Like these dudes are the best damn criers and it seems like Elijah always has that one perfectly fat slow moving tear just ready to fire off. Cai can and does read as unpleasant or at least highly disgruntled at times yet Elijah always has this way of making me want to hug this dude and help him get past his demon twink ways. Watching Gameboys with my friends, we're laughing at Cai for his antics while understanding that this dude is just kinda wound tight like that. Elijah is able to convey internal conflict and insecurity and pride and sheepishness and lust and regret and anger and pain and that's all within the first couple of episodes. Like I want to yell at the screen, "bitch, get over yourself" or "girl, calm tf down" yet I never (really) turn against Cai even though I feel he is definitely his own worst enemy.
Nearly every episode and sometimes it feels like every scene he's in, Cai just evokes such strong feelings within me. Gameboys is without question centered around Cai and Elijah is a phenom in this role.
LEVEL UP TV SHOW ONLINE SERIES
And watching Cai defrost over the course of the series is a treat. Watching Gameboys feels like you are facetiming with them and watching their live zoom hangouts. So learning that they were actually in their rooms staring at themselves or their sibling holding the camera, I was really impressed that they could give such a clear performance. You could have told me they had a set made with both their rooms and were looking at each other and was camera trickery that made this series and I would have believed it. Then as I learned about how the show was made and that they didn't physically interact or practice or workshop directly together, I was amazed at how strong both of their performances are. When I first watched this series, I wondered if these were strong actors or if the material was within their wheelhouse. It is a pandemic story and it's also filmed as video calls and zoom hangouts and timeline statuses and posts but the strength of Gameboys is the strength of Elijah's and Kokoy's acting and their chemisty. And Cai- Cai is a demon twink villain protagonist who I want to sit down and give a stern lecture to and also just hug and tell him it's ok and he's ok.Īs I rewatch Gameboys (and also watch it alongside my friends for their first time), I get to come back to this world that seems so real and so much own our world. Gav really is that earnest and sincere and flirty. It is a cheesy, sweet story about two guys who fall for each other over video calls during a pandemic. What I initially liked about Gameboys (and what I still like about Gameboys after watching many more series), is that Gameboys is honest and unashamed of its themes and characters.
Gameboys is absolutely a masterpiece and I have recommended, coerced, watched it with most of my friends, annoyed the others with how much I've watched and talked about it, and it reintroduced me to BLs. Then around episode 3 (Secret Snippets), I found myself at the precipice moment of "if I continue this, I'm going to be really hooked." And I continued, I binged the rest of the series, and I immediately restarted it again and in some ways it feels like I haven't stopped rewatching or at least thinking about Gameboys. Gameboys is so cheesy and light and saccharine (Gav), I wondered if this was intentional or the genre or Filipino culture. I could not imagine how much that would change the course of my year.Īs I started watching Gameboys, I could feel how hard my eyes were rolling, how much I was smiling, and how much I was shaking my head and tut tutting at their antics, (Cai).
LEVEL UP TV SHOW ONLINE MOVIE
When that movie ended, Netflix suggested Gameboys and I was too lazy in that moment to look for anything else. I was bored and decided to rewatch a gay movie on Netflix and settled on Edge of Seventeen. My first and favorite BL series I never intended to watch Gameboys.