So where do i start with this masterpiece of a BL.

I came across it by accidents whilst searching for other BLs to watch since shamefully i have watched all possible Thai, Chinese and Korean BLs out there. I watched a few Pinoy but wasn’t too overjoyed so when i saw this and wasn’t interested but i was bored and ventured in. Needless to say this is the best BL to date that i have watched.

The story is beautiful and really brings out the challenges same gender relationships go through especially where you find one is confident already and another is yet to find his identify. There is a line i will always remember that Vlad says “i do not want to be the plotting device that triggers another person’s identity crisis” those are powerful words and no one definitely wants to be in that boat. Unfortunately whilst indeed Vlad ends up being the trigger for Karl’s identity crisis, Vlad however was not the one that pulled the trigger, his sister Judit pulled that trigger by cornering Karl. If she had let things be, I believe Karl would slowly as he was already would have come to accepting his feelings for Karl. That is another thing. I wished that they had focused on getting Karl to accept his feelings for Vlad rather than trying to make him accept he was gay. For someone who this was new too who barely just a day ago just kissed a guy, he should not have been asked to say that he was gay, but rather have been asked to explore his feelings for Vlad.

This is where it differs with the Thai BLs i have watched like #Sotus #TharnType amongst others was where the straight partner when asked if he was gay, they responded with saying it wasn’t about being gay but the fact that they feel in love and the person just happens to be of the same gender with them and some even went ahead to say that if it wasn’t that individual then it would not be anyone else. So i loved those focus on feeling something for another individual and not focusing on what the gender was. This was the problem with how they tried to out Karl, it should have been feelings first, especially ciallly considering he was likely effeminate, so he needed first to understand himself and deal with that before dealing with feelings or dealing with being gay.

This however was beautifully scripted. Vlad’ s voice very deep gave his character so much confidence especially since he spoke English 80% of the time, but Karl responds in Tagalog 80% of the time, it really brought so much freshness to their relationship. Every scene of theirs was simply beautiful without putting too much pressure on the viewers, it was a sweet, fun journey of two young boys. Ian played his role as Vlad wonderfully, from his outspokenness, too not being shy and encourage Karl not be shy. Paolo’s role as Karl was also on point, his nagging was frustrating though, sometimes i felt like shutting him out, but going through the story you could tag it just has internal frustrations with having to live his brother’s dream. I mean that is the most spiteful thing you could ever do to a child. One dies and you get the new one not only to wear his clothes, sleep in his bed, accept his dreams you even go as far as giving him his dead brothers name. Tragic in my opinion.

Let’s get to the supporting actors, were not like your regular supporting actors that you can ignore, they were 100% important in how this story not only developed, but infused the right emotions. I loved Judit and her “i am an ally” statement, I understood her stand as a sister, but felt she could have better managed trying to protect her brother when it came to facing Karl. I loved Anna, she was simply the life of the party in my opinion, quite hilarious to boot and whilst we only saw uncle Santi in episode 7 his acting was almost like we had seen him from the beginning. I mean when you look at it. So far the show only had 9 characters that we saw, but i only just realized that they were only 9 characters now, because their acting and scenes didn’t seem to lack anything. The production and oh please the music, soundtracks are super amazing, my favorite bathroom song now is “Ride Home” by Ben x Ben a beautiful song for a beautiful scene.

Overall i cannot complain hence why i gave it a 10. I am very criticizing when it comes to what i watch and asides from Untamed and Its Okay Not To Be Okay this is the only other show that has received a 10 from me and i think it’s worth it.