kfff
This review may contain spoilers
I HAD TO CREATE AN ACCOUNT JUST TO VOICE MY DISGUST WITH THIS SHOW...
(SPOILERS! You have been warned!)
I simply don't understand the rave reviews here, did we watch the same show??? Maybe there was a version that edited out the KIDNAPPING and RAPE and REPEATED UNWANTED SEXUAL ASSAULTS?? Because the show I watched was not a cute romance, but a very problematic and cringe-inducing cautionary tale about obsession and possessiveness.
The whole time B.L.Y. looked disgusted by G.H.'s advances. Even if the intent was to show the downside and desperation of a person in such a situation, it was completely undone by "romantic" music riffs stolen from the Brokeback Mountain soundtrack and the band Explosions in the Sky, the rights to which I doubt the producers obtained legitimately. The music was only "good" bc they were ripped from Hollywood films/TV shows, but they were used in excess and at the wrong time to force a mood that didn't fit the scene.
Yes, the boys were cute, and they were decent actors, and the story had some promise in the first few episodes that made you want to ship them (and maybe that's why the positive reviewers wanted to like it so badly?), but after the kidnapping, everything turned way too dark for it to be a romance. I mean, their FIRST KISS was forced onto one of the guys WHILE HE WAS HANDCUFFED and TIED UP AGAINST HIS WILL!
Even in the last episode (15, was it the last episode?) when B.L.Y. FINALLY showed a little bit of interest in G.H. (after rejecting him for 14 and a half episodes), it felt like Stockholm Syndrome had set in and he reluctantly gave in. It was not the heartwarming moment the showrunners intended it to be.
Given the title referring to drugs and addiction, maybe it could have worked as a thriller like Fatal Attraction or something like that, but the director was clearly intending this to be a love story, and that simply does not work both ways. I haven't read the source material, but since the show was also apparently written by the same author, I'm going to assume the show and book are similar.
It's sad what happened to the show regarding the bans, and I hope for things to improve in China regarding the homophobia, but even then, that doesn't mean this show should be held up as any kind of a triumph for boys' love, because the relationship shown here? THIS IS NOT LOVE.
I simply don't understand the rave reviews here, did we watch the same show??? Maybe there was a version that edited out the KIDNAPPING and RAPE and REPEATED UNWANTED SEXUAL ASSAULTS?? Because the show I watched was not a cute romance, but a very problematic and cringe-inducing cautionary tale about obsession and possessiveness.
The whole time B.L.Y. looked disgusted by G.H.'s advances. Even if the intent was to show the downside and desperation of a person in such a situation, it was completely undone by "romantic" music riffs stolen from the Brokeback Mountain soundtrack and the band Explosions in the Sky, the rights to which I doubt the producers obtained legitimately. The music was only "good" bc they were ripped from Hollywood films/TV shows, but they were used in excess and at the wrong time to force a mood that didn't fit the scene.
Yes, the boys were cute, and they were decent actors, and the story had some promise in the first few episodes that made you want to ship them (and maybe that's why the positive reviewers wanted to like it so badly?), but after the kidnapping, everything turned way too dark for it to be a romance. I mean, their FIRST KISS was forced onto one of the guys WHILE HE WAS HANDCUFFED and TIED UP AGAINST HIS WILL!
Even in the last episode (15, was it the last episode?) when B.L.Y. FINALLY showed a little bit of interest in G.H. (after rejecting him for 14 and a half episodes), it felt like Stockholm Syndrome had set in and he reluctantly gave in. It was not the heartwarming moment the showrunners intended it to be.
Given the title referring to drugs and addiction, maybe it could have worked as a thriller like Fatal Attraction or something like that, but the director was clearly intending this to be a love story, and that simply does not work both ways. I haven't read the source material, but since the show was also apparently written by the same author, I'm going to assume the show and book are similar.
It's sad what happened to the show regarding the bans, and I hope for things to improve in China regarding the homophobia, but even then, that doesn't mean this show should be held up as any kind of a triumph for boys' love, because the relationship shown here? THIS IS NOT LOVE.
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