3
5
By far the best Oxin series to date.
There are some surprising things in this - the story is relatively focused, the cast is beautiful, and the story, while not very original, it fairly well-written - until the last episode.It built up to a climax in Ep 7, but then deflated like a sad balloon. The fallout from what happened is barely touched on - what was the end result? The marriage was a business deal important to both families - that plot element was just dropped.
The climax itself is caused by Briggs and Shao being incredibly stupid and reckless, but I suppose first love can do that. The problem is that Briggs behaves totally out of character afterwards. If you're willing to derail a wedding to get your man, shouldn't he follow through instead of ghosting Shao? He's a horrible person - ruining someone's life then shrugging and going on his way. I know that's not how it's meant, and he does provide his reason, but it's unconvincing.
The whole finale is taken up by a replay of the entire climacitc sequence, followed by a lot of static scenes of people laying in bed moping. Given how short this was, it spoiled the story to have a filler ending episode that didn't make too much sense. The didn't really "earn" being a couple - it just happened, and was hard to invest in.
The acting is good, not stellar, with the exception of a few of the female roles, a recurring failing of Oxin productions. There is FINALLY a trans character that isn't a humilated for cheap comedy and is actually smart and wise.
If this is the new standard for Oxin, I'm happy because it shows a steep upward trajectory, and perhaps we'll see even better productions in the future.
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It's OK. A bit repetitive
This is a forgettable series with a solid first episode and a pleasant Ep 7 & 8, but the rest of it was a dreary repetitive mess, with the character of a reclusive writer being absolutely horrible to a charming, generous, and extremely good-looking director who he obviously had a troubled past with. The writer is so awful, though, that it was hard to care if they got together or not.And as more and more is revealed, it's clear that the writer was totally in the wrong, but also the plot hinges on yet another implausible misunderstanding - how could Woo Jae have been unaware of Yeon Woo's mother's death? It didn't make much sense.
The kisses are the worst I've ever seen, even by Korean standards - it was really uncomfortable to watch, and it would have been better to just do a hug.
6 months from now I'll come across this review and have no recollection of having written it or watched the series, except I'll probably remember writing that I wouldn't remember writing this.
The acting is good, especially Yeon Woo - Woo Jae is flatter, but he delivers in the climactic scene in Ep 7. The music is also pleasant enough, and Han Jung Wan is very hot. The wardrobe is particularly good, to the point that I looked forward to scene changes to see what the characters were wearing. If you can stay awake through the middle episodes, the ending is nice. Except the kisses.
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Very good, stops short of great
There is lot to recommend this series - foremost the acting, which is uniformly excellent. I'm not sure I've ever seen couples behave more realistically and without reserve - you really felt like these were people with feelings for each other. The physical affection in this is natural and convincing, with lovers sleeping cuddled up and not wearing enough clothing to survive arctic exposure with a minimum of one meter between them at all times like is typical in BL.There's clearly a lot of passion that went into this production, from direction, to wardrobe, to all aspects of the production, and it makes a huge difference.
The dialog is better than normal, and most of the characterization is steady and consistent.
There are a few issues, however. This is a classic enemies-to-lovers story, and it's at its best - as usual - in the enemies portion, with an interesting and fairly equal dynamic that's unusual and entertaining, with the enigmatic and non-maliciously manipulative Zherui showing up in bizarre and unexpected ways, and the frustrated and grumpy Zong Yi trying to get rid of him while missing him when he's gone. There is no particular seme-uke dynamic at first, which is refreshing, and when they do fall into those roles it's in an unexpected way.
The secondary couple is more clearly seme-uke, but the uke is not useless and without agency. He's crazy and mercurial, and would benefit from a steady-handed partner, but I liked that he's to be reckoned with, not a helpless damsel.
There are, however, a few issues which prevent this from reachingthe top tier. One is the convoluted plot with many holes in it and contrived relationships and coincidences, greatly exacerbated by numerous very large time jumps which plaster over organic resolution of dramatic tension, i.e. the important things tend to happen off-screen.
There is also a silly cliffhanger at the end of every episode and in the middle of them as well. For example. a character is shot, but it turns out with a rubber bullet as part of a life lesson someone was trying to teach which was totally ridiculous. Someone is stabbed, and in the next scene his friends are standing at a bridge with white flowers. To give to him because it was only a flesh wound (to the intestines) - never mind that white flowers are for the dead, and that was just cheap misdirection for 10 seconds of angst. The cliffhangers required a lot of time to be burned on backtracking to fill us in on what happened, and made it very difficult to follow the series if you watched it weekly - so I would recommend binge-watching. As it was, I usually had to review the previous episode because the beginning of each episode is unconnected to the end of the last.
Finally, the dynamic between the main pair descends into stereotypical BL roles, with the formerly grumpy and irritated Zong Yi transmogrifying into a sweet romantic lead, which is frankly boring and inconsistent with the character as originally drawn. He was bound to soften a bit, but he didn't need to become a different person. Clearly the writer wanted lovey-dovey interaction, but it could have been done with some of the edge left in. Due to what happens along the way, he suffers from a short-term memory problem - for about 5 minutes after a huge time jump, then it more or less goes away and has no further impact on anything.
There is a fake memory loss plot that is resolved so quickly that it's pointless and probably should have been left out. The story arc of the mafia boss was very well-acted, but had so little impact that it essentially wasted time. Too much was attempted for the run-time available, when it would have been better to just cut out elements that weren't necessary to the story.
Would I recommend this series? Definitely. Despite the criticisms above, it has so much going for it that the problems are overbalanced by it's good qualities, not least of which the unbelievable attractiveness of the cast - they are all smokin', and even better are all talented and skilled actors.
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Truly Awful
This is not just bad, it's offensive. About 75% of the story is Trans & queer shaming, with anyone not masculine depicted as awful, predatory, ridiculous, or otherwise pathetic and bad. There is no romance between the main couple - they're barely in it, and they have obligatory sex at the end that only one of them appears to be into - there is zero chemistry.There is no reason for anyone to watch this - even though Jennie is in it. Just awful and regressive in every way. Seriously, I feel like someone needs to be charged with a crime it's so bad. I gave it a 3 for Jennie and several of the actors who did their best.
It really deserves a negative 10, but I feel bad for the poor cast.
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Kind of bad.
Maybe I'll edit this after the special episode [I did below], but I'm not sure if that means the story continues or it will be a "making of".I was enjoying the series, not passionately, but it was watchable. But then the 4th episode happened. It was almost all with the 2 silly girls and there was virtually no interaction between the leads, which is inexcusable in the final episode. I don't know if that was supposed to be a cliffhanger, but it was kind of silly. Everyone keeps saying James raped Sky, which is ridiculous. James fantasized about kissing Sky in his sleep but he didn't do it.
The acting was acceptable, the production was fine, the couple was cute. Nothing special, but I did appreciate the passion the makers put into the project. But the 4th episode was so bad it canceled all that out for me. I would watch the first three and stop - nothing is really added by th 4th episode, but plenty is subtracted.
EDIT: The Special Episode partially redeemed this series for me, but again way too much time for silly girl antics. A substantial female character would have been welcome and could have had a role in the plot. All 5 episodes together are about 100 minutes - you can save yourself half of that by fast-forwarding through all the scenes with only girls. You will miss absolutely nothing as none of it has anything to do with the story.
Anyway, there was at least an ending, and a nice one, but you never really got much of a sense of how Sky felt about James other than being into his body (can't blame him) since the only interest he showed was going bug-eyed and staring at him whenever he was naked. I'll up James to "good" from "acceptable".
I imagine the production was extremely low-budget and had to operate with the limitations of COVID, so I'll cut them some slack, because they accomplished a lot with limited resources - I will definitely watch any future productions from this company. IF they cut out the silly girl thing. Thai BLs can learn from the Philippines on this issue.
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Fantastic Cast, Awful Story
I love this cast. They're all great, but the standouts are Progress as Noh and Kit as Earn, who is criminally underused. NJ is quite charismatic as Ohm, and Almond does a great job playing someone with anemia and low blood-sugar.Progress has huge anime-eyes and knows how to use them - I can feel everything he's feeling, and Earn is just a natural talent - he can pull off cute, sexy, heart-breakingly sad, all with an authenticity that's really quite something. There's a scene where he cries that is guaranteed to move you unless you're a bad person.
The writing is terrible. The first four or so episodes are strong, and then it just marches around in circles with nothing whatsoever to drive the story than jealousy, jealousy, more jealousy, and then some additional jealousy heaped on. It's mind-numbingly boring and a huge waste of time that could have been spent on secondary couples, or they could have made Earn-Noh-Phun a real love triangle - but I suppose that wouldn't have worked because it's hard to imagine why anyone would pick cute, kind, stable and hot-bodied Earn over Captain Low-Energy who shuffles around the story as if he were in a Noh play or a classical Chinese opera - how slowly can a teenager move? I swear they must have been putting sedatives in his refreshing tea drinks or something.
Anyway, I kept waiting for something to happen, and it never did. Most of the secondary couples didn't get much in the way of resolution, and the total lack of physical love was ridiculous and homophobic. The main pair end the series kissing through a glass door. A shut glass door. How romantic. I hope Phun didn't swallow too many squished bugs.
We're going 100 kph backwards at this point - high school character in the original series had sex and it was integrated into the plot - here a kiss on the cheek is a step above a marriage proposal. That's not to say we needed sex - I don't think that would have added anything to the story, but in My School President there wasn't even kissing but you could see that the boys were into each other by the way they always touched each other or leaned into each other when sitting.
It's a pity because in the rare cuddling scenes, the actors were clearly willing to show m/m intimacy.
The music is quite good. There's a forelorn love theme that's perfect for young love and at times is a character in itself. It's well-filmed, and the production quality is high.
I would only recommend it because almost none of the actors have been in anything else and this is the only place to see them, and they're worth it. Hopefully they'll get better roles in the future, especially Krit, who is absolutely leading-man material nad needs his own series.
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Fluffy, but for once not in a bad way.
Normally I would loathe a series like this becaus I find fluff tedious - but not when it's interspersed with an actual story with consistent characters that have development arcs, which is a rarity in BL. Even the uke had character development.Hong Wei Zhe does a good job of making a bratty character likeable, and there's a certain convoluted structure to his whining that is always entertaining.
Yang I Hsuan is really sexy and does one of the best jobs of acting like he's really into someone I've ever seen. He's the kind of guy everyone would want as a bf. The boys are not afraid to show phyiscal affection - they are always touching, rubbing noses, kissing, or even wrestling around - the latter of which I appreciated because it felt like two guys instead of a man and an uke. Jiang Chi is sweet and takes care of Bu Xia, but he's not above laughing at him when he's being ridiculous or teasing him - he feels like a real person, and his interaction with Bu Xia feels genuine and unrehearsed.
There are a few funny take-downs of BL tropes - for example, Jiang Chi has a fiancee that drops out of the sky as it typical in a BL - he basically just says "I'm gay, get lost". and that's the end of that.
The plot is a little thin, but there is one, it is thought out and flows nicely. And best of all, there's a setup for another season, which I hope happens.
The cinematography is very good, with some lovely shots of Taiwan, and in general it's well-produced.
I highly recommend this series - it's relentlessly pleasant, there is drama but not caused by awful people - it's mostly character-driven, although ghosts also play a role in moving the story foraward.
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I'm giving it an '8', but I didn't like it.
I'm torn on this one. It's well-written, exquisitely filmed, well-directed and pretty much excellent in every technical way.I usually defend shorter works, but in this case, it's too short for the material it covered. Not plot-wise - all the story arcs conclude and while I wouldn't say it's a blissfully happy ending, it is realistic and convincing. It's in the emotions. It's bleak for too long with an awful person dominating the story, and there's only 3 minutes of relief.
I may be missing something, but I didn't see how the two stories were connected or how they complimented each other - it felt like two entirely different stories stapled together, and while the color grading and other skillful 'tricks' made it very clear what were flashbacks, the jumping around made the story feel even more disjointed.
And because there is rarely any context to what's going on, it's hard to figure out. Why were Archie and Kelvin at a high school at the end of the series? My guess was that Archie now teaches there and Kelvin found out and went there to find him, but then he was surprised that Archie had been there, which was just confusing. I may have all that totally wrong, but that would only amplify my point.
Anyway, I understand this is being made into a long series, which would be welcome if it's the same production crew, but I hope they find a better way to handle Archie & Kelvin's story than have a horrible, evil female character that sucks the desire to watch this out of me. It could be more nuanced with societal and family pressures driving Kelvin's decisions - making him get trapped and have no choice just makes him pathetic, and if I were Archie I wouldn't touch him with a 100' pole - he brutally dumped me once for her, why should I believe he won't do it again?
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I loved this, and I hate everything.
I don't know where they found the actor playing Ye Chan, but he was amazing. It can be hard to play a reserved character, but it's also hard to play one who hides nothing. He could slide so effortlessly between happieness, outrage, worry, shyness, and smoking hot sexy all within a few seconds - what a vesitile man.The plot is sweet without being saccharine, and alhough it uses some BL tropes, it uses them logically, consistent with the characters, and seem like a natual extension of what was already going on.
There is no external drama thrown at the couple to keep them apart - everything doing that is organic to the characters, and not artificially inserted in the usual lazy writing that plagues BL.
The do start out with a mild enemies-to-lovers trope, but because they're realistic people, they quickly realize there was a misunderstanding and acknowlege their role in it.
I would do anything to have my own Ye Chan - how could anyone ask for a better boyfriend? 100% honest, 100% supportive in a selfless way, muscles all over the place, uncynical, and able to find happiness in simple things. And simultaneously cute and handsome, which is a brutal combination.
This is a story that could easily segue into a season 2, so here's hoping for that.
If I were to list negatives, it would be that Yul is not a very appealing character. He's a bit bland and often unpleasant, although that improved in the later episodes. Still, the actor was badly overshadowed by Ye Chan. It could have been longer, as the music issue was squeezed entirely into the last episode, and although it was set up earlier, maybe not enough.
Still, this was easily the most enjoyment I've gotten out of a BL in months, and you absolutely can't go wrong watching it
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What a disappointment.
The good: Jang Eui Soo's eyes. Jang Eui Soo shirtless. That's about it.The bad: The writing is terrible. The "plot" makes no sense, the villain has no motivation and suffers no consquences at all - in fact she's thanked by her victim for her perfidy. I can't even really sum up what the story is because there wasn't any.
There were a few cute moments, but I didn't really feel the commitment of the actors, or any real chemistry. Everything was flat and it was an actual chore to get through the last episode. Example: why was the music box playing "O Tannenbaum", a German Christmas carol? I realize there are probably not a lot of music boxes shaped like ferris wheels (incidentally, how did they operate the real one in that spooky-ass abandoned amusement park?), but just dub in something that makes more sense, like the Bach prelude they played a couple of times.
Korea came in strong with Where Your Eyes Linger, and each successive BL has been a step weaker. After this I'm afraid to watch the next...
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Maybe there's something wrong with me.
When I started this I was pleasantly surprised - I thought Vice Versa was awful, and so I had no expectations. But both Jimmy and Sea were much improved, the story, although a bit formulaic, wasn't overly so, especially in having two men in the lead roles and not a seme and uke, and I engaged with and enjoyed the series. I especially thought Sea was doing a good job as it's hard to show feelings without using your eyes.But like so many Thai series, it's way, way too long - I'd say twice as long as it should have been, and so many of its positive qualities grew stale.
I had liked how Day and Mhok interacted like guys, teasing each other - but that got so tiresome and predictable that I began to sigh wearily at it all.
Anyway, the central problems for me:
There is no character development. And what little there is is erased by the way the series ends. Mhok's character changes, but it doesn't develop. He starts off as a sexy rough and surly guy who is suddenly neutered and can take any amount of abuse with infinite grace and forgiveness, to the point that he's a total simp, thanking Day for dumping him and breaking his heart. It's a light-switch flipping, not a journey. All of his issues are passed over, like his grief over his sister - it doesn't play into the plot at all past the first couple of episodes, when it's used to propel Mhok into the caretaker job, then he forgets she existed, except to create manufactured drama in Ep 11. Day, on the other hand, starts off as a self-centered entilted brat, and ends exactly the same. You'll note he never shows any concern for anyone other that himself, other than obeying his harpy of the mother (who is supremely well acted, but she's awful. And let's get real - there is 0% chance she would accept her eldest son marrying a poor girl with a baby by someone else. 0%.)
There is no plot.
Everything is just arranged to present romatic set pieces. For example, at Christmas, Day comes to surprise Mhok after work, in a cute reflection of an earlier surprise visit by Mhok to Day's house. They have dinner and Mhok says it's a moment that's so wonderful that he wishes it could last forever. Awww, so sweet. Except that Day had just ditched him all day at Christmas without sending a text like a complete asshole, making Mhok sad all day. Mhok, who used to be surly, is now a saint and isn't even slightly upset about this, because... well, reasons. He has no character anymore, and the plot doesn't either. There is no interplay of action->reaction. Did anyone even for a second think Mhok was the groom in Ep 12? Come on, do they think we're stupid?
The writing is cheesy.
Not a little bit cheesy, but relentlessly, oppressively cheesy. "I used to believe that people were blind because they couldn't see things. I just realized today that true blindness is being unable to see hope." Ugh. It's like the author robbed the greeting card rack of a convenience store and dumped their contents into her story. Even the one occassion of meta-awareness of this cheesiness is cheesy: "I've heard many such cheesy lines, but this is the first time I've believed one."
The morality and moralizing is way off-base.
How was Night to blame for anything? All he did is got drunk. It was Day who practically let go of the wheel and certainly took his eyes off the road (which was a lost opportuntity for irony and consequences paid for actions) to search for a bucket or something, as if there would be one in the car, instead of just pulling off the road. Night should have been praised for not trying to drive drunk, not condenmed to being blamed by everyone including his awful mother. Why does Mhok have to apologize for not wanting to move to a different country and have to be away from the man he loves? If Hawaii were the only place in the world he could get a cooking career, OK, sure, we can discuss that, but DAY'S MOTHER IS A CELEBRITY CHEF. There are better oppotunities at home.
The acting is OK.
Like I said, much improved, but the "enemies" portion of the story had the best acting, and it was interesting storywise because they weren't really enemies - it was a bit of a game to hide their mutual attraction and it was quite lovely. But in the end, I don't think either actor shined, and this is underscored by how strong Mark Pakin is - the most moving moment in the whole series is his reaction to being forgiven. I didn't feel the romantic chemistry between the leads at all - they had good "friend" chemistry, but their interaction is so sexless (and I don't mean sex scenes, which can be more sexless than anything, I mean no heat between them) that it felt like a primary-school relationship with tickling and sniff-kisses to the cheek being about all we see. Again, Mark and Namtan outshone them - I felt the heat the first time they met and it never abated. Sea had a hard job, and he did his best, which was not bad, but it grew dull by the end. Jimmy can do sad-puppy-dog and sexy smirk very well, but that's about it, and he too grew dull.
The writing is shallow.
This could have been about dealing with loss and resiliance, about moving on and adapting to adversity, but Day's character is so thin and inconsistent that we get no depth. His reaction to an unsuccessful surgery implying permanent blindness is wasted on the greeting-card line I referenced above and he processes the situation for literal minutes before being totally over it. And the ending renders the entire series a pointless string of plot points with no meaning or impact. Instead of dealing with the consequences of their decisions, the story makes a time jump, the first refuge of an incompetent writer, and skips over all that for an insta-reunion. Well, not instant, as there had to be a rush-to-the-airport cliche thrown in. Sigh.
In the end, this was just boring. There was a whole episode about jogging. In Ep 12, even the YouTube algorithm was despondent and kept throwing reaction videos to Deadpool into the queue instead of the next part of the episode. The rating of this as I write is 8.6, which is astoundingly high - but I'm willing to bet that in a year it will be down around half a point. There are lovely moments in this that buoy the score, and many people vote early on and don't change it - but subsquent viewers will binge it and it just won't have an 8.6 impact on them, and I doubt people will be talking much about this in a year, because there's nothing to talk about.
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It's OK
This series had a lot going for it - a good cast, interesting main characters that are well-acted, the main character's smoke-show brother lifting heavy boxes... but the quality of the writing is low, with improvised moments ending up the highlights of the series.The plot is frustrating, as Phumjai (Offroad) spends two thirds of the series obsessing over a girl, who in fairness is not evil and doesn't attempt to sink the ship. Once the romance starts, it's immediately derailed by a ridiculous plot turn that could have been fun if it went camp like it did at the very end, but unfortunately was instensely boring. the writing is poor, repetitive, and lazy. There's a point where it turns out Yang has a number code system for some reason, including a code number for "just don't come". What possible purpose would he have for that phrase? Unless he's kinky or something.
There's too much of people behaving out of character just to move the plot along. Yang won't allow Phumjai to give him $5,000, but he's OK with selling Phumjai's brother into slavery? OK, good to see he has his priorities in order. That did lead to Phojai lifting heavy things shirtless and sweaty, so it was all worth it in the end, I guess.
Offroad has always been compelling, and Daou Pittaya is a stunning man... when he's not disfigured with a hideous wig. Why is BL so terrified of short hair on men? Look what they've done to poor Frank Thanatsaran!
Anyway, this is silly and immature - it left me missing high school dramas and engineers - but the cast is able to compensate and make it a worthwhile watch. Special mention goes to Ngern Anupart who had me fanning myself whenever he was onscreen - I hope we get to see him in a lead role at some point.
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Tries to be too many things
The novel from which this series was adapted was apparently porn, and fairly transgressive at that. I can't help but ask if that was really the most suitable material.This starts of as an Enemies to Lovers story on steroids, with the two being so awful to each other that it's hard to imagine coming back from it. Later on it emerges that Mangkorn has liked Yai for years. You mean like when you drugged and raped him, filmed it and used the footage to blackmail him? I might have started out by asking him on a date, but I guess we all have our playbooks.
Do note that Mangkorn discovered that Yai planned to do that to him and turned the tables, so It's not like Yai is some innocent victim.
Anyway, they fall in love, of course, and have all the typical BL problems from demanding fathers, arranged marraiges, inapporpriate jealousy, and implausible lack of communication, before the most inexplicably dull finale imaginable. One commenter called them "matured". Yes, matured if you mean married for 40 years and no longer have any passion left between them. There's a large chunk of their conversation that revolved around who was ordering flowers. There's even a flashback to provide the backstory to who was ordering flowers. Do we watch dramas to listen to people have a conversation like our elderly parents might have, or do we watch it for, I don't know, drama?
I don't necessarily need a realistic portrayal of what would happen if two 20-something men who are passionately in love and haven't seen each other for a year came together (hint: tons and tons of sex), but I do want to see the joy and passion and chemistry, not discussions of who ordered the flowers and career goals.
The transition from mutual attempted rape/blackmail to Disney princess is non existent - we really don't see the progression in their relationship, they just go from firey hatred and a desire to destroy each other to waiting up for the sunrise when they've been apart for a year (note: airliners have WCs and people have been brushing their teeth on them since the dawn of flight. Airports also have WCs, and if you're rich and flew Business, the lounge even has invidual fully-stocked private bathrooms).
There's apparently a Season 2. Joy.
The acting is quite good in this - I didn't notice at first, but both leads are considerably above average. There is good cinematograpy, but there are times when a shot is so obviously set up that it takes you out of the moment.
My intial reaction to this series was quite negative, and then it steadily grew on me, before taking a downswing with the finale where everyone started talking like greeting cards. It's not the worst series - I'm not sure I'd recomment it, but if you can get past the first three episodes it starts to get better. If not for the finale, I would have given this a 7.5.
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Gun is so supernaturally unappealing that it was totally incomprehensible that Bar would ever go for this creepy stalker, especially when he had the 1,000 times more attractive Mark after him too. To be honest, my skin crawled so badly whenever Gun was onscreen that I started fast-fowarding through all his scenes.
I would recommend you jut skip everything except the 5-10 minutes or so with Mark so that you have the background you need for Love Mechanics, although you don't really need to see it because there's a brief flashback that tells you everything you need to know in the second series. This is the worst BL I've ever watched - What the Duck is a work of high art compared to this. The acting is terrible - Gun manages to be the creepiest "handsomest guy on campus" imaginable and Bar is passable - it's hard to blame him given what he had to work with.
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A nice suprise
There is an inevitable comparison with Gameboys, but the similarities are only superficial - this is a totally different story with different themes.This is well-done for what it is - and a rare examination of the disconnect between who we seem to be online and who we really are. I can't say too much about the story without spoiling, but the buildup of the plot and the main theme of the story is quite well-done.
However, the resolution was too easy and simplistic and let down the series overall by being unearned. It really needed 2-4 more episodes so that what happens can be processed - in a way that makes sense for teens.
The simple fact is that there is an element to attraction that is physical. There is nothing wrong with that. It can be problemmatic if ALL your criteria are physical, but there are just certain looks that appeal to us more than others. For example, I have a little trouble finding really tall men attractive, and I find Asian men more attractive than any others. That doesn't mean I'm never attracted to men of other races, and I'm sure there are cultural elements involved in my associations, and there's much more to any attractions I have than just physical.
The other thing that was a little off-putting was that there was a large personality difference between fantasy and reality as well. There is a power element to love relationships, and that is also OK and natural. In this case, Boss has an easy, cocky confidence and a sexual confidence that Tono doesn't have - I would find that exciting, and if that balance were suddenly reversed, it would be an issue. Also, there are limits to how different a person can look from what you expected - for example if they're 40 years older or a different gender. Small superficial differences are much easier to integrate than major, categorical ones (e.g. he's really a woman instead of a man vs. his hair is dark brown, not light brown or he looks a little heavier or lighter in person than on camera, etc.)
What I would have liked is some processing on the part of Tono - like his initial reaction is a bit shallow and he needs a little time to think about how that makes him feel and how important it is or isn't to how he feels about Boss, maybe talks it through with his friend, rather than the isntantaneous shrugging it off.
Anyway, I still liked it and it's worth watching. The pacing is good (except at the end), the actors work well togther even in the videochat format, and both are charming and have wll-drawn characters given the short length of the series. I hope we get a chance to see more of them both.
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