Strange Little Heart

Finally got around to watching this one. It's cute. It's fun. It's...fine? But I guess I must have missed some moment in time or something, because I cannot for the life of me fathom why people are so feral over this show. It's a pretty standard cutesy BL. I enjoyed it, I think the leads have good chemistry, but I found some of the overly cutesy sound effects etc. to be a bit grating sometimes. A fun watch, but I definitely don't think I understand the hype.

Finally got through this after several attempts. I was curious because this is always at the top of everyone's must watch lists. But I'll be honest, I struggled to get through it. I found the plot interesting but I hated the two main leads. I especially found the ML in this annoying. His weird face acting was distracting, and I just couldn't buy him as this domineering person he was claiming to be. He was petty to the end. Honestly, they both sucked, so I guess they deserved each other. Not a bad show, had some interesting moments. I'd probably rank it 7.5/10.

My problem with the ending isn't exactly what everyone else is saying. It wasn't the lack of a wedding or the years of seperation. It was the complete tonal whiplash ruining the vibe of the show for a plot twist that literally everyone could see coming, only to completely rush and botch the playout of it. For 2/3 of this show I was watching a light, uncomplicated, fun show about two people individually trying to prove themselves in roles that others keep wanting to undermine them in. I was sold on that plot. I was enjoying it. I liked the entire cast. And yes, obviously I knew all of these revelations would have to come to a head. But the way they did it was just so anticlimactic and stupid.

What I really didn't like was how completely indifferent MTH seemed to be toward the plight and suffering of her own people. Like, I get that she completely lost her memories, but it felt like she had absolutely no compassion for them at all. These people bled and died in your honor, and you can't even muster up pity for them? You go with them for absolutely no reason only to abandon them in the end, what was the point of all that?

I liked this show better before it decided it needed to do all this stupid political intrigue. In my review I referenced the convo between MTH and YQ. It felt like the show I was enjoying was the false rainbow and the ending they gave me was me realizing I was just standing in the pouring rain, thinking I'm looking at a pretty rainbow. That's the most apt analogy as I can give when I think of this show.

This drama has grown on me alot. I was always enjoying it, but I kind of love the entire ensemble cast and how we often get scenes of them together. It feels so rare in a historical for some reason. I like both the FL and the ML, and I like that they are both smart and capable without one completely dominating the other. I've gotten kind of sick of these endless empty eyecandy ML characters where they only exist to serve at the beck and call of the FL. And ML in this isn't like that. It's not the most amazing show I've ever watched. It doesn't really require a lot of brain power to consume, and honestly, right now, that might be why it's working for me. I'm not always in the mood for some mega 4D chess game plot. I think this show is properly rated. It's good. It's not amazing. The leads are solid. The chemistry is belieable but not earth scorching. I really love the complete ensemble cast. That's my overall opinion so far.

I loved the first season so much but for some reason I'm finding it kind of...cringe? I don't know. I can't quite put my finger on it. I'm going to keep watching, but so far it just doesn't have the same charm for me.

I hate how this show feels the need to spoonfeed everything to the audience like we're all a bunch of idiots. ABO Desire didn't explain its world enough, but this show over explains every detail to death, to the point that these don't even sound like people having conversations, they just sound like exposition robots meandering from scene to scene. Maybe I was just expecting too much out of this show. Right now it just feels like weak exposition threaded in-between over the top NC scenes. The completionist in me wants to see how it ends. But my sanity says I should just drop it now and save myself the time and energy.

It's like when they cook, they really cook and when they flop they flop harder than a dead fish. Absolutely zero inbetween. Korean BLs are bangers or trash.

for some reason the only couple I am even remotely interested in is the alpha/beta story. I'll probably just wait for all the episodes to air and then just watch their scenes because I honestly do not care about either of the other couples at this point.

I think the show has definitely gotten better at spreading the story around, it's starting to feel like the ensemble drama they always pretended it was. I still just don't give a shit about Babe and Charlie, their story is the least interesting to me, but at least this season its not 80% of every episode. The plot, although insane feels much more focused and coherent than last season too. If anything, weirdly, the plot with charlie, babe and willy almost feels like a secondary b plot, because everything else is tied to the mystery shenanigans of the lab etc. But that's fine, I get they needed some way to keep the racing element tied into the show, so whatever. We'll see if it descends into garbage, but so far I am tentitively enjoying myself.

Honestly? Leaning all the way into the unhinged parts of this show is the best thing they could've done for season 2. I'm definitely interested to see where everything goes. Still a bit ambivalent about CharlieBabe though, they don't piss me off the way they did in season 1, but I just don't really care about them when they're together. But there's plenty of intrigue candy to keep me hanging for now.

Too true, lol. Though it's funny- the hate train here is for someone who is perceived to be the reddest red flag whereas the Secret Relationships chat has people randomly hating on the only green flag character to justify their liking of a toxic and unhealthy pairing. People are weird.

Okay...some of the hate on the character of Bua is getting downright weird. People are acting like he's as bad as some of the psychos on Secret Relationships or something when he's just an insecure kid. Like? What did he do that's so horribly monsterous and unforgiveable for people to say he deserves no kind of sympathy whatsoever? What did he do that was so much worse than any of the other characters on the show? I appreciate that all of the characters on this show are a bit unstable and messy, but to single out one character and decide he's the worst of all of them based on literally nothing is so weird to me. Just my opinion, but geez.

You know the best part about season 2? The obnoxious book readers can't descend with a bunch of awful spoilers and ruin it. We're all in the same boat floating down the River Styx now.

I completely agree. This isn't a love story, this is an unrequited love story with a tragic ending. The Babe and Way story is the only arc in this show that feels complete. From inception to climax to resolution it had appropriate stakes, character development and emotional beats. I have a sneaking suspicion that if you did a re-edit of this series that only followed this plot thread, this would be a well-paced comprehensive series. The problem is that this show had so much other unnecessary bullshit in it. You take this plot and center it around the complex triangle of Babe/Charlie/Way, you give Babe/Charlie enough space to develop so that their love story is believable, and this story is easily over an 8.0. Missed opportunity.

Ever heard the phrase the opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference?

How about there's a thin line between love and hate?

Anyone who truly did not have any desire to continue to watch this series would not waste their life continually commenting about each episode.

The vocal disappointment you see from people in this comment section is from a place of deep love and passion for the series. People are reacting the way they are because they care about the series enough to be disappointed by the fact that it continues to fall short of their expectations. They come back because they keep hoping that they'll receive even the tiniest sliver of the show they were sold and promised by its creators.

And what gives you, or anyone else the right to be the arbiter of what people watch, how they watch it and the opinions they have about it? A fandom is not a monolith and people can watch a show however they'd like. And they can discuss whatever the hell they want to discuss in a DISCUSSION BOARD about the series. As long as the commentary is related to the series at hand, I don't see what the problem is.

The real question is, why do other people's opinion about this series bother you so much?

I agree with most of what you're saying, actually.

I've been on record of insisting that the character of Charlie is badly written. He was already a bland insert protagonist in the novel, and then he was handed to three hacks who further butchered his character into a muddled mess of unclear motivations and questionable emotional responses. No one could have played Charlie and made him a compelling character.

I don't think Pooh's the best actor yet, but he's also not the worst I've seen. I'd actually blame his age over his greenness, which is a change that I felt after seeing another rookie actor, Babe, on the Sign who is an acting natural. Pooh is 20 years old. He has a long career ahead of him, and we have yet to see how he'd be in the hands of talented writers. I'll wait until his next project to make an assertion about his acting ability.

I also agree that Nut was the only person of these 12 that could successfully play Way. Nut has this inane ability to imbue sympathy and charisma in a character that has no business having either. I don't think you'd see the same character support if anyone else played that role, and that's not me being some crazed Supanut stan, I just think he is the best actor for playing subtle emotional nuance which is absolutely necessary for the character of Way to work.

I think all of these actors were tragically wasted on this series, and I would like to see all of them in their future projects. Hopefully with better writing than what they were served here.

The further into this show I get, the more I am convinced that a lot of these actor pair ups were done as a marketing tactic. I think at best the only side couple that gains any traction is Alan and Jeff. And at this point, their romance will be just as poorly written as Charlie and Babe's has been, with absolutely no build up or slow burn. But all of the others, I am increasingly convinced we will get absolutely no development on. Way and Pete is a loose maybe. They might give North and Sonic a five minute, and they're together now, reveal. But that's it. I can't fathom how Winner/Dean or Kenta/Kim are going to happen in a way that makes any sense. And I'll be honest, I'd be kind of annoyed if they hit pause on the main story of the series to randomly focus on trying to build up these side couples that add nothing to the overall story. And that's coming from someone that's no real fan of the main couple. They need to focus on the story itself, because it's a mess. There's no time to believably develop six different romantic plotlines. It's just not feasible.

Me too, actually. Even though I've been very vocal in my intense disinterest in Charlie and Babe as a couple, I find Pavel and Pooh to be incredibly charming. I'd like to see what they could be with good writers behind them.

That episode was all over the place.

This was the episode that confirmed for me that there are way too many characters in this show for any of them to get a decent arc and storyline. North and Sonic are cute, but what do they add to the overall storyline? Why are we spending so much time focusing on characters like Winner and Kim that will have no purpose to the overall plot? They should have stripped this down to just Babe, Charlie, Alan, Jeff, Way and Pete getting focus. They're the ones that are tied to the actual plot and if we stripped everything back, maybe we'd get more than five minutes an episode of character development for these characters. I'm not saying the side characters needed to disappear completely, but not every side character needs their own personal arc. There's too much to get to and not enough time to dwell on these side affairs.

I really don't know why the show is being purposefully obtuse about Way having switched to Tony's side, when everyone and their mother can already deduce this fact. What was the point of not showing his face in that scene with Tony, when we literally just had the scene with Pete where Way all but said, yeah I'm evil now, deal with it? It's like the show is trying to go for a surprise reveal but it's so pathetically obvious that at this point, the only reveal would be if they did a complete 180 and had the traitor be anyone else.

I liked getting a little bit more of Alan and Jeff, but I have a feeling that they are not going to have an actual romantic arc. I have the same feeling about Way and Pete. Actually that's how I feel about every character in this show that isn't Babe and Charlie.

It's astonishing that even though the plot has ramped up, the action is at an all time high, and the tension is palpable, that they still found time in all the chaos to shove a completely boring and pointless cutesy romantic scene with Babe and Charlie into the episode. As usual, they're over here in their own pointless world while the plot is happening around them. I actually enjoyed the scenes earlier in the episode, when they randomly decided to become the Scooby Doo gang and investigate Kim's disappearance, if for no other reason then it actually gave Babe and Charlie something to do that was other to their boring romance, and for once it felt like they had rejoined the plot.

But as this show goes on, it's becoming more and more disjointed, and I don't know if these writers are going to stick the landing. It's hard to say, but this is the first episode of the series so far that didn't leave me with a strong and desperate urge to immediately see the next one. I really hope that this all pulls together, and that they can end this series on a high. But I don't have much faith.

If Charlie and Babe are the characters that you relate to, then I completely respect that you view the show through a different lens then I do. That's natural, people respond to different things because people are all different.

I agree that Pavel is talented, but less talented to me are the writers. They give Babe glimpses of humanity, but they never let them fully play out to their emotional throughline. I was invested in Babe in the last episode because his emotions were palpable. But the show completely removed all of that emotional weight in the scene he shared with Charlie. There is no emotional exchange to make the characters more defined or to strengthen the bond of Charlie and Babe. It's as if all of the turmoil Babe was feeling previously is completely erased because the show is too afraid to let Charlie and Babe be anything other than perfect at all times.

I don't know if you're familiar with the term 'Mary Sue' but that's how these writers are writing these characters. Despite doing things that seem flawed to the viewer- such as everything Charlie has been doing up to this point- in the show, they are heralded and celebrated as if they are perfect and good people with only the best intentions. But the show has failed to actually show that these things are true, so what I as a viewer am left with, is cognitive dissonance. The show is telling me that Babe and Charlie are awesome and perfect, but I don't believe it because that's not what they're showing me.

If you do believe it, that's fine. Like I said, all people are different. I just look at the show through a different lens then you do, and clearly that isn't going to change any time soon, so I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.