I'm not sure where to start talking about this series, because it is a disaster on practically every level. The script to begin with does not follow a logical structure and the rhythm is so uneven that it seems that it was written in the middle of a roller coaster ride.

The story itself, is like many others already seen in the world of BL, two friends who at a certain point in their friendship discover that their feelings go beyond camaraderie and embark on a new journey of love and sexual questioning, there is nothing wrong with exploring a previously seen plot again, the problem is when you have nothing new and innovative to contribute and, on the contrary, your product tells the same story as always in a rather mediocre way.

Before continuing to speak about the series that we are dealing with today, it seems important to me to do an exploration of its antecedents, in order to find the reasons why I believe that this series fails; HIStory as a franchise, began by giving us rather regular series, in favor of a nascent market for BL consumption, in those yesterdays, with titles such as Obsesses, My Hero or Stay Away From Me, it is easy to discern that many of problems came from the low budget, the short duration and therefore a reduced or rushed character development and the exploration of a new market for the target audience, as the generations of HIStory progressed their history also deepened and the development both creative, as on a script, acting and even budget level they were notorious, thus gaining a solid fan base across the globe.

Now, the highest point, we saw it without fear of being wrong in HIStory 3, both Trapped and Make our days count, were great series that touched our hearts on more than one occasion and that at production and acting levels were more than good received, at this point Make our days count was a watershed for what would come later and although the series was objectively a success, for the franchise itself, we can perhaps argue that it was a failure, for those who have seen the series, they will know that the Its conclusion was at least controversial, I am not here to say if it seems a good or bad conclusion to me, the important point is that it raised a stir, there were hundreds of thousands of opinions about it, the production received thousands of hundreds of criticisms and a a lot of fans ended up with a broken heart.

In the midst of this situation, in addition to other major problems to consider, such as the difficulties that the pandemic brought to the production of any series at an international level, or the lack of budget for the continuation of the franchise, Close to you was born; one of the big problems with generating successful products is that over time you have to make a decision between following your instinct as a creator or pleasing your audience, with Make our days count the former was, with Close to you the latter, I think it was very, very clear that Close to you I try to be as accommodating with the public as possible, the problem is that by doing this there are many issues that are left untreated and they subtract depth and relevance to the story that is being counted.

Close to you is a boring story, not because the plot is repetitive, or the characters are uninteresting, but because it lacks depth, the story is flat, without substance, it appeals to cheap resources to excite the public such as sexual innuendo or provocative kisses, and have I am not against this, I am not saying that if a series uses these elements it is not good, not at all, the point is that if that is the only thing you have in your favor it is an easy resource, a good story must be based on its script and production not the kisses and bed scenes, because they know well when the two elements come together good scenes a little more explicit and a good story, there they do leave you a good taste in your mouth.

The music of the series is an element that seems to be good to me, the main song is good and some used at certain high points in history also seem to me to be well selected, in general I do not have a strong comment on this topic.

In conclusion, the series does not captivate me in any way, I understand that there are people who do, and it seems super respectable, we all have different tastes, but I do believe that the series has to balance many problems at a technical level that other series do not they have, I think that if they had risked a little more with the story, things would be very different, I think it is more or less clear that I am a fan of the franchise itself, at least I reviewed all its deliveries and although this one did not particularly leave me excited about the future of it, in the same way I will continue to support the creation of new works and deeply hoping that they will bring us better and better stories.

And by way of relief I just want to add two things, the first is that the final scene is tremendously anticlimactic, I think it is not well achieved at all and that Anson Chen seems to me a beautiful person, at the beginning of the series he could not say that it was love at first glance, but over the course of the same, his face and expressions seemed more and more fascinating to me (like a bit of an unattainable prince actually) and I didn't just want to mention it.