A(ir) Moment

A Beautiful Nightmare

I am deeply impressed by the visual direction of this series; the way it contrasts a bleak dystopian world with the lush "Garden of Eden" and the sterile, clinical hospital is striking. Beyond the aesthetics, the show tackles heavy philosophical questions, searching for answers through characters who represent different facets of the human psyche. The acting is exceptional, capturing everything from chilling detachment to fear-based volatility and raw anger. I loved the way the characters simultaneously show their desires while desperately trying to hide their true selves.

The confusion surrounding the different "worlds" and "loops" took me on an incredible journey. Every episode had me questioning, 'What is the reality?'and later "Whose world is this?".

After rewatching (the first two episodes in particular) so many details clicked into place, even while the show kept me feeling somewhat in the dark. The dialogue between the charects especially what Iron said, is really haunting when you consider the themes of objective "good" and the characters psychological states.

By the end, I see two main possibilities (I am sure there are multiple out there):

1) Irons Loop: The more literal interpretation (a psychopath in comatose state).

2) Marduks Loop: The more tragic interpretation (one trapped, loving a psychopath who killed (at least) Marduks pregnant sister)

In both scenarios, the experiment technically "failed", yet it provided a chilling look into how these loops could be used in the future. Personally, "Marduks Loop" makes the most sense to me, even if "Irons loop" is the more obvious path.

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Not what it seems but a deep look into one’s psyche with morals/ethics and relationships explored

This is incredibly long and will get into spoiler territory in the form of a super long comment on the review. I ABSOLUTELY ADVISE YOU TO ONLY READ THE “SPOILER” MARKED COMMENT BELOW AFTER WATCHING if you want this one human’s explanation for their interpretation. This is a show that has a lot of stuff to chew on and will get a lot of different interpretations, many resigned to just not getting it. Wait to see if you ARE one of the resigned to confusion sorts before these reviews get fully read for your own sake!

This is not a dystopian-set BL to me. I went in not knowing anything which served me well since I expected nothing whereas many seemingly thought it’d be a spicy BL. It isn’t. It does showcase gay behavior, sure, straight behavior, too, those behaviors instrumental in understanding it BUT NOT what the storytellers made this to deliver us. They aspired to something bigger, what may be the ultimate human dystopian hell, no spoilers up here.

Things to avoid: 1) wanting a BL, 2) refusing to let the story unfold without the degree of good faith effort required 3) getting obsessed and unable to let go of early theories that you love but maybe don’t fit anymore or resigning yourself to just not getting it 4) jumping on a social bandwagon of rage to complain quickly instead of thinking about the ideas presented that while not new ideas certainly have quite the different lens through which to see and think about them.

I confess I feel a bit uncomfortably preachy in defending the work’s strong points that for me did outweigh the negatives by quite a lot even as some things got visually mundane and some riddles mentioned by another reviewer felt lame (but understandable later even if I might choose other questions except for the last “missed” question in the fight with the “chaos/creator/controller” woman in that dark space early on… the reason behind the final one, the REAL reason, really hit home later as someone familiar with the things happening as weird as that sounds for any dystopian setting). With a kind of calm, “observation mode” sort of viewing of this, most can get a far better grasp of many coherent options for what is happening here (and hey, maybe BellA’s review or mine can help guide lost souls to the finish line).

I saw some early scathing comments blaming the script when under a third of had aired at the time as well as the whole “actors who can’t act” copied and pasted hostile comment seen almost everywhere. These are certainly not the best cast members in the nation, but assumptions early on reflect mostly on the ones not allowing them to deliver their parts. This is a case wherein actors absolutely SHOULD NOT be consistent in character delivery, and these kids, all new faces to me, managed bizarre, challenging roles pretty well, the story much bigger than their ages&experience give them the full opportunity to understand with a quick read. The confusion felt by people when watching IS INTENTIONAL. To be fair, when are (good) dystopia-set works clear as a meticulously maintained budget balance sheet? I also think the production and editing teams did well overall.

This is one to watch WITHOUT knowing anything cause if you know the big picture, you will really lose out on the important thing here, the experience of viewing with your mind engaged, not just taking anyone’s word for it. It is brain food. It is a tad philosophical. It is deeply psychological but not in a way that will make you feel immense emotions about THEM. It is not as casual a watch as most prefer. Specific experiences that made it easy for ME to be immersed won’t apply to most, and maybe it isn’t laid out plainly enough to grasp the mindsets presented easily. I suggest you watch in order and critically without skipping/fast forwarding (just take breaks if the dialogue tires you, or drop it if it isn’t your thing and you don’t have NDD like me). I slept twice and watched other stuff between viewing sessions, and three sessions seems ideal, two if you have loads of mental energy winter weather doesn’t afford me. Don’t watch when your body or just your brain is tired or you’ll miss a LOT in a couple of seconds many times over, so many times I nearly missed important parts before having the sense to take a long break myself.

A couple of theories have been given that I really enjoyed reading! I decided to, when a response got too long, instead put that here. There’s a more simple option (one of many I entertained) that I haven’t yet seen in a review. It may not satisfy some though I don’t think the base story being more simple makes the exploration of the human mind through storytelling any less intriguing—and bless their intern/grunt worker for consulting an expert to at least not totally botch it like they did Leap Day (along with bad science, writers abandoned anything they didn’t know how to properly close like the drawings). For that, I send you to the comment I will post below.

In the end, I land at an 8.5. I found the story intriguing, the acting solid even with many “faces” to portray, and it is well worth a rewatch I may give it to match the different bits together that I was happy to see merged as it came to a close. I do wish there was an eighth episode for reasons I’ll get to in the spoiler comment. If it had an 8th episode to do what can otherwise only be accomplished with a careful rewatch, I’d rate it even higher, maybe, but the 8.5 accounts for me being able to catch plenty in a single time viewed and my ability to go back as many times as I want.

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mind-blender and not as bad as everyone says

I'll start off by saying--I still don't entirely know what happened in this series. That being said, the comments are dramatic as that lack of understanding is its only flaw.

The concept/idea was super thought provoking, and given more time to fully flesh it out (longer than just 7 episodes that's for sure) it would have been a really cool production.
The actors are all extremely talented and showcased how each character was complex and had more depth than 7 episodes would allow to explore.

Personally? I enjoyed the series, even if I was asking myself what was going on the whole time.
However, I can definitely understand that this type of series wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea.
If you were looking for a BL with a clear cut love story--then this definitely isn't for you.

I would love to see these actors in more, the fact that all four boys seemed to have some kind of chemistry with each other was what really kept me coming back for the next episode, on top of the fact that I really love apocalyptic-type series, and this one definitely scratched something in my brain.
So once again, in my opinion, the only flaw is that it was too short to fully explain what was going on in the story.
Truly had it been longer I think I would have enjoyed it much more, and all in all I am excited to see what Earth, Leo, Double and First bring to the table in their next series.

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Speculative fiction with a side of BL

Ok I did finish this somehow. TBH was a slog for me, and the het action halfway through was not what I had in mind. I think the biggest problem with this show is that it has a long chunk where they are debating philosophy, and it feels like they threw in all the high-minded ideas they could without it making sense. At one point, they referred to the characters as the 7 deadly sins, but the characters were not their embodiment. But it sounded cool, right? Kind of like adding the riddle game from the hobbit in for fun. I feel like a lot of this sounded cool to the writer but was either confusing or abysmally boring to watch. I fell asleep twice while watching this series because of the extended debates about philosophical ideas. There wasn't a lot to ground what was happening or why it was happening until the end. I will admit knowing the ending it MIGHT make more sense with a rewatch but I'm just not interested.

The biggest problem for this show was its opening marketing ploy, for it was mostly naked, lubed-up actor posters and a trailer filled with spicy BL NCs. But that wasn't what this series is about. It was a speculative fiction story that doesn't mesh that well with BL and has a very small section of the BL base that would even be interested in it. Yet the heavy use of BL-centric NCs, relationship dynamics, a ship couple, and promotional material meant that, aside from the BL audience, no one knew it existed.

If you are into sci-fi/ speculative fiction and like BL, this is probably an amazing series for you, maybe. But everyone else is confused or dislikes this show.

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trippy bait & switch

Overall: the promo pics showed 4 guys on top of each other, half naked and oiled up. I thought this would be a sci fi romance, but there was more het romance than m/m romance and the sci fi was confusing. Aired on Viu in a few countries like Thailand, no other release.

Content Warnings: murders/deaths, suicide, blood, attempted murder, held against will

What I Liked
- would like to see all the actors in something else
- different premise
- landscape/setting

Room For Improvement
- a series can have plot twists but should still make sense in earlier episodes
- the riddle thing was kind of lame

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