HIStory3: Armadilha (2019)

Story-line wise, this drama is definitely not the best. I almost couldn't take anything in this drama seriously because of the large amounts of light-hearted and cringe-inducing scenes displayed in the first few episodes. They portray cops as incompetent and childish people who don't know how to do their individual jobs correctly. The main character, Shao Fei, especially continuously defies the commands of his superiors and always runs off from his police officer duty to fulfill his own agendas. All of the police officers fool around too much while on the job, which makes you wonder if they're even taking their responsibilities seriously. A lot of scenes make no sense. Honestly, many of the characters don't even deserve to have their jobs because of their lack of ability to perform their duties. However, if you don't mix this drama with reality and are able to ignore these obvious flaws, the drama becomes much more enjoyable and emotional to watch, especially in the later episodes.

Acting-wise, Chris and Jake definitely fit their character roles. Chris has the charismatic look of a gangster leader and has the perfect cold look, while Jake has the dorky charm. However, Chris needs to improve on his crying face as most of the times the tears look obviously fake. Andy and Jack also lived up to their roles, although sometimes Andy's happy expressions look fake and forced. All-in-all, the chemistry among the couples are great and enjoyable to watch.

Ultimately, I was a bit disappointed plot-wise (mainly due to the negative portrayal of police officers) and the plot twists weren't that interesting. However, this drama gives a lot of good life lessons and teaches the audience many things about the positive aspects of life and love. The characters were all also very lovable and the romantic scenes were very cute. I enjoyed the drama a lot and look forward to rewatching the quirky scenes between the couples.

Leia Mais

At first I was hesitant to watch this series because I am seeing from the spoilers are more of sexy or intimate scenes, but I must admit that I am wrong with my first impression.
I just love how the writer of the story came up with the setting. One of a kind boys love story among others. Its not the usual teenager boys love series. I love how the main characters got into each other, and also the side boys love couple which are so cute. I am really looking forward for a good and happy ending of this story, and hoping for season 2/part 2.
Artists did play their characters with justice. Although it is an action themed, you can still witness the cute and lovely sides of the couples.

Leia Mais

this show left nothing to be wondered, i hate loose ends and this show doesn't give you that. The ending is beautiful and is perfect for the characters, the chemistry between the characters was beautiful. i was crying and laughing and smiling throughout the show, if a show can make you feel that all at once, isn't it one worth watching? The ost perfectly depicted how i felt at the moment and i have so many words of appreciation for this show..i wish it never ended but it did so that sucks. The side coupe in this show doesn't overpower the main couple as it may happen in many bls but this one is just beautiful. I want more action bl, there really aren't enough. There needs to be more bl genres other than the regular romance. i must really thank the writes and the team who made it possible for this amazing show to be made. The re-watch value is high and i'd know, i'd have finished the show earlier if i hadn't been repeating half of the episode every time. so many of the scenes were utterly amazing, this show really had me. i can't stand cliches and this was far from it, it felt like the creators personally made this show for me.

Leia Mais

I am a huge fan of the HIStory series, before watching this season, my favorite season was Crossing the line. I thought nothing could surpass my love for Crossing the line, but Trapped changed my mind. I still love Crossing the line, but Trapped is just very organic and new. It brings it Crime and Comedy all in one. The characters are very loving, I didn’t think they would have great chemistry but they really do. It is very enjoyable and most episodes keep you at the edge of your seat. The theme song is super catchy and sounds very fitted for the story. The side couple is very adorable, they can be cheesy at times though. Each character brings something different that makes you irresistibly like them.

Leia Mais

Cringey and childish

From the synopsis this sounded like something I'd really enjoy, as I love police dramas. However almost everything about this was ridiculous. The main character (police officer) was extremely childish, and so were all of his colleagues. It really broke the immersion for me seeing a bunch of police officers acting like children when they're clearly all supposed to be adults. Even people in their early 20's don't act so immature. The scene's with them were all very slapstick-esque which I really disliked.

There are also a lot of plot holes or storylines that don't get explained in a satisfactory way... It felt like they were included to create drama and not as proper plots.

The chemistry between the main actors was pretty good, I liked the more domestic scenes and the relationship between the two of them. The secondary couple I disliked as I felt like they were just stereotypes, the other police officer especially because he seemed to be about 13 years old...

Overall there are some good scenes in this but it wasn't worth the time spent on it, I wish it was an actually gritty police BL but oh well.

Leia Mais

Mobsters are people too....

This is probably an 8,75 show... so I may or may not up it to a 9... why purely for entertainment value, the story itself is nothing remarkable it is just the typical cop investigates mob a little bit to closely... gets trapped here and there and falls in love... All with a bunch of slightly underdeveloped intrigues , misunderstanding and more or less predictable twist...

Showing us a lovely selection of types of assault (including sexual), gun shots, stabbing, kidnapping... you name it this drama has it.. However the main couple is actually pretty supportive and seem to listen in one another's needs odd but true this is actually possible even for a mobster...

The Mobster guy is an icicle combined with a huge sense of playfulness while the cop is mr thinking positive bubbly love boy... cute as a button and the two together are a blast to watch from start to finish... I love the way these two interact and even if there are some flags here and there it kind of works anyway...

The second couple is one part so naive I am impressed the guy is still alive with mysterious ether jacket! great combo, not so much consent... and a lot of flirting with food... again fun to watch indeed.

This drama may not have constantly kept me on my toes, but it was still a nice rom com without to overly annoying characters and a pretty consistent character and relationship development from the leads leaving most of the drama to the supporting cast... Which is what makes this a bit different than many other dramas.

Definitely too easy to binge, it latterly felt like i just started it when it suddenly said The End.

Leia Mais

Let me say this, before anything else: this is, hands down, the best bl drama I've ever seen- and I've seen a few. I have rated bl dramas 10/10 stars before because, even if their quality wasn't great, FOR A BL it simply made me want to give it a 10. In this case, I gave it 9/10. Why is that? Didn't I just say it was my favorite BL of all time? Well, the thing is: I rated History 3:Trapped as I would rate a non-bl drama. As I would rate a high-budget Korean drama. Yes, my ratings differ when it comes to BL because I know the budget is often lower and the acting isn't as good (not always!!!!!) but I end up feeling all the feels and give it a high score. In this case, if I were to rate this as I would rate other BL shows, I would give this one 11/10, which isn't possible. So yeah, 9 stars to me is very high.

This was the first time I watched any of the History series and I'm so grateful that it was such a good start. The best point of the show is the plot, which is SO rare, specially in BL land. I was intrigued, everything made sense (although still very fictional), I was at the edge of my seat. every. single. episode. It had the right amount of drama, action, romance and comedy. Very well done indeed.

The character development was great as well. I enjoyed every little story besides the main couple. The pairings.. I just really liked them! The acting, I must admit, didn't always convince me for some of the characters. My favorites were Tang Yi (Chris Wu) and Chen Wen Hao (Chia Kuei Chen). Their chemistry whenever they acted together was really good as well. I cried quite a lot at the end. To me, Jake's facial and body expressions weren't great. I know Shao Fei's character is like that but... I felt like something was lacking. Thankfully, by the end of the series, I warmed up to him. Jack and Li An didn't have he best performances. But their story was so cute and their characters so fluffy... hopefully we will see them grow from now on. Another actor that didn't sell it for me was the police chief. Weird expressions, weird acting... I don't know. But I really enjoyed his scene with his daughter. I felt true emotion rather than just.............. weird facial expressions.
The chemistry between the couples was amazing. Specially our main couple. So so so cute. Hot scenes everywhere and I'm certainly not complaining.

The music was really good, actually. I really enjoyed the opening theme.

I already know the plot so rewatching it could be a bit boring but it's also short so why not? Maybe when I run out of things to watch and nostalgie hits.

In conclusion, watch it. That's all I can say. I'm quite skeptical though because I dont think ill ever watch a bl as good as this one in the near future. Honestly, I'm so happy I decided to watch it. I don't even remember why I did but I'm really thankful. The BL world just gained a beautiful gem.

Leia Mais

Could have been better

Story: I thought the story was pretty solid. There are different layers of subplots going on that all tie the characters together. I did find one of the subplots kind of forceful, like it had to be placed there for the purpose of continuity of the larger plot. But it didn't bother me to the point of disrupting my enjoyment.

The hate to love thing they have going on was nicely done. I like that I'm able to see the levels of emotion/feelings they have for each other change per episode. Visually it helps me understand how they developed those feelings and thus helps me enjoy when they express certain emotions later on.

Acting/cast: Jake who plays Shao Fei is my least favorite. His acting was not the best. There were moments when I thought wow, they let this make it into the final cut? I don't know how to explain his acting, I'm not an acting expert, I just know what I saw was not the best it could have been. Also, I don't know if this is how he normally is in normal life, but he does this thing where he pulls his chin out and his back and neck look like he has kyphosis. It's not a pleasing visual. Chris who plays Tang yi is alright. I think he and Andy, who plays Jack were good. He was able to express Tang yi well, although I did find some scenes a little exaggerated. Andy's character was a weird one, reminded me of someone who's a little kookoo sociopathic, but I think Andy did a good job since his character doesn't really express much emotion except smile, so it should be easy already, I assume. Kenny who plays Zhao Zi also did a decent job. He's the one with the least experience out of the 4 but he did relatively well. He was able to capture the niave innocent factor. However, overall, judging the finished product on all of their acting/casting choice, I think the finished product was pretty average. I'm not going to lie and say this was the best acting/cast I've seen because it wasn't, but the cast did well enough to get the story across.

Let's talk about the action portion of this drama. I have a gripe. Personally, I found the fighting very poorly choreographed. They all looked stiff. It was awkward. Fists were flying but they looked like they were flying in the wrong direction. I wish the fight scenes were more worked on because it's supposed to play an important role in the story. Cops and Mafia, c'mon, you should at least have epic fight scenes.

Something to note that was actually quite good about this might be their chemistry/ability to be professional about certain scenes. It wasn't exactly clear in the final cut, because characters have to be characters, so you don't see the realness behind their behavior, but the behind the scenes was another world. I loved their chemistry and friendship. Really great on that part.

Rewatch value: Personally I was really interested in Jack and Zhao Zi's relationship. Because they would have moments weaved in here and there, it makes you more curious what their relationship will turn out and that's where my attention was on. I would definitely rewatch this for Jack and Zhao Zi's relationship. The main story was alright but it's a one time thing for me. I wouldn't want to rewatch for Tang yi and Shoa Fei.

Overall: Yes if you haven't watched this, you should watch it for the experience.

Leia Mais

Here’s the thing, this drama did the gay love story a good solid in that it didn’t treat it as the obstacle to the couple that your typical boys love type of movies do. The story was more about finding a killer and learning to move on and not hold on to anger and revenge. I don’t really think the title “Trapped” fits. There wasn’t really any part of the plot that involved trapping someone using love. But I can get past the title of the movie because the characters were so cute. Tang Yi was smexy (his acting was only so-so though, boy can’t fake cry worth a thing), Shou Fei was the most adorable male lead EVER (I couldn’t get enough of his expressive face!), and Jack was just too much (very expressive and mischievous). I had very strange editing choices at times that didn’t explain parts of the plot. And I felt like the last two episodes were extremely rushed and managed to fit in a few minutes of fan service to cover up the fact that they had too much story for 10 short episodes (on VIKI). I’m sort of left feeling like I didn’t get a complete meal and it was taken away from me before I finished the last few bites. I’m not starving but I’m not quite full either. It’s a frustrating end to the series that I was waiting weeks and weeks to finish before I watched it. Overall I’m still happy that I watched it, but it wasn’t quite as good as I hoped it would be.

Leia Mais

I wonder what everyone loved that I missed?

Things that stay in my mind: Shao Fei's exaggerated facial expressions, Tang Yi's meaningless blank stares, bad environmental shots and absurd plot, cute workplace friends and fatherly chairman who are very enjoyable to watch.

When Tang Yi gives a little face, Shao Fei, who falls in love without waiting or thinking, immediately accepts it without doubting or wondering if I am gay. Because if your same sex is close to you, your first thought is to be gay. Because there is no such thing as intimacy, friendship ?

Our second couple was very nice, but it was cut very short. I loved both characters ? I wish they had reduced the scenes of the first couple and increased the scenes of this couple

In general, it is a series that I did not like, I did not feel much passion, I could not connect with the characters. Of course, it's still going, whoever likes it will like it again. If it got such a high vote, I respect it to the end. I wonder what everyone loved that I missed?

Leia Mais

Enjoyable & Sweet

Sweet and touching with its gay relationships. A bit slow with a story that is a bit ridiculous as it doesn't make much sense with plot holes and questionable plot points, but it was fun and cute. I didn't really cared for the revenge storyline, which was weak and not particularly interesting (until the end). I was only interested in the gay relationships to be honest. Jack and Zhao Zi. Tang Yi and Meng. The dance scene where they tried to make each other jealous was HOT! The seducing scene with slinky R&B music was even HOTTER and probably the most erotic scene in a BL that I've seen so far. I really liked the skinship that was shown. Not exploitative and not superficial either. Just the right amount. It's pretty cool seeing an older BL couple who are in their late 20's and early thirties. Like is those K-dramas. I personally liked History 3: Trapped better than History 2: Crossing the Line. I cannot wait to see Taiwan continue to produce BL content!

Leia Mais