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Chained To My Bully Stepbrother (AI Vertical BL Drama)

By Golu
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 ...
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That's My Candy (Thai Series)

By Golu
Was this show supposed to be a parody of sorts? If yes, then act was it making fun of? The whole BL genre maybe, but it was never clear. For my own sanity I seriously hope that the makers were intentionally not making a genuine serious show but just something for fun. Because besides a wafer thin plot, the only thing going for the show was very few genuinely funny moments and reactions but the characters are so unimaginative and atrocious that its hard to believe in them. Thankfully at 6 episodes of about 40 minutes each, we don't have to endure the show for long.

Guy and Jing have been in a relationship for 3 years. Guy is a hard working nurse while Jing is a film student. But due to his busy work schedules, there are a lot of times Guy is unable to keep his promise of spending time with Jing. When this happens repeatedly, one night Jing leaves the home suddenly indicating their break ups snd goes to live with his best friend Kana, who has always had a crush on Jing. Guy wishes to get Jing back and in his dream sees an old man giving him magical candies to grant him wishes. He wakes up to find three candies next to him. But the plot does nothing with it. What follows then is a weird cat and mouse game of Jing doing tricks where Guy can spend time with him to win him back. Clearly hostile loves him. IN parallel, we have another story of a live streamer Viking, whom Jing is a huge fan of. Viking has his own love story going on with another guy, for which I couldn't care much for. The show randomly ends as it started and continued, with usual BL tropes of misunderstanding, over the top reactions etc.

The show actually started off well in episode one and I thought I am going to get to see a quirky comedy but man, was I wrong. Once Jing moves out, so suddenly, the show just nosedived with ridiculous plot, a very self centered boyfriend like Jing, who just cares for himself, some obnoxious comic scenes and just a weird overall melodrama. Many scenes felt disjointed and had nothing concrete to add to the overall situation. The worse thing is when Guy gets the magical candies, he does nothing with it and that part of the plot os very conveniently forgotten completely. The show tries to approach the BL tropes of dull love strangle, misunderstanding, kissing etc with wacky humor and punchlines, and to be honest I did enjoy a few of those OTT moments but overall the show itself was quite disappointing. Jing's character is shown as so selfish since all he cares about is himself and is not empathetic at all to Guy's profession. He throws childish tantrums, picks unnecessary fights, and gaslights his boyfriend constantly. He is cute and all, but if someone was to act like this with me, I would leave him immediately. In one scene, Jing almost stops Guy from assisting an unconscious woman because they have a dinner date. WTF!? The other couple has a harmless romance, but their rapport is unremarkable without any complexity. You can foresee every predictable beat in the relationship. The show does show some promise in the fantasy like scenes where it is clear that it is mocking the bL trope, but besides that the show is just a big yawn. (3.5/10)
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Comments

Sailor Maan said…
This poor couple. It looked promising in 2moons but bad series after bad series I think they killed it (close friend, Gen Y and its horrible season 2, and now this).
January 20, 2023 at 6:08 AM
Golu said…
How do you even remember the fact that these actors have been in what other shows?? It AMAZES me.
I don't remember shit.
lol
January 20, 2023 at 8:11 AM
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