cowardly gay dudes that hate the boys they like

at first, jazz for two seemed promising. the synopsis was intriguing and the first episode didn't seem half as bad, but it quickly went downhill.

the entire series shows immense sympathy towards seheon, doyoon, and taejoon's love interests. but they completely do not deserve it.

there is clear distaste towards juha, even from his own sister, but the reason doyoon appears to forgive him every time is because juha saved him once before hurting him tenfold? juha is not given a clear redemption arc and it is hard to forgive his character so quickly, especially considering his sexual assault of seheon.

in regard to seheon, i cannot understand why he likes taeyi so much. upon their first encounter, taeyi injures him and continues to be hostile towards him, even assaulting seheon the day prior to them getting together. taeyi's emotions sway too often and it's not clear what he wants-- he is the kindest person to seheon one day, treats him like he's shit the next, then wants him back all over again, and seheon is too forgiving and blinded by whatever the hell he sees in this boy.

while internalised homophobia is a real issue that many lgbtq+ people face, jazz for two handles the topic poorly with very little care. each romance is the same. one boy openly shows his feelings towards his love interest and his love interest responds with disgusting, homophobic retorts. for taejoon and sejin, it leads to the worst case scenario and a horrible fate; but taeyi and juha are able to simply solve anything with a sorry and a kiss. what bugs me is that the internalised homophobia is never addressed and the three boys do not come to terms with this issue.

additionally, there was something unsettling about the way the series handles taejoon's death. i understood taeyi at first. he was grieving. he was hurt that his brother made the decision to kill himself with no apparent reason, leaving taeyi by himself to search for an answer. however, what bothered me was taeyi's idea that taejoon killed himself because he was a 'weak man.' i did not enjoy the repeated idea that suicidal people are weak; it was like we disregard what went into that person's decision and look down on them because of how they felt about themselves. unless i had missed something, taeyi does not understand the full depth of his brother's story. taejoon was alone. he didn't want to burden his little brother and the only other person he could turn to abandoned him. i understand taeyi's anger, but i do not think it is right to think that taejoon ended his life because he was 'weak.'

i would've liked to see more with the relationship between seheon and his father, as well. it felt like the argument between the two was simply a plot device used to get seheon into taeyi's house lmfao. quickly after that event, it was like his father had just disappeared (unless, again, i missed something).

despite the poor writing, i applaud the actors. their emotional performances were well done and were able to draw me in. unfortunately, the story fell through and all went down the drain with it.

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