Jazz for Two (2024)

some things said or done can never be undone...

Overall: I'm pretty torn on how to rate this series. I thought it had a strong start but the writing/pacing ruined the series for me. This was adapted from a webtoon which I didn't read (it's on Lezhin Comics) and I reviewed the series on its own merits. 8 episodes about 30 minutes each. Airing on GagaOOLala & iQIYI country dependent. Ep 1 GagaOOLala link (vpn to Taiwan works) https://www.gagaoolala.com/en/videos/4176/jazz-for-two-2024-e01 Episode 1 iQIYI link https://www.iq.com/play/jazz-for-two-episode-1-xiat5zva94?lang=en_us

Content Warnings: past death (see comment for another one), manhandling/injury, mental health struggles, bullying, non con touching, sexual assault, non con kiss, grief, beaten up/violence, parental abuse, homophobia, manipulation

What I Liked
- explored more serious topics such as internalized homophobia
- some mystery of what happened in the past
- A Shoulder To Cry On cameo for 2 characters
- the blue haired guy's friendship with the two leads
- that Se Heon wasn't a total pushover
- the jazz music
- the bike riding in episode 6 was funny
- sweet moments mostly in episode 6
- showing taking medication and going to therapy for mental health struggles
- the revelation at the end of episode 7 was interesting but not enough time to fully explore it
- the final kiss in episode 8 was well done
- production value

Room For Improvement
- failed redemption arcs for multiple characters, they needed to tone stuff down if they wanted me to root for their romantic relationships, one "I'm sorry" was not even close to what was needed for what those characters did, they also needed to shorten the length of bullying because a character was a jerk for five episodes and then again for part of episode 7 (and the writers leaving out a character repeatedly kicking/beating up another character many times in episode 7 flashback did not escape my notice though it seems like they wanted viewers to forget that part)
- pacing, there was way too much time searching for an apartment but then the ending episodes were extremely rushed complete with a 3 year time jump and no sign of a few characters, they had too many relationships and it meant not enough time on any of them
- cliche poor communication/noble idiot trope (thankfully it didn't last long)
- multiple dead fish lip presses/blocked kisses
- started with a confusing flash back/forward (later realized it was a flash forward)
- exposition dump/voice over in episode 1
- cliche female character pursued a disinterested guy (she did eventually stop/apologize indirectly)
- nonsense stuff including a bar only having milk or water as non alcoholic options, they'd have juices/sodas to mix with the alcohol to make drinks, (let me know if it's common to have only beer/wine at a bar in South Korea and I'll remove this)

Thoughts on Bully Characters/Their Romantic Relationships
Sometimes these characters and their dynamic work for me and other times they don't. Here are the factors that I'm thinking about. The first response is the lead couple and the second are the second couple.
1. does the reason why the character bullies the other character make me empathize with them, note that there is never a good reason to bully another person but whether or not I can empathize with them is important (kind of and no)
2. how severe was the bullying (verbal/mild physical/sexual and severe physical)
3. how long did the bullying last (we don't really know times but first 5 episodes and then some more for 1 and seems to have been an ongoing long term thing for the other)
4. is there some kind of apology/amend making (just 1 verbal apology and just 1 verbal apology)
5. is there character growth (maybe a bit for both but not really shown)
6. do I believe that the characters will stay together in a happy romantic relationship (maybe and no)

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It went from excellent to bad to worse in no time.

Let me start off by saying I really dig Korean BLs because they usually have simple plots, which is pretty much the standard most of the time (don't take this as a negative; I'm complimenting). That's exactly why I was so excited to watch this series. For the first five episodes? Solid 9.0 or 9.5, no doubt. But man, did things take a turn for the worse in the last 2-3 episodes. By the time episode 7 rolled around, I was just trying to finish it off, not because I was excited, but more because I'd already invested so much time into it.

Let's talk about Se Heon and Do Yoon for a sec. These guys seem to have a talent for picking the biggest red flags around (Yes, Tae Yi is a major red flag; argue with the wall). Do Yoon's whole "I'll still love you even if you bully me" with Joo Ha? What stupidity! Then there's Se Heon, who forgives Tae Yi way too quickly after he S/A him. I mean, even if you want to argue that it wasn't the case, Tae Yi's response was not how a normal, rational person would react.

I gave it an overall rating of 6.5 because I don't rate any series below 5, and for the most part, it was enjoyable. It started off strong but dropped the ball towards the end. Let's just say it left me scratching my head. Honestly, I was hoping for A LOT better.

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