lovelyzdestiny
Germany
Good Concept, Bad Execution
Clumsy & unrealistic writing, awkward acting, insta-love – overall this show felt very amateur (& low-budget). I like that they tackled some serious topics, but they were handled without any kind of nuance, as the producer or whatever was basically Satan. If this show was going for gritty and realistic, it missed the mark big time. They wasted all the screentime on a boring and cliché romance when they could’ve done so much more.
I did not care about James or Ait at all, I basically knew nothing about them anyway. Their romance was very rushed, I have no idea who these characters are and why I’m supposed to believe they like each other. Explaining to the audience what “love at first sight” is, felt like the writer was anticipating criticism of the fast development of the relationship between James and Ait, and wanted a scene he could point to say, “but look! we’re self-aware so it’s okay!”. I’m not even opposed to love at first sight stories, but in order to pull that off the writing needs to be good, and the actors need chemistry. This show was lacking in both departments unfortunately.
Bas’ character was the only one with any sort of interesting arc, but he gets sidelined in favor of... of what exactly? I feel like absolutely nothing happened in this show. It would have been so much better had they made Bas the main character and just went all in on the dark theme. Instead, we got 3 hours of fluff, a romance with no substance and a weird tonal shift between Bas’ & James/Ait’s storylines. Male sexual assault is a serious and largely unspoken issue that deserves more than 10 minutes of screentime. I just wish they had put a little more care into it. I assume they will talk about this more in the second season, so let’s hope they treat this topic with the respect it deserves.
Also, a couple notes on a more technical level: As many here have pointed out, the car scenes look absolutely awful. If you can’t do it right, just don’t do it at all. Have them talk somewhere else. If it has to be in a car, then do it in a parked car. The horrible greenscreen was very distracting. Background music was too loud at times I couldn’t hear the actors properly. These are easy mistakes to fix, it just made this whole production seem careless.
Overall, this whole show just felt kind of unnecessary. From the trailer it looked like an interesting premise that would have lots of interesting things to say, but it totally failed to deliver. Episode 6 was the only one that actually had some substance to it, but then it ends before it can go anywhere. The build-up to episode 6 could’ve been done so much better, but the producers don’t seem to know how to build dramatic tension or how to structure a narrative in a compelling way, with rising action, a climax, and a resolution. Hopefully the second season does a better job at this.
I did not care about James or Ait at all, I basically knew nothing about them anyway. Their romance was very rushed, I have no idea who these characters are and why I’m supposed to believe they like each other. Explaining to the audience what “love at first sight” is, felt like the writer was anticipating criticism of the fast development of the relationship between James and Ait, and wanted a scene he could point to say, “but look! we’re self-aware so it’s okay!”. I’m not even opposed to love at first sight stories, but in order to pull that off the writing needs to be good, and the actors need chemistry. This show was lacking in both departments unfortunately.
Bas’ character was the only one with any sort of interesting arc, but he gets sidelined in favor of... of what exactly? I feel like absolutely nothing happened in this show. It would have been so much better had they made Bas the main character and just went all in on the dark theme. Instead, we got 3 hours of fluff, a romance with no substance and a weird tonal shift between Bas’ & James/Ait’s storylines. Male sexual assault is a serious and largely unspoken issue that deserves more than 10 minutes of screentime. I just wish they had put a little more care into it. I assume they will talk about this more in the second season, so let’s hope they treat this topic with the respect it deserves.
Also, a couple notes on a more technical level: As many here have pointed out, the car scenes look absolutely awful. If you can’t do it right, just don’t do it at all. Have them talk somewhere else. If it has to be in a car, then do it in a parked car. The horrible greenscreen was very distracting. Background music was too loud at times I couldn’t hear the actors properly. These are easy mistakes to fix, it just made this whole production seem careless.
Overall, this whole show just felt kind of unnecessary. From the trailer it looked like an interesting premise that would have lots of interesting things to say, but it totally failed to deliver. Episode 6 was the only one that actually had some substance to it, but then it ends before it can go anywhere. The build-up to episode 6 could’ve been done so much better, but the producers don’t seem to know how to build dramatic tension or how to structure a narrative in a compelling way, with rising action, a climax, and a resolution. Hopefully the second season does a better job at this.
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