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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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Sereno (Filipino Series)

By Golu

Merman BL shows seem to be having a moment, this is actually the third one I've come across that centers on that whole merman fantasy vibe. The setup here actually starts off kind of intriguing, but it doesn't take long before the show just leans into the cheapest stuff it can, mostly shock value and skin. There's a ton of moments in this that made me cringe hard. But honestly, once you see it's from Oxin Films, the same studio behind Hermoso which I'd also watched, you kind of already know what you're signing up for. Every single episode has some random sex scene crammed in, and they even flash a little message telling you to subscribe for VIP access if you want the uncensored version. Gross, honestly. This one runs ten episodes, each sitting around fifty to sixty minutes long.

The first ten minutes lay out the basic setup. Kai's a merman who's basically being held captive by this tacky witch named Ursula, and because of her hold on him, he can't leave even if he tries. He's got some kind of good luck energy about him, which is why Ursula's resort is thriving while every other place around is struggling. Feeling cut off and lonely, missing his sea family, Kai ends up falling for a local guy on the island named Mario, but right when things start getting serious between them, Mario vanishes into the ocean and everyone assumes he's dead. Kai blames himself for what happened to him, though it seems a lot more likely that Ursula's actually behind his disappearance. Ursula's got an older sister too, who's the only person genuinely kind to Kai, but she's stuck under her sister's thumb. Jump forward a few years and two friends, Alfred and Elios, show up at the resort. Elios is young, good looking, and completely fascinated by merman legends. When he stumbles onto Kai relaxing in the sea as a merman, something starts brewing between the two of them, though both are a bit hesitant about it. Meanwhile Alfred starts hooking up with another guest staying in the room next door, a woman who does webcam content for a living but is secretly working for some shady guy for reasons unknown. From there things spiral into more chaos and drama that honestly didn't need to happen, with Elios and Kai trying to piece together what actually happened to Mario and figure out where that leaves their relationship. Alfred and his cam girl fall hard for each other, and then completely out of nowhere we find out Alfred's actually half merman too. The mystery guy eventually shows up wanting to buy the resort because he suspects there's something bigger going on with the place. Everything descends into chaos after that, kidnapping and nonsense flying between Ursula, the shady buyer, and everyone else, and I almost forgot, Mario actually comes back from the sea at some point, which throws Kai, Elios, and Mario into a messy love triangle.

The whole show just feels scattered and honestly a bit out of control. If it had picked one storyline and stuck with it, I think it could've actually worked. It starts strong with that merman mystique angle, but it quickly gets lost chasing pointless side plots and silliness. I'll keep the acting comments short because there's not much good to say. The two leads were fine, passable at best, but a lot of the side characters were rough, straight up amateur acting. Ursula and this other resort worker guy were so over the top I genuinely don't have words for it. If they'd kept the story focused on its original idea it might have landed better, but instead it went full trashy. None of it made sense, and honestly it cheapened the whole merman fantasy concept by throwing in random characters, just like Hermoso did, purely to add more sex scenes. The ending left me completely confused too, I couldn't figure out why Kai needed to stay in the sea for as long as he did. And even after he came back, I still wasn't sure anything got actually resolved between him and Elios. Like, realistically, how is that relationship even supposed to work? This is one of those shows that falls into campy, cringe BL territory, the kind you watch while complaining the whole time but still secretly enjoying. Maybe the creators never intended for this to be taken seriously at all. Honestly I'm not even sure what they were going for with this one. There's an insane amount of innuendo and just plain silliness packed into this show. The one saving grace is definitely all the shirtless guys and eye candy on display. Outside of that, keep your expectations low. Just watch it, roll your eyes, secretly have fun, and then move on with your life.

Bottom line, campy and messy but oddly watchable if you don't take it seriously. (4/10)

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