#GMMTV IS DOING REAL ADULT LESBIANS??? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

cornyonmains · 9 months

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Finished The Eclipse. I honestly feel like I had the right instinct to tune it out the first time, but I do think it's interesting in that you can really see the baby steps GMMTV was taking to grow up a little bit.

You can really look at The Eclipse and see a show where it's clear GMMTV really diminished its potential with a lot of its own standards, and to their credit, I think they stood back and took a hard enough look at it, the BL environment in general, and how absolutely hard fans were calling out their bullshit and decided to get real with Only Friends.

The Only Friends cast is heavily indicative of this being the case. GMMTV was gunning for elevated talent that knew how to play ball, and Neo, First, and Khao were all shining stars in The Eclipse, that blasted their scene partners out of the water. Force and Book are intensely unique, as they've always been shafted with bad scripts and sexually repressed directors, despite the fact they came into the game with a lot more professionalism and comfort with the material they were handling. The director didn't wind up sobbing in the corner because they refused to move their mouths when they kissed. They're also a much more 'modern' ship, that doesn't default on yaoi contrasts and that weird seme/uke binary. After the success of KinnPorsche, and popularity of MileApo, I think GMMTV finally saw the potential in this pairing. About time.

But the casting is very indicative of GMMTV kind of telling fans, "We've been listening, we hear you, and we're making changes." Only Friends corrects a lot of complaints the fandom has been having.

Adults, for example, don't have much in this genre. Part of the reason The Eclipse fell short for me is it's just another damn coming of age drama. Great for the baby gays, but the adults are over it. GMMTV gave us Neo eating Mark's ass like groceries then getting godless with Force in the backseat of a car, and I'll live 10 years on that alone.

The plot contrivances they have to cook up to keep everyone from doing anything but doing a cutaway kiss with no tongue in the final episode is no more, people are fucking nasty, so now there's room for actual plot, which is hilariously ironic. But also, it's not, because I mean the desire women have for horny softcore erotica with good plots and high production value is not unknown.

Queer women and bisexuals have been complaining about a lack of representation. At the core of these yaoi tropes is a world where bisexuality has no meaningful distinction from being gay, which is really annoying, because bisexuals have a much different experience in the queer community, and that's not reflected in a world where X amount of interpersonal communication can magically turn anyone gay. Queer women just don't exist in BL. Women are all straight virgins trying to steal your man. Only Friends has lesbians. Actual FDA approved lesbians. Are they fucking nasty? No, but it's something. We are allowed to exist in the world of Only Friends and that's HUGE.

People have been complaining about the cringe. Only Friends removed that and replaced it rage provoking stupidity by the characters, and I approve of that.

Anyways, analysis is what I do for a living. TV is well within the ballpark. So while I'm only basing my thoughts on what I've observed and not cold hard numbers, there's only so much insight I can provide, but it's insight backed by years of experience. With Only Friends posting absolute numbers, we can expect to see some structural changes at GMMTV on the horizon, because this is going to create growth. Probably even stimulate a search for new actors to get on their roster, since they have a lot of actors that won't be able to deliver going into the new era. I also think this is going to help them land sponsorships from atypical brands, which is BIG. Mile getting Maserati on board for KinnPorsche is part of what allowed it to exist in an elevated form.

I also think the success is going to result in a shake-up with the quality of writers they hire, because that's at the core of a lot of issues in BL. They adapt these novels from these absolutely unhinged lunatics, these lunatics have WAY too much creative power despite the fact they're low brow porn writers, and it kills the quality of a finished product. America doesn't do that. Directors have the power to elevate material, and that's important. GMMTV got a proper writer for Only Friends, and it paid off in a big way. Mame is one of the names I hate in BL the most. Her goo-goo gaga shit is creepy, I hate it, it makes queer people look bad, and I'm hoping writers like Jojo just drive her out of the scene.

Anyways, I'm going to end things here. I just wanted to share some random thoughts I had.

#Only Friends #Only Friends The series #ofts #The Eclipse #FirstKhao #ForceBook #NeoMark #thai bl #bl drama

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absolutebl · 1 year

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This Week in BL - a new #1 for me from Thailand

Nov 2022 Wk 4

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs. Organized by which ones (in each category) I’m enjoying the most.

Ongoing Series - Thai

609 Bedtime Story (Fri WeTV) 1&2 of 11 - Apparently VIPs get the next episode early. So I watched both. It’s a good story and a great set up and it opens with one of my favorite under appreciated Thai actors: Plustor (as Vee) in a side bartender romance with younger Game. Sunshine bisexual himbo + older tsundere = YES! Gimme! Main character, Mum, is your bog-standard player. (I weirdly love how they translate clubs & bars as “pub” in Thailand - and yes, I get that it ties to the history of the area.) Kinda fun street fight. NO SINGING. Game is BL’s new bisexual king! I will brook no arguments on this matter. Omg kisses already? This is a well paced story! OhmFluke man, can’t knock the visuals, their eye connection and sympathetic chemistry work is good. I never believe they wanna bone but I do believe them falling in love. ALL HAIL QUEEN MINT.

Between Us (Sun iQIYI) 4 of 12 - This is such a fantastic show. I’m so glad they got OhmFluke back to play sides and support roles, it’s really making the found family aspect shine, especially in contrast to Win’s real family. This one is very complicated and deep and kind of modern. Very much the opposite of UWMA but in a good way. WATCH ALONG HERE.

My School President (Fri YT) 1 of 10 - it’s Love Sick + Korea and Japan's influence. Yes, we’ve seen it all before, but this is me: I never met a high school BL I didn’t want to grant a fair shake. At the very start we get self with a whistle and NO SINGING. Yay! Fantastic beginning. Our tiny music club president/idiot is definitely giving me Noh vibes & our suave student president definitely giving me Phun vibes - bonus this time no girlfriends! It moves this out of Love Sick arena, which was all chaos bisexuals, and into just completely gay. I’m happy with that and I like the dancing and the marriage on his mind. New candidates for one braincell friendship group from GMMTV (they love this archetype). Tinn is already pining and so completely gone. On a completely different aside, I really want a lesbian romance between Gun’s maa and the principle. I have a tiny ship sailing off to one side.

Ai Long Nhai (Mon iQIYI)10 of 12 - holy crumbs outta nowhere, Batman. Lots of relationship chat not enough shirtlessness, but since I’ve been binging Oh! My Sunshine Showering Night it’s no problemo. Also yes, Nahi does look and act a lot like Joanan, Ai totally ended up dating his mother.

Remember Me (Sun Gaga) 8 of 12 - Champ’s storyline is dull, although I like the actor. Yay, JaFirst got together!! Cute line, “can we skip being friends and just be in love instead?” LOVE THEM. Please can we take Mean out of that wig now? Why are the straight’s so boring? The Name stuff continues to upset me.

I Will Knock You (Fri Gaga) 3 of 12 - When these two are sweet together, they are really very sweet and I actually kind of like it. I think Noey uses ter because he’s younger, and doesn’t want to use phi.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

My Tooth Your Love (Taiwan Fri Viki) 9 of 12 - while 609 and Between Us are v good, this is currently my favorite BL airing by a mile. The conversation between the young one and the bar owner made me hoot with laughter. “Are you trying to speak the language of adults?” probably one of the BL’s best put-downs. All the dialogue really: “Are you gonna make him tie himself in a red bow and send himself to you?“ “That’s nice. Can I choose another color?” It’s so fucking cute. The courting with food, and everybody taking photographs of how happy the dentist is. I can’t even with this show. Add the cutest smiles kisses, this is GREAT. I did in fact clap.

Choco Milk Shake (Korea Strongberry Tues YT) 9 of 11 - Man, this show really makes me laugh so hard. Especially the cat character. I love how they called out the fact that they actually have customers for a change. Jealous Milk made me cackle so hard it scared the actual cat on my lap. How are they going to end this happy? In Strongberry we trust. Just repeat the mantra ABL, just keep repeating it.

Eternal Yesterday AKA Eien no Kino (Japan Thurs Gaga) 7 of 8 - It takes me a lot to work up the courage to watch this show on Fridays. It’s so sad and traumatizing. But it’s also so good I can’t stop. I have to watch Tooth on either side of it to comfort myself. All that to say, it’s as we all expect: Michan is holding so hard onto Koichi that he has anchored him from death through shear force of will. Also… SWITCHES? Although, does it count if it’s necrophilia? Asking for a friend.

Oh! My Assistant (Korea Thurs Viki) 1-2 of 8 - This has a very JBL feel (including the title), don’t get mad if I get confused. Anygay, this is a very silly show that acts like it comes from a very silly yaoi. Out gay younger seme (we stan) pretending to be tsundere is smitten by chaos bi uke puppy. And they gave us a very interesting new take on crash into me. It’s racy but in that way Korean does racy, like Love & Leashes. Cheeky racy.

Happy Ending Romance (Korea Thurs Gaga) 3-4 of 8 - This is such a complicated show about profession, ego, reputation, safety, and trust, but not much about romance. Maybe it’s because I’m so used to Leo portraying evil (see most of his guest MV’s and half of VIXX’s) but I can’t trust his character, and I’m not sure if I’m meant to. Is that the romance? Or is this a romance about an editor’s love for a writer’s work? Or for the writer himself? And is there a difference? Meanwhile, I’m getting a bad feeling about the ending of this one. And yet... How much did I love the dialogue around love and possession? So much.

It’s Airing But I’m Not Watching It

War of Y (Thai Gaga) 20 eps - it’s just all too much for me.

2 Moons 3 (Thai Mon ??) 10 eps - Possibly a future binge watch. Rumor is it’s banal.

Love Bill (Vietnam Sat YT) - Bah Vinh is back but I’m too distracted. Also there’s a lot of fund raising stuff going on. I’ll wait and binge.

The Star Always Follow You (Vietnam YT) - same Team RL peeps we have seen before (Sunshine, Stupid)

Till the World Ends (Thai YT) 10 eps - ?

Why You... Y Me? (Thai Weds YT) 10 eps - It's not primarily a BL, but another meta show about BL shipping, with side BLs. @heretherebedork is watching it, ask them about it.