1.29 ReelShort - Waterboy: Second Down

0:00 Welcome to my vertical obsession. I'm your host, Megan, and today we are talking about water Boy second down on Real Short. This is a sequel to the series water Boy. So Excited. This stars Declan Clifford as Kayden, Russell Sky Kawhi as Donovan Miller, Tory Harris as Maya, Evan Gamberdella as Jones, Garrett Clayton as Aaron, and Rebecca Ritz as Evelyn Miller. So the synopsis for this one is, three years after Cayden broke Donovan's heart to save his NFL dreams, superstar quarterback Donovan Miller is back and signed with the agency, where Cayden is barely surviving as an inter Donovan says he's come back to Boston for revenge, but the tension between them says otherwise. In a world that could destroy Donovan's career if the truth comes out, falling for each other again might cost them everything. So for the overview, I did fearing for him missing out on his chance at the NFL and what could happen if Donovan and was an outed player. Cayden breaks up with him. Three years later and Donovan is a big football star while Cayden is just trying to survive in college. Their paths cross again when Donovan comes to Boston and signs with the agency Cayden is currently interning at. Now that Donovan is on the Boston team and working with Caden's job, this starts to get messy. Donovan is set to torture Kayden for breaking his heart years ago, but he can't stop caring for him, while Cayden is determined to keep his distance so not to ruin Donovan's career no matter

1:30 how much he still loves him. So to keep Caden close, Donovan makes him his assistant and has him helping him out, just like in high school when he was his waterboy. The more time they spend together, the harder it's getting for them to ignore their feelings. So when they are caught by another Boston player and expose, Evelyn tells Cayden to do whatever he must to fix this. Cayden ends up telling the news that he's stalking and pursuing Donovan, and Donovan is straight. Evelyn goes to see her son and ends up exposing that she had Kayden do that, just like she had him break up with Donovan all those years ago. This upsets him, and he tells his mother he is nothing without Caden. He then leaves to go to talk to Cayden. The two makeup now that everything was finally out in the open. Afterward, Donovan asked Kaden to come to his championship game. Cayden is a little worried because of the press segment, but Donovan says he plays better when Cayden is there. Kayden goes, but tries to hide so no one will recognize him, and after Donovan scores the winning goal, he realizes it doesn't matter if he doesn't have anyone to celebrate it with, so he tells the news he's going to celebrate with his boyfriend and tells Cayden to come down. Caden goes down to the field and the two kiss, getting that happy celebratory moment. Cut to two years later and the two are still happily together. The NFL has accepted Donovan, and now the two are back at their old high school to share that they are starting a sports agency just for LGBTQ athletes. A student ends up coming up and asking Donovan how he knew he was kay Donovan says to him at first that he couldn't answer it and it's not easy, especially in their town. But then says to him, you know, when you find the right person,

3:02 you'll just know it's worth it. And in the end, they end up back at their place where Donovan surprises Kayden by wearing the water boy outfit for him and the two get their beautiful happy ending. So now to get into the talking points. So for the first point, I have Sky and Declan. I have said it before and I will continue to say it. I love seeing Sky and Declan on screen together. Their chemistry is just so good and they're just a joy to watch on screen together. I feel they bring out the absolute best in each other's performances. I'm completely drawn in whenever I watch one of their series. They have this amazing dynamic between them. I just love watching their series and I'm always so excited when a new series with them comes out.

3:46 I know I will always watch their series, so I hope they will continue to have more series with them in the future. So the next point I had was Caden breaking up with Donovan. So what I said was, well, I know he was more doing this because Donovan's mom, Evelyn, asked Kayden to break up with Donovan. You could see that Donovan was kind of thinking in might have been what was best for Donovan. It was when Evelyn was telling Kayden all the reasons to break up with Donovan that Cayden was realizing maybe she was right Donovan. Donovan had worked so hard to get into the NFL, and now it was throwing it all away because of Cayden, or rather giving it all away because of Kayden. So Kayden, listening to what Evelyn said, he didn't want to be the reason Donovan gave up everything, and he didn't want Donovan to end up regretting it one day or resenting him four years later. Kayden was doing this as a way to allow Donovan to have his NFL career that he worked so hard for. Donovan was getting his dream and wouldn't be held back by Kayden, even though it killed him. Kayden knew he was doing this for Donovan.

4:45 Caayden also didn't want to be the reason Donovan was targeted. Like Evelyn said could happen if people knew Donovan was gay, Kayden did what he thought was the best choice to give Donovan everything, even though it would hurt them both. He also knew that if Donovan was given the choice, he would choose Kayden like he did at the signing, so he agreed with Evelyn and didn't give Donovan a choice. Cayden did have a hold that maybe one day they could be together again. He said that if it was meant to be, they would find their way back to each other. So even though he was walking away now, he did hope fate would lead them back together. All in all, you could kind of understand why Cayden did what he did. He felt that this was the best choice for Donovan to give him the NFL that he worked so hard for. He just couldn't be there to witness it. He would have to witness it from afar, so Donovan could continue with that. So that's kind of where I was going with that whole thing. So to my next point was about Evan and Garrett, which these two I was so happy to see in the series.

5:42 So I said, I love that we had Evan in this one because he was just in tutoring my rival boy with the guy not too long ago, so this one reunites the two. He did also say that I was sad that we never got to see his character whose name is Jones character's boyfriend. I was waiting for him to show up when they all sat down at the table during donovan pr date. I thought it would have added to the awkwardness of the night if the boyfriend showed up, so it was very sad when we didn't get to see him. I was also kind of waiting for Jones to be the one to tell Donovan everything Kayden had done for Donovan and how Cayden was a mess after the breakup. Kind of the trope in movies and TV shows that the friend is the one who spills everything to the love interest, so I was waiting for that to happen here. I know it doesn't tend to happen in verticals, but I was still kind of waiting for it. I thought it would kind of go that way, just the way it was mentioned at the beginning. I was like, huh, I wonder if Jones is going to be the one to tell Donovan everything Cayden did. But that was not the case. And then onto Garrett I said, I loved that we had Garrett Clayton in the series. I had seen a small clip before watching it that had him in it, and I was like, is that Garrett, And sure enough it was, so it was a nice surprise. I was not truly a fan of him playing a mean guy slash a bully, but still loved getting to see him in the series.

6:57 I just I adore him so much and so glad to see him on this vertical, and I hope that maybe he'll pop up in more verticals. So the next note I had was about the flashbacks. I love how they included flashbacks of the first water Boy into the series. I always love a good flashback, and it gave you a little refresher of people in moments from the first one in case you hadn't seen it recently. Was also helpful in showing the similarities of the two scenes. How I saw it was it could come off as he's just the same bully he was in high school and tormenting Kayden the same way. It was more of, well, this worked in high school to get me Kayden and for him to fall for Donovan, so Donovan was going to do it again. It was Donovan's way of going back to the start when they first got together and trying to recreate that. That's what led the two of them to be happy together. Yes, there was a small part of him that wanted to torment Cayden for breaking his heart, but it was more of a way to remind Kayden what drew them together in the first place.

7:55 So the next point I had was the fighting that they had, but I called it fighting. Their fighting was so cute. It was the kind of fighting you knew would lead to them kissing or making up. It was the type of fighting you see in Enemies to Lovers trope series. They drive each other crazy enough to start to fall for the other person, but never wanting to admit it. It turns into their way of flirting more than normal fighting, which is how things started off in Water Boys. So it's nice to see that continue in the sequel. Of course, watching them fight, you just sit there wanting to scream just to admit you two love each other already. It always makes it enjoyable to watch because it turns into how long can they keep this up?

8:37 So the next point I had was about the hotel room, which is just more me kind of thinking out loud than really anything else. It was like, well, I get the point of the hotel room scene. My brain goes, why didn't Donovan just steal one of Caden's keys. Sounded like Cayden was in a room alone, so they wouldn't have gotten caught or be at risk at getting caught. But then it wouldn't be as dramatic of a scene, so they had to add in the element of what if they were to almost get caught. My brain did the whole Well, if they did it this way, it would have worked out easier. Series like these can't be easy. They had to be filled with drama and suspense. That's what keeps you entertained. I was just like, I feel like you could have just stolen one of Keaton's keys and the two of them just could have been together and not had to worry about Donovan's roommate. But I get that it adds the suspense, and that was the whole point of the scene was, Oh, they were almost caught, but now they're finally alone and they can finally admit they love each other. So I get the whole point of the scene. But it was just like, why didn't he just steal Caayden's keep? And then the last note I had was the end song. So the song at the end when the student walks away, and it was Cayden and Donovan standing there. I said, with such a great choice. You have the lyrics of Holmes where you are not a place but the beat of your heart, which I felt went so well with them because within the series it shows that they are each other's home and they would be lost without each other. So to have that the moment of the two of them together and the song at the end was such a perfect choice, I felt. And then as we were transitioning to the

10:08 final scene, you hear the part of the song that says we go home. Then you see Kayden in the house that he now shares with Donovan. So it was a nice add to this moment because now it's showing them together in their own place, so they are finally home, both with each other and in an actual place. So it was a nice little kind of moment of literal home and figurative home for them. But I thought I was just like, oh, well placed and well picked song. It was very well done. So now to my overall thoughts, I said, once again, another amazing series starring Declan in Sky. I loved every minute of the series. I was grinning ear to ear throughout the whole thing. I loved the first water Boy, so when I heard about the sequel, I was so excited and counting down the days until it dropped. At the same time, I was working with my Stable Boy recap flash review, which is coming. I will say, while I have mentioned that I'm not truly the biggest fan of the interactive ones, I will always watch the ones with Sky and declan. You give me a Sky in Declan series interactive or not, and I will watch it. That is how much I love seeing them together no matter what. And as I said, I love them as actors and love seeing them in series together.

11:18 So if they keep doing series, I will keep watching no matter what. I loved how Maya was team Cayden and Donovan. Now she was just so adorable, and I love that Maya had changed for the better. And as I was writing this, I kind of dawned on me how well the trope of the series worked with the original series. So for this series, which is one you've we've seen a couple different times at a couple different ways where it's there's the couple and one of them breaks up with the other because the other one's going to be famous rich has something that they really need to do in the significant other will hold them down, so the parent tells them break it off. We cut two years later and they're back in each other's lives and the person who was destined to be this rich and famous person is now rich and famous, and they find their acts and they have them be their assistant, which puts them back in their orbit, and the two kind of slowly make their way back to each others.

12:15 Basically the trope that this kind of follows. So what I had said was that the series made this trope work in two ways. One in the sense of the trope as a whole all breaking up being poorced together years later is the you know, the first trope in the first way that they make it work. And then the second I said was as an extension of the first water Boy Cayden is forced to be Donovan's water boy in the first one, and now in the second one, Cayden is forced to be Donovan's assistant. So it helped keep what made water Boy the series what it was, and it still added to the series. It gave it more of a grown up feel since they were supposed to be in college and the NFL and not in high school, so I thought it was a very clever way for them to pick the story line as the sequel, and as I it was kind of like going through that in my head, I was like, oh my god, this just makes me love the series even more now.

13:08 It also makes me want to watch both of them all the way through, So the first one and then then this one just kind of like all together because I wasn't able to do that for this first view. I was just able to watch this one right now, but I will do that at one point, watch the first one and then the second one together and just kind of enjoy it as one big series. And again I thought it was very well done. I loved every minute of it. But of course I absolutely loved deck linnen Sky, so just about anything they do I adore, And then mentioned again how I loved that it had Evan and Garrett in it. I thought the cast was so great for this one, and I'm so so happy that we got a sequel to Waterboy. So it was just so much love. I loved everything about it. So getting into the rating, I gave it a eight point seven out of ten, which I ended up actually changing a little bit. So it's a lot higher than I originally had because because I realized the idea of the like the storyline, how it actually matches with the original, and that kind of like blew my mind. Still so good.

14:10 Highly recommend should watch both of them, love them both, so definitely go watch water Boy and then watch this one, the sequel, WAA Boy Second Down. And before we wrap things up, I just wanted to talk about a special Real Talk episode that features Sky and Declan, who are the star of WAA Boy water Boy Second Down, and it also stars Greg Duffy and Andrew Tong. It is a Pride Month special short video. It is of four of them sharing their genuine crush confessions through cinematic monologues inspired by real emotions, memories and love stories. And I've watched it eighties something so beautiful and so well done, and I highly recommend you go and check it out.

14:54 So it can be found on the Real Short app under Real Talk Episode seventy seven Love Whisper or on the Real Short YouTube page, and the title of that one is Love Whisper slash Real Talk. So if you have a chance, go check it out. It is truly special. So this was water Boy Second Down. On Real Short and as always, love to hear your thoughts on the series, what you liked, what you didn't like, and if you were enjoying this podcast, please be sure to give it a review. We'd love to hear your thoughts. I'm your host, Megan. This has been my vertical obsession until next time.