He's Mine (2021)

What did I just watch?

Filipino BLs tend to range from excellent/high quality (Gameboys) to really bad/low budget (Stranger's Kiss). Watching Episode 1 of He's Mine made it pretty clear that it was low budget, but it seemed interesting enough that I decided to stick with it. Here are my pros and cons:

PROS:

EYE CANDY. Yep, I'm that shallow. But the boys were indeed pretty, especially Cairo and Juanmig.

THEME SONG. I really enjoyed the theme song and looked forward to it each episode.

SOME OF THE ACTING. The cast was a mixed bag of really talented actors and... really not talented actors.

CONS:

THE STORY. What exactly WAS the story? What I saw -- mostly -- was two groups of "friends" who spent the entire time yelling and acting really bitchy toward each other. Other than Cairo/Juanmig, I wasn't getting how any of the other "relationships" actually developed. Calix's mom gets the award for Worst Mother in the World. And the finale was such a mess I have NO idea what story they were trying to tell. I suppose I could try rewatching it but... I don't wanna.

NO KISS. Okay, there was kind of one at the very end. But what's the point of creating a BL without kissing between the guys? We don't need simulated sex scenes or long make out sessions, but we do need some affection between the main leads.

PIANO MUSIC. The piano music played over and over and over throughout the entire finale practically made me want to remove my own appendix with a knife and fork.

COLLEEN. The character was awful (how could she have a BFF?), the actress was weak, and every time she said "Watch and learn," I just wanted to smack the girl.

I'm giving it a 5.0.

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”A unique story with an incredibly amazing technique?” Are you kidding me?

I've been a fan of Ranz Gonzales' series and especially of his cast since ”One Day Pag-Ibig”, although his series have the typical flaws of low budget productions like poor sound and cinematography, amateurish acting and a weak script. I hoped things would get better through ”learning by doing”, but they didn't.

”He's mine” is his third series, and it is really disppointing. When ODPI had at least an interesting basic idea and PKKT some kind of plot, ”He's mine” unfortunately is the worst Ranz Gonzales series so far, because old mistakes are being repeated, and new ones added.

I'm not talking about the terrible sound quality, the inconsistent editing and the poor directing – all this was already there in former series. What really annoys me is that there is no real plot. It starts like the good old rich vs poor story, and it goes on as the rich vs poor story for episode after episode without anything really happening. Whereas we learn about the poor guy's (Callix) background (evil mother, lazy elder brother, angel-like little sister), the reason for the rich guy's (Luke) sadness and bad mood remains in the dark until episode 9. The entire ”plot” consists of the two groups being mad at each other which gets boring soon, and the revelation of Callix and Luke's backstory in the final episode is completely implausible..

Another negative point is that the cast who showed at least some talent in former series are much worse in this one. The leads – Allen Caguioa as Luke and Clark Blancaflor as Callix – are in a bad mood for the first 8 episodes, yelling at each other – what they are doing can't be called acting at all – with the rare exception of Clark when he sets a highlight interacting with his family. It feels like the actors are embarrassed about the poor script and just don't want to be there.

We have to wait for the final episode until both Allen and Clark are allowed to show that they do have acting talent. Finally, Allen displays some different facettes than just being sad and mad. Actually, the only member of the cast who does not only have acting talent, but has proved in ”Stranger's Kiss” and ”My Chinito Prince” that he also has acting skills, is LJ Russell who unfortunately has only a minor support role. Like the lead actors, all the other (way too many) side characters speak in an unnatural way most of the time. It often sounds as if they have problems memorizing their lines, especially when they speak English.

I'm rating the acting an 8, but that's more for the cast, not exactly for their acting, because I love Allen, Clark, Robert, LJ, and Dave so much. Clark deserves an extra mentioning for the song he contributed to the OST again. I like his voice, and his compositions, so I'm a little sad we didn't get to hear more from him in this series.

The terrible writing peaks in the final episode, where Juanmig suddenly drops dead just for the sake of drama, and where the completely implausible backstory of Luke and Callix's ”relationship” is being revealed. Btw Luke's younger, nerdy self made me laugh out loud; congrats to the make-up designer for that.

When Global TV praise this series as a ”unique story with an incredibly amazing technique” that ”only Direk Ranz Gonzales can do” (source: youtube Global TV SMO Series community message), they must either be joking or blinded by the 7 million views their series have gained on youtube. These 7 million views prove that fans all over the world watch the series because they want to see Allen, Clark, Robert, Dave, LJ, and the rest of the lovely cast, but they watch it despite, not because of Ranz Gonzales' poor writing and directing.

When a small company like Global TV gathers so many views, they should be able to acquire sponsors or investors so that they can hire a competent writer, director and sound engineer to support Ranz Gonzales who could focus on what he's obviously good at: gathering an attractive cast. If nothing like that happens, I can only hope that the talented actors find a company that helps them improve their skills instead of simply exploiting their tiktok popularity. If they want to succeed in the entertainment industry, it's time for them to move on.

Let me finish with a hint for all those who like Allen Caguioa as much as I do: I recommend you to watch him baking cookies with his friend on his youtube channel which is a lot more entertaining than watching him grudgingly grumbling in ”He's mine”.

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