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Journey With You (Chinese Series)

By Golu
I've always had kind of a love hate relationship with Chinese historical BLs. Some are genuinely excellent, but then there are others that cram in so much plot that keeping track of all the layers of betrayal and scheming gets exhausting, and I end up checking out mentally. Part of the issue is also just how much content is out there in this space, so something really has to stand out to keep me hooked. In this case, the production value is genuinely impressive, top tier stuff, but story wise, I just couldn't bring myself to actually care about these characters. There's a ton of political scheming and backstage manipulation running throughout. Somewhere in the middle of all that chaos, a hostage ends up falling for his own Prince Charming. The show runs eight episodes, each around 50 to 60 minutes long. After spending three years guarding the border, Fifth Prince Yin Qi gets called back to the capital because of a secret letter, only to end up walking straight into a deadly...
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Big Gay Wedding with Tom Allen (Documentary) (UK)

By Golu
It was March 2014 that England and Wales legalized gay marriage and John and Bernardo became one of the first officially married gay couple. So for its 10 year anniversary and many gay weddings later, BBC One celebrated it with this documentary hosted by Tom Allen. He decides to a arrange and become wedding planner for a dream wedding for one couple – Adam Johnson and Dan Mackey of Brighton – and interviewing those who helped make it happen; while also recounting the history of how things were in the past and how did we come about to be where we are today.

Adam and Dan have been a couple for ten years – the same time as equal marriage has been legal. Tom Allen opens his contacts book and magics up some celebrity help for wedding singer, celebrity baker from Bake-Off for a ten-tier cake.A personal stylist designs the outfits and a celebrated choreographer also helps the couple prepare for their first dance. Some beautiful flowers and bouquets are designed by florists. In between all this, Tom traces the history of equal marriage with multiple guests in a mixture of activity, politicians and other figures. We are reminded that there is still some way to go to include everyone in marriage – specifically non-binary people. As part of the programme, Allen also speaks about his own experience of growing up gay in the shadow of the AIDS crisis and Margaret Thatcher’s reviled Section 28 law, which banned the so-called ‘promotion’ of homosexuality in school.

Broadly, the documentary did a good job of reminding us of that marriage once felt impossible for many queer people. Today more than three-quarters of Britons support same-sex marriage compared with well under half in February 2011. That’s a monumental shift in public opinion worthy of celebration. What I found weird was a mix of two genre. One side we are planning for this big outlandish gay wedding but then we are also tracing all the way back to the history if it all on how being gay was criminal, AIDS times, marriage inequality etc. I feel like we have seen this so many times that film could have just focused on journey and activism for gay marriage equality rather than going all the way back to 60s. The attempt to weave vital histories with contrived scenes of the celebs helping the couple pick their suits and plan for wedding felt a bit off to me. We are never told why this couple was specifically chosen. There is too much that has been tried to pack in one hour, but despite all that, this program is still a reminder of how far we have come and how far we still have to still go. (4/10)
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