Welcome to my Saturday blog post where I give thoughts on dramas I’m watching, whether at the beginning, middle, or end. Whatever I want, because I’m petty that way.
This week I finally got back to recapping the classic Not Me with episodes 3-4. Watching it a second time, I realize it has a lot of BL tropes, but they’re more intense than romantic. I’m also realizing how good it is, possibly because of my frustrations with more recent shows.
Speaking of recent shows, I also recapped episodes 9-10 of Kidnap. I love Q and Min and how their characters are fleshed out. I wish they had more interesting things to do.
What did I watch this week?
Pluto – Pluto นิทาน ดวงดาว ความรัก – 2024
Currently airing Thai melodrama GL, I’ve watched 5 of 12 episodes.
The disappointing twin wants to do her sister the favor of pretending to be her and breaking up with her lover, only to discover her twin’s lover is a rich, intelligent, sexy, blind woman. She does not break up with her sister’s lover.
It took me a few episodes to figure out what I was watching. This might be Not Me’s fault since it is a twin-switching crime thriller. This is not a twin-switching crime thriller. It’s a twin-switching soap opera with a focus (so far) on one character’s personal growth.
Let me explain the madness that is this plot
A high-achieving twin, Ob-oom, is getting married. She asks her disappointing twin and our main character, Ai-oon, to pretend to be her and dump her lover. Ai-oon is not into the idea and I’m with her on this one. But Ob-oom gets into a car accident, her husband dies and she’s left in a coma.
Feeling remorseful, Ai-oon does what her sister asked, only to be surprised by everything about her sister’s lover, May. That includes being attracted to her when she’s never been attracted to a woman.
Ai-oon cannot bring herself to tell this recently blinded, vulnerable woman the truth. She pretends to be her sister while promising that she’ll be honest any minute now. But May keeps giving Ai-oon the unconditional love she’s always wanted, and Ai-oon can’t end it.
Car crash? Recently blinded? Sounds like a thriller, right?
For an episode or so I thought we’d discover deep dark secrets about May, with Ai-oon at the peril of being discovered and ending up like her sister.
That’s not what’s happening. May has secrets we’ve yet to uncover, but the show is a melodramatic soap. May is rich, with an evil rich dad who doesn’t like that she likes women and protective rich friends. Ai-oon is poor, and her friends are horrified at her deception and jealous of her relationship. Both of them have done questionable things, in the past and now.
I won’t be surprised if there are some big, dramatic reveals about Ai-oon’s sister’s accident and May’s blindness, but I think they will lead to yelling and slapping, not gunfights.
Besides that, the show is focused on the adult Ai-oon growing up. Her entire life she’s felt, correctly, that she’s been compared to her sister. She’s turned that feeling into resentment and failure. May, an accomplished lawyer before she lost her vision, is a loving but firm encouragement for Ai-oon to stop whining and do things.
Too bad May’s love is based on a lie.
I love a good soap opera
The other two GLs I’ve watched were an office romance (GAP) and school drama (23.5) and it’s fun to see a high-stakes, dramatic story with a central GL loveline. I’m ready for secrets and betrayals and yelling and slaps.
So far, I recommend it to anyone who likes melodrama, morally gray characters, and secrets waiting to be exposed.
Side note: From the minuscule sample size of 3 GLs I’ve noticed two of them, this one and 23.5, have astronomy-based titles and subtext. From this, I can only conclude that while gay men are drawn to the beach, lesbian women are drawn to space.
I also started a fantastical Thai BL:
Caged Again – บอกกรงๆ…ว่ารักเธอ – 2024
Currently airing Thai fantasy school BL, I’ve watched 3 of 10 episodes.
A penguin transforms into a human so he can go to the North Pole. But there are no penguins at the North Pole and he ends up in high school instead.
The synopsis I was reading online (which included the phrase “will his desires consume them both?”) made this sound like it would be a silly, sexy bit of nonsense with animal people. It’s not. The dry and absurd tone reminds me of I-loved-it-until-it-fell-apart 1000 Years Old and it’s more cute than sexy.
We’ve got a penguin guy and a panther guy in high school
We actually don’t know that we’ve got a panther guy in the drama yet, but it’s obvious from the poster. Given the predator-prey nature of their animals, we’d expect a menacing panther and a sweet innocent penguin who needs protection from the cruel world.
That’s not what we’ve got.
Our penguin is very, well, chill. He approaches everyone with wide-eyed innocence but sees exactly what is going on around him. He’s smart, not a pushover, and won’t get taken down by bullies or lower himself to their level while fighting back.
In delightful contrast, our Panther is a big, quiet, tender softy. He wants to protect and help our Penguin, but he can’t even get words out of his mouth. Between the two he feels more trusting, but he’s been hurt in the past.
They’re adorable and I love them.
We’ve also got some old friends
Latte and Almond of Knock Knock, Boys! are here! Only now they’re Jodd and Jeng. They’ve got similar but different dynamics from that series. Latte/Jodd is a goof who can’t get into a single club and Almond/Jeng is a serious nerd disappointed by the reading material in the reading club.
This is the kind of dry, absurd, ridiculous humor I love and don’t get enough. Everyone, except the bullies, is weird and quirky and struggling to make sense of the insanity around them. It’s very realistic.
In these early episodes, we’ve met these four characters and some interesting side characters (including a goddess). Plotwise, we’re hinting at a dark past for our Panther guy that needs to be revealed and dealt with. There’s also a zoo keeper looking for a missing Penguin. And bullies.
Based on these first 3 episodes, I’m looking forward to whatever absurd but meaningful journey these weirdos go on for the next 7.
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