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On The Sea (UK)

By Golu
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...
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Hard Shift (Vertical BL Drama)

By Golu

Hard Shift is a fast paced vertical mini-series on the NetShort app that throws medical drama and emotional chaos together. A composed urologist starts losing his cool the moment a rebellious race car driver walks into his clinic, and from there it's a push and pull between professional boundaries and personal feelings, desire fighting against reason. Different setting, same tropes, very much still the vertical BL world you already know.

Liam Summers is a famous race car driver and heir to a wealthy family who shows up at Dr Jasper's urology clinic with erection problems. Jasper is immediately attracted to him, examines him, and suggests the issue might be connected to racing stress or possibly the fact that Liam might actually be into men rather than women. Liam tests the theory by trying gay porn, which does nothing for him, so he downloads an app to meet a guy and see if that gets him anywhere. In a very convenient twist, Dr Jasper happens to be staying at the same hotel where Liam is meant to meet his hookup, and the two end up spending the night together instead. The guy Liam was originally supposed to meet doesn't take this well and starts pursuing both Liam and Jasper separately in increasingly weird ways. Then there's Liam's girlfriend, who keeps throwing herself at him and pushing him toward marriage. Liam is stuck in the middle of all this confusion about his own sexuality, but Dr Jasper keeps pushing, medical ethics very much aside, and eventually the two become a couple. Liam's father refuses to accept the relationship. The bitter girlfriend and the rejected hookup then team up to destroy Dr Jasper's reputation, but Liam steps in and fixes it. The father has a last minute change of heart and gives the couple his blessing.

A couple of things genuinely stand out here, the two leads are very easy on the eyes and there are a few actually hot scenes between them. But honestly that's about where the positives stop for me. The way Dr Jasper pursues Liam is pretty uncomfortable to watch, it borders on harassment, constantly pushing himself on someone who keeps saying no. Instead of actually treating the ED, he decides that sleeping with his own patient is the solution. Creative liberties, sure, but still. The girlfriend is a whole other issue, she clearly keeps walking in on these two men together and somehow still insists Liam is going to marry her, which just made me want to shake her and tell her to have some self respect. And the father's sudden turnaround at the end comes out of nowhere and makes very little sense. But look, anyone who's been watching vertical BL dramas for a while already knows exactly what they signed up for, quick guilty pleasure entertainment with good looking people. This delivers on both of those things and absolutely nothing else. Nothing here will stick with you past the credits. (3.5/10)

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