Welcome to my weekly blog post where I give thoughts on dramas I’m watching, whether I’m at the beginning, middle, or end. Whatever I want, because I’m petty that way.

This week I recapped episodes 7-8 of Wandee Goodday, in which our lovers switch from animal costumes to white tuxes. I also started recapping Knock Knock, Boys!, a Thai BL about four young housemates doing what young housemates do. It has a refreshing openness about sex and a lack of romantic tropes that makes me eager to see the romance.

What did I watch this week?

I finished:

At 25:00 in Akasaka – 25時、赤坂で – 2024

Recently aired Japanese actors-acting-in-a-BL BL with 10 episodes.

An actor gets his big break starring in a BL drama opposite his popular former classmate, and as usual, the lines between reality and fiction blur.

Here’s a trailer.

This is an odd one. Plot-wise we’ve got the silly comedy I Became the Main Role of a BL Drama, but tone-wise it’s closer to the melancholy romance Silent. While a heavier tone works for a heavier show, here I felt the characters were taking their lives too seriously. Yes, it can be hard to find inspiration as an actor, but are things really so bad? 

It would have helped if I got to know the characters better. On a surface level, I like them. I like pairing unpopular with popular and seeing what interesting power dynamics arise. But given that the show is ten episodes, I wanted deeper insights into their motivations, their backgrounds, their passions, and what draws them to each other. I didn’t get enough.

The other problem was a reliance on the miscommunication trope. Or what should be called “the not-communicating” trope. Because I love it when two very different characters try to communicate and fail. I don’t love it when they don’t even seem to try before they give up. Unfortunately, that’s what we have here. 

I’m enough of a sucker for popular/unpopular guys that I still enjoyed this show. But it’s another one that I’ll hesitate to recommend to anyone not looking for a popular/unpopular combo, or actors-acting-in-a-BL with a humorless tone.

I started:

Love Sea – ต้องรักมหาสมุทร – 2024

Currently airing Thai BL, I’ve watched 3 of 10 episodes.

A rich author is sent to an island for some rest and relaxation but gets busy in bed with a local. 

Here’s a trailer.

To my relief, he’s not rich because he’s an author but because his father is rich. It’s funny when I demand realism in my stories.

So here we’ve got the couple from the second half of Love In The Air, playing similar characters. They’ve switched income levels, but otherwise, we’ve got a sassy-on-the-outside, wounded-on-the-inside guy paired with a confident playboy with a heart of gold. 

We start with the usual “instant dislike” trope because that’s how these kinds of shows usually start. Our rich, sassy author is irritated to be sent to this island and more irritated with his cheerful guide who won’t stop using a southern dialect. The guide takes pleasure in teasing and annoying his client but switches to serious and sincere when the moment is right.

Somewhere in the teasing and irritation, a sexual relationship starts. Sometime after that, our irritated poor-little-rich-boy starts to let his guard down and our laid-back-islander starts to feel his heart melt.

It’s pretty standard stuff, but by the third episode, I was hooked. The opposites-attract-trope is irresistible for me and I want to see two people from such different backgrounds learn to be together and help each other. I want to see each of these guys out of their element, learning to adapt while learning more about each other.

I also liked that we started on this beautiful island in Southern Thailand. We get to see some beautiful scenery and scuba diving. I wish I had a better ear for the Thai language and could hear the difference in the dialect.

But I’m not ready to recommend it to others yet.

The writing is on the weak side, offering very standard tropes in a very standard way. I like our couple, but they aren’t the strongest of actors. There is a GL secondary couple who are related to our main couple, but so distantly that their scenes feel random and disconnected. Worse, they aren’t given very much to do, their first scene was just them talking on the phone. So far, they feel like they’re just adding to the run-time.

If you saw and liked our leads in their previous drama, you should check this out. If you have a real weakness for rich-wounded characters with happy-sunshine characters, you should check this out. Otherwise, I’ll let you know how it went in a couple of months.