Michelle Topham

Sorry, that's my fault. I initially replied to you saying I was dropping it at Ep. 7 then decided to give it a couple more tries, so deleted the comment. But no... I cannot STAND the female lead, she is so passive aggressively toxic and so incredibly manipulative but, apparently, we're supposed to feel sorry for her because her mother had an affair? Bizarre :)

And strange isn't it? I didn't like the ML at all for the first couple of episodes. But, by the end of Episode 4, you can't help but empathize with him. Now, as I leave it at Episode 9, he is the only character I like in the entire mess.

The roommates are awful (and what is it with Jo Dong Min shouting at top notch all the time?), her co-workers are horrible, Jang Jae Yeol's "best friend" is just an untrustworthy person with dodgy morals, (Jae Yeol's brother says he's going to kill him as soon as he gets out of jail, so the "friend" takes the brother to see him - nothing in this drama makes sense :) ), the teenage girl is an idiot, Ji Hae Soo's ex-boyfriend is an a-hole, and on and on :)

They are almost all incredibly self-involved people who wouldn't know a real problem if it kicked them in the ass.

Honestly, I'm tempted to keep watching it just to see if it can possibly get worse :)

And btw, I don't fault the actors, they all do amazingly well in their roles. It's the script that is horrible.

When I moved to Thailand, I lost count of the number of American friends who asked me before I left "Why are you moving to Taiwan? Isn't it dangerous". (I'm not. And no ) :)

The scenes in Episode 6 where they decide to date are superb. Everything is so naturally done, but so understated, which is how it would be in real life. I haven't seen a Korean BL yet with this high level of acting. It's usually reserved for Japanese BL.

Dropped after Episode 9. Can't possibly sit through another 7 hours of this. There isn't a likeable character in the entire drama except the ML, and the female lead is exceptionally toxic. Also removing anything the same writer has written from my 'To Watch' list as it's been a long time since I've hated anything this much.

Believe me, she's no less annoying ;) I bailed on Episode 7. Truly horrible drama. Badly written, annoying characters, ridiculous plot.

The 2 links below are a good start as they feature all the top shows :)
I've watched all of these except two and love all of them except Sherlock (it's a phenomenal series, one of most popular the UK has ever put out, but I'm just not a Sherlock Holmes fan so simply not my cup of tea). Highly recommend Broadchurch, Happy Valley, Giri/Haji (a British-Japanese series), Line of Duty, The Fall, Dalziel and Pascoe (long series), Scott & Bailey and Bodyguard.

There are hundreds more though, as British crime/detective series are some of the most highly-acclaimed/most watched in the world, so they're constantly being made as they sell worldwide so easily.

And honestly, I don't say that because I'm British as there is some absolute garbage that comes out of the UK :), but we are phenomenal at crime series and period pieces (Downton Abbey, for instance, one of world's most ever watched shows and so damned good!)

Hope that helps?

https://variety.com/lists/best-british-crime-dramas-detective-police-tv-shows/line-of-duty/

https://www.ranker.com/list/best-british-crime-dramas/ranker-tv

Why are so many people on MDL so incredibly narrow-minded? It's bizarre.

ROTFL, we British are known to have some of the best TV series in the world.

Yep, I've been around a bit (British originally, also a naturalized American :) ) And yep on the "52 Thai BL dramas a week". The Thais make so many of them nowadays. :)

I think that's because Thailand, although a Buddhist country, is quite open-minded as a society when it comes to gay/lesbian/ladyboy (transgender) people (although individual parents may not be). So much so that, even 20 years ago in Bangkok, barely a week went by where I wasn't served by a Thai "ladyboy" (transgender) at a department store make-up counter that had been hired by a company like L'Oreal or Lancôme and was in full female dress (and a HELLUVA lot prettier and more feminine than me) :)

At that point, you would NEVER have seen a transgender hired by L'Oreal for a western department store job.

In other words, Thailand while very conservative in some respects is very open-minded in others. It's a fascinating culture though, with so many dichotomies running through it.

So, obviously, being that open-minded about transgenders, being gay or lesbian isn't that big of a deal to a huge percentage of Thais, so it's no wonder BL dramas have taken off there.

BL though is still pretty new in Thailand. I remember the first BL drama hitting Thai TV in 2014 (Love Sick) and it was a HUGE deal at the time.

That's the one (and Hormones the year before) that really kicked off the BL craze in Thailand, although there were plenty of gay characters on TV and in films before that.

BL manga/literature etc, though, originated in Japan, then spread to Korea, Thailand etc. (this article by a professor at Meiji University is interesting about the origins of BL -- https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/d00607/#:~:text=Boys'%20love%20originated%20in%20Japan,Korea%2C%20and%20other%20Asian%20countries.)

BL became really popular in Thailand during the Covid lockdown b.s. though, and so studios have been cranking them out at a high rate since.

I remember my best friend, who is Thai and still lives in Bangkok, on Skype a couple of years ago asking me "Why the hell is EVERY Thai drama suddenly headed by two gay dudes?" -- hahahaha.

As for the source material, I'm with the rest that I look at it as being one entity as, without the manga/webtoon writer, the characters in the drama wouldn't exist. Neither would they have the same motivations.

Doesn't matter if you don't though. You do you :)

But, I agree with you about the source material. I think I'm enjoying Our Dating Sim more than I am Unintentional Love Story as I haven't read any source material for ODS (not sure if there is any?), whereas I've read the ULS webtoon three times.

Hate to tell you but in every country anything between 30 to almost 50 percent of people have affairs, with some countries having higher numbers than others of course. It's just a fact of life, and Korean dramas portray the reality of it.

Could be, as I have no idea how long it takes MDL to calculate ratings :)

It's bizarre because Episode 6 was superb. (The chemistry between the two was the best I've seen on screen between two men in a long time). So it's likely to be people who dropped it before getting to that point, IMO.

They're not Thai tropes though. They are tropes in general, most of which originated in Japan, and are the same tired tropes used by so many less-talented Japanese, Korean, Thai, Taiwanese etc artists. (And the Thais have only recently started to fall into this trap.)

I lived in Thailand for 15 years (moved to Austria 5 years ago), and so used to read a TON of Thai manga as well as watch Thai drama more than any other genre, and a lot of it was usually pretty unique. (Except for the "katoey" or "ladyboy" ie: the transgender character who is in EVERY freaking Thai drama :) )

But in recent years, quite a few of Thailand's newer artists/writers have fallen into the trope trap too, unfortunately.

Nowadays, I read around 20 webtoons a week plus a boatload of manga (a lot of which ends up being turned into a live action drama), and it is becoming rare to find an artist of any nationality who doesn't fall into the "love interest suddenly gets sick", "someone's mother/father/sister/grandmother has COLLAPSED", the slip-fall, the sudden love triangle, and other tropes.

That's why mangaka like Kou Yoneda (Twittering Birds Never Fly), Yuu Toyota (Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!), Shungiku Nakamura (Junjou Romantica and Sekaiichi Hatsukoi), Shō Harusono (Sasaki and Miyano), Setona Mizushiro (The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese/The Carp on the Chopping Block Jumps Twice) and Natsuki Kizu (Given) are so incredibly successful, IMO.

They are all mangaka who are both superb writers and phenomenal artists (rare to be good at both), and none of them fall into the tropes trap (or if they do, they created the trope), and they all write in-depth, believable relationship-based stories with characters you fall in love with because they seem real.

That's also why the dramas/anime adapted from their works are first-class too.

Having said that, I love the Unintentional Love Story webtoon, despite the tropes, as everything in it is done well, IMO. Sure, it may not be as unique as other webtoons and the plot is a little silly, but the characters are interesting, the story develops well and relationship problems are dealt with well.

The drama adaptation of it I'm enjoying too.

This is so darned cute. Chemistry between two main leads in Episode 6 is superb. Loving this one. So well done.

Chemistry in Our Dating Sim is superb, isn't it? But both main leads are talented actors, and every other cast member is excellent too. I thought Unintentional Love Story would be my favorite BL as I love the webtoon, but Gongchan is ruining my enjoyment as he just can't act. Our Dating Sim though is perfect in every way. So much so, even the 17 minute episodes are working well. (And honestly, I rarely dislike an actor that much in any drama, but everything about Gongchan in this just rubs me the wrong way :) ) So disappointed they didn't cast a better actor as he definitely looks like the manga character, just can't act.

It's because Gongchan has zero charisma, so there's just no chemistry between them. If there was a different actor playing Won Young, IMO, I think Cha Seo Won's performance would be much more charismatic. But it's difficult to act when the person who is supposed to be your love interest has no acting skills and is about as bland as flour.

Same on Ji Won Young. As the drama progresses, Gongchan's acting gets worse and worse, and here's me thinking he might get better :) Hard to believe he's 29, as he acts like a teenager. With a different actor, the whole first leads' romance would be so much more believable, as Cha Seo Won's performance is superb. Other than that, I still prefer the 1st leads' romance to the second, although the second's storyline is fun (they're cool in the webtoon as well).

Overall though, I'm finding Unintentional Love Story is losing a little of my interest. (And that could be because I've read the webtoon 3 times so know what's coming). Especially because Our Dating Sim, even if it has only 17 minute episodes, is exceptional but especially with the entire cast.

Will definitely finish ULS, as it is a well done BL drama, it just won't end up as one of my faves I don't think. Although that may depend on how they handle the latter half of the story.

Wow, this is excellent. Only 15 minutes an episode, but they use every minute to propel the story forward. And the acting, so far, (I've only just finished Episode 2) is superb. A very nice surprise.

The same. And do read the webtoon. It's excellent. I rarely read manga/webtoons more than once, and I've read this one 3 times. Really pretty art too :)

Was just thinking the same. Every scene so far is almost identical and, with 10 episodes, it looks like we should get most of the story too. If it continues like this, I'll be thrilled, as the manwha is one of my faves. Read it 3 times :)