This documentary is nearly twenty years old now, and it follows a gay couple as they navigate the stressful and exciting journey of their first pregnancy through surrogacy. You get to see it all— the hope, the nerves, and the dramatic hurdles they have to clear along the way. Back in the day, this was probably a massive deal, but since I’ve known a few gay couples who’ve gone through this exact process, some parts felt a bit dated to me. I liked bits and pieces of it, but I also felt like the film stays pretty surface-level. It doesn't really dive into the deep, complicated reality of life after the baby actually arrives. If only raising a kid were actually as simple as this movie makes it look! Erik and Mark have been together in New York for ten years, and since they feel solid in their relationship, they decide they’re ready to raise a child. They start the hunt for a surrogate and eventually connect with Wen, a wife and mom from Maine who agrees to carry the baby for a standard...
Dr. Prakan is a known surgeon working hard to save lives. But of late, he keeps seeing this mysterious man, who has introduced himself as a 'soul reaper', a guy from the 'other' world who is here to take people's soul away. So these 2 people work for two completely opposite reasons. One must collect the souls of the dead, the other must save lives before they reach that state. What Prawn doesn't understand is why he is the only one who sees him and why his heart beats so fast every time they are close. They start becoming friends slowly respecting each other's profession and also flirt. We are slowly told that their love story began when Prawn was a child and needed a heart transplant. The mysterious guy named Tuaphee was in same hospital fighting an illness. And after he dies, his heart was given to Prakan and this is why Prakan can see Tua as a soul reaper even when he isn’t making himself visible to humans. When truth reveals itself almost towards the end, akan finally realizes and accepts the harsh truth of live and the eventuality of death. Tuaphee has broken rules of the other world by being with another man and he gets punished of bit and disappears from Prawn's life for a few months only to return back and eventually bear the harsh truth of growing old together and eventuality of death. In between this, we also have coverage of competitive board rooms to the emergency room to the operating table, the doctors and nurses placed their hearts and medical licenses on the line. We have ample donor who has a crush on Prawn but sees him only as a friend. A new doctor joins the hospital and starts liking this other guy. So this was the one secondary couple. And then we have a straight couple of Prawn's cousin (also his competition of sorts) in love with another female doctor.
The story idea was novel to be honest. I like that the love story between Prakan and Tua was more than just about two men falling in love. It was a symbolic story about a man faced with death since childhood finally coming to terms with it. But. Then from a plot perspective there are so many loopholes. As an experienced surgeon, he should understand the harsh reality of death, so getting agonized after every case felt weird. Also, the "rules" of Reapers are silly and seem to be invented to suit plot points and don't really progress in a logical way. Also sometimes he could randomly be seen by others in a few scenes. We are told later that because Prawn has the reaper's heart, he is able to see him, but then why can he see the other soul reaper too? As actor The soul reaper does a good job, but I think the guy playing Prawn has things to learn. He had this dead pan droopy dead-pan look throughout the series which doesn't work. The amount of repetition also slowed the pacing. There were numerous repetitive scenes the straight doctor getting envious of the female talking to other men, or Prakan going back and forth with being friends with Tuaphee and then hating him, multiple pointless scenes of him getting drinks, etc. Even though I always feel that all secondary storylines digress the focus, but in this case, I wish the other gay doctor coupe had better chemistry and looked more realistic and I would loved to see more of them compared to the lead couple. For all that this is supposed to be a romance, I felt it was more like 90% angst and 10% romance. The romance really doesn't kick in until the last couple of episodes and by then its too little too late. Its sad that such a promising concept wasn't given the proper resources to really shine because I think it could have been spectacular, but the overwhelming negative aspects make it mediocre at best. (5.5/10)
Comments
I was excited seeing the leads again from grey rainbow.
If today, you asked me story of any of shows from 1-2 years ago, even if I rated them high; I would barely remember a thing. ON a brighter side, it's easier to forget all the nonsense I see and not retain in my head. lol