Victoria's Secret. What is her secret, though? Is it the fact that she's wearing flimsy pink lacy underneaths? Or is it perhaps the fact that she has a pair of tits and a vagina? Fuck knows, and I don't give a damn about that. What I DO give a damn about is-- What's the secret relationship? Which are the secret relationships? Whose relationship is a secret? Whose connection is shrouded by a blanket of enigma?
Hm, yes. We're going to talk about this hot new K-BL I just finished watching last week, titled 'Secret Relationships'. It's a romance, it's a drama, it's got humor sprinkled in here and there, but most of all, it's a relationship drama that isn't afraid of diving head-first into psychological turmoil and other crazy stuff. For one, this is perhaps the messiest and most dramatic Korean BL drama I've watched.
Over the span of eight 30-minute episodes, 'Secret Relationships' follows our main protagonist, Da On, a gay guy who grew up piss-stain poor. He used to be so poor and pathetic, that even an inch of kindness made him fantasize about all sorts of happily-ever-afters. Unfortunately for him, he falls for the kindness of two uselessly good-looking men he shouldn't ever have gotten involved with.
That was 7 years ago. Now a workaholic corporate employee, Da On starts off on the wrong foot with the new competent co-worker Seong Hyeon, who smiles brighter than the sun baby in Teletubbies. He's a golden retriever in the body of a human, raised with the love and care of his grandmother. It doesn't take him too long before he begins to fall irrevocably in love with Da On. Little does he know-- Seong Hyeon's about to step into a territory filled with deceit, lies, obsession and other... questionable stuff.
Well, first of all, this is quite messy. I guess I've seen messier stuff, but for a Korean BL drama (which usually tend to be vanilla), I could applaud their attempt at digging deeper and getting dirtier. But, though I appreciated that aspect-- ultimately, this is based on a Korean webtoon and I suppose, quite close to the source material.
Now, my relationship with Korean webtoons are sort of no 'secret' in my mind. I... don't really like them. I mean, I've tried reading countless of them but going past 10 chapters is a huge feat in each of them. Why? 'Cause I just feel like most of them are the damn same. Irrespective of whether it's straight or gay. Most Korean BL webtoons are pretty damn messy. But, overall? In the same manner. The same concept-- when it's a reverse harem, one of them is insane, one of them has anger management issues, and one of them is way too good to be true. They might move that around a little bit to keep things fresh. One person mentioned that it's very similar to the concept of A/B/O BL stories. And because 'Secret Relationships' felt so similar to the feeling I get from reading Korean BL webtoons, my enjoyment was more dimmed down compared to most others.
On the other hand, I did also appreciate how unpredictable the whole thing was. And because of that unpredictability, it was entertaining (enough for me to complete. Fact: I never hesitate to drop stuff) Sometimes I say that entertainment is all that matters to me, especially when it's a BL drama, but for some reason, I feel like I couldn't fully 100% lock myself in for this drama.
The acting's great-- above average for the genre, the production quality is above decent, all 4 MLs have great chemistry, the kissing scenes between the MC are hot, there's really not much to complain about for what it is, and yet... I don't know. Maybe I was in the wrong headspace for this drama? Maybe if I kept it in my PTW list and watched it later in a more suitable mood and binged it at once, I would've really liked it? Who knows. Whatever. I've already seen it, and my verdict is-- I didn't like it that much.
In conclusionita:
7.5/10
I still didn't get which relationships were a secret though. Jae Min and Su Hyeon's fake dating? I dunno.
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