BLISS RATING: ★★★★+
“When you are alone is when you can count your friends.” – Stephen Richards
This is an amazingly brave, thoughtful, and moralistically driven series. If you are looking for love in the BL sense of the word, move on. You will not find it here. It is not a BL series in that sense, but it does deal with very real issues facing the gay community. It deals with ethical and moral issues and conveys values that should be instilled into societal standards, no matter what country. This is a real work of art and is both enlightening to watch yet painful to observe.
From the onset, the acting in this series is simply first rate and excellent. Kudos to all the actors who portrayed characters that were deeply flawed with issues that unfortunately is rarely if ever dealt with effectively either in real life or in BL series. These guys were given meaty roles to sink their acting teeth into and did not have to rely on their bodies to tell the stories. Each were unique and each had major faults that I have personally seen in many of my own friends. This story revolves around a deep connection and attachment that four men have to each other as friends and the willingness to accept their major shortcomings with compassion and support. This series is only four episodes long but while it is a continuous story of their getaway time over a weekend, it deals with each individual uniquely in every episode without breaking up the continuity of the story. In fact, it simply enhanced the story. This is a superb script and kudos to the editing for the flow of this series into an almost seamless tale.
It is a story about four very close friends who have been together for many years. I know the term ‘brothers’ can be overused but it is applicable here indeed. Literally, they are as close as brothers. The four consist of Harry (Ivan Chan). He is the King of Strategies. He is very good at manipulating people to get what he wants. He has been doing this to a family friend of his, Rusty, for years because he is using Rusty’s gayness to get what he wants. However, after arriving there, Harry receives a call from Rusty stating his mother has had a stroke but is doing well. Rusty is taking care of everything and will do so until he gets back tomorrow. It is at that point, along with the counsel of his other friends, that he realizes what a deep and abiding friend Rusty is and how he has helped him over the years and how shameful he has treated him and even called him names. He begins to realize that when there is a real emergency, how important these marginalized people are who have stood by him and his family no matter what just because it is the right thing to do.
The second person is Kiam (Gio Ramos) is the Master of Gimmicks. He seems particularly pensive until he opens up and admits that he is gay, to everyone else’s surprise. But as true friends, they are incredibly supportive of him and will always be besides him. Yet, he is still not done with his secrets, and he reveals a deep and dark and profoundly personal one. He is HIV positive because he has been selling himself to get money for him and his family and has been doing some truly dangerous sexual activities which have finally caught up with him. He is now remorsefully sorry for his behavior and feels as if the world is crashing in on him for not only being gay but also HIV. He has no one except his friends now who will continue to stand by him and support him and try to get him the help that he needs. Kiam is a rather sad and pathetic figure and unfortunately does represent a percentage of gays who do turn to sex for money and fall so deep into the rabbit hole that they now cannot find their way out of it. It is a profoundly moving story.
The third member is Nick (AJ Buslon), is the Pushover. Wherever is the party, he will be there. To the point now that he has hooked up with a gang of friends who have reintroduced him to taking drugs again. He has lacked the willpower to stop. In fact, some of his behavior borders on being despicable and he has incorporated some of that into his own relationships, thinking that is how all people want to be treated. He even tries to sexual attack Kiam because he is so high, and he believes that is how Kiam wants to be treated. Once again, his friends are here to support his now realized need for more and greater help for his drug addiction.
And finally, there is Lei (Miguel Leonido Villasis). He really is the glue that keeps the group together. He is a musician/singer who has become successful and is well known to the point that it infringes on his personal life as well. He is the one who is always trying to help and fix everything, sometimes to the point of not being true to himself. His story is quite interesting because he has fallen deeply in love with Franchesca (Lars Pacheco). His issue is that Franchesca is a transsexual and that presents a problem for his career and his followers, who have different notions of who should be with him. Does he follow his heart and perhaps ruin his career or deny their love and be miserable for doing so?
This series presents each of these characters in unflattering terms and all are blemished and tainted and thus have stigmas. Not only for themselves but also in societal terms because each of them has stained behaviors from societal standards of acceptability and normalcy. The only thing that will keep these guys together is their bond as friends and their willingness to stand by each and support them either in their future decisions or in their recoveries. Without that, they would not have the strength to change. This is indeed a coming-of-age story as they enter into their young adulthood lives. Life gets more difficult and way more challenging. But the one consistent constant is their friendship.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. the series? I am going to bend the rules here. I am going to name all four of these actors for this distinction. It is difficult to name just one as each episode was individually unique but told a complete story. The acting for each of these roles was nothing short of deeply moving with each of them in a short period of time able to make their characters real, genuine, relatable, and deeply troubled. Brilliant acting so much so that I got into their characters’ development that I felt sadness, pity, and empathy. They displayed such a bond between them, that you could feel their connection to each other. That is some strong acting skills that can do that.
I know this is perhaps not a story for everyone. It is not filled with longing kisses, or melting stares, but it does look at guys in a more raw and perhaps realistic mode. These guys brilliantly portrayed their characters with guts, rawness, and a deep understanding of the characters they were playing. They were believable and genuine. I do not know if they will be successful in their future endeavors, but if they maintain their brotherly camaraderie, I think each of their futures look good.
For the most part, the production efforts were good except for the occasional sound issues in which it was hard to hear them. These four, are incredibly good looking and brought a boyish charm to their characters. I am hoping that this will be the beginning of incorporating some of these issues into regular BL series, so they are not always light fluff or endeavors of enduring love. I am not knocking those as I enjoy a good love story also but sometimes life is ugly, and it does not always end on happy notes. The issues described in this series are real and they happen to real people.
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