Osmosis (2022)

A tribute to people with special needs

”Osmosis” isn't meant to be an ordinary BL series - Zeed Digital Production, the company that produced it, says it is meant to explore the life of persons with disabilities, which is quite a unique approach for a BL series, and I appreciate the good intention of the project very much.

The plot revolves around the siblings Jessica (Gezzle Marter) and James (James Ramada), whose mother died after their father, Papa Mario (Mar Soriano) left the family. When James was a little boy, he was abused by his father's friend Berto, who was killed shortly after, and Papa Mario left, because he was falsely accused of having murdered Berto (the murder was obviously drug-related). The childhood trauma makes James become mute, and he was only able to speak with his sister for a long time. When he gets older, he – secretly at first, but more and more open later - stalks his childhood friend Nic (Nic Galvez), who doesn't recognise him after their long separation. Nic even insults James for following him all the time.

One night, Nic is attacked and beaten up in front of James' house, and James and Jessica help him. After this, Nic and James get closer, and James starts talking to Nic, after they confess their love to each other. Then, however, James misinterprets an encounter of Nic and his ex-girlfriend Yasmin, and tries to commit suicide (although the reason for his seemingly unrelated suicide will only be revealed later).

One day, Papa Mario returns and meets Paolo (JC Santiago), a stutterer, who invites him to his home and later escorts him to a reunion with his son and daughter. Paolo's close friend Dave (Kiel Aguilar) later confesses to Paolo, and they become a couple, too. There is some jealousy when Dave thinks that Paolo looks too much at James, and Nic also gets jealous, but fortunately these misunderstandings are resolved soon.

All this time, Berto's son Diego/Dante, who suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder, vows in an obscure ceremony on his father's grave to take revenge and kill Papa Mario. When Papa Mario has reunited with his children and goes to a market with Paolo, Dave, Nic, James, and Jessica, Diego shoots at him but hits Dave's arm. Nic knocks Diego down and is furious, but Papa Mario stops him and succeeds in calming Diego down (which is not really very credible, tbh).

After Papa Mario takes Diego/Dante to a prison to meet Berto's real murderer, Diego/Dante realises that Papa Mario isn't the murderer he thought he was (which also feels unrealistic), and reconciles with him. Finally, all the protagonists gather in James and Jessica's home, and James, who has gotten rid of his selective mutism, tearfully forgives Diego/Dante, which may be okay, and his father Berto, which comes too soon, and in real life may not happen at all, and thus isn't credible.

All this may sound a little confusing, and I must admit that it is confusing sometimes, especially as there are some more subplots that I won't mention here. But then we all know that life itself is confusing, and this series is very realistic and partly feels like a docudrama similar to Filipino BL series like ”Padayon” or ”Stranger's Kiss”. On the other hand, I wonder if there isn't an overload of a) characters and b) disabilities, which makes some episodes a little hard to swallow.

On the technical side, the series suffers from the same flaws as many other Filipino low budget productions. Let's not forget that Richard Tolentino did not only write the script, but also casted the actors and actresses and directed the series, and as this is his first longer work, some of the flaws can be excused. The sound isn't always very good, and the editing is a little bumpy sometimes. I also don't like that some scenes, like the attack on Nic, are literally left in the dark. A continuity sloppiness that could have been avoided is that James has a bandage on his left arm in one scene in episode 6 instead of his right arm. I am confident that Tolentino's future work will improve through ”learning by doing”, and these flaws will be avoided.

What is much better than in many low budget series, though, is the acting. Richard Tolentino has managed to gather a bunch of talented and handsome actors and actresses. Without disrespecting the others, let me mention six of them. James Ramada has been one of my favourite Pinoy actors for some time, and he again proves that he knows what acting is. Some of his scenes were really heartbreaking.

His partner in this show, Nic Galvez, was as good as James, which was a surprise to me as I guess that he isn't as experienced as James. JC Santiago and Mar Soriano also have some very strong scenes. Harwin Medez plays Diego/Dante so convincingly that I really wouldn't like to meet him alone in a dark alley, and if I were asked who I thought was the most handsome of all these handsome young men, I must confess that for me it was Kiel Aguilar.

As I already mentioned before, I do appreciate the good intention of integrating persons with disabilities in a BL series, and this series is worth watching despite its minor technical flaws. It may have been better to restrict the number of characters as well as the number of disabilities addressed here, e.g. mentioning that Paolo's brother Ron was also mute was just too much.

If you want to watch a fluffy feelgood show, this isn't a series for you. But if you want to watch a BL series that also displays the real problems of people with disabilities, and a show with talented, handsome actors, and talented, pretty actresses, this is one for you.

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