Ready, Set, Love (2024)

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***DISCLAIMER: This is just my opinion. We don’t have to agree and I’m not here to argue with anyone.***

Tropes: enemies to lovers, dystopian society, grumpy sunshine, childhood friends to lovers, forbidden love etc.

This was honestly so much fun to watch. I was smiling, giggling and kicking my feet the whole time. I can’t explain how much of a serotonin boost this drama me. Ahhh I’ve been in the biggest kdrama slump since Marry My Husband ended and I couldn’t find any airing dramas that piqued my interest but this — THIS DID IT FOR ME!

OVERVIEW:

Picture a dystopian world where the population of women to men is 9:1. Boys are essentially harvested (rounded up) and brought to a place called the farm where they are raised until they are of age and eligible to take a wife. Except this doesn’t happen organically it happens by way of a game show. So picture hunger games meets Barbie princess charm school (lotto system) meets a dating / game show. Basically 5 civilian girls are picked to join in on this exclusive game show “Ready, Set, Love” to vie for any of these chosen “gentlemen’s” hearts. Our protagonist Day wants nothing to do with this “stupid” game show as she’s quite content living her life and taking care of her sick sister. But what she doesn’t anticipate is that her sister has been buying “moo milk” and entering her name in the lottery religiously. It’s no surprise (to us viewers) when Day’s name is called as one of the contestants but Day has no idea and is totally shocked (her reaction was priceless) Initially she is upset and doesn’t intend to go as she doesn’t care for the lottery and has to take care of her sister. Out of curiosity she eventually goes under the ruse that she’s going to get Son’s autograph for her sister. She meets all the girls and guys and she’s not impressed in the slightest as she’s more focused on eating the food provided. Then she gets a phone call that her sister has gone under and is in the ER for her illness. She immediately wants to drop out but Ms. Jenny convinces her to stay as the ultimate chance of winning the game or even getting to pick a gentleman and live on the farm where she would be able to get medical care for her sister is far greater than what she’d be able to do on her own. In a turn of events, she decides to stay and give the games her best shot.

GENERAL REMARKS:

The chemistry between the leads was so damn good. Like ahhh you could feel the tension / angst through the screen and I just ate it up. I loved all the other gentlemen too… I still can’t get over how silly their names were lol (Paper and Almond especially threw me off) But other than that they were all likable characters. The second couple I loved and rooted for since the beginning was Max and Chanel. They were so cute and I’m glad she chose him in the end. I also liked the side stories of Ms Jenny and her wife as well as Jin and Chun.

I have to say though, When Son and Day were in their enemies to lovers era I low key started to root for Almond (Al) and day because he seemed like green flag. I’m so disappointed to find out he was the invisible witch / enemy hidden in sheep’s clothing. He betrayed his friends and played as a double agent of sorts even though he kept saying he was only trying to help them. I felt bad because Valentine risked everything to find him for her mom and in the end even when he found out she was his sister and had the opportunity to leave with all of them he was a coward and said he couldn’t. In my opinion he was far too brainwashed by the Farm and thought he was better off inside that glass house / glass world than on the outside. I understand he’s afraid of change etc. but he would’ve had his friends and his family. Plus now that he decided to stay he’s basically a prisoner and they are trying to get information out of him even though he’s feigning innocence.

I loved the ending. It calls for a season 2. I can’t help but think Chanel’s mom is plotting something and that the man in the photograph (the leader of City Ground resistance ie. Son's dad) is the man she fell in love with when she was younger? I feel like there's some connection between them. Also I don't understand why he wouldn't have returned to Son by now? Wouldn't Son recognize him? I need answers and I need to see more of his backstory and how he escaped. I’m so excited to see this storyline continue.

Although Day and Son + the rest of the gang were not able to achieve freedom for all civilians I feel like this was a step in the right direction. Given a few more years I believe more people will grow tired of the capitals games, manipulation / control and resist / start an uprising. Nevertheless, I am so happy that Day, Son and their child are safe and they can live in harmony. It warms my heart to see them raising their little family.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Overall I think this drama was very enjoyable. Yes I agree that the drama lacked in some areas in the sense that parts of it were slow and other parts were skipped / glossed over. However, for 6 episodes I think they did a pretty good job. Maybe if it was any longer I would’ve lost interest and gotten bored. Plus, this was my first ever Thai drama and it made me so excited to check out more.

If you’re deciding to watch this you definitely should. I promise you won’t be disappointed especially if you have no clue what to watch or are in a slump like I was.

With all of that said I give this drama a 8.5/10.

Ready, Set, Love is a light hearted rom-com you can’t miss.

Thanks for reading and happy watching!

❤️

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Ready, Set, Love: A Dystopian Adventure with Romance and Humor

This show unfolds in a parallel universe, a dystopian realm where the male population is vastly outnumbered by females. Males are a rare sight, akin to an endangered species, housed by the government in a human zoo known as the Farm.

The government sponsors the reality show "Ready Set Love," where female contestants vie to become brides and form families under government care. The reluctant female protagonist Day, becomes a contestant through a lottery leading to an unforeseen journey filled with chaotic, hilarious, heartfelt and romantic moments.

This show encompasses multiple genres with its primary focus on Dystopian survival, complemented by sub genres like romance, comedy, thriller and drama. It explores various themes including LGBTQ+, conveying a positive message. The inclusion of two LGBTQ+ couples is handled maturely setting it apart from many other BL genre shows in the same region.

The overall tone of the show resembles a convergence of the Reality/variety and fiction genres. The reality show within this fictional context provides an authentic feel akin to watching a real reality show where you anticipate outcomes but cant help getting excited during the diverse game tasks. This undoubtedly bridges the gap between fiction and reality genres.

Thrills and romance kicks off in the second half offering an exciting narrative. While the thriller aspect may not be entirely unique, it captivates, keeping you engaged until the final moments. When it comes to romance, the main couple (#SonDay) and the second couple (#MaxChal) undeniably share sizzling chemistry. The main couple's chemistry and the actors performances leave you yearning for more, especially with their endearing childhood backstory.
The comedy aspect is delightfully campy, evoking genuine laughter. Personally im not usually a fan of Thai comedies finding them cringe worthy with their OTT humor. However this particular show managed to resonate with me.

When it comes to the characters, each one is unique and distinct. None of them is purely evil or negative but a few exhibit shades of grey. The drama becomes even more intriguing with such well crafted main and supporting characters.

The soundtrack is vibrant, peppy and jazzy, seamlessly enhancing different scenes. In contrast production value is huge, evident in grand sets and costumes that exude an expensive quality. I never thought Thai productions investing so generously in their shows but Netflix made it possible.

In summary, this show offers a must watch experience, delivering unique content that seamlessly blends comedy, romance, a hint of thrill and entertaining tasks/games making it a perfect choice for diverse audiences.

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Ready, Set, Love - a colorful mini series for Valentine's Day

Netflix Thailand really opened their 2024 with a fantastic original work. Ready, Set, Love is a dystopian romcom miniseries (6 episodes) with a LOT of comedy, a hint of thriller, the cheesiest and corniest writing but also a lot of heart. The perfect Valentine's Day binge in my opinion.

STORY
Set in a dystopian world the female population outnumbers the male, our protagonist Day (Belle Kemisara) got selected into a government-sponsored reality competition called "Ready, Set, Love" where women compete to win the affection of five "Gentlemen". While the premise is original, I thought the execution of the story was a little bit of cliche and predictable at times. I definitely feel like I caught many references to The Hunger Games and Divergent and other popular dystopian genre works (Eve Capital????). But besides the cliche writing, there were a LOT of LGBTQIA+ positive messages sprinkled throughtout the dialogues and LGBTQ+ representation. I was so happy to get a scene where our supporting lesbian couple having an ultrasound of their baby. Althought the series promoted itself as a romantic comedy series, I think Ready Set Love is was much darker than I had expected for a Valentine's Day release. But with a tight-pacing, the series did well to tell everything in the span of 6 episodes while covering all the characters' subplots as well as not leaving any loose threads (BUT THAT CLIFFHANGER POST-CREDIT SCENE? @NETFLIX BE SERIOUS). The series got very dark all of a sudden in the last episode but I thought it was a reasonable writing choice.

ACTING/CAST
Our ML is Son, the most popular and handsome Gentleman, played by Blue Pongtiwat. I think the romantic scenes between Belle Kemisara and Blue Pongtiwat were believable but not crazy insane, just decent enough because they're two incredible actors. I think the supporting characters definitely stole the series a little bit more for me. I particularly love Paper (the youngest Gentleman), May (Day's younger sister) and Valentine (Day's bestfriend) and Chun. The actors for these supporting characters were delivering top-notched performances even with the little scenes they had. The miniseries did very well in giving all the supporting characters of the series a lot of room to fully portray and tell their stories.

MUSIC
The score is bubbly and fun. I love the jazzy opening intro and the graphics fit it perfectly. There's this song that the character Chun (played by Kunchanuj) sings and I absolutely adore it. Music is a huge part of Paper's storyline and I love the songs seletion for this series.

REWATCH VALUE
This is one of those series where I don't think I'll rewatch because the mystery plot only really works the first time that you watch. But I do think I'll rewatch certain episodes for the cinematography because the color palette of this series is so vivid and vibrant, I was in awe the wholetime. It reminds me of the color palette of Pushing Daisies, which is a favorite series of mine.

PRODUCTION
This was such a high value production from Netflix Thailand, I'm surprised by how bad they're marketing this. I keep mentioning the colors of the series but I'm not kidding at all, it is truly beautiful and so gorgeous. The set, the costume, the visual effects. You can FEEL the high budget for this series from just the first episode because the fictional world they've created is honestly very realistic.

OVERALL
If you're looking for a high-value, fast-paced, quirky campy romcom Thai miniseries (6 episodes) with a dash of dystopian and thriller element, Ready, Set, Love is definitely a must-watch Netflix Original.

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Ready Set…Should’ve Been So Much More Than Love

This started off like it was going to be light comedy built around a love story with all the bright set colors and silly incidents with the FL. But once the story started to unfold I found that there shouldn’t have been anything light and fun about this series. Or if there was going to be comedy it should’ve been used to lighten the story when it got too heavy.

The premise of the show was interesting and original, but the writers failed to do a deep dive on the themes they were throwing out. For whatever reason the birth of boys had severely declined. We are never given a reason why or even if research was being done to determine why they were rarely being born. As a result of this decline, there was a shortage of men in the world, so the government’s response was to essentially hold every boy that was born hostage at “The Farm”. They had this national reality game where women would compete to marry a man , but then we are told that’s just a scam and the marriages don’t actually happen.

It seemed as if TPTB were forcing the men to be with women whom they chose, for the purpose of…we’re never told why? The assumption was also if a girl was born, she was allowed to be out in the world and free. It was said that some women’s son’s were stolen from them and taken to The Farm if the they failed to comply with the law in giving up their sons. And those women would then be drugged and imprisoned. But if all men were held hostage at the Farm, who was impregnating these women in the outside world?

So again, it wasn’t clear what the government was hoping to accomplish with imprisoning boys at the Farm and marrying them off to what appeared to be wealthy families. As previously stated, this show had an interesting concept. There were many social commentaries at play ie “fake” vs “real”, population decline, human rights just to name a few.

With all the other more pressing story threads going on the love story was really irrelevant. And at times it seemed as if two shows were being explored within one, but the writers didn’t know how to merge those stories into a coherent show. The leads looked good together and had nice chemistry. It was sweet that they got their HEA but it seemed so out of place within the context of the story, much of which was not properly explored.

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It was fun but could've been so much more

The production values were incredible and especially impressive for a Thai series, the leads were all eye candy and some of them could actually act (especially Paper, Almond, Chanel and Bovy), some of the games were fun. But there were so many missed opportunities to make this show deeper and more interesting.

The premise is that most of the men in the world die off and the ones who remain become a commodity to exploit. What happens when men are out of the way and women are the ruling class - are they really interested in solving the problem of male births or do they actively suppress knowledge that would fix the birthrate in order to secure their power? How are the men treated in the marriages, is it similar to how women are treated in patriarchal societies where they are abused and have no freedom? What is it like when men are forced to breed (this is kinda sorta touched on with Paper but the full implications of that aren't explored).

Don't get me wrong, this show is a very fun binge and I enjoyed it, just felt let down when I saw the potential it had to be so much more.

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The Bachelor + The Hunger Games = The hilarious and fun Ready, Set, Love

Subjective Gut Rating: 8.25

My first impression of “Ready, Set, Love” is BRIGHT! The colors are so vibrant and it feels so cartoonish! This is the perfect drama to watch if you want something light, a little over-the-top and hilarious!! Is it the best drama out there? Definitely not! But it brings me joy when I need some lightheartedness in my daily life. It feels like a live action adaptation of an anime.

The plot is nothing unique and is actually quite predictable. I would describe this as a combo of the American reality TV show, “The Bachelor” plus the movie, “The Hunger Games”. We have women competing for the love and attention of 5 eligible bachelors aka Gentlemen. The ladies are thrown into ridiculous games to beat out each other, in order to win the chance to choose one of the 5 gentlemen they want to marry. Additionally, in this dystopian world, you can’t really escape the political commentary of this supposedly perfect world inside The Farm.

I really enjoy the competition part of the drama including all the hilarious characters from the Gentlemen, Ladies to the commentators. If you don’t mind over dramatic acting, this is perfect. The romance is not bad, just not quite enough for my taste. The couples are cute, but I wanted more fluffy scenes. I do appreciate the inclusion of a lesbian couple and a gay couple (just not enough screen time). On the other hand, I like the portrayal of sisterhoods between FL and her sister, and 2FL and her BFF. With only 6 episodes, the political plot and commentary might be the weaker part of the story. It’s no surprise they included this in the drama, but there is just not enough time to develop and write a satisfactory ending to that. Everything seems too easily resolved, and I was never worried that things would turn out badly for them. You can probably see from a mile away how the drama is going to end.

Nevertheless, I had a lovely time watching this. I will recommend this if you are looking for some over-the-top fun with decent acting and chemistry, a good-looking male cast (especially one who wants to show off his abs at any given chance) in very vibrant HDR colors but am OK with a simple plot.


Completed: 3/15/2024 - Review #418

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Thailand is now bringing us into dystopian

Clever, imaginative, well-written, and well-executed. Don’t get swayed by its cheesy title since the show has a deeper story to tackle about. I am a big fan of the concept of dystopia; showcasing injustice in a society and bringing a creative set-up on the way people live, was truly a chef’s kiss. Thankfully, the show succeeded in offering this to us. The story's foundation of having an uneven ratio of two genders where the chance of giving birth to a male child is too low was phenomenal.

They also managed to give depth behind the characteristics of everyone from the show with reasonable development throughout the end. The majority of the cast is likable, the same with their cute and fun little games with budgeted props that make it more lively.

When I finished its pilot episode, a question came to my mind, “If all existing gentlemen are living in a small luxury city, what would happen if one or two of them fell in love? Not to a woman but to a man since they aren’t that pretty exposed to the women outside their living environment.” Fortunately, my BL heart was satisfied enough with Pepper’s story. A man from The Farm fell in love with another man who is living in a hidden place called City Ground.

This is certainly a mini-dystopian series that is rarely produced by the entertainment industry in Thailand. Although I felt that the progression of the story lacks in terms of expansion and solving cases, it is still understandable since they only have eight total episodes to fit everything. The open-ended conclusion was great since it allowed people to be hyped for a possible sequel. Yet, I honestly think that the four-year time skipped before the ending credit was unnecessary and they should just stick with the cliff-hanging part of what will happen to them after freeing from the government. I want to see more scenes of how they will fight back the injustice and bring peace and prosperity to the people.

There is only one time from the show that I feel extremely frustrated. It is when on EP02, they labeled Almond as the best cooker among the gentlemen. Yet, he happened to be the clueless one when it came to finding the right ingredients for Thai dishes and desserts. That was just naive of the production that they let this idea end up being aired for the sake of romance between the second lead. Despite some of its flaws, the overall impact of the show was cool and entertaining. Blue Pongtiwat introduced me to this series and I am grateful for that. I’ve been following him on his Instagram for a long time but this is the first time watching him in a drama. He does prove to me that his undying charm is there for a reason. He is indeed a good actor, the combination of his appeal and acting was well-balanced.

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Ready for a drama-filled world where women reign supreme? Tune in to find out!

The dystopian love rom com Ready Set Love is not only light hearted, but also highly entertaining. Also adding to the drama is the dating competition concept . Aside from being a good pick-me-up, this drama also provides a thoughtful commentary on gender roles. Considering the world's majority is female, the show explores how power dynamics and relationships would differ in a female-dominated world. This film also challenges traditional ideas of romance and love, making it a refreshing and thought-provoking experience.Overall, this drama is a must-watch for those looking for a unique and engaging romantic comedy.

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Fast, Fun, and Full of Surprising Characters

From the trailer and promo images, you would think this was a bit of comedy fluff but it's actually a dystopian thriller full of character development disguised as a rom-com.

The story is simple on the surface: for some reason there are hardly any men in the world, so the government gathered them all into a place called The Farm and basically raffles a few off every year through a reality competition show called Ready, Set, Love. Our leads are all involved in this show as competitors and production staff, and it becomes clear very quickly that the game is not only rigged, but also hiding some really, really dark truths.

In the middle of this game we have our leads, Day and Son, who trace the path of dislike to friendship to love quickly but with real sweetness. There's several drama tropes thrown at them, but the actors and the story make it all work in an adorable fashion.

Alongside Day we have her best friend, Va, who is working on the show with an ulterior motive. I loved her character and her family's story, sad as it was. Day also deals with two rival competitors, Chanel and Bovy. These two are great - just when I was worried they'd become the typical villainess and airhead friend, they surprised me with complexity and emotional depth. Chanel's story was, to me, especially touching and I was so glad when she got to make her own choice and thrilled by the decision she went with.

Son's friends are the other men who are the prizes in the game show, and three of them (Paper, Almond, and Max) have really interesting stories of their own. It's impossible to praise them much more without major spoilers, but each one had a personal journey that was well written and acted. They each broke my heart a little and their brotherhood was lovely.

My favourite character, though, was Jenny. She's the show runner for the reality game and her story, her relationship with her wife, and her choices throughout the series had me completely entranced. I love, love, love Jenny.

There production values of the show were insane - particularly the reality show competition elements, which were so elaborate. I don't watch that kind of shownso I found some of those sequences kind of bizarre, but I appreciated them in how the showcased the characters. I am also new to Thai dramas, so the occasional exaggerated acting was jarring for me but it wasn't too frequent.

I will happily rewatch this show in the future, presumably ahead of the second season that was teased in a little mid-credit scene.

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Im in LOVE with this show

Everything from the acting to the plot is amazing!Also the friggin intro is a bop.

I love the way they can make a show seem lighthearted and start it out with the viewers watching in the perspective of a dating show and then switching it up.

All the deep trauma and societal problems get uprooted as you go, but it still keeps it's comedic side which I loved!

Other than that. EVERY character in the gameshow is likeable and understandable. I like that there is no clear "villian". Some would argue it's Chanel's mom, but I don't think so.

Also let me not start talking about Almond. His character is so interesting! Although some people might dislike his character, I simply feel bad for him. He had acted as a bigger brother all his life and all he wants to do is protect his brothers from what they don't know. I mean, he is wrong in his assumptions, he's very brainwashed🥲

I ALSO LOVE THE CAMERAWORK! That one scene in episode 2 (I think) when Day yells "no" and it zoomes out, and then Son catches the camera, smirks and throws it back so it hits her. That was the funniest thing ever, very creative.

(Bonus, oml, Son with braids in the last episode killed me (in a good way), but Son in a wig was even better haha)

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