The On1y One

When ”The On1y One” was announced and it was apparent that it was more or less another adaptation of the first ”Addicted” book, I wondered if the world really needed yet another series about stepbrothers. Well, maybe the world didn't really need this series, but unlike the Thai adaptation of ”Addicted”, which failed in every aspect, this one can compare to the groundbreaking series from mainland China. I would even say it is almost as good, and therefore I'm glad that it was actually made. Sheng Weng's (Liu Dong Qin) life changes completely when he not only has to change to a school where he meets introvert Jiang Tian (Benjamin Tsang), who also becomes his stepbrother when Sheng Weng's father marries Jiang Tian's mother, so that the boys have to live under the same roof. As would be expected from this kind of BL series, they move from enemies to friends, and from friends to lovers, as they begin to understand each other. The boys's opposing characters are displayed sensitively thanks to a well written script, good directing and amazing acting. Not only the leads', and especially Benjamin Tsang's, popularity have skyrocketed, but Andy Chen, who plays the support role of Gao Tian Yang, also captured viewers' hearts.

This is the story of two guys in their junior year of high school who end up as step-brothers and in time a more serious bond develops between them, which is slowly leading toward romance. A little spoiler ahead. The good, it is a well told story with several subplots and actually they have a straight best friend who adds a lot of humor to the series, I wish they had done more with him. Then there is end of episode 9 and if you know, you know - if you don't know, you should watch it. It is getting some flak due to the casting, the 2 main stars are supposed to be 17, but one is 30 and the other is 29 in real life when it was filmed (one has so much make up on to hide where he shaves you can see it caked on his face during most of the scenes), but the actors did an excellent job and they shouldn't be getting grief over that, if you can move past this you will enjoy it. The annoying, the series doesn't wrap up any storyline, not the main one or the subplots - from what I've read the director was angling for a second season so every single storyline was left open! Which was quite frustrating; and it turns out later that it wasn't picked up for a second season, so basically we will never get the ending to any storyline at all.