A Diamond In The Rough

Oh but I'm so glad Love Class is back. I was one of the, apparently, few people who really loved season 1 but let me assure you even if you did not like season 1, you might just enjoy this anyway.
This show is tied to the original Love Class by the thinnest of threads, so much so that you won't have to have even read the synopsis of the original to understand this series.

This sequel is also tonally quite different from series 1. It's slightly more grounded and mature, not angstier, just a little quieter.
There is quite a nice soundtrack, but the music mostly takes a backseat and the characters are instead allowed to just exist, sometimes silently, without sound effects, without music telling the audience how to feel. It lends the show an almost whimsical indie feel, but also just a feeling of realism and gravity.

Just like the original Love Class, the highlights of this show are its characters. These six young people are portrayed with care and authenticity and their lives and experiences feel real even when they venture into the slightly contrived.
I specifically loved Lee Hyun and Kim An's roles and found their dynamic compelling and honestly just very sweet.
Kim An's "tragic backstory", for lack of a better term, didn't really work all that well for me, certainly not as well as Yu Na's story arc from season 1, but the writers still managed to tell a believable and touching story about overcoming grief and trauma and fighting tooth and nail for happiness in mundane, every-day ways.
The one draw-back of the cast is that they are all conspicuously male. Unlike Love Class 1, this season doesn't have any important female characters, much less ones central to the plot.
Disappointing as I find this fact, I did find myself quite fond of all six main characters fairly quickly which does somewhat speak to the quality of the writing.

I will admit that this show has its rough spots. The audio is at times incosistent, there even are one or two shots where a boom mic makes a surprise appearance, but personally I thought that just added to the nostalgic indie vibe of the whole thing.
What did bother me was the dreaded "sleeping kiss" cliche which suddenly reared its ugly head when I was least expecting it.

If however, you are willing to overlook these flaws, or quirks perhaps if you're feeling generous, then you will almost certainly find a hidden gem in this lovely little show.
As ever, Love Class stands out as somewhat unique amongst other shows in the genre and for that alone I'd say it's worth a watch.
Maybe you'll fall in love with it along the way, who knows.

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Lovely, Classy, Unexpected

I really, really like this one. When I first started watching it I couldn't even get through the first episode, but something convinced me to give it another shot and I'm so glad I did.
Once you get past the first episode, awkward and uncomfortable as it may be, you suddenly find yourself knee-deep in a compelling, well-written story with interesting and likeable characters that touches on some more mature topics which it handles quite deftly.

The show's strongest point are its characters. They all have interesting and realistic character arcs and grow significantly over the course of the series. The strong focus on friendship as well as relationships is especially wonderful.
What's also rare is the way the show centers its female characters. They both have agency, they both have their own very distinct personalities, they don't serve as mere plot-devices to further the main relationship, and the depictions of male-female friendships are just amazing.
The story also does a good job of exploring the realities of being a young woman and the constant looming threat of predatory men without ever getting too violent or reveling in the characters suffering. There is also nothing of the "damsel-in-distress" archetype about Yu Na's character even when she does ask for help, and this also makes that particular plot thread work much better than it might have done in a different show.

Another aspect of the series that I loved was its grounded and direct approach to queer characters and queer issues.
Ro Ah's relationship with his friend, for instance, is unique in that they are both queer, but while they both know that Nam Jun is romantically interested in Ro Ah, Ro Ah doesn't reciprocate these feelings and they simply stay friends and even live together with very few problems.
Ro Ah draws very clear boundaries and is incredibly direct about his wants and needs regarding their relationship and when Nam Jun oversteps those bounds, Ro Ah takes a very firm stand in how unacceptable such behaviour is.
I have never seen this sort of dynamic depicted in a queer drama before (unless the end-goal is for the two characters to end up together, of course) and I was very pleasantly surprised by it.
The characters also directly address the concept of coming out rather than just alluding to it which I have also not seen before and which I absolutely loved.

All in all there is a lot to love about this little series and I encourage you to give it a shot. If you can get past there first episode you will find a show full of realistic and charming characters, that knows how to inject subtle humour and genuine emotion into an interesting and somewhat unique storyline. It's an underrated gem of a show and if you let it, I think it might just charm you as thoroughly is it did me.

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A true gem of a romcom

This one became an instant classic for me, it's just that good.
To me this show is everything a romcom could and should be - the characters are believable and likable, the plot is compelling but does not take away from the romance, the pacing is well thought-out, and the romantic tension builds at a perfect speed.

But more than that this story has a deep understanding of not just its characters, but what being human means at large.
The characters are all vastly different personalities with their own unique charms and dynamics, but also each with their own unique set of flaws. They feel like real, actual people, and it is in that grounding connection to reality that the show really shines.
It makes the audience question things like "How do you deal with your life suddenly changing and starting down a path you never expected?", "What does loving someone really mean?", "How much are you letting the past control your current life?", and "What does forgiveness mean and whom exactly does it benefit?"

The show tells its story perfectly beat for beat and pulls the audience along on a ride that is in turns fun, emotional, captivating, and absolutely joyous. Add to that the lovely visuals, solid editing, and good music and you get a romantic drama par excellence.
I honestly can't think of any reason not to watch this show, I genuinely and wholeheartedly recommend it to any- and everyone. Go watch it already.

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A quiet, tender masterpiece

Ah, Blueming... what can I say about this show that hasn't already been said?
It is a wonderfully down-to-earth queer drama steeped in realism and tenderness in equal measure.

The visuals are gorgeous and combined with the excellent soundtrack create an atmosphere of quiet hopefulness and renewal, like the feeling of the first days of spring slowly creeping in to replace the winter cold.
That may sound overly poetic, but this story is so touching, so softly poignant that it just grabbed me by the heartstrings so tightly there is simply no other way to describe the impact it had other than through poeticism.
There are no great twists, no dramatic misunderstandings, no grand declarations of love and passion. There is just the slow and steady journey of a cast of achingly real people learning and growing and navigating their way towards happiness, which is portrayed with such raw emotional vulnerability it left me feeling cracked open a split apart in the best way possible.

This show will gently nudge you into reflecting on themes of love, self-image, societal pressures, and the mortifying ordeal of being known. It forgoes melancholy and angst and instead focuses on the raw, quiet joy of being alive and getting to grow and change and learn every day. Just watch it; everyone's soul needs to be wrung out and hung out to dry every once in a while and this story will do that for you.

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Paradoxically Underrated

This is one of my personal favourites and honestly one of the most criminally underrated shows on this entire site.
I have spent probably entirely too much time watching, rewatching, and analysing this show and I have a frankly unreasonable amount of opinions about the entire thing, so let me try and explain why I feel so strongly about what, to most people, seems to be nothing more than a mid-tier drama.

Let's start with the characters:
Onoe is unfailingly honest and direct, and wants to believe the best in everyone, which are qualities that frequently land him in trouble. He is earnest and sweet and does his job because he wants to genuinely help people.
Kaburagi meanwhile is the opposite. He is very quiet and jaded and has lost faith in the purpose of his job. He initially takes the job because, like Onoe, he wants to do good in the world and to learn how to peel back people's layers and find good there. Except he gets unlucky with his scoops, doesn't find that hoped for kindness and love anywhere and gets even more closed off and cynical as a result to the point where he essentially abandons all his ethics in the pursuit of newsworthy stories.
Their relationship could easily have been nothing more than a typical "complete opposites" dynamic, but the show opts for a much subtler and more low-key approach to this than usual and the dynamic quickly changes to the two characters balancing each other out more and more and making each other better.

This compelling subtlety permeates through all aspects of the show; the story touches on a lot of fascinating, complex, and serious topics, sometimes more in depth sometimes a bit less, in a very quiet and understated, but very deft way and then neatly ties every theme back to the characters and their personal growth and development.
Most of the "villains" the characters expose with their stories are much more than two- dimensional antagonists.
The show makes a point of showing that there is no such thing as clear-cut morality, that the "villains" aren't monsters beyond human comprehension, they're just people. There's a running theme of "Just because you did something evil doesn't mean you're not sympathetic" as well as "Just because I can empathise with you and understand your reason, you still did horrible things and that's not an excuse". To quote another clever show: "Cool motive, still murder"
As the story progresses it explores these topics in increasing depth and with such nuanced complexity that I found myself genuinely slack-jawed and amazed at times.

A further strong point of the show is Onoe and Kaburagi's relationship.
From the very beginning they communicate so openly with each other. Onoe, for example. figures out his attraction to Kaburagi very quickly, goes to ask his friend for advice, gives himself a bit of time to figure out the differences between platonic and romantic affection and once he does, is pretty much entirely upfront with Kaburagi about how he feels for the rest of the show.
Meanwhile Kaburagi is having a bit of a harder time figuring out what he's feeling but rather than letting their relationship devolve into an endless, angst-filled back and forth, he just tells Onoe how he feels.
He specifically tells Onoe "I like you! Probably" and every subsequent time Onoe confronts him about sending mixed signals or misunderstanding something, Kaburagi just very openly tells him "I don't know how I feel, I don't know what you are to me". They keep giving each other time and space to figure things out, which is such an unusual and healthy portrayal of a budding new relationship. I genuinely have never seen a romance drama paced like this before, it is a truly unique approach and a much-needed breath of fresh air for the genre.

In conclusion: This is a truly masterfully written and acted show, with solid visuals, an amazing cast of supporting characters, and an understated, deadpan type of humour that suits the story perfectly and which I personally find incredibly charming.
I keep coming back to this show again and again and the simple reason for this is that, to me, this show has an intrinsic and fundamental understanding of what it means to be human, flawed and multi-faceted and endlessly joyful.
I highly recommend you watch it.






Post-script with content warnings and mild spoilers:

One thing I feel like I have to address is the show's one unfortunate flaw - the source material.
There are two scenes in the show that I strongly disliked:
First, one in which Onoe is almost sexually assaulted by someone during an undercover operation, and while the show does acknowledge how bad that situation was, they sort of gloss over how serious and traumatising the experience should have been to Onoe.
Second, a scene in which Kaburagi's main informer lets him choose whether to pay for the intel with money or with sex and while Kaburagi does turn her down and only ever pays her in cash from then on out, the show never explicitly states how problematic such an arrangement is, nor do they condemn the informant specifically.
So why, where did those scenes come from, why do they feel so tonally inconsistent and out of place compared to the rest of the show?
This is where the source material becomes relevant. I got my hands on the manga on which the story is based, only to realise, with no small amount of horror, that the source material barely resembles the clever, heartfelt sensitivity of the show and is instead an incredibly run-of-the-mill, rapey yaoi trash-fire. That may sound harsh, but it is unfortunately accurate.
Seemingly the scriptwriters for the show did their level best to take the compelling concept of the manga while removing its glaring flaws. In their attempts to still remain as true to the original as possible, as fans so often demand, they only sanitised the scenes in question, rather than removing them completely. This doesn't excuse the inclusion of said scenes whatsoever, but it does contextualize them, and make them slightly easier to bear in my opinion.

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If I had the choice I'd do it all over again

My absolute favourite surprise hit of 2023.
This show could easily have used the time travel trope to tell another cliched love story, but what it did instead was combine genuinely charming and lovable characters with a compelling, character-driven plot which focuses not just on romance, but on more complex themes such as regret, loss and grief, the intricacies of friendship, the differences between the concept of an "ideal future" and one's actual, personal ideal future, and even alcoholism.
All of these topics are handled with sagacity and care and are woven seamlessly into the story.

The characters themselves are all flawed, yet sincerely likeable people who are allowed to evolve and grow not just within their romantic relationships, but outside of them as well. A perfect example of this is Pear who, rather than being sidelined as Kawi's perceived love interest and a simple obstacle on the path to "true love" between him and Pisaeng, is given a good amount of screen time which establishes her as an independent, multi-faceted character with her own motivations and idiosyncrasies.
Complex female characters who are central to the plot are still an incredible rarity in this genre, which makes Pear's addition to the show even more of a pleasant surprise.

Another thing the show does oh so wonderfully right is its approach to depicting queer characters. Not only does Pisaeng explore and question his sexuality outside of his attraction to Kawi, he also forms a bond which Max, who is not only a stellar supporting character, but also serves to offer a glimpse into the realities of being a young, openly queer person. The struggle of constantly having to fight for acceptance and equality, the internal battle for self-love, the fierce joy of being yourself, openly and unafraid.

All in all this is a truly wonderful show with a lot of heart, good music, and many interesting things to say. I'd recommend it to anyone who has ever struggled to find themselves, anyone who has ever wondered about the different roads their life could have gone down, or anyone who has ever had to fight to walk their own path.
I'd also recommend it to anyone who is simply looking for a good queer romcom.
Oh, just go watch it already, you won't regret it, I promise.

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An Actual Masterpiece

This one is an absolute classic for a very good reason.
The setting and plot may be nothing new, but the show makes full use of them and breathes new life into well-established tropes until it all comes together to create something truly unique.
The music and camera work fit the story perfectly, the acting is excellent, the script is tight, and the clever writing infuses the whole story with a dry, understated humour which suits the characters perfectly.
In short - the show is technically excellent.

But it's not just the fact that the show is objectively good that has so successfully endeared it to viewers.
It's how lovable and relatable the characters are. They are all clearly their own people with their own unique personalities which clash often, but also often mesh together very well, allowing for interesting friendships to form.
They feel incredibly true to life and frankly, seem to me like the exact type of unusual yet charming weirdos you'd find at any university or college campus.

Another strong suit of the show is its depiction of queer people and friendships. You won't find any stale romance tropes here, no queer relationships forced into weird, heterosexual dynamics. The characters respect each other's boundaries and take care not to overstep them, even when they're actively making a nuisance of themselves.
Sangwoo asks Jaeyoung to warn him in advance before touching him, so Jaeyoung does. Jaeyoung asks Sangwoo to not completely push him away and Sangwoo agrees to take some time to think about their relationship going forward.
They both try their best to stick together and make things work between them, yet never fall into a co-dependent "I'd sacrifice everything to be with you" dynamic.
Add to that some stand-out supporting characters (Yu Na, my absolute favourite), healthy male-female friendships, and some truly wonderful casual queer representation, and you've got an undeniable recipe for success.

If you haven't seen this show yet, I highly recommend that you do. I envy anyone who gets to experience watching it for the first time.

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Hop on, I'll take you anywhere you want to go!

This show was such a delightful surprise.
Many Thai dramas tend to fall on the raunchier side of the spectrum (which is not necessarily a bad thing, mind you) so this story made for a delightful change of pace. It is almost entirely character driven rather than plot driven and really takes the time it needs to develop everyone's personal character arcs fully, never rushing yet never slowing down either.
There are no sudden plot twists, no dramatic misunderstandings (at least none that don't get resolved almost immediately via the revolutionary method of Clear Communication) and at 10 episodes the story is perfectly paced.

I especially loved the show's varied depictions of queer people's lives. This is the first time I've seen an elderly queer couple depicted in a drama and I am so grateful for their inclusion here. Not only do those two serve as an endless well of support and advice for Mork and company, they are also plenty fun to watch just on their own.
Mork's tentative steps towards exploring his sexuality are incredibly lovely to watch and pleasantly devoid of any "gay for you" nonsense (although I did at one point find myself swearing at the screen for someone to just say the word "bisexual" already)
I also deeply appreciated the show's approach to Tawan's character who, while entirely comfortable and certain in his sexuality, is still new to relationships and physical intimacy and refuses to do anything but going at his own pace.
Given how, in depictions of relationships where one person is just discovering they may not be entirely straight, it's usually the openly queer person who is more assertive and sexually experienced, this was a refreshing twist on a well-established dynamic.

In short: If you're looking for a calm, low-drama show with good acting, a great cast of supporting characters, and a pleasantly diverse range of queer characters, then this one is for you.

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A Worthy Succesor

I liked this one even more than the original! The comedy is just as clever, the acting is just as good, and the commitment to the bit has only gotten stronger.
There is a touch more emotional depth to this one compared to its predecessor but that does nothing to detract from the punchy humour or to change the well-established format.
I also am an even bigger fan of this season's opening number than I was of the previous one. The heavily stylised greaser look just works really well, what can I say. Some of the segment transitions are also truly excellent this time around.

If you liked the first season and want more of exactly that, then you will love this. If you haven't watched the first season but want something short and highly entertaining to while away an hour or so, then this season also stands up really well on its own and I'd recommend giving it a shot.

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Big Win For The Country Gays

This is an understated, exceedingly tender slice-of-life story about finding where you belong and figuring out what brings you the most joy in life. So naturally I came running at top speed as soon as I heard about it and I was not disappointed.
The movie is visually stunning, which makes sense given the gorgeous scenery it has as a backdrop.
The writing and acting are both very solid, but what really surprised me was the quiet charm this movie brings to the table. This could easily have been nothing more than Japan's answer to God's Own Country (don't get me wrong, I love that movie but it does strike a very somber tone) but what we got instead is an absolutely heartwarming story with a very down-to-earth yet uplifting feel to it.

If you like looking at beautiful rural landscapes and/or watching sweet and sincere romances grounded in solid friendship, then this one is for you!

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Made my heart dance

What an utter joy this one was to watch.
Breathtaking visuals and lovely music underscore and enhance this beautiful, incredibly well-acted story. The writing is excellent, from the realistic and oftentimes genuinely hilarious dialogue, to the cleverly-utilised symbolism. The "red thread of fate" theme is woven into the story seamlessly and effectively and even made me tear up over a simple pinkie promise.
I also didn't think I'd ever feel particularly emotional about hard-boiled eggs, but here we are.
This is a deeply charming story about two people who utterly and completely fail to be normal about anything ever (in the best way possible, I promise) and still manage to find and hold onto each other in spite of every obstacle in their path.

If you're looking for a quick and easy watch with solid writing and gorgeous visuals, about two people and a love that all feel deeply real, then I cannot recommend this show more highly.

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Noone deserves to be lonely, we are all worthy of love

I think this show may have been written specifically for me.
A quiet, tender tale of finding human connection after an extended period of loneliness and learning to find joy in little things each and every day? Yeah, I fell absolutely head over heels in love with this story. The fact that it was also heavily themed around food was just the cherry on top of the absolutely glorious sundae.
The cast were all truly pitch-perfect in bringing this sweet little slice-of-life drama to life and displayed an unbelievable chemistry with each other that made the bonds between all the characters feel breathtakingly loving and achingly real.
If you want a show that teaches you about finding connection, leaving behind loneliness, coming out of your shell, and learning to fall in love with the world and the people in it again and again and again, then Bokura no Shokutaku is most definitely what you're looking for.
Even if you're just after a warm comfort-watch to pass some cozy evenings, this show is for you as well.

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Accidental Child Acquisition - The Show

This was an absolute delight of a special and serves as a perfect little epilogue for the main show. It's basically just a short glimpse into the domestic lives of Puen and Talay with an overarching theme of "Pursuing goals and self-fulfillment is a priority, but so is actively making time to spend with your partner and creating little moments of joy and togetherness because loving someone is important and meaningful". As someone who loves nothing more than soft, meandering explorations of ordinary people just loving each other, this was basically perfect for me and I honestly couldn't be more happy with it.
If you enjoyed the main show you'll definitely like this as well, so give it a shot.

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The Wizards Entertained Me

This show was just plain charming. It does fall into the "overly sanitized" category of Japanese shows, but the romantic chemistry between the leads was so palpable and they expressed their affection for each other so often and so genuinely that I even started to have a little bit of fun with how much the show was teasing the audience with almost showing the two kiss but then stopping short at the last second. Sure it was frustrating (as, personally, I am someone who doesn't place too much stock in more explicit scenes, but does value realistic physical affection between characters who love each other, be it romantic love, or platonic, or any other sort) but by the end it felt almost tongue-in-cheek and some of those moments (looking at you, closing-elevator-doors-scene) honestly made me chuckle.

Some personal highlights (aka Things I Loved):
- The entire concept. It's silly, it's goofy, it's weirdly romantic, it shouldn't work but it really really does.
- Tsuge and his friendship with Adachi. Tsuge is a strange little man who feels too much, too often, all at once and it only seems to make him more determined to figure out what he wants out of life and how to be there for the people he cares about. I find him delightful and his relationship with Minato, while fairly uneventful, is quite sweet.
- Fujisaki Nozomi and everything she represents. While the word "asexual" is never explicitly used to describe Nozomi, she did set off my spidey-senses, my ace-detector if you will, and by the end I was convinced, yes this is an asexual woman not just existing but thriving and I adore her to pieces. Her storyline touches on the importance of self-love and directly counters the idea that romantic love is what makes life fulfilling. Not only is this an important and meaningful topic to address, it also serves to balance out the fairly romance focused main plot and lends depth and complexity to several other characters' arcs that may otherwise have been lacking.

In conclusion: This is a charming and easy-to-watch rom-com with some unexpected yet very welcome depth to it. It's fun, it's wholesome, go watch it with your friends, your family, hell, watch it with your grandparents, it's so clean and inoffensive they might just love it.

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A true genderqueer show? - Some thoughts from a trans person

Let me start off by saying I have extremely conflicting feelings about this one.
The production value is great, as is to be expected from most Taiwanese shows these days.
The casting is good as well, and the acting is honestly my favourite part of the entire thing and the biggest reason why I managed to watch until the end.

But none of that, to me, made up for the way this show approaches genderqueer people's lives and intersex people's experiences in particular. Now, I am not intersex myself so I recommend you take what I say with a grain of salt, but as a trans person myself I do think I am somewhat more qualified than the average viewer to judge the story's take on intersexuality and trans-ness as a concept.
I do highly commend the writers and producers for attempting to not only do something different from the average gay romance, but to address the struggles of a highly marginalised group of people that are almost never talked about in media.
But as good as I believe their intentions were, they completely missed the mark.

If we approach this show from the perspective that Amber is a trans man who, while he did get diagnosed as intersex, didn't claim that identity but rather chose to use the opportunity this diagnosis provided to start his transition, there are certain plot points that make a lot of sense.
Amber's family moving away, the endless doctor's appointments, the deliberate cutting off of all contact to his former friends, etc.
And there are, admittedly, one or two moments in the show that I really connected with. Amber tearing up over the orange cake he loved as a kid is a great portrayal of the complex, heartbreaking joy of a trans person reclaiming bits of their childhood that they thought they lost due to their transition.
But that's where the good ends. Nothing about the way Amber interacts with his friends and family, with his surroundings in general, and certainly nothing about the way his friends interact with him seems true to what life is actually like as a trans individual. Of course there is no singular, one-size-fits-all trans experience, but there is a difference between depicting an authentic trans character and depicting a character who is trans for plot reasons only.
The way Amber is constantly misgendered by the people around him after it's revealed that he is in fact Wen-Wen - that alone made me so deeply viscerally uncomfortable that I just can't feasibly imagine Amber as a trans man.
I know (since I was kindly informed by a commenter replying to this review) that this misgendering is due to choices the translators made, since in Mandarin there are no gendered pronouns, which does make it easier to stomach, but unfortunately still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Most international viewers (like myself) likely won't know about Mandarin pronouns and therefore have only the translations to go by and those, as previously stated, set an uncomfortable precedent.
This is not the show's fault by any means but should still be taking into consideration in my opinion.

So, the trans man theory is out. What else is there?
If we approach this show from the perspective that Amber is an intersex person who got diagnosed late in childhood rather than at birth, then there is an immediate, massive red flag that gets raised: the way Amber's transition is handled.
Yes, some intersex people choose to transition to a binary gender identity, but that doesn't erase the long, dark history intersex people have with the medical industry. To this day intersex children are often forced to transition to either male or female, mostly through surgical intervention - so-called "normalising procedures".
These experiences are extremely traumatising to the intersex people who go through them and the continued prevalence of such procedures is a clear human rights violation (and is even classified as such by the UN)
So the fact that Amber, who was forced to transition and repeatedly states how traumatic and agonising the entire process was for him, even if he is admittedly content with or at least indifferent towards his current gender identity as a man, has nothing but good things to say about the family who put him through such an ordeal and the show never so much as attempts to condemn forcible transitions, is at best a massive oversight on the show makers' part and at worst endorses the continued violence against intersex people.

I don't mean to sound inflammatory, but these issues are deeply serious. So even assuming that the show runners had nothing but good intentions, what their efforts resulted in is a show about sensitive queer issues written by people with little experience in such matters for an audience who are largely unfamiliar with these topics.
And while I do think that it is important for there to be shows about queer people's issues that are written to appeal to and be understood by non-queer audiences in order to educate them, this isn't one of those shows.

All in all I cannot in good conscience recommend this show. Yes, it has some good, even great, elements, but I believe that they are massively outweighed by its serious flaws. I'd suggest skipping this drama and, instead, looking for some genuinely thoughtful and well-researched stories about trans and intersex people. There aren't all that many, but they do exist and they are worth your time more than, I am sad to say, this show is.

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