genie234
Australia
This review may contain spoilers
A Repetitive Jealousy Story
This show really had the potential to be great but the execution of the story made it hard to love. I think the characters could have been very enjoyable to watch and at the start they all were. Unfortunately, after we got halfway through the series it started going downhill and from the ninth episode onwards it became a complete trainwreck.
Acting:
The acting in this show was absolutely amazing. It was really exciting to see all the actors from BLs we had seen in the past. We had BL royalty Singto, but we alsosaw actors from shows like Until We Meet Again, Love by Chance, Y the Series, Together With Me, Oxygen, The Shipper (sort of BL), and Lovely Writer. I really wish Bruce had played a bigger part in this show. The actors portrayal of their characters was fantastic and even though I didn't like some of the characters their chemistry was great.
Additionally, the chemistry between Singto and Tae was brilliant and it's probably the main thing I liked about this show. Yoon and Yacht were really great too and I wish they got a bit more screen time. It was great seeing Yacht acting in a BL couple as a more introvert person, as much as I love seeing him play more playful roles.
Camera Work and Editing:
The overall production was fantastic. The filming quality was extremely high. The show was beautiful to watch and the colours were fantastic. It was also great to see the beautiful art produced. The camera work was really great and helped in telling the story to the audience.
Writing:
The writing in Paint With Love was all over the place and is what I'm going to discuss the most. Paint With Love has a good premise. I love to see non-college BLs. Using art and painting as a big part of the storyline was very original. Initially it was meeting my expectations, Maze and Phap had the opposites attract thing going on and we also had an workplace story going with all the accidents. I was hoping to see both Maze and Phap make each other better people and see them tackle the work place. Unfortunately we didn't get that.
The writing really struggled to make me feel emotions that were trying to be conveyed. For example when Maze in episode 11 felt sad that Phap had left to Japan, it was almost like we were meant to feel sorry for him, but I honestly couldn't garner any ounce of sympathy for him since he treated Phap like shit for most of the show. Another example was Nueng's attempts to make Maze feel his true feelings by saying awful things about Phap. It really felt like an attempt to make him like some hero but he just came off as a prick and bully. Worse yet Maze never defended him.
Another issue I had with the writing was Maze's character was so inconsistent. He had three different personalities in this show - the professional stoic one, the kind sweet softie, the cunning guy (in episode 11). Also there was no development to each one. Basically the writers picked which ever one would serve their purpose for each scene. Unfortunately this lack of consistency made Maze annoying because half the time I was thinking why is he behaving like this now.
The misunderstanding conflict plot lines were the most annoying and overused part of the show. The main one being Maze and Nueng as lovers which was used countless times to drive a wedge between Maze and Phap, and Nueng and Tharn anytime any of these couples made any progress. Keeping the misunderstanding plot going, got in the way of any development of the romance and the characters. Maze was still quite a selfish prick even up until episode 10/11 and Phap had barely changed too. Any real development appeared to happen in episode 12 and this was limited. This made for an unsatisfying resolution when the couples did finally properly get together.
I think there would have been potential in the sabotage plotline a bit further and got rid of the repeated jealousy scenes. I still want to know who took out Nueng with that jetski.
Extra Note:
I want to talk about episode 11 because it was the most confusing. Episode 11 felt like a completely different director took over. We saw Maze and Nae break the fourth wall which was weird to me because the director hadn't chosen to engage the audience in any previous episode. Then we had this sort of deviation of Maze, Nae, Tharn, and Nueng tackling Pookie even though both were broken hearted. I have an issue with how transwoman are used in BLs. It seems all too common to vilify them. I was also disappointed that the way they took Pookie down was not by proving she is rips people off but finding out she sexual assaulted. It really ruined the suaveness of the Maze and Nae take down.
Acting:
The acting in this show was absolutely amazing. It was really exciting to see all the actors from BLs we had seen in the past. We had BL royalty Singto, but we alsosaw actors from shows like Until We Meet Again, Love by Chance, Y the Series, Together With Me, Oxygen, The Shipper (sort of BL), and Lovely Writer. I really wish Bruce had played a bigger part in this show. The actors portrayal of their characters was fantastic and even though I didn't like some of the characters their chemistry was great.
Additionally, the chemistry between Singto and Tae was brilliant and it's probably the main thing I liked about this show. Yoon and Yacht were really great too and I wish they got a bit more screen time. It was great seeing Yacht acting in a BL couple as a more introvert person, as much as I love seeing him play more playful roles.
Camera Work and Editing:
The overall production was fantastic. The filming quality was extremely high. The show was beautiful to watch and the colours were fantastic. It was also great to see the beautiful art produced. The camera work was really great and helped in telling the story to the audience.
Writing:
The writing in Paint With Love was all over the place and is what I'm going to discuss the most. Paint With Love has a good premise. I love to see non-college BLs. Using art and painting as a big part of the storyline was very original. Initially it was meeting my expectations, Maze and Phap had the opposites attract thing going on and we also had an workplace story going with all the accidents. I was hoping to see both Maze and Phap make each other better people and see them tackle the work place. Unfortunately we didn't get that.
The writing really struggled to make me feel emotions that were trying to be conveyed. For example when Maze in episode 11 felt sad that Phap had left to Japan, it was almost like we were meant to feel sorry for him, but I honestly couldn't garner any ounce of sympathy for him since he treated Phap like shit for most of the show. Another example was Nueng's attempts to make Maze feel his true feelings by saying awful things about Phap. It really felt like an attempt to make him like some hero but he just came off as a prick and bully. Worse yet Maze never defended him.
Another issue I had with the writing was Maze's character was so inconsistent. He had three different personalities in this show - the professional stoic one, the kind sweet softie, the cunning guy (in episode 11). Also there was no development to each one. Basically the writers picked which ever one would serve their purpose for each scene. Unfortunately this lack of consistency made Maze annoying because half the time I was thinking why is he behaving like this now.
The misunderstanding conflict plot lines were the most annoying and overused part of the show. The main one being Maze and Nueng as lovers which was used countless times to drive a wedge between Maze and Phap, and Nueng and Tharn anytime any of these couples made any progress. Keeping the misunderstanding plot going, got in the way of any development of the romance and the characters. Maze was still quite a selfish prick even up until episode 10/11 and Phap had barely changed too. Any real development appeared to happen in episode 12 and this was limited. This made for an unsatisfying resolution when the couples did finally properly get together.
I think there would have been potential in the sabotage plotline a bit further and got rid of the repeated jealousy scenes. I still want to know who took out Nueng with that jetski.
Extra Note:
I want to talk about episode 11 because it was the most confusing. Episode 11 felt like a completely different director took over. We saw Maze and Nae break the fourth wall which was weird to me because the director hadn't chosen to engage the audience in any previous episode. Then we had this sort of deviation of Maze, Nae, Tharn, and Nueng tackling Pookie even though both were broken hearted. I have an issue with how transwoman are used in BLs. It seems all too common to vilify them. I was also disappointed that the way they took Pookie down was not by proving she is rips people off but finding out she sexual assaulted. It really ruined the suaveness of the Maze and Nae take down.
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