Before I start, this post MAY contain spoilers and, as of the date of this post, this is an airing drama, so you’ve been warned.

I don’t think anyone was as excited as I was when they announced another HISTORY. I mean I was still salty about how the last two ended and figured this could be their chance to make things right. And when they announced the cast – I was positively Giddy.

Linus Wang – Hai Yi

I went through the cast one by one. I mean, I was familiar with Jason Tauh from Red Balloon (which I think was one of the worst BLs ever made) and more recently in Pappy and Daddy 2. It was good to see him in something else. But I wasn’t familiar with anyone else.

Linus Wang did all the wonderful things to me. Have you see this man? He would make the perfect alpha BL hero and I was already making up the stories in my head. Check out the face! Look at those cheekbones, those dark eyes–that body! Then I was watching a video with him and his voice–oh sweet, baby Jesus. Yes, I was already writing HISTORY 5 in my head and it hadn’t even been filmed yet. I knew nothing about him before then and even after he was announced as one of the leads, I could barely find anything about him–which was weird. When you go to most of these sites they have so much info on these guys–even their bloodtype–but MDL doesn’t even have his age. Of course, I started stalking–er I mean following–him on Instagram, made a video of him on Tiktok and continued drooling–er I mean watching–him to see what else he’d show up in.

Lately, I’ve been waiting for either a drama to finish airing, or to get halfway in before I start it. I’ve been burnt by bad stuff so much of late, I didn’t want to risk that again, so new rule. So, yesterday, I started History 5: Love in the Future and I have to say I am a little disappointed.

Let’s start with the numbering of the episodes. As we know (if you’re familiar with HISTORY), they usually say there are 20 eps, but technically they are 10 because the eps are so short. So every two eps is technically 1 ep. We don’t know if it’s actually 20 episodes this time, or if it’s ten, so there’s that. So, every website you go to to read up on the series or the actors have a different number of episodes listed. I’m going to assume it’s actually 20 (which makes no sense because from what I’ve seen this series could have been done in 10 actual episodes because there’s very little content there. I don’t know why they are dragging this out). As I was saying, I’m going to say it’s 20 episodes, each running about 23 minutes – 20 if you cut out the entry theme song and the previously on HISTORY 5 recap at the beginning.

Sean Chang – He Bo Wei

Okay, time to move to the characters–at least the mains–and the story. Linus Wang is coupled with Sean Chang and while there is some chemistry, their story is just meh. Sean plays He Bo Wei (I’m only using one of his character name because he has two) who got sucked into the future. Now he must find his way home – or at least he wants to go home (we aren’t sure which is the true feelings because why would they explain that). Other than the few times it was mentioned of him returning to his time, they focus mostly on the relationships between the couples, which makes sense since the eps are so short. I’m sure they’ll get back to the time traveling thing when the 19th episode hit just because the second to last ep is usually the cursed one.

Now, there are some cute parts. And a couple of times I was nodding and was like yassss please. But for the most part there is very little to latch on to. They’ve wasted Linus’ alpha look on a guy who isn’t very deep. He’s pretty to look at but nothing beyond that. And he’s super soft–I mean, we all want a guy who’s good with his emotions, but we also want a man who is going to stand up and be there. I just–ugh, I wish he had more depth to him. Now, to be fair, maybe it’s just me not getting my hopes up because of how Make our Days Count and Trapped ended and I’m just tired of their shit. But I really wanted more from Linus’ character.

He Bo Wei (played by Sean Chang), I don’t know what to do with him. And I’m being honest. He’s basically Meng Shaofei (played by Jake Hsu in History: Trapped) with long hair. I mean, he looks like him. He sounds like him. He acts like him–Bo Wei, if you close your eyes, is Shaofei and it bothers me. And usually, some childishness in a BL character is cute, but with this one, I merely rolled my eyes. In the series, this man is grown. He has a job making adult money and his reaction to things bothers me. To be fair (again) there is going to be times when he just spirals. It happens. But all the time with the childish response to things *rubs brain*.

Anson Chen – Wen Hsen

One of the reasons I’m still watching this series is because of the secondary couple played by Anson Chen and Jason Tauh. There is a softness to their developing romance that I like. Anson’s character is Wen Hsen aka Vincent (I think because they dip back and forth between his Native name and his English name – which makes no sense) and he’s the boss. And the moment Lin Huai En aka Wynn comes to work for him (I think as an intern because they are on probation it keeps saying. Not sure how that works), Wen is drawn to him. See, that’s a kind of storyline I can get behind. I love that Wen didn’t care that Haui En is an orphan and I love the way he treats Huai En, even though he doesn’t understand the feelings, he’s still open enough to kind of see where they lead him.

And he sets out to take care of Huai En (without letting him know). And it’s just the way Wen builds Huai En up, making him strong and able to stand up for himself. Why? Huai En was a doormat when he started–everyone was taking advantage of him and Wen didn’t like that. The softness he looks at Huai En with, the way he is always there helping Huai En up, making sure he’s steady on his feet and felt protected – there is a scene where there is an earthquake. Wen dropped everything to drive to Huai En to make sure he was okay. When Huai En says “I’m coming down to see you” Wen said simply. “No need. I came to make sure you were okay.”

Now the secondary characters are still all the same. Meaning, they want men who doesn’t belong to them, there’s the toxic vaginas and the one friend who can’t seem to mind her own damn business. Well, because, what BL is ever complete without these annoyances?

My irritation–or some of them–comes with the following:

Jason Tauh – Lin Huai EnAre you jealous? – These characters are supposed to be grown, yet we still have one doing something and when the other shows he’s not happy with it, the first one laughs and goes “are you jealous?” Why is this still a thing in these series? Why is doing something that you KNOW hurt the person you claim to be falling in love with and you think it’s funny?
Overraction – I can’t with this. Why is the response to something as simple as opening a bottle of wine so damn dramatic? The response doesn’t match the action. In this series, when this happens, Bo Wei decided to leave Hai Yi to go spend time with the girl Hai Yi thinks Bo Wei is in love with. He knows Hai Yi is having issue with their relationship (Hai Yi isn’t sure if Bo Wei and Momo are friends or lovers), yet still he was proud as punch to get up, announce he’s going to spend time with Momo then can’t understand why Hai Yi withdrew into himself. Yes, these things happen, but that reaction, purposefully hurting Hai Yi was an overraction to a simple hiccup.
Toxic Vagina – I mean, really? Do I need to still explain this one at this point? But this one took it to a whole new level of disgusting. This chick tells Wen that she was willing to marry him for status and money and allow him to sleep with Huai En. When she told him this with a straight face, I threw up a little in my mouth.
Commiting Crimes with no consequences – The others in the department Huai En works in committed attempted murder. They locked Huai En in a cooler (a walk-in freezer) and left him there to die. These freezers keep whole-ass pieces of meat frozen. I’m talking so hard, you could kill someone with a piece of it. Thankfully, they were morons and talked about it in the elevator and Wen heard and ran to save Huai En. And of course, these brain dead idiots should have been arrested – or at the very least, the leader of them should have been shaked with his own vocal chords. Instead, all he got was Wen yelling at him and nothing else. This ENTIRE department is out to get Huai En because the boss took a liking to him–and not one of them will suffer or is suffering for the things they’ve done to him.

I want to drop this series so bad. We are 10 eps in – halfway, another 10 to go and it’s painful. I don’t know why they made that many episodes. They could have used the money for the next 10 eps to make a 1 hour movie for TRAPPED bringing Tang Yi back from prison and showing how he and Shaofei deals with their new time together.

UGH

Keep your eyes on the stars,

SusuKhaa