Sashes and Hearts (Filipino Series)

To give the credit where its due, you cannot deny the fact that the concept of the show in extremely unique. Over the years, I have realized how big of pageantry industry it is in Philippines. Taking that as the base and creating a BL around male pageantry was a fantastic idea, sadly the makers are bogged down by the over ambition. The show drags on for ever and ever adding and creating more characters, more sub-plots, making t all dull, chaotic, crowded and just plain uninteresting. With 13 episodes each of about 45 minutes, it needs significant time commitment. Had they focused on the 2 main couples, the show could have been a real novelty with some tight editing.

Our main character is Jack who has just won the Mr. Royale Universe Philippines and has to now fulfill his obligations as a winner while also preparing for the global Mr. Universe contest. Jack comes from a very poor financial background, so this is huge for him. But his manager Lemuel is evil personified. He is there to make money out of Jack's endorsements, without paying him a penny and in fact he even tries multiple times to get him for prostitution for old men. Jack's love interest is Thomas, who will be participating in upcoming Aces of Kings Philippines contest. Also we have Jack's makeup/best friend who has a huge crush on Jack but the three of them just random fool around non-sexually. Then we have another couple Jared and Gin. Gin's mother is a famous businesswoman, who was also judge for Mr Universe contest. She meets Jared and his sister t get her makeup done for the show and really likes them both. Heart broken Gin has ben drinking a lot lately and so Gin’s mother pays Jared to keep her son from going too far down the path of drinking by keeping him busy. It soon gets intense and before long the raging male hormones kick in. Almost forced by the mother, they both decide to join the Ace of Kings contest. They both realize that entering the pageant might be a good release for each of them and a good path to learning more about one another and themselves. Over time, their relationship develops into a more loving, intense one. This is initially unacceptable[ted by the mother but she eventually comes around. Meanwhile tired and extremely frustrated by his manager's antics, Jack decides to rebuttal and complains about him to the organizers, who eventually do a full investigation and he is arrested. Thomas, meanwhile wins the Ace of Kings contest and Gin/Jared find love.

Jack and Thomas relationship was quite awkward to watch. They made overtures that they ‘liked’ each other but we never see any real love/kiss between them. The relationship is teased, and a courtship seemed to be developing but it absolutely never does. Just some mild fun banter. There is no screen chemistry here, In fact the makeup friend of Jack is more obvious about his crush and lust over Jack. Jack's story more focuses on the exploitation of these pageants while the real Bl couple here is Jared and Gin. The two have very good screen chemistry and were comfortable enough with one another that their love scenes together felt real and authentic. And honest. More importantly, believable. The kissing seemed not only passionate but genuine. The guy paying the manager, is so over the top. I have seen him in many other shows but he continues to be bad playing the similar roles. His lusting scenes with some contestants were downright laughable. Gin's mother, for me, was the only person, who I actually liked. She too was comical and over the top, but I did enjoy her role of a over excited and always on caffeine mother, who really wanted her son to outshine and do something in life

There are way too many characters here. It takes you a while to figure out who will end up being the main characters who you need to focus on as audience. Ot doesn't help that the show keeps introducing new faces and sub plots, which really have nothing todo in the bigger picture except lengthening the duration of the show. They even added a black American dude, who was nothing but was crude, rude, obnoxious, and absolutely unnecessary to the story and personified the stereotypical definition of the ‘ugly American’. Then the endless storyline of Jared's sister just goes on and on. The production is good of the show but a lot of time goes in just sexualizing the contestants and going through the tropes which honestly becomes too tiring after a while. If you are going to do a story about male pageantry, then let us see male pageantry. Not salaciousness but sensuousness. The whole ending was right out of a trope playbook. The entire series seemed to be a pointless mess but with a lot of cute guys and too many caricatures rather than characters representing real relatable people. While the concept was a good one, it was produced rather ineptly and with no real aim because it simply was not well thought-out. (3/10)