sapphicdisaster

Interesting take. I find it difficult to read this series in any other way I described, but I appreciate different perspectives

I never said that I would want a friend like Soo-min, in fact I have said that I dislike her and that she's a bad person over and over. I just want to make that clear, this is not about justifying her actions at all. All I meant is: She is awful AND she still doesn't deserve to be hit by her partner. This is pretty much all I hope that people take away with my criticism of the show. I hope you understand my point now, if not, then I will just have to give up lolol

I know the show won't meet my expectations, that's just how it is occasionally lol

you misunderstood me haha, I meant the plot potentially harmful for the reasons I listed. Either way, I feel like you need to calm down a bit, my entire grievance with this show is that we shouldn't wish terrible fates upon people just because we don't like them, so you shouldn't do that to me either :)

I don't want to repeat myself too much, so if you want to know my thoughts on this, please read my reply to B_Doona :)

yes within the narrative this is true, someone has to be abused by the dirtbag husband. I just don't think there was a need for a story like that. The author didn't have to write it that way. I think a plot about where a female character has to sort of "get sacrificed" and we have to pick the least likable woman in the show who most deserves it, is kind of a weak concept. Maybe even a slightly harmful one. It kind of pushes the idea that only good, likable people deserve our pity when they face abuse.
Obviously it's just a drama and in my opinion, it's pretty entertaining, at least it's keeping me engaged and watching. But I also still think that even if its sole purpose is to make a compelling story we should still examine and critique its subtextual themes.

also, am I going insane, or is Yoo Ji-hyuk drowning in nearly every suit they make him wear in this godforsaken drama? Like what is happening there. I googled the actor's height, he is not a tiny guy. Who were those ginormous suits made for????

keeping it real, all the girls in this show, good or comically evil, should just team up and k-word that man

The fact that our protagonist knows that her (future) husband has abusive tendencies and still insists on setting her former best friend up with him, really does not sit right with me as a concept. Like even if she is an objectively bad person and Kang Ji-won hates her, I don't know how she could wish this existence upon anyone else. Noone deserves an abusive partner. I don't know, the whole premise feels very mean-spirited and every character is either over the top good or evil with no space inbetween. At this point, I am kind of hate-watching this. Any K-drama that tries too hard to make me hate a woman is kind of a hard sell to me ngl.

CINEMA IS BACK BABY

whoa, what's up with the rating? is the drama genuinely this good and if so how? Everything about it looks rather generic to me but colour me intrigued.

This will fix me

I 100% agree, as I was watching GAP I also thought that this would have been way more accessible for me if I had been into BL first.
Though I do think, in fairness, that the BL-scene also has evolved past the experience that GAP delivered. I mean I haven’t watched a lot of them (okay I actually have only finished one Thai BL and that being the atypical ITSAY and its successor ) but from what I have gathered, the more recent gay dramas have been significantly Iess trope-ridden and a lot more healthy. In one way I do kind of like that GAP opted to give us cliches and melodrama, considering how overly serious and depressing lesbian cinema has been. I guess I just falsely expected the GL genre to pick off where the BL-genre is at currently. But maybe GAP needed to walk so future GLs can run :)

My mistake, I forgot to put a dash between man-hating, I didn’t mean that he hated feminists, I meant that she was portrayed as a feminist that hates men.

I don’t really believe in the concept of a female gaze (in the sense that I don’t think such one can exist under the patriarchy) but interesting point

However if I have totally misread this show I am willing to learn 😌😌😌😌

I thought about watching this but the premise of a “man-hating feminist” that is saved by true love is not appealing to me at all especially considering South Koreas treatment of supposedly radical feminist groups. Idk maybe I am just a hater but I sense that there is a certain agenda at work here

I have made fun of this drama for all its silliness but if I had to name a genuine plus I would say that I actually really really really liked how they handled Kirk as a character. Not as in, I like Kirk the character but as in, I think he’s a genuinely interesting personality. He’s not an over-the-top mustache-twirling villain and his flaws aren’t super apparent and maybe at the beginning you’re inclined to even pity him but as the story progresses, his faults are becoming more and more apparent. I really hope they keep his character just the way he is now because he has valid and believable motivations for the way he acts and he comes across as a scumbag without being cartoonishly evil. I thinks he’s a surprisingly nuanced person for a drama that tends to be very on the nose.

That sucks, of course, lesbophobia is to be condemned regardless of GAPs quality but that's obviously not the criticism I am talking about because it really isn't criticism at all, just bigotry. A lot has changed since Yes Or No, back then, the BL genre wasn't all that popular in Thailand either. I'm not really all that invested in the genre, but to my knowledge, the first full-length BL in Asia was produced 2014??? Please correct me if I am wrong though. Either way, while representation I undeniably important and I would never argue anything else, social change happens first which then affects what kind of content gets produced. I am faithful that as Asia progresses, so will the diversity in its media content. And that's a development that will happen regardless of how damming reviews of a drama on a web portal were.

I fully recognize what GAP represents, but I don't think we need to be this pessimistic about the future of GL. There are more WLW dramas scheduled for 2023. Also wether, or a show is a critical hit on MDL or not, doesn't have that much impact on its success as a franchise. This show is getting attention and clcks either way. I also don't think anyone is being harsher on GAP than they need to be. At least I haven't seen any deeply unfair takes on the show so far. Either way something can be hyped and critized at the same time. I wouldn't pin all my hopes and dreams concerning the future of GL on GAP, that will probably leave you disappointed.

I think episode 9 was a tad better than its predecessor but I do still have my grievances with this show. I am happy that GAP didn't go the super serious melodrama route and opted to give us the kitsch that one would expect from a BL in the same realm but even for something that is trying to be cheesy and trope-ridden it just doesn't feel polished enough. Now you can of course be super defensive and yell at me for not being more lenient as GAP is the first Thai full-length GL ever, but I am already watching this with my brain turned all the way off. I am not expecting art-house cinema here, no worries. I always knew that this wouldn't be the lesbian I Told Sunset About You. The premise made it quite clear that what I was in for would be, well at least sort of stupid. But then I feel like GAP won't even commit to that. It all feels very lukewarm, very half-baked. I know that this wasn't a huge production but you can still do a lot more with a small budget than what GAP is delivering.
I don't think this drama is without potential. I am having my fun with it occasionally. And while I think that the cinematography has been close to atrocious so far, I actually would say that the spicier scenes are surprisingly well-shot. And despite the rookie acting, the two leads have undeniable chemistry. But this doesn't change that all of this is a bit of a mess.
I am a miserable lesbian, I promise that I wanted to love this with all my heart. I am also not at all a BL fan so I am not playing favorites here. People are being unreasonably upset in the comments because of the mixed feedback this show is receiving when pretty much all of what I have read is 100% justified. I know why so many people feel like they have to defend this drama with all their might. Us sapphics are either fetishized or overlooked. Sometimes it's hard to believe that others might genuinely have good intentions. I keep reading how GAP is a stepping-stone to better representation. But if we want better, we have to demand better.