Beside You (2024)

Felt Like A Highschool Marketing Project.

I tried to give the show a pass because it's low-budget, but it felt like a waste of time even though it's so short. Three 12 min episodes. It's 10% plot (that's not done well) and 90% product placement and adds. I understand they need sponsors to cover costs, but it didn't feel like a story someone was passionate about telling, which made it feel like the adds were actually the focus all along. There's nothing special about this apart from some pretty faces. That's just not enough for me.

Starting with a relationship that ends was a waste for the first episode. The main character is very unlikable because of how it goes and it takes time away from the development of the relationship between the main character and the cat-turned-human. You could just start with Ep 2, the recap gives you all you need.

There is no development shown for the cat-turned-human. We know the boy loves his cat, but there's no reason why he would start wanting to kiss the human version. There's nothing to explain the transition from platonic love to romantic love.

And the screenplay makes the human-cat seem simple-minded (not very intelligent). Which makes the "romance" feel even weirder; like it's with a child, not an equal.

There aren't even enough cute moments. There are very few cat-like mannerisms. There are no head rubs, ear scratches, kneading hands, snuggling , etc. The cat characteristics are all focused on food and drink product placements.

The actors are rookies and very flat. It doesn't help that the script is poorly written and doesn't give them much of interest to work with either.

Watched on the DFJ Entertainment YouTube channel in the USA Jan 2024. The English subtitles were rough when I watched it, but they are there.

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basically commercials with some cute moments

Overall: I don't mind product placement, but in this case there was more product placement than plot. Three episodes about 12 minutes each. Aired on DFJ Entertainment's YouTube channel https://youtu.be/16s4HBeSKUE?si=5wguaKQ0sgnG6ocl

What I Liked
- lap sit and walking fingers up his arm
- the cat
- having subtitles in multiple languages

Room For Improvement
- mostly product placement
- think they should have left the boyfriend out of the series, did the main character learned/grown so a future relationship would even be successful?
- ending was disappointing with them cutting away like that

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