BLISS RATING: ★★★+
“Love is made up of three unconditional properties in equal measure: acceptance, understanding, and appreciation. Remove any one of the three and the triangle falls apart.” – Vera Nazarian
Shockingly, this series is not as bad as I thought it was going to be. And it frankly does not deserve the low ratings it is garnering on several other review sites. In essence, it is unexpectedly entertaining. And surprise! The story is a good one. I found the premise certainly different and piqued my interest. Why it fell from grace is that it kept repeating the same plot themes over-and-over again. It is the direction again that brought this series down. While not as salacious as some of the other Filipino BLs by the same director, its story could have clearly been a more rewarding one, if more energy was spent on embellishing its theme. Too bad, honestly.
The premise of this series is rather intriguing. Harry (Andrei De Guzman) broke up with his girlfriend a while ago and is making attempts to reconnect with her again. However, Jasimine (Charisse Anthea Abanico) informs Harry that there is no way she is interested in him anymore, as she now has a girlfriend. She is a lesbian and is not romantically attracted in him except for maintaining a friendship, since they have had a long-standing bond for many years. However, still not satisfied, Harry decides that he will try and make her ‘jealous’ by hiring a professional escort named Brix (Aki Torres) to pretend now to be involved in a gay relationship. Of course, there are the usual misunderstandings and miscalculations and silliness that go with this type of paid arrangement.
But surprisingly as their ‘make-believe union’ becomes more intimate and personal, they fundamentally begin to truly fall in love with each other.
The predicament, however, is since Brix is ‘under contract’ with a nefarious escort company operated by Sharkey (Mark Oblea), Brix is too valuable of a commodity to let go of merely for ‘love’. Subsequently, there are attempts at blackmailing and other diabolical activities to ensure a financial stranglehold over Harry and Brix. Harry, and his family, are obviously very rich and have enough money to choke a bull.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? Winnie Mate as Lola Ofelia walks off with this distinction. She waltzes into Harry’s life, thinking that he and Brix are a couple because she knows how obstinate, transient, and thick-headed Harry can be and is grateful, he now has someone in his life. She is quick to unravel all the intricacies between Brix and Harry. Harry has a continuous issue of trust with Brix and whether or not he is being used to securing money. Sometimes his fears are based on legitimate issues but most of the time, they are based on conjecture. Lola is a woman who has lived a long time and knows the wiles of living, with Harry always being so impulsively quick to jump to irrational conclusions. Winnie Mate plays the part as a calming force, tries to get Harry to see that not everything is what it appears to be on the surface. She provides a nice mulling force for the two of them as well as one that is accepting of their relationship.
Harry has a rather dynamic assistant by the name of Leo (Art Guma), who is a straight-shooter when trying to deal with Harry. He has to be as Harry is somewhat unpredictable and flippant. Brix has a cousin by the name of Kenner (Daniel Marshall). Leo is taken in by Kenner and honestly for good reasons. Not only is he astonishingly handsome, he is one of the more astute and analytical characters in this series. He is smart, calculating and uses his intellect to get out of negative situations. I actually found Kenner to be one of the more commanding and captivating characters in this series, plus the fact he is boyishly charming and hard to divert your eyes from. I do hope he is cast in more roles and is given major leads. He really influenced this series a lot.
While both he and Art as Leo have a cute relationship, something felt off with it. I am not sure if it was just poor directing or a real lack of screen chemistry with each other (sometimes two people just do not seem to be able to click together as a unit) or simply lack of acting experience. While they were certainly flirtish and endearing with one another, their moments of intimacy were astonishingly reserved and absolutely not believable. It almost felt like they did not like each other on a personal level and that is why there seemed to be this ‘distance’ between them. That is too bad as they certainly had the potential to be a power couple. Both these guys are jaw droppingly handsome and there are seeds of some good acting between the two. But it just did not seem to ‘click’ or feel natural as a couple.
What is lacking in this series is depth and an effort to get off the same tired point. We got the idea that Harry mistrusted Brix and Brix questioned the depth of love from Harry because of his questionable line of work. But these themes kept being played over and over again as well as Harry trying to win back Jasmine. And of course, the ‘bad guys’ always trying to extort money from everybody. All that got old and tiresome.
Yet, I liked this story, as it was mostly entertaining. There is surprisingly good screen chemistry between Aki and Andrei. Fortunately, the more romantic scenes were more tastefully done and not so frequently achieved for sensuous results. They were more relevant to the story this time (well, admittedly there were a flurry of silly pre-pubescent scenes in Episode 8 that were truly unnecessary). But unfortunately, the major deficiency in this series is direction. You have individuals who can act if they are given proper direction and a script to match. Most were just sort of ‘there’, with moments of outstanding performances. For me this was surprisingly better from a quality standpoint in cinematography and flow of story. The only reason it was not rated higher was because the same tired points were just being repeated over-and-over again: Harry mistrusting Brix, then begging him for forgiveness when he finds out he misjudged him, Brix questioning whether he was a worthy candidate for love from Harry because he was an escort, then the usual bad guys trying somehow to extort money. If they had limited that and been more creative in its storytelling such as a deeper and more intense, honest relationship between Harry and Brix, this could have been a much better series.
But overall, if I am being honest, I liked this series and would still recommend watching it, if you have never seen a Filipino BL. It is enjoyable with an interesting and unique foundation.
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