Never Let Me Go (2022)

Grande déception

Peut-être que j’avais trop d’attentes quand j’ai commencé cette série?

J’ai vu la distribution et je me suis jeté sur le drama, impatiente de découvrir l’histoire dans laquelle allait jouer à nouveau Pond Narawit et Phuwin Tangsakyuen que j’avais aimé dans Fish Upon the Sky. Aussi, je voulais absolument voir Perth Tanapon qui est l’un de mes acteurs thaïs favoris. Malheureusement, c’était une grande déception.

L’histoire aurait pu être intéressante, mais elle traine en longueur. J’étais enthousiaste lors des premiers épisodes, puis ma joie s’est transformée en ennui. Les scènes à l’école étaient bien. J’ai apprécié que Nuengdiao (Phuwin) développe quelque chose avec Ben (Chimon) avant de se laisser charmer par Palm (Pond). C’était différent de ce qu’on voit habituellement dans les BL, ça m’a donné envie d’en voir plus… Sauf qu’ils sont partis à la plage.

Les épisodes pendant lesquels Nuengdiao et Palm sont à la plage sont interminables. Au début, c’était mignon, mais le charme s’est rapidement envolé. Je comprends la raison de cette escapade, mais ça aurait pu être fait différemment. Peut-être est-ce parce que la personnalité du jeune riche n’est pas très intéressante que c’était si long. Il y a de beaux plans de vus, de jolis dialogues, mais rien de marquant. D’ailleurs, combien de fois sont-ils « pas assez bien l’un pour l’autre ». Leur façon de jouer au yo-yo pour se protéger mutuellement donne envie de crier.

Heureusement, Ben et Chopper sont là pour sauver l’histoire. On voit à peine ce couple, mais ils sont les plus intéressants. Perth Tanapon vole la vedette chaque fois qu’il apparait à l’écran. Non seulement son personnage a la meilleure histoire, mais son talent d’acteur est impressionnant. Juste la façon dont il fait des câlins laisse paraitre tant de sentiments. S’il avait été la tête d’affiche, la série aurait pu avoir un plus grand succès.

J’espère que Ben et Chopper feront leur retour dans Our Skyy 2. Ils le méritent.

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Makes as much sense and is about as entertaining as an 80's song medley

This may start off as a youth romance but pretty fast takes a turn to the kids acting like adults, with adult gangster problems... or is it corruption, murder CEO problems?

Though the drama does have some fluff and a whole lot of cliches, what strikes me the most is the dim beige/grey lighting that ads a slightly depressing filter to the drama... And even though they spend a lot of time at the beach I feel like I keep missing the sun.

The acting could be better, there are some sweet well preformed moments here and there but neither of the leads are very good with facial expressions and emotions. That said both are pretty good at delivering physical scenes as well as action and tension. However the moment they are supposed to feel something it just becomes cringey be it sadness, love (not lust though), anger... It just feels off....

If I were to play a drinking game about finding lines from 80s song, show of abs or the words I will always love you, I would need to get my stomach pumped by the 9th episode or so as the "always", and love confessions come as often as (I will let you use your imagination), only to be disproved over and over again... I love you, I will now leave you, I will always love you... I will run away and if you love me you will not look for me... over and over again or at least that is what it feels like...

That said it is an ok watch, mostly entertaining and fun to watch just make sure to turn off your brain before you start watching it as nothing is consistent, nothing makes sense and the lack of scars as well as the healing power of those young men can put Connect (the drama/webtoon starring Jung Hae In) to shame.

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the writing did not support the interesting premise

Overall: I was super excited for a twisty action thriller but the nonsense/cliche plot turned this into just another teenage GMMTV BL series. Aired on GMMTVs YouTube channel.

Content Warnings: murders, attempted murder, beaten up/violence, bullying, blackmail, manipulation, unwanted public outing, drugging, kidnapping

What I Liked
- that the first scene wasn't a flashback or flash forward
- the beginning/first episode hooked me
- Chopper and Ben (Perth did a great job)
- production value (minus my quibbles in Room For Improvement)

Room For Improvement
- there is a lot of nonsense plot things, some of which could have been explained with a few lines or a short scene and that makes it even more ridiculous (one example, a highschooler is a full time fisherman and he happens to fight and shoot a gun really well)
- characters don't feel realistic or have realistic reactions (Palm's interaction with his mother as an example, both of them just chillaxing on their beach vacation instead of how I think most people would be feeling)
- I wanted some plot twists or for this to be different but it's a standard GMMTV romance with window dressing
- the night scenes were too dimly lit, a couple of times the music was too loud over the dialogue
- it dragged in many places, I wanted an action/thriller and this was not it
- Chopper and Ben felt very rushed at the end
- overall I just didn't end up feeling much of anything, scenes that were supposed to make me sad didn't because of the huge plot holes

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Well, that happened.

I enjoyed Fish Upon the Sky, and while I noticed the shortcomings of the acting, both leads had good comic timing, and there were good secondary characters to help carry the weight, plus Pond is gorgeous and Phuwin isn't far behind, so I was looking foward to this - I thought for sure it would be campy fun, with a billionaire heir that everyone is trying to kill having also to get through high school.

Unfortunately, the production takes itself very, very seriously, which makes this a cringey, plot-hole ridden mess of inauthentic emotion and weak acting, and the end result is a series that's alternatively frustrating and boring.

It wants badly to be a PG-rated KinnPorche, but somehow missed the campy outrageousness of that series, which made it's giant plot holes features rather than bugs. Here, everything is a plot hole. The violence is gratuitous, very poorly integrated into the story, and without creating any stakes at all, while leaning heavily on cliches and contrivanaces that are just incongruous and silly.

For example, why is this set in high school? What possible reason for this is there other than "BL needs to be set in school"? Why is a billionaire heir that everyone is trying to kill even in high school? Instead of endangering the lives of the entire student body, why not home school, or just not go to school at all, given he's stupendously rich and has a business empire to run (after he's done with swim practice and his homework)? If he's in danger, why would you give him only a teenaged fisherman as a bodyguard? If you're going to do that, shouldn't he at least be able to protect his charge? Palm can't even fend off bullies at a ballroom dance! (Speaking of which, who goes to a ballroom dance at a senior center to pick fights, and why did everyone just stand around while the ballroom dance thugs [sigh] try to beat someone to death for virtually no reason whatsoever except to insert violence?) Being kicked for half an hour only gives Palm a few scratches, so this is an early indicator that there are absolutely no stakes in this series.

Early on, Neung's mother is gunned down at point-blank range by assassins that simply ride through the open unguarded gates of the mansion - I guess nobody thought to increase security after her husband was gunned down - drive to within 3 meters and open fire. And fail to kill anyone or even wound Palm's father (I think. He seemed totally fine afterwards). The boys are sent to a fabulous beach resort to "hide" for their safety, where they frolic all day and Nueng proclaims he's never been happier in his life. Never been happier than the week after he had both his parents gunned down before his eyes and is fleeing certain death? OK, I guess we all have our standards of happiness, and he never gives his mother a thought during this time, so maybe he just doesn't like her.

There is absolutely no plot purpose to the entire beach resort section of the story - it's simply a contrivance to give the couple a honeymoon, because that's where it goes in the formula, whether or not it makes sense. From the wreckage of the underlying novel behind the script, it looks like the author's intention was to put Nueng through hardships which harden and mature him so that he can return and take on his enemies, but all he does is pay off a loanshark and let Palm's mother sacrifice herself to save them after Nueng completely stupidly uses an ATM and then doesn't immediately leave, allowing the baddies plenty of time to stealthily sneak up with a bunch of thugs dressed all in black at a beach resort walking around with photos loudly asking "has anyone has seen these two boys?" Sigh.

Nueng then dumps Palm with the "find a good woman who you can be happy with" cliche which makes me want to BURN THINGS DOWN. Then they get back together because Palm does the "nonconsensual hug from behind" stupid cliche which makes me want to burn more things down. Then Nueng dumps him in his sleep - sleep induced by pills Nueng buys from the sleeziest and shadiest sex motel manager he could find and then puts in Palm's beer. Sure, why not? Nothing could go wrong with that plan. Besides, Nueng is rich, so he could buy his way out of a charge of negligent homicide. Later on it's Palm's turn for a contrived breakup - the third time's the charm, right? I don't know about you, but if you break up three times for completely stupid reasons in the first month of your relationship, are you really meant for each other?

Anyway, Nueng goes home surrounded by bodyguards, and the story more or less picks up where it left off, which raises the question, what are the stakes? Why didn't Nueng have bodyguards before? If it was that easy for a high school kid to seize control of a giant business empire, why didn't he do it before, when he had Palm's father to lean on and help and guide him?

Then, the authors seem to think that walking in slow-motion, speaking in a deeper voice, and being stern is "maturity", when his underlying behavior is foolish, ungenerous, short-sighted, and otherwise stupid. If you want to seize power, do you march around in dark suits and make grand entrances everywhere and go out of your way to announce yourself and your intentions and humiliate and anger your enemy, or do you take him by surprise?

Anyway, Nueng makes a grand slow-motion entrance to his family's hotel accompanied by that "inception blast" - you know, that loud BWAAAAAA! that plays in movie previews whenever something big happens, in order to lend it weight. So he does that, gives a dressing down to his usurping uncle, and announces he's taking power over the family empire. So what's the next scene? The exact same BWAAAAAA! slo-mo entrance... at his high school. Wow, big man, intimidating high school students with hired bodyguards.

From the moment of his return, everything "meaningful" he says is accompanied by the BWAAAAA!, a musical "mic-drop", as if that gives gravitas to his banal pronouncements. Then he's reuinted with Palm at a derelict building - it turns out Palm has been following him around from about 5 feet away for two weeks, which somehow Nueng's guards failed to detect (and so did Nueng) - because a tall, smoking-hot man dressed all in black and a leather jacket every day in tropical weather isn't noticeable or anything. Also, a photographer follows them into the building, again slipping past the bodyguards. I don't think a single bodyguard managed to guard even one body the entire series.

There are lots of other things that just ring untrue, major and minor. For example, someone suffers multiple gunshot wounds. So what does his boyfriend do? Apply pressure to the wounds to limit the bleeding, you might guess? No, he does what any responsible adult does wth a crying baby, and shakes him vigorously and demands he be OK. I suppose it could be an act of love to try to accelerate his bleeding out so he doesn't suffer, but in that case it might be faster to just shoot him a few more times, Almost comically, it turns out the gunshot victim has a spinal injury - yeah, no sh$%, someone was violently shaking him. I suspect our instinct to staunch bleeding is exactly that, instinct - we've evolved to just automatically know to do that. His behavior is only understandable in the context of some sort of narcissistic psychotic disorder - fear of being alone overpowers basic instinct - perhaps to be expected in a person who has the best time of his life right after his parents are gunned down.

And can someone PLEASE explain the Christmas carols. It's very diffiult to concentrate on what's happening when Joy to the World is playing in the background. Why does this keep happening in BL?

Phuwin is good at comedy, but his lack of acting ability is glaring in a dramatic role where he has to play high school Michael Corleone (The Godfather is the clear inspiration for this series - from the romantic exile to the hospitalized parent in danger, to the son who wants nothing to do with the business eventually being forced to take it over and become ruthless. Well, ruthless-ish). This is underscored by the poor casting choice of Perth Tanapon as his cousin Chopper - poor, I say, because Perth is so phenomenal that it's embarassing to see them together in a scene. If he and the also-able Chimon had been in the main roles, instead of criminally underused secondary characters, this series would have been on fire. As it is, the dynamic between Chopper and his father is the most compelling element of this drama and should have been given much more time (Chopper's father is played by super-hot Nat Sakdatorn - don't believe me? Check out his instagram).

In the first few episodes Pond surprised me - he seemed much improved in acting skill, but then he just spent the entire series looking like a kicked puppy, which he does well, but it gets dull.

This is not all bad. The production quality is fairly high, Pond and Phuwin spend a LOT of time in swim trunks, which is really, really good eye-candy, Perth, Chimon and Nat nail every scene they're in, and there are cute scenes between Nueng and Palm, although their romantic chemistry is close to nil, they do have great buddy-energy. If you're a Phuwin & Pond fan, you will probably really enjoy this. Otherwise, I'd skip it.

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One of the better Thai BLs I've seen in more than a year!

Despite all the negative comments I read here on MDL, I really liked this one and am going to miss it. Here are my pros and cons:

PROS

STORY. Yes, that's right. Sure, there were some moments that suspended belief, but what Thai BL doesn't have those? For the most part, I found this compelling. And, contrary to so many BLs, it actually HAD a story (yes, I'm looking at you, Bad Buddy). Even better, everything was wrapped up in the end, and with no cliffhangers.

ACTING. I really had no issues with the acting. Nat was great as the villain, as was Perth as his conflicted son. Phuwin played his lead role respectably, with some really good moments here and there. Pond was pretty good, as was Chimon (in a part that gave him little to do). And Pawin was delicious as the conniving and underhanded Phum.

OST SONGS. Phuwin has a beautiful voice and I loved his OST. Pond singing was surprisingly pleasant and I enjoyed his OST, played in the ending credits. (As for the rest of the music... what was up with all those misplaced Christmas carols? And that hideous cowboy song??)

CHEMISTRY. Palm was so adorably sweet and protective with Neung. And they weren't afraid to kiss with some passion.

CONS

"ELDERLY" PEOPLE. That dance class for the elderly! The oldest person I saw looked to be maybe 45. What's the life expectancy in Thailand, 48?

"JUST SHOOT ME!" It was either Episode 10 or 11 (I forgot) where three or four of the characters (separately) got themselves in a situation where they felt compelled to scream out "Shoot me! Go ahead, shoot me!" A bit silly.

THE NOTES AND LEAVING. It was annoying enough with Neung did it. It was downright ridiculous when Palm returned the favor in the finale.

Still, none of those were dealbreakers for me. I'm giving it a 9.0.

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KP shippers still trying to keep a good series down.

Its disturbing when there is a mafia series the KP shippers rush to the comment/review sections to attack the ratings of what they view as “competition“ to their beloved KP. I enjoyed this series and you will be missing out if you don’t give it a watch. It’s refreshing to see some of the production companies moving away from the toxicity that have been taking over the BLs recently. Many fan are upset with the size of Perth’s role in NLMG. Why? When he finished his last BL he said he would not be returning to BLs at all. Well that didn’t really work out for him and now he is back, fans should be happy it’s more than a cameo, he definitely couldn’t carry the series alone. I’m actually surprised GMMTV gave him a role at all after his vocal exit tbh. Take the negative reviews with a grain of salt. A series shouldn’t just be rated to send a message to the production company that some fans are not happy over how large an actors part is or how much skinship or negative behavior is shown. No worries, Love Syndrome is on the way for all those toxicity lovers

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Annoying and subpar

For lack of imagination I’ll go with a bullet list for this one. Good things first (that’s going to be a short list):
- Perth is okay; not great, but okay, which still makes him stand out when compared to other cast members (I refuse to call most of them actors),
- eye candy - Phuwin and Pond spend some time shirtless and look mighty fine.

Now for the bad things – and there’s a lot of them.

- False premise and misleading merchandising.
According to the initial trailer, released in 2021 (and still available on GMMTV’s YT channel), as well as to an initial MDL tag for this show, it was supposed to be about a son of a mafia boss running away from danger after his father was killed. That’s not the case – Phiphop, Nueng’s father, is a very rich businessman dealing in hotels, and though not very popular (sometimes called a crook) he’s not a mafia boss. This reduced the ‘action potential’ of the show and made it less interesting. 5 out of 12 episodes take place at a high school, not on the run from thugs – for this part of the series the show is a subpar high school BL; again: not what the show was marketed as.

- Weak story and horrible pace for a pretentious show which takes itself far too seriously.
The story suffers from several things, mainly how bland it is and how it drags. Phiphop gets killed in episode 1, but it’s not until the end of episode 5 that Nueng gets on the run. The show loses momentum immediately – following 4 episodes take place on an island, weirdly separated and mostly unaffected by events of previous episodes. With only 3 episodes left to have a confrontation and conclusion, the closer we get to the end, the more things are rushed. Furthermore, the story is unbelievable – which many reviewers critical of NLMG already pointed out on multiple examples. How is it, that Nueng – son of a powerful businessman, hated and feared, gets bullied at school for so long? Why wasn’t he protected earlier? Why was this influential family basically unprotected – not just when Phiphop was killed by a single gunman, but also for many weeks after that? Who thought that Palm – Nueng’s peer – will be a good bodyguard? How is it, that later episodes – especially those that take place on the island – are so unaffected by earlier events? It’s just baffling that after 5 episodes of an uninteresting school drama we get 4 episodes of uninteresting boyfriend time on a tropical island – and that between those 5 and 4 episodes an assassination attempt takes place. The stakes are nonexistent: all the shooting, injuring and even killing of secondary characters falls flat, fake, unimportant, since even the main characters don’t seem to care about it. At the same time the series wants to present itself as serious (see the ‘serious’ and/or ‘dramatic’ music used in ‘important’ moments and scenes – I don’t recall a single time the music was properly applied and didn’t seem over-the-top), mature and for grown-ups – which fails miserably.

- Absent chemistry and acting.
The young cast did a very poor job, with Perth being an exception. Phuwin is very good in portraying obnoxious, unlikeable characters (see Pi in FUTS) and Nueng is like that for most of the series – I doubt the showrunners wanted that. Pond is a bit better, but it’s not acting – he’s not as wooden and lifeless as I feared he’ll be, but the only reason you can watch it is because he’s goodlooking. Chimon is mostly uninteresting and at times irritating; same goes for June, who’s character was both written and portrayed as annoying. Nat plays the least intimidating villain ever, and Pawin is generally underused and doesn’t seem comfortable playing a bad guy. Jeeez, this show really comes from the same company which employs Nanon, Ohm, Khaotung, First, Fourth, Gemini or Mix, who – despite of being amateurs – can express more with a short grin or brief gaze than this entire cast?
As with many BLs, the show could have been saved by chemistry between the characters – it usually falls to the main couple to generate most of it. Unfortunately there’s no chemistry between Pond and Phuwin. There was barely any of it in FUTS and in their “Little BIG World” they gave me a vibe of two office workers forced to complete a project together (compare this to Earth and Mix, who seem to have genuine fun working with each other on EarthMix Space and their BLs). Chimon and Perth never felt like a couple and their chemistry is nonexistent.

To sum it up: NLMG is a disappointing, boring and annoying BL; steer clear of it unless you’re a diehard PondPhuwin fan.

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You won't even know what hit you

NLMG is not only backed by a compelling storyline (romance or otherwise), great characters, and exceptional BL chemistry – it’s also beautifully produced. With plenty of aesthetically-pleasing shots soaked in warm tones, it’s reminiscent of a doomed summer romance.

The obvious main conflict in the show stems from external danger – the threat posed to the Kittrakulmethee family in the midst of a power struggle. But the second, more understated conflict is the power imbalance between Neung and Palm’s family that takes on a class dimension. This is where NLMG proved to be different from other bodyguard storylines.

In NLMG, character development is most pronounced for the young heir forced to grow up in treacherous times. Neung initially comes off as a typical, sheltered (maybe even bratty at times) rich kid but the later episodes will draw out the best of his character. Even on his worst days, Neung is constructed to be likeable and painfully human through it all.

The relationship between Palm and Neung develops at an even pace, with both parties falling (and falling hard) over the course of several delightful episodes. They also have a wonderful chemistry and compatibility – the both of them are fighters at heart; Palm with his fists, and Neung with his wits and spirit.

I enjoyed this show because it was a beautiful, beautiful emotional trip. Some particularly heartwrenching sequences from Pond and Phuwin hit me with some profound emotions that my words cannot adequately capture.

Full review here: https://asianblreviews.wordpress.com/2023/02/28/never-let-me-go-2022-bl-review/

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#JusticeForChopper

What attracted me to the show was Pond because lets be honest he is hot. Unfortunately that is the only good thing about this series. The story is not realistic. Two 18 year olds running a big Mafia type of business? I think not?!

Both leads need acting classes, they don't have the emotional range to do justice to this. Both characters have experienced devastating losses e.g loss of parents but they don't seem too bothered , in fact they jet off to an island for a week of romance while Nueng's mother in on death's door in hospital.

The side couple were not even given the opportunity to build anything. 11 episodes with one more to go and they are still nowhere to be seen? How did Ben go from crushing on Neung to being into Chopper? No development just vibes.

At this point l need them to free Chopper (Perth) or give him more money because he outacted every single one of these people. He is the only one who did his part in the group assignment.

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Never let me go? wish I did

GMMTV did it again. They produced another mid BL. I am still surprised this was the same company that created Not me,Bad duddy and MSP. I guess it has more misses than hits. Anyways, I never have been more bored, have rolled my eyes so much that they went to the back of my head or dreaded to watch a series so much. I literally watched the last few episodes at 2x speed and that was still slow. At first, I liked it but then it keep going off track that the train now is in the bottom of the ocean. The plot holes in this series puts swiss cheese to shame. At first I could turn a blind eye in the first few episodes but then it keep getting worse and worse and especially when it came to the serious parts, it was not even taking itself seriously anymore. They couldn't work out the timing when to have a romantic, serious and sad moments. During a very serious moment they would have a romantic moment and what not, it completely ruined the vibe. Also the problems in this series were often solve so easily, or the problem wasn't needed or it was completely forgotten. Like for example and spoiler when Palm's dad gets captured and Nueng main reasons to go back was to free his dad but he completely forgets about him. Until Palm get driven to an edge and then he frees him which was very easy to do. or the fact that they didn't to run away for so long in the first place because Nueng could easily come back and be a boss and hire bodyguards which he did. The plot was basically not there. It was like the directors were writing a script out of their asses as the series was filming lmao. Now the acting, is pretty mid. Pond was kinda okay but Phuwin acting or how he deliver his dialog always make it seem like he was angry or trying to pick or fight. Both of them lack emotion I think what is I am trying to say. Need a lot of work. Now the music choice was just laughable. They played a country song and christmas songs during serious or romantic moments. I was just laughing my ass off. I couldn't take it seriously at all. This was really a disappointment. I was really looking forward to it but in the end I was just dying for it to finish.

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C'est Meh

Overall, it's kind of just okay. Some episodes have a few engaging moments and instances of good cinematography but the majority is just *shrugs*

The chemistry was mostly *meh,* the acting was usually pretty stiff or just *meh* (with some occasional well-acted scenes), the story was all over the place or *meh,* and the OST was *meh.*

To summarize, it was a big pile of ✨meh✨

It's a skip, my friends. Unless, you're looking for eye-candy faces or abs, in which case, you do you . . . But I still think you won't truly enjoy this, if you're being honest with yourself.

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