Let's just cut right to it, this show was painfully boring. There, I said it. A story built around partial amnesia has real potential, but between the choppy scene structure and random flashbacks thrown in constantly, the whole plot ends up feeling more tangled than it needed to be. The romance doesn't fare much better either, it's written so poorly that I never really found myself invested in this couple. Both leads come across stiff on screen and deliver their lines in a really awkward way. The show runs 8 episodes, each somewhere around 30 to 35 minutes. Hanuel, a 29 year old language teacher, wakes up after an accident only to realize his memory stops at age 19. It turns out he'd been in another accident back then too, which is why his memories cut off at that point. He has zero recollection of the fact that he's currently living with his childhood friend Saebyeok, who's now a huge celebrity. That makes the whole situation even harder for Hanuel to wrap his ...
Colby Stryker is the golden boy captain of the Los Angeles Stallions, heading into the season determined to hold onto his title, his reputation, and the picture perfect life he's built for himself. His biggest problem shows up in the form of Ridge Maddox, an intense player out of Kansas whose sheer talent and fearless energy make him impossible to ignore. After going head to head on the field in a pretty brutal rivalry, Ridge suddenly gets added to Colby's own team, turning their mutual hatred into an everyday clash in the locker room, at practice, and under the media spotlight. With no choice but to work side by side, the two of them end up competing for the captain spot while the team gears up for the World Championship. Colby's entire life is basically run by his powerful mother Sylvia, who uses her money and emotional grip on him to keep him locked into a squeaky clean image. Ridge, on the other hand, doesn't bow to anyone who doubts him, and pretty quickly he clocks the fear Colby's hiding under all that confidence. Ridge is also openly gay, and there's this intense sexual tension crackling between them even when they're mid argument. Sharing rooms, private training sessions together, and rumors spreading around the team all push the two of them toward a connection neither one saw coming. But Colby's girlfriend Harlow, jealous teammates, media scrutiny, and Sylvia's constant control all make this bond a genuinely risky thing for them to pursue. Ridge just wants Colby to be honest about what he feels, while Colby's caught up in fear, denial, and weighing what it'll cost him to actually choose his real feelings over the life everyone's already mapped out for him. Eventually, like you'd guess, love wins out, they go public, and fully embrace being together. There's even this moment where Harlow, the girlfriend, is the one who encourages Ridge to confess his feelings to Colby at their wedding, just to give him the confidence to actually do it.
At its core this is about two rivals figuring out if they can actually become real teammates before ambition, sabotage, family pressure, and buried desire tear apart everything they've been fighting for. If you've watched enough vertical BL shows, you kind of already know the beats going in. But I was pleasantly surprised that this one doesn't lean on tons of manufactured misunderstandings to drive the plot. The conflicts here feel like they'd actually happen rather than being shoehorned in just to create drama. Ridge is confident in who he is as a gay man, while it's Colby who's been burying his real feelings his whole life thanks to his controlling mother. It's Ridge's love that eventually helps him break free of that. This series feels more polished overall compared to some others I've watched, and like I said, the guy playing Ridge has this hot, almost Middle Eastern look to him. Watch it on double speed and you'll be done before you even realize it started. (5.5/10)
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