We're A Couple Of Hours Out From Episode 11 Of La Pluie, And It Has Me Spinning My Wheels As Usual.

We're a couple of hours out from episode 11 of La Pluie, and it has me spinning my wheels as usual.

Lots of thoughts and questions churning away, but the one that is uppermost in my mind is Lomfon's question to Tien about choosing between the person one likes and one's soulmate.

I think most of us read this as Lomfon recognizing that he has some feelings for Tien but now believing Tai is his soulmate and wanting advice about what he (Lomfon) should do.

However, later on, this person (YES, I wanted to say something explicit here, but I think Patts and the Fandom have given him his licks already, so I won't pile on) ... so this person has the nerve to act like he has no idea why Tien would be upset or how this free-for-all Lomfon instigated was any of Tien's business ... and it keeps bothering me. It bothers me for many, many, many reasons, but mainly because it seems so disconnected from the earlier scene.

And so now I'm wondering, "Who is Lomfon in that scenario?" The person choosing between a soulmate and the person he likes? Or is he just one of the options? Is Lomfon actually referring to Tai choosing between the person he likes (Patts) and his impending soulmate (Lomfon)? And is Lomfon turning to the one person he knows who is close to Tai for advice to get a sense of what Tai might do?

Anyway, as miserable as it all played out in the end, the idea that Tien may never have even been a part of the equation for Lomfon has me in my feelings.

Ready to see Tai and Lomfon unfuck it!

La Pluie and the Aftermath 

There’s something so satisfying about a story that pays off every beat it has set up, isn’t there? I am going to have comparably less to say about this episode than the last one, and it’s not because it’s any less masterful. It’s because I already said it last week, because this show’s writing is so damn consistent that after watching that episode I knew exactly what needed to happen to continue the characters’ emotional arcs. 

Shoutout to @wen-kexing-apologist, @neuroticbookworm, @bengiyo, and @fadelikeclouds, all of whom wrote relevant essays I’ve linked to here. 

So in this episode, we continue the arcs for our core four as expected:

Tien is sad, delivering truths Tai needs, and generally continuing to be an emotional rock even as he nurses his own broken heart

Lomfon has realized that he kissed the wrong brother, and is beginning to clean up his mess with a much needed apology to Tai

Patts is going through it (and lord does Pee continue to kill it in this final arc) and still upset with Tai, but because he’s Patts he still tries to compromise and reach out one more time (which the show smartly blocks with a well-timed misunderstanding) before he decides to pack up and try a change of scenery to nurse his broken heart

Tai stubbornly continues to passively wait for Patts to be the one to make amends, forgives Lomfon easily (because that boy never mattered to him enough to bother holding a grudge), and then goes and pitches a fit at his mother’s wedding because he continues to be entirely self-absorbed 

The grace Tai received from his family is perhaps more than he deserved given his extremely childish behavior in the context of those scenes, but we know how much he needed to finally understand what happened with his parents so that he could begin to heal and get his shit together about Patts. I really loved the direction the show took with this. As it usually does (episode 10's big explosion excepted), the show steered away from high drama and revealed that their breakup was entirely mundane - they realized their romantic relationship wasn’t working, and decided to split up even though they still love each other.

@sliceduplife and @neuroticbookworm pointed out to me that this episode is the first time we actually learn Tai’s parents names - Yadfah and Warun - and I think it’s because this is the first time we are seeing them as actual people instead of stand-ins for Tai’s hang-ups. And as we learned, contra to Tai's long held belief, it was Tai’s dad who ultimately decided to release them from this obligatory soulmate marriage, giving them the freedom they needed to live happier lives while keeping their platonic connection intact and sticking together through the rain. 

That’s fucking beautiful, and you could see how moved and shaken Tai was as he realized he’d gotten it all wrong. And his dad did us one better by making the point explicit: Tai done fucked up by dumping Patts, and needed a reminder that when you find a good love, you have to take care of it.

Tai needed to hear that so desperately. He did so much damage to his relationships, and for no damn good reason. Tien already made sure he knew that it was his lying that caused all the drama, and now he can see from the way his parents treat each other that his approach to his relationship with Patts has been wrong-headed from the start. And so we head into the finale where we’ll get to see him finally be the one to reach out to Patts, to use his words, and to make amends for the things he got wrong.

I want to end by just mentioning how incredible it is that this show managed to wind up to such a high drama emotional climax and then pivot immediately to such a quiet, calm release of tension while keeping everything emotionally consistent. This is only possible when the writing, acting, directing, and editing all come together perfectly. I have every confidence that La Pluie will stick the landing.

WTH?! People are posting Episode 12 content. No place is safe.

Step By Step - Overall Thoughts

Bear with me as I try to tackle this messy show. There's only 2 other shows I have done full length reviews for on here, so I don't know well this will come out. But I do have thoughts and this show took up 12 weeks of my life so I have to share them.

What I Liked

- Man Trisanu is such a great actor, I loved him in every single episode. In one of my earlier post I said, if I were to rank BL actors, he'd be near the top of the list, it still holds true.

He was a clear standout from this show. Despite his towering physical stature, he does such a good job at making Jeng feel small and vulnerable in his weakest moments and he's got the best whipped look on his face when he's looking at Pat, also, his micro expressions are so on point. If nothing else, introducing me to Man, will always be a point in the show's favor.

- The first half of this show is amazing. Like the first 5-6 episodes I was so on board. It had such an interesting setup, the workplace romance was working really well, despite its slow buildup, the chemistry was hitting all the right notes. I also loved how realistic the show when it comes to office politics. Not just that, it was so fascinating that instead of solely focusing on the romance aspect, the show seemed invested in Patt and Jeng's career growth, both of them were learning how to be better at their jobs, while working with each other.

- Man and Ben's chemistry works for most of this show, until it doesn't. But I think the parts where the chemistry doesn't work are also the parts with the weakest writing, so it's not really the actors fault. Overall I enjoyed watching them together, in both the cutesy and the high heat moments.

- I really enjoyed Chot. He hits all the right notes when it comes to being a good supporting character, and I love Bruce, so there's some personal bias involved here, but still overall, he got a nice arc and a cute side story. I also enjoyed Ae. When the show knew what to do with her, she had some of the funniest lines in the show.

- I enjoyed the sibling dynamic between Jaab and Jeng. Jaab's presence in the story as the openly queer second child, who has no stakes or interest in the family business, also adds more context to the pressure Jeng feels to keep up with his dad's expectations. So despite how badly the show messes up the execution of Jaab and Jen's "second couple" storyline, I enjoyed Jaab's presence in the narrative. (Yes, this makes Jaab sound less like a character and more like a plot device but I can't help it that the story doesn't know how to use this character very well, despite his potential.)

What I didn't like

- Oh boy, I am gonna try to keep it short, because I wrote quite a bit in my weekly breakdowns, for the last 3 episodes. Episode 10, Episode 11, Episode 12.

- The second half is clunky. And so many people have pointed out the problems.

I will tag some of my favorite contributors in the Step by Step tag. They've made several posts over the past few weeks breaking down the good and bad parts of this show.

@lurkingshan @bengiyo @heretherebedork @respectthepetty @waitmyturtles

I think for me, these were the 3 main issues with this show -

- The choppy editing. Most episodes of this show are longer than 70 minutes, so it really really shouldn't be difficult to make sense of the show's timeline, but by episode 9, almost no one who was watching could keep up with the timeframe of any of the events. Also, did we really need the finale to be almost 100 minutes? Nope. Most episodes of this are longer than necessary but it wouldn't be an issue if the writing supported the length a little better, it doesn't.

- The show has so many interesting ideas it wants to tackle such as Pat's and Jeng's professional growth, homophobia in the workplace, Jeng's familial struggles, Pat's struggle to feel like his professional growth is not completely dependent on or tied to Jeng, Put and Pat's relationship and eventual breakup - round 1 and 2, the influence of BL actors and BL industry as a whole. The show collapses under the weight of trying to tackle all of this, while also trying to somewhat stick to the traditional beats of a BL and tell a compelling love story. The love story here isn't bad but it's just muddled with so many other things that by the end it's difficult to really care about any of it. The show fluctuates between being a workplace drama and a BL, for most of its runtime, then finally commits to the BL aspects, then fumbles the bag on the execution, only to go back to being a workplace drama with BL elements. It's just all over the place!

- The Jaab and Jen problem. The show establishes an interesting side couple, gives them an explosive kiss in episode 5 and then just does nothing with it? Why? What? Every week for the past 4-5 weeks I have been asking the question - what's up with those two?? I am calling it out with respect to Jaab and Jen but it's present for most of its supporting characters. Look, it is rare for side characters to be given clear, full, well-written arcs in BLs but this show spends so much time in establishing these characters and their conflicts in the first half, only to then just either forget about them and write them off the narrative completely. This problem is most prominent with Jaab and Jen, but it does with almost all side characters, except for Chot.

Final Rating

3.5/5

I am so sad about this because if you asked me around episode 6, this was potentially going to end up at 4.5 for me (for reference, there's only 3 BLs I rates a full 5/5, so a 4.5 is pretty close to perfect for me.)

Current Ranking

25/40 (This is based on my ranking list of all BLs I have watched till now, interesting that this ranks just couple spots above ABAAB. It doesn't mean anything, just something I do for fun.)

Rewatch Potential

Almost none.

Favorite Moment

The office chair shopping sequence

Recommendation to a friend

Yes - but probably not as a beginner BL and with a suggestion to space this out and watch 1-2 episodes per week instead of a binge watch.

Step by Step: Doing Slow Burn Narrative Structure Wrong

I love me a good slow burn. Some of my favorite dramas are the slowest slow burns to ever burn, and the leads literally don't get together until the very last episode. Step by Step is not following typical slow burn pacing, and it's suffering because of it.

First, a mini lesson in 4 act narrative structure and typical romance pacing. This is what our brains enjoy. In a 12 episode BL or 16 episode kdrama, each act is evenly split into 3 or 4 episodes, respectively.

ACT 1 - introduce the characters and plot (ends with: the first hint of romantic attraction from one or both of the leads)

ACT 2 - build romantic tension, give them reasons to start falling in love (ends with: a first kiss, or at least one character determined to make a move, they aren't necessarily together at this point)

ACT 3 - navigate actually becoming a couple (ends with: the honeymoon episode of pure fluff, they finally figured their shit out and resolved any internal relationship conflicts)

ACT 4 - test the relationship, usually with external conflicts, often includes a breakup or at least a big fight (ends with: a well-earned happily ever after)

Now, typical slow-burn structure is only slightly different:

ACT 1 - the same. introduce the characters and plot (ends with: the first hint of romantic attraction from one or both of the leads)

ACT 2 - build romantic tension, give them reasons to start falling in love (ends with: a reason for at least one of them to run away from the potential relationship, usually in the form of an internal conflict, often from a second lead or miscommunication)

ACT 3 - continue to build romantic tension while they solve the conflict that's keeping them apart, first real kiss happens within this arc (ends with: them getting together, unless it's the slowest slow burn to ever burn and they wait until the very last episode in which case they only solve the internal conflict and spend the next few episodes resolving external conflicts)

ACT 4 - test the relationship, usually with external conflicts, sometimes includes a big fight but never a breakup (begins with: the honeymoon episode of pure fluff, they finally figured their shit out and resolved any internal relationship conflicts) (ends with: a well-earned happily ever after).

You can totally play around with this (say by switching the internal and external conflicts with each other, or by teasing your audience with an accidental/meaningless kiss earlier in the story, or by having your characters have casual sex early on), but you absolutely must hit these narrative beats for the romance part of the plot at the right time or the story will feel frustrating (too fast in parts or too slow in others).

So how is Step by Step doing slow burn wrong?

They pretty much nailed the first three acts, only flubbing the timing by ending the third act 20 minutes into episode 10 instead of at the end of episode 9. But they are failing our 4th act completely.

First, we were owed a honeymoon episode of pure fluff and didn't get it. We got 1/3 of an episode showing their domestic bliss.

Second, the final relationship testing conflict at the end a slow burn should not feel like it has the potential to destroy that relationship. It's usually supposed to demonstrate that now that they are finally a unit, they are stronger together. It should feel like our characters are standing firmly on solid rock, not ever-changing quicksand. They fought long and hard to finally get together and there is no way in hell they'll let the other go.

But that's not the 4th act we're seeing.

At this point, the way the story is going, I feel like they're trying to tack on an Act 4 from the typical romance pacing rather than the Act 4 from a slow burn. They're giving us huge external conflicts, likely followed by a big fight and breakup next episode, and they'll only be happily together at the end of episode 12.

It's all wrong. You can't just switch out the Slow Burn Act 4 with the Act 4 from a typical romance! It's totally unsatisfying and will make the final act pacing feel too rushed. Your leads only JUST got together, and now you're throwing them into relationship-breaking conflict so soon with only one episode remaining to resolve it all? The only way to salvage that is to have yet another time skip as a cheat (putting character development offscreen instead of onscreen where it belongs), a trope which (again for those in the back) IS TOTALLY ANNOYING AFTER A SLOW BURN.

I adore episodes 1-9, but unless I am reading what they set up in the last third of episode 10 all wrong, I expect I'll have to massively skip a bunch of these last three episodes on any re-watch.

Le sigh.

"why are you smiling?"