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Made it up to Scotland for my dad's birthday. It wasn't the best drive, but still better than the time a lorry shed its load and I was sat stationary for 3 hours. This time I just got stuck at roadworks a couple of time, there were two accidents I passed (one where the police blocked the road so they could take photos and move the vehicles - no one was hurt), and the main road to my parents village was closed so I had to take a diversion through a load of twisty bendy roads through the forest.

But I'm here now! It's my dad's birthday today and we're going out for Chinese food this evening.

No major plans for the rest of the week. The weather isn't supposed to be great but hopefully I'll get out for a walk on the beach at least one day.

Not much going on in fandom news. I didn't bother starting a new drama after I finished Under the Skin as I knew I was going to be away. Will start something when I get home next weekend.

I'm currently on the 3rd draft of my DMBJ exchange fic. It's not due until the 12th but I'd like to get it to a beta sooner rather than later so they have time to read it and I have time to make any changes.

My kpop faves, ONUES, had a new album out on Tuesday and that's basically all I've been listening to this week. It's been so fun watching the numbers on their latest music video go up. I don't generally pay attention to stuff like that but I've been watching their popularity grow over the past couple of years and it makes me happy seeing them do well.

Watch on YouTube

Last month I signed up for a DMBJ Small-Medium Ship exchange. Without going into any details (because it's a secret) I was assigned pretty much the perfect recipient whose interests align with mine perfectly. I started writing pretty much immediately.

I was a good chunk of the way through when I realised something wasn't quite right with the fic. I was happy with the overall concept but it just wasn't clicking with me. I could have started over and tried to figure it out but I pushed through until I had a completed first draft.

Now I'm going through and 'editing' it, but which I mean I have more or less completely re-written the start of it and it's SO MUCH BETTER NOW. I think pushing through to the end of the first draft was a good idea because now I know where the characters need to be at the end.

Normally I'd feel sad about scrapping so many words that I spent time on, but it's definitely the right thing to do. I feel so much better about this fic now.

Anyone else scrapped big chunks of writing and felt good about it?

Recently DMBJ had a gen fic exchange which I took part in. I love that as much as I have various ships in this fandom I'm also just as happy to write gen close platonic relationships which is basically what canon is.

I think I've written about as much gen in this fandom as I have shippy stuff, which is quite unusual for me.

So, here is my fic. The prompt I was assigned was 'Wu Xie has his architecture degree, what random hobbies or qualifications do others have that come in surprisingly handy in a tomb?'

Title: Hidden Talents
Fandom: DMBJ
Pairing: Gen
Rating: General Audiences
Summary: “Who knew our Xiaoge was so talented,” Pangzi says and to Zhang Qiling’s surprise he sounds genuinely emotional. “Your voice is so pretty. I can’t believe you’ve never sung in front of us before.”

“We should get him and Xiao Hua to do a duet. We could call them Xie Zhang, or Zhang Xie, or Hua Qilin.” Pangzi sounds so delighted by the prospect, each suggested name more ridiculous than the previous. “Imagine the money we could make,” he sighs wistfully. “Everyone would pay so much to see men as pretty as Xiaoge and Xiao Hua on stage together.”

“No,” Zhang Qiling replies firmly.

(or five times someone uses an unexpected skill in a tomb and one time it isn't unexpected at all)

Last night I went to visit a friend for an in-person Eurovision party. We've been doing this, we worked out, for 20 years. Various members of our group have moved during that time but we always travel to get the gang back together.

In 2020 obviously there was no contest due to the pandemic and last year we had a virtual party because not everyone had been vaccinated at that point.

It was so nice to see everyone this year!

We have a rule that we don't want any of the preliminary rounds so that we don't get spoiled for any of the acts during the final.

My sister always brings flags for all the countries in the final and we then pick entries out of a hat and the rule is you have to cheer for them no matter how crap the song is. This year I had Serbia, Finland, Italy and Switzerland.

Much fun was had. Everyone brings food from various countries and we have a buffet. This year I provided cooked meats and cheeses from Spain, Germany and Italy.

It was a lot of fun, and it was incredibly surprising that not only was the UK entry good, but it actually came close to winning.

Had a great time. As much as I have become very insular and prefer to stay at home it was actually nice to hang out with other people for a few hours. And everyone was good when I said I'd feel more comfortable if everyone took a covid test before we met up.

I woke up this morning to find that my car had a flat tyre. Not just a bit soft, it was totally deflated and the car was undriveable. Had to get my breakdown cover to send someone out to fit the spare, then I drove the car to a garage to get a new tyre fitted. Apparently the flat had completely messed up the wheel alignment of the car so they had to reset that and I ended up at the garage for nearly 2 hours.

Not a fun start to the week, especially after the power cut nonsense on Saturday.

I am very Tired.

Luckily I work with an awesome group of people who completely understood when I didn't show up until lunchtime with a complete inability to brain. I sent a couple of emails, went to a meeting and then just sat around until it was time to go home.

Feeling very drained and I will be going to bed as soon as tonight's group watch has finished.

Fun adventure today.

Woke up this morning and my alarm hadn't gone off. Didn't really think much of it and just assumed I'd forgotten to set it. It was only when I went to turn on the lamp that I realised the power was off.

Reported it to Northern Power and they talked me through some things to check before determining it wasn't an issue at their end and suggested I call my landlord to come and have a look at it.

Called them (and got lucky because the office closed an hour after I called) and they also got me to check some things and send them a photo of the meter and fuse box.

Finally at about 1pm an electrician showed up. He was really lovely and within 2 seconds said 'oh, I see what the problem is' and flipped a switch (a different one to the one both Northern Power and the letting agent told me to flip) and the power came back on.

I felt very bad for dragging him out on a Saturday for such a simple fix but he was really nice and said at least it was something easy and that I wasn't to know. He showed me what to do if it goes off again but I've been running things for a few hours now and it seems to be fine.

Of course that killed most of the plans I had today. I managed to get my Chinese practice done on my phone and then I just read a book for a while.

Now I need to get on with some writing and I had plans to finish the k-drama I'm watching today so I shall crack on with that after dinner.

Following on from this post I am still chatting with the k-pop reactor who DM'd me on Sunday. He's so funny. I was up way too late again last night because I couldn't stop laughing. We've kind of moved on from talking about the Filipino boys to just chatting about music in general. Having fun.

But, I did finally check out the Filipino group that started all this and they're pretty good! They're not quite as refined as the k-pop groups I follow because they don't have the stupid amounts of money invested in them the way k-pop idols do.

I think this is my favourite song of theirs that has an associated music video. Haven't had time to listen to the album yet. I think this might have been their first release? Not sure.

Watch on YouTube

Apparently they started off as a dance troupe and then decided to be a boy group instead. Considering they initially weren't intended to sing their voices are pretty good!

Their music seems to cover a variety of genres, and there's only 5 members of the group so it's been pretty easy to learn their names and who is who.

The fanbase continues to be VERY enthusiastic. I livetweeted my experiences watching all their music videos last night (they're a new group so there's not that many videos) and the number of likes and retweets everything got was intense. I'm not used this sort of attention in the music fandom I have to say.

So it's continuing to be an interesting experience.

1. Tokyo Godfathers - I knew nothing about this before we watched it for tonight's movie night. I didn't even realise it was animated until it started. I loved it! Nice to see a trans character who not only lives but also saves the day.
2. Ghostbusters Afterlife - I absolutely loved this! It managed to capture all the joy and nostalgia of the first two movies while feeling fresh at the same time. You can tell a lot of love for the franchise went into this.
3. Hamilton - I'm not sure thAis counts as a movie because it's just a recording of the broadway show, but it's as long as a movie so I'm including it here. When this dropped on Disney+ in 2020 I was right in the depths of lockdown depression and when I was feeling better I just never got around to it. I listened to the soundtrack obsessively back when it was at its most popular, and I've seen the show in London, but never with the original cast. I loved it! The show in London was fine, but there's no denying the original cast was something special.
4. Mystic Nine: Qing Shan Hai Tang - I've been looking forward to this ever since the trailer dropped and it did not disappoint. Full of nonsense, Zhu Zanjin and Liu Chang both looked great, sexual tension through the roof, big cgi monster at the end. Everything I wanted and then some.
5. Tomb of the Sea: Ran Gu - Another silly tombs spinoff movie that I watched because the lead character is in a fic I'm currently writing and I wanted to do some research. It was very silly, but not as silly as the one about haunted paint that I watched last year :D
6. Turning Red - I absolutely loved this! A real flashback to what I was like as a 13 year old. All the characters were great, the story was great. It was wonderful
7. Spider-Man: No Way Home - I always think that I'm done with Marvel and that the MCU just isn't something that interests me anymore, but whenever I watch a movie I do end up enjoying it. This was a lot of fun. I loved seeing the Spider-Man from the other movie franchises. Andrew Garfield was great, and he had wonderful chemistry with Toby Maguire.
8. Too Cool to Kill - I'll admit I only wanted to watch this because Chen Minghao is in it, but it is SO FUN. That might be the most fun I've had watching a movie this year and Chen Minghao isn't even in it that much. I'm trying to get my sister to watch it because there's so many nods to western movies I think she'll love it.

9. Infernal Affairs - I'm not generally a fan of undercover cop movies, but this was pretty good as far as the genre goes. It had some interesting twists which kept things interesting. I thought I might be able to use it to practice my Mandarin but the movie is in Cantonese :D

I don't know why, but I have a thing where famous or well-known people in my fandom like to talk to me on Twitter.

There was the whole thing with Misha Collins that I talked about here and Clark Gregg here. Just stuff like that.

It's nice, and I don't want to sound like I'm complaining, but it does bring with it a whole set of problems which I went into a little on my intro post.

Honestly I've quite liked being in my little c-drama corner where there's no way of getting attention from anyone connected with the shows because they don't use things like Twitter.

I assumed I was safe in k-pop too. Most of the groups use Instagram or platforms geared specifically towards k-pop.

I mentioned back when I first got into k-pop that I really enjoy watching reaction videos. There's just something so delightful about seeing someone experience something you love for the first time. This was one of the first ones I watch and after a while I started finding other reactors I enjoyed. I particularly like people who have a specialised skill or interest and draw from that while they're reacting. There's a couple of professional video editors I like who talk about the more technical side, there's a fashion designer who talks about the clothes they wear and there's singers and dancers who talk about the performance side of things.

One reactor I follow is a vocal coach who studied singing at Julliard. I really like his overall attitude to the whole thing. He's not interested in making money from his reaction videos (not that I begrudge anyone who has a Patreon to make money from their videos) and he says he doesn't really pay attention to the number of views his videos get because he doesn't want that to influence which groups he talks about. He got into k-pop at around the same time that I did (thanks pandemic) and he's just a nice, softly spoken gay guy who loves music.

An example:

Watch on YouTube

We've interacted on Twitter a few times (you see where this is going). Mostly me sharing things he's said that made me laugh or getting excited when he's reacted to a group or song that I particularly like.

On Sundays my friend Amy and I have a k-pop afternoon on Zoom. We watch new music videos, reactions, behind the scenes silly things, fan edits. All that sort of stuff.

Yesterday we were watching him do a reaction to the new Monsta X video and we were looking at the stuff he has in the background of his videos. There was an album that we didn't recognise and a poster of a dude we didn't know either. Since he's been responsive on Twitter before I decided to just ask him.

Look at the numbers on this tweet

It turns out the poster in question is one of the members of a Filipino boy group who has a HUGE and very intense following. My Twitter is still blowing up with likes, retweets and replies nearly a full 24 hour later.

This follow up tweet, which doesn't mention the group by name, has even more numbers.

Then, just as I was getting ready to go to sleep last night I got a Twitter DM from Austin apologising for for all the spam and saying the group's fans are very enthusiastic (as though I hadn't figured that out for myself :D). We ended up chatting until about 2am about k-pop and music and it was really lovely but very, very strange. While he's not a 'celebrity' per se he does have over 20k Twitter followers and is well respected in the youtube community.

So, that was my evening/night. I did not get much sleep.

And in my exhausted state I did promise to check out this Filipino group, and Austin gave me suggestions for where to start so I guess I'll be doing that at some point.

Ros texted me earlier and asked me if I wanted to start going for a weekly swim with her. My first thought was 'yeah, great, I really need to start doing some exercise' so we agreed to start when I get back from my trip to Scotland.

It was only about half an hour later that I suddenly remembered about the very much not over pandemic we are in. The world is doing such a good job of pretending the pandemic is over that I actually forgot about it myself.

I really don't want to share water and humid warm air with a bunch of strangers so I'm going to tell her I don't feel comfortable going when I see her tomorrow. I think she'll be fine about it.

Eventually, some day, I'll be at a point where I feel comfortable doing activities that involve being in indoor spaces around other people. Not there yet though.

1. Hawkeye - Started this last year but finished it last week because I was watching it with Jacqui so we left the last episode until we were both back from the holidays. It was fun. A nice mesh of the Fraction comics and the MCU version of Clint. Kate was awesome.
2. The Witcher Season 2 - Despite the fact I could barely remember anything that happened in season 1 I still very much enjoyed this. Jaskier continues to be a delight. Henry Cavill's arms, also delightful.
3. Tale of the Nine-Tailed - I loved this! Full of Korean mythology and folklore, an excellent female lead, and a side character I got very attached to. I didn't think I was overly emotionally invested and then I bawled through the finale. So good.
4. Kieta Hatsukoi (My Love Mix-Up) - This was adorable. It was very silly, and a lot of the drama could have been avoided if the characters had just talked to each other, but I haven't watched a bl drama in ages and overall it was very sweet.
5. You Make Me Dance - Short but very sweet. I really enjoyed it.
6. Wandavision - I have kind of fallen out with Marvel over recent years so aside from Hawkeye I haven't felt any real urge to watch any of the live action shows. My housemate suggested we watch this, though, and even thought she'd already seen it she watched it with it. It was good! I enjoyed it. I do love Paul Bettany and it was nice to see his actual face for a few episodes rather than the prosthetics.
7. Street Dance of China Season 4 - This actually finished last year and we've been waited ages for the final episode to be subbed but apparently they just aren't doing that. They partially subbed 2/3 of the finale (just the captains' comments) and didn't bother with the final 1/3 at all. So, we muddled through and tried our best to figure out what was happening. It's fun, I do enjoy watching all the dancing and you do end up getting attached to some of the contestants.
8. Falcon and the Winter Solider - I absolutely loved this! It's my favourite of all the live action MCU shows that we've watched so far. It had a bunch of great characters, great characters, interesting plots. Loved it. They managed to cram a lot into 6 episodes and it was excellent!
9. My Roommate is a Detective - I enjoyed this. It took me a little while to warm up to the characters and the ending wasn't quite what I wanted but overall a good and fun show
10. Color Rush - This was a really interesting idea (some people can only see in black and white until they meet their 'probe' which is a person that lets them see colour). They really needed a lot more time than 8 15 minute episode. They skimmed over a lot of the world building and left a few plothole. I did enjoy it, I just wanted a lot more of it.
11. Beyond Evil - Absolutely brilliant! I spent the first few episodes being Very Confused but once things start clicking into place it's absolutely fantastic. A strong early contender for the best thing I've watched this year
12. Loki - Loki has never been my favourite MCU character, and I don't particularly like Owen Wilson either so I wasn't expecting to enjoy this. It was actually pretty decent. It was an interesting story, and the two leads were great. Owen Wilson actually wasn't bad either. I definitely enjoyed it enough to want to watch the next season of it.
13. Winter Begonia - Absolutely stunning. I could not get enough of this drama. I watched all 50 episodes in less than a month which is a lot for me. One of the best c-dramas I've seen. It gave me so many feelings.
14. Kei x Yaku: Abunai Aibou - If the fact that I wrote 2 fics for this show before I was even halfway through watching it didn't give anything away I absolutely loved this. I will say the actual 'plot' wasn't as engaging as all the character stuff was. There was a few times were I lost track of what was happening with regards to the case they were investigating but it didn't overly matter. The two leads are fantastic and have amazing chemistry. Really hope they decide to make a second season
15. Semantic Error - I wasn't sure I was going to like this after the first couple of episodes. It's a classic college enemies to lovers story, but the enemies part involves a lot of pranking and harassment which made me uncomfortable. Fortunately they get over that quickly and start moving towards lovers and the rest of it was really sweet.
16. Our Flag Means Death - SO GOOD! So painful, so funny, so heartwarming. I laughed, I cried, I loved it
17. A Man Who Defies the World of BL - This was a lot of fun. It's very meta, pokes fun at a lot of the BL (and by extension fic) tropes but in a fond sort of way. It was very sweet and I enjoyed it a lot
18. Bad Buddy - This was adorable. I was expecting just a nonsense college romance show and it is that but it's got a lot of heart and the two leads have great chemistry. I ended up crying a surprising amount while I was watching it.
19. Not Me - This was so good! Definitely the best of all the Thai dramas I've watched, and probably the best BL I've seen too. This felt raw and real. It was beautifully shot, beautifully acted, the soundtrack was great. I absolutely loved it. If you're going to watch any Asian BL I recommend this one.
20. Vincenzo - I've been watching this very slowly as part of a weekly group watch. Because the episodes are so long we've only been watching an episode per week so it's taken ages to finish it. It was really good though. Excellent cast, excellent story, really well directed.
21. A Tale of Thousand Stars - Like Bad Buddy I thought this was just going to be a cute romance, only to find myself incredibly emotionally invested and crying a lot. I loved it, it was very sweet.
22. I Told Sunset About You - Well made and well acted but a bit too angsty for my liking. The main couple, in my opinion, did not have a healthy relationship and while I liked how it examined a teenage boy coming to terms with his sexuality I didn't celebrate when they got together in the end. So much of this was them either deliberately or accidentally hurting each others feelings and I just wasn't into it.
23. Her Royal Highness - This barely counts as a TV show given the whole thing is less than an hour long. For some reason it was released as 27 3 minute episodes. So, because of that the pacing is quite jarring until you get used to it. Apart from that though it was great! Everyone is really pretty, there's some interesting gender dynamics, and a few twists which are impressive given how short it is. Would rec.

24. Heartstopper - It's funny I read the first couple of volumes of the comic this is adapted from years ago and I didn't even know they were making a live action version until last week. It's a fantastic adaptation. It's sweet and lovely and I cried so much while I was watching it. It's full of diverse and interesting characters, and there's so much queer romance. It's utterly delightful.

1. Tokyo Godfathers - I knew nothing about this before we watched it for tonight's movie night. I didn't even realise it was animated until it started. I loved it! Nice to see a trans character who not only lives but also saves the day.
2. Ghostbusters Afterlife - I absolutely loved this! It managed to capture all the joy and nostalgia of the first two movies while feeling fresh at the same time. You can tell a lot of love for the franchise went into this.
3. Hamilton - I'm not sure thAis counts as a movie because it's just a recording of the broadway show, but it's as long as a movie so I'm including it here. When this dropped on Disney+ in 2020 I was right in the depths of lockdown depression and when I was feeling better I just never got around to it. I listened to the soundtrack obsessively back when it was at its most popular, and I've seen the show in London, but never with the original cast. I loved it! The show in London was fine, but there's no denying the original cast was something special.
4. Mystic Nine: Qing Shan Hai Tang - I've been looking forward to this ever since the trailer dropped and it did not disappoint. Full of nonsense, Zhu Zanjin and Liu Chang both looked great, sexual tension through the roof, big cgi monster at the end. Everything I wanted and then some.
5. Tomb of the Sea: Ran Gu - Another silly tombs spinoff movie that I watched because the lead character is in a fic I'm currently writing and I wanted to do some research. It was very silly, but not as silly as the one about haunted paint that I watched last year :D
6. Turning Red - I absolutely loved this! A real flashback to what I was like as a 13 year old. All the characters were great, the story was great. It was wonderful
7. Spider-Man: No Way Home - I always think that I'm done with Marvel and that the MCU just isn't something that interests me anymore, but whenever I watch a movie I do end up enjoying it. This was a lot of fun. I loved seeing the Spider-Man from the other movie franchises. Andrew Garfield was great, and he had wonderful chemistry with Toby Maguire.

8. Too Cool to Kill - I'll admit I only wanted to watch this because Chen Minghao is in it, but it is SO FUN. That might be the most fun I've had watching a movie this year and Chen Minghao isn't even in it that much. I'm trying to get my sister to watch it because there's so many nods to western movies I think she'll love it.

1. Hawkeye - Started this last year but finished it last week because I was watching it with Jacqui so we left the last episode until we were both back from the holidays. It was fun. A nice mesh of the Fraction comics and the MCU version of Clint. Kate was awesome.
2. The Witcher Season 2 - Despite the fact I could barely remember anything that happened in season 1 I still very much enjoyed this. Jaskier continues to be a delight. Henry Cavill's arms, also delightful.
3. Tale of the Nine-Tailed - I loved this! Full of Korean mythology and folklore, an excellent female lead, and a side character I got very attached to. I didn't think I was overly emotionally invested and then I bawled through the finale. So good.
4. Kieta Hatsukoi (My Love Mix-Up) - This was adorable. It was very silly, and a lot of the drama could have been avoided if the characters had just talked to each other, but I haven't watched a bl drama in ages and overall it was very sweet.
5. You Make Me Dance - Short but very sweet. I really enjoyed it.
6. Wandavision - I have kind of fallen out with Marvel over recent years so aside from Hawkeye I haven't felt any real urge to watch any of the live action shows. My housemate suggested we watch this, though, and even thought she'd already seen it she watched it with it. It was good! I enjoyed it. I do love Paul Bettany and it was nice to see his actual face for a few episodes rather than the prosthetics.
7. Street Dance of China Season 4 - This actually finished last year and we've been waited ages for the final episode to be subbed but apparently they just aren't doing that. They partially subbed 2/3 of the finale (just the captains' comments) and didn't bother with the final 1/3 at all. So, we muddled through and tried our best to figure out what was happening. It's fun, I do enjoy watching all the dancing and you do end up getting attached to some of the contestants.
8. Falcon and the Winter Solider - I absolutely loved this! It's my favourite of all the live action MCU shows that we've watched so far. It had a bunch of great characters, great characters, interesting plots. Loved it. They managed to cram a lot into 6 episodes and it was excellent!
9. My Roommate is a Detective - I enjoyed this. It took me a little while to warm up to the characters and the ending wasn't quite what I wanted but overall a good and fun show
10. Color Rush - This was a really interesting idea (some people can only see in black and white until they meet their 'probe' which is a person that lets them see colour). They really needed a lot more time than 8 15 minute episode. They skimmed over a lot of the world building and left a few plothole. I did enjoy it, I just wanted a lot more of it.
11. Beyond Evil - Absolutely brilliant! I spent the first few episodes being Very Confused but once things start clicking into place it's absolutely fantastic. A strong early contender for the best thing I've watched this year
12. Loki - Loki has never been my favourite MCU character, and I don't particularly like Owen Wilson either so I wasn't expecting to enjoy this. It was actually pretty decent. It was an interesting story, and the two leads were great. Owen Wilson actually wasn't bad either. I definitely enjoyed it enough to want to watch the next season of it.
13. Winter Begonia - Absolutely stunning. I could not get enough of this drama. I watched all 50 episodes in less than a month which is a lot for me. One of the best c-dramas I've seen. It gave me so many feelings.
14. Kei x Yaku: Abunai Aibou - If the fact that I wrote 2 fics for this show before I was even halfway through watching it didn't give anything away I absolutely loved this. I will say the actual 'plot' wasn't as engaging as all the character stuff was. There was a few times were I lost track of what was happening with regards to the case they were investigating but it didn't overly matter. The two leads are fantastic and have amazing chemistry. Really hope they decide to make a second season
15. Semantic Error - I wasn't sure I was going to like this after the first couple of episodes. It's a classic college enemies to lovers story, but the enemies part involves a lot of pranking and harassment which made me uncomfortable. Fortunately they get over that quickly and start moving towards lovers and the rest of it was really sweet.
16. Our Flag Means Death - SO GOOD! So painful, so funny, so heartwarming. I laughed, I cried, I loved it
17. A Man Who Defies the World of BL - This was a lot of fun. It's very meta, pokes fun at a lot of the BL (and by extension fic) tropes but in a fond sort of way. It was very sweet and I enjoyed it a lot
18. Bad Buddy - This was adorable. I was expecting just a nonsense college romance show and it is that but it's got a lot of heart and the two leads have great chemistry. I ended up crying a surprising amount while I was watching it.
19. Not Me - This was so good! Definitely the best of all the Thai dramas I've watched, and probably the best BL I've seen too. This felt raw and real. It was beautifully shot, beautifully acted, the soundtrack was great. I absolutely loved it. If you're going to watch any Asian BL I recommend this one.
20. Vincenzo - I've been watching this very slowly as part of a weekly group watch. Because the episodes are so long we've only been watching an episode per week so it's taken ages to finish it. It was really good though. Excellent cast, excellent story, really well directed.
21. A Tale of Thousand Stars - Like Bad Buddy I thought this was just going to be a cute romance, only to find myself incredibly emotionally invested and crying a lot. I loved it, it was very sweet.
22. I Told Sunset About You - Well made and well acted but a bit too angsty for my liking. The main couple, in my opinion, did not have a healthy relationship and while I liked how it examined a teenage boy coming to terms with his sexuality I didn't celebrate when they got together in the end. So much of this was them either deliberately or accidentally hurting each others feelings and I just wasn't into it.

23. Her Royal Highness - This barely counts as a TV show given the whole thing is less than an hour long. For some reason it was released as 27 3 minute episodes. So, because of that the pacing is quite jarring until you get used to it. Apart from that though it was great! Everyone is really pretty, there's some interesting gender dynamics, and a few twists which are impressive given how short it is. Would rec.

1. Hawkeye - Started this last year but finished it last week because I was watching it with Jacqui so we left the last episode until we were both back from the holidays. It was fun. A nice mesh of the Fraction comics and the MCU version of Clint. Kate was awesome.
2. The Witcher Season 2 - Despite the fact I could barely remember anything that happened in season 1 I still very much enjoyed this. Jaskier continues to be a delight. Henry Cavill's arms, also delightful.
3. Tale of the Nine-Tailed - I loved this! Full of Korean mythology and folklore, an excellent female lead, and a side character I got very attached to. I didn't think I was overly emotionally invested and then I bawled through the finale. So good.
4. Kieta Hatsukoi (My Love Mix-Up) - This was adorable. It was very silly, and a lot of the drama could have been avoided if the characters had just talked to each other, but I haven't watched a bl drama in ages and overall it was very sweet.
5. You Make Me Dance - Short but very sweet. I really enjoyed it.
6. Wandavision - I have kind of fallen out with Marvel over recent years so aside from Hawkeye I haven't felt any real urge to watch any of the live action shows. My housemate suggested we watch this, though, and even thought she'd already seen it she watched it with it. It was good! I enjoyed it. I do love Paul Bettany and it was nice to see his actual face for a few episodes rather than the prosthetics.
7. Street Dance of China Season 4 - This actually finished last year and we've been waited ages for the final episode to be subbed but apparently they just aren't doing that. They partially subbed 2/3 of the finale (just the captains' comments) and didn't bother with the final 1/3 at all. So, we muddled through and tried our best to figure out what was happening. It's fun, I do enjoy watching all the dancing and you do end up getting attached to some of the contestants.
8. Falcon and the Winter Solider - I absolutely loved this! It's my favourite of all the live action MCU shows that we've watched so far. It had a bunch of great characters, great characters, interesting plots. Loved it. They managed to cram a lot into 6 episodes and it was excellent!
9. My Roommate is a Detective - I enjoyed this. It took me a little while to warm up to the characters and the ending wasn't quite what I wanted but overall a good and fun show
10. Color Rush - This was a really interesting idea (some people can only see in black and white until they meet their 'probe' which is a person that lets them see colour). They really needed a lot more time than 8 15 minute episode. They skimmed over a lot of the world building and left a few plothole. I did enjoy it, I just wanted a lot more of it.
11. Beyond Evil - Absolutely brilliant! I spent the first few episodes being Very Confused but once things start clicking into place it's absolutely fantastic. A strong early contender for the best thing I've watched this year
12. Loki - Loki has never been my favourite MCU character, and I don't particularly like Owen Wilson either so I wasn't expecting to enjoy this. It was actually pretty decent. It was an interesting story, and the two leads were great. Owen Wilson actually wasn't bad either. I definitely enjoyed it enough to want to watch the next season of it.
13. Winter Begonia - Absolutely stunning. I could not get enough of this drama. I watched all 50 episodes in less than a month which is a lot for me. One of the best c-dramas I've seen. It gave me so many feelings.
14. Kei x Yaku: Abunai Aibou - If the fact that I wrote 2 fics for this show before I was even halfway through watching it didn't give anything away I absolutely loved this. I will say the actual 'plot' wasn't as engaging as all the character stuff was. There was a few times were I lost track of what was happening with regards to the case they were investigating but it didn't overly matter. The two leads are fantastic and have amazing chemistry. Really hope they decide to make a second season
15. Semantic Error - I wasn't sure I was going to like this after the first couple of episodes. It's a classic college enemies to lovers story, but the enemies part involves a lot of pranking and harassment which made me uncomfortable. Fortunately they get over that quickly and start moving towards lovers and the rest of it was really sweet.
16. Our Flag Means Death - SO GOOD! So painful, so funny, so heartwarming. I laughed, I cried, I loved it
17. A Man Who Defies the World of BL - This was a lot of fun. It's very meta, pokes fun at a lot of the BL (and by extension fic) tropes but in a fond sort of way. It was very sweet and I enjoyed it a lot
18. Bad Buddy - This was adorable. I was expecting just a nonsense college romance show and it is that but it's got a lot of heart and the two leads have great chemistry. I ended up crying a surprising amount while I was watching it.
19. Not Me - This was so good! Definitely the best of all the Thai dramas I've watched, and probably the best BL I've seen too. This felt raw and real. It was beautifully shot, beautifully acted, the soundtrack was great. I absolutely loved it. If you're going to watch any Asian BL I recommend this one.
20. Vincenzo - I've been watching this very slowly as part of a weekly group watch. Because the episodes are so long we've only been watching an episode per week so it's taken ages to finish it. It was really good though. Excellent cast, excellent story, really well directed.
21. A Tale of Thousand Stars - Like Bad Buddy I thought this was just going to be a cute romance, only to find myself incredibly emotionally invested and crying a lot. I loved it, it was very sweet.

22. I Told Sunset About You - Well made and well acted but a bit too angsty for my liking. The main couple, in my opinion, did not have a healthy relationship and while I liked how it examined a teenage boy coming to terms with his sexuality I didn't celebrate when they got together in the end. So much of this was them either deliberately or accidentally hurting each others feelings and I just wasn't into it.

1. Hawkeye - Started this last year but finished it last week because I was watching it with Jacqui so we left the last episode until we were both back from the holidays. It was fun. A nice mesh of the Fraction comics and the MCU version of Clint. Kate was awesome.
2. The Witcher Season 2 - Despite the fact I could barely remember anything that happened in season 1 I still very much enjoyed this. Jaskier continues to be a delight. Henry Cavill's arms, also delightful.
3. Tale of the Nine-Tailed - I loved this! Full of Korean mythology and folklore, an excellent female lead, and a side character I got very attached to. I didn't think I was overly emotionally invested and then I bawled through the finale. So good.
4. Kieta Hatsukoi (My Love Mix-Up) - This was adorable. It was very silly, and a lot of the drama could have been avoided if the characters had just talked to each other, but I haven't watched a bl drama in ages and overall it was very sweet.
5. You Make Me Dance - Short but very sweet. I really enjoyed it.
6. Wandavision - I have kind of fallen out with Marvel over recent years so aside from Hawkeye I haven't felt any real urge to watch any of the live action shows. My housemate suggested we watch this, though, and even thought she'd already seen it she watched it with it. It was good! I enjoyed it. I do love Paul Bettany and it was nice to see his actual face for a few episodes rather than the prosthetics.
7. Street Dance of China Season 4 - This actually finished last year and we've been waited ages for the final episode to be subbed but apparently they just aren't doing that. They partially subbed 2/3 of the finale (just the captains' comments) and didn't bother with the final 1/3 at all. So, we muddled through and tried our best to figure out what was happening. It's fun, I do enjoy watching all the dancing and you do end up getting attached to some of the contestants.
8. Falcon and the Winter Solider - I absolutely loved this! It's my favourite of all the live action MCU shows that we've watched so far. It had a bunch of great characters, great characters, interesting plots. Loved it. They managed to cram a lot into 6 episodes and it was excellent!
9. My Roommate is a Detective - I enjoyed this. It took me a little while to warm up to the characters and the ending wasn't quite what I wanted but overall a good and fun show
10. Color Rush - This was a really interesting idea (some people can only see in black and white until they meet their 'probe' which is a person that lets them see colour). They really needed a lot more time than 8 15 minute episode. They skimmed over a lot of the world building and left a few plothole. I did enjoy it, I just wanted a lot more of it.
11. Beyond Evil - Absolutely brilliant! I spent the first few episodes being Very Confused but once things start clicking into place it's absolutely fantastic. A strong early contender for the best thing I've watched this year
12. Loki - Loki has never been my favourite MCU character, and I don't particularly like Owen Wilson either so I wasn't expecting to enjoy this. It was actually pretty decent. It was an interesting story, and the two leads were great. Owen Wilson actually wasn't bad either. I definitely enjoyed it enough to want to watch the next season of it.
13. Winter Begonia - Absolutely stunning. I could not get enough of this drama. I watched all 50 episodes in less than a month which is a lot for me. One of the best c-dramas I've seen. It gave me so many feelings.
14. Kei x Yaku: Abunai Aibou - If the fact that I wrote 2 fics for this show before I was even halfway through watching it didn't give anything away I absolutely loved this. I will say the actual 'plot' wasn't as engaging as all the character stuff was. There was a few times were I lost track of what was happening with regards to the case they were investigating but it didn't overly matter. The two leads are fantastic and have amazing chemistry. Really hope they decide to make a second season
15. Semantic Error - I wasn't sure I was going to like this after the first couple of episodes. It's a classic college enemies to lovers story, but the enemies part involves a lot of pranking and harassment which made me uncomfortable. Fortunately they get over that quickly and start moving towards lovers and the rest of it was really sweet.
16. Our Flag Means Death - SO GOOD! So painful, so funny, so heartwarming. I laughed, I cried, I loved it
17. A Man Who Defies the World of BL - This was a lot of fun. It's very meta, pokes fun at a lot of the BL (and by extension fic) tropes but in a fond sort of way. It was very sweet and I enjoyed it a lot
18. Bad Buddy - This was adorable. I was expecting just a nonsense college romance show and it is that but it's got a lot of heart and the two leads have great chemistry. I ended up crying a surprising amount while I was watching it.
19. Not Me - This was so good! Definitely the best of all the Thai dramas I've watched, and probably the best BL I've seen too. This felt raw and real. It was beautifully shot, beautifully acted, the soundtrack was great. I absolutely loved it. If you're going to watch any Asian BL I recommend this one.
20. Vincenzo - I've been watching this very slowly as part of a weekly group watch. Because the episodes are so long we've only been watching an episode per week so it's taken ages to finish it. It was really good though. Excellent cast, excellent story, really well directed.

21. A Tale of Thousand Stars - Like Bad Buddy I thought this was just going to be a cute romance, only to find myself incredibly emotionally invested and crying a lot. I loved it, it was very sweet.

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