I am genuinely a little apprehensive about writing this review because it seems like you can't dislike a character anymore without being labelled as unsympathetic at best, or a cishet who's ignorant to LGBTQ struggles at worst.
There are quite a few super fans of this series, let's just keep it at that.

But for the sake of transparency, I'll be honest about this seemingly beloved series.

I have very mixed feelings about ITSAY. On one hand, it dives deep into complex issues like internalized homophobia and has genuinely amazing scenes, both heartwarming and heartbreaking, but on the other hand, I was left feeling somewhat underwhelmed and maybe even a little bitter at the end.

I, like I'm sure many, had a hard time with one of the main leads, Teh. He got off to a bad start early on--which is fine, people are flawed and make mistakes and are petty all the time, but as a viewer, it's something that I remembered about him throughout the series. I very much understood his struggles and how he tried his best, that he made choices he believed were right, but whenever I then saw Oh-aew, the difference in feelings I had between the two of them became obvious.

I love Oh-aew. Sometimes he made similar choices to Teh, again, not all good. But I just cannot shake a feeling of him deserving better. This series is one of the few times I would've liked a sad ending romance-wise. I believe it would've worked better if Oh-aew and Teh didn't end up together--it would've been truly a masterpiece to me.

The acting was really good overall, both main leads and side characters. The story and plot were realistic and dealt with the problems and issues it wanted to portray in-depth. Characters that were important were three-dimensional.

A lot of this show was done so well. I just personally didn't like how the romance ended up, but you might feel very differently from me. After episode three, I never rooted for the main leads to end up together again. As of now, I haven't seen the sequel season, and I honestly doubt I will.
It was a fine experience watching ITSAY, but I won't rewatch it in a very, very long time, if ever. I'm sure that almost sounds contradictory to some haha, but sometimes that's just how it is.

It's hard to rate this series, 'cause I recognize its production value.
But if anything, I encourage you to watch the first episode. It looks like I'm an outlier with my feelings towards ITSAY, but if any of what I said here ends up validating your experience, then this review will have done its job!
Nothing is for everyone, after all.