any_anka

I literally spotted no fillers aside from comedy moments which to me felt goofy, but fun (which is not always the case, in fact I'm often bored by the comedy inserts). But let's say we just have different sense of humour.

However, saying that the relationship was a joke until the last 5 minutes is... honestly confusing to me.
Chusan literally made Liuyi feel at home and safe and like he has a place he belongs to after Liuyi lost his entire family. He was steadfast and determined to get him, even when Liuyi was avoiding him and ready to risk it all just to keep him safe. Literally making it his life ambition to get both his dad and Liuyi from the terrible environment they were born into. How is that a joke at all?
And yeah, sure, there were some borderline ridiculous misunderstandings serving as a comical relief, but there was also a deeper reason for Liuyi's behaviour. His reaction to Jason speaking English was evidently showing how insecure he felt about the different between Chusan's and his social standing. I don't think that was much of a joke either (?).

To each their own, I suppose, but I completely disagree with you.

Let's :)
Yes, that kiss was everything. Or actually, those kisses.
I really liked that the first one was focusing more on Liuyi's desperation and Chusan's shock, followed by realisation/relief.
And theeen shortly afterwards we got a second kiss that was all passion (with rotating camera like a proper romantic movie and all ;))

It's two different languages (Mandarin and Cantonese), that's why it doesn't match.
We all complained and got over it :P

Nooo, it's the wrong decision! :P Watch it, watch it, you know you want to ;)
Join us in our pain of not knowing if s2 will ever happen :P
But also join in to witness the greatness of this show. It's super entertaining, the chemistry is on fire, the acting's above average, the cinematography is so pretty, the OST (sand by the cast) so good, the comedy elements are so cute and so much fun.
Just watch it. You won't regret it. It's still satisfying, even with that finale.

I'm saying all this with the utmost indignation btw 😋

That's what they're leaving us hanging on... 🙄

Supposedly, allegedly, not certainly, *maybe*... 😑

I watched the episode and, despite liking the cop duo and their plot, when they switched to them I was like "nooo, not now, Liuyi is in jail and we're going to spend the last minutes of the finale on these two arguing?".
But damn, that scene at the hospital was intense. I lowkey loved it. I enjoyed every single time "Jason" and his c*nty energy appeared on screen throughout the entire series, but those final moments of the episode were really something else.

There *has* to be a second season, right? Right?!

Lu Guangming, you attention stealer!

Hetero dramas are not that bad at all, you guys are watching the wrong things 😋

Ok, yes, a damsel in distress is a popular trope in Asian dramas (and an obnoxious, rude woman who treats men like trash, but still gets one in the end after he proves just how lame he is compared to her is a recent Western thing), buuuut, there are still a lot of titles that have really great couple dynamics.

Xianxia/wuxia cdramas have some real cool ones (personally I recommend Journey to Love or Moonlight Mystique - couples where both sides give and take and support each other). Or how about Taiwanese dramas with their love stories so soul-crushing, there's no damsel in distress because both characters are equally in need of help? 😋 (Check Had I Not Seen The Sun, my favourite drama of last year).

(Literally just hyping up some of my favourite shows to distract myself from the anxiety I feel about s2 of SCD 🙄)

😅 Allow me to feel proud of that unintentional comedy 😊

So we're getting a cliffhanger, huh?
The only thing I wished for was a somewhat conclusive ending... I dared not to put my hopes on s2 happening, I was willing to accept certain plot points not being addressed (mostly about the corruption in the police force part and the second couple development), but at the very least I had hoped for something of a closure for the main two protagonists... 😞
Let me wallow in my sadness/anxiety for now...

To me it's very clear that people who were responsible for making this drama really put a lot of care and passion into making it. It's evident in the visuals, in composition of every shot. I heard the budget was low... Even more respect to the creators.

But what you're mentioning is a different thing to me. To complain about the quality of a work and then point out that it relies solely on the fact that "sex sales" when having terrible writing, acting etc. is a valid criticism about the overall quality of the work. It's akin to complaining that... I don't know, an action movie has only explosions and CGI, but no suspense and logical plot.
It's not the same as coming to the series and having no constructive criticism, just complaining that the presence of sex scenes ruin it (which was what I was referring to as not really coming across).
I don't know if I'm expressing myself well 😅 but these are not the same things to me.

Anyway, I haven't watched any of the titles you mentioned, so I confess to being rather ignorant about them and people's opinions of them.

You can most definitely have all those things. The thing is though (speaking just for myself) I have not come across people in the MDL comments come complain under an explicit BL series that it has too much intimacy, too much skinship etc. (I did see such complaints under my favourite GL movie, but that was a) an exception and b) a different main target audience after all).

However, I keep seeing such people come and complain under a show that they deem has too little "spice" for a BL. Not just here, with Soul Mate I can still understand there was a certain confusion with the Netflix genre tags changing etc., but under other series as well.

Now, I don't know about others, but for me, once you read one comment too many going on about "nothing is happening, they still haven't kissed, were there any spicy scenes in the last episode?" despite the story progression, emotional connection depicted, solid acting etc... you kinda start getting irritated 😋

And with Soul Mate, we have not seen a single episode yet, just a trailer, and I already saw people criticising it for not being gay enough. Which is also kinda... well... premature (trying to be polite in my word choice).

So yeah, a show can totally be good while having explicit sex scenes. And a person can totally be fed up with obsession with such scenes while not hating them themselves 🙂

I just made my peace with it being 40 minutes and now you're telling me it's even shorter?!

Finallyyyy. I thought it'd never get released 😋 They will devour in the acting department, I can tell from the trailer alone.

Not our business 🙂

Summarizes my experience with each episode of this drama pretty accurately ;)

40 minutes is scandalous... Isn't it like the shortest episode yet?!
I lowkey expected them to give us 1,5 hour long finale 🙁

The only benefit I could possibly get from this exchange is actually just the enjoyment of having a debate (which was what I thought we were doing).
You asked me for examples of straight dramas, so I tried to provide those. Since my response apparently didn't inspire anything new you'd want to say, let's agree to disagree and have a nice day! ;)