Bad Relationships 101

I finally bit the bullet and watched the sequel of TharnType. If you’ve read my review there, you know it was not positive. So let’s continue the emotionally damaging relationship that we started with the first series.
First of all, I have nothing against the cast or crew, they obviously did the best they could with a terrible relationship. Second, the music is good but not awesome. I’ve found only a few BLs that have an OST that I love and this isn’t one of them. Third, the overall plot is cute and if this was a couple that wasn’t toxic to begin with, it would be good. But finally, this BL is definitely not a #relationshipgoals kind of show.
Now, on to the rest of the review which will include spoilers:
Tharn and Type have been dating for seven years and Type is struggling in his career due to a hateful boss, but their relationship is strong and they seem to be taking care of each other. Type helps around the house while Tharn pays the bills and both of them are working. Tharn’s family is very supportive as are their friends. Type is still reluctant to be open with others about his lover, but I can understand that. Introduce the adorable and available and apparently smitten Fiat, who is so desperate for love that he falls for anyone who is the least bit nice to him. Meaning Type. Poor Fiat (don’t worry, he finds his man later and their relationship is a breath of fresh air in this sad show). Fiat attempts to get Type’s attention and kisses him, which Tharn sees along with some other evidence that makes it seem that Type has been unfaithful and they nearly break up. Almost a ”tragic” ending but naturally, they work it out and get back together. But why?
Type is a pain in the butt. Seriously, every time the man has a bad day at work, he takes it out on Tharn. Whenever Tharn talks about marriage, Type gets angry and defensive. When he sees Tharn happy but he’s in a bad mood, Type blames Tharn like he’s done something wrong. Whenever he’s upset or needs some support, Tharn is right there for him, but Type does absolutely nothing for Tharn. Like ever. He apologizes for his bad behavior once, but he was careful to say he wanted to apologize without losing face, because we all know the most important thing in a relationship when you’ve done something wrong is not to accept responsibility in case your opinion of yourself might suffer.
Tharn allows all of this and is constantly bending over backwards to make his jerk of a boyfriend happy. Then, when Tharn sees the kiss and a few other things cause him to misunderstand, Type acts as though Tharn is totally at fault. I mean, I would want my boyfriend to listen to my side and believe me when I explain, but let’s be honest, Type didn’t try to explain — he just got angry. Yes, it was a misunderstanding, but blaming Tharn exclusively for that when you don’t bother to talk to him or try to explain? That’s stupid. I’m sure Tharn would have believed if Type had bothered to make even one explanation, but instead he got angry that Tharn doubted him. After all the rude things Type has done to Tharn, and their misunderstanding, Type finally did the one thing that almost made sense. He suggested they take a break. Which to Tharn meant break up. Again with Type hurting Tharn. And Type didn’t care enough about how Tharn must be feeling to clear that up either. Instead, he decided to play a mean prank on Fiat as though that would somehow make him more believable when he talked to Tharn later. That part made no sense, by the way. Why couldn’t you talk to your boyfriend who you treated badly without treating someone else badly too? What was the goal here?
To top it all off, Type is supposed to be going home to Tharn when he gets the call that his dad has been hurt and he rushes off without a word to his lover. In fact, rather than sending Tharn a text or leaving a message, explaining, he tells Tharn’s family and leaves Tharn alone to figure it out. What I don’t get is that Tharn’s family like Type and tell Tharn to be patient. I mean, if Tharn was my son, I would have told him to dump that annoying, bad tempered, rude guy and find himself someone who actually knows how to communicate.
The best part of the whole series is when Type calls after being with his family for a month (without talking to Tharn even once — hello, phones were invented for a reason) and says he misses Tharn and Tharn says he has to go and hangs up. Then Type cries, a lot. Like, wow, having to face the fact that you’re a prick who might have lost your lover because you refuse to learn how to use your mouth to do anything other than criticize him. Anyway, I was voting for the break up and having Tharn find someone who treats him well and treasures him. I was also hoping Type would find a therapist to help him deal with his anger management. But no, they got back together. And after that, just to annoy me further, Type said NO to the sweetest marriage proposal ever. I mean, he meant, “after I’m done with my monkhood” (to make merit), but he could have said that first instead of making Tharn feel hurt and unloved AGAIN.
Type and Tharn are the perfect example of people who should not be together. They make each other unhappy. As usual, a dysfunctional relationship portrayed as being beautiful and loving. I’m surprised I made it through all 12 episodes without vomiting.
Aside from the terrible relationship of the main couple, the other couples are all adorable. I am especially in love with Fiat and Leo. Can’t wait to see more from them.
Basically, it isn’t bad and some of it is good, but the relationship between Tharn and Type is toxic and dysfunctional. As long as you understand that good relationships do NOT look that way, then it should be fine watching. Enjoy.

Leia Mais

I WANT to LOVE Cutie Pie

So to start, I'm going to give a review without spoilers (this will be short): Decent story, interesting characters and wonderful actors who literally make the series ADORABLE. The music is delicious and nearly every song is amazing. The plot has some problems, but overall, the story is still worthwhile. The message at the end is enough to negate a lot of stupidity. Character arc for Kuea and Lian is limited and as far as relationships go, this one is not a keeper. The two side relationships are okay. Yi and Diao's relationship is controlling but their character's seem to try to work through it, though it isn't given as much screen time as it deserves. The Nuea and Syn relationship is the only one that doesn't appear to start out in a negative way, although up until Kuea definitely decides to stay with Lian, it is unclear if Nuea will choose him or is falling for Syn. It's funny that they only relationship in the tv series that was not in the book is also the only one that doesn't have toxic control issues and an imbalance of power. BUT if you can ignore the toxicity and focus on how incredible the actors are and how much screen chemistry they have as well as the wonderful soundtrack, you'll be okay. Bottom line, I really did want to love this series. The actors are great, the soundtrack is amazing, and the story is so cute, but is problematic.

So now with spoilers (if you don't want them, stop reading now): Everything I said above was true, and here is the WHY to the negative side of this story. The love story between Lian and Kuea is toxic and has a huge imbalance of power. Lian is controlling to the point of insanity. Examples: Lian supposedly loves Kuea but calls him Annabelle for no other reason than to hurt him. Some people will say this was to force Kuea to admit openly about his true feelings, but telling someone that you don't love them and don't want to marry them, and saying they are like a doll from a horror movie, is not exactly a great way to help Kuea feel loved and accepted enough to open up about himself. Lian forces Kuea to move in with him, knowing that it will make him sad and with the intent of taking away his freedom. They both are hiding secrets from each other, but neither one of them is willing to tell the truth, even after they have both confessed their supposed love. There is no reason for Lian to keep information regarding the Keerati family finances to himself, especially since he knows it could negatively affect his relationship with Kuea if he does, and yet he continues to stall telling Kuea until Kuea finds out for himself. Kuea's family also lies and doesn't tell their son the truth, leaving it for Lian to decide what is best, when Lian's attitude is to do what he wants and beg for forgiveness later, hoping that Kuea will TRUST him. Trust, however, is earned and when exactly did Lian earn that trust from Kuea? Cause two sexy bedroom scenes do not a trusting relationship make. Also, Kuea is certain that if Lian knows all his secrets that Lian will not love him anymore. Could this be because Lian ignored him and hurt his feelings on purpose, telling him that he didn't want to marry him because he is an Annabelle doll? I don't know, but I'm guessing that was a contributing factor. If you want someone to trust you with their secrets, denying them a sense of security is not the way to go. Lian proposes to Kuea at his big family celebration which puts a lot of pressure on Kuea to accept even if he didn't want to. I've heard other people say Kuea should have handled that better, but Lian shouldn't have put him in that situation, especially after his only response to the problem they had earlier was to say, I know I lied to you but trust me. How could Lian have not guessed that Kuea had doubts at that point? The power is entirely on Lian's side and Kuea is left with so many doubts. Even his own parents do nothing to help him realize that he is a person who can learn to take care of himself and doesn't need Lian to take care of him. They go so far as to let Lian make huge decisions for him without even informing him. That to me, seems like they don't trust or have any faith in their own son. Lian seems to agree with this and treats Kuea as though he's just supposed to do what Lian says and be adorable (which seems like that was what he said he didn't want in the beginning of the story, but his behavior encourages this later). No relationship can survive such a huge power imbalance. Also, their characters never changed.. Lian wanted control, he took control. Even when he could have told Kuea the whole truth, he didn't. When the end came, all he did was apologize and then go right back to taking control (which is evident in how he refused to allow Kuea to propose to him, he dodged it until he could propose to Kuea again). He couldn't even give up a tiny bit of the control in this relationship, but we're supposed to believe it was a happy ending. Kuea wanted someone to love him for who he was, yet he was afraid to show the real him, that never changed. He never learned to rely on himself or trust in himself, he simply learned that Lian loved him and was content with that. They never actually dealt with any of the relationship problems.

With Yi and Diao, there was so much more in the books, but I'm going to say that they resolved most of their problems in the series because they were both able to talk it out and learn to give and take. Nuea and Syn just started, so there isn't much to say, but at least it seems that Nuea settled down to choosing Syn rather than crushing on Kuea and going out with Syn because Kuea was taken. Overall, I wished that the main couple (Lian and Kuea) could learn to love and respect and be equal partners, but instead, the show just ended with them going right back to being who they started as and we are expected to believe it will be happily ever after. I was disappointed, however, there were so many things to love. The message at the end, about supporting marriage equality, was beautiful and loving. That made me want to support the series. Also, the actors were so adorable and did so well at playing their parts (I do mean all of them), that I want to like the series, even if it has a lot of faults. Overall, I would definitely watch it again. I'm gonna watch all the kissing scenes and the end scene and the funny scenes (like Lian dancing in the locker room) and I'm gonna listen to the soundtrack over and over again. I will turn off my better sense and just enjoy the lighthearted and sexy parts. If you can't do that, maybe this series isn't for you.

Leia Mais

Cute and fun.

This was a very well done story. The acting is good. The story is cute and well done. The main couple had good chemistry. I admit that I don't pay much attention to the music unless it really touches me, but it seemed good. I was interested from the very first scene all the way to the last. Enjoyable and has high rewatch value.

Apparently you have to have 500 characters to write a review, which seems silly when I said everything I wanted to say already, but here we are. I could probably give a blow by blow account of the entire series in 500 characters, the whole series wasn't that long!

Leia Mais

Extraordinary!

The name says it all. Attorney Woo is, in fact, extraordinary. Asperger's is not an easy thing to deal with for a lot of people, but people with Asperger's aren't stupid. They know they are different and they see the way people treat them. I found this drama to be not only interesting on the legal side, but also heartwarming and emotional. I think they dealt with the matter of a woman with disabilities learning to love very well, while acknowledging that loving a person with Asperger's can be difficult. The love story, which is very much in the background so far, as well as dealing with family, friends, colleagues, and clients, is so well done. The actors are amazing. I haven't read the books, so this review is based solely on an appreciation of the series that I watched with subtitles on Netflix. So far I have watched 11 episodes and I would watch them again and again. I sometimes feel some second hand embarrassment, and they do deal with serious issues, but every episode so far has been beautifully done. I am especially pleased with how well the actress who plays Attorney Woo is able to play an Autistic woman, as well as the portrayal of her love interest. Both actors are so good. You'll cry, you'll laugh, you'll have to really think about what it means to be different in this world. I would recommend this series to anyone.

Leia Mais

Disturbing and so far pointless.

The acting is the only thing worth watching in this series.

Honestly, every part of the writing from the first episode to the 4th (which I admit is where I stop) has been absolute crap. The only character that feels like he deserves better than what he gets is Porsche's little brother. All the other characters are bad people to some degree. Even Porsche and Kinn, who we are meant to be the protagonists are not characters that I feel much sympathy for. Also, other than serving as a backdrop to our scary relationship nightmares, does this story have an actual plot? So far, no.

The love story portion of this is extremely problematic. I know this is meant to be mafia and therefore not child friendly, but if you wanted to make it mafia and guns blazing, why advertise it as a BL which is supposed to be romantic? There is nothing romantic or even worthwhile about this story. And since other than the violence and sex, I see no actual plot, I can't imagine that this story is intended to be anything other than a romance. So far, all they've done is set up the relationship between Kinn and Porsche, which, again, is problematic at best.

Kinn is a horrible person. Other than the most basic of character arc, where he meets someone who becomes important to him and falls in love (which is questionable, I want to say possessive lust instead), he has no real value as a character. He is supposed to be the protagonist, but if he's the protagonist, the antagonist is Satan himself. As far as I can see, this character has no redeeming qualities and SPOILER ALERT: he rapes his bodyguard. Kinn takes advantage of Porsche twice when he is in a terribly vulnerable state. One time, amounting to rape as Porsche had been drugged and could not in any way be considered consenting. After that, we are still expected to support this couple and hope they get together? Not on the likely.

The story is also amazingly unbelievable. Apparently Kinn's an amazing fighter, but only when the story calls for him to beat up his bodyguard -- the same bodyguard who bested 4 people in order to protect Kinn when he was running away and unable to defend himself. It's amazing that Kinn was able to improve his skills so much so quickly, isn't it? I mean, how else do we account for Kinn being able to beat up Porsche when the story calls for it but need Porsche's help because he's not able to protect himself when the story calls for that?

Knowing what would be in store for the Vegas and Pete couple IF the series followed the actual book, is just another reason that I can't support this series. The only reason this was written was as a backdrop for porn rape fantasies by writers who probably have no idea what it is like to actually be raped because if they did they wouldn't write this garbage. The series itself isn't much better than the original stories, but at least we don't have to be subjected to Vegas and Pete as they were originally written.

For people who want to watch something with a little vague kind of story based on a mafia family full of violence and action -- you have come to the right place. If you want that and a love story, don't hold your breath. The only love happening in this story so far is the love Porsche has for his brother and the deep and abiding love that Kinn has for himself. I am sure some people are going to come back and tell me that they are mafia, after all, so I can't expect it to be all rainbows and butterflies. And you are right, it is a story about the mafia, but let's don't pretend that it's about love. It's about violence and sex with very little other story beyond that. The overall story itself, other than the abusive relationship going on between Kinn and Porsche, is vague to say the least. Is there a plot and a point outside of the violence and sex and abuse? So far, I'm going to say no. (I realize I've said some of these things twice, call it forgetful, redundant, or placing emphasis -- whatever makes you happy.)

As I said earlier, the only worthwhile part is the talented actors, who have clearly done as much as they could with the poor plot. There is absolutely no redeeming value to this story line, at least up until episode 4. Having learned from the novel what might be coming up, (AGAIN WITH SPOILERS) with Kinn and Porsche somehow ending up happy together and Pete thinking he's in love with the man who tortured and raped him -- I find it disappointing that this series was given the green light in the first place. What does it say about our culture that stories where the worst people do the worst things to each other and end up in love in a hazy pink land of "no, my boyfriend didn't rape me" and also have no real value in the plot department are the stories that are turned into a TV series and promoted to the world?

To be honest, I could be watching porn with no story line at all and feel less shame about my viewing activities. I was conflicted about this story at first, wanting to give it a chance because there aren't very many options in BL, but now I realize that was short sighted. If I want BL to have better options in the future, I have to refuse to support trash BL when it is offered. The only guilt I feel now is that I actually bothered to watch 4 episodes.

Leia Mais

Great story that failed in the end

The basics of the story are that these special forces guys (two of them) have intertwined past lives and a villain who will stop at nothing to keep them apart. Except he didn't. Spoiler: I mean, the villain literally stopped, gave up, realized that he lost and threw in the towel, but only after causing trouble and threatening to kill everyone to force Tharn to be with him. The acting was pretty good and I was very excited about the prospect of a special investigative unit, but none of that really played out correctly. There was so much potential, but nothing came of it. I mean, it only served as the backdrop for the main love story, without adding much other than the action sequences which were a little bit too scripted and badly done to be interesting. I think they threw in a bunch of pixelated male backsides just to add shock value, but all that did was make me laugh. Good to have some comedy. They had so many subplots, with no direction and no conclusion, just subplots that never gained traction. Which meant as a special investigative unit, they never really added value to the overall story. Then I waited three weeks for the free version of episode 12 just to have the overall plot with the big bad guy decide he's not bad and all's well that ends well, and the lovers have a happily ever after ... well it was just a let down. I didn't hate it, but I wouldn't watch it again and the last episode was a disappointment. Overall: story was lacking, acting was good minus the action scenes, music didn't detract, but disappointing ending.

Leia Mais