Amore (2020)

Not so much bad as unbelievably boring.

EDIT: Do not be tricked by the fake 10/10 ratings. The show is awful and is too huge an investment of time to slog through.

The story setup is not innovative, but it is at least fertile ground for development. Unfortunately, the glacial pace of that development and the ridiculously boring characters does not exploit this opportunity. First, it seems clear to me that Wil was intended to be the villain, but because viewers inexplicably loved him so much, the producers reversed themselves and made him good, which drained the show of all interest and drama as there is no antagonist.

Second, the best actor, who plays the unstable psycho Nuan, is wasted playing an unstable psycho - which should be interesting, except his instability is too stable and never develops or goes anywhere. But at least you feel something when he's on screen. The actor playing Jimmy is good too, but it takes a long time to get over what a dick his character is at the beginning - they laid it on too hard and so the audience misunderstood that he wasn't the villain, Wil was (well, supposed to be).

The acting overall is fairly good, although nobody is really given much material to work with. Some of the acting is cringeworthy, but to their credit, a lot of the inexperienced actors showed improvement as the series wore on. And on.

Third, it's almost comical that every single male character (and all their family members. I am not joking) in the show is hot for the supernaturally average Joey, when Nuan and Jimmy are like, right there.

I can't rate the plot because there isn't one. I'm not joking.

There is a houseplant that has more scenes than most of the main characters. Still not joking. It is also in more conversations than most of the main characters. It is also more interesting than most of the main characters, and a better conversationalist. There is more chemistry between the houseplant and both Joey and Wil than they have with each other. The chemistry between Joey and Wil is so non-existent that when they touch it feels like the actors are sexually harassing each other.

The music is bad. If the music is not noticeable it's at least doing it's job, which would earn it a five. But there is one bar of music that is run over an over again to the point that you want to poke out your eardrums so you don't ever have to hear it again.

The production values are unacceptably bad - like a child with an iPhone could have done a better job of filming this. The camerawork was terrible, the sound was worse, and the editor is clearly a sadist.

As for rewatch value, I doubt even the most ardent JoWil enthusiast has ever rewatched a scene. Maybe the one in the bathroom where they're both in towels. Wil looks pretty good in a towel, so some people might want to see that again. If you held a gun to my head, I'd probably prefer a bullet to watching this again.

Overall rating: Worse than COVID, not as bad as the Holocaust.

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Disappointed

Amore was a really good story. Different and interesting. BL with some intrigue.
The cast was really good.. inclusive and quirky.
Things started stumbling in the 20s episodes. The stories got confused or suddenly abandoned. Waited forever for the finale and it was a shame. Not in the way that you feel when a story doesn't end the way you envisioned it, but instead ended in a ridiculously thrown together wrap up. It didn't even continue from the episode before it nor did it contain anything from the teaser at the end of that episode. I won't put specific spoilers but watch through episode 26 and then come up with your own ending.

My heart goes out to the actors who put a lot into Amore and to the fans, like me that stayed loyal for those 26 episodes. I won't trust my time to this production company again.

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