#show review?

[lunabug2004]

Watching Reactions to The Eclipse is Such a Gamble

Ya'll know this, I've said it multiple times now, but I love to watch reactions to my favorite shows. One of these shows is The Eclipse. But, I swear it's always a gamble watching someone react to it. Fair warning: I hate Thua, so... yeah, this will be biased. These are some trends I've noticed (& they kinda build on each other):

Sometimes, they don't like Akk, even as the show goes on, and he's my favorite so that always sucks.

Sometimes, they don't ever fully understand the manipulation Akk was under. Like, they constantly make comments about Akk's character development regressing or stuff like that. Idk how, but some people just never pick up on the amount of pressure Akk was under, and it's sad.

Sometimes, they don't understand the mental health parts of the show. Like how Ayan was only "protecting" Akk for so long bc he was literally in the worst mental state. Ayan saw the same signs in Akk that he saw in Dika, and he was terrified their stories would end the same way. Ayan still wanted the truth to come out, he was just trying to find a safer way for Akk! He was not just protecting Akk because they were dating, either! Idk how people come to these conclusions... oh wait, yes I do, it's bc of Thua >:(

Sometimes, when that one scene of episode 11 goes down, they completely side with Thua. Now, this could be because they don't realize the outing part of things, or because they don't realize why Thua went about things the complete wrong way. But, it's annoying nonetheless.

Sometimes, they completely change their tune about Teacher Chadok. I don't care about his tragic backstory! He manipulated a kid so much he considered unaliving himself, and you're telling me that just because he has a tragic gay backstory, he deserves to be forgiven??? Absolutely not!

And I'll stop here. I could say more but I think it's already too much 😂

[fandom]

TV Shows

Gods, angels, demons, dragons, vampires, and a bunch of first responders in LA.

Gravity Falls +56

Hazbin Hotel

Good Omens -2

Doctor Who +11

Interview with the Vampire +12

House of the Dragon +13

9-1-1 +18

Bridgerton +37

Percy Jackson and the Olympians +31

Supernatural

The Owl House -9

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles -7

Avatar: The Last Airbender +19

Danny Phantom +4

Stranger Things -12

Dead Boy Detectives

Hannibal +9

Our Flag Means Death -12

Fallout

House MD +43

The Bad Batch +23

Loki +13

Ninjago +24

The Eurovision Song Contest -8

Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir -18

Adventure Time -17

Agatha All Along

Star Trek: The Original Series +51

Steven Universe +12

Criminal Minds +37

Lego Monkie Kid +7

The Umbrella Academy

Merlin

Arcane +14

Heartstopper -15

The Last Of Us -32

Obi-Wan Kenobi +12

Star Wars: The Clone Wars +17

X-Men '97

The 2024 US Presidential Debate

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine +20

Smiling Friends

Game of Thrones +23

Young Royals -13

The 81st Golden Globe Awards +20

The Bear +30

Phineas and Ferb +44

The Acolyte

South Park -13

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off

Outer Banks +19

Sonic Prime -19

The Fairly OddParents: A New Wish

Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake -43

The Boys

Yellowjackets -29

The Muppets +12

The Sandman -29

Succession -51

Gotham +29

The 96th Academy Awards +7

Blue Eye Samurai

The Terror

Voltron: Legendary Defender

The Untamed -7

Buffy the Vampire Slayer +22

Invader Zim +33

The Sanremo Music Festival +29

Shadow and Bone -56

Total Drama

Ninjago Dragons Rising

The Dragon Prince -33

The 2024 MTV Video Music Awards

The Mandalorian -60

Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

What We Do In The Shadows -53

Community +5

Teen Titans

Young Justice

The Walking Dead +16

The 76th Primetime Emmy Awards

Metalocalypse -43

Transformers: Prime

Star Wars Rebels -11

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia -25

Teen Wolf -49

Supergirl +7

The Witcher -67

Pit Babe

The 66th Annual Grammy Awards -3

Classic Doctor Who

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

Breaking Bad -43

Super Bowl LVIII

Amphibia -20

Abbott Elementary -50

The Simpsons -23

My Adventures With Superman -47

Twin Peaks

Over the Garden Wall

The number in italics indicates how many spots a title moved up or down from the previous year. Bolded titles weren’t on the list last year.

Love Hazbin Hotel? There's a Community (or 50) for that.

[burningvelvet]

black sails created an 18th century legendary pirate captain who is canonically queer, ginger, depressed, repressed, polyamorous, murderous, morally gray, downright insane, thoughtful, contradictive, manipulative, funny, strong, idealistic, proto-feminist, utopian, kind, proto-anarchist, anti-colonization, controlling, obsessive, stoic, strategic, intelligent, quiet, delusional, traumatized, filled with uncontrollable rage, consumed by grief and shame, a literary nerd obsessed with greek mythology and classics, a proto-romantic in the philosophical sense - whose whole story is the prequel story of a character from a classic novel who was dead from the very beginning of said novel - and they expected us to be normal about all this and to get over all this and move on from all this?????????

[good-pokemon-center-reviews]

[habken]

the biggest yapper

[haveyouseenthisseries-poll]

The full top 100 list can be found here, and this post was inpired by this poll!

[kazz-brekker]

legit kind of sad about the my lady jane cancellation. it just really sucks to be living in an era of television where it feels like you can't get invested in anything new and interesting without constantly fearing that it's going to get yanked away from you and unceremoniously cancelled

[moonflowergayy]

Good Omens (2019-) + Letterboxd reviews⭐

bonus:

[rebel-ezra]

pjo show next week how we feeling !!!

[californiannostalgia]

when a story has a predestined ending and you thought you already knew who the characters would become, but then you're hit with the fact that no, you actually didn't know these characters at all, they were unknowable to you until this very moment when a larger portion of their life has been revealed to you, and you realize, abruptly, that they had lives and losses and the aching desperation of a love they guarded with every piece of stubborn will they could muster, and the unknowable is suddenly rendered sublime for its opacity

[lunabug2004]

What's With All the Hate for 'Dangerous Romance (the series)'???

I don't even remember how I heard about Dangerous Romance honestly, but I do remember when I started to research it and all I saw was hate. I was really surprised because I love both Perth and Chimon from when I saw them in LBC and The Gifted (fun fact: Wave is one of my favorite TV characters ever created ((alongside Mr Mike Wheeler))). Anyways, this was about 2 weeks ago, then when I finished The Eclipse I looked at it again and saw that a couple more comments had been added that were actually nice, so I decided to give it a shot.

I really enjoyed it! Perth and Chimon did absolutely amazing in their roles! And the chemistry was there!!! I saw people complain about the chemistry in a lot of the hate, but I didn't see any issue with the chemistry at all! Okay, maybe Chimon could be better at kissing (this is apparently a running thing for him lol), but I honestly find it kinda realistic? Not everyone is gonna be a good kisser, but idk, maybe I'm just making excuses cuz I love him. And either way, kissing should not be the end-all-be-all for series imo, esp ones like this one that don't really focus on the saucy stuff.

I get that it would not be everyone's cup of tea and I wouldn't even say it's one of my favorites, but I very much enjoyed it! It even made me almost cry (a feat) a couple times! Anyways, all of this to say I don't understand where all the hate is coming from. I think it was a beautiful story and I ended up loving literally every character, though my fav was definitely Sailom, sooooo yeah.

[fandom]

TV Shows

Another big year for that show that hasn't aired since 2020.

Good Omens +20

The Owl House

Stranger Things -2

The Last of Us

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles +15

Our Flag Means Death -3

Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir -1

Succession +2

Adventure Time +72

Supernatural -2

Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake

Ted Lasso +48

Shadow and Bone +35

The Mandalorian +15

Doctor Who

The Eurovision Song Contest +16

Interview with the Vampire +11

Danny Phantom +12

House of the Dragon -14

Heartstopper -7

The Witcher -12

Wednesday

What We Do in the Shadows -16

Warrior Nun

9-1-1 -7

Hannibal -1

Yellowjackets

Merlin +18

The Sandman -17

Ahsoka

Young Royals +33

Avatar: The Last Airbender -1

Sonic Prime

One Piece

Loki -2

South Park +11

Teen Wolf +20

Lego Monkie Kid +31

The Dragon Prince

Percy Jackson and the Olympians -16

Steven Universe +3

Andor +28

Don't Hug Me I'm Scared

The Bad Batch

Bridgerton -18

Abbott Elementary +50

Ninjago +8

Arcane -44

Obi-Wan Kenobi -33

Breaking Bad -7

My Adventures with Superman

Riverdale +4

The Legend of Vox Machina -2

9-1-1: Lone Star +8

Star Wars: The Clone Wars -14

KinnPorsche -39

Gravity Falls -31

The Untamed -19

The Winchesters

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine +4

The Rookie

House MD

Castlevania

Golden Globes

Game of Thrones -21

Criminal Minds +5

The Academy Awards -14

The Muppets

Outer Banks

Ghosts +18

Daisy Jones & The Six

Star Wars Rebels

The Simpsons +13

Amphibia -61

The Bear

Lockwood & Co.

Willow

Star Trek: The Original Series +1

Love in the Air +11

Inside Job

Community +3

Velma

Better Call Saul -34

Only Friends

Columbo +12

The Grammy Awards

Buffy the Vampire Slayer -17

Gotham -16

The Screen Actors Guild Awards

Phineas and Ferb

My School President

Clone High

Supergirl -56

Moon Knight -84

The Walking Dead

The Sanremo Music Festival

Moonlight Chicken

Black Sails -22

Invader Zim -14

The number in italics indicates how many spots a title moved up or down from the previous year. Bolded titles weren’t on the list last year.

[blossoms-phan]

pj saying he was “turned on” by sister daniel… one of us

[ajaxbell]

Fangs of Fortune (Bai Ze Ling): perfect on pure aesthetics alone, but also it will tear your heart out while being very gay.

I was lured in to this show by Tumblr gifsets and friends on Bluesky talking about how queer and poly this show is. I'm old and I've been in fandom more than half my life. I know how to read queer subtext. I'm also pretty well versed in cdramas, so again, I know how to read subtext. So I went into this ready to, well, read the subtext.

But no this show is just puts the queer it right there in the text. The vague information we have about Chinese censorship repeatedly left me asking, 'wait how are they getting away with this?' Like some of these jokes and implications are just so blatant it seems incredible this show ever made it to being broadcast. It just feels very much like queer media made for queer people even if t's more subtle than something western like Queer as Folk.

Even without the heavy coloring of gay this show is incredible and so much more than I expected from the title and the promo. The premise is essentially the death of the goddess, who governed relations between humans and demons, leads to an influx of demons in the human world. This brings together the goddess's disciple, Wen Xiao--seeking to restore the goddess's power. WX's childhood sweetheart, Zhuo Yichen--seeking to restore the demon-hunting bureau after the powerful demon Zhu Yan killed his father and brother. It opens on Zhu Yan, in human disguise as as Zhao Yuanzhou, volunteering to help the imperial court restore the demon-hunting bureau to quell the chaos. They are joined by Pei Sijing, a retired female general from the rival demon hunting sect, and a very young doctor (and comic relief) named Bai Jiu. It starts off as a sort of monster-of-the-week with a grim Scooby gang doing detective work and fighting monsters. Each major demon has a mini arc that relates to the larger case (restoring the power of the goddess to balance the realms), and they are repeatedly blocked by either the demons or the rival demon hunting sect. Each mini arc also acts as a mirror or parallel story to slowly revealed backstory of all the main characters as well. In true cdrama fashion it's a mix of adventure, intense emotional drama, romance, and comedy. And queer and poly jokes and romance. It also has a kind of manga vibe in the way the comedy is woven into the more serious story, and in the fantastical depiction of the characters and how the story unfolds.

It is also just insanely beautiful. Every single shot is lovely. The costumes, make up, and hair are incredible. The casting director made all the major demons inhumanly beautiful. The sets are spectacular. The effects are nicely done. Every bit of has the vague surreality of a fairytale. The perfection of each shot ads to the manga vibe, as if we're seeing each critical storytelling panel come alive. There's recurring water-based special effects that are just gorgeous. Based on aesthetics alone this show would be worth watching to me. That it is combined with a complex, very emotional story is a spectacular gift to the watcher. A lot of the negative reviews of this complain about the staginess or that it's overly contrived in how each scene is shot. But I think it's gorgeous, works perfectly with the storytelling, and if we criticize art on whether it achieves the goal it intended then this show is doing exactly and perfectly what it means to do and doing it beautifully.

Additionally the acting is also very good, but Neo Hou is the stand out for sure. I enjoyed him in Back from the Brink, especially the later part of the story, but in Fangs of Fortune he's transformed, utterly embodying the role, the way Dylan Wang is Dongfang Qingcang in Love Between Fairy and Devil. Neo Hou has the right look, a slightly uncanny beauty perfect for a gorgeous immortal not of this world. The show does incredible things with his styling between the various looks and personas the role requires. But in acting he somehow manages to utterly transform his face and demeanor to manifest each aspect of the character as story demands changes from him.

There is a lot of crying in this drama. Like early on I joked that there was going to be a character crying a single perfect tear in every ep. Lol nope. Multiple single perfect tears per ep and many outright full on sobbing scenes. This show is just waiting to rip your heart out and you see it right from the beginning. But it was such sweet pain all the way through. Just a truly engaging and utterly wrenching set of intertwined stories.

My only criticism is that the pacing falls apart in the last 3 episodes. But overall the story is solid through the end, though like so many cdramas, it's saved by the epilogue.

You should absolutely watch it if you want the chaotic bi polycule (it's her, her girlfriend, her boyfriend, her boyfriend's boyfriend who is also her boyfriend, their two idiot sons, and her boyfriend's ex-who is also eventually sort of his boyfriend again), or if you want your heart torn out and stomped on. Or even if you just like really gorgeous cinematic things. Also if you watch, please don't skip the ending credits, as they change as the arcs change, and the radiant joy Tian Jiarui has as he dances is an excellent antidote to the emotions of each episode.

[absolutebl]

Best 24 of BL 2024 - Quirky Awards

ONLY shows that ENDED their runs in 2024 are up for awards.

SHOCK & AWE AWARDS

1. Biggest BL surprise of 2024:

Cherry Magic Thailand. TayNew's version was truly a lovely experience and very much its own take on the original, an adaptation rather than a remake. I'm so relieved and grateful that GMMTV managed to pull it off, and sad it wasn't more widely available.

2. The “that country did WHAT?” award:

Meet You At the Blossom from China. From start to finish it is exactly as it claimed to be, wuxia BL, including more than the expected amount of sexual claiming (dubious consent to the point of rape) and actual kisses, wife language, floaty sleeves, you name it. FROM CHINA!!!

3. Biggest casting whoa! where did you come from? award:

Up & Poom in My Stand-In. I mean, WHERE did you two come from and how did this happen? Holy smokes. My goodness are we grateful!

4. That studio did WHAT now? award:

Youku putting Unknown out wide and easily avaiable on YouTube (for most of us). It's just really rare for a Taiwanese BL to get any kind of distribution. And to do that with arguably the best TaBL of the year and not some sad little mew mew? Amazing.

5. I’m sad you were ignored award:

Sugar Dog Life - such a charming JBL, so hard to find. I'm so sad it didn't get distribution. It's charming, one of my favorites of the year, worth tracking down if you can.

6. 2024 BL That Actually Made Me Lose My Mind Award?

I gotta be honest, it was The Sign. I was such a chaotic mess of a show but never once was I bored. It was the only one that drove me into memes and captions and silliness.

I did go a bit feral for a while over Love for Loves Sake and Wandee Gooday not to mention The Only One (until it went tits-up).

NARRATIVE AWARDS

7. Best story 2024:

Cherry Magic (Thai remake). I know, but it worked just as well in another country, if not better. I always enjoy this kind of magical realism concept (after all Color Rush is one of my all time favorite BLs) and despite the increased length, the pacing was solid on this one... even from Thailand.

8. Best narrative structure 2024 award:

Love For Love's Sake. A KBL isekai about a man who must win a game by convincing a reserved teen outcast to fall in love with him. Of course, that teen represents himself and his own unhappiness. I drowned in this show and liked it that way.

9. Best 2024 dialogue (script) award:

We Are, it was just so much fun. And so FUNNY.

10. Favorite scene 2024:

Like anyone needed to ask. Unknown, of course.

11. The most rewatchable BL of 2024 award:

We Are

It's just all the couples are so cute and the core friendship group is so charming and endearing.

ACTORS & CHARACTERS AWARDS

12. Best performance of a queer actor in a leading role:

no award this year, yeah the whole damn industry should be thoroughly ashamed of itself

13. Best pining 2024:

The Time of Fever. That feeding him orange while lying on the floor scene ALONE.

14. Best wingman 2024 (The Namgoong Award)

Yai in The Sign.

15. Biggest OMG I LOVE you boys together, YAY!

SailubPon from Pit Babe & This Love Doesn't Have Longbeans, from the softness of one to the health code violations of the other. Sure their shows are bonkers, but man are these two good at bonkers (and bonking).

With a nod to BigPark from Monster Next Door.

16. Most unexpected return of a BL pair? award:

OffGun. There were rumors that Off was out at the beginning of 2023. And then they came back with 2 shows in 2024 (Cooking Crush and The Trainee)!

17. Well aren't you two just the prettiest? award:

I dithered a lot (Babe's damn waist and OMG The Sign's sex scenes hawt), but in the end it had to go to GreatInn. They were just so good at showing their characters having FUN together. There is a lot of beauty in enjoying sex and another person's company. It's so rare to see that portrayed in a BL (and it shouldn't be rare).

18. LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

I'm actually giving it to OffGun. Ya know, where others falter, these two just keep going. It's kinda amazing.

RANDOM PICKS

19. Favorite Linguistic Moment of 2024:

The general flirtatious banter from Last Twilight.

20. Biggest disappointment of 2024:

Addicted Heroin (Thai version). Some of the very best original material + one of my favorite Thai actors (who I've been waiting eons to see in a BL again) and THIS was the result? They could have fixed China's worst BL mistake, instead the made everything worse. I'm gonna be bitter for a really really long time.

I gotta sat The Only One comes a real close second tho. And I'm still mad about Last Twilight, too.

21. Best Wardrobe/Prop Use 2023

Meet You At The Blossom - I love a pretty boy pissing contest over who has the biggest sleeves. Twirl you beautiful bastards, TWIRL!

22. Best Queer Rep 2024

Again, not great this year. I loved the fun sex and play in Wandee, but there were precious few femme characters, and in general it felt like we took some steps back from queerness this year. So I'm gonna give it to Deep Night, because at least they gave us honest poly for the first time.

23. Best Meta Trope call out

Love for Love Sake - Korea taking to task the Dead Fish Kiss when they are often the worst offender was...... amusing.

But Deep Night having male sex workers having to act like they were in a BL for a couple chicks...... literally gay for pay depicting gay for pay and just, well, that's frankly a gut punch. There was some sarcastic clapping on my side of the screen.

24. Well aren't you getting all Live Action Yaoi retro with your bad self?

Dominant Yakuza and Wimpy Corporate Slave gets my vintage af award. I flipping LOVED it. Would I recommend it? Only if you, yourself, are a bit vintage.

Final question: which of the 24 was the hardest for me to pick?

20 Biggest disappointment of 2024. Look I had some pretty high expectations of some returning pairs, some great ideas, and some intriguing remakes. 2024 was full of disappointments.

2022's Version of the Quirkies

2023's Version of the Quirkies

Remember I only pull from shows that were completely finished by the end of 2024.

(source)

[gunsatthaphan]

"do you agree? - yes."