Niccijade Reeves-Alhark
Editor-in-Cheif
Misunderstandings. Disagreements. Uncertainty. Jealousy. These are all things that come with a relationship, and they become harder to resolve when it comes to long-distance relationships.
After watching the first season of Gameboys Level-Up Edition, I realized that it is normal for these things to exist in a relationship and that it is more to maintain than what meets the eye. Gameboys Level-Up Edition is a Philippine web series directed by Ivan Andrew Payawal and written by Ash M. Malanum that has been put on Netflix after winning Best Web Series in the 2020 Seoul Indie Shorts Awards. It is about two guys, Gavreel and Cairo, who meet online and develop a relationship over face times and texts. They go through several trials and tribulations, being in the pandemic, family trouble, and even bitter exes coming back. After this point, there will be spoilers, so if you want to watch this show without any, I suggest you leave now.
What I really love about this show is the conflict, it is not one-sided, and it is well developed through each episode. Every time there was a conflict, each side was shown, and you could see where each person was coming from. An example of this was when Cairo says he must move far away with his mom, we see Gavriel say he is fine with it, but then we see that he is extremely insecure about it when he talks to Pearl, his best friend. Cairo also feels terrible about moving, but only tells his childhood friend, Wesly. This tension eventually builds up, along with jealousy, leading to both arguing, but instead of it coming out of nowhere there is enough context given to figure out the problem.
Another thing I love about this show is how unique its storytelling is. Instead of the classic in-person filming, Gameboys takes the situation of the pandemic to its advantage, telling the stories through social media interactions, face times, and premade videos. I feel like the separation of Cairo and Gavriel for so long made it even better when they were able to kiss for the first time (they both tested negative for COVID-19).
This show handled the situation of the pandemic well, showing the characters’ losses and their struggles with the pandemic and embracing them in the story. It has a good balance of comedy and drama, also knowing when things are serious. To be honest, after watching the Netflix preview, I thought it was going to be a silly and quick love story about a confident guy and his mission to get a stubborn man’s heart, but the writer really flipped the table on me when I got attached to the characters and cried buckets.
The actors also brought everything to life, they made everything feel real and interactive with their chemistry. There were several times where I had to pause the show just to freak out over what had just happened, this show took so many turns it was jaw-dropping. I recommend this show to anyone who loves a good storyline and something to relate to.
Image Credit: Netflix
Comments