You're missing out on a GEM if you skip this, trust me

A beautiful story that comes from a cruel world.

The first time I read the summary and watched the trailer, I’m very skeptical about the theme and concept. Sometimes even the most basic themes of BL series (high school, college, family) failed at making things look realistic, LET ALONE a complex non-relatable story about gangsters and political drama. I’m worried that they might not be able pull this off.
But, boy was I wrong!

-----THE REVIEW-----
Not Me series has proven their quality in storytelling game in its own unique way.

A story told from the perspective of White, with his inner monologues and voice-over style narration, this series make it works like magic. The way they capture every moment, along with the acting, music, cinematography, and as I mentioned, the voice-over, everything somehow fall into place in a beautiful way to deliver both the right message and the right emotions.

STORY
The story surely is something fresh from the typical “everyday life” theme. At first, I thought it’s just gonna be about gangsters, violence, generic fight scenes, but it was definitely more than just that.

The main idea is about how we all live in the same planet, but most definitely not the same “world”. Life is unfair, yes, but things can change to make the world a better place, also a yes. But then where do we set the boundaries of creating those changes at the expense of lives? Where do we draw the line between our idealism and empathy? Not Me explores on how the characters deal with these questions.

The romance part of the story is very well written too. Despite all the political dramas going on, they show the journeys of character development, relationship development, while accepting and sharing their vulnerabilities and longing feelings that has never been addressed before.

ACTING/CHEMISTRY
I don’t have much to say about this, we all know how good Off & Gun are at delivering their characters, and how amazing their chemistry is.

But I do have to mention, that the MCs in this story are not easy to pull off, as they have very strong backgrounds and mindsets, and the 2 actors did amazing bringing them to life. Their eyes remind me of the sayings “eyes are the windows to the soul" with those silent scenes that speaks a thousand words and emotions just from the look in their eyes. Also, Gun did amazing portraying 2 very different twin brothers.

PRODUCTION
- The cinematography is to die for. I love good visuals (especially after watching ITSAY) and I don’t get how they make abandoned buildings, concrete walls, and rooftops, look both beautiful and melancholic at the same time.
- The editors deserve a raise for the amazing montages and of course, great music choices. The music fits all the shots and the feelings that the scenes are trying to convey.

OVERALL
- no cringy screenplay & editing
- no unlikely turn of events
- realistic relationship & character developments
- outstanding portrayal from the actors
- a solid story foundation
- beautiful shots and montages

In these 5 film aspects: story, screenplay, characterisation, acting/chemistry, cinematography, Not Me is mostly scoring high in all 5.

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A really sad “wasted potential”

It’s not that bad. Some aspects are not even bad at all, I’d even say it’s SO GOOD, and that’s the most frustrating thing about this series.

• Why is this a sad “wasted potential”? •
Because with all the potentials, this series COULD be a masterpiece, but it’s not and I’m sad.
- The premise is already really good, but the writing is all over the place.
- The characters dynamics could be interesting (with their background and all), but they throw it away and write bland, uninspired developments instead.
- The acting & chemistry, pretty good. Production quality, absolutely impressive. It's obvious they have great casts, crews AND budget, and that makes me so mad, because this could be really, really good.

• STORY & SCREENPLAY •
First, let’s talk about the premise. The mafia concept and premise are fresh and interesting. It’s unusual, some guy accidentally got involved with the mafia, and now he must work as their bodyguard, and soon develop romance with his mafia boss, who wouldn’t love that? The premise starts really strong, but it just goes downhill from there.

The issue is, the whole mafia story doesn’t really have a foundation, a pillar to hold everything together, it’s all over the place. What is the biggest point of all this, like, what is the MAIN problem that cause the story to move forward, and drives this whole mafia plot?

By episode 10/14, I still have no idea what the f is going on with their mafia business, everything is just so vague, it’s always like “this guy is bad, let’s shoot him”, then insert some cool action scenes with hot guys shooting at bad guys. What is their goal exactly, what is the bad guys’ goal?

Not to mention how these mafias seem like they don’t really take their mafia lives seriously. How am I supposed to believe this whole thing, when they made dumb decisions that “real mafias” wouldn't do? I honestly stopped taking them seriously since ep 7, and just focus on the romance instead.

Plot points that I don’t get:
- This random plot twist with Ken being the traitor. The point of plot twist is when audience have a certain expectation about something, and then it turns out it’s not what they expected. I don’t even have any expectation of Ken in the first place?? He’s barely having any screen time??
- The whole thing about Tawan. They’re trying to make this dramatic arc about “woah his traitor ex is back”, but then I don’t get the whole thing about Kinn not telling Porsche, his own bodyguard, about the whole plan. It feels like they’re just doing this for the angst and drama, that’s lazy.
- Wtf with Vegas tricking Porsche and trying to kiss him, but then the next time they met, they talked casually? And did Vegas actually liked him, or is he just using him for his plan, because if he did like him, there's not enough build up.
- What's with that Italian guy?
- What is it with Kim secretly investigating this and that, then nothing happened, and we never talk about it again?

• CHARACTER WRITING •
During the earlier episodes, I’m impressed at how they do the intro of both Kinn and Porsche characters. 1 episode in, and both their characters already shine through, which is a good sign.

1. Porsche, I don’t have much to say, I think his character is easy to understand, and they portrayed him well. He’s kind, caring, funny, a bit shallow but that’s his endearing quality, it’s charming. And the best thing is, it’s written consistently throughout the series.
2. Kinn, I absolutely loved the moment when Kinn starts to show his vulnerabilities of being born into a mafia family which is a big pressure to him. It shows a bit of complexity in his character. The bad news is, that’s it, that’s his best moment.
The rest of the story is just him in a very plain and shallow character writing. Kinn is just this mafia son, trying to do his job, supposedly having trust issues, but trust people easily, and he’s hopelessly in love with Porsche.

I mean, what a waste of potential when they can dig deep through his interesting life, the struggle, the insecurities, the pressure, and maybe, I don't know, maybe we can talk about his mom, maybe his mom had always been his comfort zone but she's gone now, idk
They COULD go down this kind of storyline since it's a mafia theme in a romance genre, where ruthless mafia life meets compassion, to show the emotional side behind a seemingly fierce, tough mafia guy. They could definitely use this as the device to build up their romance, instead of the typical “omg we’re somehow trapped together in this situation, we can’t help but rely on each other, then fall in love along the way, I guess”.

3. Vegas and Pete, at least, have better dynamic writing than the MCs. We know how they each developed their background character, we can see how their two worlds collide and change them, why did they do things, feel things, say things. Everything is a bit clearer, and explained more thoroughly, though it seems rushed (should have been wiser with the screen time).

• ACTING & CHEMISTRY •
I think everyone can agree that the acting is one of the saving grace. I’m really impressed with how they portray each characters and deliver the heavier scenes.
However, some heavily emotional scenes could use more authenticity. I noticed Barcode (playing Chay) delivered the emotional scenes a bit better than the others. I have to give a big appreciation to Apo too, playing Porsche, he absolutely nailed the character. And lastly, chemistry, I find bible and build, playing vegaspete, to deliver the pair dynamics a bit better than others too.

• CINEMATOGRAPHY •
And finally, the real MVP that saved this whole series. One of the best cinematography I’ve seen in BL so far (along with I Told Sunset About You, which is by the same cinematographer). It is easily a very beautiful series, but it’s also beyond that, it’s not just beautiful to look at, but beautiful to feel. This is when visual language is used to tell a story, and push it beyond words. I can write a long-ass analysis about how good the cinematography is, but let’s not. Let’s just say they nailed using colors, framing, motions, to display the right emotions in each scene.
(I wrote a short analysis about vegas pete cinematography here https://twitter.com/blackmoon1101/status/1538497421415575552?cxt=HHwWgMCjtZzQ69kqAAAA)

Additional: • DIRECTION STYLE •
From the trailers, the style really made this series looks like one of those indie, artsy, “Wong Kar Wai” styled films. But turns out, it’s more on the lighter, casual, easygoing direction.
Was I a bit disappointed? Yes.
Does that make this series bad? Not at all, it’s just a direction style.
BUT I just find it to be another reason to call this a “wasted potential” because they COULD go into that more fitting direction style, with their high budget mafia theme, hot looking casts, and high quality cinematography.

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