This one's a beautiful, tender, quiet romantic drama with a moody atmosphere, set in a tight knit Welsh fishing community. It's a touching story about a man waking up sexually in the middle of his life, and how he, his family, and everyone around him deal with it, which makes it emotional and sentimental without ever getting over the top. The slow burn plays out against a landscape that's as bleak as it is gorgeous, where quiet, closed off men are stuck inside rigid ideas of what masculinity should be. Some people might be reminded of "God's Own Country," but I think both films are lovely in their own way. Jack is a middle aged guy who co-owns a mussel farm with his rough around the edges brother Dyfan, and the tension between the two of them is simmering under the surface right from the start. Dyfan's three sons all help out with the work, while Jack's sulky teenage son Tom keeps skipping out. Jack's been with his wife since they were both 16, and...
Our main actors are Spencer and Jayden. They meet one night at Spencer's roommate Alex's birthday party and hook up. Its only the next day they realize that Spencer was actually the blind date that Alex had invited over. Alex is a player and just sleeps around but after this incident doesn't leave any chance to make Spencer guilty of stealing his potential love. Jayden and Spencer meanwhile are getting close and quite like each other. We also meet Jayden's sister, who is very supportive but is also dealing with own personal men issues. Alex and Jayden are slowly growing apart because of Alex' bitchy nature and also mainly due to his other friend Gary, who keeps giving all wrong advice to Alex. Gary hatches a plan to bring into picture Orlando, who is Jayden's ex partner who uses to physically abuse him. Exactly a year later on Alex's next birthday, he presents Orlando as a surprise pretending to not know who he is fully intending to take revenge and hoping Spencer and Jayden would break up. Season 2 starts with Jayden and Spencer dealing with Orlando's sudden arrival in their lives. Meanwhile Alex is slowly falling for Orlando, who clearly wants to sleep around and want to have an open relationship. This season we see more of Jayden's family background including his sister's issues. With the arrival of Spencer's mother, whom Spencer hasn't come out to, and with Spencer's co-worker hitting on him, the two of them go through their ups and downs but still managing to communicate. The season ends with Gary's true face being exposed but also with a question mark of what else is Jayden hiding from Spencer.
As I said before, my first reactions were, Oh ! My God! why are the characters so loud and over the top but after a few episodes, I got used to it. I have to say most controlled acting was by Jayden followed by Orlando. Jayden's sister was the most annoying and so was Alex. I think there could have been a decent balance of a loud character v/s showing him just a bitchy queen who has not grown up. Coming to Spencer, he was all over the place, sometimes he was too good and other times just random facial reactions and expressions would totally catch you off-guard. On a brighter side, no stereotypes are made of the fact that characters are African-American or the fact that they are gay. Its a regular story where no bones about both of the things are done and thats a very welcome change. Also the scenarios that have been shown could be happening in our everyday lives so connecting to them is easier (minus the loud reactions to everything). A few changes I would recommend is that it was only Jayden's apartment that looked like someone actually lived in .rest all other locations are so minimal furnished and used, its clear that they are being used just for shooting. I know its a trivial thing but the sets does make a difference.
Apparently Season 3 is in works and I for one would look forward to what's happening next. This is no great shakes by any means but its not bad either. Just get used to the theatrical Over the top acting style and you will be good. (6/10)
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