3
5
jpny01
This is a trainwreck.
I keep seeing the phrase "there's zero toxicity!" Sure, if you don't think kidnapping and torturing your love interest counts as toxicity, or infantilizing him or discussing him with his father without his knowledge, or being overarchingly controlling, or being enraged with jealousy everytime your boyfriend talks to another person. Question - toxic or not toxic: "I want to lock you up, preventing you from seeing anyone" and "there's a demon in my heart that could harm you at any time." Was I the only one shouting "Run, Fiat! Run!"
It's fine to have a D/s couple, but then you need to say it's a D/s couple and you need to see the couple agree to it. Otherwise, it looks like a psycopath and someone with Stockholm syndrome. Here Mame tried to have it both ways, and the result is not successful.
First and Ja have almost no physical chemistry at all. They have some cuddling chemistry, but that's about it. The actors are so obviously uncomfortable in the love scenes that it makes me squirm. There's always at least a foot of space between their bodies, which is quite an achievement in a sex scene. Leo always looks like he's planking over Fiat instead of f#@$ing him. And their love scenes are all exactly the same. You can count on several things: Leo will grab one or both of Fiat's hands and pin them by his head. His necklace will fall into Fiat's mouth and they'll kiss anyway, despite how that would feel on your teeth. I cringe just thinking about it. Also, metal doesn't taste good. That's why we don't eat it. And the planking.
There is no plot. I mean zero plot. Not even a teeny bit. Every week there's some sort of crisis manufactured that depends on an implausible failure of communication that will inevitably make Fiat cry, in exactly the same way he's cried in all the previous episodes, to the point that I wonder if they just shot it once and replay it every time anything at all happens, because anything at all will made him cry. Like sobbing, not adult crying. Then the crisis will be resolved with a handwave off-screen, but will be given in flashback later.
There's an ep where someone withholds from Leo info on a cartoonishly evil villain's plot to hurt Fiat unless he kisses her. So, does Leo discuss this with Fiat and come up with a course of action, or does he just tell Fiat to be on his guard (Fiat says OK and has no further questions, and Leo offers no context for what one might presume is a somewhat unusual thing to say) and kiss the girl? And if you were a betting person, what are the chances that Fiat will just happen to be on hand to witness something that took one second? This is the quality of the writing. It's so bad I sit staring with my mouth open, even though my expectations weren't really very high.
Fiat is a star athlete, and captain of the basketball team, yet he can't descend three stairs (to be fair, there might have been four stairs) without tripping, he can't tie his shoes without Leo, if he's been sobbing, which is 90% of the time, he has to be carried to bed by Leo, and he can't talk to his insane escaped-from-the-asylum mother without Leo's supervision. Leo doesn't even let Fiat battle his own evil twin by himself. (That last was made up, but if it happened it would surprise no one.) What happened to his kick-ass bad-boy character? I have a theory: In TT2, Fiat was pursuing Type, who is an uke, so he could be more aggressive and manly. Now he's with Leo, who's a huge seme Dom, so Fiat has been transmuted into the Über-uke - the most useless and fragile person ever to exist in a BL.
On to the positives: The secondary couple is so well-written that I suspect Mame has an assistant that wrote their story while her boss was off having virgin cat lady D/s fantasies about Ja, because it's really cute and healthy. Leon is aggressive, but always respectful and gentlemanly. I've seen people accuse him of being a rapey stalker, but he asked for permission to pursue Pob which Pob granted. At one point, he starts to lean in for a kiss, immediately and correctly reads Pob's body language, and aborts & apologizes for his behavior. Smart is not the world's best actor, but he's committed to the role, he's very charming, and he has a shockingly beautiful body which I wasn't expecting to see and was unprepared for. And a sweet smile, and he's not afraid of playing intimacy with another man - you really feel Leon's attraction for Pob, both physically and as a person. It's really sweet and cute.
What's more, although there's still a seme/uke dynamic at play, because Mame is incapable of imagining anything else, it's not typical Mame - Leon (the seme) is younger (although still taller, a barrier that will likely never be breached), and Pob is emotionally more mature and stronger, and is always in control, which I like - he's even the only person who will stand up to Leo & Leon's mother. He wants Leon, but he plays it cool and makes very sure Leon is serious before he's willing to let it happen. And when he's sure, he LETS IT HAPPEN, no "I'm a 19th c. 12-year old virgin, you can kiss me on the cheek once per week."
EDIT: The secondary couple are well-written from Ep 1-11. Ep 12 will make you want to go burn something down. Like Mame's house. But if you do, try to let all the cats out first. Also, have you ever tried to travel to a third-world country with a week's notice? Neither has Mame. Clearly.
I really can't recommend this. If you like the main couple and are liking the series, that feeling is not going to survive Ep 11 and you'll feel you wasted your time. I'd wait for a Leon/Pob cut and watch that.
1 for the writing. It's bad. 8 for Leon/Pob in Ep 1-11, negative 20,000 for Fiat/Leo, so I was generous and gave it a 1. Although I should subtract a point for the Leon/Pob ending, but nobody promised us a fairytale. Except they did because this was marketed as a BL. But there's nothing lower than a 1. So pretend it's a zero.
6 for the acting. If feels worse than a 6, but the material the boys had to work with was so inferior that I felt I should give them the benefit of the doubt.
5 for the music. I don't really notice it, so it's not great and not bad, and kudos for not having too many flashback scenes to sappy and overpowering ballads.
3 rewatch value. You'd have to hold a gun to my head to make me watch this again, but I will probably watch the naked Leon scene several hundred more times, so a 3. (Seriously, I would watch a Leon/Pob cut of ep 1-11, or maybe even FF through the series for their scenes).
4 overall. Probably an 8 for Leon/Pob (ep 1-11, pretending 12 didn't happen), but unfortunately they're not in it very much.
It's fine to have a D/s couple, but then you need to say it's a D/s couple and you need to see the couple agree to it. Otherwise, it looks like a psycopath and someone with Stockholm syndrome. Here Mame tried to have it both ways, and the result is not successful.
First and Ja have almost no physical chemistry at all. They have some cuddling chemistry, but that's about it. The actors are so obviously uncomfortable in the love scenes that it makes me squirm. There's always at least a foot of space between their bodies, which is quite an achievement in a sex scene. Leo always looks like he's planking over Fiat instead of f#@$ing him. And their love scenes are all exactly the same. You can count on several things: Leo will grab one or both of Fiat's hands and pin them by his head. His necklace will fall into Fiat's mouth and they'll kiss anyway, despite how that would feel on your teeth. I cringe just thinking about it. Also, metal doesn't taste good. That's why we don't eat it. And the planking.
There is no plot. I mean zero plot. Not even a teeny bit. Every week there's some sort of crisis manufactured that depends on an implausible failure of communication that will inevitably make Fiat cry, in exactly the same way he's cried in all the previous episodes, to the point that I wonder if they just shot it once and replay it every time anything at all happens, because anything at all will made him cry. Like sobbing, not adult crying. Then the crisis will be resolved with a handwave off-screen, but will be given in flashback later.
There's an ep where someone withholds from Leo info on a cartoonishly evil villain's plot to hurt Fiat unless he kisses her. So, does Leo discuss this with Fiat and come up with a course of action, or does he just tell Fiat to be on his guard (Fiat says OK and has no further questions, and Leo offers no context for what one might presume is a somewhat unusual thing to say) and kiss the girl? And if you were a betting person, what are the chances that Fiat will just happen to be on hand to witness something that took one second? This is the quality of the writing. It's so bad I sit staring with my mouth open, even though my expectations weren't really very high.
Fiat is a star athlete, and captain of the basketball team, yet he can't descend three stairs (to be fair, there might have been four stairs) without tripping, he can't tie his shoes without Leo, if he's been sobbing, which is 90% of the time, he has to be carried to bed by Leo, and he can't talk to his insane escaped-from-the-asylum mother without Leo's supervision. Leo doesn't even let Fiat battle his own evil twin by himself. (That last was made up, but if it happened it would surprise no one.) What happened to his kick-ass bad-boy character? I have a theory: In TT2, Fiat was pursuing Type, who is an uke, so he could be more aggressive and manly. Now he's with Leo, who's a huge seme Dom, so Fiat has been transmuted into the Über-uke - the most useless and fragile person ever to exist in a BL.
On to the positives: The secondary couple is so well-written that I suspect Mame has an assistant that wrote their story while her boss was off having virgin cat lady D/s fantasies about Ja, because it's really cute and healthy. Leon is aggressive, but always respectful and gentlemanly. I've seen people accuse him of being a rapey stalker, but he asked for permission to pursue Pob which Pob granted. At one point, he starts to lean in for a kiss, immediately and correctly reads Pob's body language, and aborts & apologizes for his behavior. Smart is not the world's best actor, but he's committed to the role, he's very charming, and he has a shockingly beautiful body which I wasn't expecting to see and was unprepared for. And a sweet smile, and he's not afraid of playing intimacy with another man - you really feel Leon's attraction for Pob, both physically and as a person. It's really sweet and cute.
What's more, although there's still a seme/uke dynamic at play, because Mame is incapable of imagining anything else, it's not typical Mame - Leon (the seme) is younger (although still taller, a barrier that will likely never be breached), and Pob is emotionally more mature and stronger, and is always in control, which I like - he's even the only person who will stand up to Leo & Leon's mother. He wants Leon, but he plays it cool and makes very sure Leon is serious before he's willing to let it happen. And when he's sure, he LETS IT HAPPEN, no "I'm a 19th c. 12-year old virgin, you can kiss me on the cheek once per week."
EDIT: The secondary couple are well-written from Ep 1-11. Ep 12 will make you want to go burn something down. Like Mame's house. But if you do, try to let all the cats out first. Also, have you ever tried to travel to a third-world country with a week's notice? Neither has Mame. Clearly.
I really can't recommend this. If you like the main couple and are liking the series, that feeling is not going to survive Ep 11 and you'll feel you wasted your time. I'd wait for a Leon/Pob cut and watch that.
1 for the writing. It's bad. 8 for Leon/Pob in Ep 1-11, negative 20,000 for Fiat/Leo, so I was generous and gave it a 1. Although I should subtract a point for the Leon/Pob ending, but nobody promised us a fairytale. Except they did because this was marketed as a BL. But there's nothing lower than a 1. So pretend it's a zero.
6 for the acting. If feels worse than a 6, but the material the boys had to work with was so inferior that I felt I should give them the benefit of the doubt.
5 for the music. I don't really notice it, so it's not great and not bad, and kudos for not having too many flashback scenes to sappy and overpowering ballads.
3 rewatch value. You'd have to hold a gun to my head to make me watch this again, but I will probably watch the naked Leon scene several hundred more times, so a 3. (Seriously, I would watch a Leon/Pob cut of ep 1-11, or maybe even FF through the series for their scenes).
4 overall. Probably an 8 for Leon/Pob (ep 1-11, pretending 12 didn't happen), but unfortunately they're not in it very much.
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