Plus & Minus (2022)

Funny to call this show 'Plus & Minus', when the main couple is everything but the usual "opposites attract". They're both the same age, both the same profession, both the same clothing style, both the same... sex. At the beginning, they actually seemed like brothers to me:) But, after I looked more closely, one of them is shorter, sweet faced, super cute... and has a serious personality. While the other looks more peculiar, acts more carefree and flamboyant. Watching them discover the feelings for each other - with one of them only facing those while drunk, while the other, the more quiet and shy one, actually be the first to address them head on - was a treat and I enjoyed it all including the music (I liked the ending song WAY more than the opening song... couldn't resist fan-making my own opening credits:) What I skipped completely was the second couple, as I found both the guys super ugly, and I am shallow like that;) I liked the little law office setting and small "divorce cases of the week" the two main guys were solving, and the fact those did not occupy too much screentime. The screentime, however, proved the biggest weakness here. Because I had the feeling it all fleeted too quickly... While I liked everything the show contained, the episodes were simply so short there was not much to go by.

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cute drama & worth the watch, but many plot holes

This drama is a tad overhyped in the comments…

Story: it was dry at parts and the relationship backstories where kind of confusing, because there where a lot of flashbacks and plot holes. The difficulties they have with their relationships felt so thrown in to make the drama longer. There was a lot of symbolic moments and flashbacks… it got kinda cheesy after a while. Also, the main couple both worked as divorce lawyers and that part I found just a tad dull at times. The ending also felt pretty elaborate and I skipped most of it as I felt like the drama was already to a close enough.

Acting: Honestly what saved this drama. Both couples had good chemistry and I enjoyed watching their relationships progress. While there where cliche parts, overall it was so wholesome and the way the actors portrayed everything made it okay. There’s this really cute girl, Ling Ling, and she made the drama just a 100 times cuter!

Music: pretty good. I actually kinda liked the song.

Rewatched: I feel like it’s hard to rewatch dramas to begin with, but I definitely say this one is worth at least one if you have the time.

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Harmonie der Charaktere

Die Sotryline an sich ist gut, aber man hätte sie mehr ausbauen können. Der Plott war für mich so,class ich schon vorhersehen konnte was genau passieren wird. Und an manchen Stellen hat man sich gesehen, dass die Schauspieler nicht genau wussten was ihre Aufgabe ist.
Die Charaktere harmonieren gut miteinander, wobei ich sagen muss, manches ging mir etwas zu schnell da hat mir etwas an Plott gefehlt.
Ich würde sie jetzt nicht nochmal schauen wollen, dafür hat sie mich zu wenig in ihren Bann gezogen.
All in all würde ich diese Serie dennoch empfehlen, weil sie eine unschuldige Liebe zeigt, und Verbundenheit zwischen den Protagonisten.

Was ich allgemein sehr gut finde, dass mittlerweile taiwanesische BL Serien Gefühlvolle Szenen, sowie intime Szenen haben (nicht auf das sexuelle bezogen).

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Podia ser melhor

Friends to love sempre é um plot que me pega principalmente pq acho um grande desafio essa virada de amigo para amante., principalmente quando não é algo que rolou igualmente pelos dois, houve uma confissão. Então entendo o sentimento Li Gong em duvidar de qual eram os verdadeiros sentimentos do Zeshou " será que ele está comigo pq me ama da msm forma que eu amo ele? será que ele consegue dividir o que é amor de amigo e de namorado? ". Eu entendo esses questionamentos, o que não entendo é vc usar a separação no intuito de ajudar o outro, sendo que só traz mais sofrimento e dor. Sendo que o que eles mais falavam um para o outro era que eles ficaram juntos sempre, que resolveriam tudo juntos... esse plot me deu preguiça e raiva, não precisava. Eles podiam enfrentar esse desafio juntos.
Tirando isso é um casal com muita química e extremamente fofos.
O casal secundário eu gostei, mas não me apeguei. Não senti mto o desenvolvimento dos sentimentos deles no início, mas gostei como a relação foi sendo construída.

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Enjoyable, but a bit too much side plot that takes away from the stars.

Plus and Minus is interesting as the two main leads have been high school friends. They now live and work together. Usually in BLs, either they love in high school, or they meet later in life. This makes the story pretty interesting from the start. Most of the characters are enjoyable, and the main couple is extremely attractive. You can tell they care about each other.

Overall, the drama is fine, but spends too much time on the character's jobs instead of the relationships. This does make the story more realistic but less interesting. Maybe I am more excited for the love aspect rather than the divorce lawyer job aspect but I wish this was less detailed so their love could shine more. I ended up fast-forwarding a good part of the series.

When they do have couple moments its all really good. The kisses are very passionate and they look amazing. The ending was a little annoying but it was resolved so its good.

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Eu gostei da história dos dois casais. Um BL simples, mas com momentos de intriga, ação, tristeza...enfim, muitas emoções diferentes num mesmo plot. Achei bastante interessante as participações especiais de casais de BLs anteriores ("Seja amado em casa" de 2021 e "HIstory 3: faça nossos dias contarem" de 2019). Sem grandes pretensões, é uma produção simples, mas com dinâmica bem ativa, o que não te deixa cansar da história, e, por ser chinês, eu diria até um pouco surpreendente. Os episódios são curtos (entre 25 e 30 minutos), consegui maratonar em um dia só.

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Nice but average BL but still I enjoyed.

I think this series is not really keeping up with top-tier Taiwanese BLS out there. I feel like it has its own thing. The two main leads portraying as Zhe Zheshou and Fu Li Gong made me enjoy the series, them alone. I think I have issues with the flashbacks. I thought it would have been good if it's mix well within the first ep. I thought that without those two handsome male leads the scene felt dry and not that exciting. The second couple, uhmmm, nah not a fan of it. They're just unnecessary and lacking. They're my least likable second BL couple ever. Okay moving on. I found it dissatisfied to see Boris Wang rarely like bitch come on he's so eye-catching to look at. I don't care if he's just a supporting character but I would rather have him partnered with other actor and replace the second couple.
The surprising cameos were nice. Not really expecting anything but I'm glad they're there. I'm conflicted with the feelings of both Zheshou and Li Gong. I thought it took years just for them to date each other. It's weird that Zeshou acted surprised when he saw the keychain in the little box hid by Li Gong. I don't think it doesn't make any sense knowing in EP 12.5 they both have it already. The blind dates are ridiculous, I don't even know why the hell they advised each other to plan double blind dates each other.
I'm okay with Nikita being like a love guru to the two main couples but when she dated Li Gong I was turned off and taken aback. It's just so downright weird . I thought that is best left as a concept rather than execution. I hate how sometimes Li Gong just broke up with Zeshou. It's so unfair for Zeshou knowing his mother just passed away and his father being indifferent about their same-sex relationship. I thought that just made it hard for me to sit through. Eversince that thing dropped one by one, I just can't help but have pity towards Zeshou. Besides the negative sides of this series I enjoy it.
I never expect anything I'm just enjoying the screen time of the two male leads. Overall this was a nearly decent but still mediocre series

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Not terrible...

but not great either.

Gong was such a monotone character. No matter what was happening, happy or sad, he acted the exact same throughout the show. We were supposed believe he'd been in love with his best friend forever basically, but it just never came across to me that he had this intense love or passion. The only time I believed anything he was conveying was the love scene in the very last episode. The music ruined most scenes as well.

The side couple had more chemistry and better acting, but unfortunately their story was just as boring as the rest of the show.

I feel if this was actually shortened by half it would be an enjoyable bite-sized BL, but 12 episodes where almost nothing happens? I don't see myself coming back. I really wanted to love this!

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A Fiery BL Romance between Lawyers

Overall, I thought this show was quite creative and I quite enjoyed it (in spite of the crappy writing near the end of the show starting from episode 8).

Positives
- The co-stars did a great job conveying the feelings of their characters.
- The first and second episodes were hilarious. I enjoyed Zheng's plan for rejecting blind dates.
- Episode 12 was well-written from the dialogue to the story to the setting, etc. It was likely the series' best episode by far (aside from Episode 13 (the special/extra)).
- Episode 13 was very enjoyable. I especially appreciated Zheng's character growth in the episode. It was funny and added a comical aspect to the show that bumped my rating from 7.0 to 7.5.
- Lots of skinship/kissing/contact. You see this a lot in Taiwanese BL but it is always more enjoyable compared to JBLs and KBLs as they tend to do away with much of the skinship.
- Great acting from the fathers of the co-stars. Especially appreciated the supportive nature of Fu's Dad.
- The story was good, made sense and was decently enjoyable.
- The music was catchy and well-suited to many scenes in the series. Opening theme was quite good too.

Areas for Improvement
- Chemistry was weak for the side couple (Kato Yuki and Jian Yingze). Did not enjoy their relationship as much as the main co-stars. Did not like that it felt like Yuki forced Jian into a relationship either; seemed forced and was too fast. Yuki was far too aggressive. This was unrealistic writing.
- As others have pointed out, the lighting in the camping episode was very off. It made it hard to watch.
- The owner of the bar was a bad character cliche. Did not enjoy her character though I thought she did a good job partly getting Zheng and Fu to realise they ought to be together.
- The sister did not have much of a role to play in anything besides the first few episodes. She deserved more as a female character in the show.
- I think the flashbacks were good for adding context to the show especially when it comes to how Fu's love for Zheng started but I think it lacked a lot of development. It was not developed well enough for us to see how Fu actually came to love him.

Suggestions?
- The side couple was unnecessary. It felt like they did it to only increase the show's screen time (same goes for the break-up).
- The break-up felt unnecessary because it was based off of a cliche and did nothing to make the show more enjoyable; another fight/argument between the two would've been better if they were looking to implement conflict.
- The support characters could've played more important roles in the story, they were largely quite 2-dimensional.
- Could have added more flashbacks that focused on Fu's growing love for Zheng; perhaps the 18th birthday was the largest contributor but it was not good enough for me.

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