This is the second vertical AI BL drama I've sat through, and honestly I went in knowing better. I had it on while I was doing cardio at the gym, and what struck me was just how much the plot echoed the last one I watched. Same step brother romance angle, same mystery girlfriend showing up near the end, same extra guy pining after one of the leads. Genuinely the only thing going for it was the runtime, the whole thing wrapped up in forty five minutes flat. The setup kicks off with Finn moving schools because his mom just married into money. He finds out his new step brother Aiden goes to the same place, and he's warned to keep his distance from him. Their first run in at school is rocky, just like you'd expect, but there's this odd pull between them neither can shake off. Finn keeps telling himself not to read into it because Aiden's straight and openly homophobic. Things shift when some kids start bullying Finn and the student council president, Ryan, steps in to ...
Ep 1: Boyle Heights
A successful Latino lawyer has forgotten his latin roots until he encounters a fiery and sexy activist who brings about a cultural awakening. The coconut finally peels the layers.
Ep 2: Koreatown
A young Taiwanese-American man begins to have a different understanding of his heritage after meeting a Korean-American adoptee.
Ep 3: Leimert Park
A young African-American poet struggles to define what it means to be a man in Los Angeles. And parallely its a struggle for his lover and his future.
Ep 4: Bel Air
Married ten years, Bentley and Chase seem to have it all--a strong and loving union, as well as all the trappings of the good life. But, sadly, over time, the sizzle has gone out of the relationship and they are both cheating.
Ep 5: Silver Lake
Brendon thinks that his marriage to Jeffrey is losing its sizzle, and suggests they have a threesome with a sexy stranger. But after Star enters his life, Brendon starts regretting it and now there is no going back.
Ep 6: Malibu
Our former "angels" have all gathered in Malibu for Scott and Levi's wedding, which proves to be a lovely affair.
The first three episodes focus on cultural and sexual identity and it showed beautifully some of the conflicts that immigrants face. Despite being a third or fourth generation American, Latin, Asian, Black, Indian, everyone has to struggle with their identity and stay connected to their roots. If you don't , you are called names. Interestingly though, each of the stories had a positive message behind why you should connected to the roots. Stories 5 and 6 focused more on gay issues like monogamy, cheating, threesome and what not. But thank the lord! none of these stories were over-dramatic and were beautifully handled. I have the say that direction and acting in all of these episodes were pretty good. At times, the episodes felt stretched and it would be nice to close the chapters soon, but its alright. The material may not not be very much "in" today but its good to go back to the roots.
The episodes are a bit long but regardless they are real examinations of contemporary queer issues, relationships, and love in todays times. It does right by its audience by staying true to the lives they actually live. (6.5/10)
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