This review may contain spoilers
I was hesitant with good reason.
I initially skipped this, then with some free time I decided to try it. Couldn't make it all the way through, skipped a lot in each episode. I'll break it down why starting with;
THE GOOD;
1. Visually appealing. Budget was obviously not bad for this.
2. Sky was (for the most part) a likeable and fairly grounded character.
3. The kissing scenes (only, and not including the very, very, veeeery long lean in shots leading up to most kisses) didn't feel forced, especially between and Sky and Prapai.
4. ...I can't think of anything else.
THE BAD;
1. Rain (as an overall character) was not likeable and his stupid, flakey, flip flopping and nonsensical hot cold 'wtf is going on' behavior was very tedious. I thought it was impossible to get worse, but then the writers drowned the character in cringeworthy tropes during the couple arc with Payu and wow, it was so awful. NB: only really bad writers make their characters declare out aloud to random people (and TOTALLY uncalled for) that only their boyfriend can screw them. That is terrible. And it's not sexy. Self respect is attractive! At least to me.
2. 'Badass' characters should be written in a 'less is more' vain please. I did not at all find any of the bikers, and certainly not Payu and Prapai to be badasses or badboys or whatever. I mean, they looked cool most of the time, but that was about it.
3. The editing. Abrupt cuts scenes and background music abound. There is no flow here. Just 'something happe- cut to a different scene, lose the atmosphere, carry on'. Feels like a rush job. There's an art in cutting a scene at the right moment or fading it out, the editing here didn't flow well in many scenes. Also using boom mics will fix that noisy mic jostling sound that is heard when the actors are making close physical contact.
4. TROPE TROPE TROPE and none executed particularly well, if at all. I am not against tropes, some can be fun and enjoyable if they're done nicely, but no. Just no.
5. So many people are just gay all the way, and in such tight circles. Not realistic. I'm a supporter of sexual fluidity, but if we're basing a show in a factual setting, let's try not to write out fangirl daydreams maybe.
THE UGLY;
1. I don't get why in many BL shows these days things have to be rapey or have unequal power dynamics being abused or enforced. It's not attractive, it's not appealing, it's cringe and it's ugly. I won't comment again on the disaster writing of Rain, but when it came to Sky, I think portraying him as being a little easy would have been better than portraying it as him sleeping with Prapai under some kind of duress. As for his history, well I guess they kind of tried to explain something with that but missed the mark. And making Prapai essentially a stalker was very weird too. Generally, that behaviour would lead to a retraining order guys.
FINAL THOUGHTS;
Over all, both main character pairings had underlying 'manipulated and coerced' vibes. Icky. I would not recc this. Go watch Semantic Error instead!
I don't blame the actors, they follow the script and the director!! I believe they tried their best!
THE GOOD;
1. Visually appealing. Budget was obviously not bad for this.
2. Sky was (for the most part) a likeable and fairly grounded character.
3. The kissing scenes (only, and not including the very, very, veeeery long lean in shots leading up to most kisses) didn't feel forced, especially between and Sky and Prapai.
4. ...I can't think of anything else.
THE BAD;
1. Rain (as an overall character) was not likeable and his stupid, flakey, flip flopping and nonsensical hot cold 'wtf is going on' behavior was very tedious. I thought it was impossible to get worse, but then the writers drowned the character in cringeworthy tropes during the couple arc with Payu and wow, it was so awful. NB: only really bad writers make their characters declare out aloud to random people (and TOTALLY uncalled for) that only their boyfriend can screw them. That is terrible. And it's not sexy. Self respect is attractive! At least to me.
2. 'Badass' characters should be written in a 'less is more' vain please. I did not at all find any of the bikers, and certainly not Payu and Prapai to be badasses or badboys or whatever. I mean, they looked cool most of the time, but that was about it.
3. The editing. Abrupt cuts scenes and background music abound. There is no flow here. Just 'something happe- cut to a different scene, lose the atmosphere, carry on'. Feels like a rush job. There's an art in cutting a scene at the right moment or fading it out, the editing here didn't flow well in many scenes. Also using boom mics will fix that noisy mic jostling sound that is heard when the actors are making close physical contact.
4. TROPE TROPE TROPE and none executed particularly well, if at all. I am not against tropes, some can be fun and enjoyable if they're done nicely, but no. Just no.
5. So many people are just gay all the way, and in such tight circles. Not realistic. I'm a supporter of sexual fluidity, but if we're basing a show in a factual setting, let's try not to write out fangirl daydreams maybe.
THE UGLY;
1. I don't get why in many BL shows these days things have to be rapey or have unequal power dynamics being abused or enforced. It's not attractive, it's not appealing, it's cringe and it's ugly. I won't comment again on the disaster writing of Rain, but when it came to Sky, I think portraying him as being a little easy would have been better than portraying it as him sleeping with Prapai under some kind of duress. As for his history, well I guess they kind of tried to explain something with that but missed the mark. And making Prapai essentially a stalker was very weird too. Generally, that behaviour would lead to a retraining order guys.
FINAL THOUGHTS;
Over all, both main character pairings had underlying 'manipulated and coerced' vibes. Icky. I would not recc this. Go watch Semantic Error instead!
I don't blame the actors, they follow the script and the director!! I believe they tried their best!
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