I mostly watch Thai BL, but stumbled across Gameboys last year and enjoyed it immensely. So I decided to try another Filipino BL story. I am so glad I watched this series. Like I mention a couple times below, this story hit home a quite a bit. Mando and I grew up in vastly different eras, different countries, and different cultures yet so much of this felt similar to what I went through growing up. So whoever wrote this probably was drawing from some personal experience here.

Just to get this out of the way, I think Alex Diaz and Kokoy de Santos are gorgeous. And they do a very good job acting for being somewhat newer actors, or at least somewhat newer lead actors. Kokoy in particular does a very good job with his emotions, and making everything seem very realistic. And good for him that he doesn't shy away from playing LGBT+ roles. Mando's coming out scene to his father felt very familiar to me, and was very authentic feeling. I was the same blubbering mess many ages ago. And kudos to Alex for embracing being out especially under the circumstances of his outing. I think both of these guys will go far in the industry if they want to.

In fact, all the actors and actresses did a pretty convincing job in this series, I am not sure I would have cast the series any other way. Even the antagonist girl role, Krisha, didn't annoy me like they sometimes do. And I while we are discussing Krisha, I am of the opinion she brought on most of the heartache herself. I feel a tiny bit sympathetic to how she found out about Mando and Barry, but she was so wrapped up in being a couple with Mando she missed every clue that was right in her face. She was pushy, and I think she pressured Mando a bit too much into the relationship. Again this was familiar to me, I had a "girlfriend" back in high school that did the same thing to me. I would have never dated her or even gave her a second thought if she hadn't been so assertive. And like Mando, I dated her to fit in and see what happened even though I knew I was gay. And I was just as uncomfortable as Mando was in the resort kissing scene with Krisha. If left on his own without Krisha's interference, I think Mando's story would have played out a lot differently. Mando and Barry probably would have had a more natural courting and dating experience. But hey, then we wouldn't have had this story!

The story itself is good, but I would have loved to see a couple more episodes as to go a bit deeper into things. It was a nice change of pace from the engineering student who trips, and ends up falling on and kissing the straight guy who is only gay for one person. This series does seem to leave a few things out here and there (Barry's mental health and recovery, and there is a whole Summer before the last scenes as a couple examples), but overall the pacing was very good. It keeps your attention thought. In many Thai series, they would have had 14 episodes of one hour each to tell this same story, so to get through this in 3 hours is pretty amazing. I would love to see a part 2, and have these the lead actors explore their relationship further.

I just wish that this and many other series were more readily available on Youtube or elsewhere for international audiences. I don't like using shady sites to watch these series, and would love to be able to watch on official sites so the production company and everyone else gets the views and revenue they deserve. But when they restrict viewing by region, or when they have no way to legally watch the content, it is very tempting to find somewhere else to watch. In the 21st century with the internet and the world in general being connected. I find it a very odd decision to limit your audience like many of these companies do.