Welcome to my weekly blog post where I give thoughts on dramas I’m watching but not recapping.

This week I posted through episode 9 of the Thai soap opera with an LGBTQ+ character and loveline To Sir, With Love and episode 4 of the Japanese BL My Love Mix-Up!. 

This week I finished watching:

Our Dining Table  – 僕らの食卓 – 2023 (Pictured)

A recently aired Japanese found-family-BL drama, with 10 episodes.

A lonely salaryman’s life is changed when he meets a pair of brothers and starts cooking and eating with them on the weekend.

This show was a quiet, happy watch each week that never disappointed me. I would call it a found-family story first and a BL second, like the original manga (available in English on Amazon). If you’re in the mood for excitement, angst and skinship, save this one for later. 

If I had one criticism it’s that it could easily lose one episode. Initially, I worried about the 10-episode count since the manga only has 7 chapters. Thankfully they didn’t add unnecessary drama and what they did add fit the spirit of the story. But there was one episode with a weird number of flashbacks and a subplot that didn’t need as much time spent on it that could have easily been cut. 

These are minor complaints, onto the good stuff. 

Our introverted salaryman, because of past trauma, self-consciously eats his meals alone. One day his lunch is interrupted by a pair of outgoing brothers, one around his age and the other in early elementary school. Despite his shyness, he’s kind to the younger one who latches onto him immediately, adorably calling our salaryman “yukata” (the word for the casual cotton summer robes worn in Japan) instead of his name, “Yutaka”.

Not that much ‘happens’ in the show. Our salaryman gets to know these two brothers and their father, eats home-cooked food, and does family stuff with them. He brings a new warmth to their home and their affection for him encourages him to take small steps out of the life he’s fearfully trapped himself into. 

It’s so soothing to watch.

Our salaryman is played by Inukai Atsuhiro, who I’ve seen play confident and outgoing in a number of other dramas but this introverted role might be my favorite of his.

Writing about it makes me want to rewatch it, but I’ll save that for when I have time to do recaps!