Stick with me here I've just come off a Lovely Writer bender. I'm so high off of:
- the acknowledgement of tropes I hate because they're just bad for humanity,
- that weird watermelon button down Gene wears in like episode 5? I want that,
- the cheeky smile Sib seems to reserve only for Gene,
- the unexpected MVPs: Jab & Nueng, who just saw their brothers needed to be seen and loved and did that,
- the acknowledgement of fandom behaviours that hurt actual persons,
- my favourite recurring charafter: the overalls with only one strap done,
- peeled shrimp, and
- whatever combination of scripting, production design and acting that meant scenes of Gene without Sib by his side or Sib without Gene by his side started to feel incomplete. Like, Sib's light dimmed without Gene. Or Gene's entire body leaned toward the empty spaces when Sib wasn't there to fill them.

Was it a flawless series? No of course not. But budgets aren't endless and it is not the responsibility of one crew to turn the industry around though storytelling. But they tried, and I admire them for it.

But, like, please everyone cry faster (walk faster, argue faster, put on sunscreen faster). A judicious edit could have sharpened up some pacing wonderfully.