Calling Thai-speaking La Pluie Watchers

Calling Thai-speaking La Pluie Watchers

What does Tien actually say here in this scene? To me, "freak" (shown in the preview) just didn't match the situation, so it has been throwing me all week.

And now the subtitles on the actual episode are completely different (but more fitting).

Help, @recentadultburnout!

Dislikes remakes. ✔️

Wonders why people don't just watch the original. ✔️

Will absolutely watch GMMTV's Cherry Magic. Wishes they could wait and binge all episodes at once. Will definitely not be able to wait and is doomed to tune in week after week until the finale. ✔️

🤷🏾‍♀️

—CHERRY MAGIC 🍒 30 ยังซิง 🪄 Official Pilot

The hardest part, for me, of the Step By Step finale was the emptiness. None of it felt like they had earned back their ending or their happiness or solved their interpersonal issues or the problems that lead to their break up in the first place.

Pat meets Jeng two years later after his own success and still instantly assumes he's a master manipulator despite two years of silence and nothing, apparently. It makes him feel less mature than he has in every other episode, honestly.

And Jeng is just... Jeng. He doesn't change and then he just quits and nothing happens? Nothing? Then why make it seem like a big deal? Why make it this huge thing if it's just going to be so little but even more... why is he approaching Pat at all after two years of nothing? Now, I am down for him still being in love but this feels like a 'stay away from him' kind of situation just all over and in general.

And then having Put, apparently, be Pat's best friend again after the fight they had and Ae and Chot encouraging him to be the one to to give Pat romantic advice?! Again. The two year time skip did them such a disservice. Because I would have liked to see that friendship rebuilt, to see Put finally mature enough to actually talk to Pat about his issues. But nope!

Two years is a long time but it feels like no one grew or changed or even started to move on in that period. Where is Pat's confidence? He's been leading a company with Chot and won multiple awards! Where is Jeng's change? We barely see him at all and there's nothing there that indicates any change in understanding since the last moment we saw him supposedly two years ago.

We got nothing with Jaab and Jane so I can't even begin to talk about them except to ask when did they get back in contact, why and what does it mean? Like... what happened?

I frankly think Chot had the most fulfilling storyline in the entire show, in which he was about to come out with his husband and then run a successful business and that's more than I can say for just about any one else because the whole thing felt very much complete.

I still enjoyed the show... or at least most of it... but I'm one of the people where the honeymoon stuff was cute but empty and I did not care half as much as I should have if I'd felt like they could actually make this work and weren't just gonna fall apart again.

There's just no way to justify the amount of screen-time that we will actually get of them in a romantic relationship. In 12 episodes averaging over an hour long, we MAY get 40 minutes of SEEING them as a couple. Maybe!

I would have actually been happy with watching a drama that was more focused on the workplace and avoiding the love story angle entirely. (The first few episodes had me riveted.) It could have been the story of Pat triumphantly taking on these capitalist bastards with his merry band of colleagues. Whatever!

Or we could have gotten the story of Pat reconciling with his parents and ultimately helping his dad through his midlife crisis.

Or maybe the story is about how even though you're the youngest member of your friend group, you may have to help your mentors through their 30-something challenges (having babies on the street, pining for their best friend/business partner, yadda yadda yadda).

Or maybe it's about the ups and downs of being queer and dating in your 20s - focused on Pat, Jen, and Jaab - with Chot as this fabulous, kindhearted fairy godmother. (I actually would like to see this one. Just saying.)

It could have been a lot of things, but it can't be all those things at once AND good.

Pick a lane. Pick a thread. Pick a focus.

Step by Step Episode 11 (OF DOOM)

Warning: I really, really did not like this episode. If you’re trying to keep positive vibes you should scroll on by, friends! 

Welp. I told a few friends last week that my biggest disappointment would be if, after missing the mark on the emotional payoff of the slow burn and speed running the relationship, the show chose to break them up and do a time jump rather than staying with them in the present time and working through the conflicts they set up. And here we are! I wish I’d been wrong about where this was heading. Shouts to @waitmyturtles and @neuroticbookworm for holding me down while this show fell apart on me, I’ve been all in a tizzy about it, because I really loved it for awhile there.

This episode, yet again, felt like a disjointed mess. After last week’s cliffhanger, the idea of Pat resigning to get away from the predatory office gossip fell away within a few quick scenes. Instead the tension disappeared as the plot brought them into a bubble with only their most supportive colleagues and we swerved into a retread of the Put nonsense and a new plot about Jeng and Pat fighting to save the digital marketing team via the power of Put’s quasi-celebrity and Instagram likes. Or something. I honestly couldn’t tell you the details of what they were trying to accomplish, I was too distracted by my incredulity to pay close attention to this very sudden fake problem that they were obviously going to conquer (that, my friends, is what we call conflict with no stakes). Meanwhile, the show suddenly wants me to care about Jaab and Jen again - enough to devote a big portion of the penultimate episode’s runtime to them, what a choice - after doing fuck all with that plot for six weeks. It’s a no from me. 

It doesn’t matter anyway, because soon enough we’re time skipping again! After resolving the work challenge subplot we speed past another three months of Pat and Jeng’s relationship without addressing any of their issues, and I guess I’m supposed to be at peace with being a full nine months into their relationship with no onscreen emotional advancement? But I gotta be honest, y’all. I am not. You just don’t do this with a slow burn romance narrative. You can’t spend 80% of your runtime building to something that you have no intention of paying off, and no amount of thinking about what else this show is trying to say is going to convince me they did proper justice to the relationship. I already broke down why I didn’t think the episode 10 culmination got us there, and nothing that happened in this episode changed my opinion.

And all of this is leading to yet another time jump - two entire years this time - after the big reveal that Jeng doesn’t believe in Pat at all and literally bought his success, Evil Daddy knew it all along and waited for a choice moment to deploy the info for maximum damage while twirling his villain mustache, and Pat is finally quitting for real and dumping Jeng for good measure.

And ya know what? GOOD FOR PAT. I was completely on his side in this decision. If there’s one bright spot in this episode (other than Chot, always Chot) it’s Pat getting himself together enough to realize he deserves better than the bullshit he’s been getting from Put and Jeng and walking on out. So Jeng and Pat are now broken up, but I never got invested in their relationship in the first place, because we barely saw it, let alone got the chance to live in and feel it. I wasn’t even upset while watching this breakup scene - it left me emotionally indifferent. Which is maybe the worst thing I can say about a dramatic climax in a story.

I guess next week we’ll meet Jeng and Pat again two years in the future and get some kind of happy ending. I’m gonna stick around for the finale and cross my fingers that we get all the epilogue fluff we have definitely earned, but sadly, this show has lost me.

Is anyone watching Dinosaur Love?

I don't know where the ridiculous-but-hopefully-enjoyable show I signed up for went but now it's giving DRAMA.

at this point this conversation feels like a dream

tai: i am very sorry that the guy you like likes me and it made you shitty am sorry also tai: