BLISS RATING: ★★★★+
“Maybe one day I can inspire someone to be themselves.” – Quote from Love Victor 2
This is a BL from the United States although we it is not called that! The labelling is LGBTQ+. There are two seasons already. This series is an off shoot of the move, LOVE SIMON. It tied nicely to this 2018 movie in that he develops an email friendship with Simon who then acts as his gay guidance guru. Summarily, it is about high school boys in a gay relationship. I know this is a bit unorthodox to list this as a BL, but it certainly is and is especially well done. Sure, it has the discernment and mores of the American culture, but in a sense, it is still kind of ground-breaking.
Season One dealt with Victor (Michael Cimino), ‘coming out’. It was a nice story with some comic overtones to it but a bit too Disney-like. It was not deeply character driven except for him having a girlfriend and pretending very hard to be ‘straight’. However, he could never bring himself to ‘doing’ it with her to obligate to the mold of what a straight boyfriend is supposed to do. No matter how many alternative ways he tried to psyche himself into getting into the ‘mood’, his mind was just not there – something else was always tugging at his heart strings. It was not his girlfriend. He knew he was different.
He meets and is completely smitten by Benji (George Sear). Who would not be smitten by him? His heart now races for someone else. Poor Victor must go through the torment of dealing with a guy on a different playing field than him. Benji is ‘out’ and unafraid to be seen as gay. So, Season One is all about those uncomfortable stages of coming out with comedic overtones juxtaposed I am assuming to make it more palatable to the American audience.
Season 2 has a different feel about it and is way more intense and character driven. The two of them develop and have a physical relationship and are not afraid to show that relationship out in the public. That is somewhat refreshing and different. For the most part, there is no real blow-back except for the basketball team and that is handled very well in terms of outcome. As in any relationship, there is conflict, and this is no exception. Benji and Victor have trust issues and decide to take a break. There is no question about their love but getting to commitment is not always a smooth and easy road.
Victor befriends a new friend of his sister named Rahim (Anthony Keyvan), who is not only blessed with good looks, but is also handsome, striking, and stunning. He inadvertently and not meaning to becomes a contributing factor in the breakup between Benji and Victor. and in so doing becomes attracted to Victor and ends up unexpectedly kissing him. But at the end, Victor, chooses….
We shall have to wait until Season 3 to find out.
Obviously to make this series more palatable to American audiences, there is the usual side-stories of which most are uninteresting and frankly unnecessary. Victor’s parents are having marital problems which is not germane to this story. What is important to this story, however, and is handled with some degree of thoughtfulness and intensity is that the mother has a harder time accepting Victor’s gayness than the father. That is shocking and surprising. We expect it to be the opposite, but Dad realizes he cannot change Victor (nor does he want to). So he tries to find out what this is all about. He goes to PFLAG (Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays – pflag.org) and learns and opens his mind while Mom turns to religion.
Being a devout Catholic, you can guess where this goes. When the Church says, Victor will go to hell, the mother realizes that that is utter nonsense. She cannot wrap her head around the idea that her son, who is a good, kind, decent, honest, thoughtful, and a caring person, but follows a different love path in which he happens to be attracted to a person of the same sex, is going to be punished by an all-loving God. This series does a great job in a very politically correct way of giving the finger to the Catholic Church (which it richly deserves – I am a former Catholic).
There are also side stories about Victor’s former girlfriend which again is interesting but not relevant. Victor’s best friend, Felix (Anthony Turpel) [who also has the most stunning hair I have ever seen] develops a love interest with Victor’s sister, Pilar (Isabella Ferreira), which again is a distraction.
What is more intriguing though is Felix’s awesome responsibility forced upon him to take care of his mother who is seriously mentally ill. This storyline is important and is more common than we care to know. He is really burdened and saddled with trying to make ends meet on his young teenage shoulders. He does so with great dignity and care, and a resolute love for his mother. It is a worthy story.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. the series? I REALLY wanted to give this distinction to a gay character, but I just cannot. Not because, they do not necessarily deserve it, I just do not think any of them stood out enough. They are all exceptional good actors, but nothing really tugged at my heart strings or made me feel relatable to any of those characters. Who I felt the most connection to is Anthony Turpel as Felix. His role in this series is so unique in the sense that he has ALWAYS accepted Victor as his best friend – gay, straight, or in-between. He has and always will be by his side. Felix’s problems are real and yet he manages to carry on through impossible odds and turmoil. He could be a sad figure but never is. He never plays it sad and never expresses his sadness for sympathy. This role is incredibly challenging because he is still a kid but must act and be the adult. Anthony brought a uniqueness to this role, and I do not think anyone else could have been so believable in it or as convincing. While he hides behind jokes and sarcasm, we can sense and feel and see his pain in subtleties and facial expressions. We also know that while he tries to convince us all he is in love with Lake, played so quixotically by Bebe Wood, there is something he holds back. We sense it and feel it. He does this masterfully and when he finally realizes who he really wants (Victor’s sister, Pilar), his demeanor changes. That is a mark of great acting. Kudos!
What makes this series so unique is that we are dealing with minority representation in a unique and perhaps only American way. It presents very well the ‘white’ perspective of coming out versus minority experiences of coming out. Victor, being Hispanic, could relate to Rahim, being Muslim, as he understood and related to his anxieties, his family values, his cultural differences, and yes even religious differences. So, there would be a natural connection because they had so much in common. These differences are presented very well in this series and with great sensitivity.
Without being overtly critical, this series put in place the negative thinking of the Catholic Church and coming out only from a white person’s perspective. And tor that they deserve kudos. Additionally, the two main actors are also much more comfortable in their roles playing gay characters. Neither one of them is gay. The reason this is important is because here in the USA, there is a greater awareness of what these stories are REALLY about and their messages. They know they represent a class of people who have long been marginalized but now have found their voice. So, it is important that ‘gayness’ be represented well and accurately. Perhaps one day, these roles will be exclusively done by gay actors who will not be afraid or be stereotyped.
The United Stated would never deliberately call this a BL series but it honestly is. And they did take some steps to prove that it is different from the typical (especially Thai) BL series. First, they are NOT afraid to show them kissing. Passionately and in public. (Americans love kissing scenes even between people of the same sex. It is for us the first sign of a deep connection between two people. If you will, it is our form of ‘shipping’). That was refreshing. No doltish pecks on foreheads or getting close to lips and then pulling back or fading to black. It was full blown kissing and very passionately. Secondly, they were not afraid to show and infer that they were having an ongoing sexual relationship. There is no timidity here, although there is certainly nothing overt. But everyone around them KNOWS they are having sex and are accepting of it. It is not necessarily a subject of taboo. In fact, in one scene, Victor’s mother inadvertently walks in on them having sex. Now that is progress! Third, they developed the relationship like a relationship. They kiss, smile, have sex, sleep together, fight, argue, having other friends, go to school, have more sex, and do all the other normal things without a lot of artificial drama or wrenches thrown in to thwart the relationship. There were no 5, 6, or 7 episodes to decide if you liked each other enough to even kiss. They like; they kiss; they have sex. That may be a uniquely American cultural standard or because our standards are not as controlling or simply more open.
So, if you want to see what an American BL would look like if we were committed to this genre, this is what it would look like. We are not ‘better’ in any sense or the word. We are prudish and parochial and can only put this on streaming services. This series is even unique for American audiences and does not happen very often. I hope you can enjoy this series as much as I did. It really is very well done and tells a pretty good story in simple terms and within the confines of what is acceptable to American standards.
It is a good start if BLs begin to catch on in the USA.
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