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Love With Benefits thai drama review
Completed
Love With Benefits
22 people found this review helpful
by jpny01
Dec 15, 2021
5 of 5 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 5.5
Story 6.0
Acting/Cast 5.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 1.0

Fatally Dull

I have to be honest, this is one of the worst BLs I've ever seen. It's not offensively bad, it's just relenetlessly dull and bloodless. I don't want to waste your time with too much detail, so bullet points:

- The story was a good idea, but it was just a setting and did nothing to explore behind the scenes of the BL genre, at least not in any realistic and meaningful way. That would be OK, if not for:
- The lack of chemistry between the leads. I'm not sure if that's the actors' fault - the script was weak and the directing especially bad. That's the first time I've gotten bored and ff a love scene.
- The acting is lackluster. It's not embarassingly bad, it's just lifeless. I've seen Gameplay and Best in other things and they were both really good. But all the positioning was so awkward and unnatural - again, I think the directing.
- The editing is rushed, but I understand the production was such a wreck that the actors had to do a lot of the editing, so kudos for that, but it didn't really save the drama. Or I should say "drama', because:
- I get product placement, but this whole series was just a vehicle for marketing supermarket products like makeup and cheap icecream.
- The character of Penelope is truly awful. She spends the whole series sexually harassing the acting coach - relentlessly and without mercy, to the point I would have taken legal action in his place. It was very uncomfortable and yet another miserable portrayal of a trans character as a ridiculous and pathetic man-starved predator.

I can't recommend this, even for Gameplay fans. I came out of this wondering if he was as good as a thought he was, and he's always been one of my favorite actors.
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