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 ...
It was March 2014 that England and Wales legalized gay marriage and John and Bernardo became one of the first officially married gay couple. So for its 10 year anniversary and many gay weddings later, BBC One celebrated it with this documentary hosted by Tom Allen. He decides to a arrange and become wedding planner for a dream wedding for one couple – Adam Johnson and Dan Mackey of Brighton – and interviewing those who helped make it happen; while also recounting the history of how things were in the past and how did we come about to be where we are today.
Adam and Dan have been a couple for ten years – the same time as equal marriage has been legal. Tom Allen opens his contacts book and magics up some celebrity help for wedding singer, celebrity baker from Bake-Off for a ten-tier cake.A personal stylist designs the outfits and a celebrated choreographer also helps the couple prepare for their first dance. Some beautiful flowers and bouquets are designed by florists. In between all this, Tom traces the history of equal marriage with multiple guests in a mixture of activity, politicians and other figures. We are reminded that there is still some way to go to include everyone in marriage – specifically non-binary people. As part of the programme, Allen also speaks about his own experience of growing up gay in the shadow of the AIDS crisis and Margaret Thatcher’s reviled Section 28 law, which banned the so-called ‘promotion’ of homosexuality in school.
Broadly, the documentary did a good job of reminding us of that marriage once felt impossible for many queer people. Today more than three-quarters of Britons support same-sex marriage compared with well under half in February 2011. That’s a monumental shift in public opinion worthy of celebration. What I found weird was a mix of two genre. One side we are planning for this big outlandish gay wedding but then we are also tracing all the way back to the history if it all on how being gay was criminal, AIDS times, marriage inequality etc. I feel like we have seen this so many times that film could have just focused on journey and activism for gay marriage equality rather than going all the way back to 60s. The attempt to weave vital histories with contrived scenes of the celebs helping the couple pick their suits and plan for wedding felt a bit off to me. We are never told why this couple was specifically chosen. There is too much that has been tried to pack in one hour, but despite all that, this program is still a reminder of how far we have come and how far we still have to still go. (4/10)

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