Inn Love (2021)

Not Great. But not awful either.

This is a light and whimsical comedy-romance. There is no huge drama, and the happy ending is sappy enough to please even the most committed lovers of BL "happy ever aftering."

Pros:

-- The lead actors created quite believable characters. Until they found each other, Gino was unsure and nervous and had no idea what he really wanted. Alex was moody and lost in his past. I just wish the blossoming of their love had been a bit more gradual/subtle.

-- Oh, and yes, Migo de Vera has a world-class, A-No 1 body, and doesn't mind showing it off. They left me gasping in the final ep. when the scene changed to him mostly naked in the bed. Such perfection is rare indeed. (Not that anybody noticed, but he also has very attractive eyes.....)

-- The music was very enjoyable. It was light and very catchy -- it perfectly suited the mood for the series.

-- The messaging was good. Alex's little soliloquy at the end about "love is love" was really quite meaningful. And I like the very Pinoy framing of some of the discussions which situated gay love securely in a context of divine benevolence. That alone is a lovely and very explicit rebuttal to the homophobia espoused by many organized religions, and it left me cheering. But the messaging was a mixed bag......see below.

Cons: The messaging got to be too heavy at some points. Especially in the wedding scene. Overkill.

-- The plot was weak. You never got a good feel for how Alex suddenly started having feelings for Gino. Several of the episodes in the middle were just aimless wandering around the resort. And then the end......just toooo unbelievable that after GinEx had been together for precisely 3 months they were prepared to have a big, emotion-filled wedding ceremony......but they knew nothing about it!! I have to say that the concept of a having a surprise wedding (a surprise to you!) thrown by your friends is something totally new. I hope it doesn't catch on in real life.....I can see that sort of thing ending a lot of relationships.

-- The minor characters were not effectively developed. A couple of them (Kelly the room-maid) were almost offensively stupid. Others were kind of intriguing, but you never got to know them at all. And who was the middle-aged guy, anyway, who stimulated Alex's sudden realizations about the nature of life? Talk about the Deus Ex Machina who solves all the problems.

-- Production values were dodgy. There were sound and light issues at several points.

All in all, I think this is worth watching, but probably not a top priority. The last two episodes are key....so if you want to do some skipping, just watch the first two and the last two episodes. The ones in the middle don't add much.

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Truly Awful

I usually try to be tolerant of low-budget productions, especially when they have heart. This doesn't.

The story is boring, the acting poor. The main character has no charm or charisma, and the main pair has no chemistry at all. In their kiss scene they somehow managed to look like they were sexually harassing each other.

There is one bar of music, and it's played over and over until you want to poke out your own eardrums.

The female characters are just excruciating. There's a woman on the staff of the resort that, and I hesitate to use words like this, behaves like a shameless slut in heat. Whenever she's in Migo's presence, her tongue is hangling out, she writhes all over the doorframes and walls, rapes him with her eyes, and is so completetly inappropriate that any guest with any self-respect would have left the resort immediately, and probably called a mental institution to come collect her. Or maybe a vet to put her down. Later, when the mains get together, she shoots them such OTT evil-eye, right there in public when she's at work and people are trying to eat, that you have to ask why someone doesn't punch her out. Or tie her in a sack and toss her in the well. It sounds like I'm exaggerating, but it's really impossible to overstate how revolting this character is.

There are series that frustrate me, disappoint me, or bore me. This one somehow managed to do all three and make me angry as well. This could possibly be the worst BL ever. There are BLs that are of lower-quality production, there are BLs that are naked cash-grabs, and there are BLs that are so bad that they're good - but this one is somehow aggressively awful in a way I don't think I've seen before.

It's a struggle to find nice things to say, but I feel I should. So: the main character, while unappealing in almost every way, looks surprisingly good shirtless. Also, Migo de Vera has a beautiful body and you see a LOT of it - including butt shots, a rarity in BL. That's all I can think of.

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