Eliot_Rulez

First for all the fangirls: This is not a BL. There is nothing fluffy about it. It's just dark and darker. A story about loneliness, desire, abuse and insecurity and characters which felt real. When I read the creator behind "Grey Shelter" is doing a new project I was excited because she does not the "normal" stuff. After this series I await "Winter Season" (don't look for it on MDL because it's not there). (Not to be mixed up with the CBL with the overlong title or the TBL :))

There are some main-characters: Hyeon Jae is between sides in school, either be bullied or the son of the chairman who's untouchable. He obviously has no friends because he is the son of "the chairman". His father is the devil in human form. The outside recognizes him as a powerful chairman who is always friendly with the people except his son. His "lapdog" is also a very dark man, subservient to his master, packing his son in the trunk/boot because his master said so. This devil uses his wife, Hyeon Jae mother, as leverage to force his son to do his bidding. He's really one of the most despicable characters we have seen on screen. We don't know why the mother is in the hospital but we can assume father went into a rage frenzy. He beats his son on a regular basis. What is even worse, the chairman is the school principal. And of course the beating started far back because he is older than his classmates because he was 2 years in a hospital.

The teacher Gi U, who was forced in a marriage by his mother which only brings him misery and depression. I also assume he is gay from the get go but has never aknowledged this to himself and the pressure from his mom does not help. He wants genuinely help all his students but he can't and parents/teachers are insinuating things which of course never happened.

The school is full of trashy teachers who don't give a rats ass about the students. The head of the teachers is just a puppet for the chairman, ignoring abuse and problems with other students. His mantra is "The chairman will fix it" even when the son is framed, because that is the easier solution for him.

While the story is short and only eight episode about 25 minutes each, we have something like a "side-couple" in this series. They had a fallout of sorts. While one (Seong Won) tries to connect again, the other (Jeong Ha) is keeping his distance or tries to avoid him completely. That cumulates in the most unromantic confession sceme I have ever seen. Jeong Ha has also money troubles because his grandmom is in the hospital (no universal healthcare in Korea) forcing him to do jobs which should never been taken. There is also some background story and a character who was expelled, drug abuses (mental doping) is also a recurring theme.

I won't spoil more of the story here, because this series is easily binge-watched, taking only around 4 hours. Production quality was very good, cinematography is perfect for the scenes, especially for the gloomy ones. All the lead actors do an incredible job and the rest of the cast is also very good. The "love" story is just in the background, but everything connects. Don't expect a fluffy happy end, but it's also not a sad one. The end is quite open-ended there is maybe a chance to get a 2nd season which I would appreciate. This is a very realistic feeling series, so everyone expecting the run-of-the-mill series should not watch this. Also a fair warning for people with mental issues, this series can be very depressing and disgusting. Regardless, it has my recommendation!