According to news, moon will strike the earth soon and government has asked people to son move to bunkers, but some popped still continue to live ordinary lives. We meet Golf, a medical student, who doesn't believe the news and is very much in love with his girlfriend but is also possessive about her. When he sees her talking to and cozying up with a new student Art. When he confronts, she breaks up with him because of distrust issues but he pleads to get hr back. In a violent scuffle, Golf hits Art and he gets injured. Government issue emergency evacuation and the girlfriend leaves. But Golf stays back to take care of Art, feeling guilty. After few days Art is conscious against doesn't remember the fight. Golf tells him everything but omits the fight details. Since the apocalypse is nearly here, 8-9 days to go, city is almost empty overtaken by criminals and escaped prisoners. The outside world has become a dangerous anarchy due to these convicts. All this happens in first 3 episodes. The next 7 episodes are about Golf and Art gradually falling for each other. They meet a lovely single laden the neighborhood and their fight for survival with some criminals who are out to kill them. We also have Gus in the picture, Golf's elder brother who comes back from prison and the trip finally try to leave city to go to the bunker. As the chaos spreads, the two find themselves being hunted by a pair of men who have made it their life mission to kill as many people as possible outside the bunker before their extinction. Through this, and the tribulations they go through, they forge a bond and are forced to navigate their confusing feelings towards each other with what little time they have left. Because they know they’re going to die in the end.
While I appreciate the novelty in story, the well acted and directed drama and the clear passion involved in the series, I somehow didn't find myself enjoying the show. It just felt all over the place. When I use my brain, I feel like at a time when the world is ending, you wouldn't be worried about cooking full course meals, doing elaborate proposals on the terrace and being overtly romantic. So it feels like even though the setting and the premise was applaud worthy, the makers couldn't help themselves but get lured by the typical BL tropes. Which is a shame, because this show could have been amazing and at another level. I understand that the moon crashing into the earth is symbolic and metaphorical - it doesn't need to be realistic, but from a scientific point of view, no natural disaster happening because of this is just laugh worthy. But lets keep that aside for now, even the antagonists and so called villains feel more like caricatures. They are a pack of gun-toting cannibals who love anal sex. Their over-the-top antics are entertaining, but I can't take these villains seriously. The ~end of the world~ is supposed to justify every illogical event or irrational behaviour. Even from a love perspective, we are not shown why Golf and Art eventually fall in love. Is that guilt, is that loneliness or something else? We don't get much of a back story and it feels made up. Personally I enjoyed the scenes with the funny neighborhood sister and when Gus comes back from the prison. At least their characters felt more authentic and real compared to the lead couple. Having said that, the lead couple does look good and Golf especially has AMAZING body. The story focuses more on him than Art, whenever gets to eventually meet his family. Both lead actors do a decent job for moments, but there were just too many things for them to deal with... Golf's initial actions, Art's feelings before and after finding out the truth, all the deaths they had to witness, going to dying, etc., so it was just too much for them to navigate through.
The premise is intriguing, no doubt and full marks for everyone involved to try this out. In some scenes the cinematography was quite nice actually with a large moon in the background. But after the fast paces 3 episodes the show just goes downhill in BL tropes. Imagine the bad guys having full on sex just after killing someone. Not just them, almost all sex scenes felt forced, but then maybe I had already made up my mind somewhere around episode 5-6 that this show is not really something that I am enjoying. I wanted to like the show for its bold story concept , but of it comes to entertainment, it lacked the soul for me. But hey, I will take small victories. At least the makers didn't make 14 episodes and were kind enough to wrap up in just 10 episodes. Maybe one day, it will get even crispier. (5/10)
Comments
For me the worst was probably the way the director have his characters talk soooo slowly. It's nice once in a while but the overuse of "taking 10s to give meanglingless and uniterresting reply to pretty much anything" was really irratating. Then I read the director was the one who did "Call it what you want" and everything made sense... Second let down is how unlikely scenes were really badly made ('ARt "prisonner" of the girl when she is just holding his shirt with no weapon, really?). Both summed up when Gold and Art walk together in the park. The slowness of their conversation killed me, only to be stopped by a dead body 3m away that has always been here? My other problem is maybe they try to do too much at once with a limited budget. But for that they needed the villains to have more development. You understand they are revenge killing people but it would have been interresting to have a difference between the crazy bitch and her brother that kill everyone and the other 2 being more moderate. Instead they just have steamy sex scenes (not complaining though :p)
Now what won me over is the general atmosphere and dystopic earth. And I didn't care it wasn't believable for so many reasons. The atmosphere was there. The superb panoramas with this giant moon combined with the deserted world were incredible. Then add people crazy reactions and I was hooked and amazed. Honestly after real pre covid lockdown where people were irrationnaly massively stocking on toilet paper, I think illogical reactions in the show are probably far from what we would actually live... (scary thought)
I liked the beginning balance, where I felt Art was the only sane person, stuck between a psyko Golf (because yes he is a freaking psyko) and crazy killers. Sadly Gold magically changed, and Art stayed in his unbelieblable helpless self, which was a bit frustrating by the end.
Finally I liked the complexity of Golf and Art relationship and love development. Flawed but so in sync with the whole situation. The neighbour and Gus were a real breeze of fresh air.
For me it was one of those shows where you know it's so far from being perfect yet in the end the atmosphere had me overcome all the ovious flaws, and I had a good time.
They were talking so slow.. so damn slow... now the trick is to start watching these shows in 1.5 speed, to make them feel normal. lol
The dystopian cinematography was good, but uneven. The large moon n background was a nice touch, but suddenly in few scenes the moon would go back to being far up in the sky. At least they could have looked at being consistent
Like we say in french : TGCM ("ta gueule c'est magique"- shut up it's magic)lol. Please teach me the english equivalent XD
I'll definitely remember your 1.5 speed suggestion