Billy Regala

Jack & Joker is my hear me out. I will be honest with this one and will say that I am not interested in the title of the show because it is a bit cheesy for me. Like, it does not even make sense to me what the show is about from the title but I think I got from the poster will be handling darker themes or will have a more serious tone to it. I think that is true but what really surprised me more than anything else here is just how amazing the show actually is. Yes, I will be backing this up and one good example is the first episode. As I mentioned, I went into this story blind by not knowing any details about it so there I was expecting a BL with dark tones to it but I am pleasantly surprised when it was actually good and interesting. The first episode focused on them as younger version of themselves played by the same actors and what it did is that they already established who the characters are as Joke being this robinhood-esque criminal who steals from those who mistreat other people and is not feeling the love from his parents as he is not the type of kid that they wanted but what is even more interesting here is that we are getting his story while we are also seeing the story of Jack who is from an impoverished background. He is a kid from the slums whose parents are not here anymore and is using Taekwondo to be part of the national team so that he can earn to pay for his parents’ debt. It sounds like a simple storyline and it is very much straightforward but the narrative that we got is pretty much the back bone of where the story will be going and they were able to show us what to expect from these characters, how they met, the important characters in their lives, and how the story will go. Jack and Joke are played by Yin Anan Wong and War Wanarat Ratsameerat respectively and they are playing these roles really well that I don’t even care if it is a BL or not but I know that they are really doing good job with their characters. The differences of who they were in Episode 1 and the succeeding episodes are good but they are still falling under the stereotypical BL storylines but they did incredible job with making it feel fresh. I have heard of the love team #YinWar before but this is my first time seeing this love team in action but I am impressed. I am not sure if their chemistry is as good as this one already but I really enjoy what I am seeing here. It is really impressive to see them have chemistry without forcing it down our throats. I do think that is a good thing to have and they got it. I think we can say that there are subtle hints of flirting in the first few episodes but the latter half really went all out with it and the chemistry is good. The flirting is sweet and the sex scenes are intense but the characters still remained to be as charming and as lovable while they are moving forward with their storylines. This is why the ending felt so good. It is so simple and they were finally able to do what they wanted to do. Yes, the show had to undergo so many action sequences or fight scenes before we finally get to that ending but this is why it felt rewarding more than anything else. I think it also highlighted one thing that we do see a lot of but still needed to see which is the continued increase of disparity between the rich and the poor in the stories of these characters. The rich and the poor is the social commentary that we got to see here and it is extremely real. The show might have taken some liberties with realism here but I respect the way that they handled the storylines by making sure that they really know how to properly represent the issues without being too dark with the tones of the show. I, sincerely, respect them for this and appreciate what they did here. The idea of the Four Horsemen as this greedy group of people and the way that they ended the storyline of the Boss is surprisingly tragic especially when you will realize that the Boss is just actually a victim as well of the system that they were all living in. It is actually quite sad when he tried to kill himself and I must give it to them for making such an interesting villain. Again, these are still a bit stereotypical but they did it well that I can actually forgive them for doing the storylines in this light. It is not bad at all. We got good supporting characters here especially Grandma. She is one feisty woman and we have seen this character before but they put it all in one character that somehow made sense. She is not the weak Grandma but not also the surprisingly strong grandma. She is just someone who is fighting for her grandson and that makes senses to me. Also, I love her scenes so much and the wisdom that she is imbuing to these characters especially to Jack and Joke. Another good supporting character here is Rose. She is not the stereotypical female love interest in BL stories. She is understanding and she really fought for what she wanted but she respected the decision at the end and I support that. I do think that it is a representation that should matter and a representation that is needed. She is bitter with her not getting the man but she is mature about it. I like that about her. She is such a mood. The supporting love teams of the show are actually not as interesting to me as the main one and I like that they are not pushing them down to our throats. I respect that. It is cute enough to establish the relationship but not too much to overpower the main couple. This is a really good show and it had intricacies that I really liked. I think I have mentioned that I like this show and that is mainly because of how smart they were with the story and careful with the characters that we have here. They gave us strong story line while giving us a good couple to root for. It is that type of BL stories that is surprisingly sweet and intense that I like. It is a good show.