Calculating Love (2020)

Short and Cute

As soon as I played episode one, I could tell that this series felt completely different than other Thai BLs, and not necessarily in a bad way, but not good either. This series was obviously not given a big budget (or even a freaking budget at that), so all of the camera work looks like it was taken off of an iPhone (which was how Gameboys was, but it was like a 13 year old filmed it and forgot to bring their selfie stick). By the end, I couldn't tell if I'd gotten used to it, or if it had gotten better, but either way, I gave this series a shot, and I actually enjoyed it. While the production value takes it down by a lot, the acting and story help to bring it back up.

Let's Dive In.

This is a friends-to-lovers trope which just automatically makes me love it even more. While there were some very apparent problems in their relationship, for the most part, I really loved it. Both actors are attractive, which helps. Tan was my favorite character by far. He was super eccentric and vivacious that carried over to Sine and helped to take him out of his introverted and shy personality. Their ending was precious and cute. I didn't pay much attention to the other characters in the show, seeing as they were pretty small.

Overall, it was a quick and fun watch, and I really enjoyed it. If you're wanted to see it, I would say to not take it too seriously, and just really watch for the benefit of watching a BL.

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Occasionally nice cinematography, weak story

The idea of using mathematical references in relation to the love between the main characters is interesting though I must admit to being a little lost.

There isn't that much of a story here though. Sine and Tan are two good friends who are in love with each other but neither dares to express his love. Since this is a relatively short and lighthearted BL series, there is probably only one reasonable way for the story to proceed, which is that they eventually express their love for each other and end up as a couple. Unfortunately, this trajectory seems to be dragged out a little too long. This is a complaint I rarely have (usually the complaint is that some episodes suddenly become ridiculously short, like in Cupid Coach), but I suspect that the story has been extended needlessly for the sake of product placements.

The characters' behaviors after they become aware of each other's feelings are a little inexplicable. They could have just kissed and lived happily ever after. Instead, some conflicts are added in a little haphazardly: despite having no romantic feelings whatsoever for Lin, Tan behaves affectionately towards her for a moment and Sine sees it. There are nicely filmed scenes (especially in the last couple of episodes), but the cinematography doesn't make up for the weak story.

I think the filming ran into problems halfway, so the intended product could have been significantly better. It's not "better not touch it" sort of bad, however. I guess this is something I don't really mind watching though I'm not really bowled over by it.

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The premise of this story was a foundation for a very interesting story, but it just belabors hesitancies and concentrates too much on the miscalculations (no pun intended) and the missed opportunities to grow these characters and relationship. Unfortunately, there is no real connections with these two main characters. Sure, they pine over each other, but it does not seem to be deep or have any intensity to it. What is frustrating to this series is the molasses type speed of the development of their relationship. By the time it happens, we honestly do not care and they both seem unable to speak or say what is on their minds. This gets old real fast. It is so OBVIOUS that they like each other. Why cannot the script simply get to the point and help us better understand the development of their relationship? These guys are miscast for these roles. They are not bad actors, but it seemed obvious to me that there is no chemistry between them. neither one looked comfortable playing a gay character and it showed.

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Math Lovers Unite!

So if you're one of those weird people who love math...this is the show for you! lol I probably would've enjoyed this show more if I got some of the math references BUT I've never liked math. Anyway, getting past the math talk isn't hard and this series was pretty decent overall. This poor series has been through a lot starting with it began in the middle of the quarantine part of the pandemic which caused the show to be pushed back several months. Since I liked the first few eps and enjoyed the fact that the cast had some relatively fresh new faces, I held on to the end through months of no eps. However, due to the wait and anticipation it caused, I had higher expectations for the ending but I'm glad I still wasn't disappointed. It didn't have the cute fluffiness I was hoping for and even though I won't recommend as a favourite I won't dismiss either. Math is awful but this series wasn't...

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Destined

The budget was nonexistent, but clearly the crew worked with what they had and it paid off. The actors & well the entire cast worked hard and what they lacked in a budget, they made up for it in acting skills and great music choices. Honestly the music was amazing to me. I found myself using Shazam multiple times. I actually plan to look up all of the music after I write this review to make it easier on my life.

the plot was not groundbreaking - it wasn't something we've never seen before, but new actors & a new determination made for a great story. you felt the emotions of the two main characters. you grew with them during each episode. you hoped for particular outcomes and if you were like me, found yourself annoyed at one particular character. good grief.

it's definitely worth a watch. if you only realized it was a good series around episode 3 - you may find yourself needing to go back and rewatch the entire series to pick up on things you missed in the first few episodes.

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Cute and Amiable

I learned about this series from a BL Instagram page and was happy to have a new BL to watch! It's not bad so far. The production is low-budget, but the foundation of two best friends having feeling for one another is laid out nicely though their confession was quite quick and rushed. I wonder how many episodes this series will be as MDL lists that it's only two episodes, which wouldn't be enough. If it actually is only two episodes or just a few episodes, then the rushed confession is understandable. It's a promising start. I'll see where it goes from here.

Episode 2 was fine. Not particularly interesting but not boring either. The music in this series is quite beautiful, I must say. It was cute when Tan confessed to Sine about his feelings and sad when Sine rejected him, but at least there was an almost-kiss at the end. I guess that there will be more episodes than just 2.

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Nunca pensei numa história de amor baseada em Matemática

Aqui estamos falando de uma série de baixa produção, isso fica bem óbvio na pouca quantidade de atores e nas locações, que são basicamente a escola, o bar, uma cena na casa de Sine, e o meio da rua. Os atores são bem inexperientes, e a atuação não é das melhores, mas já vi produções caríssimas com atuações piores. A produção também foi afetada pela pandemia, houveram episódios com meses de duração entre um e outro, e episódio bem curtos por sinal. Como existiu um marketing bem descarado de uma clínica, creio que a falta de patrocínios também foi um problema sério.
Com relação a história, não achei clichê. Inclusive achei bem interessante eles usarem o conceito da matemática, que está presente até no nome dos personagens. A personagem feminina não foi transformada em vilã, isso também é positivo, os amigos eram o máximo e a mãe nem se fala. Não achei previsível, aliás por muitas vezes eu fiquei me perguntando se teria um final feliz ou não. A última cena, com a declaração e o beijo, foram de uma ternura enorme, muito fofos. Os atores conseguiram transmitir o sentimento de medo, medo do sentimento que estava nascendo e eles não entendiam, medo de falar e perder o melhor amigo, medo do julgamento dos outros, de ser insuficiente... A trilha sonora é linda e merece destaque. Enfim, recomendo a série, é curtinha e dá para maratonar rapidinho, já revi e talvez reveja de novo.

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Don't Remember Much of Math Class? Then Just Skip This

While the whole mathematics idea is unique and cool in theory it isolates the audience. If you love math you might enjoy the mathematical references, but if you don't you just sit there confused. The math references are literally half of the dialogue and all of the characters have math or scientific names.

STORY:

Tan and Sine have been friends since middle school, but lately they are starting to have feelings for each other. Instead of following their hearts, they follow their logistical heads which leads to them over analyzing their love for each other.

If it wasn't for the math references (more than half of which blew over my head because I haven't been to school since I graduated and on top of that I avoided math class the like plague,) this story would have nothing to stand on. The storyline is absolutely boring, and more than half of the issues literally could have been avoided if Tan just put on his big boy pants and told Sine he's in love with him. All of the characters over analyze love and keep making more problems than solutions. It's quite annoying. The only interesting part of the story is literally the math references... And I didn't even understand half of it!

Also the story would have been so much better without the Lin storyline. She just made everything so much more confusing. She says she likes that Tan and Sine are more than friends, but literally puts herself between them. Tan also has a thing with her even though he claims he's in love with Sine. Sine, on the other hand, is jealous of her, and tells Tan he should date her, but is constantly seeing her around and giving her advice(?) on Tan, yet also getting advice from her to get Tan.... I'm so confused. Let's literally take her out of the equation and the story would flow better.

Lastly, none of the actors were good. Tan's actor was decent, but he's literally the only one. Even so, he kept fidgeting and sometimes his acting wasn't so good either. Everyone else was clearly trying to act, but overall it looked like everyone was doing a scene in a high school drama class. There was no chemistry between the leads and it was hard to believe that they were in love with each other for so long. I honestly think that Atom and Leo had more chemistry than Tan and Sine.

OVERALL:

Don't waste your time with this series. If you like math, than maybe you can watch it for the mathematical references and math jokes, but if you don't like math than just skip it. You'll just sit there confused and annoyed at the characters if you don't get the references. The story is subpar and the acting is mediocre anyways. Not worth your time.

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Passable

Calculating Love starts off with an interesting premise of math formulas as parallels to relationships. The story is about two lifelong friends (Sine and Tan) who are both studying math in college. They realize in their last year in college that they, like the mathematical functions of sine and TANgent, complement each other. More than just complement but more than just friends.

The story’s mathematical basis is an interesting take and was a draw to continue to watch the series. The challenge with this series is that it’s very slow paced and arguably very repetitive especially in the middle episodes. It was like you were going through the same story path over and over again. Unfortunately, the slow pace wasn’t used to provide much depth to any of the characters, which made them pretty uninteresting. As the story progressed I felt less and less empathy towards Sine and Tan. I think they were trying to go after a Kai and Third vibe from Theory of Love but Calculating Love was unable to create that same emotional feeling or empathy towards either Sine or Tan with the struggles with their relationship which leads to an overall story in Calculating Love that’s very uninteresting.

The final episode wasn’t bad but like the rest of the series it could have been cut by a 1/3 as it too fell into the same cyclical story path with a slow resolution for the story. Maybe this was done on purpose to show how solving difficult math problems takes time, much like a relationship. Sometimes it takes a bit of trial and error before you come up with a solution. Hmmm...

The overall acting was ok as was the music in the series. Neither were at the top end but both passable enough to make it watchable.

Overall, Calculating Love is a fair series. The episodes came out a month or longer apart from each other. Had it not been for that, I would have probably dropped the series for its slow pace and generally uninteresting characters. With so many other series out there now I wouldn’t recommend this as a top-25 for 2020 to watch. As a filler while waiting in between other series, yeah why not.

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A simple love story with maths added to the equation

I stumbled upon this series and I will say that it caught my attention. While it told a sweet love story that has been told a thoisand times in Thai BL- it added something unique to it- maths. I would have never think that a series dealing with love would think of putting maths to the equation. It was different for me.

Story-8/10
I have decided to give this story an eight due to the fact of the uniqueness it had by adding maths to a love story. I will say that I am not a big fan for maths, but to see it being used in such a way did surprise me a bit.

Other reasons why I adore this story is due to the fact that Sine's mom who appeared in the last episode supported him and his heart in love, which is usually not seen in some Thai BL's. Also, while they did make it seem like a love triangle, it was nice to see Lin realizing that Sine and Tan cared for each other and she talked to Sine about his feelings for Tan.

Acting/Cast-8/10
I felt that the actors were able to get the story across beautifully. I felt when they were confused, angry, sad and happy. I hope that they will be able to get more acting roles cause they did impress me.

Music-7/10
The music was okay.

Rewatch Valu- 7.5/10
I do see myself watching this again in the near future. It took a different take on a normal story that we are told so much in Thai BL. I do see myself watching it sometime in the near future.

Overall-7.5/10
I liked the story and how something that is told over and over again, the company was able to put a new twist on it. It was truly a good and entertaining series.

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Calculating for long...

I get that this is a low budget series but I will appreciate the efforts from every angle possible.

Positive :
1. Views of the urban centers are good. It takes us everywhere in the university as well. The canteen, lobby, ground stands, premises etc. Fountains, Amusement parks, café and even at climax a bridge scene is covered.

2. Attempts of directions are also cool. Keeping a book on Sin's face, Tan playing guitar under series of lights are showing they tried it atleast.

3. Mathematical References could be the strongest point of this series. That's where it takes away more points.

Neutral Picks :

- Ost isn't memorable however they tried to fix the song naturally in the series, which is appreciable.

- Acting, casts were okay.

- Tan : You are my sin(90°). The Domain of Sin is how I feel towards you.
Sin's Mother : Sin, Stop calculating Love! Love isn't something you should calculate! Believe in your true feelings of heart. ?

Negative :

1. We gotcha outta storyline that two leads were in love and were shy to confess. However easily one episode could be reduced because some story dialogues seemed far too repeating.

2. It takes away that emotions and backing up for leads when the plot and time becomes too stretchy.

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