Could have been amazing

TW: suicide, self-harm, homophobia, bullying

This is not a bad drama if you are mindful of all of its trigger warnings and tags. One of my biggest issues with this series is the lack of trigger warnings despite the semi-explicit depiction of self-harm and a very clear implication of suicide.

But let's talk about the good first.

I highly enjoy the friendship and the scenes of them just enjoying each other's company is so lovely to watch. Not all interactions are romantically charged and I highly appreciated that they got the chance to develop a solid friendship first before any romance develops. There are also a lot of emotionally raw moments between the two main leads which were so enchanting to see on screen.

I also appreciate the first time-skip. Any relationship that they develop between them in that high school period would be nothing less than traumatizing for both of them. It is clear that TaeHyun is not ready for any sort of emotional attachment due to his past trauma, and it was clear that he was going to project all of his emotional insecurities unto DaYeol if they became a couple at that point. I appreciate that after the 2-year time-skip, he had enough reflection time that he recognized his own emotional misgivings and kind of just promised to do better. He was emotionally aware enough that he is not ready for a relationship at that point but he will work towards it. That in itself is a huge character development from his initial selfishness.

Now let's talk about things that could have been done better:

1. Trigger warnings, as I mentioned previously.
2. Second time skip was so unnecessary. I wanted to actually see the effort that TaeHyun put into improving himself and winning DaYeol over, but instead we got another lazy writing in the form of time skip. Maybe it's the lack of budget or whatever, but if that was the case, then they should have properly divided the amount of highschool screentime and college screentime.
3. First episode was extremely hard to watch due to how malicious Won Kyung and Tae Hyun are. It was not harmless jokes, they actually accused DaYeol of SA. It was also disturbing how the adults handled the supposedly SA situation - they actually did not take it seriously at all, and the nurse was shown to be more homophobic than actually caring about a student being supposedly SA'd.
4. No real consequence to homophobia. I know this happens in the real world too but I have anger issues and I was itching to punch some bitches in this series.
5. I can't see the physical attraction between the two leads. I am completely fine with the lack of kissing or physical intimacy - my favourite BL of all time is The Untamed. However, there is just no tension or any signs of physical attraction at all between these two male leads.

I don't think I can every bring myself to rewatch this ever again even though it had some real cute moments.

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The feelings didn't quite get to me

Short review:

I will preface this review by saying that their casual intimacy with the handholding and back hugs gives me more butterflies than straight-up kiss scenes and NC scenes in other series. The actors did so well in capturing that pining, hesitance, and anxiety that comes with first love. The missed chances, miscommunication, and inner angst is so on point for a high school series - high school kids are usually not emotionally well-adjusted so I am happy they captured that on screen while still making the characters likable.

However I do have an issue with how all their kiss scenes are dub-con at best. I understand the nuance of non-explicit consent but honestly it just seems like Ashiya did not want to be kissed in all of their scenes. It is so jarring when you compare the joy on his face when they hold hands or when he got back hugged to him getting kissed. Also I don't vibe with Ohara's bowl cut like if you're going to make him a heart throb maybe don't give him mushroom hair. But all in all this is a generally non-offensive series that should fill your high school romance quota.

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The Cherry isn't Blossoming

Short Review:

Enjoyable series if you're looking for mindless fluff and eye candies on your screen. The actors are the highlight of the series, but everything else falls flat. Pacing is bad - story is too big to fit into 160 minutes. This could have worked better if each episodes were 50 minutes long OR if they made it into two seasons. Cinematography has its moments, but every shot in the classroom was amateurish at best. I usually don't mind bad cinematography but this one was particularly jarring to me. I do have to say though, this is a series I will still enjoy rewatching because the actors were just captivating together. But you do have to be quite forgiving of its flaws if you want to truly enjoy the series.

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Basic with Perfect Execution

This is a belated review as I have watched this two times now. I remembered liking this series the first time but it did not stick with me much, hence why I did not review it. However, the second watch gave me so much renewed appreciation for this series, the cast, and just the perfection in its simplicity.

Let's just put it our there, this series is not the first of its kind nor does it have a unique storyline. But it shines despite having a formulaic plot due to the great character writing, amazing cast, and great comedic moments.

Jiwoong as Ji Ho Jun is absolutely amazing. With a lesser actor, Ji Ho Jun could've been annoying to say the least. However, JiWoong had excellent comedic timing and excels at pulling a puppy face which makes the character extremely likeable despite his egotistic tendencies, especially in the beginning.

Seobin as Yoo Jae Yun excelled in his emotional scenes, especially ones with the first guy he had a one-sided crush on. He delivered so much of that earnest energy that even though he was a complete pushover, I couldn't find it in myself to be annoyed at him.

Both actors are quite green and it is noticeable, but they have such amazing on-screen charisma that the acting still works really well. They both really do have potential even if the technical aspect of their acting isn;t perfect here.

The character writing was great and even though they are not written as very complex people, I still can see that they do have that rich inner life. I love that Ho Jun is extremely competent and caring even though he is a spoiled brat. I love that Jae Yun is ambitious and has strong convictions, but also has so much personal insecurities. I love that we have moved away from the stoic CEO with insane power imbalance over the employee, because even if it started out that way, Jae Yun being the landlord really helped even out the dynamics in the story.

Most of all, I absolutely loved how they chose to end it. I reckon it's the best outcome possible for a boss x employee trope.

However, one thing that I have to say is that there are pacing issues. I reckon this would have worked better as a 12 episode series, as I thought that Jae Yun moved on from his first crush a little bit too quickly. I understand getting over him after that one incident but going from that to falling in love with Ho Jun in what seems like less than a week was just a bit too much. I would also have loved to see more of their early relationship honeymoon period because the conflict was introduced way too soon after they got together so it was hard to justify that much angst on what appeared to be a very short-lived relationship.

Anyways I would still recommend this drama to all romcom lovers. This is an adorable, easy to watch series that makes your day brighter.

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An Excellent Drama That Doesn’t Take Itself Too Seriously

This series is an excellent example of a drama that manages to balance drama, romance, comedy, and angst perfectly. A lot of reincarnation dramas usually choose to lean heavily towards either extreme angst or extreme comedy and there is rarely a perfect in between such as COL.

Let's start with the excellent stuff:
- Excellent casting, acting, and chemistry. This applies to all the characters and not just Daou and Offroad. Yes, the romantic chemistry is amazing. But the platonic chemistry between the cast is also crazy electric.
I honestly am in disbelief that this is only Daou and Offroad's second project because their acting and chemistry far surpasses their actual amount of experience. I also have to give a huge kudos to the child actor who played young San, Ms. Vad, and Dr. Third - they were absolutely amazing to watch. Everyone was amazing actually, no line delivery feels out of place or awkward which is a huge feat.

- Insanely funny in the midst of all the Serious. This is an actual laugh out loud funny series for me, which I absolutely did not expect just by watching the trailer and reading the synopsis. Not to mention, all the main casts have amazing comedic timing and a good amount of them are actually so good with physical comedy. Even the editing choice was excellent and insanely funny - there’s this one scene in the beginning where San was asking the first Shinse how long he has to wait, and then the next scene cuts to a picture of the memorial picture of the Shinse and I literally snorted.

- I loved how they wrapped up the story. I had huge expectation on how they were planning to go with the whole "who is the real reincarnation of Ms. Vad" and they wrote what I personally think is the best possible scenario that they could. They managed to convince me that San would still love Vee even if he's not Ms Vad's reincarnation whilst also not negating the enormity of San's love towards Ms Vad, which is a hard balance to achieve.

- They managed to make the age gap not creepy. Eventhough San is literally 100 years old, he learns from Vee as much as Vee learns from him. This really reduces the weirdness of the 100 year gap and any sense of power imbalance

- The characters are all well developed. I love that Vee is not a perfect angel - San knows that and loves him regardless. Although their whole world does revolve around their romance, it doesn't feel one dimensional because Vee has so many other fulfilling relationships in his life other than just San, and San is a literal 100 y.o man so he is allowed to just focus on Vee. I also love how we can clearly see why they fell in love with each other. Both characters are so lovable that its not that high of a reach that theyre madly in love with one another.

Now unto the room for improvement:
- They didn’t really allow proper time for angst. Almost all angst scenes have a comedic element to it which is not fully ideal if you're looking for a good cry. I don’t mind this though, I don’t enjoy crying that much anyways.

- Some scenes didn’t feel purposeful and intentional. I do not mind filler scenes, but I do recognize that this is a room for improvement.

- Plot holes? Or maybe I'm just stupid and didn’t understand. So there are two things I don’t think was explained: does five colored stone have the ability to extend anyone's lifespan eventhough it was literally bound to San and Vad's soul and what was the point of the dream scene where the Goddess cried after San thought that Vee is Vad reincarnated? For my first question, it was more because the mafia and Vee are both under the impression that consuming it will heal them and even San was saying that it has to be given voluntarily and has to be consumed on the birth day of the Goddess. However we saw that the initial healing was done by just placing the stone on San's chest and the consumption was actually to extend lifespan by 100 years. Idk if I phrased this well enough but I just found this part weird.

Anyways this is an excellent watch and I will continue rewatching this for a very long time.

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truly matched each other's freaks

I'm conflicted writing this review because I loved this drama not because of the story itself but because of how unintentionally funny this is.

So the story is about a guy with a stalkerish tendency who falls in love with a guy whose insecurity is almost as intense as his ego. Both of them can't properly talk which makes an absolutely hillarious series to me.

The love story itself feels very juvenile and really does give you secondhand embarassment. However, for me the secondhand embarassment quickly turned into comedic gold. Everytime either one of them does something insanely stupid, I literally fall out of my seat laughing. Please do watch if you're needing a laugh.

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Unironically Interesting

This is a series that you either absolutely love or hate, I don't think there could be an in-between. If you're someone who deeply cares about good writing and story-telling, this is probably not the right series for you. But if you're like me and love morally fucked characters and non-stop drama, you're going to absolutely adore this.

I'll get the bad stuff out of the way first:
1. It loses its direction quite a bit because of the insane amount of side stories. I don't hate this because it's still easy enough to follow, but not all side stories are essential to the main plot. This series could've benefit from someone in the writing room saying "maybe that's enough" at one point. Because of the insane amount of side plots, they did not really have time to flesh out any of the issues fully. I know the issues of drugs, prostitution, grooming, and murder do come hand in hand a lot but it would have been heaps better if they had one topic in the spotlight the entire series rather than have each of these issues take turns being in the spotlight. It is a little bit too ambitious for its own good unfortunately.

2. Not all characters were made equal. I wish I could say that I will still remember all the characters next week, but I know that I will definitely forget at least half of them. Unfortunately, some of the characters are literal dozens. I'm not even talking about the morally black characters, those people are still memorable. I'm talking about characters like Jump, the reporter, Captain's boyfriend whose name I've already forgotten, and tons of others. Even Porsche is so uninteresting compared to his other friends. Honestly if they were going to put this many people in the series, they have to make sure that each of them are interesting at least.

3. Intentions and motives aren't very clear. I think one of the reasons that the ratings are this low is because the characters are not the easiest to connect to. It is so important to ensure that even if your main character is an absolute piece of shit, the audience can still understand why they are that way. Unfortunately I think the motives established here is just not enough for most people which alienated a huge portion of the initial audience.

4. Too many buttcheeks. I've worked in hospitals and aged care where I see ass on the daily but this series still contained way too many buttcheeks for my liking.

Now onto the good:
1. Trigger warning is very clear. This was very obviously a "watch at your own risk" series so people know what they are in for. None of the shady stuff done in the series are romanticized in any way and this actually speaks about consent in a more authentic manner compared to even the fluffiest BLs. All of the characters are morally grey at best but the series never really disguised them as anything else which I fully appreciate.

2. Touched on complex issues without downplaying the seriousness of the situation.

3. This series is genuinely interesting which is not something I can always say when it comes to thai BLs. A lot of action or darker series often fail at making me care about the action side of the series because of how much emphasis they put on the romantic storyline. The action becomes secondary and oftentimes feels like a filler in between the romance scenes. This series is different because I care about the plot as much as I care about the relationships.

4. Series is sex-positive and doesn't demonize kinks. I love that this series doesn't shy away from casual sex, kink exploration, adventurous sex even after getting in a relationship. I find that a lot of series involving casual sex often end up going into the "We're going to stick with vanilla sex now because I'm in love with you and I want to make love instead of fuck" which is hugely annoying to me. People can be in love and still have rough sex if they want to! I'm glad that this series doesn't go down that road.

5. Chemistry between actors were amazing. This doesn't only apply to the romantic couples because at one point I was kinda rooting for Zouey and Nont/Nant to get together. Their friendship is seriously so homoerotic and their tension is just so tangible.

6. Prom is so hot. I want him.


Overall, this series is definitely not for everyone but I absolutely adore this. I am wishing for a season two and I hope Zouey and Nont kiss at one point because they obviously want each other.

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Missed potential

Bless Gawin for being an incredible actor who tried really hard to have chemistry with Krist. Despite the commendable attempt from Gawin and a really good script, I found Krist's acting quite lackluster which ruined the series a little bit for me.

Here's the thing, for a series to be good, the viewers have to actually like and connect with the character. This premise is not new, this formula is the lovechild of "About Time" and "When We First Met". I absolutely adored Pisaeng's character in this - he was sensitive, in touch with his feelings, and has a chronic case of puppy eyes which makes you really feel for him. However, Kawi is a hugely different story due to the execution. Kawi is very flawed, which shouldn't be a problem if it was portrayed by a more skillful actor who could help balance out the negatives with some humanity. I usually love flawed characters, it gives their personality some dimensions. This is not the case with Kawi. The script wasn't the problem in this case - the problem actually lies in the delivery. The script gave Kawi so much chance of redemption: the internalized homophobia, low self esteem, and eventual self acceptance. The delivery was the main issue. Internalized homophobia & low self esteem appears as selfishness and disingenuity. The eventual self acceptance didn't actually feel like self acceptance - it just appeared to be "oh, I know what outcome is the best for me now, so I'll go with that". This could've been much better with a slight tonal change in the delivery. The relationship ended up feeling imbalanced, with Pisaeng's character giving in to everything Kawi wants.

I couldn't fault anything else, really. The theme was interesting, side characters were very well developed, and each scene was made with purpose. I just wished they casted a different actor to play alongside Gawin.

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Gun hard carried

Short review:

This used to be my top watched series when I first got into Thai BLs, but it has not hold up.

Good stuff: insane ost, cohesive theme throughout, Gun's acting, cinematography.

Needs improvement: fleshing out of the platonic relationships, characterisation, pacing, dynamics of side relationships.

The biggest kudos have to be given to the editing team and Gun. They really hard carried the show. When rewatching this, I'm just very captivated by Gun everytime he shows up on screen. He delivered an absolutely magnetic performance as Third and it's not just because he looks pretty while crying.

My biggest issue with this series, however, is how underdeveloped the characters are as people. They are so two dimensional - their identity is hugely centred around their love lives and not much else. I also don't understand how Third even developed a crush on Khai because this guy is an absolute ass who isn't even a good friend. I also am not bought on the side couples at all which sucks because they took up quite a bit of screentime.

This was a good series when it first came out and when we had no better Asian queer media options. Luckily, we now have tons of better options to choose from.

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Good as a standalone

If you don't come in with the expectation of this series being a perfect remake of the manga, you'll like this (or at least won't hate it).

This drama falls into the lukewarm territory between great and average for me. I really enjoyed both characters individually and I enjoyed their story but I think there is a little bit of a pacing issue when it comes to their relationship development. I wish we had a more fleshed out one sided rivalry phase and a gradual change to the love interest phase. Despite that, this series still managed to get me invested in the main characters because they are both just so lovable.

I do hate the way they tried to trivialize the whole selling actresses to the porn industry thing though - it was not meant to be simplified into the whole "he's doing it for love" trope.

I still do think this is worth a watch if you're not too deeply attached to the manga. I personally would rewatch this a couple more times.

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Waste of time

I'm half convinced the reviewers here who gave this series above 9 are involved in an elaborate prank because I get how this may appeal to certain people but there is no world where this should be rated that high.

My biggest issue is with Thi. I agree that he's probably not capable of manipulating Noey but that in itself is a huge character flaw. He was fully in uni and still couldn't even avoid getting into sticky situation with a literal 15/16 y.o. I'd understand if this was a footballer whose had tons of concussions but this is a dude who is supposed to be smart? But there he is, getting picked up at uni by his love interest who is still wearing his school uniform. I know they delayed the kiss until Noey graduated, but how the hell did he even get himself into being courted by a minor when he is a full grown adult. The fact that they delayed the kiss means that they know that the age gap is problematic.

This also led to my second point - the casting itself is hugely problematic. Why would you cast actors that have 9 years age difference (with one being a minor still) as each other's love interest? It's actually horrifying seeing how they treat the age gap as a non-issue.

This was the first series where I actively root against the main characters getting together. I should've dropped this drama but I trusted the reviews that said that it gets good after 7 episodes and by that point I might as well finish this. The only good thing about this drama is Noey's character. He is so earnest and he will make you want to root for him. If only he had an age appropriate love interest.

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Fun Imperfect Series

I'm actually very late to this series so I had the pleasure to binge this in one go. It's not perfect by any means and I can think of a couple of tweaks that could've been made to the script but it was a fun watch that got me kicking my feet a little bit.

Let's start with the good:
1. Fun premise and plot, especially in the beginning.
To my surprise, they really nailed the initial world building and set up in my eyes. It's not easy to create an accessible romance set up in a multiverse, but I really liked how they introduced the two characters and created a space where they could fall in love believably.

2. The chemistry really did it for me. This might be controversial but I really enjoyed the chemistry between Jimmy and Sea. I didn't expect this to be their debut series because of how comfortable they looked with each other on screen. They really nailed the casual intimacy with the casual hugs, hand holding, and cheek kisses.

3. P'Dol is hot.

4. The romance was romance-ing hard. I'm a sucker for good romantic stories and honestly I was a guaranteed audience for this series just based off the whole "I will find you in any universe" theme. There's also something intensely romantic about Jimmy's gaze and I think it's his lashes. I kinda fell in love.

5. Product placement was so obvious that it's kind of funny. It did make me crave KFC for a hot 5 minutes so mission accomplished I guess?

6. Friendship group + AouBoom's cute. I love found family so again, they really found an audience in me.

7. Music was gorgeous.

Now unto the bad:
1. Pacing is bad. This is a common problem with GMMTV series except for a select few, but this one annoyed me because how they put a pivotal plot point in the last ep which was really jarring. GMMTV needs to do better fr.

2. They kind of lost the plot in the middle of the series, then jumped back on the multiverse ship in the last quarter. It's a shame that they wasted half of the episodes not really touching on the interesting part of the plot which is the multiverse aspect of things. The whole movie making thing and rediscovering your passion should have been linked better with the multiverse theme because the flow of the series was seriously stalled in the middle.

3. There were a few plot holes such in the switching back part. I think the fiction part of the writing got a bit lazy and dependent on the romance.

4. Missed opportunity on having double main leads. This was literally the best series to have two main couples but they just didn't elaborate on the OhmNon story and honestly made Tess sounds like a horrible person. There were so many unanswered questions that it led me to think that maybe they were intending to make a sequel.

All in all, fun watch for me. Wouldn't recommend this for someone who can't turn off their logical side of the brain a little bit but if you can mindlessly watch things, you'll love this as much as I do.

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Not horrible but not good either

There is not much that can be said about this drama - it is unfortunately one of the most mediocre series I've watched. I don't feel enough to hate it and I don't feel enough to like it either.

If you're watching for the plot or acting, you've come to the wrong place. There are so many areas for improvement in terms of acting and writing. Pacing feels very off, there were a lot of plot points that needed to be fleshed out more and some that needs to be shortened. Acting is subpar, which is a huge shame because this isn't their first rodeo. I don't think being able to cry well is a huge ask in the acting world but the emotional performances in this series really fell flat and felt amateurish.

If you're looking for eye candies, however, this drama might be it for you. Meen looks especially good in this so my 5.5 rating is mostly off the fact that he's hot. Also I've gotta say, the guy playing Whal kind of stole the show for me. I was full on rooting for him and Guy to get together instead because he kinda nailed the internalized homophobia, pining, and hesitance look.

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