Gen Y 2 - The Glorious Trash Watch Reborn
Trash watching season 2 commences! (Season 1 is here. In my defense I didn’t know that was trash until about half way through, but I still had a lot of fun.) A short review of season here.
As of Dec 2021 you could watch Gen Y 2 on Starhunter’s YouTube channel! Be pleased, season one was a bitch to get ahold of.
Because it’s amusing in light of the start of season 2, here were my...
Final thoughts on season 1:
There was not enough Jack & Jew. There will never be enough.
I feel like they could have rounded out MarkKit a bit better. But it was fine. They were fine. Whatever.
I’d love it if Sandee went seriously dark/evil in season two.
Jock/nerd had the best chemistry. Bummer about their story arc. “What story arc?” you ask me. Exactly.
I have unfounded hope that Jack/Koh may some day still be a Thing.
I liked the actor playing Thanu and I hope we get to see more of him in something solid. (He reminds me, screen presence wise, a little bit of Kao AKA Korn in UWMA).
As of Ep 1 of season 2?
Jew seems to be gone. I’m heartbroken.
Still whatever.
MY WISH IS GRANTED. YES!
Still the best chemistry, now how they gonna fuck it up?
Possibly no longer unfounded due to My Mate Match. (Jack & Koh are also Match & Mix or actor couple JameJet. So now we know they kiss. Very well, actually. In BL, lightning does strike twice.)
I still like him. And I don’t mind the love triangle.*
* Have I come around to love triangles in my old age? If so, Light on Me has A LOT to answer for.
And now...
SEASON TWO!
Look... my trash fire soap opera is back and I am THRILLED. I really don’t care much about what happens in this show, it’s a delicious buffet of random tasty nonsense and presentation is irrelevant to me because it tastes DELICIOUS. Ah, that metaphor got away from me. But you either like a buffet or, ya don’t, and I happen to be a buffet person. As with many things in my Thai BL relationship you can blame Make it Right for this.
Ep 1 - Reservoir Bois
A lot happened in the first episode. Including flash backs to remind us of the previous season (thank you for that, Starhunter).
Firstly, this show feels calmer. Maybe because I now know (or mostly remember) all of the many MANY characters. This show is such a soap opera, like the ultimate BL soap: All the couples, all the drama, random evil scheming, what’s next? Evil twin? (Oh wait, no that’s Not Me.) Back from the dead? (Oh wait, no that’s Peach of Time.)
Opens with a Reservoir Dogs BL shot meets musical montage getting ready for school that had me cackling. (What if Reservoir Dogs were a BL? Mind boggles.)
Already, I have questions.
Why does this dumb ultra melodramatic show make me so happy?
Why is Kimmon so bloody charismatic in this role?
Could Wayu just grow a spine and dump all of them?
Why was P’P gone? Soap opera solutions = Witness protection. (Do they have that in Thailand?) Or kidnapping and evil rich family shenanigans must keep it secret. Or identical twins & murder. Or terminal illness. These are our 4 options.
Akay, moving on.
(oh look, my type)
also, weirdly I just thought of the underpants gnomes, and I think Sandee is going to have about as much motivation
I love Big as P’Pa. Perfect casting. Oooo, P’Pa = daddy vibes to that name, is that intentional? Big is definitely serving up daddy. It’s nice to see him successfully portraying such a different character from Ryu in My Mate Match. Good boy! You can actually act. We don’t expect that from Thai BL but it’s nice when it’s served up.
How much did we all want Mark (or better Wayu himself) to punch P’P on that rooftop? SO MUCH.
Meanwhile, winner winner chicken dinner. I think they went with option 4: terminal Illness. Most sympathetic choice, Gen Y. Very nice.
So much happened already in this episode, and most of the characters are starting out in working relationships. I can only hypothesize that this is going to be a hot mess moving forward.
So far, though, I like it. It feels a lot less like end of season 1′s shitshow. But it could always go there if the writers forget to actually write again.
I like that MarkKit are now side dishes. I like ThanuWayu versus DESTINY. I want more PokTong being arses to each other. I want more Jack & Koh getting together, but I feel pretty confident that this is gonna happen. So yeah!!!!
Ep 2 - Darth Sandee
Only the first ep was on YouTube and I had a snafu while watching this “alternately” which means no screen caps. I can’t be arsed. I mean I could get them but that would mean watching it again and here’s the thing.
Right now this one isn’t bad enough to be good. It isn’t good enough to be good either.
Here’s my thoughts....
P‘Pa = def the cancer mom trope.
Yay! more reasons for Wayu to cry.
Suffer sweetheart!! SUFFER!
Honestly? All three actors (Big, Cop, Kim) did a great job with this opening scene.
COUPLES RUN DOWN!
MarkKit = not much screen time except at the beginning, but that was good. I like that MarkKit are being challenged by some big picture stuffs around friendship like loyalty, trust, and the value of truth. It makes for a good external stressor for their relationship. It also mirrors a burden carried only by Kit in season one, now shared by them as a couple.
JackKoh|KohJack are CRAZY. They only care about competing over something as an excuse to be together. There’s someone out there who’d pay good money for a threesome under such criteria... Lots of someones, actually. (Maybe that’s why they filmed My Mate Match?)
PokTong are cute. And boyfriends competing against each other for Moon is a new one for the franchise(s). Also PokTong make out music is HILARIOUS. Very 80s amateur porno. This is a fun couple, I admit @heretherebedork , that I am coming round.
ThanuWayu - only episode 2 and they are already boring me. But That’s a soap opera for you, there’s always a couple you could care less about. I like Phai though.
Phai has discovered that Darth Sandee is EVIL! Now... make them fuck!
Am I weird that I just want a moral compass trope to happen with these 2? Forget about Thanu, Darth Sandee is your real destiny!
Okay, fine, never mind.
Meanwhile it’s always fun to me when extras are involved on a scene because you can see how much taller than average most Thai actors are.
Finally we end on this weird running thing to kill the time slot with flashbacks. BL does Chariots of Fire!
(Chariots of Fire, definitely a sports bromance.)
I’d ban BLs from flashback abuse but then everything would be K-BL length and all K-BLs would be microfilms.
-- Oh, I’m feeling SALTY this afternoon.
Ep 3 - Why So Annoying?
Would we call this a recap? Can one recap a show in which NOTHING HAPPENS?
Is that an existential question?
In other news MarkKit are VERY cute, Jew is back (yay!!) KohJack are like the 3 stooges of BL, and this show is pissing me off. The swim team thing was weird and Thanu & Wayu remain duller than dishwater, but also begin to have that pong of dishwater left out too long.
Wayu is punishing Thanu for having loved someone else when Wayu is basically is dating Thanu as a backup because he himself loved someone else. This relationship started out as a shitty thing to do to someone, but now Wayu is being hypocritical and shitty.
Here’s what I want. Wayu and Pha to get back together, Pha to die, and then Wayu will know what it really means to suffer.
(Don’t we all Sandee? Don’t we all?)
All this to say, Evil Sandee is the only interesting thing happening right now and I really wanna root for him yet they show is making even THAT difficult...
As characters figure out he is evil, there is actually a conversation as follows:
C1: Why is Sandee evil?
C2: We have no idea, but the point is he must be stopped.
This is the ultimate in bad writing. It’s basically the show telling us that Sandee having any kind of motivation isn’t necessary. And I’m like, JUMP BACK GEN Y, I am sorry, you can give him a dum motivation (and you probubly will) but you don’t actually think he can’t have any, right?
This show is a soap opera dumpster fire being feed by wooden performances (ThanYu), modest cuteness (MarKit), and mustache twirling without reason (Darth Sandee). But I’m going down with the dumpster because I am trash.
Stinky horrible trash on fire.
THIS SHOW WILL MAKE MONSTERS OF US ALL.
Ep 4 - The Poke Tongue Shower Scene
ThanYu... whaka whaka whaka (and not in the good Monsta X way).
Jack & Koh are fun and I realized why I like them, Love Rivals to Lovers is my favorite trope, because it’s innately queer, and they are getting one. Plus they are comedy relief and they’re funny about it.
And MarKit are what they are.
But PokTong and the SHOWER SCEEN.
What.
I mean to say.
WHAT?!
Jump back!
No, jump forward. No, now you’ve slipped in the shower.
This is a shower scene we’re getting, people, from Starhunter!
I feel like I stumbled backwards into the TharnType glory days (should that be glory holes? eh, don’t bother me with trifles).
Where was I?
Oh yes shower scene. Remember what I said then (with TharnType) BJs in yaoi are ALWAYS acts of penance performed by the seme. Having the uke character do it is either serious (actual) punishment or we have gone straight through BL into gay af.
Apparently all bets are off with this couple. Even BL bets. They are off the BL script. Way off. Somewhere down the drain even.
Who knew Gen Y would go there?
Plus the first kiss = goodbye kiss is just chef’s kiss.
I can tell ya what tho, PokTong are already STRONG contenders for 2022′s WinTeam Award AKA the side couple we secretly wish were the main couple (PitchBank in Golden Blood won it for 2021). In fact, I’m not gonna sugar coat it - they SHOULD have been the main couple. The betrayal and outside stressors to their relationship are excellent, chemistry is spot on, acting is great.
Also, anyone else wants to make them Poke Tongue?
No? Just me.
What, I gotta keep it low brow. This is still Gen Y.
BUT THAT SHOWER SCENE.
(This series = weirdly obsessed with fully dressed boys stepping into showers? Remember Mark & Wayu back in early eps of season 1?)
Oh look we are back in classic Gen Y territory, we up one week, we down the next, we boring one moment, we riveting the next.
I gotta start drinking when I watch this show.
Ep 5 - Plot Bunny Whip Lash
(Honestly tho, that could be another name for upcoming Unforgotten Nights).
My baby boys are broken up and still Tong is trying to take care of Pok. They PRECIOUS and tragical.
Darth Sandee’s motivation remains hella confusing, unless he’s supposed to be some trickster cupid or spirit of fate.
Fine. Yess. I’lI nominate Sandee for godhood. Can’t get any weirder than this show already is. Would explain why Wayu & Thanu are so crap with a bow & arrow, that shizz is Sandee’s domain.
I like that Thanu didn’t hide Pha’s illness from Wayu.
I also like that it is circumstances breaking up MarkKit (as opposed to ye ol’ miscommunication), but hot damn that plot bunny came out of nowhere and spun on a dime.
Does anyone else miss ForthBeam energy? I miss them so bad in this show right now.
Ep 6 - I Got Nothing
Jack & Koh are collectively the most extra and why can’t we just have more of them?
Tong & Pok are in a different show - Unforgotten Night maybe? And why is Pok getting beaten up? I’m so confused.
I spend most of this show confused.
The brothers are cute together and Phai may be my favorite character. But frankly MarkKit are dumbasses, I can’t feel sympathy when they are doing this to each other.
And now... this fucker:
What WAS that with Sandee & Phai? I mean I wanted them to get together from what back in the cafe days but I do NOT UNDERSTAND what is going on with these two. Why did Sandee do what he did? Why did he changed his mind? Why suddenly nice? WHY WHY WHY????
“A plague o' both your houses! Zounds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat to scratch a man to death!”
You made me trot out Shakespeare, you bastards. Next up, Catullus, and then we are all done for.
Ep 7 - Sigh
MarkKit are truly absurd. ThanuWayuPa are truly boring. PokeTongue are in a different show with actual plot, and they are interesting but tiny idiots. Honestly SandeePhai are the only couple I really care about at this point and
they got no screen time this ep
we aren’t sure if they ARE a couple
they are adrift on a sea of destiny and lack of motivation
Oh and JackKoh, I forgot about them.
SEE? They’re my favorites and this ep just made me forget they existed!
The weighting of this soap is all off. Both the story and the screen time is uneven, by which I mean the focus and dwelling of the camera on some characters over others. So editing is partly to blame.
If filming and screen time had been more evenly distributed than we would all be happier. But Starhunter put all their eggs in the baskets of their most seasoned actors and established pairs, and we are being punished for that decision with deeply unsatisfying omelets.
(Actual gif of the Sandee egg.)
Ep 8 - Why Am I doing this to myself?
Lack of Sandee makes me sad but we got the return of Padbok.
Yay!
One fecklessly evil character with no motivation is exchanged for another!
Why so angry? Why so pretty? Why so silent?
Oh please just make SOMETHING happen.
So basically this episode was the same as last week.
Play it again Sab?
Wayu is a pretty elf tho.
What? What do you expect from me? I got nothing. Imma go watch Love Stage!! it’s about 100x better.
Episode 9 - OMG WHY is this so boring?
Poke Tongues are literally the only thing interesting about this show anymore. Pok’s apology was nicely handled. I even get where Tong is comign from, there’s too much miscommunication between them how can he be confident it won’t just keep happing. They could just be dysfunctional boyfriends.
I am growing to hate the play within a BL conceit. Shakespeare overdid it and that was long time ago. Costumes are fun tho.
Thanu and Wayu puzzle me, I now spend most of my time trying to figure out why they aren’t working for me on screen, because frankly the actors are cute as friends in the BTS stuff. So why aren’t they working as a romantic couple in front of the camera? Still, that’s not what I should be doing when watching a BL.
How do we feel about the fake coffee spill in order to strip scene? Bit manipulative? Or just seme’s gotta do what a seme’s gotta do?
Meanwhile, hellooooo my dark elf boyfriend!
Look this brought back way too many comic cons of my youth. But basically = MY TYPE. I might just have a bit of a thing for a person in black lipstick and eyeliner and I blame the 90s ENTIRELY. (Not to out myself but nothing is hotter on this earth that streaks of black liner running down someone’s face ‘cause you made them cry - in the right way, of course. NOTHING.)
Speaking of crying...
In addition to the old adage, “Don’t make them sing in a Thai BL” have we forgotten the “Don’t make them cry rule”? Oh Gen Y, what am I going to do with you?
This is still a dumpster fire, but worse it’s now a boring dumpster fire. So it’s like the excitement of the flames is all gone and what’s left is smoldering trash and THAT smell.
Episode 10 - He’s Dead, Kim
Okay but Kimmon in a suit is a thing of beauty and joy forever.
COME ON.
KIM MON.
Get it?
(I’ll stop now.)
The funeral ep and still Kit isn’t letting Mark be with him and what the hell, can we all say manufactured drama? I don’t care anymore, dump Kit, he doesn’t deserve you. Especially not in that suit.
Meanwhile things are going hilariously wrong in the captions department but none cares because there isn’t any dialogue anyway.
Meanwhile these two chaos monkey love muffin idiots are in a completely different series.
ThanuWayu did some stuff in a hotel and on a beach and hit up “this pool was made for kissing trope” (and a few others) and that was the episode.
Honestly, I am starting to worry about Starhunter and all their upcoming projects.
This is that bad.
Episode 11 - It’s Doom But Only For Me, Because Guess What? EVERYONE SINGS!
I feel like I lost patience with this show about three episodes ago. So what’s the other side of losing patience with something? I’ve gone all the way through frustration to annoyance and now what? Apathy?
Anygay, Wayu went through all kinds of rigmarole to get his man into bed. And then they slept. I’d say I was disappointed, but I don’t think the show can disappoint me anymore. Honestly, if anything they are just too sweet.
And everyone is singing.
Please make them stop.
For me this is a true episode 11.
DOOOOMMMM!
I admit half the fun of a soap opera is complaining about how horrible it is.
But Mark and Kit when they are together are very very good. Nice kiss and fun chemistry. It was a bummer the show decided to keep them apart for most of it.
Next week is the last installment and rumor is we are in for a Gen Y Season 3. Because, I presume, they actually want to see me lose my ever loving mind.
Episode 12 - Well That Was... Something
Honestly, I’m not sure how to summate this smack-wompus soap-riddled cheese-fest.
Serious question:
Which is worse?
To unexpectedly find cheese in your soap?
Or to unexpectedly find soap in your cheese?
Cheese in soap:
Soap in cheese:
I guess it depends on whether you were watching Gen Y for the camp (me) or watching it for the romance.... anyone?
Starhunter?
I decided to do a break down of the different couples and the different shows they each thought they were acting in.
What? I gotta entertain myself, this show sure as shit ain’t doing it.
MarkKit
What show were they actually in? A sweet romance.
We even got a little religious element. They very cute, far too saccharine for me, and painfully domestic. And I am ready to put them safely to bed. I think we can do that safely, no matter what was implied in this episode, they not getting up to anything. Sexual attraction between these too? There is none.
But I do declare them: sweet.
JackKoh AKA KohJack
What show were they actually in? A slapstick romcom.
They figured their shit out, remained totally ridiculous children throughout. I look forward to seeing them fuck around with their next show, whatever it may be.
I declare them: funny.
PokeTongue
What show were they actually in? A high heat angsty BL.
They finally got together but honestly why not just make these two do the Thai remake of We Best Love? It’s kinda what they were gunning for. Anyway, not long to wait for them, their next series, What Zabb Man!, starts in a red hot minute. Emphasis on hot, we hope. Well, it is set in a kitchen.
I declare them: bankable.
ThanuWayu
What show were they actually in? A cardboard picture book.
I have nothing to say. I suspect in about 5 minutes I will have forgotten their entire existence.
I declare them: boring.
I was poking about gifs for this post and this one popped up:
They had SO MUCH MORE CHEMISTRY together. Just LOOK AT THEM.
Sigh.
Oh what might have been.
You know what?
Sandee was right all along.
Did I grin through the whole graduation sequence?
Sure I did.
So I guess all we have learned from this whole damn journey is that I am still a sap who will watch total trash.
But maybe it was all worth it for this smile...
Goodnight.
Dammit.
Could we please not do this again?
(source)