AbsoluteBL
chronic traveller
This review may contain spoilers
university BL, forced proximity, unrequited love, crush, slight love triangle
triggers = outing, bashing, stalking
Stars Kim Tae Hwan (My Amazing Boyfriend) and Han Hyeon Jun (Strongberry's Please Tell Me So the one with the cafe and the bicycle that’s on YT).
It’s like Korea mashed together it’s school KBL style (Light on Me, Semantic Error) with it’s “adult BL (To My Star, Ocean Likes Me). Love Class almost felt like it was trying to bridge between the nostalgic yaoi ideologue of Cherry Blossoms After Winter and the messy gritty queerness of Blueming. But this attempted stylistic mash-up made for an inharmonious show.
I am reminded of an L.M. Montgomery quote,
“... having tried to please both sides, [he] succeeded, as is usual and eminently right, in pleasing neither.” (Anne of Avonlea)
It mixed in an aura of authentic queerness that is an anathema to the “sanitized gay bubble” that Korea prefers, add that to the normal KBL overly short run time and a plot driven by an outsider’s drama (female love interest’s stalking narrative) and the central relationship wasn’t treated with enough integrity. In short, they bit off more than they could chew.
A TON happened in 6 short episodes, this show has A LOT of content, and covers a lot of ground. It moved so fast, and with Korea’s signature “you missed it because it happened off screen” it felt scattered - even tho it had a clear linear story structure. It felt as if this were a full 16 45 min episodes being summarized for us in short form as CliffsNotes BL.
From the start I wasn’t really behind the premise. It’s a forced proximity thing, which is fine as a trope, but the class pushing them to be a couple (and then punishing them for it) is overly odd as a conceit. Also I’ve never enjoyed a BL where the lead (Ji Woo) is crushing on a girl 80% the time. That said, I do like it when the seme has a big old crush on a boy. Although Ro-A’s roommate dynamic confused me: are they exes, almost exes, or friends who never got together but probubly should have?
It’s always interesting when there is a clear seme/uke dynamic (as Korea likes in its school-set BLs) but the gay love triangle (such as it is) is around the seme character. By playing about with aggressive gayness, the narrative is calling into question the nature of romantic pursuit and the nature of the seme/uke dynamic. Unfortunately, this particular narrative didn’t have enough screen time to really explore this fascinating angle.
??? - There’s got to be a name for the trope where “I got injured because of you, and now you have to be my servant.“ Although I do love it when the seme is a bit of a brat. It’s like a short form indenture version of whipping boy. Korea is also a big fan of the premises: If a man is hot enough he can turn anyone gay. I'm not convinced on these tropes, old school though they might be.
The rejection in this one was particularly painful. And it’s one of those “but if your bisexual don’t suffer by being perceived as gay and dating me.” I’m going to save you pain in the long run. Which is a pretty core misunderstanding of bisexuality but not uncommon IRL, and kinda expected from a caring seme like Ro-A. We ended on a rapid reunion (classic Kdrama) and bit of a dead fish kiss (also classic Kdrama), but not as bad as it could be.
All in all, this was a fast-moving, bloated, complicated little show with stronger than usual story structure, well-acted if lacking in chemistry, that managed to be very appealing and engaging despite itself. What it lacked in content it more than made up for in pacing. Both bingable and rewatchable.
RECOMMENDED
Stars Kim Tae Hwan (My Amazing Boyfriend) and Han Hyeon Jun (Strongberry's Please Tell Me So the one with the cafe and the bicycle that’s on YT).
It’s like Korea mashed together it’s school KBL style (Light on Me, Semantic Error) with it’s “adult BL (To My Star, Ocean Likes Me). Love Class almost felt like it was trying to bridge between the nostalgic yaoi ideologue of Cherry Blossoms After Winter and the messy gritty queerness of Blueming. But this attempted stylistic mash-up made for an inharmonious show.
I am reminded of an L.M. Montgomery quote,
“... having tried to please both sides, [he] succeeded, as is usual and eminently right, in pleasing neither.” (Anne of Avonlea)
It mixed in an aura of authentic queerness that is an anathema to the “sanitized gay bubble” that Korea prefers, add that to the normal KBL overly short run time and a plot driven by an outsider’s drama (female love interest’s stalking narrative) and the central relationship wasn’t treated with enough integrity. In short, they bit off more than they could chew.
A TON happened in 6 short episodes, this show has A LOT of content, and covers a lot of ground. It moved so fast, and with Korea’s signature “you missed it because it happened off screen” it felt scattered - even tho it had a clear linear story structure. It felt as if this were a full 16 45 min episodes being summarized for us in short form as CliffsNotes BL.
From the start I wasn’t really behind the premise. It’s a forced proximity thing, which is fine as a trope, but the class pushing them to be a couple (and then punishing them for it) is overly odd as a conceit. Also I’ve never enjoyed a BL where the lead (Ji Woo) is crushing on a girl 80% the time. That said, I do like it when the seme has a big old crush on a boy. Although Ro-A’s roommate dynamic confused me: are they exes, almost exes, or friends who never got together but probubly should have?
It’s always interesting when there is a clear seme/uke dynamic (as Korea likes in its school-set BLs) but the gay love triangle (such as it is) is around the seme character. By playing about with aggressive gayness, the narrative is calling into question the nature of romantic pursuit and the nature of the seme/uke dynamic. Unfortunately, this particular narrative didn’t have enough screen time to really explore this fascinating angle.
??? - There’s got to be a name for the trope where “I got injured because of you, and now you have to be my servant.“ Although I do love it when the seme is a bit of a brat. It’s like a short form indenture version of whipping boy. Korea is also a big fan of the premises: If a man is hot enough he can turn anyone gay. I'm not convinced on these tropes, old school though they might be.
The rejection in this one was particularly painful. And it’s one of those “but if your bisexual don’t suffer by being perceived as gay and dating me.” I’m going to save you pain in the long run. Which is a pretty core misunderstanding of bisexuality but not uncommon IRL, and kinda expected from a caring seme like Ro-A. We ended on a rapid reunion (classic Kdrama) and bit of a dead fish kiss (also classic Kdrama), but not as bad as it could be.
All in all, this was a fast-moving, bloated, complicated little show with stronger than usual story structure, well-acted if lacking in chemistry, that managed to be very appealing and engaging despite itself. What it lacked in content it more than made up for in pacing. Both bingable and rewatchable.
RECOMMENDED
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