Two weird things happened during the LoM rewatch I just had: 1. I actually kind of like Gene now! And 2. I noticed that he's actually nice to look at. And which happened first? Possibility A: Did I realize he's attractive and so I cut him some slack? Or B: Did I find his personality less ugly and that has made me find his face less ugly?

Either way, the thing that happened first had to be brought on by something. Possibility B makes more sense to me (because this is how it usually works for me), though I can think of absolutely no evidence for this in this case. I have no idea why my opinion of Gene would suddenly improve! He's still not my sort of person.
For possibility A I can think of only one potential cause (but hey, that's still more than possibility B has going for itself): that maybe Gene has become somewhat attractive to me because the character and I are a bit closer in age now. Though there's still something weird about that: my last rewatch was only a bit over a year ago.

I've just started rewatching Ashes to Ashes and I don't know if I realized that during my previous viewings, but A2A!Gene is a bit different from LoM!Gene. He's gotten classier in looks and as a police officer. Gene being more professional gives me feelings: He's learned something from Sam. ♥

Oh hey, the good thing about my generally improved opinion of Gene is that now I'm finally on board with Alex & Gene's UST.