Second Chance (2021)

A seriously underrated gem

I accidently stumbled upon this show early in my BL introduction as I looked for ones that I could easily access on youtube, and I really didn't expect much from it but I'm a sucker for a friends to lovers story so I gave it a shot. And man am I so glad I did.

The story itself is nothing special. Boy loses his father, best friend helps him get through it and their friendship develops into something more. For side couples you have the bullied introvert wooed by the charismatic extravert and shy cafe manager who gets close to the coworker he's crushing on through online gaming. We've seen these before, and likely will again. But what sets this apart is the way the story unfolds, the acting, and visual style.

There's this almost hazy, nostalgic quality to the show. If it weren't for the presence of cell phones and flash drives, you'd think this was set in the early 2000s from the lighting and music. The resulting effect isn't cheap or out-dated, it's actually quite beautiful (especially the pool scenes) and naturalistic in a way that you don't see in BL very often.

Then there are the performances. Tong and Fluke as Paper and Sky are absolutely magical on screen. You don't really know that Sky is grieving until a ways into the show, but from the jump you know that he and Paper have a very unique bond. Considering we don't get any background on their early friendship, this is really impressive. Tong has this way of looking at Fluke as if Paper is monitoring Sky to see whether he needs to be caught before falling down from grief, it's not hovering but more like he's being a bracket to hold up Sky. It toes the line up to codependent, but doesn't cross it because they are actually quite different personalities and each have other friends and classmates that they can confide in. For such new actors, especially Fluke, I was totally blown away and I really really hope we get to see them together again.

Their physical interactions and kisses are so real and honest, I have to tangent about them. The casual way they lean on each other at the start, sticking to one another during basketball and crossing legs in class, reflects how much they rely on each other emotionally. There are moments when you can see each of them start to try to lean in for more but pull away, building the tension without it turning into tortured pining a la Theory of Love. Then after some birthday beer and dancing, they finally give in to what they're really feeling. I'm not a fan of drunken first kisses, but in this case they're both more tipsy than drunk and the buildup makes the payoff worth it, you really feel that they're so invested in their friendship that if there wasn't alcohol to drop their inhibitions they might never have taken the next step despite them both being so clearly in love. And the subtlety of it blew me away, from the initial hesitancy to the hitches in their breathing as it progresses, it feels so real but not voyeuristic or gratuitous. Sky initiates and Paper seems surprised but returns the kiss with that slightly clumsy passion of a first kiss that you've been looking forward to for so long, but then Sky takes that as his queue to start to deepen the kiss and you can practically see the gears turning in Paper's head as he panics about the reality of his most important relationship potentially changing and stops kissing back, as soon as he senses Paper freezing up Sky immediately pulls away, which is such a nice change from the BL trope of pushing until the other person gives in. Their final kiss also captures that clumsy fumbling of first love while ending with really beautiful connection. Can't confirm this but I saw a comment on the final episode saying their final scene was mostly improvised, which actually doesn't surprise me bc their chemistry and dialog is so natural.

I don't have a lot to say about the other 2 couples, though both have their merits. Chris and Jeno are a slower burn and a bit frustrating at first, but once you get more context for why Jeno is so shut down it makes the payoff of him finally opening up in the end really worth it. TBH I really didn't care for Near and M, the chemistry and acting just weren't there for me and with the short time they had I don't think they needed a 3rd couple at all. Also, I could not for the life of me tell Near apart from Jeno until like episode 5, apparently the actors are brothers, it was kind of a poor casting and style choice to make them look and behave so similarly imo.

Alas this was yet another covid casualty, it was originally supposed to be a full 12-14 episodes but they only had time to shoot enough footage for 6. Thankfully, that didn't really hurt the story all that much. I was surprised at first, bc it's a pretty well-paced and complete story that seems to fit well into the 6 episodes we got. But upon a rewatch you can kind of tell how they had to condense what was intended to be a longer story; like we don't really know what happened to Sky to land him in the hospital even though we can guess he was hit by a car or wrecked his scooter while going to meet Paper, or what Jeno's relationship with Arthur was like before it fell apart. However, at least for me, it wasn't too jarring and didn't take me out of the story at all. Though if they got a chance to redo it with more episodes, like they've done with Love Mechanics, I think they could really do the characters more justice.

Other things to love here are the total lack of toxic female characters, no slapstick sound effects or replay of important moments from 7 different angles, no egregious product placement, all the main boys being just gay from the start so there's no melodramatic identity crisis or internalized homophobia to overcome, adults and authority figures actually acting with authority and protecting the kids, a bully facing real consequences both from the school and his victim, and a wonderfully supportive friend group at the core of the story.

Give this one a chance, and if it doesn't click at first give it a second chance.

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