Our Story (2023)

totally wrecked Zeke/Fifth (watch ep 1, 2 and 13)

Overall: I liked Zeke and Fifth in My Story because they were flirty and sweet. In this season the writer totally ruined their characters and relationship. I was actively rooting for them to NOT end up together. Our Story is the third in the trilogy (season 1 is My Day which is not needed to watch to understand Our Story, season 2 is My Story which shows the beginning of Zeke/Fifth as a couple and is helpful to watch but not totally necessary) 13 episodes about 37 minutes each (taking out the built in commercials at the end). Aired on Oxin Films YouTube channel.

Notes: I watched most episodes but skipped a few because I wanted to poke my eyeballs out, I kept up with comments/what happened overall though. I suggest watching episode 1, 2, episode 9 part 3 at 7 minutes (nsfw scene), episode 10 part 3 at 10 minutes (nsfw scene) and episode 13

Content Warnings: attempted suicide, past suicide, parental abuse, intimate partner abuse, homophobia, non con picture taking/sharing, alcoholism, depression, sexism, gaslighting, manhandling

What I Liked
- Zeke and Fifth were cute/sweet/flirty (ep 1 and 2)
- GL rep (though the pacing was odd/not enough screentime)
- it was too frequent but the innuendo jokes were fun
- Xion Lim (director) played an assistant as Easy Ferrer (writer) as the other assistant
- Zeke's supportive mom (though she was a bit too involved at times)
- opening song and ending credit song

Room For Improvement
- the writing destroyed Zeke & Fifth both as individual characters and as a couple, Zeke said how he was hurt that he was called toxic while he screamed at his boyfriend was terrible writing, Fifth's actions make zero sense to me, so many characters did total nonsense things
- abuse was handled really poorly, Fifth said "he {dad] beat us" and the response was "that means you still matter to him", like WTF?!? and then later Jelai says his ex-boyfriend who was abusing him is awesome and Jelai apologizes to his abuser?!? what year are we in?!? akldfjkslajkdljaidla!!!!!!!
- way too many couples (6 couples/love triangles) and I somehow didn't like any of them
- exposition dump/voice over to start the series
- so many nonsense/unrealistic plot things (I'm not even going to try to write them all out) example 1: that a significant other didn't know of a life threatening food allergy until 6 months of dating, example 2: that a hospital didn't have any A+ (30% of the population has this blood type) or O negative (universal donor) blood?!? they should have had Zeke have AB negative blood because a 5 second internet search showed that number of people with: O positive: 35%, O negative (universal donor): 13%, A positive: 30%, A negative: 8%, B positive: 8%, B negative: 2%, AB positive (universal recipient): 2%, AB negative: 1%
- the comedy sound effects
- toilet humor
- super dramatic thing happened at the end of episode 11 and then the majority of episode 12 we have no idea what is going on, just random side character plots happening?!?
- in the final episode, did Zeke ever apologize for all the awful things he did?!? why was just Fifth apologizing?!?!!!!!!

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Sadly disappointed horrible 3rd season

Sadly this season was horrible. Very disappointed with the storyline and the character development. The whole story felt like a waste and made no sense. The way the characters act made no sense to how we know them from 2nd season. I am so disappointed as Zeke and Fifth are one of my favorite couples but this made them look horrible. The characters had little development which made them look one-sided. So sad to call this an ending. I was not a fan of any of the side couples either, way too many new horrible characters. Too many love triangles and just sleeping around with no real purpose. Sad to call this the ending to a great series. I was highly disappointed with the characters and storyline.

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Some trainwrecks do have some redeeming features, I guess...

I think just about everyone agrees that Our Story was a huge disappointment. And it was. Zeke and Fifth were adorable in My Story, in fact they saved that series to a large degree. As for Our Story, here are my pros and cons:

PROS

SOME OF THE ACTORS. I will give props to Fifth, Kevin (yes Kevin, he played his annoying character very well), Joel, and Sean (the only real likeable character of the series) for playing their roles effectively.

MUSIC. I've always liked the catchy theme song. One of the best features of the series.

LORRAINE/IRIS. We didn't get enough of them, and their road to getting together was not developed well. But they were sweet, and kudos to Oxin for introducing a nice GL couple.

STORY. Okay, don't shun me for this. Was the story a trainwreck? Absolutely. Did it often make no sense? Yep. So why would I list this as a "pro?" Because, unlike so many BLs I've watched this year, there actually was a story. It may not have been the story that most of us wanted to see, but there was a story. A weird ass story at times, but it was there.

NC SCENES. Filipino BLs rarely disappoint when it comes to this aspect.

MATT'S MELTDOWN. Matt's freakout when his underwear sniffing video surfaced was the highlight of the entire series for me!

CONS

ZEKE. Hells bells, he turned out to be a creep. Like many of you, I really lost all interest in FiZeke as a sustainable couple, halfway through the series. They really turned him into a cheating creep. He never apologized for his misdeeds: Fifth did all the apologizing. I was in favor of Zeke reuniting with Kevin and having the two of them get lost.

KIM/PARK/SEAN TRIANGLE. First of all, I found Kim to be unappealing from Day 1. Girl, you ain't all that, you're no great shakes as a businesswoman, and your ass kissing got old yesterday, okay? Sean was so nice and didn't deserve being played. (And whatever happened to Sean? He just disappeared.) Park was as big of a hemorrhoid as Kim, so I guess they deserve each other. Barf.

JELAI/JEROME. Wth? So Jelai, who I guess we're "supposed" to like, decides to cheat on his "boyfriend" (his "baby boy," whoever THAT is!) with Jerome, who seems nice until he goes postal and his head spins around three times. And Jelai ends the relationship by telling Jerome what a good person he (Jerome) is. Sure honey... if you like hanging out with psychos. Their entire relationship was just eww.

TOO MANY CHARACTERS. It was just too convoluted. It took me most of the series to figure out who they all were. At least half of them could have been eliminated... that in itself may have improved this mess.

CHRISTMAS MUSIC. This started in October. OCTOBER. And it continued in every episode after that. There was no talk of Christmas until the end of the series. A complete miss and, frankly, annoying.

But -- somehow -- I still watched. I guess we all did... but why? I think it was because, despite the disappointments and craziness, there was something entertaining about this complete trainwreck that kept us watching. Like slowing down for a car accident.

I'm giving it a 6.0/10.

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Started strong, but…

The series is a continuation of My Story that also can be found on Oxin Studios YT page.

We see how Fifth and Zeke’s relationship progresses over the next year-ish and how they cope woth the different challenges that comes along the way. Personally I dont find the writting particularly innovative or creative, but rather boring and predictable. They managed to make the characters so lovable and relatable in the previous season, that its pretty surprising how they manage to completly wreck this in this season in my opinion.

The most interesting part of this series is their friends and their story arc. That actually got some fleshed out plot and quality content. The GL side couple is there, and in my mind could just as easily been cut to give more screen time and place to actually explore the main couple. The hetro couple and the older gay couple was not needed and frankly the acting by the actors playing in the hetro couple was horrid.

My main complaint about this series is this: We knew there would be obstacles that Zeke and Fifth had to overcome. However, when one write one of the character to be so unlinable that there is almost no redemption arc to be found for them, then the choice that the writer took was a cheap cop-out that soured my taste and overall enjoyment.

I will maybe on a gray and boring evening rewatch for Joel and Jason’s story line, fast forwarding over everything else, and regret my life choices by it all over again. But, it will definitivly not be for anyone else.

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It should be called GASLIGHTING THE SERIES

Zeke's character was an a.ssh*le most of the time. I think he was the real villain of the series. Our Story The Series innovated because the good guy in the story is the villain at the same time. Let's get to the facts: Zeke wasn't reciprocated by Kevin and that's no big deal. It's normal to not have love reciprocated. Kevin never had an obligation to respond to Zeke's love. Nobody has. It's true that Kevin was harsh when he said Zeke was disgusting, that was mean. But gay men who haven't come out of the closet can still have this kind of reaction when confronted about their sexuality. I have the impression that the story implies that Kevin had an obligation to respond to Zeke's love, which is not correct.
The point is: Kevin is not the monster Zeke says he is. The fact that Zeke had depression after Kevin's rejection is not Kevin's fault. No one is obligated to respond to another person's love. Just as Kevin lacked maturity in dealing with his friend's confession of love, Zeke also lacked maturity in accepting rejection.
Then Zeke goes to Manila, falls in love with Fifth. Everything was fine until Kevin got back. Then, Zeke freaks out and treats Kevin like a demon, not accepting his excuses. Out of nowhere, he changes his attitude and starts to notice Kevin and starts treating Fifth with indifference. Zeke gaslights both Fifth and Kevin. He makes Kevin feel guilty about the past and mistreats him all the time, while at the same time letting him get closer and giving him hope. On the other hand, Zeke makes Fifth feel like he's in the wrong for being jealous of Kevin, even though Fifth did NOTHING wrong. And Zeke had the nerve to lie to Fifth, saying that Kevin was just a childhood friend, hiding the fact that he was in love with Kevin his entire childhood. Fifth breaks up with Zeke because Zeke lets Kevin get close without telling him to stay away. It's obvious that Fifth felt betrayed when he saw his boyfriend flirting with another guy.
Zeke's gaslighting was so well done that he makes EVERYONE apologize to him, but he doesn't apologize to anyone. He treated both Kevin and Fifth like shit most of the time, yet he ended up like the misunderstood victim in the end as they both came crawling to his feet to apologize. Sorry for what? Kevin had indeed been wrong in the past, but he had been humiliating himself by apologizing for months. Zeke saw his suffering for his past mistake and stepped on him out of spite, out of pure revenge. As for Fifth, until the last moment, in the hospital, he is the one who apologizes to Zeke. He goes so far as to say he was selfish! Hey?! When has he been selfish? He was the most selfless guy on the show. He tried to help Kevin in the beginning, he tried to be understanding, he always apologized when he was wrong. While Zeke lied to Fifth multiple times and did NOT apologize even once!
Just because he was in a car accident were all his mistakes forgotten? Zeke's mother accused Kevin of being to blame for Zeke's accident! Turns out it wasn't anyone's fault but his own for driving and using his phone at the same time! Even the accident was on Kevin's account! Absurd! To make matters worse, after treating Kevin well for several days in Baguio, he rejects the poor guy at the hospital once again! Kevin comes to say goodbye at the hospital and he complains: "What are you doing here?" What??!! Zeke must be bipolar, it's unbelievable! He keeps changing sides and playing with both Kevin and Fifth all the time!
The only good thing here is Jason/Joel. They were, at least, funny.

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