I’ll preface this review saying that you probably want to watch this series. I know people are usually turned off when they read that a show doesn’t deliver on the ending, but the truth is you can perfectly enjoy a trip even if the destination isn’t exactly the one you want. So don’t be afraid to give this one a try!

Now to the POSITIVES. I think that the premise of this BL is the cutest thing ever and reminded of a brazialian short-then-turned-into-a-movie called Eu não quero voltar sozinho, which was also very endearing. As per usual, I think it’s really rare to find truly good acting in the BL world and this is really
no exception to that rule, but do be aware that I’m quite demanding on that front and all the actors here did a pretty good job. Honorable mention to Mark in the role of Night, who I believe has the potential to be an astounding actor. He truly stole the show quite a few times, even though his character was secondary, and what I think helped is that his character was probably written the best among all of the cast. Jimmy, while not having the finest skills in terms of acting, also did a pretty good job and managed to portray Mhok in what I find to be quite a genuine way: emotional, witty, walking this fine line between macho and maturely silly but still believable. All the supporting cast was convincing and that makes the viewing experience worth in and of itself. Pretty sweet romance and and, all in all, an enjoyable story!

So what exactly went wrong? The WRITING. More specifically, the fact that I believe the scriptwriters were too confident in their skills and at some point decided they wanted to overkill it. Up until episode 8-9, maybe 10, I was still quite on board and thought the plot to be solid, even though they did take some unnecessary detours along the way. Like, let’s not kid ourselves: did the heart of this story really need more than 12 hours? I’m inclined to say no. Personally, I’m a big advocate of short and sweet and usually dislike longer narratives since they tend to have fillers and usually end up being a little bit messy, which is exactly what happened in a few instances with this show. There were times where I was ready for Mhok and Day’s story to end, and I was only at episode… six? I really can’t believe they truly needed 12 one-hour episodes, and what probably happened is that that’s what the producers told them they had to do on some business grounds, which I can get behind if done well. Soap operas can be enjoyable, too! But I guess if you binge them, then it becomes a bit repetitive and tiring and you want a change of tune. The danger with doing too much is that, in the end, it’s the characters themselves that suffer these “external needs” for the runtime to be longer, and that’s what happened in the final episodes. The whole thing with Mhok dealing with the dilemma of maybe going to work abroad or staying put because he’s in a relationship was badly handled in my opinion, mainly by the character of Day himself. I understand that, in his situation, I’d be upset too if I felt like my boyfriend was giving up on an opportunity because of me, but to infer that Mhok was refusing so go because he felt pity for him was actually distasteful, ‘cause that’s not it at all. I can understand that he’s young and pretty much a rich spoiled kid, so of course he’d handle a few issues immaturely, but I don’t know, that kind of behavior and lack of understanding of why Mhok was so afraid of leaving, also considering the sensitive topic of the trauma he has from his sister committing suicide, it kinda pissed me off that he reacted that way. I have this love-hate relationship with Day’s character, where I do understand he’s living in pretty awful circumstances, but there were instances where he was acting on such selfish and self-absorbed basis that I just found him childish. That’s confirmed by the way he treated his own brother, whom he did have good reason to resent, but again, he lacked the maturity to recognize that the accident was… well, an accident, and by that time he forgave him conveniently only when Night was helping him in a big way, even going against his mother and lying to her to protect him. I know, it seems like I’m speeding on my hate-wagon for Day, but I swear that I’m blaming this on the writing and not on the character itself, which I’m sure would have been lovely if they had given him a little bit more thought. Choosing to give him his sight back in the final episodes almost completely ruins the whole message and effort of the story in my opinion, but in the end I’m glad to have watched it knowing that, even when you lose something, you always find something back eventually.