The Boyfriend Express (Filipino Series)

Harry and Brix ultimately get to be together, and the escort agency’s criminal operation is shut down. But getting to that happy ending takes ten episodes of a conflict that keeps circling back on itself: Harry doubts Brix, then regrets misjudging him, while Brix wonders whether he deserves Harry’s love. The agency’s villains, meanwhile, keep trying to get money out of them. By the time it was over, I mostly wanted the series to wrap up.

The trouble starts with Harry’s inability to let go of Jasmine, his girlfriend until their breakup three years earlier. When she tells him she has found someone new—a woman she wants to be with—Harry responds by hiring Brix, a professional escort, to pose as his boyfriend and make Jasmine jealous. The pretend relationship becomes real as Harry and Brix fall for each other, just as Jasmine and her new girlfriend marry.

Brix, however, is bound by an exclusive contract with an escort agency. He owes it an old debt and must hand over a share of what he earns from his current clients. The agency considers him too valuable to release, and uses blackmail and other underhanded tactics to maintain its financial hold over both Brix and Harry. Harry’s family is rich enough to throw money at almost any problem, but that only feeds his fear that Brix may be using him. Some of Harry’s suspicions have a basis, though most come from his own assumptions. Brix also takes Harry’s money repeatedly—sometimes for himself, sometimes because his boss is blackmailing him—and the two never seem to communicate clearly.

Harry’s grandmother eventually recognizes that the couple’s love is genuine and works to resolve their misunderstandings so they can be together. The story also gives considerable screen time to a second couple: Harry’s assistant and Brix’s cousin. Their storyline is sweet, and they can be playful and charming, but the chemistry never feels convincing to me; their intimate scenes in particular seem oddly restrained.

I went in with low expectations because the series came from Oxin films. I anticipated plenty of skin and sex scenes, with a thin story stretched out to fill the runtime, and that is largely what I got. There is a plot, but it doesn’t justify ten episodes of roughly 50 to 55 minutes each. Nor did the crowded cast make the show better. If Brix had been honest from the start, and the money-and-mistrust storyline had been handled once instead of repeated, the series could have been tighter. More inventive storytelling might also have built a deeper, more honest relationship between Harry and Brix. The two actors do solid work, but they needed stronger material and direction. In the end, the series stopped delivering the entertainment I had hoped for. (4/10)