jpny01

I loved Something In My Room. It's one of my favorite BLs.

WTF was that? So they've been engaged for three years and a sniff kiss in private is crossing a line? He's right to worry that Yi doesn't love him anymore. Nobody would love him if he refuses to put out like that.

Max is a great actor - Nat, not so sure. I keep rooting for the tiger, but alas, it's always a dream.

Speaking of which, what grown man has to rock back and forth in tears chanting "it was just a dream" when he has a nightmare? I keep forgetting, Diao isn't a man, he's an uke, which makes a 12-year old girl with consumption look like a Boss.

That episode represented everything wrong with Thai BL.

I think I'm mostly there with you - I still punish myself by watching at least an episode of everything, but it rarely pays off. Laws of Attraction is good, but it's not really a BL, more of a lakorn with gay lead characters.

You're filling in blanks that the story should have - everything you say makes sense, but if you have to make assumptions that aren't really supported in the story, then the story fails, doesn't it? There needed to be more processing - just a little would have gone a long way.

Being benignly neglected by a parent isn't exactly psychopathy-inducing trauma. Bullies are often proprietary toward their victims and Kang is impulsive, so I can see him fighting off Sailom's attackers, and most likely some of his impulse to bully was fueled by an attraction - but we needed evidence of that.

Fortunately Kang is played by perhaps the best BL actor, who manages to put some depth into a shallowly-drawn character, much as he instantly made Chopper the most compelling character of Never Let Me Go (although he didn't have much competition, other than Chimon) and his relationship with his father being the story we all wanted to see most. That helps because he puts so much meaning into glances that we can see what he's feeling - but that's him, not the writing.

Wandering around with Kang having to pee every five minutes.

I don't think much of the story, but I still enjoy it for Perth & Chimon - they are wonderful.

The think about the peeing is, why? When you're writing, you skip things that aren't relevant - like you wouldn't show someone walking all the way to school, you would just show him leaving (if even that is important) and arriving at school. Likewise, unless there's a relevant plot point to someone going to pee, it shouldn't be in there. Now watch - he'll actually have prostate cancer and I'll look silly for saying this.

I didn't feel you were arguing a viewpoint - I'm not surprised to hear that the novel did it better - it kind of had to!

For me, the actors are what makes this series - I just wish they had a more interesting plot as this one feels a little recycled.

Question: did you start reading the novel after seeing some of the series? I'm just wondering if you imagine Perth and Chimon in the roles, which would make for better reading.

That actually doesn't help at all - if anything it would be even more boring. If Kang feels bad about treating Sailom like that, then why did he do it in the first place? People don't just change with the flip of a switch.

Everyone has lost someone - Sailom is an orphan, yet he doesn't act up like that. Losing his mother doesn't give him license to be a psychopath - it gives him license to be sad and withrawn. If he were 6, OK maybe some acting out would make sense. But not in his late teens.

I'm not anti-Kang and I love Perth, but the writing on this series is terrible. If Perth and Chimon weren't in it I would have dropped it this ep.

Hiring Perth and Chimon for this series is like buying a Pagani to be an Uber driver. What a complete waste of talent. Two of the best BL actors delivering masterful and nuanced performances the the most pedestrian and lazy screenplay and mediocre direction (although if I were the director, I wouldn't be very excited about this story, either).

Can someone please, PLEASE start writing good BLs? Why do they keep adapting bad fanfic-quality novels?

I've been watching this for several hours - I can't get more than 5 minutes before needing a break.

Quiz for non-native English speakers - which of the two knows some English, and which doesn't?

Also, Kang needs to be checked for prostate cancer. How many times does he need to pee? WTF? Four times! That's terrible writing. Especially the last time, which was used to add the other tiresome trope, the childhood connection.

Perth is an amazing actor - everything he does, I feel.

I have a theory about that. I think that the main couple is often constrained by the "schtick" of the show - for example in Oxygen, about a boy who lost his smile. The main couple is also constrained by the plot, which is often poor because BL writers aren't very good. Also, the uke is often the author inserting herself into the story, so he doensn't have a personality. Take Lee Hyun - how would you describe his character? "Dull, likes abs a lot." The seme, on the other hand, is the author's fantasy figure, so he is often dull too, because he doesn't have any flaws.

Look at Maru, though - he has a hot body (and knows it) and masculine charisma, but he's clueless and insecure. Side characters are free to have more depth and can develop organically.

I agree. I like Maru & Minwoo best, but I also like the art student & TA. They took a step down for me with the being at the exact right place and the exact right time to have a misunderstanding trope, but they're still better than the main couple.

Cute but also really sexy.

I agree, but the really loud kiss was worse, even though it was a much better kiss. The sound was really disturbing, but if you turn if off, it was one of the better ones in a while.

I will fight you.

OK, I do really like this series. But two things - WRONG TYPE OF MICROPHONE for the kissing scene. That was revolting. Visually it was perfect, but the sound...

Second, can we have just one single BL where nobody just happens to be at the right spot at exactly the right moment to misunderstand something? Pretty, please, just once? It's terrible, lazy writing. It would have been so much better if Sung Min's problem & hesitation was the age and power differential, or maybe he figured out that Joo Hyuk was being manipulative.

But other that, I love just about everything. Especially Maru, who I'm hopelessly in love with. In a cast full of gorgeous guys, he manages to stand out. They're the best couple for me. For some reason the main couple leaves me lukewarm - maybe it's because Kim An's ex is so far beyond creepy that it makes the whole storyline unpleasant. The actor is fantastic - he manages to make his character seem real but so awful that I was chanting "Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump!" in that scene.

But that was the first time in a very, very long time that I didn't mind a drunk scene. It didn't propel the narrative with bad writing, it was just a character/mood moment and was really cute.

It's a sin not to capitalize "God". Hang your head in shame.

Above I gave it a rather negative review, but I don't remember it either. I remember I didn't like it, but not much else.

The 2nd couple is what makes this. The first one has none of the charm of Tommy & Jimmy, and the acting is so-so. The second couple, though - that was some great chemistry and some great kisses. It's rare in a KBL for it to be that convincing.

That was boring as f@#$. Most of the episode was people talking about marketing, and most of the rest was very repetitive dialog between the Juns. Choi Jun is made out of sex, which saves this a bit.

It's not really a problem limited to this series or even BL - for some reason, all writers these days don't seem to understand the difference between what we need to see and what we don't. You can actually skip the whole work day and just go to things people care about and have an impact on the story. Imagine if we had 15 minutes more of Choi Jun being flity and possessive, and hopefully taking a shower or two, instead of the marketing meetings. The film shoot was needed, and helped move the story along - just go strait to that and bypass the office sections, which have no drama or importance and don't do anything that wasn't accomplished at the shoot.

If there are any scifi fans, in the original trilogy of Star Wars movies, Lucas added a bunch of stuff. In the cinematic release of Empire Strikes Back, while everyone is trying to escape, there's a 1-second shot of Vader's shuttle returning to his ship. In the additions, he walks to the shuttle bay, boards his ship, then they show the ship flying in space for a while, landing on the ship, Vader disembarking, etc. It brings the whole narrative to a screeching halt, drains energy and tension from the story, and for what? To watch someone walking around? If you show him on the ship, everyone knows how he got there, we don't need to see it.