Wheel of Love (2021)

Not bad!

I was so disappointed with the way My Extraordinary ended, especially because I had high hopes for it to be a really exceptional drama, and not just another "kill the gays" story based on homophobia. But, because I liked the cast of ME so much, I was happy to give this series a watch. Here are my pros and cons:

PROS

TRANS CHARACTER IN A DECENT MAIN ROLE. So happy that Jenevive, while a mostly comedic character, was given a main story line and, at the same time, a degree of substance and not just another joke character portrayal.

GOOD BALANCE BETWEEN COUPLES. So we had two LGBTQ+ couples and two straight couples. Fine by me. None of them were given short shrift, so good on the writers and directors.

ACTING. Some really good performances! Enzo was great (as usual), so were Nico, John, and Keijee.

THEME SONG. Absolutely LOVED the opening OST. Catchy tune, I was always dancing and singing along.

END SCENE. Loved the ending scene with Romeo and Jenevive. So cute! "Normal" and "happily ever after" relationships featuring a trans character are so rare... a trans character's story is usually "never gonna happen." This is progress.

CONS

INCONSISTENCY WITH STORY. There were issues. 1) Why was Markie such a dick to Clark? Sure, Clark was hitting on Markie, but he didn't do anything wrong. Markie was going along with it -- twice -- but then just insensitively dumped Clark the moment Daniel was in the picture. We were just supposed to ignore that, I guess. 2) The end focused on Miguel's homophobia against Markie and Daniel, but (other than a brief scene in an earlier episode), Miguel's hatred for Romeo and Jenevive as a couple was not addressed. Why just Markie and Daniel? What's Romeo's story? Always gay? We don't know. 3) The forgiveness of Miguel was just too fast. He was such a homophobic asshole through the whole series, then he sheds a few tears and all is forgiven? And mom is "proud" of him, within just a few minutes? No... just no.

JANICE. I'm probably in the minority, but I couldn't stand Janice, with all her "I'm more than just a beautiful face" and "I'm not just some trophy girl" comments. Gurl... you're not exactly Miss Universe, get over yourself. Total turn off. Both Mateo and Moises can do better.

MIGUEL'S STORY. I would have been happier if a little less time was devoted to the Miguel/Jane relationship and more to Miguel's homophobia. As it was, Miguel just came across as an ass who needed a lot of therapy sessions. A couple of sentences about his military dad's influence just didn't cut it.

Still, I enjoyed this. It was nice to see some of these actors again. I'm giving it 8.0 out of 10.

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The series with shorter episodes and the subject of a large family and all the little people around looks interesting, but I waited a long time for the pair Markie - Daniel (since the 6th episode). Until then, the little problems of boys and girls are solved there, in the first episodes the strange trans woman Jenevie even plays almost the "main role" (strange for us, perfectly normal for a Pinoy production). Played solidly, I liked Mateo and little Merry the most. The creators could have worked more on the only gay couple, their "sweetheart" wasn't even there and the ending sounded weird. Therefore, my overall rating is only average.


Seriál s kratšími epizodami a námět početné rodiny a všech lidiček kolem vypadá zajímavě, ale dlouho jsem čekal na dvojici Markie - Daniel (až od 6. epizody). Do té doby se tam řeší drobné problémy kluků a holek, v prvních dílech dokonce téměř "hlavní roli" hraje divná transka Jenevie (pro nás divné, pro pinoy produkci naprosto normální). Zahráno solidně, nejvíce se mi líbil Mateo a malá Merry. Tvůrci mohli více zapracovat na jediné gay dvojici, ta jejich "pusinka" vlastně ani nebyla a závěr vyšuměl divně. Proto je mé hodnocení celkově jen průměrné.

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