You know as an American born in the late 90s I’ve watched my country blow up foreigners on tv supposedly in the interest of national security since I was a toddler but quite frankly we live on a natural fortress of a continent with friendly nations to our north and south and have been attacked on our own soil literally two times in the past hundred years and we have military bases on every inhabited continent on earth. It’s never made sense to do these things for “national security”. It never will make sense unless you value the shareholders of weapons companies over the lives of children. And apparently a concerning amount of people do.
important that you never forgive ice agents, ever. even years after all this is over (and I do believe we will make it out on the other side, alive and for the better,) they live in shame and disgrace forever. no excuses, no forgiveness. they ruined their own lives when they decided that human freedom and liberty was an acceptable sacrifice for a paycheck
babe i don't care that he is morally unjust or unforgivably problematic. babe have u considered that he's unapologetically hot while he's doing incredible harm
I think in general, American shows aren’t great at romance. They are great (especially in the era of streaming) at showing lust, but the swooping, swooning, longing looks between the OST while the OST plays dramatically in the background? So common in cdramas and kdramas? I can’t really think of an American show that has that.
I don’t know if it’s a cultural issue (in some ways it is — half of the lines uttered by MLs in cdramas would be considered too “dramatic” or “cheesy” in American shows), and not necessarily an advocate for purity culture, but I do think the general restriction on sex scenes (heck, I remember the era of 2008 closed mouth kdrama kissing) in East Asian entertainment does mean the writers can’t use that as a shortcut. And actually does further the romance plot.
Like take this scene from 云之羽 (and arguably the romance isn’t even the show’s strongest suit)
You just wouldn’t see a line like that in a US-based show.
Obviously, it’s not mutually exclusive. A show can be very romantic and horny on main. However, I think a lot of US based shows are really afraid of coming off as cheesy? Earnest? Cringe? And romance is earnest. At least IMO a good romance is.
I can think of American shows I found swoonily romantic (Farscape - always! And Crixus x Naevia in Spartacus owned my whole heart) but that is very very rare and usually only in very extreme settings and are honestly outliers.
Usually I don’t find American shows to be in the least romantic - not in a way where I believe these people cannot live without each other, would give the world to have another moment together.
I honestly think in a lot of ways too many American shows want to be “cool” and not earnest (and not just in romance, in everything) and that precludes the kind of emotional commitment in the narrative a sweeping romantic arc needs.
I am reblogging my own addition because I actually have more thoughts, mainly because I started s3 of Brigerton and s2 of JoL at the same time and it really brought things into stark relief for me (don't worry, no JoL spoilers here.)
Unlike Brigerton, Joy Of Life is not a romance-centric show in any way. Romance is an incredibly minor part of the narrative, in fact. Fan Xian may love Lin Waner, but their interactions are a very small part of the story which is largely occupied with other things. Also, unlike Brigerton, JoL is not targeted largely to a female audience - it is targeted equally I'd imagine; finally, it is also a "prestige" project - think more GoT than Brigerton.
And yet, you know what comes to mind? The introduction of Fu Xinbo's character in second season. His intro is his stripping out of his armor into normal clothes and the camera dwells longingly and lovingly on his very very attractive shoulders and chest and arms. It is incredibly female-gazey in a way NOTHING in Brigerton s3 is - forget objectifying pans up ML's chest or w/e, we get to see the boobs of his threesome lady partners instead.
If you think about it, this is insane. This is objectively nuts. An American romance is less female gazey than a prestige, non-romance Chinese show. And I think the thing is, American shows can never feel truly comfortable in catering to female audience or comfortable with female desire, not even in productions ostensibly designed for them - it's like those 50 shades movies which instead of believably catering to female desire dwelled on the naked FL. I don't know if it's because it's viewed as lesser (sort of like making money but being low key ashamed of how you make it), because anything nonironic is "uncool" or because they've genuinely forgotten how to do this, but the fact remains.
And it's not just physical. As @renewedmotionforjudgment pointed out, they are afraid to emotionally commit too. Sex is great and fun but this isn't what love is. It can be part of love but is not the sum total or even majority of it. Yet shows don't spend enough time and bandwidth on showing emotional commitment. And even the scenes they give are at a certain remove as if they are a kid in school afraid to be uncool.
I am thinking of My Dearest, possibly my favorite kdrama of 2023 and also a prestige production though this time romance centric. The ML and FL of that one are smart and strong-willed and complicated. They snark and snarl. They aren't simple naifs. And yet they are allowed to be earnest in love, epic in feeling in a way no American show has given me in years. I think of the scene at the slave market, when he finds her again, and the way he climbs up and wails at her and then the way his hands spasmodically clutch at her hem as he's losing consciousness after being hit and she's being dragged away. I am trying to imagine an American show of recent vintage doing this and I cannot (OK, fine, Spartacus, but that is well over a decade ago, an eternity in TV terms, and even then it was an outlier.)
Or this scene in Kunning:
We got the hand ruining scene! AAAAAAAA!!!!!!!
I guess he's always paid an insane price for everything so paying an insane price for a chanc
Honestly - most of romance in romance centric dramas would not fly in an American show, they would never commit and you need to commit for it to work.
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