I’ve been wildly busy and also sick over the last couple of weeks, which means I’ve had neither time nor energy to keep up with most things and have instead been rewatching whatever makes me feel the most comfort at any given time. This includes one specific episode of Marry My Husband, which has me craving rebirth revenge content so badly that I wish I could reach into the future and pull out the completed Reset series with Pond Ponlawit and watch it now. At least they’re chugging along on filming.
Currently Watching (on air)
Perfect 10 Liners: I’ve seen so much hate for Yotha over the last couple of days because of what we learn about Faifa this recent episode and I don’t think it’s unfair, necessarily, but I also think it underestimates that Faifa is really good at putting on a front and also that their entire family is bad at communication. I do think Yotha is right to worry about Faifa not knowing how to properly be in a relationship (I think his real concern is Faifa won’t be able to prioritize well) but he’s also wrong about it generally, which is a really interesting place for his character to land.
I think this back 2/3rds of the show have been much stronger because Yotha and Faifa’s storylines inherently go together and complicate each other. Faifa is such a Director New character—he loves characters who put on a cheerful and happy front to keep everyone around them happy, it shows up in so many of his shows that I’ve seen.
Secret Relationships: I started this on a whim not having any clue what it would be about since iQiyi doesn’t have a summary, and wow I got plunged straight into webtoon melodrama! Which isn’t a criticism. It’s been thrilling—like, it’s deranged and the characters are all a little nuts, but it does look great and all the actors have chemistry with Daon’s actor which is truly all you need for a love quadrangle.
My Golden Blood: This is truly serving up gay Twilight realness, which is exactly what I expected and is about the level of vampire media I can deal with. The fact that they had an almost verbatim “say it out loud” scene was making me shriek. Tong is the most useless homosexual of all time. The CGI is mid 2000s CW quality. Mond is having the most fun of his entire life being horrible. The audio is either being compressed to hell on its upload sites or they just really used all the good mics for ThamePo. This is the cotton candy of television.
Finished
See Your Love: Overall, I had a fun time with this show and it does actually deal with disability and does it better than a lot of others I’ve seen recently. I don’t think it’s great—it’s one of the weaker Taiwanese bls I’ve seen, largely because I don’t think it handled its tone shifts well and because a lot of stuff felt unresolved at the end or resolved unsatisfactorily (girl the cartel???)—but it was an entertaining watch and both couples had great chemistry. The tantalizing hint of yuri at the end is going to be my Yuletide request this year.
ThamePo: I think most of what I have to say about this show I’ve said over the last four months that it’s been airing, but to summarize: it was fabulous. I’m sure it won’t be to everyone’s taste, but I thought it was a tremendously well-paced and structured story that was produced at high quality and had shockingly strong performances from a main cast that was almost entirely rookies.
There are things I would have loved to see more of, like being in a relationship in the public eye and how MARS goes independent, but that isn’t what the show is about. The central thesis coming back to the idea of your personal definition of success and what it means to be ambitious was interesting and different because it was never about settling or sacrificing for a relationship, it was clear towards the end that it was understanding what your priorities actually are, which is so different from the “you should want/have it all” or “you are sacrificing this important aspect of your life” that shows up a lot in other romances. IDK! Anyway, I liked it a lot.
BL News:
Ohm and Leng announced the end of their partnership, which is really sad because I liked their chemistry together and was looking forward to their upcoming projects. I don’t know exactly what happened to tip them over on this, because Leng fans are vagueing on main, but I know he had been receiving harassment for ages from OhmNanon fans and probably also from Ohm solo fans. I just hope that they find something for him, because it isn’t fair to him that he loses out on two projects because of all this.
That being said, their Mu-Te-Luv roles have been given to Java and Surf, which is such an interesting choice—I didn’t really have a guess for who would get those, and it points to those two having good enough chemistry when they filmed the trailer for Head 2 Head that they earned a larger test from GMMTV.
And of course, their Only Friends 2 parts went to Aou and Boom, which is a terrifying prospect. I did think those two were the most likely, both because they match the ages and because the vibes fit better than the other options, but I don’t know that I’m ready for Aou and Boom to be given free rein to be as horny as possible. I’m delighted they got main cast, though if they don’t get branded soon now I’m afraid their fans will actually burn down the GMMTV building.
Going back to Mu-Te-Luv, Lego said something about an outside actor wanting to join the cast and calling P’Tha to ask about it, which of course has everyone like is it Diamond????? That does seem the most likely given who was talking, but I did like the joke about it being Earth Cooheart so he can join the girl gang.
urs,
hk