Hit Bite Love (2023)

Have you ever watched a show that made you feel like you are a dirty pedophile? If not, and if you are looking for one, then this one is for you!

Before anything, lets talk about the good things:
1.Newyear and Jur's King and Burger. Newyear somehow reminded me of a young Ohm and Jur's obvious over acting is endearing. I think the series will have a more positive reaction had they made them the focus of this show.
2. Is there a number 2?

Truth be told, I cant tell how anyone behind the show thought this was a good idea. This series is so reminiscent of the director's past works- Make it Right and What the Duck, but it seems like they never learned their lesson and instead amplified what people hated from those shows. Now lets talk about the not so good things:
1. The story. Cramming so many things within a 6 episode show is just too much, plus you really cant tell what the show is about. Is it a love series? Is it a murder mystery series?
2. Just like Love Sick 2, they managed to add another 2 of the most annoying characters ever on a tv show. There's no need to explain why Bookko's teacher is so despicable. And there's Mint's Pakaiwan. Also, special honorable mention to Ning's Pimtha, because
3. I really dont understand why some showrunners are so intent on making girls the villains in a boy-love series. Adding hate-able female characters doesnt automatically make viewers accept boy-love, if anything, its just lazy writing.
4. Speaking of lazy writing- this one seems like a mash up of a few other shows but is much more poorly executed. It is quite obvious that Burger King's story is derivative of Kieta Hatsukoi and there's an abvious attempt to make this into an Agatha Christie show.
5. I mentioned earlier that this show can make you feel like a dirty pedophile - the short shorts (it somehow felt like shorter shorts from Make it Right) is just too much and way too distracting. There was also quite a lot of disturbing shirtless scenes. I remember i was cringing during that scene when King removed his shirt and is trying to strip Burger - they obviously doesnt have what it takes to do that mature scene (they look like naked 10 year olds with those tiny bodies) but to force it does not look sexy, at all.
6. Bigboss' permanently constipated puppy sad look face. No matter what scene he is in, its the same sad face.
7. If they're planning season 2, which we all know is coming despite all the company's drama, I sincerely hoped they kept Pakaiwan dead because we dont need to see her anynore.

What's sad is there are hints that this could be a much better show. Overall, if you lower your expectations, it is still watchable and because of Burger and King i will give it a 6 (and also because i hate giving lower than that). Skip if you can only watch a few shows a week and save your viewing time for something much better.

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Disastrous

There's only so much you can stuff into a 6-ep series. Unfortunately, everything stuffed into this is awful.

The first question is, what genre is this? It was marketed as a BL, and most of the couples in this involve two boys, although only one is just two boys. The other two are everyone's favorite thing, love triangles.

Or is is a murder mystery? Maybe, except the dead body at the beginning is not the same body as turns out to be the case, nor at the same level of deceasedness. Which makes me wonder if Thai emergency services frequently transport live people in body bags. If so, I hope they remember to poke air holes in them.

Or is it about a rivalry between two bitchy girls? On the surface, no, that's not what it is, but that leads us to wonder why almost the entire runtime of this series is consumed by two almost supernaturally unpleasant people who I'm sure almost the entire audience wishes were not in the series at all.

The all-male love triangle involves a boy who's into BDSM, which is handled with the usual BL sensitivity, i.e. none at all, portraying it as deviant and possibly evil - certainly PTSD-inducing, and instead of his partner finding a way to accommodate his tastes, BDSM-boy is forced to give it up in the name of True Love, which can never include "deviant" behavior in BL. There's actually a scene where non-BDSM boy wants to break up because he realized that BDSM-boy has a slight preference for being a dom over a sub, and so he feels that he is horrendously depriving him of pleasure. Seriously, that's the conversation. Then he goes on to describe how flicking him with a toy whip makes him feel like he's inflicting violence on someone he loves. Sigh.

The love triangle with the girl involves a self-indentifed slut (who had sex with a grand total of one person, so what is the message here? ) and two step-brothers. Another favorite theme of BL audiences. Let's combine cheating, an evil female, and incest into one storyline - yay? I don't actually mind step-brother stories, but I know that a large part of the audience does mind, a larger part of the audience doesn't like cheating, and almost the entire audience doesn't like stories to be chewed up by evil girlfriends.

The only reasonably uncomplicated storyline is between Burger & King (get it?), and it is cute largely because the two boys are adorable. It's certainly not because of their acting ability or the amount of time spent on their story.

Which brings us to the topic of acting. I don't want to be too critical, because these are all beginners and they were clearly doing their best, but each of them only has one facial expression and it's not really enough. Maybe if they had two each it would have worked better. Non-BDSM-boy has kicked-puppy face, King has "did I live the iron on?" face, Evil Girl #2 has "what is that smell?", etc. There are one or two experienced actors in this (like Art, as beautiful as ever, but he has at most 60 seconds of screentime).

Worse, there is, again, an awful trans character who is loud, ridiculous, and an awful person, because Thail BL is unable to conceive of anything but "straight" people as being "good" and "normal". That's improved a decent amount in BL in general, but that progress hasn't reached this catastrophe of a series.

Perhaps worst of all, it doesn't end. None of the relationships get anywhere, and even though we know whodunnit, that story isn't resolved either. Couldn't they at least have left it as a mystery if they were going to end on a cliffhanger? What possible motivation do I have to continue watching this into the next season?

This series is a ripoff of the Spanish show Elite, which is far better. A central problem with Hit Bite Love is that it's set in high school (because that's a BL law or something) and it's themes are adult. Because of this, and because most of the actors are underage, the series is crippled by conservative Thai morality and so the story can never dig its teeth into any of its themes. This is so serious an issue that even when boys are at the swimming pool, if there's any romantic connection between them, their torsos are wrapped in big towels, as if having two boys who like each other shirtless is Crossing the Line.

Other than the cuteness factor of BurgerKing and Art being on my screen, the only positive quality is the background music, which is better than usual, and actually supports the story, such as it is. Although the theme song has so much autotune I assumed it was on purpose - although it does sound like a malfunctining robot and I'm not sure why you would want that.

I would skip this. If you had to decide between this and watching, say, Gen Y 2, then I would probably just kill myself. But Hit Bite Love is a lot shorter, so more of your brain might survive if you were to choose it.

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Wowza

I kind of knew going into this, it was going to be way below mediocre, but Hotdog, was this a trash fire of bad acting, an even worse script, and a god-awful theme song (I mean seriously who in production allowed that??) Hit Bite Love is terrible, which is the main reason why I watched it cause sometimes I need to not think and just watch.

Let's Dive In.

There's not much to say. This series is horrible in all aspects, and if you're wanting to watch, watch it specifically because you want to watch garbage, because you want to have a good laugh, because you need background sound while doing homework, etc. Anything but actually take this series seriously.

I didn't realize how young some of the actors are. Especially with the subject of BDSM which plays a part in all relationships. Talking about BDSM, it's so laughable in this, but quite honestly, it utilizes BDSM more than I've seen other series involving BDSM do. It's cringey, it's very awkwardly quiet (even the music doesn't help), and I skipped most of it by the end.

The only couple I decently liked was King and Burger. I think they could've had a really cute series had it just been the two of them, a proper plot, and a longer runtime. They were giving me MSP vibes that I was kind of digging, but whoever was behind the script completely obliterates their cute little rom-com romance.

Ratings:

Story; 3/10 - the plot is cheap writing and even worse storytelling. Everything's a bit rushed, and there's so much happening (murder mystery..?) that it hurts my brain. I'll give the only two stars I feel like giving to King and Burger's plot. The other star is because it's so bad that it's almost entertaining.

Acting: 5/10 - The acting is bad, but it's not the worse aspect of this series, so it's not unwatchable. Jur (Burger) and Vic (Hida) actually seem to have some potential, they just need a better crew to back them up.

Music: 1/10 - Who the fuck green-lighted that theme song? They sound so excruciatingly terrible that I kind of wanted to cry for the boys that sang it. Cause now it's out for the world to hear and years later, if any of these actors are to grow in popularity, they will be made fun of for it until they die. I know they're already probably regretting it.

Recommendation Value: 1/10 - Again, watch for fun, turn your brain off, and have a good laugh. But don't watch for any reason other than that.

I think they teased a season 2??? Really??

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a mess (and not the good kind)

Overall: my concerns about the official poster where one character is mooning his classmates, how the company posted about the legal age of consent on their official facebook page and the fact that there are several actors under the age of 18 were a harbinger of things to come. The writers didn't know what they wanted this show to be (sweet romcom, dark mystery, spicy nsfw or realistic/educational), lack of a clear tone along with the other flaws has made me drop this after watching 4 episodes. 6 episodes airing on YouTube (Jinloe Official channel). 

Content Warnings: death, sexual assault, non con touching that turned consensual, non con kiss, blackmail, sex shaming, manipulation, unwanted public outing, note: brothers?/step brothers? eventual romantic relationship?

What I Liked
- the friendship between King and Shokun
- I'm happy that Shokun decided to break up with Ken as this isn't shown that much, but unfortunately he went from the frying pan and into the fire
- a couple funny and cute moments (what was that with the drawing haha)
- parts of NSFW that were more realistic like grinding and using hands and um, mouths in a certain location *cough cough*
- appreciate that they tried some BDSM education but it was preachy and they missed some really fundamental parts*
- King's mom helping King to have safe sex by purchasing supplies and putting them in his backpack (although sending them to school seems...odd)

Room For Improvement
- *a foundation for BDSM is safe, sane and consensual, the writers have ignored the consensual part and made Matteo manipulate/blackmail Shogun into being his play partner, I'm sure they are going to catch feelings and all will be well blegh. Also, how do they not have safe words/signs, that's like 101. Plus I'm annoyed that they used real handcuffs but did not have a tool to cut them apart in the emergency kit Matteo talked about.
- ep 4, I do not want Burger and King to be together. It takes a special breed of a**hole to use a document someone gave you to convince you to like/date them and then burn them with candle wax and use their severe dislike of spicy food to get them not to like you (because I guess saying "I don't like you, please stop" was too difficult). Burger even laughed while he was hurting King. 
- ep 4, Matteo should not have talked about wanting to be dom at that time because Shokun was extremely vulnerable and grateful and would likely say yes, when in a different frame of mind he would have said no
- the constant short shorts and then Burger and King taking their shirts off, I'm not interested in fanservice sexualizing minors
- ep 1, the super serious intro followed by a peppy intro (but it included BDSM supplies) was bizarre, not sure if they think it's funny but the police station scenes are not funny at all to me
- confusing start/choppy because they didn't subtitle the transition slides that I assume said how much time had passed/day of the week, I wasn't sure if those first two scenes in ep 1 were flashbacks or flash forwards
- too many characters/couples for 6 episodes, the brothers/step brothers didn't appear in the first episode and then in episode 3 a different couple was absent, then in episode 4 the brothers/step brothers were again absent
- choppy, they'll have a scene and then suddenly be somewhere else or even it seems there is a time jump, I was confused in episode 2 that it was a flashback. Apparently there is a paid uncut version that is less choppy but I'm reviewing the free version on YouTube.
- shaking the camera when she appeared in episode 2 to insinuate that she is overweight was terrible and again not funny
- I really wish all the actors were at least 18 (more on this below)
- that they made a trans woman an antagonist
- the very obvious product placement
- the nurse saying she'll talk to the school, aren't there health privacy laws in Thailand? I understand needing to talk to the parents if minors are involved, although if someone is bleeding heavily do you still need permission to stop the bleeding?

Character/Actor Ages with NSFW Content
I consider myself a sex positive person and in the real world I'm fine with teens having sex as long as it's consensual and not unethical/illegal (i.e. student/teacher, using manipulation etc). So I don't have a problem with fictional teens engaging in NSFW.

However, I want the actors to be at least 18 for several reasons (this applies to any gender or sexual orientation). I think they are more mature and able to handle the pros and cons of starring in NSFW content. They are less dependent on their parents financially or legally. Here are the actors' ages:
Burger/King: Newyear (15), Vasin (17)
Matteo /Ken/Shokun: Alan (20), BigBoss (18/19), Pure (19)
Heda/Saint: Vic (17), Tae (19) 

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So bad, in so many ways

Some series are bad because of a weak story. Some are bad because they try to tell the story of multiple couples, shifting uncomfortably from one couple to another. Some are bad because of haphazard editing despite a story that is ok. Some are bad because they are exploitative. Some are bad because of an uneven tone. Some are bad because they pretend to deal with interesting themes only to disappoint. Rarely do we get a series that is bad in all these ways. But Hit Bite Love is one of those rare gems that is bad in all these ways and probably more.

There are three sets of main characters, and although the characters are all schoolmates, the drift from one set of characters to another is tiring. There are some hints every now and then at a major event that happens later in the story, but they are barely enough to sustain interest. In fact, viewers might even wonder if they are random scenes (the characters being interviewed by police officers) that represent their state of mind.

Perhaps one could give the series credit for daring to cover themes like BDSM and teenage sex, but there is a difference between sensitively dealing with such themes and using them as excuses to sexualize teenagers. The actors are very young (some below eighteen) and the characters are even younger. Yet, the seems to be no hesitation in bringing in gratuitous scenes of sex and bare skin. Even the most innocent and youngest couple, Burger and King, was given a bed scene with some suggestion of penetrative sex--while the characters do not have sex, someone seems to have found it appropriate to let King's mother be mistaken and show what is going on in her imagination.

The series could have dealt seriously with some themes, but it did not. There could have been a sensitive portrayal of Ken's predicament when he has to decide between coming out of the closet because of his boyfriend, Shogun, and remaining in the closet because of homophobia in the society. Unfortunately, the characterization is all over the place. He is selfish and sometimes seems to only want sex from Shogun. And for someone who is afraid that people will find out that he is gay (or is he??), he seems to be uncannily daring in trying to make out with Shogun in places when his schoolmates can suddenly appear. What's even worse is that at first he seems to be dating a girl to cover up his homosexuality, but later it is shown that he has not only have had sex with that girl but another girl as well. So perhaps he is bisexual or whatever--I don't think it really matters. Everything is just not very coherent, and it is thus too difficult to sympathize with this character or to see any important point being made about the difficulty of coming out in a homophobic society.

Then someone also decided that it was appropriate to throw in some BDSM into the story. It would still be fine if the point were simply that BDSM is just a sort of fetish that some adults engage in consensually. It's not something that everyone is into, but I am fine if some people enjoy it. However, the story goes out of its way to emphasize that the characters involved are considered too young for it and yet ALSO present them engaging in BDSM in scenes that can be considered sexploitation. And did I mention that Shogun is basically pressured by Matteo into engaging in BDSM in exchange for securing budget for the music club? I can't be convinced that Matteo really loves Shogun after this, but that's what the series tries to persuade us of anyway.

The only saving grace in the series is Burger and King, but guess what? There is an uncanny similarity between Burger and King's story and the Japanese BL series, My Love Mix-Up. And even then, the copying isn't that well done.

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Young actors but mature themes

Warning: Although this is a BL with young actors, this drama contains mature themes such as manipulation, (attempted) suicide, and sex/BDSM/sexual preferences.

This 6-episode drama centers around 9 high schoolers and their struggles with friendships, relationships, sexual identities, social norms, and acceptance/self-acceptance. That's a lot to put into 6 episodes, but I think that it was done rather effectively. It's a shame that they left out some of the deleted scenes, as they would have fleshed out the story a little better. However, the story we are given is fairly representative of the secrets that people keep (including but not necessarily teenagers) in order to protect themselves and those they love or cherish. These secrets may or may not include various lifestyles/preferences and acts of violence/harm that are shown in this drama.

The main actors in this drama were obviously rookie actors, but their lack of experience didn't prevent them from showcasing their potential for future roles. The story had a lot of characters, but they were all tied together in various ways, so it made sense to me to see that many people. Navigating the day-to-day cast of characters in real life is no different than what was shown here, especially in a school or work setting. That being said, this is still a drama, and a lot of the situations were done in dramatic fashion. But the actions and emotions of the cast were appropriate for the roles they played.

I, for one, enjoyed this drama and I am looking forward to season 2.

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love triangle, trigger warnings all round, just a mess of a "show"

A Make It Right meets Degrassi Jr BL short form soap opera with no real ending, featuring chaos boys, chaos script, chaos everything. I would like it known that my sexual identity is chili henceforth. (My pronouns are MaxTul & sometimes Phi.) Look, this is an absurd show. We got BDSM 101, a lesson on how to use a condom properly AND and example of why the closet is both necessary and damaging? I mean I applaud their educational endeavors but BL: The After School Special? Really, that’s what we signed up for? In the end a total mess (they too young to call it a hot mess). I don’t know what it was and neither did it.

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Worth the time

This is the first time I am writing a review, because the ones chosen to be highlighted are really amateurish. I have seen tons of shows, movies from all over the world and have been binged on BLs for last few months to the point I have been caught up with everything done in last 4yrs. So is hard to be surprised, and this show managed to keep me entertained and very sorry it only has 6 episodes. I need second season soon, please.
While it has a lot of things to improve on, the story is somewhat fresh for Thai BLs, it moves fast and the characters are charismatic. You feel for them, and after the many school BLs over the last few years - one more unrealistic than the other - it comes as a surprise.
Give it a try, it is worth it.

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No doubt about it- this series is a hot mess. Yet I was still entertained

Okay, let me start off by saying- I understand why a lot of people don't like this series. Heck, after I watched episode 5, I honestly didn't know what the bejeezus that was. But the last episode- it swayed my mind a bit. Let me also say that I am not saying that this series is one of the best out there (because, it's not). But it was able to keep my attention for the majority of the episodes unlike another series where so far 2 out of 18 was able to keep my attention (cough cough- HIStory5- cough cough).

Story- 6/10
Here's the thing- the story is a hot mess. We have 6 episodes to explore three 'couples'. Couples are in quotations because one of them- Matteo and Shokun- are basically the only couple in this whole series. Although I still don't know how long they would last as Matteo just basically gave up a big part of him (BDSM) for his love for Shokun.

We know that King likes Burger as more than friends but Burger likes King as only friends. I honestly don't know what thier end result because of how choppy the final episode was as it was not the uncut version.

Saint and Hida (the step brothers) didn't even really developed as Saint is still with his girlfriend Fern at the end. So...yeah. And Fern and Saint's storyline is just....yeah.

And then Ken and Pimtha...they're just there to be annoying and evil, I guess?

The series is confusing because a lot of people would think that it's a BL- which somehow turned into a mystery (giving off Riverdale Season 1 or PLL vibes). But this is not the case as I did see this statement if it was not in the 0 episode , it was on Reddit that stated that this series is NOT a BL series, but an LGBT+ production...with morecreal life coming of age and sexual exploration story line, and more in a social portray way. With the intention of educating the Thai society about such issues, and of re-opening the debate on sexual education and understanding that started years ago with HORMONES The Series in 2013-2015. Was this executed properly to show this? Honestly, I don't think so. But the mustery part, which I wasn't even invested in when I started this series, is the only reason why I am giving this hot mess of a storyline a 6.

Acting/ Cast-7/10
You know what? I may be in the minority but I found the main actors acting was actually passable for this being thier first roles. So, because of that, I will give them a 7.

Music-7.5/10
While the misic is sounding like a lot of auto-tune was used, I still found it cute and catchy. At the beginning from episodes 2 to 6, I would have actually hummed along with it. As such, I'm giving it a 7.5.

Rewatch Valu- 6/10
Let's be real. It is choppy if you are watching this series and don't have access to the uncut version. The storyline does not flow properly and it has left people hella confused. But all in all, what I was able to understand is what will make me give this a 6.

Overall-6.5/10
Overall I give this series a 6.5. I really won't recommend this series to anyone because as I have stated, it is choppy and does not flow properly which can be peet peeves for people. Also, they might be very dissapointed thinking that it's a BL series and that if not all the majority of the 'couples' end up together. When in fact only one does.

Will I be one of the few to actually want to watch a season 2? Shockingly- yes. I'm not that eager to see it but I do want to see how the story unfolds for the majority of the characters as we the viewers are just left hanging qithout any answers.

P.S.- if they want to continue with this murder mystery tag and want another victim- I day off the teacher/ principal. I don't need that kind of negativity in a series.

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I actually liked it. However...

Okay, I guess I'm the odd man out. Despite its many flaws, I enjoyed it. Here are my pros and cons:

PROS

DIFFERENT. They actually went there, exploring BDSM with young guys. It happens, folks. And, while many viewers were horrified by the young ages of the actors, let's remember that BurgerKing was just a cute little non-story, and SaintHida just involved a crush of one kid on his non-blood related stepbrother. It was all quite vanilla, there was nothing sordid involved with any of them. The BDSM triangle involved only the older actors, and even that wasn't particularly explicit.

ACTING. Okay, they weren't all good. But some were. The two nasty girlfriends did a great job, Art was a welcome addition, the veteran actors were good, and the boys did pretty well for being rookies. The awful trans teacher made us all hate her, so kudos to her!

CONS

STORY. That was the most convoluted mess I've seen in a long time. None of the couples had any connection with each other, other than being friends on some level, I guess. And who died?

ENDING. Big points off for ending with a "To be continued." We all know that many promises of a Season 2 never happen in BL (My Engineer, etc.), and it's unlikely that this series will get the 1 million supporters to make it happen. And we're left with nothing but questions. Unacceptable and shame on the producers.

I'm giving it a 6.5.

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OOF GOSHH...

Very honestly speaking, this show was confusing as hell! I was very intrigued at first but then the story got so confusing, it had several different levels going all together it was as if I skipped scenes like I missed some episodes?? And for sure if this story were mainly focused on King and Burger I would have enjoyed it more, as well as I thought the starting bit of the story of similar to My Love Mix Up (Keita Hatsukoi), though I could still bear that, but.. there was stuff like bdsm so if u don't like that PLS DONT WATCH, also I was confused with the genre, I could not tell if it was a bl or a straight up murder mystery at one point (which, unfortunately, was badly made) I hope season 2 will be better 😅😅

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HEAR ME OUT...

Ok, hear me out, the story itself was good, I found myself enjoying the show. And I can understand some feeling icky while watching it cause fo their age (tbh, burger and king is the only underage actors here, but they dont show any kisses, nor act lustfull. Theres only 1 scene that shows them having sex, but thats only the imagination of one of the mother. Im not saying that justify how they portray sex scenes with ther age, cause I know thats hella weird, Im just saying that the show doesnt glorify sexual content nor it actively show a bunch of kid having sex) However, if you disregard their age and actually enjoy the story itself, it's not that bad. If you want to know if its really that bad of a show, I must encourage you to watch it yourself. I found myself to not hate the show. but again, maybe because I'm still underage myself and I don't subconscious romanticize sex cause Im aroace.

Pros:
Its light, cute and the cinematography is kind of pastel.

It discusses about BDSM in a way that is not glorified nor vilified. Its insinuated and act it, but everytime they do it, it leads to a conversation of how they can do it once they're age appropriate.

There's 2 couple dinamix here, 1st is between Burger and Kind, their side of story is cute, in their own, the show could be fluff, they constantly communicate and if theres misunderstanding, they talk it out constantly. They didn't have a kiss (but they had a scene of having sex, but they didnt actually have sex,it was just the motheres imagination like I talked about) which i quite like, cause they're still underage. The second is between Matteo and Shogun. Their story is also cute, but much more matured to the point that they discusses BDSM. Like the first one, they constantly communicate. I specially liked the ending part, Matteo is willing to forfeit BDSM just because he loves Gun more that BDSM. They dont promote BDSM just to be clear, not they villainies it. They were constantly told that they need to be 20+to have such an act. Which I quite like.

The basketball and the girl form the bathroom. I stan them. They weren't homophobic at all, the discussion between the basletball guys were sweet, like how being gay doesnt affect how they perceived them, they acknowledge how it's not that different to be gay to being straight. And the girl. I want to return the crown you dropped, she slayed that homophobic girl so hard.

The characters are nicely introduce, to the poitn that it feels that each episode, they had the time to shine. At first, it feels as if their story to each other aren't connected, but as we go on the show, we were introduced to how theyre interconnected.

There's no cringy moments and it doesn't have any stereotypes about gay couples.

Homophobia and discussion about homophobia is nice to have.

The story is fluff on itself, but with the Murder mystery typa mix.

Cons:
They could've not incorporated the murder mystery, and the show could be much better.

BDSM scenes and that sex secen should've not reach the final profuct, they could've deleted those scenes and innuendoes could be fine. I feel like those scene left a bad taste to the viewers, causing this to have a lower review.

Other than that, i couldn't really find anything to critique.

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