The Eclipse (2022)

Poor writing partially saved by a great cast

This was a real disappointment - the story had potential and some good ideas, but the execution was sloppy and the plot ran out of steam after a few episodes.

The acting is great with First as the standout, and Neo and Louis quite engaging whenever they had screentime. The music is also quite good, with well-chosen and moody background score that supported the story.

The problem was the writing. We started out with good ingredients - a story about tradition and authority vs modernity and individuality. At first it looked like we'd get an intelligent examination, with a quite excellent in-class argument in which the rebellious Ayan manipulates an authoritarian teacher into supporting his perspective while he takes hers - but it's like all the intelligence in the script went into that one exchange because it was never repeated.

Instead, the authors come down heavily on the side of freedom, equating rules with depression and suicide - which might have worked if he rules weren't so mild and commonplace - wear a school uniform like 90% of humanity as mandated by ministries of education, and don't use phones during class. Really? That's it? And the writing contradicts itself, as almost everything bad that happens is due to preoccupation with social media, so maybe phones were the problem after all.

The Curse of Suppalo was another interesting idea, which quickly petered out and became incidents so benign that people's OTT reactions to them were ridiculous.

There is a plot twist in Ep 11 that you won't see coming, largely because it isn't set up in the slightest and ends up requiring someone to behave totally out of character, and everyone else to behave out of character in their reaction to it - and since there are no consequences resulting at all, it's meaningless - just a random twist for no apparent reason.

The relationship between Akk and Ayan starts off interesting, but quickly degenerates into a string of tropes including the most stupid accidental kiss I've ever seen, by far - it's so bad I dropped the series and only picked it up again when everyone assured me it got better. It didn't. There is no real organic development between them - they're pushed together by stupid cliches and tropes, and it's never clear why they like each other, so you have to conclude it's a physical thing. I will say that I liked that they didn't do the seme-uke thing - in fact people in the forum argued over which was which.

This is basically a six-episode story stretched out to twelve. It really has nothing to say, and despite its promising introduction, was basically just a typical formulaic high school BL, albeit set in an all boys school, so we're at least spared the stock evil gf character, and it is refreshing that the characters are actually gay and identify as such.

The last episode is cloying and preachy. Nobody watching BL has a problem with homosexuality, so preaching to the choir is pretentious and irritating - plus the absolute ease with which coming out is accomplished and greeted sends no message - in fact it's a bit offensive in a story that has pretentions of social commentary and in its portrayal of depression and mental illness to just handwave away the most difficult and painful thing LGBTQ+ teens have to deal with.

I'm not sure I can recommend this. If you're a big fan of the cast, then I'd watch it - but otherwise it's a frustrating, shallow, formulaic melodrama. I doubt I'll have any recollection of it in three months.

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ECLIPSED POTENTIAL

What just happened? Is that it?

The promotions to this show oversold it as a mystery drama - but wat was promised to be an intriguing and unique (crime)unexplained death solving/revenge plot with a touch of supernatural turned out to be nothing but shallow build up.

The only saving grace is the cast - First and Khaotung are both too good for the scenes they could have done it even while sleeping. It is a shame that both stellar actors are not getting the right break to catapult them into proper BL idols, i thought this was it. Oh, I also thought they're too old to play high school, in shorts nonetheless.

Im sorry to say but nothing about the plot is successfully executed - the investigative-mystery solving arc turned out to be nothing but one nephew's cry for attention. The failed attempt of being a gay activism show (un)spectacularly influenced by the metoo movement is just preachy and pointless. The enemies-to-lovers angle was shoved in our faces but isnt even fully developed. Even the second pairing felt forced. And has anyone sensed a creepy teacher to student lovers vibe?

Also, you cannot make a story with two trying-hard psychopaths that put other students lives at risk (to advance their causes) just to literally make them get away with it at the end, there was no consequences and literally no risks. Everybody came out unscathed and everything is rainbows and butterflies by the end. Just no. It made the whole series pointless.

Episode 1 wasnt compelling enough, i stayed because of the cast. I was already too bored by episode 3 and i kind of forgot about it. Came back and binged the next 4 episodes but it didnt get better. I skipped it again and bitch watched (Im sorry, i meant to say binge watched) the rest after the finale aired. Im just glad i didnt wait for it every Friday.

We all know we have too much school BL drama now, and giving it a twist could have been interesting but man it is just a show with big potential but was eclipsed by the shallow execution.

Overall, 6.5 stars. watch it for the main leads otherwise ignore it if you have other things to watch.

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