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juneviews · 3 years

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axelle judges bl shows > Call It What You Want 1 & 2

/!\ SPOILERS AHEAD

shitty summary: James gets hired last minute to be the director of a new BL series. From the start though, things seem weird at the company, and they’re not eased by James starting a romance with the main actor of the series, Ait.

where to watch: gagaoolala | dramacool

grade: 7,5/10

pros:

- michael kittisak, man. I will talk about the acting too, but I needed to give this man a whole ass paragraph bc he carried the whole show on his shoulders. like, he’s without a doubt the number one reason why you should watch this. his acting is frankly so surprisingly amazing after having seen him in love sick & oxygen. he IS bas, without a single doubt, and every single one of his expressions, his movements & his words are so deeply painful. from the first season, bas was the most interesting part of the show. you could feel with one look at him that he was not okay, and season two really gave him even more character development. this performance is genuinely so impressive it might be one of my favorites of the year. I hope michael gets more roles bc he definitely deserves them.

- the story is really fucking important. not only is it about something that genuinely happened in the bl industry, something that the director himself was a witness to, but it’s a great change from bl shows that notoriously tend to romanticize s*xual assault. it was really important to show a male victim of sexual assault & have a series try to do him justice. the show also calls out other toxic bl practices, like bas being the “top” & having to stay fit bc of it, only ingesting chicken shakes & messing up his digestive system bc of it, for example.

- the acting was honestly solid from everyone, and when it felt weird I honestly believe it was due to the kinda weird writing more than the actors’ actual skills.

- the chemistry was really good! both ships feel kinda forced ngl, they sorta start out of nowhere, yet even then the chemistry was really good from everyone.

- basmarco. even though again, they do feel a little forced, they were SO good. in so little scenes together, they managed to build such a beautiful foundation for a good relationship & it was really important for bas as a character to get this kind of love & support.

cons:

- jamesait, man. firstly I don’t like their relationship. it felt really forced that they would fall in love at first sight in that way when they met when james was introduced as ait’s director. moreover, ait being SO flirty & pushy felt so weird when he should want to preserve his career more than anything. I also think the choice to make THEM the main relationship, when clearly bas (and by extension marco) had a much stronger & WAY more meaningful storyline is pretty weird to me. especially when a director/actor relationship that happens while the filming of the series is taking place SCREAMS power imbalance. and yes here the power imbalance isn’t quite there since it’s ait who’s the one pushing the relationship, but frankly jamesait felt so out of place compared to the actual main storyline which is about s*xual assault at the hand of the more powerful. also james & ait as characters were... pretty annoying ngl. james is okay, he’s very bland despite being the main character, and he has no backbone & no problem acting like nothing is going on & working with a fucking r*pist......... but ait is even worse imo. again, he’s so pushy & weirdly written, and he has no clear goals or interesting character traits. he’s just there to be james’ love interest & be fucking annoying about it lol. he’s also got no problem working with a fucking r*pist, so fuck both of them.

- the writing is... pretty weird at times. there are scenes that are so strong & beautiful and that I LOVED, but some others... just aren’t it. for example, bas sending himself a picture of jamesait & accidentally exposing them was so random, and used only to get ait to be mad at bas & give bas one more reason to attempt s*icide. marco liking james served literally no purpose, and it being revealed so late into the second season felt pointless, especially since marco seemed to move on to bas real fast after that. and honestly the whole atmosphere of the show is kinda eerie & weird, which works in certain scenes bc again this is kind of a dark series, but also not in others that try to be funny (& fail, whoops.) I can just imagine how much better the series could’ve been with better writing, & it makes me pretty sad.

- the ending was SHIT. so much so that instead of being put in the previous paragraph, it gets its own. BIG SPOILER, but in the end the focus is put more on james & ait having a relationship that doesn’t fit the basait ship from the series they’re filming, THAN THE DIRECTOR OF THE COMPANY R*PING HIS ACTORS. like, yes, he gets exposed, but the whole ep leads up way more to james & ait coming out as a couple than the actual s*xual assault victims??? like who fucking cares about jamesait dating, this press conference should’ve been about bas & kaprao getting the justice they deserve. not have the company’s director get exposed in five seconds & then have the rest of the focus in that ep be on james & ait. it was just so anticlimactic to me, and frankly kinda undid all the good this show was trying to bring to the table in the first place.

would I rewatch it: hm... maybe

Overall this is a really flawed show, but I also still think it’s a pretty important one. I’m glad that some bl shows are breaking the usual mold to call out actual issues faced in the bl industry, and just for that I would recommend this series.

#call it what you want #call it what you want 2 #call it what you want the series #axelle judges bl shows #bypiningbisexuals

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