Huh? This isn't Sense & Sensibility, this is the 21st century. That would be offensive if Gui were a girl, and it's not any better with a boy.

We need to be SHOWN why Gui should change his life plan - we need to see the chemistry, and understand what it is about Solo that makes him feel that way. Why would you even bother to warm milk for an expressionless uncommunicative carboard box of a person? It's not compelling drama - at all.

Aren't you getting tired of the same old stuff over and over, though? Like in the Movies and YYY2 are delightful and original, but the mainstream Thai ones are all formulaic with boring actors in the main roles. I forgot about Honey Sir - I'll have to go watch that. Did you leave off In Between? Maybe that was your 7th.

Me too. I actually got to the point of FFing through all the Fighter/Tutor scenes to get to the good stuff, of which there was very little. I even got bored of Fighter being shirtless, and I never thought that could happen. If this show had more than the paltry 1% of Phu/Kao it's giving us, I might continue to watch, but I just can't anymore. Hopefully someone will do a PhuKao (I like that - sort of a James Joyce homage) cut when it's all over.

May I ask why you like the series if you're not invested in the main couple? They're 90% of the show. I'm not criticizing your taste - I am so uninterested in everything going on except Phu & Kao that I can't take another episode of this boring pile of BL cliche. I really tried to give it a chance, but... just no.

Ep 4 was it for me. This series is so unoriginal and boring that I have to take breaks in the middle of each of the four segments. I'll wait until it's over and see if someone makes a Phu/Kao cut. I really can't for the life of me understand how anyone could possibly be enjoying this. Shouldn't Gui contrast with Solo? They're both equally dull and dour. It's like watching two carboard boxes mate. My Gear and Your Gown is even worse - I thought it might be a parody because even the title is stuffed with BL cliches, but it's intended to be serious. Thailand needs to take a break from BL and just let the Philippines run with the torch for a while.

I'm kind of hoping they include Hydrogen to interact with Oxygen, causing it to ignite in a big fireball, which would at least be interesting, unlike everything in the series except maybe Phu & Kao.

I think it's just one truck. The driver hates love and roams from K-Drama to K-Drama taking out anyone in love who ventures onto an empty street.

I thought so too, but I just went back and fored myself to watch their scenes in the first ep (after a stiff drink. And then another one.) and I don't see it now. I have theories: 1. Wil mostly spoke English and accents are sexy. 2. Immediately after they first met the credits rolled which begins with shirtless Nuan, so everyone got horned up and imagined the chemistry between Joey & Wil, and 3. Joey did a good job acting flustered when Wil caught him talking to Planty and it was really cute, so people imagined chemistry. 4. Wil has a sinister scene crying in a shower remembering having sex with someone, and Wil looks good without clothes on so people remember chemistry. These are weak theories, although I like the Nuan one. So I'm at a loss.

It's probably that their chemisty was sufficient for first meetings, but too little for any progression of their relationship. And after their weird and passionless kiss it's hard to see any chemistry at all.

I just can't do this anymore. Can someone explain to me why everyone loves JoWil so much? I thought Figher/Tutor was boring, but I could at least conceive why some people liked it - I think Saint is about as interesting as a wet carboard box, but I think Zee is sexy and hot. But I don't see how anyone could possibly find Joey & Wil appealing as a couple. Their lack of passion is so severe that I squirm when they show physical affection - it feels like the actors are sexually harassing each other.

At least if Jimmy were occassionally on screen, or Nuan would take his shirt off like they keep promising in the opening credits I could maintain some interest, but this is too boring to spend any more time on. Maybe I'll wait until Ep 30 part 3 airs and then fast-forward through the 99% of it that's tiresome for that 1% that's worth seeing, almost all of which seems to include Nuan, which should tell the producers that even a psycho is preferable as a character when a talented actor is playing him. Having a hot body doesn't hurt but is not a requirement. Well, OK, it's a requirement because I'm shallow, but not as important as acting ability.

But both Wil and Joey have more chemistry with Plantie than they do with each other, so Plantie scenes are better than watching JoWil interaction.

I would have warned you if you'd said something before looking.

In a few years he'll develop lactose intolerance and milk will make him sick. I used to like milk but now I feel nauseous just watching someone else drink it.

I think the reason is what you're thinking - to see his legs. He wore pyjamas in two episodes - the first and one in the middle somewhere.

More than Gaya sa Pelikula or Quaranthings?

I can't tell if that was sarcasm or not, but the setting seemed a naked copy of Thai BL, which to me is a negative. At least they don't appear to be engineering students.

Although I doubt we'll see anything like My Day 8 or Quaranthings 4...

Addicted also had severe bullying without consequences and a main character using goverment position for corrupt purposes, so it was doomed even if it had no BL content. A little caution can go a long way - e.g. changing the main character in Tale of 1,000 Stars from a soldier to a ranger.