BLISS Rating: ★★★★+
“Everything I love about myself is a confidence a man has given me, and everything I hate about myself is a scar a man has left me.” – Quote from Trevor Church, My First 500 Lovers
What pure joy this bitesize series is! Just about an hour and a half long in total, it is pure pleasure to watch. It is like being with old friends especially if you are gay, young, and into the lifestyle where gayness is your number one priority. I remember the feelings and sensations as if it was just yesterday, although it has been literally decades ago.
This journey is a travelogue of four friends talking about and being together as only gay guys can do. We get to see hear, perceive, and be witness to all the snide, snippy, sarcastic comments that only gay people can heap onto one another in a humorous but caustic way. Meaning to be funny yet mostly trying to steer individuals into a better or perhaps clearer path of behavior. Some get it; some do not. Some will listen; most will not.
The four friends are: Lambert (Pan Zhou Lun), Fung (Cai Jing Sheng), Lu Jia Shun or Miss Nine (Wang Kai Rong) and Markson (Tan Hoi Min). These four are all in their 30s and at the height of their sexual prowess. Giving away sexual advice to anyone who will listen. Of course, all of them are quite correct and right in their individual advice and approach.
The beauty of this series is not only is it funny, but also a testimony to friendship. Each is there for the other when they falter and/or fail. They also know that their carefree lifestyle will soon be ending, and each wants to make the most of it. All want to be in solid relationships, but each are also terrified of being in one. Relationships, like life itself, is all so transient.
Sometimes the snippets you see are never more than conversations between them in a car. All of it is so spot-on, pure comedy, and so astonishing relatable. If anyone wants to understand what gayness is all about, this is your series. It presents what the average, everyday gay individual is longing for; hoping to happen in their ordinary lives. Knowing full well it is unlikely to occur but, in the meantime, they will have fun and they know that their friends will be there to help pick up the pieces should they fail, falter, or fall. Especially when the pain of cheating or betrayal occurs. They know they will be there.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? This is one of the easiest to write about. All of them deserve this distinction because each checked their ego at the stage door. It literally is like watching four friends simply having a good time with themselves and looking forward to doing so. The timing and chemistry of the four of them is sheer perfection. Sure, I know they are acting, but it sure does not look like it. It looks more like real life to me. I am positive it is all scripted dialogue, but each delivers their lines with distinction and a pattern that makes them individual characters from the onset. How you see them in the beginning is how they are at the end. All we are seeing is a slice-of-life of four friends in the prime of their lives. Each, however, grows because the others have given him the ability to fail and be ‘okay’ with it.
I loved this series for its simplicity and everyday reality. It paints a picture of gay men everywhere simply in the throes of enjoying their gay experiences with their friends and feeling free enough to talk about it. Nothing is hidden and nothing is off-limits. That is the definition of friendship. Yet, we can, or at least I could feel the sense, that they know what they are doing is finite. It will come to an end, perhaps soon. They will each find someone to maybe settle with and begin to live a new life. Those challenges will occur and those changes will happen to one or more of them. That is the nature of life.
I wanted this series to go on and on. These kinds of stories are where hearts are shown and life is really seen. Short. Sweet. Do yourself a favor and seek this gem out and watch it. It is only as long as perhaps one maybe two trite or cliché BL episodes would be. You will not regret it. None of the artificiality of BLs.
This will be in my “Must See” List because it is a reflection of gay life ‘as is’ with all its humor, fun, humanity, sadness at times, but in the end, a sense, a deep sense, your friends will always be there for you. They are your new family. A lasting treatise.
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