I think that it fails even as a traditional KDrama. I don’t watch BL just for “cute BL scenes.” I’m not a romance fan in general, so without a good story, a drama is nothing to me even if the main couple is cute.
This drama failed because of the poor writing. The “existential monologues” ended up feeling heavy-handed and pretentious. There were several superfluous subplots that were superficial, cliche, and/or went nowhere in the end. And the misunderstandings were not well portrayed. Watch Gelboys if you actually want a good representation of misunderstandings in relationships that isn’t trope-y and doesn’t drag on.
I would never trust a film critic who thought this was well written.
is there any recent well-made korean bl (or bl in general) I can binge to forget the pain this drama gave me?
Not sure how recent you’re looking for, but my top 4 KBLs are Semantic Error, The Eighth Sense, Love in the Big City (drama, not movie), and Blueming. Top BL of all time that just came out a couple months ago is the Thai BL Gelboys. It’s a truly amazing and authentic queer story!
Dude what kills me is that Seung Won saying he turned out the lights so astronomy-lover Heesu could see the stars would have been the most adorable thing ever in any true BL drama, but instead he’s saying that while they’re sitting 2 feet apart, pointedly not touching like a couple of bros chilling after practice 😭
Am I the only one who likes this show? This is the reality in Korea. Homosexual couples don't show at all or keep…
Except that the lack of a coming out scene isn’t what people took issue with at all? *Actually read* the critical comments. No one is complaining about the fact that there was no big grand coming out scene between the main couple. Most BL dramas don’t have that and they can still be very good. But unfortunately this one was trash for a number of reasons.
Also, Chanyoung and Jiyu as a character felt so unfinished as well. So, what was the point of making them as main…
Seriously. The tennis storyline, the “Summer” storyline, AND their relationship storyline all felt superficial. There was no reason to make them mains if this was all they were going to do with them.
The scenes with Chan Young in today’s episode filled me with nothing but deep incandescent rage. Him saying Heesu is selfish for confessing his (past) feelings???? Bro you’ve been nothing but selfish throughout this entire series like how dare you??
There’s a lot wrong with this adaptation but his character is for sure the worst part.
Why does this show insist on giving Chan Young these super unnecessary melodramatic confrontation scenes? First the scene a couple episodes ago where he’s snapping at Seung Won for “liking” Ji Yu, and now the silly hallway confrontation with Heesu? Enough! The fact that this character is written to blow these little things out of proportion and publicly shame his friends at school just makes him even more unlikable. Which is crazy because what reason have we ever been given to care about him at all?
“Slow burn” to me implies steadily increasing romantic tension between the leads as they get to know each other (or as they get to know each other in a different context than they did previously).
The problem here is that for the most part, we didn’t even start to get those moments of romantic tension and that spark of attraction until the end of episode 7. Episode 5 was the exception. There was quite a bit of time devoted to Heesu spending time with and learning more about Seung Won and his life and I thought that was great!
I just keep thinking what a missed opportunity this drama is, because what if more time was actually consistently invested into developing their interest in each other over time instead of constantly switching the focus to superfluous tennis scenes and other poorly-integrated filler?
We could have learned so much more by now about Seung Won’s interests and hobbies, his relationship with his moms, his life goals, friendships, likes and dislikes…everything! We could have also learned more about what attracted him to Heesu and what he likes about him, which would support the romantic development between them.
I don’t mind a slow burn at all - I even really enjoy that as a romantic trope - but I just think a slow burn romance can be done so much better than this. Like so much of this drama doesn’t feel like a “burn” so much as a drag.
why is a kissing scene always a requirement to be considered as "bl"? is there a law about this or something
Couples kiss. It isn’t about it being a BL. It’s about wanting representations of people to be true to life. Especially representations of queer people who are underrepresented in media.
I fully understand that when people tune into a BL, they come in with expectations. I do too — we look forward…
My expectations have been firmly lowered by this week’s episodes because to me, there’s very little to appreciate in what the adaptation has been doing.
They’ve ruined Chan Young’s character entirely, turned Ji Yu into a cliche, and added superfluous storylines without putting in the work to make them meaningful or interesting.
But at this point, the comparison to the manhwa isn’t even what I find disappointing about this series. I personally think the pacing is bad and the writing is poor even without comparing it to the source material.
There are some good moments and a few good episodes (1, 2, and 5 stood out to me), but overall 50% of the show feels like poorly integrated filler. There’s nothing powerful about that.
Wow, they really messed up Chanyeong’s character. He used to be someone who cared about Heesu and didn’t want…
Exactly! Chan Young in the manhwa went out of his way to help Seung Won get Heesu’s attention specifically because he didn’t want their friendship to be ruined. But in the adaptation he doesn’t seem to care about Heesu’s life or wellbeing at all.
And you’re right, there’s no excuse for all these cliches. Ji Yu and Chan Young’s relationship could have developed completely naturally if they’d just stuck to the plot of the manhwa. I actually ship them more in the manhwa where they weren’t even romantic interests than I do on the show where they’re a couple.
I strongly disagree that it’s “objectively” good. Or that the story is well done. Semantic Error was much…
“[Piece of media] is good” is not and will never be an objective fact. What makes a piece of art “good” is inherently subjective. Keep up with your school and hopefully someday you’ll learn that.
I strongly disagree that it’s “objectively” good. Or that the story is well done. Semantic Error was much…
Nope, there’s still subjectivity that’s inherent to those things because people who consume art will always look for different subjective criteria within it to determine for themselves what is good. Artists themselves have different ideas about what makes art good. Many artists set out to challenge the conventions of their art forms. And some people love to see those norms being broken and therefore consider the art to be good, and many others think that the conventions ought not to be broken, so they consider the art bad.
And on the flip side, some filmmakers follow all the textbook conventions of filmmaking and there will still be people who see their art as bad for some reason or other.
This isn’t something you can learn from a textbook. Many highly regarded films break textbook conventions and are still seen as excellent art. I actually can’t believe that a student of the arts would ever think like this. You need to embrace subjectivity because that’s the heart of what art is.
This drama failed because of the poor writing. The “existential monologues” ended up feeling heavy-handed and pretentious. There were several superfluous subplots that were superficial, cliche, and/or went nowhere in the end. And the misunderstandings were not well portrayed. Watch Gelboys if you actually want a good representation of misunderstandings in relationships that isn’t trope-y and doesn’t drag on.
I would never trust a film critic who thought this was well written.
There’s a lot wrong with this adaptation but his character is for sure the worst part.
The problem here is that for the most part, we didn’t even start to get those moments of romantic tension and that spark of attraction until the end of episode 7. Episode 5 was the exception. There was quite a bit of time devoted to Heesu spending time with and learning more about Seung Won and his life and I thought that was great!
I just keep thinking what a missed opportunity this drama is, because what if more time was actually consistently invested into developing their interest in each other over time instead of constantly switching the focus to superfluous tennis scenes and other poorly-integrated filler?
We could have learned so much more by now about Seung Won’s interests and hobbies, his relationship with his moms, his life goals, friendships, likes and dislikes…everything! We could have also learned more about what attracted him to Heesu and what he likes about him, which would support the romantic development between them.
I don’t mind a slow burn at all - I even really enjoy that as a romantic trope - but I just think a slow burn romance can be done so much better than this. Like so much of this drama doesn’t feel like a “burn” so much as a drag.
They’ve ruined Chan Young’s character entirely, turned Ji Yu into a cliche, and added superfluous storylines without putting in the work to make them meaningful or interesting.
But at this point, the comparison to the manhwa isn’t even what I find disappointing about this series. I personally think the pacing is bad and the writing is poor even without comparing it to the source material.
There are some good moments and a few good episodes (1, 2, and 5 stood out to me), but overall 50% of the show feels like poorly integrated filler. There’s nothing powerful about that.
And you’re right, there’s no excuse for all these cliches. Ji Yu and Chan Young’s relationship could have developed completely naturally if they’d just stuck to the plot of the manhwa. I actually ship them more in the manhwa where they weren’t even romantic interests than I do on the show where they’re a couple.
And on the flip side, some filmmakers follow all the textbook conventions of filmmaking and there will still be people who see their art as bad for some reason or other.
This isn’t something you can learn from a textbook. Many highly regarded films break textbook conventions and are still seen as excellent art. I actually can’t believe that a student of the arts would ever think like this. You need to embrace subjectivity because that’s the heart of what art is.