I've always had kind of a love hate relationship with Chinese historical BLs. Some are genuinely excellent, but then there are others that cram in so much plot that keeping track of all the layers of betrayal and scheming gets exhausting, and I end up checking out mentally. Part of the issue is also just how much content is out there in this space, so something really has to stand out to keep me hooked. In this case, the production value is genuinely impressive, top tier stuff, but story wise, I just couldn't bring myself to actually care about these characters. There's a ton of political scheming and backstage manipulation running throughout. Somewhere in the middle of all that chaos, a hostage ends up falling for his own Prince Charming. The show runs eight episodes, each around 50 to 60 minutes long. After spending three years guarding the border, Fifth Prince Yin Qi gets called back to the capital because of a secret letter, only to end up walking straight into a deadly...
In a high school, one day a stranger arrives shooting at students. Maja is an activist who live-streamed her fight for survival and now must deal with the resulting sudden internet fame. Unfortunately, she also streamed the awkward moments between the popular Nessa and her boyfriend, floorballist Luky. Because of the attack, floral captain jumps out of the window. It turns out that the attacker is Tonda, Nessa's brother who has been bullied and the gun was a fake gun. In next ten episodes we are told through some flashbacks individual stories of these people and how the fateful day came to be and the aftermaths that followed. Tonda was buried by his floor ball team members who haven regret. Sadly his own sister doesn't see his view point Its only when Maja, the seemingly perfect girl, befriends Ness, she starts to see more viewpoints rather than just being a high school mean girl. The gay sub lot of around Luky. Luky's best friend is Pavel, who are more like fab but Luky is not sure about his sexuality. When Pavel publicly announces he is gay, his teammates have nothing to say but Kuly feels he is bi and this doesn't go well with Pavel, but thanks to push from his friends he will not let go off his love so easy.
I absolutely loved this show. The web-series tells the story of trying to find solid ground beneath one’s feet, not only after the traumatic event, but also in the turbulent teenage years under the omnipresent eye of social media. TBH explores the themes of bullying, relationships, friendships, love, identity, and mental health at the age of vulnerability and exploration of one’s authentic self. Why was Tonda (who was played by an extremely good looking actor) bullied in name of fun? What impact did that have on him? And the end where he admits that he would have gone through with it if he had a real gun send chills. The show reminded me a lot of one of my fav shows Skam in some ways. Being teenager is not easy. You are discovering yourself , learning things about yourself and then there are societal expectations. You dont know right from wrong, and this show portrays this brilliantly. Nothing is black or white. Things are more often than not grey and thats what we all need to learn. As expected, I was mostly excited about Paul and Luky's love story that beautifully grows from sex to friends to love to acceptance over a period of time and gave me some very warm cozy feelings. The fact that the couple looks gorgeous is amazing and the way they stand up for each other was also quite good. Irrespective of the gay sub-plot, I would highly recommend watching this show. We will all learn something from it. (7.5/10)
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