AceDemi
This review may contain spoilers
Unrequited? More like Unrealistic.
Story
Unrequited love is nothing new in the BL genre. In point of fact, it shouldn’t even be called unrequited, as at some point it always ends up requited. Theory of Love falls into that exact category—unrealistically so. In any world adjacent to the real one, Third and Khai wouldn’t have ended up together. But since this a BL, of course they do, because the plot said they had to. If there were ever a series where we needed to use the word “gay” this would have been it. Why is it never brought up as a possibility that Khai wouldn’t be interested in Third because he’s not gay? That would have been the most obvious reason. “Not wanting to ruin their friendship” would have only worked as the main reason if Khai were a gay man, dating multiple guys at once. In fact, that would have made the entire story work a lot better. But no, we barely touch upon the idea of sexual preference here. As in most BLs, there was some desperate need to make it look like two straight boys fell in love, and it came at the expense of the story.
Another failing of the story: Why on earth was Third in love with Khai to begin with? Khai was not a good friend, or even a good person. Sure, he’s good looking, and sometimes they had a laugh, but that was it. The show leaned way to hard into the whole “the heart wants what it wants,” aspect. I was told that Third was in love with Khai, but never shown why throughout their relationship or interactions. Without really understanding why Third was so head over heels, it made it very hard to get invested in his plight.
On the plus side, tone-wise, I thought the show often balanced drama and light-hearted well. Not all the time, mind you. Third’s habit of crying in the shower while fully clothed and pouring water bottles on himself was silly. It could have worked, had he cried during a regular shower once or twice. Not everything needs a comedic undertone—these moments certainly didn’t.
I actually liked the voiceovers, from both Third and Khai’s perspectives. I thought the perspective shift (from Third to Khai) about half-way through would weaken the show, but it actually held up fairly well. There were a few really cringe-worthy scenes, Khai’s first and final confession being good examples. Just way too many people present and involved in those scenes. Some scenes were cut/edited weird, like the bedroom scene, where Khai said sleeping over was different now, then the opening credits played, and then after that suddenly they were on the train. Where was the rest of the scene?
As stated in the opening paragraph, I think the biggest strike against the story is Khai falling in love with Third. He was never presented as gay, or even bisexual, so the only reason I can think of for his sudden love is “the script said so.” That isn’t good story writing. The story would have been better served by either Khai not being presented as straight to begin with, or the two of them not getting together in the end. But then I guess we’d stray into realism and away from BL.
*Side note: The product placements were egregious.
Acting/Characterization
Acting was probably the strongest aspect Theory of Love. I thought the group of four male friends felt very real, and the cast in general was well-rounded. But this, again, is brought down by the characterization of the characters.
Third: No question about it, Gun killed this role. I didn’t particularly like Third, but I found him to be a real character, and that’s more important to me. A lot of BL actors come across extremely awkward or even laughable when attempting to cry and do sad scenes—Gun is the king of crying. Nothing seemed staged in those scenes, though there might have been one too many of them. Though he’s a really small guy, his size never affected his character. He wasn’t weak or wimpy, or cute. He went from angsty and depressed to super jaded. I liked his introspective side. That’s different for a BL character. Again, I did not understand why he was in love with someone who treated him so poorly, but since he was so obsessed in the beginning, it made it hard to believe he’d make Khai jump through so many hoops at the end. Some, sure, but Khai having to prove his love really dragged on.
Khai: Off held his own here. Prior, I’d only seen him in comedic roles, but when it was Khai’s turn to be sad and pine, he pulled it off. Again, I didn’t like Khai as a character—he was a thoughtless friend and a womanizer—but for the most part, I believed him. He was a real character. A lot of people probably know or have encountered a Khai. And I did like when he made an effort to be a better friend, but the biggest problem is that I don’t buy, for one second, that Khai would fall in love with Third. It happened for no reason. He went from only being into girls (very into girls) to suddenly being madly in love with Third for no reason other than he found out about Third’s feeling. That doesn’t happen, and I don’t understand why they didn’t just make Khai gay or bi to being with. The story would have been better for it.
Two: I’ve liked White since I saw him in Love Sick, and it was nice to see him in a more mature role. While I liked his relationship with Un, it wasn’t explored enough to be really satisfying. It was so brief that some parts had me scratching my head. I couldn’t figure out how Un had known to go to the beach that one night, or why he’d decided to stay without actually knowing if Two was into him or not. They just didn’t cover any of that. Two being torn between a girl and a boy would have worked better had they actually shown us some sort of struggle with his sexuality, but sexuality is again a non-existent non-issue. The twist of Un having actually been into Two the whole time and not Third was neat, though I didn’t think it needed to be back-dated to freshman orientation. Unfortunately, White got stuck with that horrible, horrible colorism line, directed at Un, who is beautiful. That line was so bad and so uncalled for, I had to pause and seriously consider whether I wanted to keep watching or not. Clearly, this demonstrates a much deeper industry problem, where fair=attractive and desired, and anything else is ridiculed. I can't imagine anyone thinking that it's okay to include a line like that without calling out the character who said it as awful.
Bone: Sorry to say, but I didn’t watch the hetero storyline. That’s not what I watch BLs for. In what I did watch of Bone, I liked him. I’ve seen Mike in other series, and he always seems to play the same buddy character. Not much innovation here, but he was fine.
Female Characters: Oh dear. From crazy women to women as two-dimensional plot devices meant to bring male couples together, Theory of Love is not good at female representation. The worst I’ve seen, I’d say.
Intimacy/Heat Level
Quite low. Not all series need to be risqué, but after all the angst and pining, Theory of Love would have benefited greatly from some heat and passion at the end, or at least a bit of intimacy or romance. Off & Gun complement one another pretty well, in a physical sense. What kisses were shown were really good—they clearly had no qualms about this, so it was a shame they didn’t have more couple scenes. The most passionate kiss ended up being the one in the bathroom, in which Third didn’t participate, so that was weird.
The dock scene between Un and Two sorely needed a kiss—impossible to think they wouldn’t have kissed there, but just hugged awkwardly. There was a later scene where Two is dodging Un’s attempt to kiss him, after they are a couple. Why? At least it came across more as playful then as gay panic—something BLs really like, though I can’t imagine why.
All in all, too tame in this department for such a heavy-handed drama.
Music
I don’t care about this music. As long as it’s not disruptive, I don't even notice it. No affect on overall score for me.
Re-watch Value
I don’t understand why this is one of the criteria. Some people don’t re-watch series even if they liked them, so I don’t like rating anything based on this. No affect on overall score for me.
Summary
In summation, the need to have the majority of BLs show two “straight” boys falling in love really brought this series down. While the show runners could have made a statement about unrequited love for a straight guy, and learning to move on and stand up for yourself, they instead strayed into the realm of unrealistic fangirl fantasy. It’s too bad, because some excellent acting talents were wasted here.
Unrequited love is nothing new in the BL genre. In point of fact, it shouldn’t even be called unrequited, as at some point it always ends up requited. Theory of Love falls into that exact category—unrealistically so. In any world adjacent to the real one, Third and Khai wouldn’t have ended up together. But since this a BL, of course they do, because the plot said they had to. If there were ever a series where we needed to use the word “gay” this would have been it. Why is it never brought up as a possibility that Khai wouldn’t be interested in Third because he’s not gay? That would have been the most obvious reason. “Not wanting to ruin their friendship” would have only worked as the main reason if Khai were a gay man, dating multiple guys at once. In fact, that would have made the entire story work a lot better. But no, we barely touch upon the idea of sexual preference here. As in most BLs, there was some desperate need to make it look like two straight boys fell in love, and it came at the expense of the story.
Another failing of the story: Why on earth was Third in love with Khai to begin with? Khai was not a good friend, or even a good person. Sure, he’s good looking, and sometimes they had a laugh, but that was it. The show leaned way to hard into the whole “the heart wants what it wants,” aspect. I was told that Third was in love with Khai, but never shown why throughout their relationship or interactions. Without really understanding why Third was so head over heels, it made it very hard to get invested in his plight.
On the plus side, tone-wise, I thought the show often balanced drama and light-hearted well. Not all the time, mind you. Third’s habit of crying in the shower while fully clothed and pouring water bottles on himself was silly. It could have worked, had he cried during a regular shower once or twice. Not everything needs a comedic undertone—these moments certainly didn’t.
I actually liked the voiceovers, from both Third and Khai’s perspectives. I thought the perspective shift (from Third to Khai) about half-way through would weaken the show, but it actually held up fairly well. There were a few really cringe-worthy scenes, Khai’s first and final confession being good examples. Just way too many people present and involved in those scenes. Some scenes were cut/edited weird, like the bedroom scene, where Khai said sleeping over was different now, then the opening credits played, and then after that suddenly they were on the train. Where was the rest of the scene?
As stated in the opening paragraph, I think the biggest strike against the story is Khai falling in love with Third. He was never presented as gay, or even bisexual, so the only reason I can think of for his sudden love is “the script said so.” That isn’t good story writing. The story would have been better served by either Khai not being presented as straight to begin with, or the two of them not getting together in the end. But then I guess we’d stray into realism and away from BL.
*Side note: The product placements were egregious.
Acting/Characterization
Acting was probably the strongest aspect Theory of Love. I thought the group of four male friends felt very real, and the cast in general was well-rounded. But this, again, is brought down by the characterization of the characters.
Third: No question about it, Gun killed this role. I didn’t particularly like Third, but I found him to be a real character, and that’s more important to me. A lot of BL actors come across extremely awkward or even laughable when attempting to cry and do sad scenes—Gun is the king of crying. Nothing seemed staged in those scenes, though there might have been one too many of them. Though he’s a really small guy, his size never affected his character. He wasn’t weak or wimpy, or cute. He went from angsty and depressed to super jaded. I liked his introspective side. That’s different for a BL character. Again, I did not understand why he was in love with someone who treated him so poorly, but since he was so obsessed in the beginning, it made it hard to believe he’d make Khai jump through so many hoops at the end. Some, sure, but Khai having to prove his love really dragged on.
Khai: Off held his own here. Prior, I’d only seen him in comedic roles, but when it was Khai’s turn to be sad and pine, he pulled it off. Again, I didn’t like Khai as a character—he was a thoughtless friend and a womanizer—but for the most part, I believed him. He was a real character. A lot of people probably know or have encountered a Khai. And I did like when he made an effort to be a better friend, but the biggest problem is that I don’t buy, for one second, that Khai would fall in love with Third. It happened for no reason. He went from only being into girls (very into girls) to suddenly being madly in love with Third for no reason other than he found out about Third’s feeling. That doesn’t happen, and I don’t understand why they didn’t just make Khai gay or bi to being with. The story would have been better for it.
Two: I’ve liked White since I saw him in Love Sick, and it was nice to see him in a more mature role. While I liked his relationship with Un, it wasn’t explored enough to be really satisfying. It was so brief that some parts had me scratching my head. I couldn’t figure out how Un had known to go to the beach that one night, or why he’d decided to stay without actually knowing if Two was into him or not. They just didn’t cover any of that. Two being torn between a girl and a boy would have worked better had they actually shown us some sort of struggle with his sexuality, but sexuality is again a non-existent non-issue. The twist of Un having actually been into Two the whole time and not Third was neat, though I didn’t think it needed to be back-dated to freshman orientation. Unfortunately, White got stuck with that horrible, horrible colorism line, directed at Un, who is beautiful. That line was so bad and so uncalled for, I had to pause and seriously consider whether I wanted to keep watching or not. Clearly, this demonstrates a much deeper industry problem, where fair=attractive and desired, and anything else is ridiculed. I can't imagine anyone thinking that it's okay to include a line like that without calling out the character who said it as awful.
Bone: Sorry to say, but I didn’t watch the hetero storyline. That’s not what I watch BLs for. In what I did watch of Bone, I liked him. I’ve seen Mike in other series, and he always seems to play the same buddy character. Not much innovation here, but he was fine.
Female Characters: Oh dear. From crazy women to women as two-dimensional plot devices meant to bring male couples together, Theory of Love is not good at female representation. The worst I’ve seen, I’d say.
Intimacy/Heat Level
Quite low. Not all series need to be risqué, but after all the angst and pining, Theory of Love would have benefited greatly from some heat and passion at the end, or at least a bit of intimacy or romance. Off & Gun complement one another pretty well, in a physical sense. What kisses were shown were really good—they clearly had no qualms about this, so it was a shame they didn’t have more couple scenes. The most passionate kiss ended up being the one in the bathroom, in which Third didn’t participate, so that was weird.
The dock scene between Un and Two sorely needed a kiss—impossible to think they wouldn’t have kissed there, but just hugged awkwardly. There was a later scene where Two is dodging Un’s attempt to kiss him, after they are a couple. Why? At least it came across more as playful then as gay panic—something BLs really like, though I can’t imagine why.
All in all, too tame in this department for such a heavy-handed drama.
Music
I don’t care about this music. As long as it’s not disruptive, I don't even notice it. No affect on overall score for me.
Re-watch Value
I don’t understand why this is one of the criteria. Some people don’t re-watch series even if they liked them, so I don’t like rating anything based on this. No affect on overall score for me.
Summary
In summation, the need to have the majority of BLs show two “straight” boys falling in love really brought this series down. While the show runners could have made a statement about unrequited love for a straight guy, and learning to move on and stand up for yourself, they instead strayed into the realm of unrealistic fangirl fantasy. It’s too bad, because some excellent acting talents were wasted here.
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