Sereno (2025)

Cringey, but...

Sereno literally means serene in Spanish (there is a lot of Spanish influence in the Philippines) which this series displays very little of. It is an attribute sorely missing in this series. Lately, there also seems to be a rash of BLs about mermen with none piquing an exotic imagery. Most were cringey. While this series initially offered an interesting premise, it ultimately focused on the lowest common denominator – mainly sensationalism and titillation. The saga of mermen is ironically only instrumental; not integral. Admittedly, however, the graphics for the introduction to each episode and the music score are the most serene moments of this aberrant series. Overall, this series is unfocused and unhinged. Perhaps, if it had stayed to one theme, maybe it would have been a better series. Initially, its attention to the theme of merman was promising, but it soon got bogged down in tangential trivialities and/or silliness. Frankly, I am not sure what the intent of this series was. There is a lot and I mean a lot of innuendo and down-right silliness in this series. But secretly I did find myself surprisingly entertained when it got campy and off-the-wall gay (call me crazy). If the production seriously went campy totally or concentrated on telling a risqué gay story with a sharper script told in a tongue-in-cheek style or off-the-wall method, you might just develop an outright cult following, as no one and I mean no one is doing that. Keep refining what you are doing. Honestly, focus on one thing and make it really, really campy, nuanced, and above all melodramatic. And allow the actors to show their talents besides their bodies; you then just might have a hit. This theme could have been it. The male performers were all certainly eye-poppingly handsome and many were decent actors. Next time, do not be so trashy.

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fantastic premise with an annoying love triangle (watch suggestions)

Overall: fantastic visuals and a good premise, but let down by the writing. 10 episodes about 40 minutes each. Aired on Oxin's YouTube channel https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcQaxIPsTWdOdHERhq5DyEKas3feZWfhN&si=HjUrflha-ymt6YbE

Content Warnings: past death mentioned, slaps, kidnapping/held against will (multiple times), non con kiss, abuse, manipulation, sexual assault

Watch Suggestions (to focus on sweet/steamy parts and cut out all the over the top villains/love triangle stuff)
- episodes 1 & 2, you're on your own
- ep 3 part 1 watch 12-end
- ep 3 part 2 watch 2:45-6:05
- ep 3 part 3 watch 11:50-12:30
- ep 3 part 4 watch beg-4, 10:30-14:30
- ep 4 part 2 watch beginning-50s
- watch episode 4 part 4
- ep 5 part 1 watch beg-4:30, 12:35-end
- ep 5 part 2 watch 3-4:40
- ep 6 part 3 watch 3-4:05, 8:10-end
- ep 6 part 4 watch 8:50-9:35
- ep 7 part 1 watch 6:10-8:30, 11:20-end
- ep 7 part 2 watch 2:50-4:20
- ep 7 part 3 watch 8:50-end
- ep 7 part 4 watch 5-10
- skip ep 8
- ep 9 part 4 watch 1-1:45
- ep 10 part 3 watch 3:15--7
- ep 10 part 4 watch 10-end

What I Liked
- Chuk Chuk
- visuals
- premise
- the scales/tails were well done
- second couple
- music

Room For Improvement
- world building dump
- way too much time spent on a love triangle, needed to focus on the main couple's romantic development
- most comedy didn't work for me (sniffing underwear, innuendo taken too far/cringey stuff, the fireworks out of their mouths towards the end)
- likely AI intro
- I didn't take off points but can YouTube channels please put their episodes/parts in the correct watch order in their playlists?

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