On Marriage (2022)

Hit or miss

This is essentially the marriage version of On Children. And if you've watched that, you would be familiar with the premise of Black Mirror dystopian-esque technology impacting marriages/children in mostly negative ways. Unfortunately, budget/quality wise it does not live up to Black Mirror standards which makes the immersion hard. As its an anthology with different episodes having different storylines/actors/directors, the quality of each story differs as well.

The first story was a pleasant surprise, and I felt it started off the series on a high note. The futuristic technology parts were well integrated and fairly believable which made it more relatable than the rest. Tonally it was also more light-heartened and "fun". Acting and directing were great too.

The second story however was a major step down from the first in all ways. The element of futuristic technology was not clearly brought out and it veered into normal family drama territory with the whole technology part an afterthought. Acting was strange and I couldn't stand the ML at all. Pacing was all over the place and a serious mess.

Third story I only watched halfway but I felt that it had too much going on for such a short runtime. There were the technology bits and some random cult parts as well. The story wasn't as compelling so I didn't bother continuing.

I skipped to the last story which was about a lesbian couple having an affair. Plotwise, it is the most interesting out of all as it is a subject matter rarely portrayed in asian media (and western media too actually). The other stories in the series all featured hetero couples and this was the only one featuring a gay couple. so naturally it stood out. However the executing was lacking. I felt the directing was messy and the writing was bad. The FL that cheated tried to justify her cheating in such a scummy way and her wife just took her back despite her shittiness. It was like they were trying to shoehorn a happy ending for no reason. The LGBT representation is nice and all, but if it were a hetero couple there would be angry calls on why the woman would be forgiving such a shitty man so why the double standards? Like the FL was only sorry she got caught and only broke up with her affair partner when she wrongly believed her affair partner was cheating on her! Like WTF? That is just messed up. Not to mention they have a kid together... ANYWAY. The acting was great but everything else was meh.

Edit: I went back to watch the fourth story which I previously skipped and I actually found it pretty good, albeit depressing. The technology parts were weak and felt shoehorned in at some points though. Overall I would rate the first story as the best, followed by the fourth story and then the lesbian story.

So there's that. I personally preferred On Children and emotionally felt that it hit harder. I'll probably only recommend the first episode and the last episode (if you're looking for LGBT representation). The other stories are basically meh and forgettable.

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