Between Us (2021)

Low budget and flawed, but not without entertainment value

So, more than a year after the finale, I stumbled upon this Filipino BL series and binge watched it. There is a LOT to pick at, but somehow it charmed me a little bit. Or maybe I've just been bored by most of the oh-so-predictable Thai BLs that have been churned out like factory products as of late. At any rate, here are my pros and cons.

PROS

THEME SONG. Nicely sung and catchy tune.

BL ACTORS NOT AFRAID TO KISS. Unlike most of the dead fish passionless kissing we get from the guys in Thai and Korean BLs (sorry, but it's true), these guys delivered. I mean, they really went for it! Kudos to the two main couples for that. And the shirtless pre-sex make out scene between Art and Mack was erotically HAWT.

BITCHY GIRLS. Sure, it's a trope that's been used many times. But it's been a while since I've seen an entertaining bitchy girlfriend who thinks she's all that. I'll admit to being entertained by both of them.

ACTING. No one here was going to grab an Academy Award for this, but I thought some of the actors did respectable jobs.

FOOD SCENES. Some of it looked really good! I've got to cook more chicken with adobo.

CONS

DISAPPOINTING TRANS CHARACTERS. Why were they even there? And they were so over-the-top annoying it went way past caricature and into the level of insulting toward trans people in general.

CONVOLUTED STORY. Too many story lines, too many characters. I started getting confused as to who each character was, and what they were even about (or upset about), which leads to me to my biggest complaint of all...

THE TWO FINAL EPISODES. So, after13 episodes featuring more characters than three consecutive seasons of RuPaul's Drag Race, they're suddenly just GONE, save the two main couples. (And even they weren't together in either of the episodes, they each had their own epilogues.)

And I'm sorry, but... who the hell are Anj and Rex? This out-of-the-blue random straight couple took up at least 15 minutes worth of the Art/Mack finale, and... why are we supposed to care about them?

Mack accepted Art's breakup way too easily. And then we get a "two years later" reconciliation... it was just weak.

But with all that, my biggest peeve has to be the Sai/Khel finale. For what possible reason did Khel continuously apologize to Sai... when Khel NEVER DID ANYHING WRONG TO BEGIN WITH! Seriously? Not once could Khel have found the time to explain that he set up a romantic evening for Sai, that was completely misunderstood by some girl who hugged him?

Do Filipinos never talk out problems? Do they just enjoy melodramatic crying over nothing??

No, I don't believe that, I'm pretty sure this was just bad writing.

A bit of a disclaimer: this series was obviously filmed during COVID. And I do remember the Philippines having off and on lockdowns during that time. The airing of the final episodes -- 14 & 15 -- came two months after Episode 13 aired. There was probably an even longer time span than two months, for the filming itself... Art looked quite different than he did during the first 13 episodes. It seemed apparent to me that it was probably all the producers could do to film any kind of ending. So kudos to the team for that... but the finales were, at the very least, odd. It was as though we were watching a completely different series.

But, overall, I kind of enjoyed this low-budget, somewhat trainwrecky series, especially before the finales. It's a 7.0 from me.

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História excelente com produção horrível

Mais uma série filipina com grande potencia, porém estragada por uma produção de centavos.

A história é bem clichê. Trata-se da história de Sai e Khel, que se conheceram quando crianças e eram grandes amigos. O destino os separou e agora os trouxe de volta para a vida um do outro na faculdade. Khel é um belo rapaz, muito galinha e Sai é um rapaz tímido e discreto. Paralelo à história deles, os amigos de ambos, Mack e Art, se apaixonam um pelo outro e eles acabam reconhecendo um no ou outro a amizade de infância e um amor para toda a vida. A ambientação é na faculdade, e os dois casais sofrem interferências tanto das famílias como de mulheres. Como já disse, a história é boa, o que é bem ruim é a produção. A imagem é ruim, a câmera muitas vezes treme bastante, a atuação não é lá grande coisa e tem algumas coisas que não fazem muito sentido.

Alguns pontos que me incomodaram: A falta de desenvolvimento entre Win e Rain, que inclusive foram esquecidos no churrasco nos últimos episódios. Os dois casais tiveram seus finais em episódios separados, Mack e Art terminaram no episódio 14, e a história deles teve um salto temporal de 2 anos, foi um final morno para quem já tinha tido uma ótima cena de sexo (que não foi melhor devido à qualidade). O final de Khel e Sai foi no último ep (15) e teve um salto temporal de apenas um ano. Achei ridículo o fato de brincarem com uma tentativa de suicídio, totalmente desrespeitoso!
Outra coisa, é que colocaram as mulheres como as vilãs terríveis que querem acabar com os relacionamentos, já passamos da época de romantizar isso, e o fato de usarem gays afeminados apenas para alívio cômico também não considero legal.

No mais, a fotografia é péssima, a ost é bem "tanto faz" e provavelmente eu não veria de novo, pela falta de qualidade. Mas recomendo a série pela história, são 15 episódios de mais ou menos 20 minutos, então é possível maratonar em um fim de semana.

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