This review may contain spoilers
Standout Newcomers
Cast: Punn and Boat, neither of whom I’ve seen before, stood out and are both gorgeous. The BoatOat chemistry was pretty spectacular. I’m not a fan of Yoon, but he was good in this.Direction: I wasn’t impressed by a few directorial choices. The sex scenes between the main couple in particular were more like a director rendering their fantasies, than likely love-making or plot-driving tools to convey anything meaningful. The more in love the leads got, the rougher and more bestial the love scenes got. They went from tender and loving, to pure lust, which seemed like a reverse gradient in a love story. The consent dynamics were not great. The classic sunset/sunrise mechanic was used to great effect repeatedly, but as a result jumps in time longer than 12 hours were jarring and unexpected.
Writing: The story was fine, but depended too much on lousy communication tropes for my liking. The characters themselves were consistent to themselves, and had arcs, though nothing deep or even remotely sophisticated. The humour was grounded, and gave me a few laughs. I got attached to and invested in the two main leads, who were both flawed but lovable, but the rest of the characters were very uneven, as was their utility in the story.
Production design: Not fabulous, but I think that was more limited by budget than design chops. I suspect a lot was made from very little. Exterior locations rocked.
I enjoyed the drama and the main characters, but it felt cheap, and I think the direction was bad. If nothing else, it’s a string of stimulating sex scenes, but if you can engage with the main characters you’ll get more out of it. I’m looking forward to more of “Champ”, and of the BoatOat CP in future shows.
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