Amore (2020)

Not so much bad as unbelievably boring.

EDIT: Do not be tricked by the fake 10/10 ratings. The show is awful and is too huge an investment of time to slog through.

The story setup is not innovative, but it is at least fertile ground for development. Unfortunately, the glacial pace of that development and the ridiculously boring characters does not exploit this opportunity. First, it seems clear to me that Wil was intended to be the villain, but because viewers inexplicably loved him so much, the producers reversed themselves and made him good, which drained the show of all interest and drama as there is no antagonist.

Second, the best actor, who plays the unstable psycho Nuan, is wasted playing an unstable psycho - which should be interesting, except his instability is too stable and never develops or goes anywhere. But at least you feel something when he's on screen. The actor playing Jimmy is good too, but it takes a long time to get over what a dick his character is at the beginning - they laid it on too hard and so the audience misunderstood that he wasn't the villain, Wil was (well, supposed to be).

The acting overall is fairly good, although nobody is really given much material to work with. Some of the acting is cringeworthy, but to their credit, a lot of the inexperienced actors showed improvement as the series wore on. And on.

Third, it's almost comical that every single male character (and all their family members. I am not joking) in the show is hot for the supernaturally average Joey, when Nuan and Jimmy are like, right there.

I can't rate the plot because there isn't one. I'm not joking.

There is a houseplant that has more scenes than most of the main characters. Still not joking. It is also in more conversations than most of the main characters. It is also more interesting than most of the main characters, and a better conversationalist. There is more chemistry between the houseplant and both Joey and Wil than they have with each other. The chemistry between Joey and Wil is so non-existent that when they touch it feels like the actors are sexually harassing each other.

The music is bad. If the music is not noticeable it's at least doing it's job, which would earn it a five. But there is one bar of music that is run over an over again to the point that you want to poke out your eardrums so you don't ever have to hear it again.

The production values are unacceptably bad - like a child with an iPhone could have done a better job of filming this. The camerawork was terrible, the sound was worse, and the editor is clearly a sadist.

As for rewatch value, I doubt even the most ardent JoWil enthusiast has ever rewatched a scene. Maybe the one in the bathroom where they're both in towels. Wil looks pretty good in a towel, so some people might want to see that again. If you held a gun to my head, I'd probably prefer a bullet to watching this again.

Overall rating: Worse than COVID, not as bad as the Holocaust.

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Disappointed

Amore was a really good story. Different and interesting. BL with some intrigue.
The cast was really good.. inclusive and quirky.
Things started stumbling in the 20s episodes. The stories got confused or suddenly abandoned. Waited forever for the finale and it was a shame. Not in the way that you feel when a story doesn't end the way you envisioned it, but instead ended in a ridiculously thrown together wrap up. It didn't even continue from the episode before it nor did it contain anything from the teaser at the end of that episode. I won't put specific spoilers but watch through episode 26 and then come up with your own ending.

My heart goes out to the actors who put a lot into Amore and to the fans, like me that stayed loyal for those 26 episodes. I won't trust my time to this production company again.

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Words cannot express how bad this series was.

This show started out really cringe, and just got progressively worse. Whatever the writers had originally planned for the show obviously got tossed aside and abandoned, like several of the “main” characters just disappearing. A “True to Life Story”. Whose life story? Whoever it is, I feel sorry for them. I felt sorry for the actors as they were just doing what they were told. I feel sorry for the people who stuck it out to the end even when the directors obviously had given up on the series. There was no real resolution for any of the characters. Again, I can’t stress enough how bad this show was. I would rate this as a zero if I could, but will give it a one.

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I promised myself that I wouldn’t write a review for this series, but here we are. This review is not one of personal opinion, but rather completely objective.

What makes a series good? A cast who can genuinely act, or a production house that knows it’s way around, or a story worth sticking with? Unfortunately, Amore seems to possess just one. Acting can only carry a series up to a particular point, after which the audience needs something more to stay with the series through it’s run. Be it whether there are sound glitches, an everlasting story that seems to be headed nowhere or the introduction of controversial actors, Amore has it’s fair share of problems, but what is the factor that this series contains that continually keeps the viewers interested?

The answer to that would seem to be the acting. The chemistry between the characters, especially Wil and Joey is off the charts right now and these characters seem genuine, which resonates with many an audience. The cast only seems to improve every single episode and that’s an amazing thing, but it’s not enough. As I mentioned before, just good acting is not the saviour. This was marketed as a love story between Jimmy and Joey, and that was honestly the reason I started this series, but as the episodes pass, I feel myself getting tired of the ongoing storyline. With the absolute absence of romance between the leads as of now, lack of consent, the love interests that keep hounding the lead, this drama seems to be heading down hill.

What’s still keeping you and I here though? That I don’t know the answer to. Maybe it’s hope that it will get better, or maybe you are genuinely interested in the show. Be what it may, by my standards this is mediocre. I sit here with the hope that it will get better and if it does, maybe this review will end on a positive note.

EDIT AFTER EPISODE 25
So..... it did not get better. Yes the acting is absolutely consistent, and my complaint that the story seems to be going nowhere is quenched, but god, when did the story get this bad. For a while, it genuinely looked like the story was going to get better than before, but it somehow took a turn for the worse.

Long drawn out dialogues, unnecessarily written scenes that seem to have no ultimate connection to the final outcome of the story, the writing out of several main characters and the incredibly annoying behaviour of some characters are just unbearable at this point.

Once again, good acting can only get you to one point, you need way more than just acting to make a series enjoyable. Be it a very popular series, a much anticipated sequel or a series with not much to go for, we look for elements that make it enjoyable to the self and have come to expect a certain level of quality, which Amore seems to lack. A certain panache, if you will. Yes, the leads finally got together, in the 25th episode. The baby,.... well something happened to the baby and I don’t want to spoil it more than I already have.

With the news out that the director was fired from the company, the fate of the series hangs in the air. Will it be continued, or concluded on that slightly positive note remains to be seen.

EDIT AFTER THE FINALE
What in the actual f*** was that!!!! True Love is Sacrifice!!!! I mean seriously.... what was that???
Like they got together in episode 25, they were happy in episode 26, then comes episode 27 and bam! Jimmy goes off to become a priest!?! Like whyyy??? I’m so pissed right now.

Even without the horrible ending, the series has nothing to brag about. The premise seemed extremely interesting and it seemed like it was going to be a light hearted rom - com type series, but they just had to go the dramatic route. Sometimes the really predictable story is leagues better, and maybe with a better script and a slightly higher budget, this would have been a good, a great series even, but now, it has literally ended on nothing.

As I’ve already mentioned, it started out well, fizzled out somewhere in between and finally went out without a bang. Some dramas work, this didn’t.

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Heads up, no spoiler on this review, this is just pure performance and story flow in terms of technical and storyline.

I can say that this series is underrated, since they have a fewer views unlike the other series from the Philippines, but I think this series deserved more views than the others, Technically wise, they have grayed areas that needs to be enhances specially the audio, but I don;t care about it, as long as there is subtitle, I can manage to watch it and enjoy the series, second the camera works is not that bad, but it could be enhance in more running, i know they will use to it but will definitely add creative movement of the shot, but again, I don't care as long the subject is the main implied in the screen, it's fine.

Now, lets proceed to the main course of this series, The story and the uniqueness of the storyline was amazing, it new, and knowing that it's based from a real life story, I know that it is going to be relatable, and I am right, each scenes really happens.

Plus, the acting power of the actors, my God, it seems they are not new in the industry, according to an interview I watched from the cats that this series is their first project ever. and that amazed me. The lines and the way it was delivered was professionally done.

Thank you for this series, and I hope that other will have time to watch this cos this deserves a lot.

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Kinda shocked

Hmmmmm where do i start ok so the acting wasnt too bad but i felt some of it was over dramatised ,i was pretty upset with the baby butch situation as i thought the drama was heading in the direction of wil being the dad thats why i watched it so long, so that was pretty disappointing.
I felt proper let down with the outcome of the series and decided to drop it because i honestly thought the storyline was not only based on jimmy and joey getting together but also the paternity of y butch being wil,but guess not ,overall watch if u have that kinda time on ur hands.

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My Amore BL Series Review

The story is superb and unique that's why upcoming episodes are very interesting. So much things to unpack and a lot of stories to tell. The love story at the end can be somehow expected but with how the story progresses, you can say there are a lot of things you may not be expecting to happen. The actors, their acting and the chemistry are on point. You would be hooked by the way they deliver their lines. This series is very addictive that I get to watch everyday the latest parts of the weekly episodes. This is more than a BL series actually.

The sound quality will certainly be not that good since the production is not that big. This has been the problem in the first episode but the director has promised that they will improve on that. Seeing the episodes 2 and 3, I can say that the sound quality is quite improving.

Actually, this has been the best PH BL series for me.

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OK filler show. Some quality and editing issues make this hard to watch at times.

The story itself wasn't too bad, and the actors did a good job for being in their first series. And overall I am glad I watched it. I hope to see these actors again in another series. It was nice to not have an engineering student plot. This was far from that. I would even say it is a more middle-class and down to earth series, which is a nice change. There was the couple who fall with a long stare and an almost kiss while they are on the floor, so at least we got that trope covered! Can't have a BL series without the fall/kiss scene...

Now for the bad.

The sound was atrocious. The microphones picked up lots background noise. The sound levels were very uneven from scene to scene, and episode to episode. The mics scratched on their clothing. Conversations were muffled. This show really needed some better equipment and/or a good sound person. I get they weren't on a Holly wood soundstage, but this was very below average quality. Even the worst low budget Thai series has much better sound.

The camera work wasn't great either. The uneven focusing, and the way they framed the shots, were closer to a home movie quality than a professional production.

And despite the story itself being good, this was way too long, and there were just way too many episodes. They could have cut this down from the approximately 20 hours and 27 episodes to about half that with some better editing. It just dragged at times with the first episodes being a full hour. But then you get to Episode 17 and suddenly it is 30 minutes. Then starting at Episode 18 through 27 we are down to about 15-18 minutes. Why not just make fewer one hour episodes or make them all 45 minutes?

And speaking of editing, this was the other very apparent issue with this series. It was so uneven, and I kept thinking I fell asleep during parts of the story. But it turns out, there were some significant parts of this that really were just not there, or there were major continuity skips. The last episode in particular was like it was a different plot somehow, and I still don't quite get how it all happened that way.

So my conclusion is that it wasn't great, and it wasn't bad, but it needed some work. It wasn't nearly as good as Gameboys, Oh Mando, or even (love it or hate it) My Day. All of which were made at about the same time as this. Like I said at the beginning, I am glad I watched it. But it could have been much more enjoyable if some basic things were improved.

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Good Story, but!

Yes the story was good! Having said that a lot of the scenes were just too drawn out. This series took way to long to get to each point in the story. It just seemed like with each scene it took boringly to long. I mean it’s a good show, but getting to each point in the story was just dragging. Acting was, in my opinion, good each character did a good job it’s just they needed better direction and maybe better writing. Adding better hi lights in each episode getting to the points faster this way spending more time with each individual character and their relationship to the overall story. As in a couple previous comments regarding Joey’s character. This character was just an average good everyday person which was hard to picture all these other good looking men wanting him in the worse way. Maybe it’s the type of character they were going for as far as an everyday good person rather than the hunk of a man. That to me was a bit different in a character. All in all if you can get through the long dragging out of individual scenes it’s a good series to watch. My one last complaint is the very ending episode. This ending was terrible it’s not a very exciting or climactic ending, but a quick to rush way to end a BL series at the end. Like a lot of the BL shows they take forever to get to the good parts and the bam ? the very last couple episodes they try to wrap up all the previous episodes in one quick swoop and it just leaves with WTF ? just happened! Actors ultimately did a great job with what was handed to them and yes if they were in other shows I would take the time to watch them because they were all enjoyable!

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NEEDS A REDO.

Firstly. I actually just finished this series about 2days ago. And i could not stop creating so many blank spots that needed answers. So lets divide it.

BACK STORY.
So in the series , i had no problem with any character. They were all perfect with their own flaws and lessons learnt. But there were so many questions unanswered, that can be answered and made better.

PRINCESS- please and i know im not the only one asking this...from the point in the series where she found out about Wil staying there, she showed a sense of fear that she was in deep trouble , like he would harm her or she was in danger near him, and took flight without a word. Wil also mentions many times that he wasnt a good person before. But u cant tell me that she was that frightened because of Kenji finiding them or because she had no freedom. Like there could be more to her backstory than what was shown. Also where did she move to ? Who did she leave with ? Where had she been all this time everyone searched for her? How did she feel when she heard the news about Butch? Who found her? How did the confrontation happen about the non biological fathers? who was the father? I have so many questions .

WIL- honestly i loved this character, i loved his gentleness in the beginning and how u gradually see his bad ways to show his love. Absolutely perfect. However , how does he have Lameul as a connection ? Who is he exactly , and what was he capable of to cause his ex girlfriend to run away? Also how did he and the ex girlfriend rekindle? What was his reaction after finding out Butch couldve been his? Or after hearing that it's neither his or Jimmys baby? Why did he talk so much to that plant?

NUAN- Loved his character, however he has too many long unnecessary scenes of saddness and tears. I love how far his obsessiveness went. However , he should show how he moved on and got into a relationship.

BUTCH- After three years , Butch was still a baby ? He shouldve been walking and talking. Also that did not have to happen to him for them to realize they needed to move forward. The best ending would've been the happy family of 2 fathers. Also how jimmy got custody over him. And his relationship with everyone.

JOEY- i dont have a problem here just that , he had the evidence and did nothing ??? During that three years. He couldve tried to find her with Dave to talk to her about the situation.

Ahh i have so my much questions about this whole series

Please Redo this series and make it better. This story is impeccable.

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