Where do I even begin...?

Were it not for having nothing to do while waiting for "F4 Thailand" to start, I'm pretty certain I wouldn't even throw an eye on this train wreck, but here we are. "Rainbow Prince" is the "Disney" BL musical nobody asked for. There's a palace coup in the kingdom of the fictional "Zurbania", and Prince Zafar (no relation to Jafar) just snatches the kingdom once his brother - the King of Zurbania - drops dead. And I mean, he literally drops dead. With the king in the ground, the queen - with her surgically implanted tiara - is locked away (in full drag, I might add) and Prince Zayn (said Rainbow Prince) skips town...and nobody - not a single Zurbanian, realizes that the entire Royal Family has gone missing. Ahhh, Zurbania - home to the world's largest population of idiots. Anyhoo, Prince Zayn arrives in Manila, spots Mikey, falls in love with him and hi-jinks ensue. There. That's your plot. Oh, and the "Disney" music - Walt Disney is certainly spinning in his grave.

"Rainbow Prince" is what I would consider an accidental comedy. The cheap and badly made costumes, the dollar store props, the uninspired musical numbers, not to mention the non-existent "acting" (which seems improvised most of the time) all add up to a crap fest to stop all crap fests. Oh, and let's not forget the moments of viewer discomfort where you actually are compelled to look away - the young Zayn in a pair of Speedos (in the year 2022!) being ogled by a bunch of grown-ass men and women (!), Zayn jumping naked into bed with Mikey when they first meet), Zayn making Mikey bend over (?) to watch the stars so that he could...ahhhm...do stuff against his butt with his crotch, the two young men and the drag queen (!) dining with the Queen of Zurbania and showing off their deep-throating skills using bananas!!! WTH!?!

There is one final parting gift however. If you hang around long enough, I can almost guarantee at least a guffaw when the crowd of CGI citizens of Zurbania gather to cheer on their new king. Talk about cheap CGI.

During the final moments of this series, as I sat watching, a fly started buzzing around the screen, and all I could think was, "So, yeah - excrement really does draw files." Fail.

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The Second Time Around

There really aren't that many series that I would want to re-watch, especially these days when BLs are coming at you one after another, but someone mentioned "My Gear and Your Gown" on Reddit, and I remember bingeing that title and couldn't get certain things out of my head - Win Pawin Kulkaranyawich who plays "Pai", Waan and Pure's visit to the Clinic, and so on. Now the thing is - I hate bingeing. I always find that there's so much stuff going on and you could never hold on to the details, and this series is all about the details.

First off, this is not your typical BL where one guy falls on another guy's mouth and he catches him with his lips, nobody drinks until they have to stop and vomit, nobody gets washed down with a bowl of warm water and a small white towel, nobody...well, you get the picture. MGAYG is one of those quiet little gems that takes its own sweet time to roll out its story. All of the problems are real world problems - there's cancer, an incident involving a car accident, HIV and safe sex...in other words, it's like getting a glimpse into the lives of several high school through University friends. Nothing much happens - and an awful lot happens at the same time. At the centre of the story there's Pai - a people-pleasing, milquetoast, nerd - and his classmate Itt (Marc Pahun Jiyacharoen) a jock with a heart of gold whose world just weighs him down, almost drowning him. Of course it's a love story - but not the happily-ever-after type, more of the deep bond and genuine affection type of love...in other words, real love with all its messy ups and downs.

Along for the ride are their High School friends Waan and Pure and, later on, their new University buddies Folk and Beau. Now lemme talk about the performances for a minute. There really are no screaming/bawling/histrionic moments where actors get to "Act" with a capital A. It's a rather gentle, quiet little beauty that casually moves along at its own pace and, at no point, do we get pulled out of the story by overwrought "acting". The Director (Siwaj Sawatmaneekul) clearly opts for more of a poetic realism style of acting and his young cast is more than able to carry it off.

Finally, all I can say, is that if "Gen Y" and "Love by Chance" is your groove, then maybe you should miss this one. If, however, you liked more naturalistic series like "I Told Sunset About You" and "'Cause You're My Boy", then maybe you should give it a shot. I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

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The basic plot is never really explained...

...and I'm okay with that. Two bodies sharing the same consciousness - one "handsome" and the other ordinary and unremarkable. How does that come to be - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ - who knows. All I know is that I watched (and enjoyed) "All of Us Are Dead" and, while wondering what else the young cast had done before, I came across a Chinese series starring Solomon Park (Lomon) and I was intrigued - I never really expected to find a Korean actor in a Chinese drama - is that a common thing?

Anyway, no spoilers here - just read the show synopsis - the entire enterprise rests on the shoulders of this more-than-capable cast. Good performances, charismatic actors, solid script. Is it faithful to its source material? I have no idea because I couldn't be less interested in a webtoon. All I know is that I enjoyed the whole thing and was sorry to see the gang go. Such a bittersweet ending that I was not expecting.

Oh, I should mention Lomon's performances - he plays two opposing characters and he does so brilliantly - including his turn as "Handsome" Wen Shuai pretending to be "Fatty" Wen Shuai and failing miserably. His performance alone is worth all 38 episodes, but the rest of the cast do hold their own. Two very enthusiastic thumbs up.

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It just doesn't let up from the start.

I'm still relatively new to Korean horror. I started a few years ago with "Kingdom" on Netflix and I really enjoyed that. Inspired by that experience I jumped on that infamous "Train to Busan" and, more recently, "All of Us Are Dead". Somewhere along the way I also managed to catch "The Host" and "The Uncanny Counter" (although not strictly horror, there are definitely supernatural elements at play in "Uncanny Counter"). So, what would happen if you were to take those supernatural elements, throw it in with the visceral horror of "Busan/"All of Us"/"Kingdom" add a huge dash of End of Days/Revelations prophecies, bring all of that into the here and now - mix it all up and here you have it: - "Hellbound"!

The story starts out simple enough - an Angel comes to visit and tells you exactly when you're going to die. At the appointed time three demons come and drag you to hell. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Easy enough, right? Not so fast. They start in the middle of the story without warning and, in the first five minutes, you are dragged into the streets of Seoul were you become a part of the action. I can so clearly remember looking around trying to find a way out of the horror, but - nothing.

Now, when I watched it, that was about all I knew of the plot, so I will spare you the pot synopsis because, like "The Uncanny Counter", I sometimes find it better to be not too certain what you've gotten yourself into. So, just get on and enjoy the ride. Well rounded, multidimensional characters abound, tight plotting and decent CGI. I'm very glad I gave this one a chance. The closest I will give to a spoiler is to say that Episode 4 throws in one of the greatest WTF moments in the history of ever, and it isn't the only ginormous reveal in the series. Seriously, if the horror genre is your thing - psychological horror especially - give this one a try. I think you'll have a good (?) time.

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Someone did a very bad thing...

Season 1 was nothing game changing....but it was okay enough as a stand alone series. II should have left well enough, but no. Between the final episode of "Paint With Love" and the premiere of "The Tuxedo" (I have a subscription to GagaOOlala) I had nothing to do one day so I decided to give it a shot. Why didn't I just ignore this, I wonder. The premise of each story (almost) is interesting enough - Valen is emotionally stunted and clumsy in love, and Kaitoon is oblivious to everyone who's interested in him. Okay fine. There's a lot that could be done there. Let's throw would be Dr. Non into the mix just to show how absent Kaitoon is. To call Non an underdeveloped character would be the understatement of the year. He's little more than a prop for Kaitoon to lean on whenever life roughs him up. There. That's Non's whole story. Then there's Pete (sometimes spelt "Peat" in the subtitles) and King. Not wanting to spoiler it, it's a pretty good premise - a lot to mine there but...the story just swirls and swirls like a dog trying to catch its own tail and getting nowhere. Then there's the lesbian triangle between June, Bill and Sonya. There. That's the whole story right there.

Lazy, sloppy writing and half-assed performances. This is just one big nothing-burger. Finally I have to mention the music. I love Jeff Satur and his music, but boy...what is this tragic and sleepy soundtrack about? Was he trying to put the audience into a coma? He makes a guest appearance as an actor and that does not provide any absolution. Ugh. At least I can look forward to him in "KinnPorsche". What a waste this entire enterprise was. Miss.

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Not What I Thought...and that's a good thing.

So I'm cleaning up my bookmark list - removing bookmarks on everything I've watched - and, lo and behold...now here's something I completely forgot about. Hey, why not give it a watch. If it's not something you're liking you could just stop at any old time and just move on. And that's how I stepped into the world of Uenoyama and Mafuyu. Now, lemme add, all I knew about "Given" was what the synopsis said on MyDramaList, and nothing more. Well ...I was not expecting what I got.

First off - it is beautiful. Not in a cosmetic, picturesque way, but in an honest true-to-life manner. As with a lot of recent Japanese dramas (and sometimes comedies too) there is an ever present thread of "alone-ness" that runs throughout - whether it's Hira and Kioyi in "Utsukushii Kare" or Aioki in "Kieta Hatsukoi" or even Adachi in "Cherry Magic!", there's always the sense of watching life pass by from the POV of the outsider, always unwilling or unable to just let go and join in. This time, though, we go to some really dark places. Don't let the High School setting that the series opens with fool you (Oh no! Not that again!), "Given" opens up and reaches into your soul. And, I must say, I really liked the journey. From Mafuyu falling asleep in the studio to Kashima (Mafuyu's friend) reacting to him singing at the concert to the first time Mafuyu sings "lalalala" for Uenoyama - nothing is what I expected. Warning: There will be lumps in throats and there will be wet eyes.

"Given" is awesome, the music is perfect and the actors are sooo real that you knida get lost in their world for a moment. The writing is brilliant and the direction is superb. If there is any criticism to be made is that it could've done with either longer (or maybe a couple more) episodes. I really wanted to spend a little more time with these people. Oh, and by the way, even down to Mafuyu's last line is sheer perfection. Highly recommended.

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