Dead Friend Forever - DFF (2023)

an interesting project that got lost in the woods

Oh boy, what to even say. When I started watching Dead Friend Forever, I was having such a wonderful time. A fun, if not particularly original, concept, a familiar cast (for those who watched The Hidden Character), and the promise of lots of bloody, vengeful violence promised a great time. I had a whole murder board of clues going and did weekly recaps with my friends. For a while, this was one of the best titles on a line up of five or six actively airing shows! And then.... it really went wrong. DFF feels like a major case of "bit off more than they could chew" from every department.

-The Full Review-

STORY:
While there were a few high points, the story for Dead Friend Forever was incredibly uneven. Some characters, like Non and Tee got beautiful and moving individual story arcs that really explored the depths of their guilt, anger, and pain. Some characters, like White, Fluke, and Top barely manage to scrape their way out of the second dimension. The writers never quite managed a competent ensemble, and most characters had little to no connection to each other despite being friends for years through extremely traumatic events.
On a grander scale, the plot was... even worse. The authors had a horrific over-reliance on flashbacks. The worst example being a detailed flashback after a "Previous Episode" segment that contained most of the same clips, forcing the audience to watch them Twice in a Row. I hate this device because it creates one certain history (as opposed to allowing characters to lie/misremember) and denies the audience the more interesting scene of getting to watch the characters argue it out and react to the various betrayals and shocks.
Finally, I won't spoil the details of the ending, but a single prop/plot washed out so many of the intriguing clues and mysteries with a singular (and pretty stupid) answer. I used to look forward to rewatching this series to see the little pieces and exchanges I missed, but it slowly became clear that... that wasn't really going to be a concern anymore. Most of those "clues" are just red herrings for the audience to chew on while they wait for the grand reveal.

ACTING:
Let's start with the good! Barcode is a phenomenal talent, as always. Non proved to be a monster of a demanding, tragic role, and Barcode handed him very ably despite his youth and relative inexperience. While some of the "horror" scenes got a little repetitive (mostly due to the authors), all of the most emotional and raw scenes were really beautiful. He's a joy to watch. JJay and Ta were powerful acting partners for him, rising to create some truly genuine interactions that carried the heart of the story. Fuaiz and Bump continue to improve as well.
The rest of the time.... Yikes. Despite an over-reliance on flashback (as opposed to watch two characters have a difficult conversation), the acting still managed to be largely melodramatic with a lot monotone shouting and unnatural flailing. In some of its worst moments, it was difficult to tell (even broadly) what emotion a character was supposed to be portraying. I never did decide if some of these relationships were genuine? Friends with benefits? Revenge? It was that unclear (in the acting). I think that the stakes in this show were simply too high and too distant for a largely rookie cast to grasp effectively.

PRODUCTION:
For the most part, Dead Friend Forever provides its usual level of quality expected by a Be On Cloud production. Lighting, set dressing, costumes, and props all look great (with a few minor continuity errors that we mostly found because we were looking so hard for clues!)! It was a joy to pick out little details around the set that enhanced the story and provided clues. I don't have an issue with the quality of the show here. That said, editing could have used some work. I know this genre deliberately obscures, but time and distance became so unclear that it genuinely began affecting my understanding of the story.

INTIMACY:
:/ I was not a fan of the way intimacy was handled in this show. Most of the NC scenes did not connect smoothly with the plot (Why did we need a Tee/White sex scene?) or the choices being made for specific characters outside of their NC scenes (Phee is... different in the sheets, I guess?). I don't think this story was the appropriate place for "sex for sex's sake" intimacy, as it was NOT a romance, and I don't know that they adequately justified (most of) the NC scenes they did choose to include. I would have liked to see more thought and work go into connecting these moments to characters involved and the relevant plot.

In all, I have actively withdrawn my recommendation of this title to most of my friends. I will definitely not be so hasty to recommend an unfinished show from this team again.

Lire davantage

exciting yet disappointing but somehow good idk

This was something very new. I love some thriller and dark stuff but they rarely make scary or dark themed BLs so I was really happy when this came out. The mask that haunted them was ACTUALLY scary. The whole plot of seeking revenge was so exciting. My problem with the show was the fact that they made me hate Tee, Jin, Top, Fluke and Por [since they were pieces of shit and were responsible for Non's miserable life and death] so all I wanted was revenge, just like Non and Phee and Tan did. And I was loving everything, because I thought the show was going in that direction until the end, but then they started throwing some flashback so we would feel sorry for Tee and started putting Phee and Jin together, like... No. Jin was actually one of the worst among all of them, but I guess the public will forgive him since "he did it because he loved non" haha lol gross. At the end I hated everyone but White and he was hurt so I got mad. I wish Non was still alive, but that won't be possible. The ending was interesting because they probably never left the house, but I'm too mad to think of a new season that could probably not even have Barcode.

About the acting, Barcode did everything. Honestly he deserves an award, he was absolutely spectacular. I have no words to describe how good he was, cause he just delivered the most crazy character of BeOnCloud.

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Well... Someone is really dead

Hah… What to say about this? I went into it completely blind, with my only reason for watching it was Barcode. And I think this definitely convinced me that I don't need to see everything that the actors I like are in.

To be clear, DFF was definitely not bad. On the contrary, I enjoyed the series. People who know me know that I don't like horror things, but this was probably the most horrory horror thing I've ever seen. The best part was when I was alone in the evening in my dorm room and watching this... Before I could take it off, I was already too curious about what was going to happen next.

For the entire first four episodes, I asked myself: "Wila, are you really going to watch something like this just because it's BL?" I'm not proud of it, but in part it really was. I told myself that I would drop after fifth episode, because Barcode was supposed to appear in the fifth, and then I would see. However, with the fifth episode, a flashback started, which lasted for several more episodes, and this flashback was no longer quite horror.

The first four episodes are really scary (at least for someone like me), but after the fifth episode, it slows down a bit. Horror turns into a psychological genre centered around high school kids. They want to make a movie and they need the help of the class weirdo, whom they like to bully.

I'm writing this review with quite a distance, but I still remember how I felt watching each new episode. I started watching when there were five of them and I looked forward to the rest every week.

I'm not going to go into the details of the plot so as not to reveal spoilers. I dare say that the story itself was really well written and the actors also did an amazing job. Most of them were just rookies and these were their first acting roles, but they did a really amazing job.

I apreciate Barcode the most. Partly because I already know him, but also largely because his character was full of all kinds of emotions and Barcode managed them all in one piece. He was able to play love, pain, fear, despair, frustration, madness... And everything was believable.

Overall, I don't have a problem watching something like this (BL and everything that belongs here) in public, but I watched DFF exclusively when I was alone because I'm too expressive a person and things like bulging eyes, gasping for breath, gasping for breath at certain moments and sometimes screaming into a pillow are not for me nothing special.

I've read various comments on facebook, instagram or MyDramaList, and I came across opinions that some people don't like any of the characters. I totally understand them. This really isn't the type of story where you can say the characters are cuties because they're not at all.

But once I got into an argument about one character that I don't want to say is a villain, because everyone in DFF is a villain in a way. It just depends on who you think did the worst thing, because it all ties together in some way, and I think if even one event hadn't happened, the story would have gone in a completely different direction.

One character was probably hated the most by everyone, but I liked him for some reason. I did not justify his actions, but when I got to know his background, I perceived him completely differently. To say that I liked him is perhaps too much, let's say rather that I didn't hate him.

If I remember correctly, the flashback ended in the ninth or tenth episode, and then we brought the ss back to the present again, where new facts are revealed.

All the time, I was consumed by the question, is there something supernatural behind all the bad things that are happening there or is everything the work of man. I was leaning towards the first option, but to be honest, I would be much more pleased with the second one. Not because I wanted fantasy, but because it was all really twisted and I was sick of the idea that a living person could do such a thing.

The end... Um... I really don't know what to write about this without giving something away. I'll just say that I never expected a happy ending and I didn't get one. However, not a happy ending does not mean a bad ending in the sense that it was not handled well. I have some reservations about it, and maybe someone who loves horror movies would have a lot more, but I liked the ending. I noticed a long time ago that the last episode is sometimes completely unnecessary in Thai BLs, and here I was of the same opinion for about half of the episode, but the last scenes made up for it all.

Overall, even though this is far from something I would willingly watch if I knew what it was about, I have to say that I really enjoyed the show. As far as possible, of course. I know there are people who enjoy horror movies, but I'm not one of them. I rather enjoyed the psychological part, which really made my stomach growl, but it was also full of deep themes such as bullying and its possible consequences on the psyche or the fact that the truth always comes out, no matter how long it takes.

Lire davantage

Be on Cloud's Attempt at Scripting a Thriller Fails

“Dead Friend Forever” (DFF) started out rather slowly paced, gained a lot of momentum in the middle, however, by episode 8, the show provided too much unnecessary exposition and plot that did not quite tie in, and fell short in their resolution which resulted in a subpar finale. However, as a slasher/horror series, it delivered on the scares, gore, and delved into the horrors of the human mind which acts as a cautionary tale against bullying and being complicit in the face of others’ wrongdoings.

Read the complete article here-

https://the-bl-xpress.com/2024/03/21/dead-friend-forever-series-review-ep-4-to-12/

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Highs and lows series

For a horror, I was scared or had goosebumps just for the first two episodes and then it was quite dragged until ep 6 with the backstory and reveal of the culprits behind Non's disappearance. It was entertaining and Barcode did fucking great job! But then when it returned to their timeline, I was quite disappointed with how it was solved. New was a maniac but random killing few people, even White who didn't even freaking know Non, was bullshit tho Top with his wounds wouldn't get out but it could end better way like Phee's father could come for them and take them to hospital which would finally end this crazy manslaughter but instead it end with an open ending and what for? Guessing if they got out or not? It's not really satisfying and half of the final episode was just about what we saw before but different. The hallucinations didn't have to be shown when we knew Non's taking revenge on them in all of the hallucinations which they had and instead someone could finally take them out and end the case but otherwise I really enjoyed the series and actors' chemistry with each other.

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Series my goût

The cost of renting equipment is very high, the crew and the actors will be under a lot of pressure. Here are the young men. I'm very proud of them. These are the boys who are more beautiful than the F4 flowers. I feel they are equally beautiful. It says F4 but in heart there is only one person CopperPhuriwat Right from the first pilots I noticed he Since then I've been looking to learn about him. I've seen him in Our days and tiktok. In the previous series, he was a cute boy in every action. In DFF, he's more mature and charming.BoC must win the lottery to get him a beautiful son with a good family background Being obedient and having a good personality will win the love of many people I want this to be the first of many of my next films, it must be very famous, my dear

Lire davantage

SEASON 2 WHEN??

I have so many thoughts and feelings about this show, it was so entertaining and I would get so excited every time a new episode aired. Anyone who likes plot twists, thrillers, or revenge plots need to watch this immediately. Also some of the best acting I've seen in a while from multiple people in the cast! I felt so bad for Non, so many people treated him horribly. Even though I like Ta and Copper together and their chemistry is good, I wasn't a PheeJin fan because I gradually started disliking Jin as the episodes went on. The character who interested me the most was surprisingly Tee, even though he definitely had the most to do with what happened to Non, you can tell that he is a victim of his surroundings. He was such a well-written character where you strongly dislike (for obvious reasons) but can still understand (most of) his actions. Based off the finale, there has to be a second season coming and I'm also very excited for that and hope it keeps the magic that the first season had. And I hope that New/Tan is actually alive...

Lire davantage

I FUCKING LOVE DFF

i fucking LOVE dff. great ass show.

it is a good show because i love jjfuaiz :) jjfuaiz is dominating the bl industry with their passionate acting and overwhelming chemistry that exceeds the limits of language and culture. They are truly a revolutionary pair and exactly what we needed after builds fatass left boc and we lost soldiers (biblebuild)

Jjfuaiz is singlehandedly saving us from the trenches and dragging our asses to freedom and victory. God bless jjfuaiz. 🙏 Jjfuaiz is the napoleon and josephine of our time, absolute true heroes.

Jjfuaiz are BEASTS when it comes to acting. they are cooking up a storm everytime the camera is on those two. “let daddy cook”? no. let jjfuaiz cook. theyre the goats of the industry for REAL and nothing will ever top their absolute W A+ tier acting.

i FUCKING love dff.

Lire davantage

Great acting and well written BL series, unique and one of a kind.

I'd highly recommend the series because all the actors have put in tremendous hard work and it was really well done even though some aspects didnt sit right with me, I genuinely enjoyed most of it especially episodes 1-7 where phenomenal a 10/10 for real. The storyline towards this end did get a bit questionable but the beginning episodes were enough for us to be hooked on to it. The cinematography was one of kind with amazing editing, the bl series wasnt cheaply done and when you watch it you will definitely know.
The actors really put out amazing performances even though most of them were rookies.
This show is definitely award winning in my opinion as it ticked all the criterias for me.
Please do watch this series because it's not like other bl series that we normally get this is different and spectacular.

Lire davantage

Great series with some flaws

Before this review begins...
I LOVE Dff the series. Amazing.
....
I, a fan of horror, mystery, BL, GL, comedy, and romance, finds this series exciting and believe itwill appeal to different tastes....

The series started well. The actors did a good job playing the characters. And, let's give hats off to P'Barcode because I don't think anyone else could have matched the pain, agony, or sadness that Non felt throughout the series with no one to support him by his side. He killed his role.
I loved every character, and It was impossible to hate any....except Uncle Joe(you will know if you watch).
Even the ending was great. I loved it, but I would have loved it even more if Non was alive(Yes....He ded 0_0) What really shook me was that they never stopped hallucinating.
Now, let me get to the reasons why this series did not get a 10.
There were flaws despite the things I liked in this series.
1) It absolutely got me embarrassed that no on found out about the camera. Like, how did no one know about it till the end? My guy, Por didn't even get to know the truth before he perished into hell.
2) Fluke was blamed for nothing. Yeah, say I'm nagging, I don't care. Fluke did nothing too horrendous, from the beginning. All he did was call Non 'Greasy'(like everyone else did) and he was extremely selfish. He didn't do anything that physically harmed Non, he was just...there. He's a coward. A selfish damn COWARD. That's it.
3) Tee doesn't trust his friends with his baby boy. Like.....how da..? Why? To be honest, it's not like they were gonna make a move on him. Also, I'm sure White could defend himself. Besides, what could they have done? Nothing.
4) Still thinking Non should have been alive.
5) Dat ending was disappointing as fook. I need a season 2 or an explanation for it. A special episode at best.

Despite all of that, I loved the series. Tore through it in two days, and trust me, that's not normal for me. Loved it<3 and hope for a season 2, because, boi dat ending was not satisfying. (I swore to sleep myself across the face if I didn't like the ending, and I had to slap dem face of mine💔)

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DFF tried too hard to be different

This series has probably the worst case of plot development/planning I’ve seen recently. The main issue is the wish to be different and way too mysterious. BoC loved saying this was the first BL with a murder mystery and that’s where they got it wrong. The first 4 episodes are terribly boring. Nothing really happens, while a lot of things happen. But how? It’s all filler.
Once the flashbacks are introduced, the series is light years ahead in terms of quality and actually starts to have a story. Episode 5, out of 12, is when the series really happens for me. BoC missed the mark by not including flashbacks since the first or second episode. We don’t even meet the main character, Non, until episode 5, that’s a bad move.
Regarding the ending, everybody dies is the best case scenario. I didn’t think BoC would actually go for it. The only character I could see living and it working well would be Tee. Being alive is his big punishment after causing everything that happened and literally killing his boyfriend, the only innocent person. Saving Jin would be a major letdown, since he actively caused Non’s spiral and helped destroy his life with that video. All because he was jealous.

I love Barcode’s original song for the series.

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