Cutie Pie (2022)

Half and half

This series has approximately 1 million flaws, but Zee and Nunew's acting, chemistry, and visuals are not one of them. For that alone, this drama is worth watching.

That said, it seems like this plot was written by two different people -- one who is extremely good at writing and one who is extremely bad at it. I really loved the series until about halfway through episode 8, and would have given it perfect marks up until that point. But, after hands down the best love scene in all of BL history in episode 8, the quality comes to a crashing halt.

Let's start with the secondary couple. Ugh. They were one of the biggest problems for me. You have Yi, a rich and successful businessman and Diao, a...... yeah, I never figured it out either. Who is he? He goes to university, for what, we don't know. Who is he to Yi? Because he lives in Yi's house, which, apparently, Yi does not live in for quite some time. How did this random guy come to live in Yi's house? It's played up as this huge mystery, but basically, Yi caused harm to Diao in the past (which Diao doesnt remember, because the harm caused him to lose his memory... only of what happened this one time). Yi feels so guilty about it, he lets him live in his house. Along the way, he fell for Diao. Okay, sounds good. But when we actually find out what happened, it's a huge letdown. First of all, it was an accident, there's literally no need for Yi to feel guilty for 20 years, but i could let that slide. However, it also happened when they were kids.

Wait a minute. They knew each other as kids? Where did that come from? All we knew about Diao thus far was that he's Kuea's best friend and they studied in the UK together. We know Kuea and Lian are childhood friends, but now Diao and Yi are, too? And each pair just happens to be best friends with each other as adults? What?

Also, the accident should have left physical scars, especially if it caused him to "lose his memory," which would have been apt (and cute for Yi to kiss later, you’re welcome for that idea), but Diao has none. All we have left to hope for is that, when Diao remembers what happened, or Yi tells him, they can finally communicate and forgive and move on. But it turns out Diao did remember, suddenly, somewhere in the middle of the series, but off camera, and just casually drops that he remembers and it's no big deal.

When Yi is confessing his feelings to Diao, it's cute and all, but this man was already living in your house. Under what context did that even happen? He wasn’t even your fake boyfriend before? It really just was a, "here, childhood friend I barely speak to, live in my mansion and I'll just crash at work because I cant bear to look at you for years" kind of thing? And Diao just goes with it? But cimplains the entire time that he’s lonely? Ugh!!!!

Okay, next major problem: all of the drama between the main couple could have been resolved by them having one five minute conversation. Miscommunication and keeping secrets and "I'm waiting for the right time to tell him," are common tropes, but they're played to the extreme in this series. At one point, Lian literally says, "I'm waiting for the right time to tell him," but somehow finds time to confess that he loves him and that they should get married, if not today, then tomorrow. Lian's character always knew about everything Kuea was hiding, but not vice versa, and it was ultimately a weird power balance. And weird that Lian kept insisting he loved Kuea, and wanted to marry him, but wouldn’t confess the secret he was hiding that ANYONE could have known would hurt Kuea if he found out about it and didn’t understand the reasons behind it. Lian was also very good at percieving Kuea's feelings, up until the time Kuea had a clearly miserable look on his face all the time; it was then that Lian decided everything was great between them and he should publicly propose. Ugh!!!!

And then there's the end, which just felt rushed and shallow. Yes, the message was sweet, but the ending would have fit a 2 hour movie better than a 12 episode series. The entire actual plot would have fit into a movie much better. So much time was wasted on the 2nd and 3rd couples, the excessive screen time of random characters like the club owner that no one was even friends with.

But I don't want to do a disservice to Zee and especially Nunew. I literally cannot believe this is Nunew's first acting role. He did an incredible job, and put shame to every other actor in this drama except Zee and the veteran adult actors. Zee was great too, and kept up with him, but Nunew really shined. I hope to see so much more from this couple in the future. They have the potential to make incredible work and bring huge social change as well.

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