#dear.m episodes 1-6

[youngjedisubs]

Dear.M

[VIKI WEB-DL]

PART 1 (Episode 1-6) PART 2 (Episode 7-12)

[asteptowardyou]

Alright, just wanted to type out my thoughts on the first half of Dear.M before I start watching episode 7 in a bit. Overall, I don't find the romances enticing enough for them to be the main plot, except for Mok-jin and Young's possible romance. I do think Cha Min-ho makes for a good main character, and I enjoy watching the roommate dynamics, but there isn't enough time put into the leading characters to see them all as individuals.

Cha Min-ho is a sweetheart. There was that sense of, Huh? These girls are dumping this dude? when his unfortunate dating history is shown. But, really, anyone can be treated like a pushover, so I don't mind it. Seeing Min-ho already having a wedding fund for his sister truly made me tear up. That is incredibly considerate and thoughtful of him, and I think it showed off the core of his character the best. Min-ho is loyal. He is a good friend and a good brother. He’s good at what he does, and he’s overall a nice guy who is focused on getting his work done. 

I wish there were more time dedicated to Mok-jin and Young, because I think they're the most likable characters. I’m excited to see their romance unfold. I just love couples in which the guy is a bit out of his element. Mok-jin calling Young scary. Yes. This is exactly what I want. Mok-jin witnessing Young dumping someone and him trying to leave unnoticed with literally nothing to hide behind was so funny to me. Anyway, love them dearly <3. 

Let me talk about the love square. Now, I must premise this with the fact that I am a big fan of CLC, and Eunbin is one of my favorite members, so I obviously have a bias toward her and would have liked to see her more in the drama, but I don’t really care for Yang-hee. 

I can't tell if Min-ho is meant to be in love with Joo-ah already, but it seemed to me like he considered her truly just a friend until she started becoming interested in Joon. For one, I'm not one to like when romantic feelings begin with jealousy, but it's not super overdone here. Min-ho and Yang-hee going to the exhibit at the same time is a bit off-putting, but Min-ho isn't overly rude or jealous to the point of being obvious. My primary annoyance with romances stemming out of an initial jealousy is feeling like the romance should have begun on its own, not just because of a third party disrupting the dynamic, but with longtime childhood-to-adult friendships, I can understand why this could happen. Still, it’s just not my favorite way to see a friends-to-lovers story play out. Regardless of this, it bothers me that Joo-ah and Joon clearly have better romantic chemistry than Joo-ah and Min-ho. Joo-ah and Min-ho are incredibly comfortable with each other, but there isn’t really an underlying tension of potential romance in their interactions beforehand. There isn’t a sense of longing and yearning on either of their parts, or at least not enough to be convincing. 

Joon and Yang-hee’s characters are really not fleshed out enough for them to feel important. I do like Joon and Joo-ah’s chemistry, but the attempt at giving him this backstory of failing as a CEO’s son and having to settle for a lower-ranking school was, again, not convincing to me. Yang-hee doesn’t really have any nuance. She’s a rich, pretty girl who isn’t too worried about her future. Her indirect comment about Joo-ah being out of Min-ho's league was rude and unnecessary and honestly felt out of character. Even when she speaks about the “disadvantages” of having low-income students at their university, she doesn’t say it out of spite. She speaks objectively, even if her opinion is inherently hurtful toward Joo-ah and comes from her privileged socioeconomic level. All this goes to say that the set-up for what I assume will end in Min-ho and Joo-ah dating is not well-written in my opinion. There are moments that truly make me enjoy their friendship, like Joo-ah coming back to comfort him, and Min-ho standing between her and some guys from their dorm building who were glancing over at her in her bathrobe. However, this romance just falls short. 

The love triangle between Ji-min, Ha-neul, and Ro-sa is just so terribly annoying, and I felt like it consumed so much of the story. Ha-neul is worried about himself and his girlfriend. He's not peaking over at Ro-sa romantically at all. So, why is Ro-sa so dead set on going out with him? It has be her envy. Now, granted, Ha-neul is a nice and attractive guy, but Ro-sa's out here fighting with Ji-min like he's the creme of the crop, which he isn't. This comes down to Ro-sa trying to win one over Ji-min, which is so stupid. Ji-min is a genuine friend and truly celebrates Ro-sa’s wins, but Ro-sa can’t celebrate Ji-min’s wins because she trying to be the better of the two. What bothers me most about Ro-sa is that she’s throwing away the chance at a really great friendship with Ji-min. Who cares if you don’t have a boyfriend right now? You don’t need a boyfriend! In regards also to the older student harassing Ro-sa, it doesn’t excuse her behavior, but he needs to step away and leave her alone. 

I have not watched Love Playlist, so I don’t know Ji-min and Ha-neul’s story, but their relationship does not feel secure in Dear.M. The scene in which Ha-neul not knowing what he likes about Ji-min was uncomfortable to watch. They don’t seem to trust each other, and this only gets worse once Ji-min starts recognizing Ro-sa’s feelings for Ha-neul. I don’t understand why they’re not more transparent with one another. Ha-neul, I think, is just naive, and Ji-min feels like she shouldn’t be a burden to Ha-neul because of his father passing and him switching majors. They could be a great couple if they were more open about their issues. When Ji-min breaks up with Ha-neul, initially I thought, oh, it’s great that she recognizes her lack of trust and sees this as something she needs to work on to make this relationship work. Now, I think she should have given him a reason for breaking up with him. He deserved that much, because she made him feel like he was at fault, even if she said otherwise. Then, when she got to the dorm and started crying about him not trying to stop her ... I had to pause for a moment. Because why in the world did you say you wanted to break up if what you really wanted was to feel assured that he likes you, that he’d choose you over everyone else? Talk to him about this! Don’t leave him guessing what went wrong! Maybe I’m the naive one. Who knows? What I do know is that I don’t think people should be playing mind games with their partners. A genuine relationship should not crumble this easily.

[markresonates]

i never thought this day would come…the first 6 episodes of Dear.M are finally out! episodes 7-12 will be released July 6th.

episode 1 –viki (free access)

episode 2 –viki (free access)

episode 3 –dailymotion, channel "M13"

episode 4 –dailymotion, channel "M12"

episode 5 –dailymotion, channel "M12"

episode 6 –dailymotion, channel "M12"

possible spoiler trigger warnings:

ep 1-6: jokes/remarks about gaining or losing weight and other peoples' body size

ep 5-6: attempted kidnapping and assault (i got the impression it would be s*xual assault but maybe i just expect the worst possible outcomes when it comes to situations like this)

[feuqueerfire]

Feu's August 2022 BL/GL Wrap-Up

A little monthly wrap-up of all the shows I’ve watched or am watching in August 2022, general thoughts, ranking of them all.

Recommendation of the month: Badhaai Do

Some delightful queer brown people. Comedic and touching.

Ranking

Badhaai Do

Love Mechanics

Magic of Zero: Zero Photography = Our Skyy: Cause You’re My Boy = Girl Next Room: Richy Rich

Ocean Likes Me

Unrated: The Gifted (original 1h video), Triple: Do You Want?, the random 18 Again scenes rewatch, The Eclipse for now

DNF/Skimmed: Cause You're My Boy, En of Love: This Is Love Story, Y-Destiny Ep 3 & 4 (Sun & Nuea ie MaxNat), Dear.M

bro what a weird watching month where I dropped/skimmed a bunch of things and also watched 2 episodes from 2 different anthologies but didn’t finish either anthology. My “Watched” BL list for MDL is so empty this month because The Gifted movie and Girl Next Room aren’t BLs and Badhaai Do isn’t on MDL lol. Love Mechanics and Ocean Likes Me really holding it all down (+ that short scene from Triple).

Completely Watched

'Cause You're My Boy - Dropped

Country: Thailand

Release Dates: Jun 23, 2018 - Sep 22, 2018

Dates Watched: Aug 1 - 5, 2022 (kind of)  

Rating: N/A /10

Watched Via: Youtube (GMMTV)

General Thoughts: Momentous BL only in the sense that it’s the first one I’m deciding to drop (on Aug 08, a 3 whole days since I made any effort to continue watching). I’m kinda in a slump and if I force myself through 7 more episodes of this (even by skipping + speeding up) it’s just gonna make it worse. I stopped at Episode 5, which is when they’ve gotten together and it’s all happy, so I’m not like curious at all about what happens next lol. I really like how differently the characters are portrayed than most other BLs (they are in high school and one of them sells porn for a side income, there's even some shorts he used to jerk off, etc like they have vulnerable sides, playful sides, thoughtful sides to them but also they're horny teenage boys or at least not innocent .it made me feel all ~gendery~ in a different way than Cupid's Last Wish did and made me regret the fact that I was never a teenage boy), I liked how it actually showed the livelihood of someone whose father is a barber (they actually have to care about how much money they spend, telling all their friends about the shop, trying to gain followers on IG of their shop to get customers, etc), and the Neo/Phuwin cuteness but the technical aspects are so bad

Also Appears In: Cause You’re My Boy Live Blogging

I've been having a hard time binging shows for the past 1 to 1.5 months. It kinda started with Absolute BL (took me 3 days to watch 4 20 minute episodes lol) and KinnPorsche (I really just watched like 1 ep a day and also didn't gaf about Kinn/Porsche) but it wasn't super noticeable because I was still engaged in like the fandom and with tumblr fanworks while binging KinnPorsche and reading fic after it finished.

However, since then, the only show I've been kind of engaged in and binging has been Cupid's Last Wish and for other stuff I was watching like 20-30 minutes a day and maybe after a while just skipping things or going at 2x speed.

I think I should change up my habits instead of just binging one show straight through, like maybe switch between 2 shows so that I watch the other whenever I'm bored of one. Perhaps try finally starting a show that's On Air but that might be a bad idea for my personal life.

This will be after Love Mechanics though, I hope I'll love that one and won't make progress at the pace of a snail. (More on my random LM obsession since mid-July despite not having watched it yet)

Love Mechanics

Country: Thailand

Release Dates: Jun 18, 2022 - Aug 6, 2022

Dates Watched: Aug 10 - 13, 2022

Rating: 7/10

Watched Via: WeTV (free)

General Thoughts: I wasn't interested in this until people started talking about how good the acting is and how much they're liking it, so I tentatively added it to my To-Watch list. Middle of July, when I think episode 6 was out, I started watching tiktoks from the show and no joke it made me so giddy and smile so much. The actors seemed to really have a ton of chemistry that made it believable that the characters were falling for each and were actually romantically into each other. Anyway, because of it, I came in expecting to like it and to just... ignore the red flags or bad decisions, both of which came true. Goddamn I forced so much annoying stuff to not annoy/bother me (the cheating/the weird ways they treat people as property/Vee's character writing was kinda weak but I just resorted it to him being dumb/the annoying friends) but also I liked Vee, Mark, and Ploy more than I expected to. Definitely helped by the fact that they were all competent actors playing charming characters. Two things that stood out: Ploy/Vee’s registers + pronouns when speaking to each other and Vee/Mark playing around with consensual nonconsent in episode 10 after credits scene and how much fun they had with it.

tags: love mechanics

Also Appears In: Love Mechanics Live Blogging

En of Love: This Is Love Story - Skipped

Country: Thailand

Release Dates: Jun 6, 2020 - Jun 20, 2020

Dates Watched: Aug 14, 2022

Rating: N/A bc SKIMMED/DNF

Watched Via: Viki (free)

General Thoughts: Skipping through this just to see Vee/Mark

starting with the slap from the tiktok that made me realize I wanna watch it in the first place

lol them teasing Vee 

the conversation between Nuea and Kan about Nuea pursuing Kan’s nong is funny 

ep 2 of this is where the “Phi not as in older brother, the same way daddy doesn’t mean father” and Nuea doesn’t even get it lmfao

ep 3: the friend group was annoying and teasing in En of Love too, though maybe they’re nicer and more caring here, who knows jk they hate nuea here too lol. terrible ass study group though, but still funny and cute

Vee/Mark are so (lovingly) violent here lmfao there’s even some playful choking at 32:55 like 

lol the Vee/Mark Meb ad that’s also full of violence <3

Watched a whole bunch of YinWar content (Yin and War Interviews and Videos)

Wanted to skim the Love Mechanics novel and ended up just skipping the first 25% on MEB. However, did find a translation on Wattpad for Fahlanruk, which I know is a show that’s gonna come out soon (rumours say September). Only managed to get up to chapter 3 because the writing and/or translation is near incomprehensible. 

The Gifted (non-BL)

Country: Thailand

Release Dates: Dec 13, 2015

Dates Watched: Aug 17, 2022

Rating: N/A

Watched Via: Youtube (free)

General Thoughts: Not rated because it’s a student made thing(?) + it’s the original of a show that I’ve already watched. Interesting to see Up here + to see what powers/twists the show kept and what they changed

Magic of Zero: Zero Photography (GL)

Country: Thailand

Release Dates: Aug 11, 2022

Dates Watched: Aug 18, 2022

Rating: 6/10

Watched Via: GMMTV Youtube (free)

General Thoughts: Generally very, very, very cute >.< InkPa are just a cute, endearing ship. Full of humour and hijinks with some tinges of angst like the insecurity + Pa crying when asking Ink to take her photo. But in the end, more fluff and cuteness. Hope we get them in a GL next year, c’mon

tags: magic of zero (+ occasionally: bad buddy, girls)

Also Appears In: Zero Photography Live Blogging

Love Mechanics Director’s Cut (Aug 19/20): Watched the ending of ep 2 and start of ep 3, both of which I’d actually watched already from tiktoks lol

Badhaai Do - not on MDL

Country: India

Release Dates: Aug 11, 2022

Dates Watched: Aug 20, 2022

Rating: 7.5/10

Watched Via: Netflix

General Thoughts: I love watching East or South East Asian media because it has similarities to my South Asian culture and I enjoy seeing these similarities that I wouldn't see in Western shows. However, seeing an actual South Asian movie where the culture is so similar to mine (different religions, so not quite the same) is so good! Family everywhere and all of them nosy! Familial pressure from all sides! The CNGs that they rode! The hustle and bustle of the city and of life! Hindi's similar to Bengali! Unfamiliar with the ultimate acceptance from many family members though lol but I can live vicariously through them I guess. Sumi and Rimjhim (love her name) are so freaking beautiful. They were so beautiful. I didn't like Shardul (lmfao patriarchal cop mans) but I guess... this movie wasn't necessarily about liking him. He deserves rights and for his queerness to be accepted even if I don't like him. I wish we got some more of the lawyer mans and Shardul, he was the most interesting character for sure. Happy ending, funny moments, tinged with some sadness and struggles. I enjoyed it.

tags: badhaai do (+ 1 girls gif)

Also Appears In: Badhaai Do Live Blogging

This wasn’t on my list or anything but uhh suddenly watching

Y-Destiny: Episodes 3 & 4 (Sun & Nuea) - Skimmed/Dropped

Country: Thailand

Release Dates: Mar 30, 2021 - Jul 6, 2021  

Dates Watched: Aug 21, 2022

Watched Via: :>

General Thoughts: okay well, thought I’d watch it since Nat/Nuea is younger but plays a more bold character while the older Sun/Max is shy. I like the dynamics but it was repetitive and boring and I didn’t care, so I skimmed 0.5 of ep 3 and hardly watched ep 4. Oh well.

Our Skyy: Cause You’re My Boy Continuation

Country: Thailand

Release Dates: Dec 07, 2018

Dates Watched: Aug 21, 2022

Rating: 6/10

Watched Via: Youtube (free)

General Thoughts: DNF-ed the actual show but I’ll watch the special anyway. lmfao the whole show gonna be based on misunderstandings galore, huh? At least it’ll be wrapped up in 1 episode but honestly Neo’s giddy face while he texts the fake account N from Mork’s phone is so funny, I’m not even annoyed. not the overhearing them and thinking they’re having sex aksdfj but P’Nair’s actually instructing Mork about the clarinet not cunnilingus lmfao. Bro the band even got costumes lol all this for a random guy’s anniversary present for free, this requires more suspension of belief than most fantasy novels/shows. They mentioned N/Nuknik, so I guess the resolution of explaining that happened off-screen? Aw, I think it would’ve been funny if we saw even Mork’s confusion and then Gord had to do some explaining. Anyway, cute enough despite just being a whole episode about misunderstanding and it made me laugh a few times.

Girl Next Room: Richy Rich

Country: Thailand

Release Dates: May 17, 2020 - Jun 14, 2020

Dates Watched: Aug 22 - 24, 2022

Rating: 6/10

Watched Via: GMMTV Youtube (free)

General Thoughts: It's fine. I liked the first half more than the second half because I don't think they handled serious issues well (like the actual rich stuff and how Duchess and Krathing think about it) or tied things up in a way that made sense (going from being upset at Krathing to them being cute just because Krathing said he was pretending to be KhonKhao as a child). Still, the first half was fun and Krathing and Duchess were cute, I liked their little frenemies thing.

Also Appears In: Girl Next Room: Richy Rich Live Blogging

Triple - Do You Want?

Country: South Korea

Release Dates: Dec 15, 2020

Dates Watched: Aug 24, 2022

Rating: N/A

Watched Via: Youtube (free)

General Thoughts: Only watching the f/f and m/m parts. Oh, I thought it’s just the same situation for each couple but the script is the exact same too. Unfortunately that the script is kinda bad lol. not rating it. 

Saw this reddit comment of this video of “Han Jisung stealing all of Stray Kids’ jewelry” so I watched that video, last part of finding skz ep 4 and first part of 5

The Eclipse - Currently Watching

Country: Thailand

Release Dates: Aug 12, 2022 - Oct 28, 2022

Dates Watched: Aug 24 - ONGOING, 2022

Rating: N/A

Watched Via: GMMTV Youtube (free)

General Thoughts: First ongoing show since like 2gether and even that I had started when ~10 episodes had released, not just 2. Enjoying it so far, though, watched the first 3 episodes and am now gonna have to wait for the next one. So far, the plot and the characters and their relationships are shaping up to be quite interesting!

tags: the eclipse (+ special ep)

Also Appears In: The Eclipse Ep 1 - 3 Live Blogging

Aug 26 11pm

Started Dear.M because I like Jaehyun and also liked Roh Jeong Eui from when she played the daughter in 18 Again. However, the first episode didn’t draw me to it at all and I could tell the way most storylines were going were going to annoy me rip. So I watched about 25 minutes of episode 1, the last 5 minutes of Ep 12 (understood nothing as expected) and got outta there because if I stuck around for 3-4 episodes, I would’ve just forced myself to finish it even though I don’t really like it.

Aug 27 - 12 am

Actually lemme rewatch some 18 Again scenes instead, specifically Jeong Eui as Shia’s romantic storyline. It was cute imo I didn’t really care for it when I first watched it but then on my second watch I was like aww they’re cute! Moved all my thoughts from here to: 18 Again Skimming Ep 12 - 15 Live Blogging

Ocean Likes Me

Country: South Korea

Release Dates: Apr 26, 2022 - May 18, 2022

Dates Watched: Aug 28 - 29, 2022

Rating: 4.5/10

Watched Via: Viki (free)

General Thoughts: I’ve heard mostly meh things about it but I need to watch something Korean and this has Holland. The characters were somewhat endearing or cute in some places but the story is nonsensical and there’s no depth and it’s boring as hell and the ending made absolutely no freaking sense and was unsatisfying. I started fast forwarding a lot starting ep 5, agh just like Wish You. I remember people were hoping this would have a cool twist like Tommy’s a mermaid but no lol and didn’t even give me the celebrity/commoner trope properly agh. Also the only character I liked was the scammer girl she was so cute and terrible 

Summary And Upcoming Plans

A weird month where I liked some of the stuff I watched (Love Mechanics, Badhaai Do, Eclipse Episodes 1 - 3) but also a lot of stuff I finished but didn’t like or just didn’t finish.

Currently Watching:

Love and Leashes which I should’ve finished already (how am I on my 3rd day of watching this 2 hour movie) but I’m distracted I guess. Hopefully I’ll finish it today.

The Eclipse which I’m having a lot of fun with but can’t believe I have to wait a week to get like 40-45 minutes of content T.T At least Episode 4 is coming out tomorrow! Even though it means we’re just even closer to school starting

Gonna continue watching some Korean shows (Out of Breath and Our Beloved Summer are on the list). Then gonna go for Thai BLs again but mostly like chill, cute ones (21 Days Theory, My Secret Love, Unforgotten Night, SIMM, What If, etc) since The Eclipse is more plot-heavy.