The Closeted BL Fan

You took the thoughts right out of my head. Now people are starting to see the problems I was pointing out from since episode two.

Hmmm...maybe Sean couldn't be convinced but what about the rest of the crew? Sean definitely cannot do the mission on his own and the other guys seem to be a bit more reasonable, White could have told his counter plan to the team and appeal to the rest of the team that his way is a better option. It's terribly risky to have everyone put their lives on the line to execute one plan and then at the critical moment change up the plan to something else without anyone else knowing what is happening. The only reason why they all made it out of that situation is because the writers willed it to be so.

I see where you are coming from and it does make sense. But you have to admit that the way they are executing the story is not the best and it's just alienating many viewers. The writing and directing teams are trying to do it all to please everyone, but at the same time not doing any one thing in particular properly. The one major thing in my opinion that would fix a lot of problems with the story is if White actually tried harder at pretending to be Black, instead of basically being himself.

Hmm...I think the whole point of the test was to see if Black would actually snitch on his friends if he was in that situation for real. According to the show, Black most likely would have never done such a thing. He probably would rather die than give up his friends. White giving up the names makes sense for his character and not Black's character. That is why the team should have realised that "Black" is not really himself lately and should probably sit this mission out, that is logical. But "Black" didn't sit this mission out because of reasons (mainly the writers willed it to be so)!

Maybe the team's plans are rudimentary because they are somewhat rookies, i can buy that. But too many things should have gone wrong when they were at that factory. That place was crawling with guards and cameras, not to mention the area of that factory was huge. Ain't no way a group of rookies were all making it out of that situation together.

I couldn't agree with you more. From since episode two I was pointing out the glaring flaws the story of this show has but almost no one saw the problems I was seeing. Now the problems are becoming so obvious that you have to basically be delusional to try to rationalize them.

I CALL BULLSHIT ON THIS EPISODE!!!! (Ep.6)

You can try to rationalize it all you want but too much should have gone wrong for this episode to start making sense.

If the episode had continued like that GMMTV and I would have ended up in a fight. Luckily they knew exactly what we the fans wanted and they gave us the true episode we deserved in the second half of ep 12. The first half was just them messing with us (I was literally ready to cut a b**ch).

Guys, I think this is probably the best first episode of any BL or Bromance series so far. I spent the past hour trying to think of another show that has a better first episode and I came up with none. Flashbacks are a tricky tool to use in storytelling because it can be viewed as lazy writing sometimes. But this show did flashbacks perfectly, it didn't cheapen the story but instead added layers of emotional depth to it. The script for the first episode is damn near perfect, the cinematography is top tier and unique to the show (in the world of BLs), and the actors are good enough to give justice to such a brilliant script. I really have my fingers crossed that the excellent craftsmanship of the first episode will continue through out the remaining episodes of the series. If it does, then it definitely will be making it's way into the top 5 BLs of all time. But let's see how the story unfolds. Seriously though I challenge any of you, name a BL or Bromance show with a better first episode than this series.

If you had a twin that you haven't seen since you were nine years old and now you have to impersonate the grown up version of that twin, would you seriously do the impersonation of that twin as you remember them when you were nine? Logically you would try to do as much research as possible to have an idea of who your twin has become before you try stepping into their shoes. Remember White had no contact with Black and his mother since he and his father left Thailand for Russia. So it would make sense for White to want to have an idea of who Black is before he risks his life impersonating him in a dangerous gang. That is where Tod could provide him with social media and personal videos of how the gang operates. The gang would probably have a name on social media and that's what they would upload their activism under. White would not know their name but Tod has had contact with them over the years so it's not far-fetched for him to have access to such videos. White could learn from those videos along with Tod's guidance and then begin his mission of uncovering the truth about what happened to his brother.

But the premise of the show is that Black's crew are dangerous people and one of them, if not all of them, is somehow responsible for putting Black in the ICU. White is risking his life to infiltrate the crew to uncover the truth. So when I see White doing such a poor job of trying to be Black it goes against the premise that the show has set up for the audience. The stakes that the premise present start to go down as you see White just being White when he is with the crew and not even trying to convince them he is Black as though his life depended on it. Because his life is supposed to depend on it, that's the premise the show set up from the start. It can't just abandon that within the first few episodes. That is why I said the writers are not telling the best version of the story. I am calling them out on that. If you minus the BL element, the show seems very much grounded in reality. And in reality you can't just enter into a dangerous gang without some kind of preparation first. Make one wrong move and you could end up dead. Just ask any officer that was once undercover.

Ok guys, I have something unpopular to say and I am wondering if anyone else out there is feeling the same as me. Don't get me wrong, Not Me is a great show and it is pushing forward the momentum of having more and more BLs that are not primarily set in Universities. The show is proving that we, BL fans, are very much ready for other kinds of BL stories. The acting from the main cast is top notch and the production is some of the best in the industry this year. But there is one thing about this show that makes me cringe, it vexes me every time they disregard it. And that is the direction the writing and directing team has taken the premise of the show. Hear me out, the show has a great premise: One twin is beaten within an inch of his life and is critical in the ICU, so the other twin has decided to pretend to be that twin and lives his life in order to discover who is responsible for the assault of the twin in the hospital. Throw in the political activism and romance and you got yourself one hell of a show.

But my discontent comes from the direction that has been given to the character of White pretending to be Black. The character does a piss poor job of pretending and I can't help but roll my eyes at it. Yes, I can already hear the lot of you saying "But that's the point, he is supposed to do a poor job" but in my opinion the writing and directing of that character was not done with intrigue in mind. We are living in a world where almost everyone videos almost everything. As the writer I would have written it so that White has learned to be like Black by watching videos Tod provided him of Black and his friends. It's unheard of for people to be as socially active as that crew and not have a heavy social media presence, so attaining videos of the crew for White to learn from is not at all far-fetched. In that way he would already have an idea about everyone in the crew and Black's place in it. The intrigue would be watching White perform as Black when he is actually with the crew and on a surface level he would do a good job of it. But as he goes deeper and deeper with them his performance would start getting exposed because of the things about Black that only his crew knows, things that they never filmed, things that White could have never prepared for. That would be when the crew would start questioning if it really is Black. White would start doing things a bit differently than Black as he uncovers who is brother truly is, shifting the crew to a less radical and more practical way of doing things over the course of the series. Channeling their anger for the establishment into avenues that are more fruitful than burning down another politicians house.

Then during the process of channeling the anger of the crew Sean takes notice of the difference in Black and becomes intrigued. This intrigue leads to a budding romance where in the end Sean would discover the truth about White/Black. But their romance would stem from White trying to prove to Sean that he is Black, because of all the crew members, Sean is the one with the most questions about White's performance as Black. But Sean would slowly fall for the new side of Black that white is presenting, hence the romance. As a writer that is the direction I would have given the character of White/Black. It would have made for a much more compelling version of the story in my opinion. But instead we basically get White putting on Black's appearance but still being White. He does nothing substantial to perform like Black with respect to the premise of the series which is White pretending to be Black. Show the audience how White pretends by actually have him pretend. Remember, White is going in this crew with the mindset that at least one of them is dangerous enough to almost beat Black to death. So if he messes up his performance it could mean the end of him, literally. Instead we have the version of the story where White is crying in front of Sean and falling into his arms almost like a damsel in distress within the first few episodes. He is supposed to be putting on a performance and coming up with smart ways of getting out of situations where his cover would almost be blown. Like when he gulped down those nuts to hide the fact that he was rummaging through Sean's bag for his own reasons in episode 3, give me more of that please, that is the better version of the White/Black story.

But Yok and Dan, the way their story is developing is what I live for with BLs. It's glorious! Why do most side couples steal the thunder of the main couple? But hey, I ain't complaining.

Yes, I completely agree with you. BLs can be way more diverse than just the typical university and High School settings. But trust me, it will change much sooner than later. As the BL audience gets hungry for more fresh content, the writers and producers will have no choice but to diversify their stories. You can get hundreds if not thousands of BLs from village settings, city settings, the workplace setting, gang settings, sports settings; and the list could go on and on. Just hang in there, the stories you crave will soon come, it's inevitable.

The BL genre is definitely evolving to express more LGBTQ concerns (Dark Blue Kiss, Life: Senjou no Bokura, Make Our Days Count, ETC). But without that "guy trying to get the other guy to fall for him" or "both guys slowly falling for each other" magic, BL just wouldn't be the same.

I understand what you mean. God knows I had to sit through too many stories with tragic endings. But now things have changed. There are hardly any stories with gay relationships that end badly. Happy endings for everyone! But I will always fight for BLs to keep their fantasy element because that is what made them so special and unique in the first place. I keep reminding people of that.

And what I love about it too is that the writers don't make the gay character be defined by that one characteristic. The character is either trying to find love or happens upon love. Society may play a role in the trials of that love and sometimes society maybe a non issue to that love. It all depends on the writer. But the BL fantasy element is still there with the one guy trying to make the other guy fall for him, or both guys slowly falling for each other.

Yes, it's basically a cultural thing. Gay relationships is still a very taboo topic among the older folks in those Asian countries and so that's why I think there is this obsession with straight guys falling for each other in BLs. It's a reflection of the younger society internalizing the relationships and coming to their understanding of what the relationships might be like. It's a more romanticized understanding yes but at least it's something, compared to having no understanding at all.

That is one of the first things I have learned about BL, it's distinct from normal LGBTQ media. I spoke to another user of this site who expressed the same concerns about no BL tags on these shows to distinguish them. They said they reached out to the Admin about it and haven't yet received a response.

Well that's why I try to remind them about the fantasy elements of these shows which requires some suspension of belief.

Thank You!!! Keep Safe.