ABO Desire

What the hell did I just watch?

Absolute gold, that's what. Okay, hear me out. Just like everyone else you have GOT to watch this wild f**king show. WARNING: while it's labeled an omega-verse story, if you are an avid omega-verse reader then this is not your normal story. They handle some parts of an omega-verse story well, but absolutely butcher other parts and it sucks. If you can survive that, then great! But there's more. Male Pregnancy. This is a pretty uncommon theme for romance readers but if you have read it, they do a TERRIBLE JOB WITH IT. Trust, you will laugh when you see how it's handled.

Okay for the actual review. I absolutely loved the male lead characters. Once you learn who everyone really is, every interaction changes completely from the tone that is set. I could not stop laughing EVERY TIME Sheng Shao You played into Hua Yongs hands the scene was supposed to be romantic and sweet but in reality it's a cunning, manipulated interaction that just somehow...becomes comical. This is another villain love story, for the psychopaths.

The second male lead set however, that was the most TOXIC relationship I have ever seen. That was wrong from start to finish, and I am personally glad the writers did not put them together. Like WHAT THE F**K. Oaf, had to get that off my chest. Okay, you really can't help but feel sorry for those two idiots, but like what the hell guys. USE YOUR DAMN WORDS.

You have to use your imagination in a few scenes, like really suspend your belief, but it's absolutely worth it. The ending however, did not feel like an ending to a series. It felt like the ending to a season and was VERY abrupt. The main leads storyline was finished up well enough that it was acceptable, but absolutely not for the second leads. Be warned!

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Solid Story Undone by Bad Pacing

Overall, the story is strong and interesting especially between both main couples. The main downfall of this show is bad pacing, which is a serious disservice to the stories and characters. The setup for the plot is too long and there’s not enough time spent on fulfilling the actual romance in my opinion.

Additionally, as many ppl have pointed out, there was small setup sprinkled throughout the episodes for LangTu which had no pay off, which completely gave the impression of bad pacing. I’m not sure if the show runners were trying to effectively pull of a great cliffhanger for a future spin off, but it’s just leading to viewers lashing out.

Personally, if they had extended the show to 18 or 20 episodes and aired twice a week I think the pacing would have been way better, both for storytelling and viewing.

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Totally overrated. I am shocked at the glowing reviews.

ABO Desire is one of the weakest BLs I've ever seen (out of many more than 100 titles so far). Those who gave it 10 stars: Were we watching the same show?

Although I don't like mpreg content whatsoever, in judging this series, I put aside all my reservations and feelings about it in order to give it a fair review. I am not familiar with the omegaverse, but I think it's an intriguing concept when it comes to having an alternate universe in which people are so strongly driven by their animalistic sexuality (pheromones, mating rituals, sexual selection and compatibility) to the degree where they have "rutting periods" and can't stop themselves from forcing themselves on others. It's interesting, but it gives me one overwhelming expectation: That the series will be very horny. Given the premise, I expect a lot of sex. The series doesn't deliver it at all. Nothing sexual is shown, even the kisses are really boring. How do you have a show about hypersexualized people, and even the kissing is passionless? I understand that there may be censorship issues, but then maybe China isn't the place to realize a series like this, or maybe they needed to find a better way to get around it. It just doesn't work. I've seen shows with steamier scenes that are basically Hallmark romance plots.

The irredeemable script: ABO Desire felt like it must have been created from some very weak source material. I have not read the source material, I'm just assuming it's bad because this entire series was like watching a terrrible fanfic. Most egregiously, the plot exposition was often handled by unrelated people simply telling us what is going on. The worst were the moments when totally random bystanders would give us the plot points: "Can you believe so and so did such and such? I heard that..." This is not how you write a story. You show it, you don't tell it. Less offensive, but still so disappointing were moments like Hua Yong explaining Shen Wen Lang's entire backstory like a footnote (and the backstory didn't even give us an easily understandable reason for why he hates omegas that much). Finally, we had this random narrator suddenly pop up out of nowhere in a late episode when (I guess) they really couldn't find another way to explain certain events. What? You can't just introduce a narrator randomly. You need to start and finish with one, or have one throughout or intermittently.

Unexplained inconsistencies: Let's think about the episode where Shen Wen Lang forces himself on Gao Tu, and neither of them recognize each other. Okay, maybe it's supposed to be pitch black in the room, and we have to just imagine that we can't see anything even though we can see everything. But these two have been close for what, like 10 years? They don't recognize each other's voices or anything, while being as intimate as possible? Shen Wen Lang doesn't recognize that same omega scent that he keeps telling Gao Tu to wash off? It's so incredible. Meanwhile, Sheng Shao You doesn't recognize Hua Yong in bed either, who is... his actual lover, with whom he lives.

The acting: With the exception of Li Pei En as Gao Tu, I didn't find any of these characters believable or relatable. All the other main characters seemed constantly bored. When something upsetting happened, no one looked upset. Their facial expressions never changed throughout the episodes, no matter what was going on. It was totally jarring. The worst offender was probably Qiu Ding Jie (Sheng Shao Yu), who may as well have been a mannequin. He had one crying scene which was his only actual acting moment in the whole show, that I can recall. If your loved one is injured, you should show grief. If someone has wronged you, you should show anger. If you're kissing someone you want, you should show desire! These characters mostly show nothing, and because I'm watching other shows at the same time where the actors actually do act, I could not stomach all the blank expressions throughout this series.

The main romance: While Hua Yong's scheming was kind of interesting, the love story fell flat. One moment they liked each other, the next they were together, somehow skipping the most exciting part of a romance (when two people who like each other finally get together) and then we just had to watch all their petty disagreements and reconciliations for the rest of the show (and a lot of cooking and eating, for some reason).

The side romance: From reading other reviews, I know that I'm definitely not the only person who was bored by the monotonous main romance and much more invested in the side romance. Gao Tu and Shen Wen Lang did not get enough screen time, and their story was nothing but an endless conflict. Why? It was repetitive; as soon as a possible solution arose, so did a new problem (such as Gao Tu's father's scheming at the very end of the series, something that probably should have been introduced earlier). I don't know why it needs to be explained, but a plot should introduce conflicts with the goal of having the satisfaction of conflict resolution. Gao Tu and Shen Wen Lang were never able to work through their issues, things that could have been quite easily settled if they'd just tried to talk about them. All we got for conflict resolution with these two was, at the very end, a mere suggestion that things could possibly be fixed in the future. Not to mention, we now know that they'd already lost years together and that Gao Tu had to endure the presumably torturous pregnancy that Shen Wen Lang could have helped him with, as first years of child rearing without his partner (and that Shen Wen Lang is a stranger to his own child). We never had the satisfaction of seeing them reconcile or understand each other. You don't build up all these obstacles over the course of 16 whole episodes just to have them still remaining by the end.

In summary, I found ABO Desire to be a frustrating watch whenever it wasn't completely boring.

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A gripping dive into the Omegaverse

ABO Desire is a 16-episode Chinese BL series set in the Omegaverse. The story follows Hua Yong, a rare Enigma posing as an Omega, who becomes entangled with the powerful Alpha, Sheng Shaoyou.

As someone new to the Omegaverse genre, I found myself initially confused after the first episode. The whole concept with Alphas, Betas, Omegas, and Enigmas was completely new to me and a bit confusing. The series almost requires that you take some time to understand what the Omegaverse is in order to follow the story properly. I didn’t think I would like it at first, but I quickly got hooked. By the midpoint, I even looked up the original novel and read it, which gave the series an extra dimension since not everything from the book was included in the show.

The performances were solid, and the chemistry between the leads was really good, making their complicated relationship feel believable and engaging. The series is visually interesting with a dark, intense atmosphere that fits the story.

The only downside was the finale. It felt rushed and could have benefited from an extra episode to properly wrap things up. Still, despite the hurried ending, I really enjoyed the journey, got emotionally invested in the characters, and would recommend this series to anyone curious about the Omegaverse.

I’ve watched a lot of Thai series lately, so I wanted to try something new — and this was definitely that for me. It’s a completely different kind of storytelling, and if you haven’t seen similar series or films before, you need to go in with an open mind and definitely not compare it to Hollywood shows. I, for one, am now curious to watch more Chinese series and will definitely keep an eye out for more Omegaverse stories in the future.

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Toxic as hell but I ATE IT UP

* Trigger warning for sexual assault *

TLDR: This show is has a lot of problematic moments and isn't for everyone. However, it's well made and a lot of fun to watch so if you aren't put off by the toxicity, you'll probably like it.

Full review:

The premise is ridiculously wonderful. A virus that turned the world into an omegaverse? Hysterical. SIGN ME UP.

The acting, music and directing are all great. The show looks really clean and the premise is easy to buy into, I never felt taken out of the story, even when it got really ridiculous. The flowers on the hands were so funny to me though, my friend and I kept referring to them as the My Little Pony marks XD

The show did randomly switch up narrative style a couple times. For the first couple episodes we would get Hua Yong's thoughts written on a black screen but that was dropped early on and never happened again (that I can remember), and at the end Wen Lang's breakdown is just narrated by some random voice out of the blue lol, but these things didn't bother me, I just noticed them.

I'll go through my detailed thoughts in sections:

Hua Yong and Shao You (main couple):
Hua Yong gave me MAD whisplash throughout the show because half the time he was this cool, powerful mafia leader man with his Enigma powers, and the other half he was a pathetic, manipulative stalker boy who made me understand what 'getting the ick' felt like (e.g. the way he follows Shao You around and sends him so many letters after Shao You breaks up with him). Thankfully for the last few episodes he is the former and he was a lot of fun to watch.

Shao You was well written and well acted. The actor is a fantastic crier, like damn. I enjoyed his motivations and characterisation, and I also enjoyed his reaction to finding out about Hua Yong's lies. There was at least an ATTEMPT to set boundaries, which in a show like this, is already an achievement. Based on the premise, I found their getting back together believable and satisfying (though the consent of the marking scene was dubious at best, at least we got a scene showing Shao You being ok with it later). Despite the whole relationship being toxic as hell, Shao You is aware of and accepts Hua Yong's psychotic tendencies by the end (even calling him his 'Little Psycho') so at least he knows what he's in for. As a FICTIONAL romance I enjoyed them, although I only really started supporting them as a couple around episode 12.

It was around episode 12 when Shao You accepted Hua Yong as not an Omega and they get together without any lies or pretence. This is where they get really fun to watch. I loved Hua Yong protecting him from his brother's attack and the following pregnancy reveal. I love a good dynamic flip, and I feel for the most part it was done really well with Shao You.

My only major gripe with them is their rape scene in episode 9 which DID NOT NEED TO BE THERE. It doesn't forward the relationship or the plot. Shao You would still have figured out Hua Yong wasn't an Omega without that scene and their first time could just have been after the marking. The pregnancy thankfully came from a later, consensual love scene. I know it was supposed to make Hua Yong feel guilty and be more careful or something, but then just do a close call, I dunno, the way it was filmed all romantically as well just frustrated me.

Gao Tu and Wen Lang (secondary couple):

I use the word 'couple' lightly because they never actually get together. I've seen a lot of people complain about this but I LOVED it, it was so unexpected in the best way! If Hua Yong and Shao You were toxic, these two were irredeemable. To me, the big difference is that as a rich CEO and an S-tier Alpha, even though he's being manipulated, Shao You still holds power and a way out if need be. Gao Tu has none of these luxuries. He's poor, has a pheromone disorder and has to hide his status as an Omega from his abusive, phobic boss, and predatory, gambling addict father. Plus he has a sick sister he needs to provide for. Gao Tu has it rough, man. He also has my heart. Best character by far. So sweet and gentle and patient, and the way he makes the right decision for himself and his baby in the end made me so happy for him because the whole show all I wanted was for him to get away and be happy.

Wen Lang SUCKS SO BAD. STRAIGHT TO JAIL. To be fair, Hua Yong and Wen Lang both belong in jail but at least Hua Yong is fun evil (usually), Wen Lang is just a hot loser with money. He's constantly verbally abusive to Gao Tu, RAPES HIM, and then has the audacity to BLAME IT ON HIM. When he eventually finds out that he's pregnant (through Gao Tu's dad trying to extort money in exchange for aborting the baby against Gao Tu's will), Wen Lang, the man who has known Gao Tu for over a decade, believes his dad over him??? Gao Tu was right to run away and never look back. I cheered. Their ending is open-ended and I am open to believe they maybe co-parent their child in the future but I just can't see them together unless Wen Lang gets a personality transplant. I did enjoy him being the uncle figure for the main couple's kid though, it was nice to see he became a bit friendlier over the years at least.

I will say that unlike with Shao You and Hua Yong, the existence of the rape scene for these two doesn't bother me as much because it's somewhat essential to the plot. It's how Gao Tu gets pregnant, which is a major part of the reason why he leaves. Wen Lang is shown to be a scumbag and doesn't get the guy in the end, so it doesn't feel so unnecessary or romanticised as it did for the main couple.

The secretaries:
I loved the secretary characters and what their thoughts on any given situation might be. I particularly loved Pin Ming getting teary during Shao You's crying and birth scenes. My friend and I like to imagine Chang Yu, Pin Ming and Gao Tu having a secretary support club where they gossip about the crazy stuff their bosses get up. Especially after Shao You and Hua Yong get together, I like to imagine Chang Yu and Pin Ming become good friends so they can suffer their bosses' drama together lol

The ending:
I liked everything that happened in the ending, I just wish we'd gotten more detail. I feel the show could have been 18-20 episodes, rather than 16. I wonder if they ran out of budget and had to rush the ending or maybe the book really is written like that. I would have loved to have seen some of Gao Tu's life after he leaves since he's so unwell and unhappy most of the show, I really wanted to see him living a better life. It's implied of course, but it would have been nice to even have one scene of it.

I was also pretty frustrated with them skipping over the birth of the main couple's baby. Shao You has a dangerous birth due to being an Alpha and another trope I really love is a character's life being in danger and everyone worrying about them but ultimately they make it, so this could have been SO GOOD and exactly the kind of drama you need for an ending. But sadly they do a three year time skip right after they take him to the hospital. It would also have been such a great opportunity to finally have Hua Yong cry when Shao You wakes up from the birth because they built up his inability to cry so much and then never did anything with it. The main couple's baby finally being born, Shao You almost dying and surviving, Hua Yong finally crying, the friends celebrating, there would have been SO MUCH emotional pay off in this one scene it actually boggles my mind that they didn't make it. So much so that I decided to just write a fanfic to fill in the gaps for myself lollll

In conclusion, I loved it, twas incredibly entertaining. If not for the main couple's unnecessary rape scene and the rushed ending, this would have been a 9.5/10 for me. Despite that, I will definitely be rewatching this, and I will also be reading the novel.

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What a brilliant plotline

Update:
This is now available on YouTube in its entirety and was so much more cohesive as a result though I still don’t know if Hua Yong ever revealed that he had Sheng Shao You’s grandfather’s watch. The plot line bets the second lead pairing made much more sense and as a result I felt so much more empathy for Gou Tu and the situation he forced himself into though more could have been made of the reunion.
Would I watch again as it’s whole in one place? Absolutely, if even just for the shirt clips scenes. Phew!

The world as we know it has been turned upside down by a virus that created three distinct groups of human - where Alphas rule, Omegas are their partners and Betas exist.
The story centres round two main characters a dominant CEO, Sheng Shao You who is a S-level alpha (top dog in the alpha hierarchy) and Hun Yong a timid young man who is one of the secretaries at a rival firm.
Over time their world unravels, truths are told and this new world order is turned on its head by the emergence of a fourth group of human, the enigmas. A group so rare that they are the stuff of folklore.
The two main actors, Qui Ding Jie who plays Shao You and Eliot Huang who plays Hun Yong are well cast and have sizzling chemistry. Even when the truth starts revealing itself there are sparks flying ( though how Shao You ever forgave Hun Yong is beyond me and IMHO the more we find out the more of a creepy, obsessed stalker Yong becomes though the writers glossed over this little issue).
The supporting cast are also well chosen and the second pairing of Shen Wen Lang and Gao Tu are also convincing even as they fail to act on their feelings. One has obvious feelings and it is only after he disappears does the other realise what was under his nose all along.
I’ve really enjoyed both the concept and the delivery of this drama and it’s a shame it was banned in China but I’d like to think this will not prevent the actors from continuing to delight us with their talent in other productions.
Would I watch again? Probably not as there is so much more out there to watch and I had to scramble across several platforms in order to get access to all the episodes.

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Who would think: Somewhat of a fresh take on relationships in dramas?

To address your concerns: if the whole concept freaks you out, you could also take this drama as some form of a fantasy drama with humanoid creatures with special effects....Rather than ABO and desire and whatever fanfiction worlds have invented...

Cos... I believe you should watch this one. I genuinely think it is a decent watch. The story introduced alpha beta and enigma plot in more of (d)evolution of human species rather than 'we are warewolves and we are horny all the time' trope. I thought they tackled that super well to not be weird or awkward about the genre. The pregnancy plot became only relevant in the last few episodes and it was non graphic and more a topic of discussion than anything.

There was some uncertainty and excitement as the leads float throughout the drama from dominant to submissive and so on. Their roles are not clearly defined, so I found that refreshing than the usual trope of dominant vs submissive. They played that beautifully in the whole ABO dynamic.

But to keep it real, it is easier to find a diamond on the street than a non-toxic character in this drama. Characterization was present, but not great or multilayered. Chemistry between Hua Yong and Shao Yu did feel natural and exciting. But it was obviously toxic and obsessive and insane. And while entertaining and exciting in a setting of a drama, it is indeed not a portrayal of anything that is admirable or some takeaway message about true love. May this one never find you (or me).

As for characters, Wen Lang, was my fave because he was hillarious; he spoke outloud whatever the audience was thinking. But then he could have been developed better as his behavior toward Gao Tu was truly not in the character. Then I thought Hua Yong's actor was the perfect casting for the duality in the drama, even though at times his acting felt one layered with same expressions over and over again. The drop in Gao Tu storyline was abrupt and loose. Kinda ruined the ending for me.

Strong beginning, relatively good acting, and strangely engaging despite cringe moments, and more random useless dramatic plot points. A decent watch and a recommendation.

thanks for reading!

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good start for omegaverse shows

being the first Real omegaverse show, desire is both very fun and a good entrance into the trope. (well, ignoring the enigma part lol since that's not very common - but it's done well here!) I don't know that I loved all of the world building, but on the whole, it was very interesting and I could push past any weird things (like, we find out in ep 1 that all people with AB blood died?? ... okay...). there were cringe moments here and there as all shows have but it really wasn't that bad

something to know going in is that this show is very much centered on the first couple, sheng shaoyou and hua yong. if you don't like them, it's going to drag a lot, because the second couple do not get a lot of screen time. I definitely was more interested in the second couple (shen wenlang and gao tu), and was disappointed in how little we got to see of them. for reference, one episode only gave them about 3-5 minutes of screen time. so, manage your expectations there. and before anyone comes at me, I did like ssy and hy - I think they were 100% better acted than the second couple, and they had a lot of interesting tropes. I preferred swl and gt but either way, this is a show I would recommend BL fans watch!

on a final note, justice for gao lele!!

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Wow! My first journey into the Omegaverse!

PLOT: A handsome Alpha-S (ML, CEO, of course) is being courted by a gorgeous, fragile "Omega" with an orchid scent (MC). The MC is secretly being helped by ML2 (Alpha - CEO of another biopharmaceutical company, which owns a drug that could save ML's father). ML2 has a very close secretary (ML3), an Omega who pretends to be a Beta, in love with ML2 (who hates Omegas). However, the fragile, orchid-scented Omega, obsessed with ML, is hiding secrets :)

This completely unfamiliar world initially seems outlandish, incongruous, absurd... But the actors are brilliant and manage to draw us into this fantasy. Kudos!!

+++ Amazing actors
+++ High-quality production (costumes, sets, lighting, framing, props), everything is meticulously thought out.
+++ It's actually quite fun to see all the twists and clichés of classic dramas transposed into this world where gender roles are assigned differently.
+++ Excellent OSTs

### The ending is too rushed, especially for CL2. Their reunion is hinted at, but the viewer would have liked to see more!

=> A surprising but delightful discovery :)

( • )( • )ԅ(≖‿≖ԅ) ******( • )( • )ԅ(≖‿≖ԅ)******* ( • )( • )ԅ(≖‿≖ԅ) ********* ( • )( • )ԅ(≖‿≖ԅ)

Wahouuu ! Ma 1e plongée dans l'Omegaverse

PLOT: Un bel Alpha-S (ML, CEO, bien entendu) est courtisé par un magnifique, fragile "Omega" au parfum d'orchidée (MC). Il est aidé en sous-main par le ML2 (Alpha - CEO d'1 autre Cie bio-pharmaceutique, détenant un médicament pouvant sauver le père du ML). Le ML2 a un secrétaire (ML3), oméga, très proche, qui, amoureux du ML2 qui déteste les omégas, se fait passer pr 1 bêta. Cependant, le fragile omega au parfum d'orchidée, obsédé par le ML, cache des secrets :)

Cet univers, totalement, inconnu, semble farfelu, incongru, absurde, ... dans un 1e temps. Mais les acteurs sont géniaux et arrivent à nous faire adhérer à cette fantaisie. Kudos !!

+++ Acteurs géniaux
+++ Production high-quality (costumes, décors, lumières, cadrages, accessoires), tout est pensé dans les détails.
+++ C'est finalement très amusant de voir transposer tous les twists / clichés des dramas classiques dans cet univers où les genres sont attribués différemment.
+++ Excellents OSTs

### Le final est trop rushed, en particulier pour le CL2. Leurs retrouvailles sont suggérées, mais le spectateur aurait aimé en voir davantage !

=> Une découverte étonnante mais savoureuse :)

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The origin story alone deserves applause — the rest is a bonus

Before I even get to the series itself: two wealthy Chinese twin sisters who are omegaverse fans decided to just make the thing themselves. And then it became the first Chinese omegaverse BL production ever, won awards, and apparently surprised everyone including people who should have known better than to underestimate obsessive fans with resources. I find that genuinely delightful, and it earns the series a certain amount of goodwill from me before a single episode plays.
As for the show — I believe the pairing. The dynamic between someone consumed by obsession and someone fundamentally untamable works for me, and the chemistry has enough pull that I'd go back for them. What doesn't quite deliver for me personally are the intimate scenes, which feel like they fall slightly short of what the premise promises. For a genre that runs on physical tension, that's a noticeable gap.
It's also unhinged in the way omegaverse tends to be, and I mean that descriptively rather than critically. I've read stronger material in the genre, but I'm not complaining. The fact that this exists at all — produced in China, no less — still feels like a small miracle worth celebrating.

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