CurlyFries

This season just felt like a downgrade compared to the first one in almost every manner. The songs didn't slap as hard, the acting still sucked, and the plot became more absurd.

Listen, I know the title says "Dark Side," but I didn't really think it was about to me viscerally disturbed by the end. Why is this season tagged as "comedy" and "romance"? This should be a psychological horror......I say this because the implications by the end are horrifying. But, I'll get to that later.

Season one's writing was no cake walk, but it at least had a charm to it that made it so absurd that it became hilarious. But this one? I can't say the same. It just felt like this whole season was about stupid love triangles involving Yuri and Keifer. No, seriously, why are these guys ALWAYS going for the same girls? And then they act all surprised when they have beef and yet MAYBE just don't argue over women you barely know? How are these guys even friends anymore? They are so petty and possessive over whatever (whoever) the other has! Every episode was just Jay-jay flipflopping between the two of them and the jealously fits from them NEVER end. Every. Episode. The other characters seem to become more irrelevant compared to season one and almost no one matters except the main three. The only other plot that seemed to be interesting was the one with Percy, but that is so poorly explained and blue-balling the audience until the end of the season that I stopped caring. This show also can't stop relying on how everyone gets kidnapped every time they need something to spice the plot up. This girl Jay-jay has been getting consistently kidnapped since before the start of the series! How she hasn't developed a sixth sense for it yet amazes me. Then her ex-boyfriend comes back and attacks her in public facilities! What is even happening in the plot anymore???

The acting was terrible per usual. Though, to no one's surprise, Keifer's remained the worst. His "YURI, YOU'RE WASTING YOUR STRENGTH!" remains embedded in my brain. I just couldn't take any scene with him in it seriously because of how terrible the line delivery was. The others pale in comparison so I don't think I even need to mention them, but they aren't particularly good either.

I don't know if I was just seeing things, but I swear the lighting was weird in a lot of scenes this season. It was like they had the lights shining so bright that things became fuzzy and it was really distracting. The opening also didn't slap the same as it did in season one.

The characters were absolutely butchered this season. Why are they written so terribly?:
- Jay-jay suddenly seems much weaker and co-dependent on the abusive men around her, and she can't make just address the situation with Yuri and Keifer properly even though she so clearly likes Keifer. Then, her family is abysmal and I couldn't stand them. They just sold off their teenage niece/cousin and then have the audacity to say they "didn't know how to tell [her]." YES YOU DID. This is literally a horror scenario for women (and anyone probably). She agrees to it to help her family, but then she has a not-so-secret affair with Keifer RIGHT after; so what was even the point then?! And can her mom please be booted from the family? How is she even allowed to keep bringing her new boy-toys to her relative's home? Put your foot down and send her away! Aries and Jay-jay are right to hate her. Also, I hate how she is so forgiving of the guy that literally drugged and attempted to rape her. She doesn't even seem phased whatsoever, and instead seems to view it in a joking manner. Why is her main concern how her shirt is inside out, if Keifer and Yuri saw her naked, and that she could've been knocked up like Grace???? How about how you were almost violated in a horrifying way......but no, the guys in the class cared far more than she did, and then she is critical of them for it. How does a girl that has been abused so much she has traumatic episodes and breakdowns around dangerous figures from her past have no reaction to someone that she liked doing something so awful to her? And then she even forgives and chats with him! What the fuck!
- Yuri was fucking weird this entire season. What the hell do you mean that you asked for the arranged marriage and then expected her to love you back.....? You literally planned to trap her with an arranged marriage that she can't refuse if she cares for her family. Then he flipflops between understanding of Jay-jay to then being jealous easily. It was soooo exhausting watching this weird feedback loop. Him getting with Freya in the past made no sense either and I was so confused on that plot. His weird switching between being a protective guy into then just watching as everyone lies and gets handsy with the fiancé he supposedly "loves" is fucking strange too.
- Keifer is definitely the worst part of this season. He suddenly becomes domestically abusive and screams at a clearly emotionally abused girl that he "loves." Horrors of the patriarchy. The scene where he forcefully pushes her against a wall and threatens her is terrifying, yet she just brushes past it and the guy isn't punished for it at all. He acts like a mega douche to all of his friends too. Always yelling and accusing them of nonsense. He also won't stop butting into Jay-jay's business and shows up unannounced all the time. Having the audacity to claim he doesn't want to be like his dad but then screams at an abused girl and mistreated Freya too. I get that the story is trying to show how he is fighting against his anger issues he learned from his father, but I seriously don't think they're going about it right. I felt terrified for Jay-jay. I also felt bad for his friends.
- Aries. Dear god, his whole small arc felt USELESS this entire season. What do you mean we're gonna get a whole background and secret sibling reveal from him along with him fighting for Jay-jay's sake in the last season ONLY TO SUDDENLY HAVE HIM SAY HE DOESN'T CARE ABOUT HER WELLBEING AT ALL??? Make it make sense. As someone that is very close with their sibling, I cannot stand this guy as an older brother. How can he just swap between caring and then not caring so easily? That is not how true sibling bonding works. As such, he must've not really cared from the beginning, or the writing sucks (I wonder which one it is!).
- David. He gets a special section to himself because I HATE what they did to him in the last episode. He was one of my favorite characters in both of the seasons UNTIL they made him kiss a distressed Jay-jay out of FUCKING NOWHERE!!! The first season even joked about how he didn't actually like her as anything more than a friend, but now he acts like a weirdo to 'justify' Keifer's subsequent outburst. Even thought David did everything in order for his girlfriend (that he loved very dearly) to get treatment. But then he kisses a girl that is dating his friend when she is in distress. Garbage.
- The other characters. Catty women and sidelined supporting dudes. Of course we have to have to ultra-feminine divas that are bitches but it's "justified" somehow. Freya, maybe Jay-jay views you as a bitch when you first met because THAT'S WHAT YOU SHOWED HER! And of course, the other guys in the class feel like they are irrelevant except for Ci-N and the two gay guys for like half an episode. But Ci-N feels less funny, and the gay guys are also somehow jerks or weirdos to Jay-jay so their representation is dogwater.

Then, of course, the ending and its implications are the worst part of this season. The whole season has been showing the red flags of Keifer and the last episode seals the deal with him literally slut-shaming Jay-jay and humiliating her. And yet, this man will inevitably be endgame. This becomes ten times more disturbing when you remember how the season shows firsthand how Jay-jay has been getting abused by people her whole life; her current family sold her off, and her friends have been lying to the whole show. She is severely traumatized, yet the man that threatens her, screams in her face, sexually harasses, and manhandles her will be her eventual partner for life. She is treated like a trading token by her family, as well as beaten often and almost raped on account of her association with her love interest. Meanwhile, her brother and fiancé are aware but watch from afar half of the time. Ella was framed as a spiteful mean girl, but she was on to something when she warned Jay-jay that being with Keifer won't go anywhere good; she will never be free from the cycle of abuse.

That's all I really had to say. I think this season should be considered a psychological horror depicting the torments of a girl under the patriarchal cycle of abuse. Threatened, slut-shamed, beaten, sexually assaulted, and sold off. But alas, the story will be wrapped up as a romance. Somehow.

I fear for Jay-jay's future. (╥╯⌒╰╥๑)