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Sets the Tone
In a very real sense, I think this set the tone for many of the following BL series. It is an intensely character driven with superb acting and a great story line. What I enjoyed about this series is as the characters grow, so does the intensity of the relationship. You see it develop through a sense of caring. It is not overwhelmed with gay overtones but still manages to make it its central point. You can honestly feel for these characters as they ebb and flow from anger to frustration to affection to intense love. It helps also explains many of the rituals of college life and how they really do impact the growth and development of character. It deals rather effectively with bullying and those who are experience the bullying. It is good solid storytelling and is a window into the world of freshman and upper-class students. This one is in the must column for watching.Was this review helpful to you?
Warm, Soft, Gentle, Tender.
There are a lot of flaws in this series. It is choppy, feels rushed, and perhaps their individual actions seem contrived. The main characters and supporting roles are gifted with the perfection of beauty. It all worked for me because I know how irrational we are as humans. We do things that sometimes make no sense and realize that what we have right in front of us is what is really best for us. This series showed that and these characters, even with all their vulnerabilities, did not succumb to the past but had the strength to see things as they are; not what might have been, or was. Maybe I made this too complex or read too much into this series, but this is what I got from it. I have been there with them. Of course, I wanted more from this series, but it did tackle the difficulty of making a commitment to another person and do so with the idea you are doing it for the rest of your life. If you want to review my full review of this adorable series, go to my free blog site and let me know what you think. It is ppbongi.medium.com. Thanks!Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Complex, Twisted, and Brilliant
In its entirety, this is one of the finest BL series out there. It is so incredibly moving, complex, and filled with life’s accomplishments and utter failures. We see Jun in a totally new light from before. A person who has grown emotionally, psychologically, and is now secure in the knowledge of who he is and more importantly what he is. I think he will make it even though he lives is a society where such behaviors are still intolerable and repressed and thought to be an aberration. The final scene, as he introduces himself to his classmates, starts to perhaps reveal something of himself but fades to silence. You may interpret that as you wish but it left me in tears. We do not know but I am hoping it is the opening of a new beginning. If you want to see my full review of this amazing BL series, read it at ppbongi.medium.com. IWas this review helpful to you?
One of the Best!
Cute, charming, and sensual. If I wrote 10 pages of accolades for this series, it would frankly not be enough. This is a beautiful and stunning, heartfelt, and warm BL series. It was a joy to watch and was a soft easy series to absorb with tremendously good acting. This is one of the finest acted BL series out there and one of the best dealing with the current pandemic. I have not seen anything of this romantic caliber since 2GETHER. These guys are simply beautiful together and have a magic together. Their chemistry as a couple is almost overwhelming. These two guys MAKES this series in a non-assuming way where they slowly draw you into their relationship. . It is extremely rare for a series to display such a deep connection between two people in a very short period of time. A simple basic love story where it is focused on success, not failure. I absolutely loved this series. I shall post my full review of this beautiful series on my blog site shortly so please review that there, if inclined. It will be at ppbongi.medium.com.Was this review helpful to you?
Hands Down, the BEST BL
There are not enough accolades or positive comments on this earth that could begin to even describe this series. It is phenomenal. It is profound. It is the best acted BL series I have ever seen. Honestly, my words do no describe the emotional impact of this series. This was so beautifully done that it is a work of art. It is flawless. I have never been so moved or felt such emotions as I have watching this. I have not cried this hard since I lost my father. It was that emotional. It has to be one of the finest TV productions ever ANYWHERE. I am not Thai so I had to watch it in English translation so I can only imagine the impact it would have in its native language. Suffice to say, that this for me is the BEST program I have EVER watched and would rank this as my favorite of any series ever anywhere. The actors gave it their all and without exception, they are all superb. Perhaps this is hyperbole, but if this had been an American production, I am sure it would have walked away with every Emmy in every category that it would have been nominated for. This is, frankly, superb. I am honored to have watched it and shall remember this for a long, long time. This series is memorable. Thank you for making it!! Please watch! You can read my full review of this incredibly beautiful series at ppbongi.medium.com.Was this review helpful to you?
An Awful Series
Perhaps the best way to identify this series is to use the word – indescribable. But I am not using this word to imply in any way that this series is either good or has any socially redeeming values. It does not. This series is awful in every way I can think of. Yes, by any standards of decency, morality, medical code, as well as legal laws, they are indeed and in fact murdering individuals. This series tries its hardest to convince itself otherwise; but it cannot. What they did, without question, was murder; not euthanasia or certainly not mercy killing. This series sickened me to my core. Not everything can be turned into a BL story and certainly not one with extreme moral repercussions. Wake up. Some things need to be seen for what they really are. Quit making cheesy productions with premises that are not well-thought out and throw a label on it called BL and pass it off as an acceptable story!Was this review helpful to you?
Dare You To Boredom!
The protagonists and many, many of the supporting cast are so handsome that the iceberg that sank the Titanic would have melted into a mere ice cube if these guys were in one location on the top deck of that ship. Their radiant good-looks melted everything bad about this series away which included an absurdly dumb murder mystery and, sorry to say, rather mediocre acting. If one honestly assessed this series with any sense of objectivity and detachment, one would see how wrought this series was. Everything about this series felt lazy to me. The writing and directing was frustratingly inept. The story drones on ad nauseum. One would suffer from neck whiplash the way this series ping-ponged from murder mystery to love story with no understandable transition. From my perspective, it just was not all that good no matter how you looked at it and is essentially forgettable.Was this review helpful to you?
Too polished & Not Logical
Although this series seemed to capture the hearts and minds of many, I found it lacking in story in terms of empathy and logic. Not acting, however. It is exceptionally well acted. And yet, that is also what bothered me. It seemed too polished, slick, and flawless. I honestly do not look to review the actors or actresses who are performing in series. I take everything at ‘face value’. This series, with acting not the problem, still lacked a Gestalt for me to connect to, in what seemed like a flawless acting exercise. I simply could not warm up to either of the protagonists at all. Something felt absent. Even though it had all the right elements and great screen chemistry, it felt too polished to be believable. It looks and feels off. The angst, rawness, realness, silliness, immaturity, and pain of teenagers was missing. It got too wrapped up in telling a cute story.Was this review helpful to you?
Never Reached A Pinnacle; Awful Ending
This is a series that got so close to the mountain top but just fell short of reaching its summit. That is too bad as the story itself was original and creative and very likeable. But it all crumbled at its denouement. My own suspect was that they did not want to make it too gay for reasons that elude me. This series had so much potential. The relationship between the disabled and ‘normal’ worlds was captured with good accuracy. You had a protagonist that found his calling from this experience in wanting to devote his professional life to helping others. We see that individuals with a disability can and often do use their disability for the wrong reasons or use it as an excuse for inappropriate behavior. This series would have been an outstanding one if it had taken it to a greater intense level in which we were shown that an actual and genuine real love relationship could occur.Was this review helpful to you?
Simply Not Funny
To call this short series quirky would not quite do it justice. It is odd and almost appeared to be a story of a man with a multi-personality disorder. Labeled as a comedy, I frankly just did not get it and subsequently did not find it funny. But I have a difficult time with what is funny in different cultures as humor can be a very culture-centric concept. Another distracting aspect of this series is also a flaw (at least to me) reflective of Japanese BL and that is this constant use of ‘talking to oneself’ to explain actions. Several Japanese BLs use the technique of talking out loud as if they are having conversations with themselves. This is getting overused and tends to 'lead' the audience into what they should be feeling rather than what is.Was this review helpful to you?
A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing
I must confess that I knew nothing, and I mean nothing, about the world of Omegaverse especially as it pertains to the BL genre. I found, overall, this diegesis confusing and the dynamics of the plot messy, empty, and frankly hard to follow. However, that is not the only reason why I so intensely disliked this series. It is a ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’, which I detested even more. Whether one likes to admit it or not, this story is filled with pervasive ugly bullying, abuse of all various kinds, toxic masculinity, rape, rampant sociopathic personality disorders, over-the-top arrogance, and perceived entitled overindulgence. Why is all this not seen? Because of the stunningly handsome men who sugar-coat it with wit, charm, astonishing good-looks (eye-candy), and persuasive discourse. In a sense, these super-rich guys can do no wrong for the sole reason being the status of who and what they are. If this series had been portrayed with other than handsome men (e.g. pot-bellied, acned-faced, balding with missing teeth middle-aged guys instead), what would our reaction be?Was this review helpful to you?
Mixed bad as in any reality show
I must warn you that my perspective of this series is not all moonbeams and unicorns. I am not going to praise this series merely for the sake of praising it. Perhaps it is ground-breaking in the sense that it is a gay dating show in the Philippines and for that it deserves applause, unquestionably. As an outsider looking in, I did not understand its concept. I also had a serious issue as to how these 10 were chosen and more importantly vetted. I do not think it was random and my sense was that most were chosen based on social media connections and status in life. And some seemed relatively new to the whole concept of being gay or even if they were gay. I am not trying to negate in any way those who were chosen but with a country of nearly 114 million souls, there are not 10 out and proud unhesitatingly GAY guys from all walks of life, rich and poor, that are willing to be on a ‘reality’ show about finding a guy to ‘spark’ with? With no complications? And I cringe when I see the cavalier way we ogle and view people who share deeply personal secrets and vulnerabilities publicly. While it might be entertaining and, to some extent, hard not to watch, it is deeply personal and maybe cathartic but not necessarily therapeutic or healthy or always good to so freely share. Sometimes the whole world does not need to know or see our deepest vulnerabilities. I both liked and disliked this series, but mostly lean towards the latter. know the ‘good feeling’ we get from initially watching this series and for those participating in this series. But I am apprehensive it will be short-lived, unfortunately. For a whole lot of reasons.You can read my full review at BLBliss.com.
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What Was Its Point?
This is a prime example of how to turn a bad series into an even worse one by not knowing what your direction is. And we can see it slipping away because of the lack of perspective. If this series had some sort of direction, it could have been good. If they were going for comedy, they failed miserably. If they were going for some sort of mystery, it also bombed. However, in my opinion and why I think this series worked a little is that they (I think, or I hope) were going for a ‘tongue-and-cheek’ approach to humor. But never went far enough with what they were doing to make that work.Was this review helpful to you?
This Series is a Example of Effrontery
This series is very confusing and a bit incomprehensible. Frankly that is due to the awful behaviors of all three of the main characters. No one acts with any kind of honestly or reality. How can you possibly fall in love with an individual who just stole your job knowingly? Everyone is plotting and scheming behind everyone else's back and how does this make for solid relationships? I did like how the title comes into play which you find out at the very end. Wish that the rest of the series was as relatable as that. Kind of a disappointment for me.Was this review helpful to you?
Kinky But Intensely Loving
I loved this gem of a BL that had so many viewers clutching their pearls and being disgusted by its content. That I found odd and a bit disingenuous. For most BL watchers, there are seemingly no issues with quite popular BLs that have blatant sexual abuse, often paired with strong emotional and physical abuse as well. Oh, sometimes it is subtly committed by stunningly handsome characters to make it palpable, or they are produced humorously, or even sweetly displayed, and yet somehow, all of that passes muster. In fact, there is a whole subgenre of Bl literally devoted to abuse with hardly a peep and is called ‘innovative’. Where this series fell is in its production value. The script was generally weak and the editing in place was atrocious. Sound was inconsistent in many places. Although I honestly thought the two actors had good screen chemistry, the direction on what to do and how to do it was graceless and appeared fumbly. If you are going to do a series related to a specific genre like BDSM, then study the subject matter and make it look like these guys like it, or hate it, or one was into or and the other was not, or were uncomfortable – anything that gave us more emotional reaction so we know how they are actually feeling. It seemed quixotic.Was this review helpful to you?
