Wow, I'm blown away by the amount of excitement and enjoyment I had while watching this. This took me FOREVER to watch because it's pretty much non-existent where I live, but an angel from the heavens sent me a link (you can message me if you want the link too, forewarning, the ads are all p**n and pretty extreme) and I was finally able to sit and binge-watch. Oh, Mando is a comedic drama that handles very important and heavy topics while the main leads look beautiful and tell a compelling story.

Let's Dive In.

The production was so nice. We get to see inside the beautiful scenery of The Philippines, and I think this series has been the best so far in letting the audience experience its refined surroundings, countryside, and cityscape. The rides on the bike were absolutely breathtaking, the end where they're dancing on the bridge is magical, and I loved every second of it. I have nothing bad to say when it comes to production, however, I understand the whole "fairytale" of the story was needed to advance the plot, except, there were times it was just real cringe and I couldn't keep a serious face (maybe that was the goal..?). Overall, production gets a big pat on the back from me!

Moving onto the plot. I LOVED every single second of it from episodes 1-4 until they kind of just lost a bit of my respect until the end of episode 5. Cheating is something that happens every single day and it's a realistic story, so I wasn't necessarily mad about the cheating aspect, but I don't think it was executed as well as it could've been. Barry is so protective of his sister and says constantly that he doesn't want her to get hurt, and that she's the only one who truly understands him, except, you then go and have a secret relationship with her boyfriend? With no guilt? No remorse? He knows how it feels to be cheated on, and yet, he just doesn't feel that for his own sister? It felt like the writers had taken that side of the story and threw it in the trash. It made me a bit sick to see them flirting while Krisha stood 10 feet away. And Krisha is just the sweetest human being ever. She outright supports her brother's sexuality, fights for the LGBTQ+ community, and just so much more. I honestly haven't enjoyed a female character in BL in a while, but she was everything and more. Finally, Mando starts to feel some guilt and comes out to his father (beautiful, done so well) and finally lets it out to Krisha about his secret affair with her brother. It was a hard scene to watch, but again, the actors executed it so well. by the end, the show gained my respect. Again, however, I do think they rushed Krisha's pain and hurt. I loved how we actually get to see her go through the suffering and agony of the situation, but it just kind of dropped at the end. Most noticeable due to her brother's suicide attempt, but still, that pain doesn't just subside after just a while. I'm happy she ended up with another guy, so I can't complain too much.

I do want to praise this series, however, for doing a fabulous job at handling suicide and harming oneself. Barry's story is hard-hitting. This series might've been pretty funny, but it truly shows pain better than I could've imagined. It's hard to watch Barry's scene in the bathroom, but it really is something incredible. I applaud this series for being able to handle a storyline like this and do it well. Another great subject that I've seen no other series ever in BL do is have a fully-fleshed out transexual storyline that was probably the cherry on top. Mr. Siwa comes out as a transwoman and everyone is supportive except the school. They all held a protest for her that showed the school she belonged there. It was such a nice transition from the beginning to the end. I loved it, I loved it more than anything. For a BL to handle a trans story without making it comedic or making the transwoman overly flirty or just downright creepy is astonishing. Another round-of-applauds to the production team.

Overall, I really enjoyed this show. The first episode captured my attention in a snap. It does a wonderful job at sharing Mando's story and his giddy and lovely personality. It also doesn't hurt that Alex is a very beautiful man, and I rewatched the scene with him coming out of the pool in his speedos like five times. Wow, just wow. Mando's mother's storyline was really nice too. I'm glad how that was operated and executed. I HIGHLY recommend this series. It's one of the best-produced Philippines BL's I've ever seen. The story, while it could use some tweaking, is pretty darn good.

Rating:

Story: 8.5 - Again, the story wasn't the best it could've been, but I still really enjoyed it. The trans storyline, the lesbian mothers, the handle meant of suicide -- it was all really well. I'll take 1.5 stars off for the no-remorse cheating during like all of episode 4, but other than that, it was pretty perfect.

Acting: 9 - Kokoy shows us a groundbreaking performance that's almost a 360 from his character in Gameboys. It just shows how versatile and how skilled he is. I loved him so much. Alex did a really good job too, some scenes he could've done better, but I think it was still really good. Barbie did really well, the lesbian couple was good. Mando's friends did a decent job, and all the other supporting characters were okay.

Music: 8 - My favorite was the song on the bridge. It gets the majority of the stars. I really liked the music, it went almost perfectly with this series.

Rewatch value: 1 - Again, I don't rewatch, cause I have more shows to finish, but I will for sure be coming back to watch Barry walk in slow-mo. damn, that boy is beautiful.

Overall: 9 - Suggested was 6.5, but I enjoyed this series so much more than that. Yes, some changes should've been made, and the script could've been better, but those things can be overlooked for just how really good the series is. I'll take a star off for some of the aspects of the cheating plot, and the cringe fairytale dream sequences.