etoks21

Awesome! Your comment is so inviting now. :) I'm going to read it again.

Psst...watch out, this Cynthia person is a whack job.
The number of exclamation points used is always a give-away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Episode 7: lol
The old BL saw, "I finally get the love I wanted from you, but YOU ONLY PITY ME, isn't that true?!!!!" trope. hahaha Lame af.

There is no reason, none, that these two handsome, intelligent, sweet young men would both be in love with the odd-duck, personality-free Do Ba Wu.

I said: This is a 3/10 at best.

Oh man...you're a nut. Please pretend I never replied to you.
Thanks.

Anyone else here lusting after Jin Su, the office intern?
I kept hoping he and MJ would hook up.

I'm of two minds about what you said. Yes, he can be dull to look at, but consider: When he see him looking that way, he is almost always looking at JH, with whom he is always on-guard for reasons we know. Secondly, he is a depressed person. A common symptom of depression is a lack of affect, the very monotonous, flat expression you speak of.

ooh...well put.
Maybe more like a light snack without salt or pepper.
Costumes/sets were bland, too; everything shades of beige, gray, off-white.
I'll assume that was deliberate, but it only emphasized that there wasn't anything flavorful going on in the story.

"Do we not deserve BLs with actual plot? Thrillers? Detectives, action? Hell, medical dramas? "

I don't disagree that this show was a failure. However, if what you're after is thrillers/detectives/action/Yakuza/murder/etc., and I like those things too, wouldn't it be wise to seek them out in feature films that have the budget to do them justice? BL is not, by its traditional nature, equipped to handle the elements you mention. Almost everyone I've seen try to do so came off as silly and low-rate.

I know of several good-quality, gay-themed feature films that include the elements you're seeking. Let me know if you want the suggestions.

"Boys Love" has the words Boys and Love in it because that is what it is primarily about.

Just my view, take it or leave it. All best to you.

I enjoyed reading your comment. I found much within it to agree with and to ponder. I too, am ambivalent about this show. It addressed some intriguing issues surrounding memory, but in my view, the writers/director made a mess of it.

I have a suggestion. Please know this is offered in the best possible spirit of friendliness. I do not wish to offend you. But...please consider breaking your comment up into paragraphs where the thought transitions...it would be so much easier to read and do justice to what you have written here. Also, a lot of people skip over comments written in a block like this. Hell, a lot of commenters here skip over anything more than two or three sentences. lol

Anyway, thought I'd throw that out there. Thanks again for your wise and thoughtful post.

Episode 6/Finale:

These two are headed for a lot of misery, culminating in a messy murder-suicide.

I felt a lot of headway was made each time MJ stated clearly, multiple times throughout the series, that they were simply INCOMPATIBLE, regardless of the whys and wherefores and who's to blame and who's not or whatever. Ultimately, none of that matters. They are not suited for each other.

But each time the story took us to that place, within the next 5 minutes, MJ went running around looking for JH or vice-versa, and the cycle of misunderstanding, passive-aggressive behaviors, and pain started all over again.

The ending gives us no reason to believe anything will be different/better the next time the cycle takes them around again, which no doubt began as soon as the camera left the two of them deluding themselves and each other on the bench at the airport. We can dismiss the white suits-and-wedding bit at the end as an absurd fever dream, experienced by one of them or the other as they lay dying in the pool of blood and misery following the murder-suicide I mentioned above; the mind's final delusion as they follow the light into oblivion.

I said it several times before; I'll say it again: This show attempted to tackle several potentially fascinating elements of memory/recall and how it differs for each person who experiences it as part of a shared experience. However, the writers/director here are unsuited to the task., and the show is a failure.

Still, for whatever reason, I kept watching as opposed to dropping it; and I'm not afraid of dropping shows, so that's something.

6.5/10

As I said, it's insane. That's primarily a Thai thing.

I am intensely hostile to people like SweetCat above, who "doubts" KSH's innocence, as though they are in any position to judge and have all the information by which to do so. THAT attitude is part of the Korean Celebrity Suicide Machine that has killed off dozens of entertainers and public figures over the last 25 years.

So, my hostility is not "for nothing." Also, please point out where I stated that SweetCat does not "have a right to their opinion." Thanks.

Totally agree. The history and background of how South Korea evolved to this weird hyper-conservative public attitude of prudishness and celebrity-torture, while at the same time being full of sexy-time movies, young women dancing in their undies while singing Kpop songs, and the Gangnam, Hongdae, and Itaewon districts of Seoul nightlife being rife with prostitution and people vomiting in the streets each night, is fascinating. It goes back to the first SK dictatorship's legacy of Puritanical laws forced on the people.

lol No, I doubt there was a mistake. A lot of MDLers jump out of their skin if you dare to mention the silliness and low quality of the majority of BLs; that majority coming primarily out of Thailand.

I had to laugh at the commenter's reference to "depravity." lol It's the kind of word used by self-righteous prudes and MDL Church Ladies who love to police morals and speech around here. Someone here calls them the "NeoVictorians." I call them the "NeoPuritans." Same thing. It's the rise of prudishness and scolding busybody-ness among the young generation these days. Sadly, it's as if the sexual revolution of the 1960s/1970s never happened. :(

Who are you? You are someone whose opinion I value highly. :D After hearing from both you and the Princess above, I will force myself through at least two episodes and get back to you. I don't take back what I wrote about the bloody spitting episode with the guards. lol

Hi Princess! I DO remember chatting with you before and enjoying the conversations. Also, I take your opinion into account. I confess, I really did feel ten minutes in what I wrote above, and I don't take it back.

That said, if you tell me it gets so much better later on, that I should give it a try through two episodes, I will do that. :) Let me know.

It's not that I have "very high standards" necessarily. I stick with Korean/Taiwanese/Japanese BLs now and then, that aren't the greatest, because the heart of the story, the BL romance, is well-done. I even dropped KinPorsche about 2/3 in because so much of the Yakuza stuff was silly.

lol

Are you kidding? This is a 3/10 at best.

lol
Yeah...no. I knew ten minutes in (actually, sooner) that this is not for me.
If I want to see a film/series about gangs and prisons and tough guys and brutal fights, etc. I will seek out a feature film with the budget to hire seasoned/talented actors, fight coordinators, writers, directors, and all the rest to do it right. What I won't do is watch what comes off as a high school production portraying the elements I listed above in a hilariously cheesy and amateur way.

Thailand has taken the BOYS (or young men) LOVE (romantic/physical/psychological attraction) out of BL and replaced it with sub-standard, embarrassing yakuza/corporate intrigue/spies/crime/gangs/etc. plots, it does not have the resources to handle convincingly.

OK, so...dropped. I'm out of here. Someone, please, message me if anyone makes a real BL in Thailand anytime soon. Thanks.

1/10