Jazz for Two

So Toxic, So Good: tl;dr don’t watch without a healthy understanding of abuse

Ahhh, where do I start? Well, I really won't mince words here; the relationships in Jazz For Two are abusive.

They're written with the sort of hope that keeps people in abusive relationships; the hope that deep down we understand each other and can make it out on the other side. There's something astonishing , and honestly, magical to me about the way this is so perfectly captured while maintaining this strong aura of soulmates.

Seheon gets hurt physically and emotionally regularly by Tae-I, who only apologizes once. Doyoon is also later found out to be enduring regular abuse from Juha. The act of enduring pain and abuse is treated like a type of pure or higher love. Both Seheon and Doyoon let these things happen to them because they have some sort of understanding that this person they love must also be battling something deep inside them. Their true selves, they naively believe, are hidden somewhere inside of this person who repeatedly does them harm and one day they will see their earnestness and open up to them.

This kind of hope for change in someone’s actions and willingness to “wait out” abusive behavior keeps people in abusive relationships. Guys, this shit is really serious. If someone reveals this kind of behavior to you, understand and believe that this IS their true self. The extreme highs you might feel with them will always be accompanied with extreme lows. If someone hurts you, that’s your sign to go. If you’re not sure, talk to someone you trust about it. Most importantly to remember: if someone really loved you like you deserve, they wouldn’t ever think it was okay to hurt you.

Anyway, it’s still a really good show.

Keeping these toxic themes in mind and understanding that relationships in this show shouldn’t be mimicked in real life, I can honestly say this show is a really enjoyable watch. Leaning into some of our worst impulses and rewarding them with the love story we wish could be; it’s like junk food. It’s good to have something fucked up like this to enjoy every once in a while. Don’t get into the ingredients too much tho.

The story is kinda meh. The whole thing with Tae-I and his brother is kind of done like a second thought and leaves you kind of wanting more. Obviously though, it becomes apparent as you watch this show that the story isn’t actually the important part so I’m not too hung up over it.

The direction is fucking beautiful, every scene is stunning. The acting is really good too, and you get all the subtleties of their emotions in all of the important parts and then all of the humor in all of the funny parts. The show is incredibly re-watchable. I actually am doing this review now because I’ve just re-watched it lol :)

I think my biggest complaint (besides the blatant toxicity of the relationships) is the fact they didn’t have enough jazz! The songs were jazz, sure, but it wasn’t really jazzy. The show is literally called Jazz for Two, can’t we get some of that punchy, spunky vibe from jazz? There wasn’t a lot of that fun energy we like to associate with jazz, incredibly disappointing. And then there were some crucial scenes that didn’t even utilize jazz in the background at all that really set me off.

Or at the very least juxtaposing jazz with classical music. With how much this show was putting jazz on a pedestal and putting down classical music I really thought we’d actually get to explore these mediums. Instead, we did get to see a small glimpse into what it’s like to be a musician, but it did leave much to be desired. Again… not the point of the show though, ultimately I understand.

Jazz be damned, the music was still very good.

Summary: The relationships were toxic as shit. Be mindful and watch with caution. The jazz wasn’t jazzy enough for my taste. Everything else was really beautiful though, and it was very enjoyable.

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so average

Two school bullies fall for their victims in Art School - well, it seems it happens there too. All males, since it's a BL. Of course, they have a hurtful story behind, that we get to know more or less. The four of them finally become friends and form a band. End of.
The young actors are good, their acting is nuanced and they are certainly nice to look at. The conflicts are not overdramatic and the pace is as good as needed for a short drama series. A realistic touch is brought by the struggle of accepting their sexual orientation (at least 3 gay couples in this drama).
One watch is recommended, not sure abt the rest.

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I loved this series, despite the many imperfections. There are some violent and homophobic moments, but this is what school is like for some people. We always claim we want realism, and the bullying was pretty real. I owe it to the children subjected to this on a daily basis to watch to gain an understanding as to how they live.

The series should have been longer so they could resolve some of the plot holes, and explained why Jazz of all genres was the forbidden fruit. It also would have been nice if they had paid homage to some African American jazz legends such as Coltrane, Bird, Armstrong, Davis, Nat King Cole, etc. Jazz, Blues, Ragtime are all genres started by African-Americans in the early 20th century so why would Korean kids in the 21st century feel so connected? There must be a reason, but they didn't explore it. I'm not even that into music, and I think this should have been a 12 episode series to be more expository. Too many loose ends and we didn't even get to see the conversation between big bro Yoon and Taeyi.

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I don't think that this drama was that bad, but it's not the best either. There was a lot of internal homophobia and bullying tropes, the relationship was kind of rushed and there wasn't any scenes of actually confirming the relationship, it was just a cheesy classroom moment, and there was not even a proper closure(?) regarding Taejoon and Jooha's relationship and just ended abruptly without knowing what happened with their relationship? It was kind of confusing and I don't really like bullying trope relationships - and it was quite difficult to rate this series because I personally don't know how I felt, there were times when I enjoyed it, and there were times when I didn't. But I understand why some people may enjoy this series and why it is often recommended.

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Perfect cast ? perfect start ? only if run time had little more Big ?

It's and perfectly produced well realised show with lot of efforts put to improve it's showing value.
First half like perfect start of a bl should be developing the character in slow phase including side character to create a depth to each role and emerging into the world of the main character.
Second half is like writer were forced to end in remaining three episodes so rush every aspect didn't even give explanation how things happened to main lead character change and second couple story I still don't know why they did not have proper ending to them when they developed a storyline to care on first half the suddenly good face that's it no explanation.
Show is perfect in Korean bl standards but if you consider overall i felt little shy from perfect.
"I wish one day Korea produce a show of bl by regular run time with ep 12-16 has regular drama. " At end of the show i was thinking just that because show would be perfect if run time is high or episode number is big.

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I will come back to add more of my coments on this show. Firstly, i feel like Song Han Gyeom carried this show. I liked his character a bit too much. This had a grat start but i felt like at ep 6 tat it went a bit off. Overall, i haven't watch muvh bls so i am nit that picky. I give this 7.5 bc i think it had a great start and i liked some parts. Also, when Song Han Gyeom kissed the other guy ( don't remember his name) out og nowhere, it was pretty random. As someone who haven't watch much bls, i think i will have give this bl a lower rating but bc of that scene i make the rating a bit higher .

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decent

the drama itself started out very strong and really captivates the audience. Even the little cameo is very cute!! sadly by the end of the show it sort of just feels very repetitive and boring almost. the last episode also felt so rushed like they fit an entire arch in that last ep. they definitely could have taken out some more pointless stuff to help put the overall arch in different eps too. I do think if you're gonna do more than one relationship at least don't give them all such similar situations / troupes. it felt like all 3 bl relationships had very similar troupes

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Unexpectedly good. Toxic but good

I didn't have much expectation from this one after reading the comments on how it started out good but ended in the trash. I literally waited for it to end up in the trash but it was good till the end. The only reason I'm giving it a 9.5 is cz i feel they should have added 2 scenes 1 where Tae I is processing the fact that his brother died cz of se heon's brother and 2nd would be the 2nd couple officially becoming a couple.

Everyone said they were here for the 2nd couple (probably cz of the edits made on them) but i personally liked the 1st couple a lot more. Both couple's stories are pretty similar they have a crush on someone who loves them a lot but are unable to come in terms with their feelings cz of the gender. I liked the angst, i liked the visuals and the story. I do kinda feel bad for Tae jun and sae jin... if only tae jun didnt unalive himself they'd probably have a happy ending too. Overall the show is really good. Just give it a go

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conductas abusivas

me gustó y me quedé esperando más de la pareja secundaria en vez de la primaria...
la historia se ve que es buena pero NO FUE BIEN DESARROLLADA. es como que, al ser pocos episodios, hubieran querido meter todo a las patadas. Taeyi abusa de Seheon al meter sus manos bajo su remera y tocarlo sin consentimiento y a la vez humillarlo verbalmente, para a continuación Taeyi ser perdonado como si no hubiese sido nada del otro mundo. no tan solo no refleja lo realmente abusivo y grave que fue eso, sino que ni siquiera fue totalmente consciente sobre sus actos, sus disculpas fueron vacías y ligeras.
si bien Jooha golpeó a Doyoon en el pasado, puedo entenderlo. considero que se reflejó bien el tipo de dolor y trauma de Jooha: el sentirse más seguro a su zona de confort, aquel sentimiento de soledad y de ser ignorado al que acostumbra y sentirse en alerta porque, finalmente, alguien genuinamente se acerca e interesa en él, entonces intenta alejarlo porque no puede aceptar que eso suceda. aún si estuvo mal todo lo que hizo, el abuso de Taeyi contra Seheon me pareció más traumático y no fue tratado como debió de serlo.
finalmente, creo que Seheon fue tan acosado y abusado por parte de Jooha y Taeyi que me parece increíble que no se haya visto realmente "tocado" ni un poco por eso.

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It was OKAY

I was expecting more tbh. I was really hooked in the first 2 episodes but idk after that my expectations kinda keep going down. First of all, I didn't like the SA like fucking at all. It is gross. We should never tolerate this tbh. I was literally so uncomfortable by the way they did THAT. Also the harassement. I don't like bullyxvictim. The second lead couple was literally this. Also so much unimportant scenes and characters. The bully's sister was really a useless addition. The bully hates Tae yi just because his sister likes him. Just that nothing else. I thought that there was something more deep going on there but nah. It just made Joo Ha look pathetic. Also the main problem with KBL is always time, idk why. This had good enough run time tbh but they still couldn't use the limited time properly. KBL should learn a thing or two from Japan. Everything was shifting way too fast. Tae yi and Se heon relationship went from strangling each other to besties holding hands to strangling each other again and then to lovi dovey lovers all in just a span of 1 day. Really need a lot of time for this drama tbh. 1 hour and 16 episode kind. KBL really need to stop adapting these webtoon with 2 couples cause they can barely handle 1. But this series is still better than this company's last production. I would say that. Acting was okay, Not the best but also not bad. The ost were okay. I would say the thing I admire about this was the kiss, I though i would be left disappointed with those blur kisses and peck kisses but they actually kiss for real in the last episode with lips moving and all. So I would praise them for that since it is very rare in KBL, Overall, its okay, not anything special. I was expected more but atleast it wasn't below my expectations.

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