Not up to my standards softcore fetish porn disguised unsuccessfully as mafia drama

This drama could be used as proof that the Halo effect is very real and powerful (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_effect). The plot was full of holes, every relationship was utterly toxic and the mafia element existed for the coolness factor without actually being utilized.


What carried the entire show was the careful selection of handsome men as the main cast. NOTHING ELSE. If the same things were done or said by ugly men, the show would have flopped 100%. Kinn exploits Porsche knowing his desperate financial position, rapes him, has zero trust towards him and becomes abusive even under suspicion that Porsche has been unfaithful (bathroom scene with Vegas is a good example). Kinn-Chay are a textbook grooming case, where an idol manipulates their fan who happens to be a minor (disturbing and disgusting). I won't even start with serial rapist, bipolar, psychopath Vegas who ''changes'' under the magical influence of his kidnapped/raped/tortured victim Pete (who has Stockholm syndrome). It is clear that the people writing such nonsense have zero understanding of psychiatry because they romanticize rape and abuse and no, psychopaths don't change and you can't ''save'' them with your love.

As if all that mess wasn't enough, towards the end, there is an incest element added with Porsche's mother being the adoptive sister of Kinn's father. This reminds me a lot of a third rate heterosexual lakorn plot and not of the pioneering, ground breaking BL that they claim to be. It was also extremely unecessary.

There is way too much comedy and fluffy scenes that come semi-randomly and don't match the show's supposedly mafia atmosphere and other cringe moments, for example Vegas speaking English at random times. What's up with that nonsense? I would understand if his character was a foreigner or something, but nothing is explained and it's honestly annoying.

It is clear at this point, that the producers know that the BL market is full of hypocritical people who pretend to want to watch dramas, but in reality just want to watch gay fetish porn, otherwise there would not have been so much emphasizing on sex scenes and so much less on the actual plot. A lot of the couples have nothing in common besides sex (with Kinn-Porsche being the best example of incompatible toxic couple who ends up having sex after every argument that was never properly resolved). Often it felt like different people direct different episodes, with the first one being much better and more serious than the nonsense comedy second one. All over the place production is an understatement.

The acting was decent, the music was decent, the scenery was decent, but the overall result is not up to my standards and it's the fault of the producers and the creepy authors (I have read the book and it's an abomination worship and romanticizing of murder and rape, way worse than the series).

If you don't believe me, go on tumblr and twitter and see how many people are talking about the plot (literally nobody unless they refer to sex scenes) and how many are worshipping the actors similar to kpop stans and other disturbed celebrity cult followings (you will be seeing comments like ''you can torture me anytime Bible, step on my neck Kinn and other products of the sexual frustration of individuals in need of help).

Would not rewatch.

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I had to drop it because the story is absolute garbage

Like many, after watching Maid's revenge, I was very excited about this drama. The story is the worst story I have ever seen in a Chinese drama so far (and I have watched many). I will tell you some plot holes so big that if they were on the ground, they would become massive sink holes devouring entire skyscrapers. Whoever approved of this script was out of their mind.
SPOILERS AHEAD
1. Since Lin Xin Tong is a rich heiress, why does she continue to live in the same house as her murderous fiance and toxic ex friend after the ..10 times they openly tried to kill her? The plot could have made so much more sense if she went to stay with Qin Mo Yao or at least to a hotel, but no, she could sleep peacefully in her bed with 2 murderers (who also killed her father) next door.

2. Qin Mo Yao is not a man in love. He is a liar and stalker who then becomes obsessed with her and treats her as if she is stupid and mentally incapable of making even the most basic decisions. When Lin Xin Tong's fiance gives their names to a gang to kill them, Qin Mo Yao manages to ''pass their 3 trials'' that no one ever survived (we don't see how and have no idea what those trials are) and the death contract is dropped. Completely unrealistic and nonsensical.

3. Lin Xin Tong is probably one of the most annoying female characters ever, she alternates between confessing her love to Qin Mo Yao, then finding something he did and leaving him, then running to his house the minute she finds out he has some (minor) injury and behaves like a mentally unstable borderline person and not as someone who is genuinely in love in a healthy way. Whoever wrote this hot mess clearly does not know how people in love behave.

4. There is a lot of sexual harassment from Lin Xin Tong 's part (removing Qin Mo Yao's clothes while he is drunk and unconscious, forcing him to drink, demanding to touch his naked body when she was blind) and if a man did any of those things to a woman who is employed under him the show would have been cancelled. Very toxic and promotes problematic and sexually abusive behaviors that shouldn't be normalized.

The straw that broke the proverbial camel's back: the last 3 episodes I watched were an incoherent rambling about companies, shares and stocks written by someone who has no idea about any of these things. I almost died out of boredom and had to drop the show to save my sanity.

Rewatch value: zero. Just rewatch Maid's revenge instead.

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Biggest disappointment BL ever (from someone who has watched over 50)

STORY
I am a professional author and I have never seen a bigger trash non-sensical 0/10 story than this. Were they out of their minds when they approved of the script? You could pick a random person from the street and they would have written something better. Let me start by stating that the 2 main couples are extremely abusive relationships romanticized as ''true love''. Lian manipulates Kuea to live in his house, isolates him from his friends, doesn't take no for an answer and has a ton of very serious secrets (including owning all of the family fortune of his fiancé). If you have ever been in an abusive romantic relationship, you will be VERY triggered. Kuea feels that he cannot be himself around Lian and practically hides everything about himself, from what he really studies to the fact that he sings at a bar (another sign that the relationship is toxic). Kuea decides to break off the engagement and Lian doesn't take no for an answer. Excuse me? It takes 2 people to start an engagement and one person to end it, unless you are trapped with a controlling abuser. Extremely damaging concept for young, inexperienced audience. I expected to at least address the problematic aspects at some point of the story, but nope, nothing was really resolved.

The sexual dynamic reminds me a lot of a dead bedroom with one person (Lian) having a much higher sex drive than Kuea and constantly pressuring him for sex. At some point, Kuea asks him why does he have so much desire and Lian says ''because I have been waiting for so many years'' (according to the show, Lian (27) and Kuea (idk 19-20?) are both virgins). That is another sexually abusive mindset. Lian CHOSE to wait and that doesn't make him entitled to making sexual advances to Kuea every night because he has been waiting for too long. If your partner isn't ready/doesn't want to have sex, you either accept their wishes or you find a more suitable relationship in terms of libido. By far the most dangerous aspect is planting the idea to young minds that if someone says no, they don't really mean it and if you insist, they will eventually say yes and like it.

The other couple (Hia and Diao) is basically Lian-Kuea 2.0, with Diao often being terrified of Hia, who is controlling and also hiding that he works as a martial arts teacher. Kuea and Diao spend time worrying at Kuea's secret house because they don't know what to do with their terrible fiancés. The tiger concept is the most absurd nonsense I have ever seen in a BL and I won't analyze it, it exists for the sake of existing to unsuccessfully cover a plot hole.

Kuea has endless free time as an engineering student (we don't see him studying not even once) and Lian's business activities consist of tragic supposedly comical sketches with his secretary where he basically dumps all the work to the secretary or instantly decides on a very important topic. Poorly written is an understatement. Shows like Love By Chance depict student life much better.

The relationship between Lian and Kuea gives off strong, disturbing sugar daddy-sugar baby dynamics, with Lian always buying the most expensive, extravagant items for Kuea to impress him. They appear to have nothing in common and always seem to have to go eat somewhere or buy something because they need money to cover their incompatibility.

There were pornographic level sex scenes out of nowhere that aimed to create a shock factor or satisfy the audience with the over the top fan service and distract from the horrendous story. Unlike WRU where there was a built up in the feelings of Fighter and Tutor that lead to (modest compared to this show) scenes, in CutiePie they come off randomly. At some point Kuea directly and clearly touches Lian's genitals over his pants more than once (!). If I wanted to watch porn, I would go to the appropriate channels, BL is about romance and many of the viewers watching it are very young, it was excessive and did not match Kueas previous shy personality.

ACTING
Zee, who was outstanding at WRU, acts like a statue in a suit and fails to deliver the calm, collected, businessman persona. NuNew is.. well new and he tries his best but his expressions often fall flat and there is no convincing chemistry between them (the real life 10 year age gap doesn't help either). There are other actors in the show, but their interactions are so typical and boring that I won't write about them, you watch and forget in less than 24 hours. The secondary couple isn't much better.

MUSIC
NuNew's back must be hurting from carrying the entire show away from the terminal disaster with his singing. Very promising singer with a lot of potential.

REWATCH VALUE
If you have one day left to live, you can rewatch it and feel like you exist in that parallel poorly made universe for 40 years.

OVERALL
WHAT AN UTTER FIASKO! I give a 2/10 because I want to honor the effort of everyone involved, both in front and behind the camera. The trailer showed so much potential, it would have been great to see Kuea rebelling and embarking on a singing career, dating a classmate/someone close to his own age instead of being chained to an arranged marriage all of his life or sending Lian to therapy to address his childhood traumas that led to his controlling and insecure behaviors. The show pretends to care for the LGBTQ people by including hypocritical one-two line dialogues (an example is the fact that same sex marriage is not allowed in the country), while depicting ONLY TOXIC, ABUSIVE, POWERED IMBALANCED same sex relationships the entire time. Consent was also very blurry more often than not, but I won't write a novel here, if you have managed to read this far, you have my thanks.

MY CONCLUSION
I wasted my time. I am so triggered that I am going to start my own BL about vampires and elves. I am serious. If you are from Domundi reading this, please, for the love of God, FIRE THOSE TALENTLESS SCRIPT WRITERS AND FIND SOMEONE WHO CAN DO YOUR ACTORS JUSTICE!

Thanks for reading.

D.D.

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Like Vegas-Pete, but both leads are Vegas and they have no chemistry

I have complained repeatedly about the lack of consent and poisoning the audience with harmful ideas like ''I fall in love with my rapist'' (Kinn-Porsche) or ''I fall in love with someone abusive/cheating'' (Love Mechanics) etc. NEVER DID I EXPECT TO SEE A BL WHERE BOTH MALE LEADS ARE ENGAGING IN SEXTORTION, SEXUAL ABUSE AND DATE DRUGGING!

A NEW NEGATIVE RECORD!

The story could have been written by a poorly made artificial intelligence that spent one afternoon reading smut and another watching sappy Thai lakorn and then combined the 2.

EXTREMELY problematic parts:

1. Both men casually engage in sex with prostitutes and random women in back alleys, similar to stray cats in heat. Dehumanization and instrumentalisation of women, that a guy can just fuck and dump without even knowing their name, no care or mention of STDs, unwanted pregnancies etc. Normalization of prostitution and calling it ''womanizing'' when it is pure predatory behavior coming from 2 rich privileged men.

2. The 2 men in the story want the same woman and when Yai finds that the woman cancelled their meeting to have dinner with Mangkorn (the other guy), his idea to solve it is to lure Mangkorn in the bar, drug his drinks, rape him while he is unconscious and then send the tape to everyone to ruin his reputation. This is the biggest, most dangerous nonsense I have seen in a long time and it normalizes several crimes, from illegal drug purchase, to poisoning someone's drink, sexual assault, sextortion etc. Yai isn't a sexy, upset man, he is scum who should rot in jail for his ways.

3. Shockingly, Mangkorn knows the plan and instead of reacting like 99% of normal humans (call police, escape etc) he decides to rape Yai instead (!!), steal the file showing the rape and then blackmail Yai with it!
I feel nausea just from recalling this sick shit.

Somehow (no one knows exactly how), these pair of rapists/blackmailers fall in love (some of the time and then fight the rest of the time and the scenes end with random awkward sex).

Weren't these men supposed to be at least bisexual, since they were originally interested in the same woman? Heavy tendencies to promote the ancient ''gay for you only'' trope, although it happens extremely rarely in real life and it's insulting for queer people.

There are 2 bodyguards who have maybe 1 brain cell each, but I won't write about their unecessary, unrealistic comedic nonsense scenes.

I am on episode 6 and the episode has ZERO developments, more like 40 min of nonsense and 5 min of plot development.

The problems aren't real problems. Mangkorn is torn over taking a scholarship abroad and doesn't know what to do with Yai and we will see the first world drama unfold in the next episodes. The female characters are extremely forgettable and it's been 6 episodes and I still don't know their names.

I had great expectations from the trailer and I was expecting a dark, adult BL for once and I got a disappointing cheap knock off of Vegas-Pete full of cringe and nonsense and nothing is getting resolved.

AVOID.

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Forgettable too simple plot, pornographic sex scenes, non consent problems

The first 2 episodes are awful and present the usual problems so many BLs have with consent. If you are triggeretd by sexual harassment I would strongly recommend to NOT watch it. Pretty privilege is also very real, if the same things Payu did were done by an old, unattractive man, people would petition to ban the show, but because he is tall, young and handsome all of a sudden those things are forgiven. What things am I talking about? Rain said clearly and explicitly NO, many times and Payu did not stop. Payu presented several lame excuses such as ''you threw yourself at me'', ''you have to pay me for fixing your car'' (for the record Rain never asked him to fix it and even if he did, it was not his right to decide that he wants to be paid with sexual favors) and there are fetishistic elements as well, with Payu saying ''I bought you underwear and I can tell your size''. First of all, underwear size has to do with one's WAIST, not size of genitals and second, imagine an old, unattractive man saying ''I bought you underwear'' to someone who has told them no 100 times, how creepy would that be?

There is no smooth transition to the feelings of the protagonists. Rain goes from ''no, I don't want to do anything sexual with you'', to ''I am going to make you fall in love with me because you call me stupid'', to stalking and showing up at Payu's garage work place uninvited to being a pornstar saying ''I know that you like riding bikes but this is also riding '' (when he is on top of Payu in the pornographic scenes). Go figure.

Payu starts as a sexual predator who won't take no for an answer, to a paternal figure concerned about Rain's failing grades because he is too busy stalking Payu to make him fall in love, to a loving boyfriend? And all that within what? Weeks?

Has the author ever had an actual relationship or at least observe how feelings develop between humans, because last time I checked it DOES NOT happen this way.

The sex scenes exceed Cutie Pie when it comes to pornography and I never expected to write this and NOT in a good way, it is softcore porn at this point accompanied with porn dialogue and it doesn't match the shy, inexperienced personality that Rain is supposed to have.

I could write about the other couples but I won't because they are so bland and boring and it's amazing how I watched the latest episode a few days ago and already my memory is hazy and I have forgotten their interactions.

Overall the plot is too simple, the porn is too much, the character development makes no sense (or it doesn't exist) and the show again promotes several dangerous and wrong ideas and romanticizes sexual harassment, stalking, codependency, love addiction and a bunch of other cancerous behaviors.

The actors are good looking and their acting is decent and there has been monetary investment in the production and IT ALL GOES TO WASTE BECAUSE OF THE AWFUL STORYLINE!

HIRE A GODDAMN TALENTED WRITER AND FIND A DECENT SCRIPT! And less porn. A bl should be 80% plot-20 % kiss/sex scenes, if I wanted to watch porn dialogues/scenes with no plot, I know the right places to go.

One last note: I feel that BL (similar to porn) is escalating rapidly. Not long ago we watched Love by chance that had proper balance, then we moved on to CutiePie tongue kissing, now we have Rain bragging about his riding...what comes in a couple of years? Full frontal nudity and actual sex without any plot? Just wondering.

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One of the most awful dystopian movies I have ever watched (and I am a huge fan of dystopian genre)

Do you remember those dumb kids in your school that were outcasts and wanted to fit in so badly that they overtried to do ''cool'' things to impress, but because they had no actual concept of what cool is, they ended up embarrassing themselves and becoming cringe instead?

Well, this is what this fourth rate movie in a nutshell. The concept of death/survival games can easily be impressive and captivating, but because whoever directed this wanted to be cool, it ended up falling flat and insanely over the top. There is an attractive Asian female lead (Irene) who has sex with random people of both genders without being a prostitute, without an agenda and without having feelings for any of them. The whole purpose of those sex scenes is to distract from plot holes so big that would make the movie unwatchable otherwise. The characters are not convincing, their motives make no sense, the ''rich'' that supposedly organize the games are not to be found anywhere.

You would expect since this is a death game for money to have scenes with some kind of ''Elites'' (like in Squid game), but no, we see the same poorly made surroundings and overall ''coolness'' that makes the whole thing unwatchable.

I could write more but I don't want to waste my time or yours, this is a trashy movie and I don't use the word trash easily.

100% WOULD NOT RECOMMEND.

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Started great, becomes annoying, no real curse/mystery

When I saw the trailer, I was hoping for something like the Netflix Thai series Stranded with paranormal phenomena involved. Well, that DID not happen, the curse is caused by human hand to manipulate people into following the strict rules of the school. That was the first big disappointment. The show should not have been misrepresented as paranormal in the trailer if it wasn't.

The chemistry between Akk and Aye that starts off as amazing impressed me and I was thinking this one as the best BL of the year. Than some things really ruined the moment for me.

1. The first kiss between them was presented as real originally and then we find out that Akk imagined it. Big turn off.

2. The second kiss was when Aye confesses his feelings to Akk who cannot say what he feels and the confession falls flat. Another big turn off.

I continue watching the series, but so far I am on episode 7 and there is no real development in their relationship, no real development in any other character besides a repetition of what they have already been doing with very minor changes and the only important information is what I mentioned first, that the curse has been fake.

There is clearly a problem with pacing, maybe they do it to feel up the episodes? I am not sure. In general, my biggest problem is with Akk, I have really come to dislike his character because he talks to him self wondering why does he like Ayan (so he IS aware of his feelings) yet keeps rejecting him like a prude or homophobe. It makes no sense, since Ayan never asked him to be openly gay and so far it has ruined all the romantic moments. I hate anxious avoidant characters.

I said that in another forum and people disagreed with me, but this review is just my opinion. Overall it's kinda claustrophobic (90% of things happens in the same building) and too slow and the main character needs to make up his damn mind, if this was real life Ayan would have written him off as a loser long ago.

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Great idea poorly executed that dragged on for way too long

This is a BL that had the potential to keep people hooked and be breath taking IF it was 6 episodes instead of 12. The original story idea of parallel universes was unusual and great and the director managed to give a continuous atmosphere in the show that I have not seen in any BL, the closest I can describe to is the anime Noragami (if you are into anime you will get the reference).
The protagonists are good looking and their acting and chemistry is above average. The reasons why I lowered the rate:

1. There are way too many filler scenes between the friends and the protagonists that I ended up having to skip that offered ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to the plot except filling up episode time. I skipped them and didn't miss any information.

2. Completely unrealistic professional setting and people pretending to work on a movie that was so detached from reality that ended up annoying. I understand that it's not the focus of a romance show, but still, every episode was them working for 5 min and then a 20 min scene of celebrating their progress at the park/ bon fire/bar etc. Lame.

3. There should have been more explanation/back story to the travelling between universes, it started well with the support group and then it got abruptly dropped/minimized.

4. They had a chance to show the other people who travelled in the universe and their decisions but it was all focused on the original couple and their unnecessary scenes with friends.

You can have a good time watching it as long as you have the skip button ready to avoid the nonsense.

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Dollar store Vegas-Pete

Aren't they embarrassed to air this while KP was airing?

I wrote a review about Kinn-Porsche saying that it was basically fetish porn disguised as mafia drama and it was not up to my standards. Well, this one is also disguised (unsuccessfully) as mafia drama, the fetish part was clearly written/executed by someone who knows nothing about BDSM and there was exactly ZERO chemistry between the super toxic (as usual) relationship between the protagonists.

Basically if you have watched 50 shades of Grey prepare yourself for something like that, but worse.

So the main character consists of Kim, a guy who was rejected by someone he was in love with and decided to have a one night stand with Kamol (the mafia boss), without knowing who he is. Afterwards, Kamol becomes obsessed with Kim, declares him the person he has always been searching for and basically acts like Vegas acted with Pete. The problem is that there is NOTHING about Kim that would explain Kamol's obsession.

Unlike KP (especially the novel), that progressively shows multiple rare qualities in Pete (empathetic, good looking, intelligent, loyal, good fighter etc), Kim is the most boring, annoying and avoidant person possible, who treats Kamol like shit most of the time and is clearly not attracted to him. There is zero chemistry between them and after enduring 5 episodes, it's time for me to throw in the towel, because this nonsense isn't getting any better.

Kamol in return, acts like an abuser and stalker who practically forces Kim to live with him. As if all that wasn't enough, there is an annoying, bitchy and unprofessional female ''rival'', who wants Kamol for herself.

To the loser authors: in order for someone to be an interesting rival, there has/had to be something going between them and their love interest. Kamol never wanted this woman and she justs end up acting delusional and repulsive and adds nothing to the plot.

The soundtrack is also so awful, that I had to mute it at times and I have never done this before, although I have watched many BLs.

Don't even bother with this nonsense drama.

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Offensive to the LGBTQ community & adult children of narcissistic parents

Finally a series with a story that had GREAT potential to discuss many important matters for society (coming out, parenthood, personality disorders, infidelity, surrogacy etc), but instead the producers and writers chose the most heteronormative, safe, poorly executed approach possible, that is actually OFFENSIVE and perpetuates several damaging stereotypes. Let's analyze this one by one (spoilers ahead).

First of all, Chon in the beginning acts like a mentally unhealthy fanboy and stalker and exhibits several disturbing behaviors that are being romanticized as ''star crossed lovers''. Stalking a guy who has been no contact with you for 5 years all the time in social media? Going to his family's empty house to clean it like it's some kind of museum and fantasize? Choosing a university not based on what will give you the best education or what you want to study but because Ton goes there? Are you serious? This behavior is ''cute'' and ''funny''? This is codependency, love addiction and maladaptive daydreaming (feel free to google those terms if you don't know what they mean). Chon doesn't need to date Ton, he needs mental help from a psychiatrist.

Ton's character is an immature loser and has multiple personalities during the series. At first he is very homophobic and I thought that they will use that to discuss how some people who grow up in homophobic families end up suppressing being gay. Nope, after that Ton has said several times that ''he loved only Chon'' meaning he is not gay and just ''happened to be in love with this specific man''. The ''I am straight but became gay for you'' trope is an extremely damaging concept and should not be perpetuated. As if this wasn't enough, he ends up triangulating Chon with his toxic ex gf (episode where she challenges him with her manipulation and he ends up kissing her in the classmate reunion breaking Chon's heart). It is clear that he still hasn't gotten over the infidelity/break up or isn't ready to deal with the challenges that comes from being out as dating another man and he shouldn't be dating anyone until he works on those issues first. He does apologize, but then toxic behaviors continue and nothing gets resolved. He should have gone to the police for his stalker ex gf instead of tolerating her harassment.

Ton's narcissistic father in the show was actually a very well portrayed character and the actor did a good job portraying a self-obsessed old narcissist using everything he has to control his family. His heart condition is weaponized (don't go against me or I will have an episode and end up in hospital), his monetary support is weaponized (stop dating Chon or I will stop paying your rent and kick the gay people out of the rental house) and he feels entitled to dictate the life of his grown up children, not based on their own best interest, but on what serves HIM (I want a grand child and you will stop being gay).

Here is the true disaster that made a series that could have been a 10/10 into a 1/10 in my opinion:

After the narcissist father found out and all hell broke loose, the healthy solution would be to have a civilized (as possible) conversation with him and Ton to assert healthy boundaries as GROWN ADULT MAN. To say to his father ''I love and respect you and I am grateful for what you did for me, but this is who I am and the choice of the partner I have made, if you don't agree with that, I will respect it and we will move out of the rental house and get jobs to not burden you. If in the future we feel ready to be parents, we will examine carefully all the available options. We will give you the time and space to think things through, but we will not put up with abuse/harassment and insults. You will not insult or harass Chon, my friends or anyone else''. Then his father would have to be toxic (because that's how narcissists are, they don't accept your boundaries) and there would have to be a period of no contact.

The surrogacy idea was atrociously executed. Children are not instruments to please a parent with outdated ideas so that you can bypass parental homophobia. It would have been much more proper if they showed Ton and Chon years later, financially independent and choosing a surrogate because THEY want to become parents, not because Ton's out of control narcissistic father acts like an overgrown toddler (I WANT A GRANDCHILD NOW, NOW, NOW GIVE IT TO ME OR ELSE I WILL ABUSE YOU!).

Personally I would have preferred it if they ADOPTED a child or chose to be childfree all together instead of making a random greedy gold digger girl the surrogate because they needed a bio-child, but I respect that some people want bio-kids and surrogacy done ethically is one of the choices. Still, choosing surrogacy should have been something the couple wants, not something done in a ''here is your grand child, we can go have our forbidden gay romance in peace now''.

Overall the show relied on cheap sentimentality and enabled/perpetuated several damaging ideas in society.

Biggest waste of potential. Would not rewatch.

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