“It is okay to make mistakes and stumble in life as long as you stand up in life.” – Quote from Sereno

Sereno literally means serene in Spanish (there is a lot of Spanish influence in the Philippines) which this series displays very little of. It is an attribute sorely missing in this series. Lately, there also seems to be a rash of BLs about mermen with none piquing any exotic imagery. Most were cringey. While this series initially offered an interesting premise, it ultimately focused on the lowest common denominator- mainly sensationalism and titillation. The saga of mermen is ironically only instrumental; not integral. Admittedly, however, the graphics for the introduction to each episode and the music score are the most serene moments of this aberrant series.

Overall, this series is unfocused and unhinged. Perhaps, if it had stayed to one theme, maybe it would have been a better series. Initially, its attention to the theme of merman was promising, but it soon got bogged down in tangential trivialities and/or silliness.

Kai (Mac Alonzo) is a merman and is lured with magic by a very much overplayed tacky witch named Ursula (Cartz Udal). She maintains a resort on one of the islands in the Philippines and, because of a merman’s unique enchanting powers, Kai is a purveyor of good luck. Therefore, he began to bring prenominal business to the resort that Ursula owns and operates. Unfortunately, he is held captive by Ursula and is under her control.

Kai, lonely and feeling isolated from his sea family, develops a love interest with a local on the island named Mario (Keitaro Chan), who mysteriously disappears into the sea as soon as their relationship begins to become serious and is thought to be dead. Kai feels responsible for his tragic disappearance. Yet it is more likely that Ursula made him disappear.

Ursula has a sister named Alicia (Tintin Ng) who is the opposite of her but is portrayed for some reason with a hunchback. She, too, is under the control of her sister. But she retained, buried deep within her, witch-like powers and eventually learns how to use them to help control her sister, Ursula, to some degree.

Two years later, someone comes to the resort that now draws the attention of Kai. Elios (Larence Brenches) is a writer who visits the island with his best friend Alfred (Llyod Agustin). Elios is a vibrant, rather handsome young man that seems interested in all aspects of life. Elios accidentally learns Kai is a merman when he sees him emerging from the sea, where mermen go to recharge/rejuvenate.

Drunk Alfred enters the wrong room, coming back from the bar one day and enters the room of Julius (MJ Coloma), who is in the process of climaxing in his adult podcast for his members only. This accident leads to a torrid love affair between them. Surprisingly, I rather liked their liaison, despite the lunatic transition of making Alfred a part-time merman (do not ask). I thought their relationship was quite exceptional and logical, despite the circumstances of who they both were. They developed a hot, steamy, erotic closeness initially that then turned into a loving union, fledgling at first, then advancing to become a long-lasting bond. While unorthodox, I thought it evolved rather earnestly. (Despite the silliness of the kidnapping actions).

The relationship between Kai and Elios was more like a slapstick performance – with drollness and flippancy. To add to this comedy of nonsense, Mario suddenly pops back into the picture from the sea with no recollection of where he was or how he got back. So now you have two people deeply in love and competing for Kai. What is the poor girl to do?!

Two people seem to have played their part with a bit of earnestness. One was Keitaro Chan as Mario. He seems the most tethered to some sense of reality, and it is quite obvious that he loved Kai. So much so that he let jealousy get the better of him and ‘sold him out’, as the expression goes. He played this part with a sense of raw honesty. One of the few who did. And who also rose above all the other silliness was JP Lopez as Mario’s father. A bit of a throw-away part perhaps, he turned it into a rather tender and touching representation. We can see on his face, the tremendous loss when he thinks his son is lost to the sea, and he keeps looking for him, even after years of being missing. When Mario realizes what he has done to the one person he truly loves, his father is there to provide the nurturing that Mario needs and guides him to understanding we are certainly not always perfect people. The quote in the beginning is what his father is counseling Mario to do. He simply portrayed a good, decent, honest, down-to-earth parent who wants to help his son learn from his painful mistakes. It was a beautiful teaching moment. Kudos to both.

If the story had stuck to its intended storyline, it might have worked. But it went salacious. While I have nothing against seeing half-naked men romping around in a resort, I do have a problem when it is relegated, in some instances, into forced circumstances, or coercion bordering on rape. That is disgusting and vile. Some of the humor was also so guttural, degenerate, and obscene. The overall story plot made no sense and cheapened the whole idea of the enchantment of mermen.

While the acting by the main protagonists was passable and sometimes even entertainingly good, a lot of the supporting characters were amateurish and just downright bad. Almost infantile and in some cases unpleasant. The musical numbers were truthfully laughably bad. Perhaps they were meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but they came across as being cringey. Some could not even ‘lip-synch’ the lyrics correctly.

The ending completely baffled me as I did not understand why Kai needed to go to the sea for such an extended period of time. When he did return, I was still not convinced if there was any resolution as to the relationship between Kai and Elios. Seriously, how is that going to ‘work’?

Frankly, I am not sure what the intent of this series was. There is a lot, and I mean a lot of innuendo and downright silliness in this series. But secretly I did find myself surprisingly entertained when it got campy and off-the-wall gay (call me crazy). If the production seriously went totally campy or concentrated on telling a risqué gay story with a sharper script told in a tongue-in-cheek style or off-the-wall method, you might just develop an outright cult following, as no one and I mean no one was doing that. Keep refining what you are doing. Honestly, focus on one thing and make it really, really campy, nuanced, and above all melodramatic.

And allow the actors to show their talents besides their bodies; you then just might have a hit. This theme could have been it. The male performers were all certainly eye-popping handsome and many were decent actors. Next time, do not be so trashy.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Streaming on- Oxin Films YouTube Channel