wasteland

Premise sets high expectations, they all fall to hell by the second half...

I liked the first 6 eps, rest all dipped imo. Shin-hye's best performance easily. But, i just hated the later half and couldn't bring myself to finish this. Such a bummer it went to the route of rom, but it is made an essential with the prophecy being either of them dies, calling for an intertwined relationship which is forbidden much and burdening and scaling their lives against one another.

I couldn't feel a tinge of chemistry and it felt forced, like how did you catch feelings and go that far? You can't define distinguish if it's out of bloodlust to murder the sk(serial killer/the satan) or out of pursuits and protection of her and their love.

Just boring and the valato wtever she was had good expressions that I'd poke a fork but she gets discarded and sided off, she was at least a bit interesting. Bael is like another character i have a no say to, he is just a plot device idk the ending so god knows what goes there(gods of hell prolly- isn't that him...nvm) her assistant/servant forgot his name was a funny and the cleaning service men too

Also the whole det team adds no value later, it was good to see dynamics and fun banter before. Even with dan-oh and bitna we had a few worthy interactions where they had just different stances in opinions and moral working.

Few things that are worth the mention is how we get a perspective into the Victim's families and affected parties outlook on their grief, suffering and trauma; remarkable acting by the 6th/5th ep killer dude who faked DID, her outfits mwah!!

Read More

This would have worked as a movie!

Dropped around ep 5. i cant watch any longer. It feels like a chore I'm forced to do when I'm all snuggled up in my bed, like your relatives drop by to hang out and you are required to join the crowd. Such an inconvenient and lengthy situational instance.

Visually beautiful and really good setting and backdrops though. In terms of characters and plot, pacing all exhausting. I think they should have focused more on carving characters out, we did get their through process which feels like they were reading a script technically right! Like surfacing their struggles or way of living rather than showing how each personality contrasted from one another or their choices. I'm mainly talking about the first couple cause my beef is with them with the story mostly covering their side.

Their banter so dull and often times feels repetative. The few scenes are not long enough to connect with someone, I'm not them so I can't decide that yup! As for the chemistry its non-existent. I know this is a "melo" but, for a build up of the turmoil of emotions, bitter conflicts in their relationship there is a need for a concrete romantic story that makes you want to consider that they deserve to have a second chance in love come on even the first time they briefly got together feels abrupt and forced too. The time skip was too big and the characters are now assigned job titles and are well....settled a bit i guess, again just cutting down on a lot of process that could have given us an outlook on how they got to where they are now.

Everything feels redundant and contrived, nothing natural nor is the pain or the trauma, the ups and downs of people in 30s trying to reach their dreams and manage relationships with a vision of melo-romance(?) Idk the description was kinda like that. Anyways it fails majorly, this is a wasted potential with a sloppy direction, characters that lacked depth and no emotional connection and plot is just a plain dried bread sitting on counter for too long.

Osts and the cinematography is good, the casting stellar in terms of visuals too but its all nah-nah-uh for me with how bad it's going. I do like Kim jae-wook and love him here with the mullet and playing a considerate, consumed in guilt/helplessly dependent yet is a good companion, optimistic and a reliable bro to gyeom role. Also the director was an interesting chummy character.

5/10 or maybe 6/10.

Read More

Abuser X Victim: Traumatic God Awful Show!

I don't know where to start with this. I'm so tired right now. I'll try to be succinct, doubt that's gonna happen though. Double Helix is supposed to be symbolic of their relationship. Of our (ugh not mine) two main characters: Yi Chen and Lu Feng who crossed paths in high-school, found each other in college again and reconnected promising a forever love and a future together, but on contrary the Double Helix is one a zig-zag line another a squiggly line, the latter getting attacked by the former because love made it blind and also gave it a mental illness.

Lu Feng, A rich spoiled kid- brat, entitled, and inhuman selfish piece of shit. Yi Chen, our poor victim, warm-hearted dumb dumb, timid and dumb. God! I don't have adjectives for this guy other than those.

See now how I didn't have much to talk about Yi Chen, since other than being a victim and his whole life revolving around the other protagonist. We don't get much on him. Like his dreams, ambitions and a set of things he wanted for himself in his life. He lacks much of his personality(not talking about behavior). We see him hustling around, being told he is a great at this that, and we never see him being assertive, his cafe business also barely running. I hate that we are never given anything convincing to show he had a life of his own, he also turn into his assistant WTF BRO? YOU WORKED IN DESIGN OR SMTG. On the other hand, we have his brother but, we can easily see how he is different from him. He has dreams, he loves his family, and he is childish but guarded, his love life: healthy and supporting comparatively.

Lu Feng, from a strict rich family. But, he too is pathetically written like Yi Chen so there ain't much going on here and I don't care about him anyways. He has a company to inherit that's on stake because no gay, estranged relations, abusive father. He isn't passionate about anything else, other than Yi Chen. He doesn't care about anyone, not even Yi Chen.

Now let's talk about *drumroll* The Problematic Plot: It begins in high school, ML likes the other ML,Yi Chen because he has a nice smile? I don't remember much (thanks brain) Lu Feng, pretending to get hurt using this thin guy everytime, doing stupid things to get his attention. (Also they fucking ran in their school uniform not gym clothes bruh) College days and it continues more, Lu Feng is soooo pushy, all over Yi Chen, so much sexual harrasment gets excused here it was so hard to witness. From here on Yi Chen is done for, for life!

He doesn't care about the feelings of his partner, and whether he is ready or not for physical intimacy. He forces him to have sex[RAPE], also always when he needs to get Yi Chen to abide him he manipulated this guy in the name of love and their stupid vows. It was honestly so hard to watch those scenes where I expected clumsiness, gentle patience and understanding.

From here it spirals from one conflict to another, seperation after seperation from ep 2 onwards. So, the rest of 10 eps spanned over several years just doing this stupid continuous fall outs and second chances. Where we see more concerning debilitating, call the cops situations presented by: Lu Feng. Yi Chen gets conditioned to give in to everything because Lu Feng's abusive behavior and his rampant insecurity in their relationship controls as Yi Chen tries to refuse and so, he submits. I don't know if this guy is into it but at some point of time it is hard to distinguish whether he doing this because he is a masochist or because he is completely stuck in the bottomless pit of a hellhole that he believes as love and life.

Series of events unravel just to drag on plot and reach new heights in enabling the more of shit Lu Feng does as he never understands or is made to feel the weight of his actions. He selfishly paints Yi Chen as a villain for caring for his family who have been there for him his whole life. He doesn't acknowledge that he brought doom to both of his family members. Bipolar disorder doesn't justify his skewed morality. We never see him having episodes in the first place, if they were building towards this, they should show apparent and believable symptoms of the illness. Even if we were to say he was having an episode during that time when he did that. We never see the aftermath of his remorse or regret for causing harm. He just sucks as a human being, maybe with another mental illness or bunch.

Then Lu Feng drugs him, locks him up and constantly verbally, sexually abused him to the point that Yi Chen attempts suicide. After this utter depravity, rooting for them to end up together, wanting someone like him, and considering what Lu Feng did as righteous and out of love and out of yearning is fucking messed up. And arguing it is not real and it is acceptable because it's fiction is seriously vile. I don't care how everyone perceives it, if you enjoy it fine but calling it acceptable because it's fiction still negates the feelings a fictional character, for whom fiction it be, is real, the abuse happens there and he suffers A LOT.

I don't want to see homosexuals represented like this, nor would I accept a straight drama such. But, how it's disgustingly incessant and appreciated is concerning as it's being romanticized. Media such desensitizes the intensity of abuse and demoralizes the autonomy and feelings of the victim in whole. We see the exact same thing happen to Yi Chen and the drama brushed past the rape and trauma inflicted from it as if it was a phase in their relationship. He is an abuser, criminal, a rapist. He should be condemned and jailed lifetime. Yet, he is fawned over and excused because man he has mental illness.

Yi Chen goes back again for fucks sakes, I hated this drama so much for this. I don't care if Lu Feng cries that little shit uses his tears to shackle this guy and man does Yi Chen loves chains. He needs to be freed, he needs therapy, he should've been involuntarily taken to get medical help, we could've saved him but no, we need to give them a fucked up ending.

Yet Lu Feng, a criminal is free, And with a mental illness for the last episode. Stupid foreboding from ep 11, but wasn't expecting a sorry excuse of a mental disorder, wrongly diagnosed that too. And the whole episode is written even badly lol. None of it makes sense, from showing all patient records to not a guardian, disguised as a lover to check on your patient's obsession and not knowing that your patient is fucking vermin with an abuse history!! who needs to be kept away from the victim because he is a walking hazard with fragility of glass. Just because he has a mental illness doesn't means he can just get away with all of the fucking crimes he committed. Utterly bullshit. Well, dumb drama. I hate that Lu Feng gets that much understanding at his vulnerability of his mental illness(??) when the same is not offered when Yi Chen actually goes through worse and life threatening.

Seeing Yi Chen happy family made me hope that his parents would be supportive towards his sexual orientation, but writer made them die bitterly and making their children extremely sad and resentful(if not them, i am) too. The second couple was decent, only sane thing in the show. I just appreciated that it was a healthy relationship.

Complaining about the brother is dumb, he is fictional ffs bleh and right where he is coming from expect when he says that they(lu and xi) should get together that, a no! The siblings actually has a good relationship which was nice. The only thing that I liked about the mcs was the recorded video of their relationship montage in their college days played in ep 2 I think, that was cute and should've been the whole plot. 1 star considering all that. I can't rate it nothing or negative either so yeah.

A lot of the characters never appear again, the second couple barely gets any screentime. The acting is just okay, I didn't feel any chemistry between the characters, they kiss because their faces are close not because there is some tension. I didn't pay much attention to the OST since the show spends most of it's screentime ragebaiting me.

This was my first Toxic BL or whatever we call this stupid genre I don't know why such themes exist in the first place when they are gonna end up together and it is a happily ever after, given the horrifying things that are inflicted on one by their so called love interest and endgame. It doesn't offer any meaningful perspective cause I definitely don't want to understand or empathize with an abuser who, in question is never made to suffer the consequences of their actions. Not like a redemption arc would save his wretchedness, definitely ending that stupid relationship would've saved it some face and I would've tried to accept that the conflicts and abuse he endured finally over and he would get therapy and healing, finding purpose in his life.

So what's the point of Double Helix? Nothing. It is a twisted horror story where abuser and victim end up together. Not recommended. Very triggering and agitating. Don't watch this garbage.

Read More