This review may contain spoilers
A guide to successfully gaslighting your partner
Its 2025 and still we're being served a BL that got some much toxic waste that I honestly was expecting Greenpeace to show up for a protest at some point. This BL is a throwback to the don'ts of 2018/2015 BL's, which included such great highlights like: an obligatory GL couple that got less screen time than some of the comic relief characters, consent not even being an option, a narcistic & toxic red flag Main Top which is being sold as bad boy with an redemption arc (spoiler there is no redemption, dude is just toxic), a Main Bottom with less common sense than a toothpick and no discernible character and cringe as far as the eye can see. The only thing that isn't a throwback to those dark times are the NC scenes which are definitely 2025 (and probably directed by someone from the porn industry).
The acting is stiffer than the Main couples in-between-the-legs-appendices are most of the time and not all of the cast are first timers, some have enough experience that they should know how to act. So there's very little excuse for how bad the acting is, except that the script is just so bad that I really can't see any actor being able to delivery a good performance with it. Which especially shows compared to the NC scenes where the acting is actually good, even though the dialogs are still a real cringe fest.
The sets are boring and add nothing much to look at, which is ok if this production had a small budget. Which I hope was the case. The music is nothing special and really didn't leave an impression. The editing didn't really suck, so thats a plus I guess. The cinematography was pretty decent in the NC scenes and just meh the rest of the time with some annoying and unnecessary flares and lighting effects.
Now back to script: Oh dear, I should've checked out what the writer's other works are, then I probably wouldn't have been so surprised by the waste that I got served. The dialogs are just simply bad cringe, not the good kind of cringe one can actually enjoy as a guilty pleasure. No no. Grown up characters spewing constantly some pouty nonsense, lines straight out of porn or the worst of the 2000er b-movie romances imaginable. Add to that one dimensional characters, whose sole traits are either having no brains, no common sense, every red flag imaginable or just good looks.
Is there at least a story? Sure and I think its about how the toxic main top constantly gaslights his no brains younger bottom into mainly non consensual topping and other such activities, bullies said bottom to follow his every whim, while said bottom harbours delusions of changing the top and at the end sorta just gives up (good sex apparently excuses all). Add to that a plethora of people actively enabling the top's toxic ways or excusing them in some bullshit way. And then there is those two side couples which got a more or less a healthy relationship, not quite sure about the GL but since those two are just there for the heck of it eh. The second couple could've been a ray of light in this waste land of a story but no. It started pretty good and then for some reason, they just had to add nonsensical drama to that couples story, ruining that too.
So basically if one enjoys watching a series which celebrates every toxic trait and red flag in a partner with some very imaginative NC scenarios straight out of the porn industry, this is it for you. It really wasn't my cup of tea and the trailer gaslight me into believing this would be good, which I guess fits the story.
The acting is stiffer than the Main couples in-between-the-legs-appendices are most of the time and not all of the cast are first timers, some have enough experience that they should know how to act. So there's very little excuse for how bad the acting is, except that the script is just so bad that I really can't see any actor being able to delivery a good performance with it. Which especially shows compared to the NC scenes where the acting is actually good, even though the dialogs are still a real cringe fest.
The sets are boring and add nothing much to look at, which is ok if this production had a small budget. Which I hope was the case. The music is nothing special and really didn't leave an impression. The editing didn't really suck, so thats a plus I guess. The cinematography was pretty decent in the NC scenes and just meh the rest of the time with some annoying and unnecessary flares and lighting effects.
Now back to script: Oh dear, I should've checked out what the writer's other works are, then I probably wouldn't have been so surprised by the waste that I got served. The dialogs are just simply bad cringe, not the good kind of cringe one can actually enjoy as a guilty pleasure. No no. Grown up characters spewing constantly some pouty nonsense, lines straight out of porn or the worst of the 2000er b-movie romances imaginable. Add to that one dimensional characters, whose sole traits are either having no brains, no common sense, every red flag imaginable or just good looks.
Is there at least a story? Sure and I think its about how the toxic main top constantly gaslights his no brains younger bottom into mainly non consensual topping and other such activities, bullies said bottom to follow his every whim, while said bottom harbours delusions of changing the top and at the end sorta just gives up (good sex apparently excuses all). Add to that a plethora of people actively enabling the top's toxic ways or excusing them in some bullshit way. And then there is those two side couples which got a more or less a healthy relationship, not quite sure about the GL but since those two are just there for the heck of it eh. The second couple could've been a ray of light in this waste land of a story but no. It started pretty good and then for some reason, they just had to add nonsensical drama to that couples story, ruining that too.
So basically if one enjoys watching a series which celebrates every toxic trait and red flag in a partner with some very imaginative NC scenarios straight out of the porn industry, this is it for you. It really wasn't my cup of tea and the trailer gaslight me into believing this would be good, which I guess fits the story.
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