4
10
1
1
This review may contain spoilers
episode 9 made my score plummet
Overall: I thought it was a good start to a series with a unique premise but slow pacing and both characters doing something awful lowered my score. Note this review contains words that might be triggering. 16 episodes about 45 minutes each. Aired on: Viki https://www.viki.com/videos/1262518v-desire-the-series-episode-1 ; GagaOOLala (not available in Japan or Korea) https://www.gagaoolala.com/en/videos/5570/desire-2025 and Heavenly (South Korea) https://heavenly.tv/en/detail/955 Was originally also on iQIYI, WeTV, Youku and YouTube but was removed mid-airing.
Content Warnings: two rapes both shown, past intimate partner abuse, intimate partner abuse, non con kisses, non con touching, manipulation, sexual harassment, fights, blood, kidnapping, attempted murder, gaslighting, lovebombing, non con kissing turned consensual, self harm
What I Liked
- unique premise for a live action series
- visuals
- how Hua Yong stayed consistent in his characterization
- an extremely wide release, might be the most platforms I've seen so far for a BL series
Room For Improvement
- in both couples one character raped the other character and both were shot in a romantic way and of course we know how this ends, I don't give af about fictional biology that made at least 1 allegedly not have a choice, both characters were jerks and abusive and I don't want them in a romantic relationship with anyone.
- I can enjoy a player getting played but the problem here is we never really see the player being a player and he is so manipulated that his biology got changed without his consent and he had pain/problems from the master manipulator who supposedly loved him. For me the manipulator treated a person like an object to own and it was about power and control which is abuse and not love.
- slow pacing in with both couples, felt like they went in circles for a long time
- the exposition dump/world building dump in ep 1; however, I realize that many people aren't familiar with the setting so it was a fast way to give everyone the basics
- Hua Yong's backstory was given too late
- the narration/mysterious voice in episode 15
- extremely rushed finale with a multi year time skip, that it was the dad that told him, how Shen Wen Lang was a jerk almost until the very end and then did not have nearly enough groveling and their story didn't really have a satisfying resolution
Content Warnings: two rapes both shown, past intimate partner abuse, intimate partner abuse, non con kisses, non con touching, manipulation, sexual harassment, fights, blood, kidnapping, attempted murder, gaslighting, lovebombing, non con kissing turned consensual, self harm
What I Liked
- unique premise for a live action series
- visuals
- how Hua Yong stayed consistent in his characterization
- an extremely wide release, might be the most platforms I've seen so far for a BL series
Room For Improvement
- in both couples one character raped the other character and both were shot in a romantic way and of course we know how this ends, I don't give af about fictional biology that made at least 1 allegedly not have a choice, both characters were jerks and abusive and I don't want them in a romantic relationship with anyone.
- I can enjoy a player getting played but the problem here is we never really see the player being a player and he is so manipulated that his biology got changed without his consent and he had pain/problems from the master manipulator who supposedly loved him. For me the manipulator treated a person like an object to own and it was about power and control which is abuse and not love.
- slow pacing in with both couples, felt like they went in circles for a long time
- the exposition dump/world building dump in ep 1; however, I realize that many people aren't familiar with the setting so it was a fast way to give everyone the basics
- Hua Yong's backstory was given too late
- the narration/mysterious voice in episode 15
- extremely rushed finale with a multi year time skip, that it was the dad that told him, how Shen Wen Lang was a jerk almost until the very end and then did not have nearly enough groveling and their story didn't really have a satisfying resolution
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