Why R U? : The Series (2020)

This show is a bit all over the place. Questionable editing, awful music and far to many of the ‘comedy’ sound effects and the plot? - well the it completely lost the plot. It kept cutting to black for a second - what was that all about? Worst of all is when they show the same shot from 3 or 4 different angles. It’s annoying and an obvious time filler. This show could easily have been 10 episodes and cut all the crap out.

Up until episode 9 the show was haphazard but enjoyable. Then Fighter and Tutor go to the beach, and yes the sex scene is very hot, but the rest... I thought they would never leave the beach! Zon and Saifah don’t make an appearance for nearly two episodes. Episode 10 was so boring I almost turned the whole thing off never to return.

There were just so many loose ends. I liked Hwahwa, but she lost her way half way through and got over Fighter in five seconds flat as soon as Day batted his eyes lashes at her making her seem completely shallow. I liked the idea of her and Pete’s friendship and would’ve liked more back story there.

I found all four of the main boys quite engaging. Saint is the only actor I’ve seen before and he was so much better in this that in Love By Chance, probably because his LBC character was a Mary-Sue. In this show his character had a lot more depth, though they needed to build on that more I think e.g. his family are broke but his mother still had enough cash to buy him a condo - you don’t just go around buying your kids condos if you’re bankrupt and having to work off your debts as a cleaner or whatever it was she was doing! Fighter won my heart in this one - and although it’s cheesy, all the shots of him taking off his shirt find no complain from me... very nice happy trail! The chemistry between Fighter and Tutor is sizzling.

The second couple, Zon and Saifah were cute and both very pretty - but I didn’t feel much chemistry and it all seemed a bit awkward. The whole idea that Zon had fallen into a BL novel didn’t work as they didn’t use it enough, which is a shame as it couldn’t been a more unique twist on the genre.

I can’t leave this review (or is it just a rant, idk) without mentioning my disappointment at the lack of development of some of the side characters. Japan and thingy were totally forgettable but let’s talk about little Blue... and Dew... and Champ. Totally being lined up for a three-way/love triangle? All we got was Blue inviting Dew into his house with a really naff ‘oh yeah’ sound effect. What the heck? Champ clearly had the hots for Blue as did Dew and the three of the together... Does a threeway relationship overstep the Thai BL boundaries? Maybe. Still. I’m annoyed the whole thing fizzled to nothing. Why bother with the side romances if they are just going to be unsatisfying filler?

My rewatch value for this show is almost nothing. Since I discovered this genre I’ve rewatched SOTUS many times, and I can’t stop watching 2Gether as it’s like comfort food, but there’s nothing about this show that would make me watch again other than Zee/Fighter taking off his shirt and I am sure I could find a compilation of that on YouTube. It’s definitely worth watching the one time though, you can always cook your dinner while episode 10 stutters along!

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Sweet and HOT but may be missing a plot...

This is a really sweet drama filled with cute couples and sweet, sweet (thirsty) moments... But I am honestly not really sure about what the main plot is here... And it does leave you with a whole bunch of questions that fit the name of the drama

Why R U, writing a BL about your brother- The "writer" is actually a really playful fun character and I would most certainly have understood if it was a friend who wrote it but sister, just felt odd...

Why R U editing this way? this drama is the master of slomo, montage and triple everything... making sure we will not miss a kiss, a touch or a fluffy scene... we get to see every kiss three times (in a row) + maybe in a montage or ten,,,

Why R U so many? This drama has so many couples it is hard to keep track of them while all are sweet (maybee to quick and odd too) they feel unnecessary and just make this messy. I do however support them all having dramas of their own someday (if they have not yet)

Ok enough with the Why R Us... This is an enjoyable watch with a lot of beautiful shots, lovely scenery and beautiful fun characters and a sweet cat (and a kitten in the background).

The main couple is so much fun to watch, yet mr fighter does need to get a bit better at controlling himself.. but he does get points for mostly espiering to gaining consent, except for that one time... oh and that other time... but in between those times he does try to respect Tutors boundaries.

Tutor is such a fun character, charming, smart, fun but a bit of a scardy cat...

The second couple is just so much fun, sweet, talented and definitely the source of many laughs.. that the product placement and the photo angels had me laughing so I almost peed a little...

And well those are the highlights without spoiling, this was fun to watch but prepare yourself for a mess and 0 depth...

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I have very mixed feelings about this series.
From the beginning I knew the humor of the series will be too cringy for me, but I was ready to put up with it, because I really liked the plot at first.
I instantly fell in love with Zee and I already knew from Love by chance that Saint is good actor, so I was on board with Fighter/Tutor couple. They worked well with Fighters confused emotions and it made the storyline very delightful to watch.
On the other hand I didn't really feel the Saifah/Zon couple. I felt like Fighter/Tutor really outshined them with their chemistry and more interesting plot.
Till the episode 6 I was thinking that this may be one of my top BLs, but boy, was I wrong. After that the things started to go downhill. Everything got really messy and it felt rather draggy. I started to feel the urge to watch it at 2x speed and most of the time that is my red flag.
Nevertheless, I decided that I'm strong and I will watch this till the end. Ooof, but they really do know how to test my patience.

I feel like they were trying too hard to please the viewers and because of the large amount of those "fluffy" moments the storyline was really dull. They lost the balance between cute, repetitive moments and clever, naturally flowing storyline.

After episode 6 I partly lost interest in Fighter/Tutor, because it started to feel kinda forced and kinda cringy (and not in the cute way). So to my surprise Saifah/Zon creeped into my heart and became my WHY R U no. 1 couple. But then Coronavirus just casually said: ,,Nah, girl, you don't deserve this, Imma just take them from u real quick, bye."

Episode 9 really brought up the worst in me. I know that it was partly because of the pandemics, but they were really unprepared for unexpected situations. I get that they tried to get the popularity and stable fanbase by airing the series earlier then the others, but they weren't ready at all. I was thinking that I have to be nicer, because they were having issues and it's not their fault, but why is it that other BLs airing at the same time do not have such problems as WHY R U?
Okay, back to the breaking point. Ep 9 was really just montage of someones cheesy trip without any story progress whatsoever.
I was like ,,okay, I can take this. They will redeem themselves in the next episodes." But guess what? Episode 10 was even more storyless beach montage. So that is about 3 hours of beach content if I also count the last episode (but I forgive them, because in the last episode there was atleast Saifah/Zon). So my question is: did I watch thai BL or travel agency ad? Like I'm genuinely not sure at this point.

Also they made the hot and heavy scenes really repetitive. In other BLs I'm most of the time wishing for more passionate scenes, in WHY R U I was thinking if they ever do something else. Like could you stop for a moment, you rabbits???

And what was this evil korean mother bribing twist that Fighters father pulled off?!

The way this series is handling every problem feels very forced and unrealistic. I don't like how they force a problem to occur and then force it even more for it to quickly disappear. I mean don't even create obstacles at all if you cannot even execute them properly. It's really stressing me out how easily HwaHwa or Fighters dad change their minds just for the sake of the happy ending without any obstacles for the main couple.

The actors had overall great chemistry, the acting was also alright and they made it somewhat watchable.
I don't know what to say about the plot. They had some interesting ideas, but executed them terribly. Also in the half of the series the storyline is completely nonexistent. It's like every episode is the filler episode (with a few exceptions).

It surely isn't the best series I've seen, but it also isn't the worst. Had potential, but didn't fully used it, rather wasted it.

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It's ok...

So this series has been hit by the pandemic, which affected the last two episodes. Even before that I was losing interest in this series. I loved the premise and how the two main couples were approached but after the third episode, it became disapointing. The main two couples are very cute but for me it got a bit too much. I also was not crazy about some of the acting. I really liked the premise in the beginning but the acting and storyline decided to take a hike imo. I feel like it doesn't know what type of show it is - is it a show about two guys bonding through guitar, two guys who hated each other falling anyways, two guys going to a beach?? It tries to do too many things in a limited amount of time which makes it feel rushed and confusing.
Maybe after it all releases, I'll try to pick it back up again and update this. Sad to make this my first review. Overall, it felt like a run of the mill BL. Check it out if you need to watch every BL out there (or want to watch more of your fav actors) check it out, but I can think of a few others that have a bit more substance. That's my taste and take.

[Spoilers:
First of all, I feel like it suffers from the everyone is gay trope first of all - way too many couples were introduced with no time to actually flesh out their characters. Felt like a catch all - all the tropes and relationship types you can think of in one single show!

Additionally, (maybe I'm no longer a BL person but) the physical intimacy between Tutor and Fighter was super awkward. Another reviewer compared it too porn and that is incredibly accurate. It is very accurate and while its great that a gay relationship is shown to be physically intimate and loving (looking at you SOTUS and Kinou Nani Tabeta?), but this was definitely for the viewers. There was a too much of a focus on Fighter's body. When watching those scenes, I really recalled how directors of Thai BLs have mentioned they cast actors with young straight women in mind, and I felt bad for the actors and the profiling of viewers. All for fanservice and demonstrating intimacy, but for me I felt like it cheapened the show and the genre (which is already rife with this).

Finally, the relationship between Saifah and Zon is all over the place - I feel like there was some development or something missing. It confused me because in the shopping scene for the guitar pick they were acting cute and couple-y but they were barely even friends a couple scenes later. While Tutor and Fighter have a clear plot and relationship development, Saifah and Zon seem to just have fluff and pre-relationship stuff. Which is totally fine! But not what I enjoy when we had so few scenes with as it was. Couple of weird cringy acting moments from ... everyone for me too - could be how the script is written.

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I am so loving this one, Baby saint has grown up and the chemistry between him and Zee is freaking awesome !!! the other couple Zon and Saf are too cute, the story is good and I have laughed until i cried and cried harder than I ever have in a BL .. Please watch and support this series..
IT is good from ep. 1 and the tension between Fighter and Tutor is there right away Hwa is awesome as a best friend... Some of the scenes between tutor and fighter are ... let's just say .. Have a FAN ready ...
please please support this series, ZaintSee are getting a lot of bad backlash and it is not fair. I loved Saint and Perth in LBC but OMG this is wayyyy different -- I support ZaintSee 1000000000000%%%%

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A messy, confusing, and amateur production that can't find its footing

NO-SPOILER REVIEW

This series starts out with a unique premise but quickly falls apart into a complete mess. To the actors' credit, it was the overall script, storytelling, production quality, and pacing that undermined any potential this series may have had.

Pros
- The series has a unique premise with a few compelling moments hidden throughout
- The cast is decent

Cons
- Any semblance of a plot completely falls apart, leaving you confused and uncertain for the rest of the series as to who the main characters are, what kind of story this is, why any of the side characters even exist, and why you should care about any of it.
- Extremely disappointing and amateur production quality. Scenes that don't match up, so many multi-takes, overused tropes, and more. The various storylines seem to almost have nothing to do with each other, which each group basically being in their own world.
- The pacing was excruciatingly slow with some scenes being milked so much that you could fall asleep. The entire 13 episode series could have been condensed into 6 episodes.

Overall
- This series is worth skipping. If you're intent on watching this, feel free to skip past about 60% of it, which is comprised of overly drawn-out scenes that are there to take up time.

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IT HAD NO PLOT WHATSOEVER

It had good potential in the starting but after 6 episodes they had 0 storyline and only purpose of the rest of the episodes were to show those explicit sex scenes which i feel is the only reason a few ppl like this show.
But i gotta admit Saintzee chemistry is one of the best.
Also maybe its just me but I was absolutely so bored during saifahzon scenes and found myself skipping almost all of it if not forcing myself to watch those for the 'plot'.
I could only watch till episode 8 and then I forwarded directly to episode 12 to watch the actual 'plot' or whatever.
Also those 10 other side couples were so unnecessary and felt like they were only there for fillers.
I have got to say Zee's acting being so good was not something i expected. His breakdown in episode 12 was too good.

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This show started out great, until it is not. What a shame, it could have been something. The fundamental problems are the show's amateur writing and messy editing.

TutorFighter storyline suffers the most from the writing. The characters themselves, they are just bad. Tutor keeps seducing his best's friend's boydfriend, while telling Hwa she and Fighter still have hope. Fighter spends a large amount of his family‘’s money (e.g. the cosmetics， the luxurious trip to the beach，Tutor‘’s debt）to court Tutor, while complaing his father controlling him (duh, you are using lots of his money). These make me unable to connect with their storyline, since I hate the characters.

What's worse, two consecutive eposides about their beach trip bore the hell out of me. In these eposides, nothing about them really change. And the scenes are copied from other series, for example, the ankle kiss is from TharnType and the underwater kiss is from SKAM and Dark Blue Kiss. Some other scenes look like it come straight out of gay porns. All in all, nothing really happens and nothing is original. I have seen them all before and i am not impressed at all.

SaifahZon storyline just get destroyed by the editing. I am confused all the time. When and why does Saifah fall in love with Zon? When does Zon fall in love with Saifah? The whole storyline is just a mess.

In conclusion, the series is over as long as I concerned. The following eposides are mainly about TutorFigter's struggle with their family members, which is chliche and typical in both bg and bl series. My questions about SaifahZon will not be answed in the following eposides due to the fact that the virus outbreak prevents them from shooting. The following eposides just seem meanlingless to me, and therefore, I will stop watching it.

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S-Saint? Is that you?

This is one of those series in which people chose sides when it came to who was the better couple. It was kind of like Edward vs Jacob but in the sense of their couples and not feral beasts. I had heard the tragic news about Saint not being in LBC season 2 (maybe that was a good choice cause season 2 was a hot mess) and after my watch, I wanted so badly to see him again. So, I turned on Why R U the next day and dropped it almost immediately after. It took me MONTHS before I could pick it up again.

I stopped this series at episode 3 once I started understanding the plot and realized that Zon's sister was writing erotic fan-fiction about her brother and his enemy. Who woke up one morning and thought that this was okay? Right off the bat I was uncomfortable and felt like I was being backed up into a wall and forced to enjoy their morally wrong reality. I loved Zon so much, and I was excited to see his relationship grow with Safiah, but it was already so chaotic with fangirls that their relationship was annoying. I was so confused because of the literal 30 characters in this show, all with their own plot, and relationships, and problems and I couldn't keep up WHATSOEVER.

Once I picked it back up again, I was shocked at how versatile Saint is in his acting. I loved Tutor so much, and I loved how confident Saint played this character. even though I loved him, I wasn't much of a fan of him and Fighter. The only thing I really cared for was the plot with Fighter's dad, and how well Saint executed Tutor in having to pretend to not like Fighter. They had lots of intimate moments that were excellent and didn't fall awkward or stiff. That's kind of the only thing this couple had going for them in my opinion. The sexual tension was real.

On the other hand, I absolutely adored Zon and Safiah. Once the fangirls somewhat calmed down, Zon and Safiah had time to really dial down and actually have some real chemistry. The guitar lessons, the dates, the sleepover, and really just everything with this couple were fun and comedic. When it came to their intimate moments, they played off perfect at being sentimental and romantic. I love Tommy and Jimmy and hope to see them in future dramas.

Other aspects I didn’t enjoy were how many side couples there were. There was Japan and Tanthai, and then Zon’s sister and Natee, Hwahwa and Day, and then those three guys on the soccer team. I actually enjoyed Japan a lot, except we didn't get to see much of him and Tanthai at all, so it left their story pointless and unfinished. The love triangle was exciting, I feel like we don't have very many love triangles in which both contestants have an actual chance, but it's obvious that these two did. Due to the pandemic, their plot was rushed and not organized at all. It was a mess, and confusing to keep up with.

This series was fluffy and comedic with the added sad parts, but overall, it was a good series. Zon's sister is still so in the wrong, and there were some other really off situations to happen, but for the most part, everything was just light and heartwarming. This is a good watch for anyone looking for something pretty unrealistic and fun.

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Why R U so all over the place?

What did I even watch? It’s all over the place! The plot is a mess. There are too many characters to really keep up with all of them. And I feel like I watched the same two scenes about ten times each. The plot had a nice set up at first, maybe a bit too dramatic for my liking, but it was interesting. But then it went up in flames. The idea that all that happened is due to the bet between Zon and his sister quickly became a side thing. Instead, the series tried to keep with a bunch of couples and completely failed at that.

The cinematographic aspect was not the best. Some shots were very strange and with certain scenes constantly repeating, it felt like they did a lot of that just to fill in the time. The series could have easily been a few episodes shorter. Included less couples. The background sounds were all over the place too. I felt like they exaggerated with the comic sound effects.

Fighter & Tutor: they are both idiots. At first, I though only Fighter is an idiot who should just sit down with himself and decide on what the hell he wants. Or doesn’t want. His hot and cold attitude was not cute. The way he treated Tutor throughout the series (except for their cute and in love phase) was not okay. Tutor was doing okay at first. He was a bit confused, but he knew where he stood. And then he decided to keep secrets. To make decisions without his partner. To make an even bigger mess of things. That, however, does not excuse Fighter’s behavior or actions. It was how he handled things that made me absolutely hate him. I think both Zee and Saint are great actors, and they did good with intimate scenes and had great chemistry, I just don’t like the characters they played.

Saifah & Zon: I thought the two were supposed to be the main couple. But they got less screen time than the other main couple. At least it felt like that to me. They had me confused most of the time. Zon is dramatic. And Saifah is flirty. Together, they are a hot mess. I don’t think the switch in Saifah going from possibly hating Zon to being completely enamored by him makes sense. It happened in a second, which made me confused if he is simply messing with him or if actually likes Zon. There was a lot of back and forth between the two, but I also feel like nothing much happened. They sang, played the guitar, flirted and denied flirting. I don’t mind low-drama couples, but with everything else going on, they kind of faded into the background for me.

There were a few other couples – Japan and Thantai, Dew and Blue (with a sprinkle of Champ), Natee and Zen, Junior and Soda, Daw and Hwahwa. None of the mentioned (possible) couples got proper story development nor enough screen time to really round off their stories. I think they just added to the confusion.

There’s also Zol, Zon’s sister and the author. What happened with that plotline? I know it was supposed to be a way to start the story off, but it was never addressed if her writing came true or if it was just a coincidence. I feel like that just faded into the background. A similar thing happened to Zon’s parents and their role in what was going on.

To be honest, I did a lot of skipping. I also watched a lot of it on double speed just to get through it faster. I am just happy to be done with it.

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The most inconsistent BL show ever

This show starts out rough for me, so much so that I put it on hold for a while after the first two episodes. It goes heavy in the romcom genre direction, and does it poorly; particularly on their use of 'shouting = funny' and crude bottom of the barrel jokes. But then after the second episode, the show completely switches tones as they start to focus on the couples, and they ditch the romcom writing and editing (which is ridiculously heavily dependent on sound bites, some of the most egregious use I have seen to date) and go full drama. Thank Christ they do, because from episode 2 onward the show dramatically increases in quality (until the last three episodes: I'll get to that later). If I had to give a numeric score to the first two episodes I would give it a 3.5. But episode 3-11, I would average the show at a 8. Let me tell you why.

THE ACTING AND CASTING for the main couples, particularly P'Fighter and P'Tutor, are great. The two actors have amazing chemistry together, and do a tremendous job making their scenes believable and emotional. The story between the two is an incredibly basic and by the books rivals to lovers trope, but it's done well; very well. The secondary couple, P'Zon and P'Saifah are also well cast, and the actors do a good job with the script they are given. But unfortunately I feel like the script and plot for this couple is weaker in general to their counterparts. While this couple too is a rival to lover trope, the characterization for the characters is weaker, particularly for P'Saifah, who has a strange character change a few episodes into the show (Which may or may not be in relation to the strange meta plot they have going on? I'll address this later) . Honestly, if someone asked me to say a few of his character traits, the only thing I could really say is that he is confident and likes to play the guitar. That's it.

As for the supporting cast, it's quite strong too. I couldn't pick out any one actor as being unbelievable or poor. They all do a good job. However, the supporting cast is related to an issue I have with the show, specifically the plot bloat which is VERY apparent in this show. They have a handful of ships in this show, some of them only get a few scenes throughout the entire series. They really should have cut a few of the ships and had just one or two in addition to the main two, so they could have been fleshed out better. In particular I really liked the lovingly termed 'Cat Couple', who only ever get a few scenes, but steal the show with how unbearably cute and odd they are during those scenes. To give them more scenes, I would have cut the Blue/Dew/Champ love triangle ship, which is just... really not my cup of tea. (They expect us to ship a couple, where in one of the first scenes together one of them tries to physically beat up the other for a small mistake, and then never address this behavior or have the other apologies ). It kinda felt like they were trying to set up a spin off show between these three if I'm being honest Lmao.

I also have to give this show credit for missing some of the pitfalls (at least in episodes 3-11, I'll get to the final episodes later) of Asian BL dramas; particularly sexual assault between couples. The two main couples didn't at any point during these episodes make me uncomfortable or mad in relation to this, and they portrayed LGBTQ folks in a good light. It's sad that I have to even praise a show for this kind of thing, but unfortunately Asian BL still has a long way to come in this regard.

Oh, and the music is pretty good. Really catchy and fitting to the mood and scene; mostly Thai vocal tracks. Considering how many BL's get their music editing horribly wrong, I was pleasantly surprises with this show's elevation of their scenes using music.

Okay, ON TO THE BAD. The meta plot like, WTF is this show even about? The first two episodes heavily set up this super meta plot line in regards to the main character P'Zon having broken a vow to his sister which plunges himself and his friends into her BL story. I thought this show was going to take the micky out of common BL tropes, and subvert our expectations based on this. It was a big gamble doing this kind of plot, because done well it can be really funny and amusing (as we've seen in other shows which have done this kind of plot) or it can bomb HARD. Unfortunately, this bombed for me. They play into the plot line SO heavily at first, but then completely forget about it for the majority of the show, only occasionally bringing it up again closer to the finale. And the show never uses this concept and plot to do interesting and new things, the show still falls into so many BL trope pitfalls; and most certainly does not subvert ANY expectations. When you start watching this show; you know exactly where it's going. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's just I expect more based on a promising concept such as this.

The second issue I have with this show is TONE and EDITING. This show flip flops tone so often and on multiple levels. First off, with something I have already mentioned; genre switches. The show starts off like a romcom, but then descends into a heart clenching melodrama. It's a strange switch and confusing. Secondly, the tonality between the two main couples is so different. P'Fighter and P'Tutor's story line is this heavy dramatic story line with lots of angst and crying, and then P'Zon and P'Saifah's story line is whimsical and child like. Having both of these tones in one show is fine, but they splice together in editing scenes of both couples often throughout each episodes; suffice to say, it's tonal whiplash. They also splice in light hearted 'couple getting to know each other' quirky moments of the side couples between heavy scenes of the main couples crying and having breakdowns. It's odd.

Onto, THE FINAL THREE EPISODES. Sigh. This show really messed up in the final episodes, particularly episode 12 and 13. I know Covid messed up their production, but this feels like a script issue which would have been present regardless of production disruptions or not. My main problem with these final episodes has to do with P'Fighter and P'Tutor's story line, the writers, not knowing how to have a conflict in the latter part of their story so as to stick to the rigid plot structure graph they were taught in film school, decided to do one of my most hated romance tropes; having P'Tutor break P'Fighters heart by pretending to cheat, because P'Fighter's father asked him to. It's such a frustrating trope not only in BL shows but romance in general. Why is basic communication so hard? Why doesn't a partner respect their significant others right to be informed and make choices themselves? Why does every damn love interest have to be a martyr?

Anyways, something else which bothers me about these last few episodes, is the weird sexual assault scene between P'Fighter and P'Tutor. Fighter literally forces his way into the others apartment, pins him down and starts undressing and groping him. And to think I was praising the show for not doing this sort of thing before hand. It makes rooting for the couple once they inevitably get back together in the final episode difficult and uncomfortable. Oh, well.

TO CONCLUDE: Poor first few and last episodes, but great from episodes 3-11. The script is weak and bloated, but heavily propped up by some great actors with some of the best chemistry in the genre. Overall, I would recommend watching this if you have the patience to sit through the weak episodes, and if you are a lover of the rival to lovers trope.

I understand my opinion might be controversial, because lots of people love this show. I don't mean to offend with this review, just put my thoughts to writing, is all. Thanks for reading :)

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