rapaciousobserver

Girl rules is meh at best. Min and Preaw are the most interesting pairing. It's lazy writing and flat characters.

I agree. With the rushed beginning I don't find myself as invested in the relationship, so why do I care if it survives the drama? I'm not saying we need six episodes of them datinging, but two would have been nice. I'll say it for the record right now. the series should have been 10 episodes. The first should have been two and I'll bet the finale is rushed as well.

They are only giving us 8 episodes. Adding a few more would allow for the events of episode 1 to be spread out over two or three episodes. I don't expect 16 episodes like The Loyal Pin; that takes a lot of production capital, but 10 would be a more reasonable space to tell most stories. Too many GLs already rush finales, typically with unearned forgiveness of the antagonists.

Storytelling is always a balance between editing out the unimportant fluff that always finds its way in and providing enough room for world-building and character development. Shoehorning the entire relationship-building process into a single episode left me less invested in the relationship as a whole.

Yes, we know they will end up together because that is the genre, but that is a writing shortcut that often leads to lazy writing. I’m keeping an open mind because I really want Faye’s company to succeed. My many objections to Blank aside, she is a very capable actress. Hopefully, she will be just as skilled at the business side of GLs.

The first episode feels rushed; they shoved way too much into it. I hope the pacing improves in the next one.

True, and I'm not dropping it yet. I just lose a little more hope with each episode.

That cameo was the best part of the episode. Min and Praew were good, but it there sceens were rushed.

I keep hoping it will get better, and I'm disappointed once again. Episode 3 was just more of the vapid, one-dimensional characters. The cameo by Bonnie was nice. The writer(s) and director are trying to jam way too much into each episode, without spending time developing the characters or exploring what passes for a plot.

The only characters worth watching were once again Min a Praew, though Min’s journey of curiosity was more like a stroll to the next room—too short to be satisfying, but that’s on brand for this show.

The crime show analogy is worth exploring.

In a typical crime show, a bad thing happens: murder, rape, etc. Everyone agrees the crime was wrong, and the cops usually catch the criminal, and we know they will be punished. Occasionally, they get away, but the viewer is rooting for them to be caught and punished.

Now compare that to this tv show. Flint raped Sun. Most of the viewers agree that this is wrong (we see that in this comment thread). It was a crime. The difference is in what will happen to Flint. It’s a GL, so it’s reasonable to assume Flint and Sun stay together—meaning Flint is rewarded for her violent behavior. She “gets the girl.”

There are ways that this topic could be handled responsibly. If this were a longer story, I might believe there was room for a redemption arc, where Flint takes responsibility, fixes herself, and proves to Sun that she has changed. Or if it was a different genre, I could see how it could end with Flint alone and regretting her behavior with Sun being happy with someone else. But given that it’s being promoted as a GL, neither of these is likely.

The psychology of how implicit bias is formed is fascinating and disturbing.

Intimate Partner Violence is a real problem, and stories like this shape people's perceptions of it. The message that it's OK is internalized a tiny bit more with each exposure, and the fact that it's fiction really doesn't matter.

This is how normalization works. They have people defending rape in specific cases (fiction in this case) by watching the show (and in these comments) Art shapes culture just as much as culture shapes art.

Watch it if you want. Enjoy it if you want. Just don’t expect the rest of us to believe it's anything other than what it is: Softcore rape porn.

OK keep defending rape.

I haven't read it either, but I've read about it. All you really need to know is that it's by Chao Pla Noy. She also wrote GAP, and Blank. She tends to throw every possible horrible thing at the leads and her books are full of her internalized homophobia and misogyny.

Fiction influences opinions and social norms. That can be positive or negative. This is especially a concern with young viewers. If Flint commits SA and is rewarded by "getting the girl," the viewer may internalize the notion that this is not harmful in a relationship and accept it from or do it do a partner in real life.

Art imitates life, and life imitates art. You can't observe it without being affected by it.

The people defending the scene are the fruit of social norms that say IPV (intimate partner violence) is ok.

SA without consequences is not acceptable. If you want to produce a tradgedy, don't pretend its a romance.

Yes, they apparently are, and this comment section has too many peopel defending it.

Unless they start adding trigger wanrings, how exactly are we supposed to do that? We need responsible writing. If they handle SA, there should be consequences, not an ending with the rapist and the victim as a couple.

They should have changed this one to avoid the SA.

It's easy enough to fix them in screenwriting. Look as US. they fixed so many horrible things fromthe book. Rape fantasies are not acceptable. If they want to go dark, then there need to be consequences. Make it a tradgedy, not a love story.

Exactly, and the writers fixed so many things in US, that it's now the greenest green flag in all the GLs. People romanticise ficition and mirror it in real life. There need to be consequences.

No "we" didn't know it, because many of us have not read the novel. SA in fiction normaizes the idea that no doesn't always mean no. There are plenty of other ways they could have handled this. A minor rewrite and they could have fixed it. Plenty of other GLs have fixed things like this is crappy books.

So far the only characters I like at all are Praew and Min. I actively dislike Shasha, Prim, and Bambi. The characters are so flat and one dimesional. I haven't decided how I feel about Gorya.

I've enjoyed MilkLove and NamtamFilm in other roles, so I think it's the writting and directing. It could also be because they are trying to develope too many characters/couples at once.

We definately see things differently. I see this one as tepid at best. There are several on your list I would rate much lower, so we have different standards.

I'm watching from the US with no geoblocking on Monomax for 3.99 a month (99 Baht) I used a privacy credit card to pay since I have no idea how secure their website is. I'll drop the subscription as soon as I watch the last episode.

To be fair, Monomax app and website are poorly done in English. Try switching languages a copple of times if you need English. You'll get there, but it took some fiddling around.