Till the World Ends (2022)

Roteiro sem lógica

Essa série tem uma junção de fatores que me repeliram num primeiro momento: A mistura de real com sobrenatural, não que eu não goste, mas é uma receita que só dá certo se tiver roteiro e direção de milhões. A possibilidade de um final ruim pra todo mundo, e a presenta de Art, de quem tomei um ranço enorme depois de What the duck e da treta que se seguiu.

Sobre o roteiro: Do nada, surge um aviso do governo de que a Terra será destruída por um meteoro em alguns dias, e quem quisesse sobreviver deveria ir para um abrigo criado pelo governo "à prova de fim do mundo" (WTF?) para se salvar. Os que não chegassem ao abrigo morreriam. Ocorre que no momento do aviso, nosso protagonista, num ato de ciúmes de sua namorada, tinha acabado de acertar a cabeça de um jovem, e como ele é estudante de medicina, seu senso de moral falou mais alto, e ele, ao invés de fazer a coisa lógica, colocar o jovem no seu carro e levar para o bunker, decide não ir e cuidar do garoto em casa, este quando acorda está sem memória, não lembra da violência sofrida, e agredido e agressor acabam se apaixonando. A verdade vem à tona depois, mas eles parecem estar dispostos a morrerem juntos e felizes. Ainda vão aparecer o irmão do "médico", um jovem que estava preso por praticar protestos contra o governo e por isso não podia entrar no abrigo, uma senhora viúva que optou por esperar a morte com sua cachorrinha para não abandonar o lar de seu futuro esposo, e uma gangue de psicopatas que saía matando por diversão. No final, essas pessoas citadas morrem, sobrando apenas o casal principal, que está bem pleno praticando a arte de namorar pelado na hora que o meteoro vem e destrói tudo, inclusive minha alegria. A questão é que na cena pós créditos, o rapaz agredido aparece acordando bem assustado, então, fica no ar a dúvida, se foi tudo um sonho dele, ou se aconteceu e eles sobreviveram, cabe uma segunda temporada para explicar.

Apesar do roteiro esquisito, as atuações foram de milhões, esqueci até o ranço do Art. Filmografia, fotografia, ost, tudo esteve muito bom, eu não vou rever a série, mas recomendo sim!

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It's good, but...

Given the limited budget, this is extremely well-made, with obvious passion invested by everyone involved, which I've come to expect from this group. The cinematography and directing are wonderful with fantastic performances pulled out of talented actors, the music selections ar great, and the German subtitles are first rate, so I hear.

It's great to see Art Pakpoom in a leading role again, and Michael Kiettisak puts in another top-tier performance - he may be the most underrated actor in BL - I'm still haunted by his horrifying abuse victim in Call It What You Want.

The story, however, prevents these ingredients from reaching their full potential. It perhaps tries to do too much - social commentary, messaging about how short life is, wanting to be a '90s Gregg Araki film, horror, adventure, romance, comedy...

So while I appreciate how well-done this is, the big question is, did I enjoy watching it? Not really. It's very violent, it's a bit all-over-the-place as a genre, and commentary about the corruption in society and the human condition are either extremely unsubtle (like who gets to go to the bunker - that was hammer-over-the-head commentary), or undermined by the contrasting trio of antagonists. Because the villains were all psychopaths, they contributed no meaning. If we're looking at different choices in how to spend the last two weeks of your life, basically good people versus people who want to violently murder as many people as possible before they die says nothing. There is nothing about them identify with, you can have no sympathy for them, they have no point to make, they're just evil and must be destroyed.

Why not have people who are so greedy that they steal and accumulate wealth, or so desire power that they try to rule everyone else? Or even if they had wanted to have sex with as many people as possible before the worlds ends, that would be relatable, for sure if everyone looks like the cast.

So as a result, the series gets bogged down in with a large amount of screentime being chewed up by horrible people who have nothing to do but have surprisingly graphic and sweaty sex (probably the most realistic sex scene ever in a BL) and kill people, which they do, a lot (unfortunately the killing, not the sex).

In addition, instead of examining how impending doom might affect the course of romance, the main pair fall into a depressingly conventional seme-uke pattern, where Art acts like a Victorian twelve-year-old, when even a Victorian twelve-year-old would throw up her hands, say 'f$%& propriety', and want to bang Golf and his brother 24/7 if the world were ending. But Art acts like a kiss on the cheek in a completely abandoned world is scandalous. Art has no agency and is helpless and useless, requiring Golf to do everything for him.

Everything is too predictable, and you end up stressed out knowing characters you don't want to die are going to die, stupid decisions to be made are telegraphed - decisions that are inexplicably out of character, which is lazy writing.

And to get it out of the way, there was an incredible amount of criticism of the faulty astrophysics - if the moon were on a collision course with the Earth, the Earth's gravity would break it up, and there would be horrendous natural disasters, so this is too unrealistic. THAT'S the line you're going to draw in the sand? There are BLs where one of the main pair is dead, or a vampire, nobody sweats after running a mile through Bangkok in the afteroon while wearing a wool suit, every male student at the school is gay and rich, you can turn a straight guy gay if you trip and have him catch you - but not having earthquakes and tsunamis in a project that likely had a 5-figure budget is unacceptable? Anyway, the moon crashing into the earth is symbolic and metaphorical - it doesn't need to be realistic.

So do I recommend this? Yes, unless you don't like gore. All the positives I mentioned at the top make it worth your time - this isn't a rehashed plot, it's not full of tropes and cliches, and you get to watch very attractive people who can both act and look great with their shirts off. If that seemed like a lot of criticism, it's because I think this could have been one of the best BLs of all time instead of merely good. While the characters are largely more appealing, this doesn't quite have the polished genius of Call It What You Want.

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