Heroin / Addicted
Chinese series Addicted (also known as Heroin) is a hugely popular BL series from 2016. There's a widely held view that it's one of the best BL dramas ever made. I don't subscribe to that view at all.
Summary: High school student Bai Luo Yin is very unhappy with his estranged mother, who has decided to marry a wealthy party official. His life at school is becoming increasingly complicated by a poisonous relationship with fellow student Gu Hai. The two boys torment each other relentlessly and obstinately refuse to stop the oneupmanship of practical jokes and annoyances. However Hai soon realises that Yin is just as sensitive as Hai is himself, underneath all the sourness and bluster, and he eventually falls in love. His declarations soon pile up and become just as relentless as the previous bullying was. Yin's life now follows a pattern of never-ending resistance and finding ways to avoid Hai. Yin is horrified when the truth about his mother's new marriage is revealed.
I loathed this series from start to finish. I didn't like Yin's poorly acted routine of sullen sourness at all, and I wasn't convinced of Hai's affection. But worst of all was the nasty rapey tone to Hai's wooing of Yin. I understand that the audience is meant to see Hai's sensitive side beneath his sexual frustration and sticky persistence, but I just couldn't get past how his methods amounted to nothing more than a pattern of ongoing sexual assaults on Yin.
The only positive thing I can say about this series is that the actor playing Hai, Johnny Huang, is a natural talent with a real on-screen magnetism. I really hope he can find some other work that better suits his abilities.
This series has so far only completed a single season. It currently looks unlikely there will be any further seasons, due to the Chinese government's recent morals crackdown on media programming, in particular on shows with LGBTQI themes. Season 1 has in fact been banned.
Rating: 8 out of 20
(and I am only giving these points for Johnny Huang and the decent depiction of Yin's family life at home)
Ending: semi-happy though incomplete (and unlikely to be completed)
Summary: High school student Bai Luo Yin is very unhappy with his estranged mother, who has decided to marry a wealthy party official. His life at school is becoming increasingly complicated by a poisonous relationship with fellow student Gu Hai. The two boys torment each other relentlessly and obstinately refuse to stop the oneupmanship of practical jokes and annoyances. However Hai soon realises that Yin is just as sensitive as Hai is himself, underneath all the sourness and bluster, and he eventually falls in love. His declarations soon pile up and become just as relentless as the previous bullying was. Yin's life now follows a pattern of never-ending resistance and finding ways to avoid Hai. Yin is horrified when the truth about his mother's new marriage is revealed.
I loathed this series from start to finish. I didn't like Yin's poorly acted routine of sullen sourness at all, and I wasn't convinced of Hai's affection. But worst of all was the nasty rapey tone to Hai's wooing of Yin. I understand that the audience is meant to see Hai's sensitive side beneath his sexual frustration and sticky persistence, but I just couldn't get past how his methods amounted to nothing more than a pattern of ongoing sexual assaults on Yin.
The only positive thing I can say about this series is that the actor playing Hai, Johnny Huang, is a natural talent with a real on-screen magnetism. I really hope he can find some other work that better suits his abilities.
This series has so far only completed a single season. It currently looks unlikely there will be any further seasons, due to the Chinese government's recent morals crackdown on media programming, in particular on shows with LGBTQI themes. Season 1 has in fact been banned.
Rating: 8 out of 20
(and I am only giving these points for Johnny Huang and the decent depiction of Yin's family life at home)
Ending: semi-happy though incomplete (and unlikely to be completed)
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