Bai Hehuai Lover

When it comes to the character work, there are very few shows that have done it better. It's truly masterful writing and very realistic, and both Komagine Kiita and Niihara Taisuke did incredible jobs with said writing. Shirasaki's insecurities pushed a lot of the plot in the first season, and it was the same this season — it becomes very clear right at the start of the first episode that he feels like Hayama is too good for him, so Shirasaki is constantly trying to prove that they are equals when it comes to acting. This propels the main plot thread of the season — a stage play that both of them want the lead role of: the director of the play is someone that Shirasaki desperately wants to work with, and Hayama loves the novel that is being adapted and playing the lead is his dream role. This understandably leads to some (minor) friction in their relationship, and as Hayama is a people pleaser, he ends up dropping out — primarily because of a movie role he is being offered that his agent is urging him to take, but also bc he can see how important this role is to Shirasaki. As the first season didn't really get to dig deep into Hayama's people pleasing tendencies, season 2 takes the opportunity to do that. I also thought it was brilliant how their roles reflected where they were mentally — Shirasaki playing a character who murdered someone and inhabited that person's life (the rehearsal scenes harping on the fact that he has "replaced someone" when he feels inadequate to play the part... *chefs kiss*) and Hayama playing a character with a fraught dynamic with his mother causing him to finally confront things he had been avoiding. The interiority of the two characters is just so rich this season and there were so many scenes that knocked the wind out of me.

BUT for a show that is categorized as a romance, the writers really really dropped the ball there. The season starts really strong on that front as the first episode is mostly dedicated to showing them in a functional, established (albeit secret) relationship and even when the idea of a breakup is brought up as they are a bit worried about how their relationship being discovered might affect their careers, they reassert that they want to be together and even take the step of moving in together. (Like last season, the metatextual analysis is exquisite — the unflinching discussion about what it's like to be openly out in the entertainment industry was so, so, so good!) But as soon as the stage play becomes part of the plot, the romance takes a backseat to the character work — which, in and of itself is fine! I don't mind romance being more peripheral to the story, but their relationship did not feel very reciprocal to me. Now a lot of people on here (and other social media) seem to have a lot of disdain towards Shirasaki bc of his fixation on trying to catch up to Hayama's career, and I do think a lot of people's responses are a huge overreaction, but it was honestly frustrating and a little confusing to see the direction their relationship took. Hayama is a top tier boyfriend — constantly being emotional support for Shirasaki, constantly reassuring Shirasaki when he starts having his insecurity spirals, being generally supportive. And while Shirasaki's headspace is understandable, he constantly seemed to be oblivious about what was going on with Hayama and was so myopically focused on his own distress. Like (spoilers lol) their argument in 2.09 gave me such huge whiplash bc Hayama is finally discussing how he is struggling with the movie role — something he didn't want to do bc he knows about Shirasaki's stress over the play and doesn't want to put more on his plate — and then Shirasaki immediately starts talking about how he's struggling with the play before returning to what should have always been the focus of this conversation: asking Hayama if he actually wants to do a recent job offer. Idk I don't hate Shirasaki like a lot of viewers seem to — I'm still invested in them being a couple even — but it was irritating to see how Hayama was always thinking about him and constantly prioritizing him and then Shirasaki was just so self-absorbed. Like the appeal of fictional romantic relationships for me is reciprocity!! And season 2 just didn't really give that.

Idk, I definitely think season 2 is worth a watch and I have to applaud the writers for taking me on a ride where I truly had no idea where things were going to go, but I'm nowhere near as likely to revisit this as I am to revisit the first season.