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 ...
Kim, the struggling art student, and Han, the rich controlling guy, are officially a couple now. Kim's stuck wondering why his art has lost its spark and why he's falling behind in school. Then a new antagonist shows up, Han's childhood friend, who's broody, mysterious, and good looking. Han's not a fan of him but they still end up grabbing tea together every so often. This friend happens to know exactly how Han turned into the manipulative, BDSM obsessed guy he is now, and he starts using that knowledge to drive a wedge between Kim and Han. It comes out that his real motive is getting them to split up so his other buddy Minwoo can swoop in and have Kim to himself. Minwoo even takes a job as a physiotherapist just to get close to Han and keeps making moves on him constantly. Meanwhile the childhood friend keeps trying to plant doubts in Kim's head to get him to walk away. Naturally nothing actually breaks the couple up, and they end up accepting each other flaws and all by the end.
This show is just bad, and the way it's put together is even worse. It leans harder into every problematic trope instead of backing off any of them. Tide of Love 2 is every bit as sleazy and shameless as the first one was. You'd think Han might've grown as a person and that love softened him up, but nope, his jealousy and controlling behavior are right back by episode three. At one point he basically traps Kim by cuffing him and keeping him from going to class or seeing his professors, and somehow this is all framed as an act of love. What the hell. It hits pretty much every single red flag you'd find in a checklist about abusive relationships. The old childhood friend character comes off as almost comical too, sitting there in that oversized green jacket next to the couch while the room is decked out in full on Christmas decor. Minwoo as the fourth character doesn't fare any better either. And for a BL that's so committed to being sleazy, it's weird that it never actually shows anything explicit. The show does try to dig into Han's backstory to explain why he turned out this way, so credit where it's due, the character work is a little better on that front, but the romance itself feels rotten, uncomfortable, and there's just no chemistry there at all. Seriously, who asked for this sequel? (1.5/10)
Comments