BLISS RATING: ★+
“Promise me you will never forget me because if I thought you would I’d never leave.” – Winnie the Pooh
I thought the above quote perfectly summed up this BL series from none other than the iconic Winnie the Pooh character. This series is so analogous to the story of Winnie the Pooh. Winnie is friendly, thoughtful, and steadfast but naïve, slow-witted, and of course not real. This BL is an after-school story of the idealized musing of a make-believe utopian world where gay relationships, especially among teenage boys, are accepted with affability and placidly encouraged. None of this is intrinsic or even remotely based on any sense of reality. I just cannot acquiesce to this ploy anymore without saying something.
Watching this series will no doubt put you into a diabetic coma from sugar shock. It is so overly sweet that it becomes a travesty. Enough with the prepubescent silliness of what an ideal image of young gay relationships are. These are NOT them. I am not trying to convince anyone that my assessment is correct, but it is time now for some serious reflections on how and what is presented as young gay men in love that is actually authentic. And this ain’t it! And you are doing a gross injustice to young gay, lesbian, trans, and questioning individuals by constantly portraying this nonsense where relationships between adolescent gay boys are so easy to develop, maintain, and be accepted and worst of all so nauseatingly sweet and sanitized. They are not. And every one of their problems and issues has easy solutions; they do not.
Summarily, this series is passe, outdated, disparaging, and most of all does not have a modicum of connection to reality or candor. This is a Pollyanna world; not Earth 1.
I am NOT talking about the acting. I felt sorry for the young men in this series because in a few cases they were able to shine. But these fine young men were not real but were caricatures. None of them were given the opportunities to grow or change. These were fantasy magnifications of what the idealized gay teenage boy is. Their lovey-dovey scenes were like children playing in a sandbox. Cute. Antiseptic. But all pretend. No one talked, discussed, or even mentioned the taboo word called s-e-x. It is as if they were ‘playing house’; all fun and games but no substance or seriousness to it. One does realize that this is the age that males are pretty much consumed by sexual thoughts, desires, wishes, wants, and possibly activities. Right??
It is not like some adult issues were not present. There were. Going off to college or not and being in different cities or maybe countries were issues. All tackled and solved with easy solutions for them, like in a fantasy. Just once, one of these issues should have been handled with some gut-wrenching pain for a change. The likelihood of surviving a relationship living in different cities when you are 17 or 18, for example, is zero to -1. To give up going to a great school in a foreign country (with all its awesome new experiences/exposures) because of wanting to be with someone when you are 17 or 18 is a bad, bad decision, and frankly an utterly stupid one. Other solutions could have been suggested rather than taking the easiest one, that is emotionally in the immediate moment. They are entering the adult phases of their lives but assuredly are still children. Their parents were so willing to abdicate their responsibility for something that, despite the protests and current momentary rationale, WILL come back to haunt the one affected. That is a given and a truism and a FACT.
The so-called adult couple was frankly no more wiser in the development of their relationship either. They also liked ‘playing house’ also. Their whole mindset was astonishingly infantile and adolescent as well. None of these couples, including the adult one, had or displayed or were willing to have a serious emotional connection. I never accepted for one second that they were madly in love with each other. During their non-working hours, I am guessing that they merely engaged in grading papers or reading books as the two had no chemistry and zero sexual tension between them. That is not at all how relationships work.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? The only two who are worthy of mention in this series and are in any way honest are Tar (Paul Tanan) and Per (Ken Kanthee). These two are the series and the nonpareil of normality and veracity and most importantly, they had personalities! You know they like each other but they grasp they are not ready, and life has so much to offer them. Yet, they do want to be together. Their relationship is one where, ironically, they take the time to find out about each other. When they talked through Per being Tar’s first kiss, it is done with complete frankness and openness. Something rarely seen in BLs and not seen at all in any of the other relationships in this series. There is just so much sincerity between these two. Should one or the other wish to do something different or be away from the other, they have prepared themselves for that inevitability. They may not like it. But they accept it. Their relationship is nurturing, and should it continue on the same path together, then they will go for it with gusto. If not, they will be friends – forever. I found their connection so remarkably intimate and beautiful. Closer and more genuine than any of the others including the adult one. They know they are too young. They also know the world awaits them. They are level-headed enough to see or at the very least sense all of that. The exchange of the rose between them at graduation, almost in silence, is all you need to know about their relationship. It is soulful. It is deep. Each must explore the world around them before they commit. I am intrigued as to the possibilities for these two not only as individuals but as an eventual couple. Paul and Ken played their roles with such strong convictions, but never ever once losing sight that in the end, they were just nothing more than teenage boys. Never tipping their hands that they might like each other but just giving us enough of a tease to show that there is something more to their friendship than just brotherhood.
I find fault not with the acting but with the one-dimensional flat directing of the story and the lack of creativity from the storytelling perspective in not allowing these characters to grow even a little. As infantile as most characters are in the beginning, they remain so throughout. These couples, including the adult couple, never grew because they did not face any serious challenges. The only ones who were part of humanity were Per and Tar. They were silly, adolescent, scattered, confused, and quietly laying the foundation of a friendship with each other that later could blossom into a more lasting relationship. They did so without compromising their own paths to what they each wanted to do independently. So, we do know that the writers and director could make a distinction between verity and fata morgana but chose to continue the false notion that all gay relationships are ones of bliss.
I wish life were this simple and easy and I would love it if life were a sitcom of happiness; but it is not. I am tired of gayness, especially with the young gay population, being portrayed with no issues, no sex, complete acceptance, and living in a world of moonbeams and unicorns and in a bubble gum world of hardly any issues to deal with and what issue there are, can all be found with easy superficial solutions. This is NOT how it is for the vast majority of individuals trying to cope with being gay. And unfortunately, it is never going to turn out this way for the multitude of gay and lesbian young people trying to come-out and even less so for trans kids. Just give us some sense of honesty and relatability for a change. Or at the very least, an acknowledgement of the difficulties of this population.
Why this is so upsetting is because no one, especially if you are not gay, should ever think or entertain that lives of gays are anything like this (except for Per and Tar). Even worse, if young gays or lesbians or questioning individuals watch this and think your life is not like this or why it is not, take heart. This is fantasy. Maybe for a few, life could be idyllic but for the overwhelming majority of us, it was and is not. A better way to identify this story is to call it a fable. Sure, things are better, and to some degree, getting better, but the world as portrayed with these couples does not exist. Full Stop. End of story.
This is one of the worst plots for a story this year.
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