Innocent Playmates (2023)

Masterpiece

Wow, I just finished watching this and I’m still very emotional. I can’t say enough good things about the cast. Everyone did a fantastic job. That little girl… Duoduo… is intelligent way beyond her years. She stole every scene she was in.

The story never got boring. Just when you thought it was going to calm down and be peaceful, it all ramped up again. The things those boys had to go though, the things they were willing to do for each other, and the love they had for each other was off the charts. No kiss? There were plenty of touches, hugs, smiles, innuendos, and even some blunt comments. Putting the “lip balm” on his dad’s lips was hilarious.

In my opinion, this is absolutely a must watch! There had better be a season 2!

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This is Killing Me!

I was so excited when I realized that this was an adaptation of Addicted especially seeing there were 24 episodes. I thought finally gonna get the whole story!

I am in love with this story. I watched addicted then read the book since I had to see what we were robbed of. This adapation is beautiful I have zero complaints. It is a cautious retelling which I can accept. There are obvious changes from the book but they are acceptable. I'm not going into them only because there are quite a handful so it almost makes the two stories cousins rather than the same.

Not gona lie when it ended I was frustrated at first, only because I was hoping for the full story this time. It does sound like they have a contract for S2. Keeping my fingers crossed it actually happens this time even if we get an open ending.

I am glad I watched the original and read it because I can still feel a sense of completion by stitching all three together.

I highly recommend this but be prepared!

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This series one of the best I’ve ever watched

This series had me laughing, crybaby and so much more. It has officially become my favourite all time series!! I cannot wait for season 2 I hope it’s just as good. These actors did the series beyond justice, love love loved it! The visuals were beautiful and the story line second to none. I cannot express how much I am grateful I found this series via a recommendation. All my friends are raving about this series and we will tell anyone that can hear they should watch this series. Now the wait begins for season 2, I hope we don’t have to wait too long. At the same time I hope it does the first season proud and continues to be amazing.

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Really GAY

Yes this is technically a bromance but there is nothing bromance about this show. This show just screams GAY in all the BEST ways. I haven’t read the novel that it was adapted from but I’m loving the show!
The acting is amazing and keeps you engaged. The show script itself is funny, sad, infuriating and all in between! I really feel the need to reiterate how GAY this show is*insert crying emotions*. I wished China didn’t have such strong censorship laws but if they didn’t then this show would’ve ended me.
I think it’s amazing though how great the chemistry main leads have. They can just look at each other and I feel like that did more than a passionate kiss.
Props to the writers and directors of the show with the sublet hints to all the gayness that couldn’t be openly displayed. There were so many times where I was pausing the show because I was squealing at how GAY the show was*insert laughing emoji*. Overall the show has a darker tone then most BLs but it’s also warm and fuzzy. The whole cast did a great job. Overall the show has many heartfelt, sad, hilarious, and tearjerker moments. One of the best dramas this year.

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Sadly another bromance only, lacks the BL real feel.

Sadly another Bromance, not BL that plays close to addicted, but just a younger version of actors. It's a good development, however sadly, I hate all these BL that come from China, as all of it can only look like Bromance instead of real Boylove. I hate the stupid censorship of China, time to grow up and allow actors and directors, and writers to tell the story the way it should be shown and felt. Stop this stupid censorship and show the amazing detail of Boylove with the beautiful story and intimacy that it deserves. Stay with Me has such a great feel but lacked the real beauty of the boylove storyline that we wanted to see the shine. Very disappointed by the playout of the story. Love the acting and where it could go, but just another sad bromance.

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A Beautiful Story of Love, Loss, and Family

What a ride it's been through this whole season... They did such a wonderful and beautiful job showing the relationship of the boys, as well as to their mixed, complicated family.

I really appreciate the production and writers who understand that the audience is smart and can understand nuance and subtle nods (and some obvious hints) throughout. Without having to dumb things down, be overtly sexual, or just in-your-face about things, they can show rather than tell in this adaptation. [yeah, I think it really was lube :0] It really makes the show more fun to watch - when you think to yourself "ah, I see what they did here hehe" or "wow that was pretty funny and creative how they showed that" in spite of their social/legal limitations and restrictions for Chinese crew and actors.

Of course it wasn't perfect, with some questionable dubbing or awkward timings of some scenes. And no one will forget the green screen "beach" scene. Hope their popularity will give them enough budget to be able to transport the cast and crew to a real beach in season 2.

I get the reason for ending season 1 on an open cliffhanger - cuz that's what many shows do to drum up excitement for the next season. But in this case, the production is really gambling on the fact that they'll be able to come back without interference. I really hope they'll be able to come back full forced and finish the story that deserves to be told, but if not, it was great while it lasted!

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As addictive as heroine, but less toxic

If I had known that it was a remake of Addicted-Heroine, I wouldn't have started watching, because as much as I felt "addicted" to Addicted, I was able to see lots of things that were wrong in that series. I definitely didn't want to be taken on that ride again. If you fell the same, don't worry, Stay With Me isn't toxic like that. Actually, Stay With Me dropped the majority of all those numerous content warnings for Addicted, and I don't complain. For example, contrary to Addicted, this series shows that it's wrong to try to buy people's feelings and that it usually fails - which is an important message.
We all know about the communist censorship, so obviously there are no steamy scenes and the romantic aspect is more implied than shown. You can still guess pretty accurately the milestones of the relationship. Well, there are many shows with nicely executed NC scenes these days, so not every BL has to have them.
Besides, the way this large patchwork family is presented brings lots of diverse emotions, with Duoduo being world's cutest shipper for her geges and SuYu's mother painfully failing at her attempts to create a home.
If you loved Addicted and saw nothing wrong with that series, please give Stay With Me a chance nevertheless. Just treat it as a completely separate show, and you might enjoy it. I really hope so.

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This is one of the best bromance/ bl drama of 2023

I think it is pretty tame compared to regular thai queer shows but I feel like this is the closest to being a queer in real life, in places where they are conservative yet understanding enough. I love a good part of the show shows the family being so abnormal and warm. For me, personally, I love shows that doesnt revolve only around the two leads but their environment where they interact with. It shows the characters as persons outside the romance aspect. It has high rewatch value and the computers and phones give me nostalgia. This series will def be the one where i go back from time to time to destress and wrap myself in childhood nostalgia

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If you're looking for BL, READ THIS FIRST!

You might be wondering: Is it BL?, and the quick answer is no. No, it is not a BL series... or at least not for the most part.

This season has 24 episodes: It's a family series for the first 18 and a censored BL series for the last 6 ones.

The series relies heavily on the imagination and the book knowledge of the viewer. Meaning, if you don't know any of the subtext, innuendos will fly you by like a bird in a beautiful summer day and you wouldn't think any romantic relationship between them it's happening right up until episode 19 ish I would say.

The series is well done, and if you are aware and willing to endure it as it is then you will enjoy it!

(like, it's not BL but it's the closest thing China can offer for now. Meaning settling in for censorship, hints and assumptions is what you have to put off with)

And that's what I did, I personally enjoyed the first 18 family series episodes and then I did enjoy those last 6 episodes where they nicely hinted their homosexual relationship to us. Which didn't make me happy happy, but I guess for gay guys living that ban first hand in China it must have, or at least it must have counted as some sort of representation in their own media to them, crumbs.

C'est la vie, right? Not everything is easy-peasy. I also suffered. I was heavily involved in their real romantic story that I knew from the book after Addicted the series got banned. I came to this series reluctantly because I couldn't bare the possibility to watch a gay relationship to be censored and hidden like it is something shameful and disgraceful. I cannot fathom or entertain that idea, not living proudly as I do and having enjoyed so many BL stories from others countries for so many years that have made me so incredibly happy for so long. That's why I never came back to Chinese adaptations of gay romantic stories ever since the ban of Addicted so many years ago and that's why I suffered by coming back to this. That gay ban left me angry, helpless and disappointed with their government, like, bruh.

It's save to say I needed some sort of closure, well, no, I have read the book, the original story is crazy by the way thank god is fiction, so no I didn't need closure but I wanted to see the story adaptation, I wanted a visual nice closure to that story that started with Addicted so many years ago. That's why I stayed and finished this series. And that's why I will watch the second season and be done with Chinese adaptations, since as I said, watching a gay relationship being censored is too painful for me.

I hope this review from a BL lover comes in handy to any other BL lover wanting to venture in the censored waters of Chinese adaptations.

My name is Alonso...

(a Venezuelan guy living his gay self far away from his also very conservative home country)

... and I will leave you with a massive: Cheers, x!

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My first Chinese BL/bromance

At this point, I have seen a lot of thai and korean BLs but when clips from Stay with Me started coming onto my tiktok I knew I had to check it out. It was nice that this show had good length episodes and also a lot more episodes in a season than I'm used to! This was my first Chinese bl/bromance. I say "BL/Bromance" because I learned that there are much more strict regulations for chinese shows such as this one but even though it didnt have much physicality in the relationship, I didnt feel like it was lacking anything for the show. The chemistry between the main characters and their relationship was more than enough to keep me very interested. My only complaint is that I'm used to everything wrapping up within one season as a lot of these shows dont get second seasons.... So without saying much about the ending, I was not prepared for the show to leave us with that accident. But other than that, it was a really amazing show, the side characters and their new-found family themes were sooo well done by the acting, scripts, producing, just everything was so well done. Would definitely recommend this to my friends that dont watch BLs because its just a good show.

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