Mate Match (2021)

Surprisingly cute

This is the fifth series from Star Hunter that I have watched and I must say that this one is the best one to date. It was a cute and simple storyline that i easily enjoyed watching these past five weeks.

Story-8/10
While the story doesn't really offer anything new, it was still done in a way that got me eager to come back and watch it every week. And whilevI may knew the direction that it is going, it still surprised me when they took it in that direction. And so for that I gave the story an 8.

Acting/Cast- 8/10
The casts actually surprised me. Especially since I watched Jet and Jame in a previous series (Gen Y) where they were fighting over another boy. And most of the viewers thought that they would have been better together. And here we actually get a series with them- and they are better together! All three actors in the main role did a great job!

Music-7.5/10
The music is cool and relaxing to listen to. So for this I give it a 7.5.

Rewatch Valu- 8/10
I honestly do see myself watching this again.

Overall- 8/10
Overall I enjoyed it and was pleasantly surprised. If anyone wants a quick watch with no jealous girlfriend or objecting parents, this is the series to watch!

Leggi di Più

Quick Entertainment

I wasn't anticipating anything more than what we usually get from Star Hunter Entertainment and My Mate Match kind of supports that. This felt like a quick money grab than an actual well-developed plot or any type of cohesive story, but for what we got, I wasn't all that upset. My Mate Match was a swift BL love triangle with terrible second lead syndrome.

Let's Dive In.

My Mate Match is simply a tale of one dude moving into a house and accidentally accepting two other dudes to live there when he can only have one roommate -- basically My Deal Lover but 10 times better and actually BL. I think this series was cute, it even had good potential, but it lacked cohesiveness and at times was extremely boring.

A few exceptions in this show: I enjoyed Big's acting here way more than in Gen Y. I feel like his acting in Gen Y is LACKING, big (lol) time. He's stoic, and pretty much sounds like he's reading off from the script, but here he played up on the personality, and gave us actual characteristics. For most of the show, I was shipping him and Match, which the show did a perfect job of playing at, except you know who gets together cause it's glaringly obvious.

I also thought that for a company that I complain a lot about for having terrible kisses, I think this one had to be one of the best. It was realistic, it wasn't chaste, and it didn't seem like the actors were uncomfortable. I'll applaud to that.

A few things that could've been approved on: I think the reason why we get a sense of Second Lead Sydrome is because Match and Ryu spent more time on screen together than Mix and Match (Just got that idiom. Love it). For the first couple of episodes, Match complains about Mix more than anything. They have a few cute moments, but those don't really come till the end, and then you're left wondering how they fell in love when nothing happened. That's my thought too. I don't think they had the best chemistry, I liked Ryu and Match much better since they actually got along and did stuff together, laughing and goofying around. The sudden connection with Mix and Match was offputting, and appeared out of thin air. Again, kind of ties into the plot, and how it should've been handled more carefully. However, I did enjoy Jet and Jame here way more than in Gen Y.

Them all sleeping in one bed was very senseless to me. I get what they were trying to do -- build up the skinship, created this lovey-dovey moment, in which we got once -- but it's irradical for three grown men to share one bed. Something that I continued to think about constantly and left me wondering what the heck the writers were thinking.

I didn't mind the vlogging until Match got into Mix and Ryu's personal buniess and decided to share it to the world. For him to go live and share Mix's song lyrics to everyone was a disgrace. Again, I couldn't help but ask, what the fuck were the writers thinking.

Production wasn't too bad. Star Hunter has this thing where they make everything look likes it's taking place in a dream, which I feel will hurt them in the future. The actors look great, but maybe they look a little too perfect? Also, there were some ad placements that took me out of the story and were a bit of a nuisance, but I've seen worse, so it wasn't all that bad.

Ratings:

Story: 6.5 - Could've been handled better. For what we got, it was fine, but the writers could've made different choices in the outcomes of some of their conflicts.

Acting: 8.5 - Nothing perfect, but nothing bad either. I think Jet and Jame did a pretty okay job. I think Big could do better, but he did show improvements from what we've seen in Gen Y.

Music: 7 - I actually was fully aware of the music, cause, for once, I liked it. I think it was the beat that caught my attention.

Rewatch Value: 1 - Again, got to move on, but I think some of these scenes are memorable enough for me to at least tune into a video edit.

Overall, this was an okay watch. Some parts are boring, some are funny, some are lackluster. I saw a lot of people say they dropped it after a few episodes. Understandable, but I don't think it was that bad to not at least tune in. I half-heartdly recommend this, there are some better ones out there, but if you're looking for lighthearted and fluffy, than this is it.

Leggi di Più

Very cute and pleasant

This series doesn't cover a lot of new ground, but it's worth watching.

Positives:

The characters are better drawn than in most longer series and more consistent. The story doesn't wear out its welcome, like most longer series. There is humor in it without getting silly and slapstick, the acting is fairly good - especially Jame Kasama, who I think has the best potential. He's able to project his emotions so that you feel what he's feeling.

When it ends, you'd like more, but you also feel like it stopped at the right place. That's what a good series should do. Usually love triangles are tiresome and make you cringe, but here, where everyone really cares about each other and treat each other with respect and empathy, you'll find yourself actually wishing for a thrupple - I'm not kidding, in the comments section it was almost universal.

The actors aren't afraid of m/m affection, which is refreshing and makes the romantic resolution kind of exciting. The chemistry between everyone is strong, and it isn't immediately clear who the final pair will be. There's an extremely strong clue up front so it's not like you don't know, but still, it's nice for the relationships to be left to develop.

There is no seme and uke thing, which is refreshing - just three guys. No evil ex-gf, no "I'm not gay, I only like___________" It's not explicitly stated, but all three appear to be just plain gay - it doesn't even need to be said. There's the usual failures of communication, but in this case they'r plausible, and motivated mostly by insecurity, not "but we're both guys!"

Negatives:

There aren't really any, other than a few too many tropes - there was one ep that was stuffed with them and it irritated me. I was just starting to get over my BL-character-using-a-knife PTSD, but now it's back. It't not a top-tier series, and it's a fluff piece rather than something that will stay with you like I Told Sunset About You, but it doesn't make mistakes, and its fairly enjoyable from beginning to end.

Story: 8.5 - not groundbreaking, but very well-laid out and doesn't waste time.
Acting: 8.5 - solid - not amazing, but never cringey, and Jame (Mix) strays into pretty good.
Music: 8 - better than most BLs. It's not loaded with sappy overblown balads accompanying montages of good times spent together, it's not the usual insipid BL background music but actually sounds modern, and it's never instrusive.
Rewatch value: 7 - I could rewatch it. It would be a good antidote to a bad mood, and I could watch Big take a few more showers.
Overall: 8.5 - about as good as it gets for what it is.

Leggi di Più

Loved it!

The story of this obviously isn't anything special because it is very predictable but i honestly think its one of star hunter's best shows. I don't often comment on the more intimate scenes of bls because i dont think they are incredibly important to the development of the character's relationship (i prefer seeing the characters hold hands and stuff like that) but that kiss in ep 3 gives me so many butterflies that i almost threw up yesterday. Like its not even that special bc they were drunk and shit but idk there is just something about it, i think im going insane.

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It fell short of being good

So for me this did start off with real protentional, but after the first episode it was down hill for me after that, I just could not understand the real purpose of having to go through 5 episodes just to choose one guy, and realize that you have feelings for him, this would have worked out better if they turned it into a mini drama or a movie in one go.

The 3 main characters were nice to see considering I had just finished Gen Y 2 and there were in there. They acting was not bad, but they did seem to lack chemistry between them and on one drunk night he kisses one of them, while they all share a bed (3 people in 1 bed that is where I lost interest). This for me could have also been turned into a reality show even.

I just found that I started skipping through just to get the end, then I wish I hadn't cuz the ending was the final nail in the coffin, I mean after all that, they get an offer for a bigger house, and what was going to happen to Ray, become a third wheel or someone who they needed to cook for them.

Overall: this drama is so not worth it for me.

Leggi di Più

Funny and fluffy with a little angst

Overall: at only 5 episodes, it's a pretty fast watch if you just want to turn your brain off and be entertained. It has several tropes in it which didn't bother me but this is not anything ground breaking. Has a mix of comedy, fluff with some angst.

Content Warnings: a non-con/dub-con kiss*

What I Liked
- has a combo of humor, fluffy and some angst
- there are several product placements per episode but they don't bother me like some do
- overall production value is good
- it has those comedy sound effects which are mostly good (except for the 1 belch), didn't notice as many sound effects later on

Room For Improvement
- *it starts as an accident and the other person seems to enjoy it, but since it started as kissing someone sleeping, I think it's a non-con/dub-con kiss
- I think there are jokes that are not being conveyed. For example, in episode 1 part 2 he said the word onion a few times and from My Engineer I remember that 'kiss' and 'onion' in Thai sound similar or are the same word. So there are likely other jokes that we aren't understanding.
- Match's video comments aren't subbed but from context clues you can guess what they say
- some scenes feel a bit drawn out

Leggi di Più

It's enough to fill your BL cup up, but it's not a must-watch!

It's simple, almost mundane, but it's nice. It feels like I'm watching a vlog of 3 housemates. It is quite realistic, just showing daily life of 3 men, nothing over the top.

It gets a little boring at some part as it's slowpaced. Otherwise, it's actually enjoyable, especially if you focus on the friendship/relationship among the men.

I also love the ending. Lets say, this drama isn't awful, it deserves higher rating than what it's given, but its also the kind where, its okay to miss it.

I watch this mainly bcoz I run out of BLs to watch. lol, but it does its job of filling my BL cup. So, I'm happy overall :)

Leggi di Più

A cute, quick watch

My Mate Match just feels like a production made during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic; the production is cheap and it's set entirely in the house. But it makes up for its lack of environment with good cast chemistry and some genuinely funny moments.

The show is literally just about the three roommates having either outlandish, intimate, or intense interactions together. There are entertaining dynamics regardless of who is onscreen and even moreso when it's all three of the boys. Personally, I would have preferred a poly endgame but maybe that was just me? If they weren't going to allow the throuple endgame, I would have preferred a Ryu/Mix ending. I didn't really connect with Match through the series and that's because he didn't have much of a character journey. But with only 5 episodes, it's not a major offense.

The ending left things open for a sequel series and I would love to see a follow-up with Ryu as the lead character.

Leggi di Più

Meia boca

Achei essa série muito fraquinha. Me pareceu apenas um tapa buracos da Star Hunter, com intenção de promover o shipp Jet&Jame para a segunda temporada de Gen Y, que estava sendo aguardada quando essa foi lançada. Não é ruim, são penas 5 eps rápidos, mas é muito chatinha, sem tempero. Fica claro que não houve muito investimento, pois só existe basicamente o elenco principal, o plot podia até ser inovador, mas foi apenas mais do mesmo, a ideia não foi bem aproveitada.
O lado bom é que o lado tóxico dos BL's também não existiu, nem tinha espaço para tal.

Os três protagonistas fizeram um bom trabalho, quanto a isso não restam dúvidas, mas faltaram uma ost com mais qualidade e outras ambientações.

Com certeza não verei de novo, não é meu estilo de série, mas recomendo para outras pessoas, tem vários momentos fofos e uma certa suspense sobre o casal final.

Leggi di Più