I went into this expecting a slasher TV show with a BL element. DFF is precisely that in the first four episodes. However, the show is weakest when it sticks to that expected premise. I usually binge BL shows, but this one took me until the 5th episode to get into. This show has a BL element but is not the central focus. It is similar to the popular BL show Not Me in that way. If you are looking for a romance like many other BLs, this is not the show for you. You also must endure through the first four episodes to get to the really good stuff in the middle of the series.

Once you hit episode 5, it becomes a high school bullying story. It then evolves into a high school queer love story, a crime drama, a problematic relationship with an older man, and the various ways people are culpable in driving someone to the edge. The character who suffers from all this is Non.

This is not a happy series. There is no happy ending, no redemption, only pain, sadness, death, and tragedy.

I enjoyed this show because it did something VERY different within the BL context. Barcode did an incredible job as Non.

A major drawback to the series, aside from waiting until almost halfway to build up the story, is the way it tells its story. It feels like it borrows from the Rashomon formulation of going over events from different points of view. Still, it fills in the gaps of missing information with each character we focus on rather than seeing the same scene from another perspective.

The ending scene is ambiguous, a mixed bag. I am just glad this series broke out of the box of BL tropes and formulas. However, it did fall into a lot of slasher tropes and formulations. You can see influences of Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and even your standard Friday the 13th or Halloween movie. I would be surprised if none of those movies influenced the people behind this show.

Definitely worth a see. I would have rated this higher if not for the first 4 episodes being rather subpar.