aliceisathome

[aliceisathome]

On to Reset ep 5 and poor Armin, he's definitely got some unresolved issues. Actually I like it - the anger and acting out - it's a far more realistic response than we usually get and it's lasting an appropriately long time. Mind you, I would be seriously worried about him if I was his friend (or lover). The perfume photoshoot was brutal. Pond's a good actor - something I wouldn't have guessed from Fourever You. Just goes to show what a good script can do*

In other news, Ren's a weasel. A pretty weasel but a weasel none the less. Mind you I think we all already knew that. Not sure about Sam - was he genuine in the beginning or was he always just using Armin to get to Charlie? And Charlie is a sleaze (but then that's entirely in character for a fashion photographer).

Wenai is the very best boy. Giving Armin the gift? What a prince. Bet he booked Armin's flight as well.

Nice NC scene as well although it did just confirm that a public hot tub is to be avoided unless you like bathing in strangers' sex soup.

It makes a huge difference when they do a proper score for a drama rather than using the usual selection of random (presumably free) stuff. Makes the emotiona beats hit properly.

*I'm not dissing Fourever You - it's a perfectly serviceable little BL and it's got the lovely Cooheart in it but it's very 2019/2020.

[aliceisathome]

So, I've done a few parallel posts between Maurice and Memoir of Rati* and it's got me wondering if maybe not as many people have seen Maurice as I assumed. (Well, 41% of the nearly 4k people who voted on this poll haven't even heard of it, but I don't know what the crossover between BL/MoR fans on here and followers of that blog are!) Or, maybe they have, but I'm sure there's still at least one person out there who hasn't!!

Anyway, if you're reading this and you're enjoying MoR for the time period and cross-class romance, go watch Maurice if you haven't yet!

If you don't know, Maurice is about the eponymous Maurice Hall, chronicling his life mostly through his early 20s, as he finds love and, through that, himself first with fellow Cambridge student, Clive Durham, and later with gamekeeper, Alec Scudder

Both Maurice and Rati are set in the 1910s and deal with inter-class romances and the obstacles (both internal and external) of said romances. Obviously, Maurice is set in an entirely different country, but I think both show off the settings and landscapes nicely

Maurice is a Merchant Ivory joint, and is quite languid in its pacing, and perhaps a little restrained at times (Suzy Izzard was on point with her bit on these kinds of films haha), so it may not seem as swoony, but there is a delicacy in the emotions as well as real passion

Plus, there is Hugh Grant with this magnificent hair

The book it's based on, written by E.M. Forster, was famously not published until after Forster's death. From the wiki article (emphasis mine):

... it was published only posthumously, in 1971. Forster did not seek to publish it during his lifetime, believing it to have been unpublishable during that period owing to public and legal attitudes to same-sex love. A note found on the manuscript read: "Publishable, but worth it?" Forster was determined that his novel should have a happy ending, but also feared that this would make the book liable to prosecution while male homosexuality remained illegal in the UK

Forster was also inspired to write the novel by the real life relationship between Edward Carpenter (who, among other things, was a gay rights activist) and his working class lover, George Merrill, who were together for 37 years, until Merrill's death

Oh, and I'm not the only one who's discussed the parallels/similarities ( @jasper-unofficial did so here, @befuddledcinnamonroll did so here and @doublel27 and @maybe-boys-do-love have also mentioned it - sorry for not linking, my memory is as functional as Tumblr's search system, but feel free to link!) so I'm not just making connections where there aren't any (or, if I am, I'm not alone in doing so :P)

Anyway, in conclusion: watch Maurice! Go! Do it! You know you want to (or don't, I'm not your real dad, I can't tell you what to do)

(Also, I guess if you found this in the Maurice tag, you can check out Memoir of Rati if you want, too?)

*by the way, my parallel posts are never meant to imply I think the creators drew inspiration from whichever other thing I'm comparing it to! They may have or they may have not. They're just connections my brain makes

[aliceisathome]

Ooh, am loving Reset. Four eps in and the chemistry is chemistrying, the plot is plotting - sure with a few holes already but

and the boys are all very pretty to look at. I may be a little enamoured with Pond. Why does Lily hate Armin so much? Is this ever explained? Anyway I loved the Shakespeare audition scene - marvellous and so were the ep 3 drunk scenes. I love the Auntie Jeeb's food stall gang. I must admit to nearly laughing my knickers off when I realised they were all suppoed to be in their mid-late 40s in the future.

MVP is Tada's poor assistant with Janine as a close runner up.

[aliceisathome]

Reset - on ep 1 and Past Armin reminds me of Tharntype era Gulf. I think it's the hair and the eyebrows.

edit: damn, he cut it. Give me long haired boys dammit!

ALSO despite being unspoiled I think I've clocked the series bad guy - it's not very subtle but neither is Thiwthit - the sneer is a bit of a giveaway.

Anyway ep 1 was great. And Miss Lily might not be one of the main players but man what a nasty piece of work. Looking forward to her comeuppance.

[aliceisathome]

SO - upon consideration I've decided to binge the following...

From Japan - Our Youth (yes I know but this year has been hellish and I'm SO behind)

From Thailand - Reset

From South Korea - Ballboy Tactics

From China (gasp) - Revenged Love

Plus some weekly watches with My Magic Prophecy, Khemjira and 10 Things I Want To Do Before I Turn 40 (if I have time to binge and catch up).

I'd like to start Memoir of Rati but I have the fear so will wait until I know if it's a happy ending or not (I fear not).

I've got a week off work - have you guessed?

Send cocktails.

[aliceisathome]

So The Next Prince and Pit Babe 2 are done - and comments supported my decision to drop the weekly watch half way though in favour of a quick binge to finish them off. So that's what I planned and I did manage to get all the way through Prince, albeit at x2 speed but it was tough going. Yes, I can see they spent money and yes, of course Zee and Nunew have the chemistry (as do Jimmy and Ohm), but it was just too... Disney. And then I looked at Pit Babe 2 and just couldn't be bothered. If it was back in the times of BL famine then of course I'd have watched it but we are in a time of more BL than I know what to do with so DNF it is.

I suddenly feel like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders.

And there are LOADS of series I haven't seen/started that have much better feedback from you bunch of reprobates so I shall be diving into some of those instead. I quite fancy something Japanese - any recommendations?

[aliceisathome]

I stopped watching Pit Babe 2 a couple of eps ago and will probably binge the rest at 1.5 when it's over. I can live with the bonkers "plot" but when they started fucking with the characterisations i just gave up. Alan going to Tony? Not in a billion years...

[aliceisathome]

A sports series? From Strongberry? Is it @absolutebl's birthday?

[aliceisathome]

Aww look at them trying to explain the 'science' behind why Tony wants Charlie, like anyone watching actually cares. Bless their hearts.

Anyway bonkers plot continues to be bonkers. I was wondering how Babe managed to beat up Willy when the latter can literally stop time but then I remembered the whole bonkers thing and how nothing makes any sense

Good job.

[aliceisathome]

Quick binge through My Golden Blood because Joss and Gawin have been all over my pages for months. This could have been half the length and would still have irritated the hell out of me.

Thara wanted the blood so she could kill other vampires? But you can kill them without that. And talking of killing vampires, you need to pierce the heart? But you've been killing them by breaking their necks for the past dozen eps. Tong's going to die and leave Mark all alone? Just vamp him baby, why did it take the entire show for this idea to come up? In fact you could have done it as soon as you both declared your love and I wouldn't have had to sit through the rest of this mess. Good grief.

And it took itself SO SERIOUSLY. If they'd camped it up a bit it might have been able to move into so bad it's good category (hello Unforgotten Night, my mafia baby)

Not even the NC scenes or Mond could save it for me. Fingers crossed that the BounPrem series is better.

[aliceisathome]

Good grief, Sonic and North are driving me insane.

Just talk you idiot boys. Gah.

In other news I don't think Kim's ever going to make it back to South Korea and Willy's power seems to be being gay and doing crime. OK - he can stop time as well so it seems racing is a bit of a waste of his talents. Still a pretty little psycho though.

In other news, Tony continues to have the least secure secret lab in history and Kenta's been captured. At least he knows there's someone who loves him now.

[aliceisathome]

I must confess to watching most of The Next Prince at 1.5 speed. Note I said 'most of'. I may or may not be slowing down for the the prince and his pet/whipping boy...

[aliceisathome]

Pit Babe 2 eps 6&7 and let's be honest here and acknowledge that Charlie's not with Babe for his brains. Just how much slack does that face and body give him though? Turns out it took less than 2 eps to get Charlie back. I liked Charlie's stony-faced rejection of Babe's bullshit excuses and non-apologies and even though I'd have probably caved sooner I think he he should have held out a little longer. Good to see Babe completely desperate - he's been too used to getting his own way.

I also like that we seem to be getting lots of Chris's long, long, smooth, bare legs. I want to lick melted ice cream off them (tmi? don't care).

Kenta and Kim are getting all domestic - sweet. And I have zero idea what's going on with Sonic and North but I suspect both couples' communication issues might go a long way to being solved with one good shag.

Willy continues to be a psycho gremlin - did he somehow put trackers on Charlie and Babe? He seems to pop up wherever they are. And Tony continues to be the most easily located villain ever. Charlie now knows for sure that Willy's working for him but does he tell everybody? No. Why not? Nobody knows. And now he's taken Jeff's power? Does he want to be even MORE attractive for Tony. Eejit.

And talking of Jeff, aww. My poor baby and his decrepit boyfriend. I love them and if anything happens to either of them I shall be most displeased.

[aliceisathome]

In Pit Babe 2 ep 5 I spent quite a lot of time shouting USE YOUR WORDS at the screen. North and Sonic? Just talk. Babe? Tell Charlie that you're trying to entrap Willy. Pete? Just tell Chris that you like him and that the whole sex partners thing is screwing you up. And poor, geriatric Alan - just because Jeff's psychic doesn't mean you shouldnt use your words as well. And stop letting Dean filrt with you. idiots the lot of them but especially Babe. At least Kim and Kenta are communicating. For now.

Talking of Alan, the man's only in his early 30s ffs but the show is behaving like he's, well, my age. Good grief. IRL Sailub's not that much older than Pon (who just turned 30 - Sailub will be 32 in August). The teasing around the barbecue table was fun though.

I've decided Willy probably isn't Tony's brand of evil, just amoral and horny. Very cute though. Very.

Mr 'Legs For Days' Chris gets to wrap them around Pete in a pool but is up to something.

Is he a cop? Some sort of interpol undercover guy who takes the whole undercover thing very seriously? Honestly, if he is I don't know why they need to - Tony continues to have the least secure Top Sekrit Bases in the history of evil meglomaniacs and people seem to be able to waltz in whenever they like. It'd be too obvious if he was a mole for Big Daddy.

Anyway I'm still enjoying the utter chaos and just wish @absolutebl was doing a trash watch.

[aliceisathome]

We've seen more intimacy and chemistry between Krist and Singto in 2 eps of The Ex-Morning than we did in 2 series worth of SOTUS (and a special). Also how does Singto look 10 years younger than he did 9 years ago? I think it's the chubby cheeks - I just want to give them a squish.

It all feels rather meta - is it supposed to or is this just a nod to those of us from Ye Olden Times?

[aliceisathome]

Catching up on Pit Babe 2 - it's absolutely absurd and I'm enjoying it tremendously. Do I know who Tony's secret mole in XHunter is? No. Do I care? Also no. Ditto Tony not being dead, Way having a doppleganger etc. Glorious nonsense.

The actor who plays Willy reminds me a little of Offroad around the eyes - this is not a bad thing. He's a little cutie albeit a sneaky, possibly evil one.

We now have 5 couples/potential couples. FIVE. Obviously I would protect AlanJeff with my life - if they kill Jeff I'm on the next plane to Thailand - and am delighted to see Nut kissing a boy again (cannot WAiT until I'm The Most Beautiful Count which looks as camp as Christmas). I'm also all in on Sonic & North. Give me more than crumbs please show.

I see we're getting half nekkid Pavel at least once per episode. I approve. Although Alan and Jeff having sex on the floor while the bed is right there is something I just cannot understand. At my age I want all the comfort I can get and as 'Uncle' is apparently ancient in his elderly early 30s i'm sure he feels the same. On the other hand I'm quite relieved Chris and Pete didnt get it on on the pool table because just ruins the baize. Don't ask me how I know.

On a final note, is Tony's hairdresser attempting The Rachel on him?

[aliceisathome]

That's not Way. That's not Chris. That's Nut himself 😉 sassy as ever. Keep it up Queen 👑