This review may contain spoilers
those blinking xmas lights were my brain cells dying while watching this
Overall: the first 2 episodes were so bad they were funny, but episode 3 was not enjoyable to watch at all nor was a lot of what happened after. 8 episodes about 30 minutes each. Aired on iQIYI https://www.iq.com/play/tide-of-love-2-episode-1-q7bb46xfuk?lang=en_us and GagaOOLala https://www.gagaoolala.com/en/videos/6193/tide-of-love-2025-s02e01 (not available in the Americas, Spain, Portugal, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Japan or Korea) Here is my review of season 1 https://kisskh.at/profile/blcompilations/review/512672Content Warnings: drugging, sexual assault, intimate partner abuse, slap, manipulation, past intimate partner abuse, rape? (it did not look consensual at the time), violence, drugging
What I Liked
- unintentionally hilarious in the first 2 episodes, wth was that ankle bracelet thing
- visuals
Room For Improvement
- episode 3 was full on intimate partner abuse, preventing him from taking his class, taking his phone away (isolation is a classic abuser tactic), tracking him, chaining him without consent/refusing to let him leave the house, that slap, ugh, none of it was sexy or fun to watch
- mismatched kissing, one guy went all in and the other kept his lips shut (even during times when he allegedly enjoyed it)
- I don't normally take off points for production value for indie series, but this is egregiously low budget feeling with so many continuity errors
- practically had a mustache twirling villain (with super zoomed in close ups of his "alcoholic" beverage)
- love rival
- worst "punch" ever
- that drugging
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Not a Review Although, I may leave my opinion on this
My main question, after I ask myself, “why am I watching this? (“Out of pure boredom,” I answered), is: What is wrong with the person playing Hae Jun, that he REFUSES to open his lips, or kiss properly, while being given wide, open-mouth kisses from Jae Hun? It’s just so weird and off-putting! It’s not as if that’s the ONLY problem with this series, but it bothers me every time!The first season was not good and the production has not improved in any way in the second.
And why, for the love of god, does Jae Hun need a physiotherapist? Doesn’t he need some kind of psychotherapy?
I will add a positive comment… I think the actor, Jung Myung-Cheol, who plays JaeHun, is very attractive and is the better actor of the two leads. Maybe, if given a better script, with better direction, and a decent production, he could do well, but this is not it, for sure.
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...........
Honestly..... I still have No clue what exactly this is about nor did i ever really figure out what season 1 was about either. I mean if i think really hard i mighy have some idea but I have no clue also. The actors are great.... just the show its self is confusing but hey ill finish it.... this season seems to have a little more clear story line.....Was this review helpful to you?
An allegorical love story in a didactic fable format
I simply adored this series! It is so allegorical and deeply intriguing. All the characters are emblematic. This is a thoughtful and insightful delve into an intense psychodrama. Do not get sidetracked by the ornaments and trimmings around the superfluousness of its mundane filming technique. They are distractions. Its aim is simply trying to answer the proverbial expression: Can love conquer all? Unquestionably and brilliantly, I might add, this sequence displays that answer. Perhaps darkly and broodingly and in a quirky fashion, but romantically at the end, if you keep an open mind to the journey. This is an astonishingly disturbing and psychologically distressful as well as a painfully real portrayal of the reality of two men who are both aberrant. This is not a BL obviously but a story of love, certainly not in a traditional sense but nonetheless just as real. Their romance was displayed in a different format. Unconventional for sure but a love that is deeper than any of the loves that are portrayed in the so-called world of BL. For this one dealt with painful realities, psychological traumas, and a love based SOLELY on accepting the other for who and what they are. Is that not the truest form of love? So many missed this beautiful point. It is the strongest form of love between two men I have seen. So many missed the point.Was this review helpful to you?
But did we need it?
There are a lot of series that I wish they would make a second season of. Tide of Love, however, was not one of them. The first season's entire plot can be summed up in one word: kissing. There was no plot, the acting was bad, the budget was obviously low because the sets were lacking, and the couple had no real chemistry. After completing episode 1 of season 2, I can tell you that absolutely nothing has changed. I really don't get it. Did they see Peach Lover and decide, "hey we can do that with less sex and even more kissing?" Jaehun is overbearing sporadically with no reasoning at all. And Haejun just goes with it. This is the most lackluster series I've ever seen. I will likely drop it.Was this review helpful to you?
