3
5
jpny01
Good, but some wasted potential
This is a different kind of BL, with complex characters that aren't caricatures or archetypes like most BL characters. Even the "villain" isn't a villain.
The acting is superb, although a bit uneven, with Kris & Porsche playing Dome and Vee with a searing intensity in a forbidden love storyline, Boom & Jump a bit one-note but cute as Saen and Aii, and Tae & Suar in the middle as Fah and Thorn.
The cinematography and art design are the best I've seen in a BL, including I Told Sunset about You - it was stunning enough to carry me through the weaker parts of the story.
Which brings me to to the biggest problem with the series, which is the writing and pacing. The story is too ambitious for 12 episodes and too much was attempted. Unfortunately, the expedient chosen to get through it was time jumps. The jumps totally deflated the most exciting couple, Dome and Vee, and their story just died and I lost interest in it. They skipped over all the key scenes, like Dome & Vee's respective denouments with Pan, parting for Saen & Aii, etc.
The final drama between the main couple was insufficiently set up, and while the emotion and charactization was complex, realistic, and well-executed, Thorn made too many decisions that didn't make very much sense for his character - there were things he did that are understandable in the moment, but not in the long term, like the communications breakdown with Fah.
And the finale was a huge disappointment - an entire episode where nothing happened wasted on what could have been much-needed development for the secondary couples. In the end, the total lack of passion between the characters undermined any sense I had that anyone was in love - they all interacted like friends, with pecks on the cheek going where a love scene belonged. Considering how dark and mature the themes of the series were, the junior-high level of the romance (and that's being generous) made the whole series fall flat for me. Dome & Vee's final scene is a LOL product placement - it was mouth-hanging-open shocking to see such an electric couple ending in such a pathetic way.
I'm not saying there needed to be sweat-soaked love sex scenes - Vee & Dome had scenes were they weren't even touching that could burn a house down (before they became wet cardboard). But at no point did any of the other two couples, or Vee & Dome after the first time jump, feel like romantic pairs. Fah & Thorn feel like their roles were written for brothers, not lovers, and Saen & Aii's romance was primary school from beginning to end, with Aii never ceasing to act like he was afraid of getting cooties from Saen. If you replaced them with 8-year olds, the story would work just the same.
I still gave it a high rating, but there's no excuse for this not being a 10 with all the superlative ingredients it had.
Story: 7 - High points for complex characterizations, but poor marks for continuity and failure to bring stories to convinving conclusions and jumping over resolutions with lazy and enervating time-jumps.
Acting: 9 - Of all the actors, the only ones that I long to see again are Kris & Porsche, preferably together. The others were decent, and would probably outshine most run-of-the-mill BL actors, but suffered in comparison to that superb pair.
Music: 7 - nothing special but did it's job.
Rewatch: 5 - I would rewatch Vee & Dome, but that's about it.
Overall: 8.5 This is higher than the suggested score, but there's no rating for "production values", and this was an 11/10. I would have rated it a 9.5 or 10 up until the first time jump, which led to a huge dropoff for the series - this was a very unfortunate decision.
The acting is superb, although a bit uneven, with Kris & Porsche playing Dome and Vee with a searing intensity in a forbidden love storyline, Boom & Jump a bit one-note but cute as Saen and Aii, and Tae & Suar in the middle as Fah and Thorn.
The cinematography and art design are the best I've seen in a BL, including I Told Sunset about You - it was stunning enough to carry me through the weaker parts of the story.
Which brings me to to the biggest problem with the series, which is the writing and pacing. The story is too ambitious for 12 episodes and too much was attempted. Unfortunately, the expedient chosen to get through it was time jumps. The jumps totally deflated the most exciting couple, Dome and Vee, and their story just died and I lost interest in it. They skipped over all the key scenes, like Dome & Vee's respective denouments with Pan, parting for Saen & Aii, etc.
The final drama between the main couple was insufficiently set up, and while the emotion and charactization was complex, realistic, and well-executed, Thorn made too many decisions that didn't make very much sense for his character - there were things he did that are understandable in the moment, but not in the long term, like the communications breakdown with Fah.
And the finale was a huge disappointment - an entire episode where nothing happened wasted on what could have been much-needed development for the secondary couples. In the end, the total lack of passion between the characters undermined any sense I had that anyone was in love - they all interacted like friends, with pecks on the cheek going where a love scene belonged. Considering how dark and mature the themes of the series were, the junior-high level of the romance (and that's being generous) made the whole series fall flat for me. Dome & Vee's final scene is a LOL product placement - it was mouth-hanging-open shocking to see such an electric couple ending in such a pathetic way.
I'm not saying there needed to be sweat-soaked love sex scenes - Vee & Dome had scenes were they weren't even touching that could burn a house down (before they became wet cardboard). But at no point did any of the other two couples, or Vee & Dome after the first time jump, feel like romantic pairs. Fah & Thorn feel like their roles were written for brothers, not lovers, and Saen & Aii's romance was primary school from beginning to end, with Aii never ceasing to act like he was afraid of getting cooties from Saen. If you replaced them with 8-year olds, the story would work just the same.
I still gave it a high rating, but there's no excuse for this not being a 10 with all the superlative ingredients it had.
Story: 7 - High points for complex characterizations, but poor marks for continuity and failure to bring stories to convinving conclusions and jumping over resolutions with lazy and enervating time-jumps.
Acting: 9 - Of all the actors, the only ones that I long to see again are Kris & Porsche, preferably together. The others were decent, and would probably outshine most run-of-the-mill BL actors, but suffered in comparison to that superb pair.
Music: 7 - nothing special but did it's job.
Rewatch: 5 - I would rewatch Vee & Dome, but that's about it.
Overall: 8.5 This is higher than the suggested score, but there's no rating for "production values", and this was an 11/10. I would have rated it a 9.5 or 10 up until the first time jump, which led to a huge dropoff for the series - this was a very unfortunate decision.
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