Welcome to my weekly blog post where I give thoughts on dramas I’m watching but not recapping.
This week I finished recapping My Personal Weatherman, an awesome red flag couple! By the end of 8 episodes I think they end up in a pretty good place.
Next week I’ll go back to green flags all the way with Ryouji and Amane in If It’s With You. They’ll take me to the end of the year and who knows what I’ll start 2024 with!
I swear I watch things beside BL, it’s just what the drama world has been offering lately that catches my attention. So with that sorry-not-sorry out of the way, here’s what I started this week:
VIP Only – 保留席位 – 2023
Currently airing Taiwanese BL, I’m at 3 out of 10 episodes.
A writer struggling with his third novel takes up residence at a cafe and catches the attention of the chef/owner.
So here’s an unsatisfying review: I don’t know what I think about this show. I’ve watched these first 3 episodes twice because the first time I felt like I’d missed important information. The second time I caught more, but still felt like things were floating past me in a slow, serene way.
Potentially this is deliberate. The show has a strong feeling of whimsy and while there is some humor, it’s a slow paced slice-of-life show with little plot.
We start with typical Taiwanese BL everymen, a struggling writer and a struggling chef.
Our novelist ponders various famous quotes and makes origami and eats beef noodles at the cafe. His book isn’t going well.
Our cafe owner/chef is captivated enough to switch from taking pictures of food to taking pictures of our writer playing with his origami creations or capybara. He’s dealing with some kind of financial issue, maybe, that he gets texts about from time to time.
There’s not a lot of dialogue. Our chef has said so little that his super annoying employee had to overshare some of his backstory or we’d have nothing. It could easily be a subtitle issue, but at times their conversations are vague and hard for me to follow. Then when not talking they sometimes stare at things, but I’m not sure why or what to make of it.
The second and third episodes get a little non-linear for a bit, moving back and forth between memories of a few hours ago and what’s currently happening. This didn’t help with my confusion.
That said, I like whimsy and slow stories and everyman. I like shows that focus on the small moments in life and how we overcome daily struggles with the help of others. I want to know more about our sweet but silent chef and awkward novelist.
For that reason I’m interested enough to keep going — even if I feel like by episode 3 I should have a better idea of where we’re going. So far, I’m still curious to learn more.
The TL;DR of this review is: For now, it’s recommended with reservations for those who like slow, slice-of-life stories.
Side note: Our owner/chef had a bewildering out-of-the-blue cameo in the ultimately disappointing You Are Mine. This cameo was apparently to set him up for this show. At this moment the tone and plot of this show are so different from the whacky, cartoonish You Are Mine that I don’t think it’ll go off track the way that story did. But it could go off track in a different way.