Welcome to my weekly blog post where I give thoughts on dramas I’m watching but not recapping.
This week I got into the last quarter of Love Between Fairy and Devil and finished recapping Utsukushii Kare/My Beautiful Man Season 2. I plan to go back and start recapping the first season next week and the movie as soon as it’s out.
This week I didn’t start anything new, but I finished:
My Lethal Man – 对我而言危险的他 – China 2023
A recently aired Chinese modern thriller of 24 episodes.
A woman discovers her doppelganger and then gets sucked into her life. There’s a hot, lethal man who keeps trying to strangle her, an evil family, a bizarre throuple centered around an annoying woman who studied anime art at Art University, ‘Italy’, and a lot of drowning.
Is this the opposite of a predictable, comfort watch? But like some opposites, it serves a similar purpose? Because when I watch a show like this, which is only predictable in that everything is ridiculous, I like to turn my brain off and relax.
This show was a spectacle of absurdity. Layers upon layers of nonsense. The actors play out over the top, dramatic scenes, crying and screaming over the nightmare of illogic that their characters’ lives have become. There are slow-motion, romantic moments so bizarrely choreographed that they delighted my sense of humor rather than stirred my heart.
Writing about a recent Love Between Fairy and Devil episode, I mentioned the importance of details to make a story feel real. Carefully thought-out ideas can really add depth to a story.
In My Lethal Man, there are so few details, and they are so strange and disconnected, that it gives everything the feel of an alternate reality. Like maybe something slipped through a leak from another universe and you get to watch it.
If you like this kind of thing, you’ll love this show. If you don’t like this kind of thing, you’re going to be miserable. If you aren’t sure, give the first episode a try and then decide if you’re up for another 23.
Moonlight Chicken – Midnight Series : Moonlight Chicken พระจันทร์มันไก่ – Thailand 2023 (Pictured)
A recently aired Thai BL of 8 episodes.
A drunken one-night stand might lead to something more. A young man with ambitions meets a young Deaf man living an isolated life.
Ever watch something that has everything you want, and you’re a little afraid to enjoy it because if it goes south it’ll hurt more than just watching something mediocre? I think that happened to me with this show, but I loved the last two episodes so much that now I want to go back and rewatch it to really enjoy it.
To me, it stands apart from other shows in its genre because it’s very slice-of-life and features an ensemble cast. If anything, the main romance gets a little lost with everything going on in the lives of all the characters. Instead of characters being shoved into situations to force the plot to happen, things move at a mostly natural pace. There are complicated problems, emotional baggage, failed dreams and new dreams, but no big drama.
The second couple is my favorite part. Heart and Li Ming are so sweet and enthusiastic in their young love, but also strong enough that it doesn’t have that scary, fragile feeling. It also feels like one of the few shows that addressed the reality of being gay and how family and society can treat lgbtq+ people, without that being the main focus of the story.
There is some clunky writing in places that could have used either more time or a little more finessing to feel better eased into the story. It’s not the right show if you’re looking to get swept up in a romance, it’s more focused on the different characters’ lives. But for me, it’s going on the favorite list.