Once again I have been very busy and unable to keep up with shows regularly, although I did have enough time to watch all of The Pitt, my quarterly non yaoi show. I’m finally somewhat back on track, and have just watched the most recent Break-up Service, which is also not yaoi but did feature a storyline this week about a bl actor in a fixed couple who wanted to quit bls so he could openly be with his boyfriend.
It’s an interesting storyline for a GMMTV show to do, given how they are maybe the preeminent fixed-couple company and get a lot of criticism for their fanservice and such. The central conflict of this episode was that Aungpao’s character was in a fixed couple with Prom, but was secretly dating Drake. It’s not said outright that he is contractually forbidden from publicly dating, and it’s also referenced that if he was in a straight movie there would be a focus on shipping with the female lead, both of which I found interesting because the straight fanservice aspect tends to be ignored by people who want to criticize BL fixed pairs.
It did have me thinking about the difficulty of dating as a fixed couple actor; there are certainly those who do have partners we know about (Love and her boyfriend, Inn is not exactly public-public with Tie but it’s well-known, Pond Ponlawit is dating Jamie GMMTV). I don’t know how much they’re asked to not date publicly a la idols versus just wanting to keep their private lives private and protect partners from blowback from delulu fans, and I don’t know if there’s really a good answer for it, because fans will be insane either way. I do think Inn gets away with it partially because he entered the fixed couple with Great while already in a semi-public relationship, but the amount of insane hate Bright got for having a girlfriend well after having left GMMTV in addition to not having been in a show with Win for several years—well, I can’t blame anyone for not wanting to date in the view of fans.
Currently Watching (on air)
My Golden Blood: Still a week behind, and I don’t know what to expect ever. Like, I know this most recent episode was a beach episode. I think I was expecting more adventure?? Instead it’s been, like, college drama. I do think the glue holding this show together is how obviously horny they are for each other, because very little else is holding. I keep making jokes about harvesting Tong’s piss to turn all vampires human, because idk where else this going.
Sweet Tooth Good Dentist: The pacing of this show remains slightly...odd...mostly in the way the actual scenes are edited rather than the overall structure. I’ve actually really liked how over the first four episodes we’ve gotten more and more information about what happened on that first date and how it provides more context to their relationship, specifically Jay’s interest in Sant. And I’ve been waiting for evil Jimmy to show up! He has finally arrived to drive more conflict and to look the sexiest he has somehow ever been. They should always put him in glasses and make him slightly smug and sinister.
Heesu in Class 2: It seems like this show has been getting review bombed, and I know it’s been getting a lot of hate because it’s different from the webcomic. A lot of the criticism I’ve seen is that there’s too much focus on the straight couple, which I truly don’t think is the case. We’ve gotten a decent amount of them, because they’re the b couple and relevant to the misunderstanding plot between Heesu and Seungwon, but Heesu is still very much the main character and we’ve been getting more and more of Seungwon as it goes. Personally, I think KBLs have this issue where the main couple feels isolated from the people around them, and this show has managed to make their lives feel more full.
I’m withholding full judgment on people who are made about this being, idk, queerbait or whatever until we get to the end, because it does feel like there’s a non zero chance that it ends without a kiss, which would be deeply annoying.
Boys in Love: I’ve been waiting for this and it fulfilled my expectations. It’s so very cute, with pleasant colors and silly teens, and all three couples already have me hooked. Kim and Mon are hideously adorable, but I really like how Kit and Shane interacted in this and what little bits of information we learn about them. Shane’s absolutely deranged family situation fascinates me—I think he is maybe the only child of a couple and then one of his parents married the parent of the other three kids before divorcing?? Anyway, it explains a lot about why he wants to escape. Kit’s obvious mild crush on him already is very charming, and I get it. Shane is adorable and obviously fun to tease. And then there’s the hags! It wasn’t the dynamic I expected from the trailer for whatever reason, but the slight enemies to lovers vibe (one-sided since Nut seems to be interested in Tan from the start) is good for me.
Finished
Your Sky of Us: This felt extremely like someone just strung together the extras of a danmei and put them into episodes, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s just not super cohesive. Like, there’s no real theme to these episodes other than let’s see how things are a year down the line from the finale, which is fine, it’s just not a story. Still, I didn’t mind revisiting this world and these characters even if I think it could have used more of the side couples.
BL News:
The less said about Songkran the better; everyone was truly wilding this year. Is that the spirit of marriage equality in the air? Is it the MewTul effect? Are they all just horny and crossfaded? All of the above?
Meen and Ping announced the end of their partnership, which doesn’t surprise me since their three shows have not been what I would call overwhelmingly successful—they’re clearly liked by a decent number of people, but it doesn’t seem like they had enough success to justify the investment. Since Ping is part of the Inn Sarin extended family, I’m eyeing him and GMMTV like is he going to be the new nepo baby?
Somewhat tangential, but Kang Yuchan of A.C.E is starring in a 19+ BL musical with Won Taemin of Unintentional Love Story/Time of Fever and You Make Me Dance (I assume that’s who’s going to be his costar based on the promo tweet), which is so funny to me on several levels and I need someone to do me a solid and violate some copyright laws so I can see it.
urs,
hk