Viki tv subscription

[mellowtigger]

Somebody here on Dreamwidth mentioned Viki.com nearly a year ago. I looked it up and eventually subscribed in February, I think. I spent these last 2 days doing absolutely nothing except for watching shows on Viki. It's has been a wonderfully lazy recharging of mental fortitude after the last week of work.

Viki is interesting. There is no English dubbing for any of their shows, but they do all come with English subtitles. It's been interesting to learn which English words or phrases are in common use in Asian countries. These shows come from many countries (Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, and probably others), representing many languages.

I originally came here to watch the good Three-Body sci-fi show about the impending arrival of an alien species at Earth. Sadly, Viki's sci-fi library just isn't very long yet. Another decent show, though, is Seo Bok, about a genetically engineered human.

What has kept me subscribed, instead of the science fiction, is the "BL" dramas. When I first looked at the list of categories in their library, I had no idea what "BL" was, but it turns out to be "Boy Love" stories. That's right, a whole catalog of television stories about gay men... sort of. Mostly, the shows are okay but not great. It's sort of like a cross between the Lifetime channel (which is famous for low-budget copy-and-paste tales) and spanish telenovelas (famous for ridiculous plots and overacting). Mostly, they're not wonderful tales, and mostly for the same reasons:

• Sometimes based on comic books, the plots can be unrealistic. Many characters make the worst possible decision or misinterpretation, because that creates a fun plot, right? It's fine in moderate doses.
• Intended for heterosexual female viewers, the writing is often very weird about the relationship dynamics. Some shows come across clearly like they were written by straight men for viewing by straight women about relationships of gay men while trying to justify straight male dominance in a world where it has clearly lost any sense of justification at all.
• Based in eastern relationship dynamics, it's often explicit that one man in a pair is the high-status and overly-successful man while the other is lower-status and gets socially dominated by the other. It's a dynamic that I'm not keen on, personally.
• Taking a cue from western video arts, it's too often the case that violence is required, and the more violence there is, the more likely the show also will be more open about sex. Almost every show is very chaste with the kissing, even. Fine. At least the stories are there in abundance, which is a new experience to this western viewer.

Social dramas aren't something I would normally watch, but Viki's BL library is just so extensive. Here's a heartfelt "thank you" to the heterosexual women of asian countries who provided a reliable demand for this stuff.

More later about specific recommendations for shows. I've watched a lot of them and certainly have favorites.

Comments

[oracne]

I live with a fan of BL shows, if you'd like recs? She's part of an online watch group.