PPBongi

Hands Down, the BEST BL

There are not enough accolades or positive comments on this earth that could begin to even describe this series. It is phenomenal. It is profound. It is the best acted BL series I have ever seen. Honestly, my words do no describe the emotional impact of this series. This was so beautifully done that it is a work of art. It is flawless. I have never been so moved or felt such emotions as I have watching this. I have not cried this hard since I lost my father. It was that emotional. It has to be one of the finest TV productions ever ANYWHERE. I am not Thai so I had to watch it in English translation so I can only imagine the impact it would have in its native language. Suffice to say, that this for me is the BEST program I have EVER watched and would rank this as my favorite of any series ever anywhere. The actors gave it their all and without exception, they are all superb. Perhaps this is hyperbole, but if this had been an American production, I am sure it would have walked away with every Emmy in every category that it would have been nominated for. This is, frankly, superb. I am honored to have watched it and shall remember this for a long, long time. This series is memorable. Thank you for making it!! Please watch! You can read my full review of this incredibly beautiful series at ppbongi.medium.com.

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A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing

I must confess that I knew nothing, and I mean nothing, about the world of Omegaverse especially as it pertains to the BL genre. I found, overall, this diegesis confusing and the dynamics of the plot messy, empty, and frankly hard to follow. However, that is not the only reason why I so intensely disliked this series. It is a ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’, which I detested even more. Whether one likes to admit it or not, this story is filled with pervasive ugly bullying, abuse of all various kinds, toxic masculinity, rape, rampant sociopathic personality disorders, over-the-top arrogance, and perceived entitled overindulgence. Why is all this not seen? Because of the stunningly handsome men who sugar-coat it with wit, charm, astonishing good-looks (eye-candy), and persuasive discourse. In a sense, these super-rich guys can do no wrong for the sole reason being the status of who and what they are. If this series had been portrayed with other than handsome men (e.g. pot-bellied, acned-faced, balding with missing teeth middle-aged guys instead), what would our reaction be?

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Too polished & Not Logical

Although this series seemed to capture the hearts and minds of many, I found it lacking in story in terms of empathy and logic. Not acting, however. It is exceptionally well acted. And yet, that is also what bothered me. It seemed too polished, slick, and flawless. I honestly do not look to review the actors or actresses who are performing in series. I take everything at ‘face value’. This series, with acting not the problem, still lacked a Gestalt for me to connect to, in what seemed like a flawless acting exercise. I simply could not warm up to either of the protagonists at all. Something felt absent. Even though it had all the right elements and great screen chemistry, it felt too polished to be believable. It looks and feels off. The angst, rawness, realness, silliness, immaturity, and pain of teenagers was missing. It got too wrapped up in telling a cute story.

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Simply Not Funny

To call this short series quirky would not quite do it justice. It is odd and almost appeared to be a story of a man with a multi-personality disorder. Labeled as a comedy, I frankly just did not get it and subsequently did not find it funny. But I have a difficult time with what is funny in different cultures as humor can be a very culture-centric concept. Another distracting aspect of this series is also a flaw (at least to me) reflective of Japanese BL and that is this constant use of ‘talking to oneself’ to explain actions. Several Japanese BLs use the technique of talking out loud as if they are having conversations with themselves. This is getting overused and tends to 'lead' the audience into what they should be feeling rather than what is.

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Mixed bad as in any reality show

I must warn you that my perspective of this series is not all moonbeams and unicorns. I am not going to praise this series merely for the sake of praising it. Perhaps it is ground-breaking in the sense that it is a gay dating show in the Philippines and for that it deserves applause, unquestionably. As an outsider looking in, I did not understand its concept. I also had a serious issue as to how these 10 were chosen and more importantly vetted. I do not think it was random and my sense was that most were chosen based on social media connections and status in life. And some seemed relatively new to the whole concept of being gay or even if they were gay. I am not trying to negate in any way those who were chosen but with a country of nearly 114 million souls, there are not 10 out and proud unhesitatingly GAY guys from all walks of life, rich and poor, that are willing to be on a ‘reality’ show about finding a guy to ‘spark’ with? With no complications? And I cringe when I see the cavalier way we ogle and view people who share deeply personal secrets and vulnerabilities publicly. While it might be entertaining and, to some extent, hard not to watch, it is deeply personal and maybe cathartic but not necessarily therapeutic or healthy or always good to so freely share. Sometimes the whole world does not need to know or see our deepest vulnerabilities. I both liked and disliked this series, but mostly lean towards the latter. know the ‘good feeling’ we get from initially watching this series and for those participating in this series. But I am apprehensive it will be short-lived, unfortunately. For a whole lot of reasons.
You can read my full review at BLBliss.com.

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What Was Its Point?

This is a prime example of how to turn a bad series into an even worse one by not knowing what your direction is. And we can see it slipping away because of the lack of perspective. If this series had some sort of direction, it could have been good. If they were going for comedy, they failed miserably. If they were going for some sort of mystery, it also bombed. However, in my opinion and why I think this series worked a little is that they (I think, or I hope) were going for a ‘tongue-and-cheek’ approach to humor. But never went far enough with what they were doing to make that work.

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This Series Has No Life To It!

Perhaps with a little more oomph, this series might have been great. As presented, I rather enjoyed some, but not all of it. This is another vampire series in what has now become a redundancy of them. Each, I am guessing, trying to be unique but none honestly supplanting the original concept. This one also tried but was only partially successful. It all still felt so ‘tired’ to me. While there were some parts to this vampire tale that were unique, there is not enough to make it outstanding and the holes-in-logic throughout are just ginormous. The story begins with a rather interesting nucleus despite the intricacies to its subplot tending to get a bit wonky for me. Nevertheless, I kind of enjoyed the development; I just wish they would put some ‘life’ into the characters.

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Breaks The Cliche Mold!

There is something seriously wrong with you if you do not find this series entertaining at the very least. I thoroughly enjoyed this silly series from the beginning to its end. It is cute, funny, enchanting, and so tongue-in-cheek. It is satirical and yet at times so sincerely poignant. And, to a surprising extent, shatters the stereotypical BL world in a f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s way! It introduces a no-holds-barred flamboyant, over-the-top, out and proud LGBTQIA+ character with an extra emphasis on the plus. A first that I can recall where the protagonist is truly not afraid, ashamed, or inhibited in what he wants to be. Or should I say, ‘she’ wants to be! Does this production have issues? Of course it does! The story itself is ridiculously corny and sanitized. The ending is so saccharine sweet one could die of diabetes. The villains were about as believable as the munchkins from the Wizard of Oz. And the fight scenes were laughable. Yet none of that mattered. I did not care. The whole series is just so funny and entertaining. And I laughed.
You can read my full review of this funny gem at BLBliss.com.

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More a Lakorn than a BL

This is not so much a BL as it is a Lakorn and honestly, an exceptionally good one at that. I found myself completely engaged in these characters and what was happening. Truthfully, it has been a long time since I felt ‘good’ about watching a Thai series, but this one was exceptional and almost made it to my top 10 list. Almost. Some aspects of this series just could not be overlooked as it deflated what was otherwise an exceptional mythos for a change. Indeed, it sure is a soap opera-ish saga but the story line captures you from the beginning. Although the plot is your standard rather cliché-driven formatted subject matter, because of the enveloping acting, it excites your attention. It presented several unique factors that made watching hypnotic. While the premise is ubiquitous, it presented the evolvement with vicissitude to make the story compelling.

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Cinematically Wonderful But .....

Pretty quickly, however, we realize that this story is stilted and becomes astonishingly boring. I mean REALLY boring. Frankly, it is bland and exceedingly predicable; one could easily write the next dialogue long before it was going to happen. That is how predictable and trite this narrative unfolded. Nothing and I mean nothing surprised me. I almost fell asleep watching this series. With few exceptions, almost everyone is wooden, ostensibly and unfortunately, also cliché. This is a cinematic triumph. The cinematography transports you back to the early 20th century indeed. The costumes were some of the finest I have ever seen and are presented in exceptional detail. The sets were wonderfully detailed, and we were transported to a different era. It is so unfortunate that the action in the story did not match everything else. I kept waiting for something to happen and nothing ever did. Even the kissing scenes and love scenes were muted and sanitized and almost presented like two schoolboys on a camping trip. Certain aspects were not serious in nature. It was indeed so soft that if forgot to do something to my heart. Watching paint dry would have been more emotionally satisfying. Even the secondary couple, while better in terms of emotional fulfilment, was only slightly more engaging in relatability and depth. Neither couple honestly made my heart pitter-patter in any way, shape, or form. This series was flatly dull from an emotional fulfillment.

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I Was Not Enamored

I honestly was not enamored with this series. I have a difficult time with movies and series trying to make gay life ‘perfect’. This even went beyond that. It gave an individual an opportunity for a second chance to relive his life. A do-over. What the series called a reset. But frankly, I was unsure why he deserved a do-over nor did I think he deserved one. It was simply baffling. He reached a pinnacle in this life for which most of us will never accomplish or attain or even dare to dream about. My issue with this series has nothing to do with the acting, per se. Yet it is the supposition itself I have a problem with. One must begin to question what were we watching then? Did it feel real? I had to decide that it obviously was not and therefore this was all a dream, an illusion. It was too perfect; too quixotic. Overall, I simply found this series rather predictable and at times trite. While I certainly get its hypnotic attraction, I just could not get into it with any sense of realism. I for one am getting tired of seeing gay love being portrayed as something that is not attainable in this life.

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A Winnie The Pooh Story

Watching this series will no doubt put you into a diabetic coma from sugar shock. It is so overly sweet that it becomes a travesty. Enough with the prepubescent silliness of what an ideal image of young gay relationships are. These are NOT them. I am not trying to convince anyone that my assessment is correct, but it is time now for some serious reflections on how and what is presented as young gay men in love that is actually authentic. And this ain’t it! And you are doing a gross injustice to young gay, lesbian, trans, and questioning individuals by constantly portraying this nonsense where relationships between adolescent gay boys are so easy to develop, maintain, and be accepted and worst of all so nauseatingly sweet and sanitized. They are not. And every one of their problems and issues has easy solutions; they do not.
Summarily, this series is passe, outdated, disparaging, and most of all does not have a modicum of connection to reality or candor. This is a Pollyanna world; not Earth 1.

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Closed The Closet Door Again!

While I have not read the manhwa this is based off, this series failed to deliver as a BL. It did not tell a story; only presented circumstances. Ironically, we got the full picture of the straight couple(s), including a superfluous musical interlude and a tennis match. This is a straight story with two gay guys thrown in to try and make it be a BL. However, there was no intrinsic development of a gay relationship or even a foundation of a strong connection between them until the absolute end. What little we did see about their evevolment, was shown to be dark leading to uncertainty with misunderstanding assumptions and presented mostly despondently. Frankly, this series was a bitter disappointment . Oh, it is well acted, and the cinematography is breathtaking and perhaps that is what hides its flaws so masterfully. But its poor content is couched and guised in pretty words at times and nice surroundings. Take that away, and what you are exposed to is anxiety, fear, guilt, and the shame of queerness that is so prevalent in Korean culture and thinking. This series merely highlights their disquietudes about someone being gay in the worst possible way, I might add. Gayness became shameful, something that you could not share even with friends or family and would in essence be deadly if anyone found out about it. Only talked about it in the dead of night and in whispers. They did everything to put gay people back into the closet except not put a lock on the closet door. This did NOTHING to enhance, enlighten, or encourage acceptance of individuals who are gay. If anything, it merely showed how sad, pathetic, weak, unaccepting, shameful, scared, frightened, intimidating, and unaccepting it all is. Know your place. How much agony it will cause you. Meanwhile, the straight couple gets to foster a warm cozy relationship with everyone accepting of that as being normal. And they get to have a happy ending or live out a dream

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A Phenomenal Journey of Self-Discovery

This story has a feel about it that screams that the people involved were simply meant to be. But apparently, I did not see the same story that others saw. There are some rather harsh reviews of this series that frankly I simply do not understand – at all. Overall, this is a brilliant and beautiful story about 4 young men who find themselves interconnected at just the right time. Each traversed a journey of self-discovery that is succinctly told and brilliantly acted. Sure, it could have used more episodes to flesh out and enhance its characters more, but overall, this saga had a clear beginning, an understanding middle, and a rather satisfying ending. Plus, I liked it – a lot! Overall, I think this is a very impactful and powerful BL that has been sliced up into mini-moral pieces based upon a lack of understanding life. If you have lived as long as I have, sometimes you can step back from the noise and righteous indignation and see it from its full perspective. Not everything or everyone is perfect. But this BL frankly turned out right. Don't listen to the naysayers. This is a good series! You can read my full review of this great series at BLBliss.com.

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