For Him (2023)

needed to see more Nail Him (watch suggestions)

Overall: started off strong but there were a ton of pointless flashbacks/stretching the thin plot to 12 episodes. I'm going with NailHim because that's the best ship name ever :P I can see how people would rate this lower, but I enjoyed the black nail polish in ep 12, NSFW scenes, and some things were so bad they were entertaining. Aired 12 episodes about 35 minutes uncut on iQIYI. Later re-aired on Y. Entertainment's YouTube channel but they cut out NSFW scenes. Y.Entertainment also created Unforgotten Night. Note that towards the end of the original airing, several actors posted on social media about non/delayed payment and harassment.

Watch Suggestions
- watch eps 1-3
- episode 4 watch the beginning to 12 minutes and then 33-34:30 minutes
- episode 5 watch 30-32 minutes for the side couple kissing
- skip episode 6
- episode 7 stop at 8 minutes, then pick it back up at 28 minutes
- episode 8 start at 32 minutes with the mom (note major content warnings if you watch the first 8 minutes)
- episode 9 watch the beginning to 6 minutes, then 14:20 to the end
- episode 10 watch 10-24 minutes
- episode 11 skip from when the credits start to 25 minutes
- watch episode 12
(if this watch order makes zero sense, know that watching everything likely still won't make a ton of sense)

Content Warnings: suicide (beginning of ep 8), self harm, violence, parental abuse/slap, homophobia, manhandling, mental health struggles, harassment, fight, non con picture taking

What I Liked
- Nail was awesome (especially at the beginning), he was assertive, sassy, intelligent, flirty, honest, he knew what he wanted and went for it, he tried to give Him space to talk to him when he was comfortable
- Nail's accessories and black nail polish (ep 12)
- cute moments
- NSFW scenes were pretty well done (except for eyes open during kissing and a flash of underwear where they shouldn't have been any)
- Nail mentioned having mental health struggles, sought medical help and continued to got to doctor appointments (thankful we didn't have a 'love cures mental health' trope)
- Nail's supportive mom
- the girl squad
- the het couple
- (neutral) comedy sound effects

Room For Improvement
- the start was confusing (it was a flash forward)
- choppy editing, a ton of flashbacks (scenes jumped from one to another in non-logical sequences at times)
- the 2nd m/m couple due to not nice relationship games and the other character's clinging/harassment
- it was odd that a certain character was all lovey-dovey and then the next minute went scorched earth and then the next day he apologized, pick a lane dude
- continuity errors such as ever changing root length and a character who gets a tattoo but no tattoo is shown
- nonsense actions like Him asked Nail to go somewhere where his friends were and he knew they would ask questions
- slow pacing starting in episode 4, should have been 6-8 episodes instead of 12
- lack of consequences for absolutely awful and abusive parents
- the extremely long behind the scenes to pad episode length
- Te was obsessed and then suddenly did a 180, all was well and he instantly got a new love interest?
- resolving extremely important things off screen and characters just saying what happened
- teasing NSFW scenes in episode 11 but not showing anything

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What a strange series

For Him had a promising start as the few first episodes were pretty good and intriguing. But then it fizzled out pretty quickly. The plot had several holes and inconsistencies, and small details really ruined the continuity. For example, the characters' hair colors changed scene by scene, and the flashbacks were easy to mix with the current events. Also the way some plot lines were not fully followed through or finished really made this drama very confusing and difficult to watch.

The weakest point here to me were the characters. Him was very odd, he didn't show much growth during the series and the way he treated Nail like he was a child or a doll he could own was extremely strange. The way he, in the beginning, was very consumed and haunted by the memories of Blue, but by the last episode he seemed to have forgotten his ex ever even existed. He seemed shallow, and like he was only interested in Nail because he was pretty. I don't know what the point of the Mean Girls type of girl gang was and why they were even included in the show because they didn't bring anything into it. I personally didn't even realise Te and Pae were two different people until the last episode, since their characters were so interchangeable and empty. Chao was reduced to over eager, horny sex maniac and Pie into a cold, disinterested artist and their whole plot and relationship was about the same yes-no back and forth. It was strange how they added that random guy to be Te's love interest in the last few episodes, when we hadn't even seen him before and Te had never shown any interest in anyone else than Blue/Nail, but suddenly he had a crush on this random guy we knew nothing about. Also that one guy who waved a gun around in the club just disappeared and got away with it, never to be mentioned again. In the last episode after Nail got his tattoo and Him started touching and kissing it, I almost screamed out loud. That would never happen in a million years with a fresh tatttoo and it really ruined the believability of it for me. When Him put his feet on the fresh tattoo, I could basically hear the infection starting to brew. And yes I know it wasn't a real tattoo but these sort of small details can really make a difference. The main couple didn't give us anything, Nail was a pretty himbo and Him was an obnoxious, kinda gross creep. The plot is full of holes and nothing is followed through or finished. What a confusing and frustrating watch.

Also, the last episode was just a 50 minute long advertisement. Almost every scene had a product placement of some sort, and nothing really happened. I also don't understand why most of the episodes were only 25-30 minutes long and at the end there was 15-20 minutes of bts, that could have been posted separately to youtube. It felt like they had lost interest in writing the show and wanted to fill out the missing time with bts clips.

The low production quality and bad writing really ruined it. If this show had a better production team and actually good writers, this could have been great. But as it is now, it really isn't worth it. It's too bad because the plot really could have been made into something super interesting and exciting.

This is not a good drama, and I wouldn't waste my time on this unless there was absolutely nothing else to watch. I am interested to see the actors in other projects, and see if they would be better working with different production teams. It's a shame this turned out so disappointing after a very promising start.

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