My Day the Series – Episode 1 [Review]

A romantic comedy series about a young, determined culinary intern named Sky making his way into a multi-billion-dollar food company. Find out how he survived the challenges and wins the heart of his wicked boss, Ace.

(Source: Oxin Films Youtube Channel)

—Edited by TheFNGee

Characters

Sky (Miko Gallardo)

Sky is a college student. He likes to cook for his family, making sure they eat healthy meals. He’s easy-going, with a charismatic nature that draws people to him. He’s part of a close-knit group of friends and has a pretty girlfriend. A senior in college, he needs to complete an internship before he can graduate. He’s unsure of what he wants to do in life after graduation, which is why he’s late choosing a company where to intern. So, his teacher sends him to intern at the prestigious company Ace of Cakes.

Ace (Iñaki Torres)

Heir to the Ace of Cakes company, he is the typical spoiled young master. He seems uninterested in the company he is set to take over. And despite his wealth and status, he seems like a loner. His father gives him the task to take over the internship program and land them an award. So, of course, both Sky and Ace will be in close proximity to each other. Who will fall in love first?

Moira (Shanice Eve Bailon)

The girlfriend of Sky, she’s quite the spoiled princess as well. She likes to be waited on and doted over. She looks down at those she feels are not of her station like people in the service industry. She doesn’t care for Sky’s family as she thinks they are rude and dirty.

Kim (Leilani Kate Yalung)

Ace’s girlfriend and daughter of the business partner of Ace’s father. She is set to take over her father’s business as well. The two fathers have pushed their children to date in order to merge the companies someday.

Storyline

Our story begins with a young boy and his mother at an amusement park. He wants ice cream but can’t make up his mind as to the flavor. As he looks around at various rides and people, trying to make up his mind, his mother makes up her mind for him. We can only assume this will be a pattern repeated in this story. He muses to himself about choices. Whose advice should we follow, our parents, our friends, society, or our heart? This important question is universal. Everyone has to decide who or what to follow in their lives.

My Thoughts on this Drama

This episode sets us up from the very beginning to look at the differences between our two main characters. We have Sky, who is from a working-class family, studying hard at school, helping his mom out, willing to make an effort to succeed. Then we have Ace, who is very rich, has his needs he wants to be met, who doesn’t seem to have any ambition or drive. This is my first surface impression.

After the credits roll, we follow Sky on his typical morning. Wake up, scratch your junk, lol, and after rolling around the bed a few times, going downstairs to prepare breakfast for everyone. His household includes himself, his mother, his father, and his sibling Ken. I’m not sure if the character is meant to be flamboyantly gay or a trans character. Either way, the character flounces in very dramatically and feels more like a caricature than an actual person.

Everyone seems to get along in his family; his house is filled with love and support. Everyone is greeted with smiles as Sky’s mom waters down the ketchup to stretch out their budget. You can see they may not be wealthy in money, but there is plenty of love in their house.

We follow Sky as he catches a motorbike Taxi to school. Once on campus, we are introduced to his friends, his bestie Jam, and their other friend Bryce. The script provides some terrible dialogue between them, so I cringe a little. The scene is trying too hard to show that they are the typical boys club in college. It feels as if I’m watching frat boys greet each other. Then, we meet Sky’s snobbish girlfriend Moira, who struts in like she owns the place and Sky—followed by the “bullies” who strut in between the group trying to posture like Alpha males. It seems very trite and stereotypical—all this, and in only the first part of the show. Every first episode tries to get its footing, so let’s look at the rest of the episode.

In class, it’s the last day to apply for internships. Both Sky and Jam haven’t picked where they will be interning yet. Fortuitously, Sky is at the top of the class, which earns him an interview at the prestigious Ace of Cakes company. They are all a bit worried over the reputation that the company consistently flunks out interns, but Sky and Jam both decide to give it a shot.

The boys and girls go their separate ways, and this is where we see the true bitchiness of Moira and her friend. While they are getting their pedicures, Moira and her friend treat the nail technician horribly, threatening to have her fired. Personally, at this point in the episode, I can’t understand why Sky is even dating such an unlikeable person. She is the standard bitchy girlfriend trope they use in BL’s to make the character less conflicted about their sexuality later. If they have a bitchy girlfriend and this guy treats them better, why not go for that guy. I hate when we get one-dimensional characters to just prod the story along.

We meet the Ace of Cakes boss, who is having a meeting with a business partner and his daughter Kim. Kim is dating Ace, who is supposed to be at the meeting. She calls to check up on him and to see where he is. Of course, he’s still in bed. He lies and says he’s stuck in traffic, then gets up to take a shower. We see how opulent his house is, and he’s quite the young master. As he comes down the ostentatious staircase, yes, there is a double landing staircase; he is greeted by Ms. Becky, a trans housekeeper in full maid uniform of a black swirly skirt, white dress, and feather duster. She looks like she’s just stepped right out of the set of Black Butler, or some other anime. I have to say, though, I do find her adorable. Ace can’t help but smile fondly in return as he answers her with a “Good Morning, Ms. Becky.” From here on out, I’m going to talk in general about my thoughts on this first episode. I want to know if you’ve seen it, and your thoughts.

I just found out about the controversy with the comments of the main actor Aki Torres, so I’m going to spend a minute or two addressing this. During an interview, Aki Torres responded that Boys Love doesn’t mean gay, but is two straight guys who fall in love. Ok, had this been 5 or 10 years ago, this would have been the case as most of the BL beginnings, or YAOI as a genre, which was created by straight women in Japan for straight women. But in recent years, the LGBTQ+ community has attempted to take over the genre, pushing for accurate representation, and more realistic storylines that address actual issues in the community. The actor should have educated himself on these issues before speaking about it. Then came the official apology, which stated he was trying to educate himself about these issues.

After the apology, we have this interaction, which doesn’t seem to show very much growth in this area.

Due to these interactions and statements, many well known YouTube reactors, who are either part of the LGBTQ+ community or an ally, have decided not to react to the series My Day. I will say what I think and try to be honest in my review. Am I disappointed and angry about this behavior? Yes. I had hoped we were moving past these prejudices and stereotypes. However, my review doesn’t look through the lens of the actor’s off-screen antics, but the episode as it stands.

Back to the Impressions Of Episode 1…

This first episode does a decent job of introducing you to the main characters and setting up the plot. The viewing audience clearly sees the dichotomy set up between Sky and Ace, one from a working-class family and one born into a world of wealth and privilege. A clear conflict will be if they can accept each other as they are. Will they be able to fit into each other’s worlds?

And the second obstacle that will come in between them will be gender. Both of them have established girlfriends that we are introduced to in this first episode (albeit Ace’s is forced on him by the two demanding fathers). There is no mention of a previous boyfriend, so one can imply that this will be their first time being attracted to someone of the same gender. However, I wouldn’t call them “straight,” which in and of itself, is an erroneous definition, since no one is strictly either-or. The alleged definition of “straight” implies absolutely no attraction for members of the same sex. Sexuality is a spectrum, and more is needed to discuss this in the context of BL shows. One thing worth mentioning is also that Ace’s father berates him by telling him he must act more manly because he doesn’t want anyone to call his son a girl. This hidden homophobia will clearly be an issue and implies prejudices held by the father. However, it’s worth noting, the father’s right-hand man is a very obviously gay man Jelai whom he trusts to take care of things for him. It’s possible that Jelai will be the one that helps the father accept his son’s newly-discovered orientation later and his choice of partner.

The acting was not bad. The main two actors did well at drawing me in through their characters. Some of the side characters seemed a little over the top. Ken, Jelai and Moira were all acted with only one dominant trait, flamboyant, office predatory gay (why does he start hitting on Jam right away?) and bitchy ice-queen girlfriend. I am hoping that as the episodes go forward, their acting improves. Otherwise, these characters will become a hindrance to the effectiveness of the scenes they are in, drawing attention away from the plot and central characters. With that said, if you want a different opinion about the controversy, Gio Emprese, who plays Jelai, addresses his thoughts on the issues with Aki Torres on his YouTube channel.

Also, here’s hoping they make both Kim and Ace more sympathetic characters. There is a scene where the two of them are dining together, complaining of how they want to get out from under their parents’ shadow. Ace wants a simple life, and Kim dreams of being a fashion designer. They are both sitting in a fancy restaurant, wearing nice clothes, sipping wine while whining about the very life they have.

 Even the wealthy have parental problems and can be unhappy. This message comes at a time when, amidst a global pandemic, so many people have lost their jobs and are struggling to make ends meet, let alone put food on the table. I have a hard time feeling bad for Ace, who sleeps in a giant bed, lives like a king, and still doesn’t seem to want to work. He appears not to care about the business his father worked so hard to build. Hopefully, they will flesh him out a bit, with a reason for us to care about him because right now, he’s a spoiled jerk.

With all that said, there were a few scenes that got a laugh out of me – the scene where we have Sky on his knees, begging Sir Ace to give him a chance. It’s played with a charming, campy feel. You can’t help but root for Sky and laugh at his audacity at the same time. Ace appears to be fighting a smile as well.

Another scene takes place at his mom’s BBQ stand. A local auntie, Krizzy, finds out that Sky landed an internship working for Ace, who’s a TikTok celebrity. All the aunties and his mom proceed to talk about how hot Ace is, thirsting over how he makes them hot under the covers. I couldn’t stop laughing at that. It’s what my friends and I do when we see a good picture of our Thai celebrity crushes. I can relate. 😁

Overall, a mediocre start to this series. I hope that next week we will see more character development and learn more about what makes them tick. I will keep watching, but I’m not sold on the show yet. It has potential, but I’m not sure if this show will reach it. We’ll all see what happens next week. Let me know what you think. Do you agree or disagree? Any other thoughts? Thanks for reading.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars. [See our Review Guide]