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My Day philippines drama review
Dropped 3/12
My Day
13 people found this review helpful
by FreshKicks
Oct 9, 2020
3 of 12 episodes seen
Dropped 4
Overall 7.0
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 7.0
This review may contain spoilers

UPDATE: Not the worst ever - I should not have overreacted

NOTE: After many months of watching one horrible, low-budget BL after another, I now look back on my reaction to 'My Day' and realize I overreacted. In retrospect it doesn't deserve the rating I originally gave it, which was '1.0's across the board.

I've thought about rewriting the review but part of me thinks that would be a cop-out, like I'm trying to avoid my mistake. So I'll leave the writing intact but raise the score.

'My Day' is not a masterpiece by any means, but wow, I had no idea what the future had in store. Mea culpa!

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'My Day' is the BL series that asks: How badly do you want to watch two straight men pretend to be in a relationship?

Be careful how you answer, because watching this series might make your eyes bleed.

'My Day' is more than a disaster -- it's a sign of the BL Apocalypse. It's the result of BL fans blindly throwing their support behind anything that calls itself BL.

This series is so blissfully terrible that the only explanation I have for it is that it's a cash-grab exploitation ploy. No time or effort was put into anything related to the production except for product placements and the superficialities that might draw viewers to it for the first time -- things such as the attractiveness of the main leads and some of the costumes and set design. To me the rest is meant to just take the money and run.

In the world of commerce, anything that becomes popular will result in imitators who seek to profit by making fake versions of the original. As my MDL username implies, one of my hobbies is collecting sneakers, and in the sneaker world this is something that happens constantly. There's a whole underground industry of black-marketeers who quickly manufacture 'replicas' of popular shoes and cash in by selling them at a fraction of what the real thing would cost. At first glance these replicas seem authentic, but upon close inspection you realize that the materials are shoddy, the colors are off, and the construction is terrible.

'My Day' strikes me as the first replica of a BL series. Nothing about it feels authentic or sincere.

The acting is abysmal. It's as though every scene was filmed with one take. As I watched the initial episodes I wondered if the cast had done any kind of workshopping where they could delve into the personae of their characters, understanding their motivations, hopes, fears, and life history. Because in 'My Day', instead of characterizations what we get is people 'behaving' in order to create new 'situations' at the whim of the writers. Instead of a coherent plot we get a mad dash to throw as many BL tropes at the screen as possible. From one episode to the next -- or even from scene to scene -- characters are deployed indifferently, exhibiting behaviors that have no relation to what they were like in earlier scenes.

For example, when we're first introduced to Sky we learn that he's a top culinary student whose hard work has led to a much-coveted internship at a famous bakery. Sky stands proudly among his classmates as he's recognized for his accomplishments, exuding the kind of maturity that we'd expect from a top student. But then, just a few scenes later on his first day of the internship, when the president of the company -- Ace, a notoriously demanding and ill-tempered CEO -- is meeting the new hires for the first time, we see Sky sitting just a few feet away, indifferently checking his phone and paying zero attention to what Ace is saying.

This of course leads the two into a tense confrontation, but as a viewer you're left puzzled. Is this really how a top student would act? In that same scene just moments before, the employees had adamantly warned the new hires about how terrifying Ace can be when he's angry, but the screenwriters are so eager to engineer a confrontation between Ace and Sky that they resort to a completely unbelievable scenario for it to happen.

Later on, after Sky has done more than enough to get himself thrown out of the internship, he goes to Ace's office to beg for one more chance. What does the script have him do? Well, just that, of course, and nothing else: beg. "Please, Mr. Ace ... please, please!"

And that's it! (Someone give that writer an award!)

Never mind that Sky's appeal for mercy could have included something about himself or his family that might have an impact on Ace, making it the first time that an employee has stirred him in a way that makes him take notice and want to forgive. No, because that might have required some actual creativity.

Nevertheless, despite the lack of imagination in Sky's appeal, Ace does decide to give him another chance, because in the lamebrain world of 'My Day' a character will act completely contrary to their reputation without any explanation. Everything is at the service of the screenwriters as they hurry to shuffle us from one drama trope to the next.

I know there are plenty of series that people will say have had worse acting, worse writing, or worse production design than 'My Day', and, based on some of the comments here and on Twitter and YouTube I know there are people who actually think this steaming pile is a masterpiece.

What those other 'bad' series have that 'My Day' lacks is a sincere attempt to bring a consistent narrative to the screen. Despite the challenges (and a likely lack of budget) they strive to deliver an engaging story. The cast actually rehearses, and you can sense that they're really trying to create characters who have a motivation for everything they do.

It's a sad day for BL when hucksters can perpetrate a fraud like 'My Day' on a trusting fandom, and even sadder when the fans feed the monster by proudly celebrating it. We only get the kind of BL that we deserve, and if we insist on rewarding a dumpster fire like 'My Day' then I promise we'll only get more of the same, and we'll have only ourselves to blame.

As it happens, earlier this week, as I wondered 'What series could possibly be worse than this one?', I inadvertently found my answer on YouTube when I stumbled on an announcement that there will be a 'My Day: Season Two'.

Yes, the people behind this hot mess are going to give themselves a chance to outdo themselves....

May the BL gods have mercy on our souls.
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