woof, that was ruff

Such a hard drama to watch. The last episode just came out, and man did I struggle to get here. The writing is shit, the acting is way overdone, the characters are terrible, why am I even here? ..honestly it's because I couldn't pass up a series with TutorYim as the MLs-- those poor babies-- boy did they do them dirty with this show.

Starting with the basics, nothing really wrong with the story except for the fact that there isn't much of one, just a sweet office romance between a mentor and intern, cute right? Not so much, the story itself is fine but has weird unnecessary drama points that don't make sense, creating drama just for the sake of it, which honestly is nothing new to Thai dramas in general. Except for the fact that the cute characters that are supposed to make the show are just trash.

These poor poor actors, after watching this group in Bed Friends and Cutie Pie, you know the extent of their acting skills, and you cast them in this??? This is a slapstick comedy, overexaggerated reactions, with dull shallow characters, and no redeeming story to save it. Jade (Yim) is a super weird and awkward character, and no not in a cute loveable way but in a wtf is wrong with your face way, on top of that he's insecure to a fault. His overdramatic reactions are even more emphasized with the slow motion scenes and awkward sound effects, seriously who wrote this? In comes our boy Mai (Tutor) who's this gorgeous little thing and he basically puppy dog follows Jade around and adores him to death. He has zero flaws and confidently pursues Jade who literally can't stop making trouble for himself and those around him. It's like a mess of a princess saved by the heroic prince, but even the prince is a shallow characters with zero depth, and as adorable as both of these actors are in real life and other shows, this one was almost impossible to enjoy. There were some scenes that were cute of course, but the amount of trash you have to dig through to get there.... not worth it at all.

Good lord why in the world would I keep watching this??? Only because I think Tutor & Yim are adorable and I can't help myself, but if you haven't watched the show, I'd say just look up a cute moments fanmade video and skip all the ridiculousness. If you're obsessed with TutorYim, then you might be able to push through otherwise, just skip to the next one. Feel free to find recs in my other reviews!

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decently sweet, iced with drama and sprinkled with spice

The story takes place in a bake shop run by 3 friends, the first one is the rich kid using moms money to run the shop so he's stuck under her thumb, the second is a friendly outgoing baker who can't seem to beat his friend at cakes, and the third is a cold perfectionist baker who is closed off and has his walls way up. Until of course, our MC takes the stage, he's a simple and sweet aspiring baker who easily makes his place in their shop, and also their hearts.

I actually really like that his character isn't a huge pushover even though he's a sweetheart, what I dont like is how quickly we see our closed off perfectionist open up to him and do a complete 180, maybe because it's only a 7 episode show and they had to speed things up, but the development needed a little more time in my opinion. I also didnt enjoy how toxic literally every relationship turned at one point, full grown adults throwing fits like children, making a decision in the heat of the moment and then taking it back, the white lies and the unnecessary drama, but all things considered it wasn't too bad.

The actors are doing a good job playing their parts, and there are several cute scenes, the chemistry between the leads is fine as well but I do feel like it could be better. Was almos trooting for the second love interest just to see if they'd have better chemistry lol. A cute watch overall, short and sweet, just a little bit dense.

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it's cute and chaotic, but kind of a mess

The story is about a classical piano player who dreams of playing jazz, and a jazz player who because of a traumatic past, doesn't want to play jazz. Honestly the story is a bit strange, you think they're going to go in one direction and then they yank you the other way. I havent read the manhwa so I'm not sure if it's the adaptations fault or not, but I do know it doesn't flow very well. Their meeting was chaotic and intense, and their development was toxic angst, but i enjoyed the angst. I'll leave a spoiler comment to rant about the story, but I'll leave the review at that.

The actors did an okay job, they're all cute and decent actors, but the two mls chemistry is just okay. They did a good job with the tension in the scenes though. Also our little side couple had great chemistry.

The quality of the filming and production were good, well shot scenes and decent music, no complaints there.

Overall I'd say its worth the watch, it was a cute story for the most part, and the angst and tension are great, but just be ready for a toxic and strange ride in the story line.

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a lot of hype for randomly resolved storylines

Last episode just premiered, and I'm sitting here thinking wtf did I even watch. Granted, I made it to the end so it was entertaining enough to keep watching, but there was a lot of unfulfilled potential.

Story-- The premise here isn't original, it's a Parent Trap style twin swap story where we follow one twin in his efforts to save his brothers dream after his brother was attacked in his place. After watching Not Me, it's hard to do the twin trope better than that, but this one is a more of a lighthearted and innocent story, so for the concept it works fine.

Something about this show just doesn't flow very well, or should I say nothing this show flows well at all. Part of it was probably poor acting, but the writers/directors/producers must have all been totally out of sync because the story was all over the place and the drama behind it all just made no sense.

Acting-- Frame, the actor who plays the twins is kind of a poor actor, his scenes are exaggerated and the characters themselves are not so well written imo. You have one that's supposedly wild dog crazy but when he has to play his brother he's a huge softy, and then the other who's apparently incredibly popular who's just a POS in general, and they just arent on the same page, makes no sense at all.

I did rate the acting well though because the cast is pretty good otherwise, I wish the rest of them had more screen time. I love the side couples, and even the main couple is cute at some points, but theres just a lot of drama dragging on.

Music-- Yhe music is fine, nothing too crazy, just unimpressed.

Anyway, with all of its flaws, I was able to make my way through it, I was even excited to get those new episodes every week. It was a "happy" ending, it just didn't really make sense, and I left unsatisfied. Worth a watch? Up to you.

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I love a well done adaptation, this one was a little short

To be honest, after watching the trailer I wasn't sure what to expect, it looked corny and the teacher-student relationship seemed uncomfortably inappropriate since it looked like the teacher was coming on to him, no lines were crossed, though there was a bit of an uncomfortable gray area that im not a fan of.

It's the story of a delinquent who falls for his teacher at first sight, and who doesn't love a cute delinquent trope paired with a forbidden relationship. They mostly kept it sweet and innocent, the teacher is recently graduated himself so the age gap is pretty small too, but even still. Oddly enough, there's almost zero mention of the forbidden aspect of their relationship, which is weird because there are a couple scenes where I was like, you guys are just flirting in public orrrrr?

My main issue with this drama is that they really didn't have enough time for plot or character development, this series is too short to do justice to the characters and their stories, even with their relationship they had to speed up the development. Their interactions feel a little forced, and the story feels a bit flat.

The acting is decent, the characters are loveable, although Toki is a bit overboard with his acting, I get that they're trying to stay true to the manga with exaggerated reactions, but it is a tiny but cringe. It gets better as the show goes on though, so you really only have to push through the first couple episodes.

It's a pretty show, the scenery is pretty, the people are pretty, the music is pretty, production was all good quality.

As long as you go into this show looking for a cute shounen ai, knowing that it will have those manga/anime style reactions, you will likely enjoy it. Even with the bits of cringe, and the underrdeveloped story, its still adorable.

ETA-- just read the manga, or at least the first 6 chapters that I could find. Honestly they did a great job, I would have done a few things differently but they definitely did it justice with this adaptation, cute!

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easily a solid 10/10

Everything was so beautifully done, Taiwan keeps outdoing themselves with these masterpieces, this one takes the cake.

The story played out perfectly they take their time developing the feelings that grow, starting from the earliest days of this small little family. A brother and sister who are struggling all alone take a "stray" in off the street, he quickly becomes part of the family and the close bond they all form is beautifully done. When things start to take a turn and the little brother starts having different feelings for the older brother that took him in, the story turns turbulent and they do an incredible job keeping it both realistic and angsty without pouring on the drama.

The actors are all amazing, I was really impressed how easily they capture your heart and pull you into the story, and the chemistry between them is so good ?

Music and production were probably one of the best ibe seen in Taiwanese bls, they did a great job keeping things realistically gritty and still adding that cinematic flair for beauty.

Watch it, your only regret will be that it only has 12 episodes.

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action/fantasy bl with fire chemistry ?

First of all, the fact that Saint is the producer blew my mind a little bit, but lets get into it.

This story has everything-- our leads are new recruits in a special investigation unit, they train together and hunt down criminals, the murder mystery alone keeps your interest pretty well, but there's so much more. The two MLs are linked by destiny, they have a past that goes much farther back than they know, the fantasy element of this show is pretty good, I love a good lore. The merging of these two aspects of the story, or rather lack thereof, is the only thing that had me kind of disappointed. They invested so much time and energy into building up both the story of their past lives and the story of this big wig criminal that they have to hunt down, I expected the stories to be somehow linked. But it was kind of a crime fighting by day, fantasy love dtory by night type of feel, with a bit of both in some scenes. It was great at first but towards the end it started to feel like they were trying too hard.

Im not sure who threw this cast together, but it was beautifully done, theyre all well written characters played by good actors with fantastic chemistry. The tension between our two MLs gives you butterflies, Phaya and Tharn are both lovable in their own ways, I love love love their chemistry and can't wait to see their relationship develop even more. I love our side characters relationships too, wish we had seen more!

High quality everything, rarely do we see good storyline, good acting, and good graphics all in one BL, so the fact that we have all 3 in one, recipe for success right there. These aren't short episodes either, these are hour + long episodes packed with content, you feel like you just watched a short movie. Unfortunately, toward the end it started to feel a little more dramatic, the length of the episodes seemed to drag on a bit.

The ending was happy, but felt a little ?????
I'm not sure how to explain, I just felt like, oh, okay, that was it?

Part of me wonders if they started to lose it towards the end because they got such good feedback that they started to think they'd get a season 2 and wanted to save some of the plot twists for S2, which is why they ended it the way they did. All in all it was a great show, the ending wasn't bad, just didn't match the energy of the rest of the show in my opinion. I'll be excited to hear if there's a season 2!!!

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they took all that potential and threw it out the window

You've got two cuties, at least one of them with stunning visuals, and you just kind of dropped the ball.

The story wasn't bad, but it wasn't good. I like a childhood sweetheart type of trope, especially when they meet again after years. But this one didn't really make much sense, and they didn't build the story enough to make it mean much. The office romance aspect was cute but just.. there was no point to it. I honestly wonder if they wrote all of the "fun" scenes before writing the story, and then wrote a story so they could showcase some of those scenes.

The acting was... okay. Honestly after watching a couple of clips, I thought the chemistry was going to be fire, but it was just meh. There were some tense scenes, but they had such potential to do more with these actors, it was super disappointing. Personally was not a huge fan of the main character, he was the damsel in distress type that can't do anything himself, and the times you're supposed to see him as "cool", you're really just watching him be saved by other people.

Overall it wasn't the worst, but you could definitely do without watching the whole thing, even with how short it is. Out of all the KBLs I've seen, this one is probably lowest on the list.

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Thai flavor body swap romance

I decided to watch this because it's been a while since A Tale of a Thousand Stars and I missed EarthMix, it was good watching them work together again, and overall this was a cute watch.

The story was fine, misunderstandings led to hate in what used to be close relationships, then an accident caused two siblings (Win & Lin) to swap souls and Win has to pair up with Korn who he now hates to go on a journey to ensure their souls return to their bodies. To be honest a lot of the buildup seemed to be for no reason, the misunderstandings don't make a lot of sense in the end. Kind of gives off a "what was the point" kind of feeling, or "if you knew that then why..", it was a bit of a mess at the end. I thought the journey was good and wholesome overall, but it all felt a little like we were waiting for some big reveal and then at the end it was just a bit flat.

Tha acting was good, but I think the characters were all pretty shallow, not a lot of depth or character growth. Win(Mix) grew a lot as a character, but it wasn't very believable, Mix is a fantastic actor, but this drama didn't do it for him. Their chemistry was just okay, I mean this is EarthMix here, they have chemistry just by being in the same room, but there wasn't any special closeness in this drama.

Production was good, pretty scenery and landscape, good quality shots, music was decent as well.

I wouldn't rewatch it, but that's not abnormal for me.

If you need an EarthMix fix, go ahead and give it a watch! It's a cute watch overall, but if you're looking for the show that makes you fall in love, try something else.

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romanric thriller groundhog day

I liked it, it was a pretty decent watch. Not without flaws and I didn't really come out of it wishing for more, but I did enjoy it and was satisfied with the ending.

The story isnt bad, its just okay. Its basically Groundhog Day meets 50 First Dates meets House with a dark and mysterious twist. It's fairly well done but still riddled with lille plot holes. There weren't any super repetitive scenes in there so I was happy about that, but the whole "no matter what you change some things will still happen" and the "butterfly effect changes everything" were kind of opposing forces that really only were used when convenient. Like how can you have one of the tiniest decisions change absolutely everything about the story, but the outcome is exactly the same? I won't do spoilers but there were definitely moments like that in the show. What characters remember things and what they do and don't remember is quite convoluted, the consistency just isn't there, it's clear the story came second to the romance, but it wasn't terrible. Definitely an improvement on half of the bl series I've seen, its hard to do something ambitious like time loops, so overall a thumbs up.

The acting is decent, some were better than others, Dr Tin(Tae) was an interesting character,bi like his development, but I think it was a bit forced at times, its a little hard to explain. Tol(Tee) was kind of the same in the sense that it felt forced, it was weird because I felt like he played 3 different characters depending on who he was interacting with, and even that was inconsistent. Their chemistry was on and off, but mostly it was good, I love a slow burn lol so this was fun. I wish we'd had more though, but it probably wouldn't fit in too well with all of the high intensity drama and thrill. Still, the few cute scenes we do get were pretty adorable.

The production quality was good, no corny looking graphics and all of the shots seem well done.

I won't rewatch, but I usually don't, if you're looking for a slow burn romance with plenty of drama and thrills, have a watch!

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toxic af, but DAMN they're cute

This drama could definitely get 10 stars for how toxic they can make a relationship before trying to recover it and turn into a cute love story. Whether they were successful or not, ill leave that to you. All I'll say is that Vee is the weakest POS of a character and you'll want a new ML pretty quickly after starting the series. His redemption arc or whatever feels like too little too late, and they know that so they basically put the relationship on pause at one point, it just kind of feels like a mess.

But these guys are undoubtedly adorable, Vee (Yin) is pretty attractive apart from his weak cowardly character, some parts of the show you even like his character, but not most of the time. Mark (War) is cute af, both the actor and the character have you spiraling out of control falling for him, and I'd rewatch the show just to rewatch his face flush and ears turn red every time they touch.

The story is pretty basic, nothing too crazy and very overdone plot lines. Some cute tropes thrown in there, and overall I liked a lot of the characters. Some side characters were well done and others not so much.

Overall, I watched it all the way through and was decently satisfied with it, without Mark (War) as the MC though, i think my rating would have plummeted. As one of the reviewers already mentioned, it's a drama of angst, so if you're ready for some toxic angst between two sexy guys, have a watch!

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this left me feeling a whole lot of things

This show had so so much potential, and for some of it, they really did a great job. For other things, they just flopped hard.

Jiushi is a game developer who stumbles across a VR game that's so much more than just a game and gets pulled into the world of 12 doors that you have to make your way through, each of them opening up into unique virtual universes with new life threatening challenges, and when you die in the game, you die in real life. When Jiushi goes into his first door, he meets Lanzhu, a master gamer who owns a company that takes other gamers through the doors.

The story is intriguing, it's a fresh spin on the real life VR trope, and the strange worlds that lie behind each of the doors are well thought out and incredibly creative. The main storyline though could have been SO much better. The main story line was veiled in so much mystery, I love not knowing what's going on and learning little bits as you go, but the reveals were lame! There were also psrts of the plot that didn't really make sense that just threw you for a loop and you just had to roll with it. I'm a sucker for a happy ending too, and I saw a lot of ways we could have had a satisfying ending, but this wasn't it. It was disappointing after staying with the story for so long, just for it to end and leave you feeling empty.

The acting was alright. Most of them were good actors, especially Xia Zhiguang who plays Lanzhu, he's amazing. There wasnt anyone terrible, but the guy who plays Jiushi wasnt a great actor, so it threw things off. These two could have had chemistry to kill for, some of their scenes you just sit there holding your breath, but the writers must have been scared towards the end since there's not much chemistry outside of the sad parts. I get it though, because ultimately the show was taken down, so sadly, their fear was justified.

Production value was great, the world graphics were mostly good quality,the music was awkward though? There was literally only actual music on what was supposed to be the romantic scenes, but it felt forced in there.

Overall I enjoyed this, but not nearly as much as I anticipated. It could have been amazing, and the ending just leaves you empty.

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just watch it

This isn't the series with incredible story and acting to match. The story is dull and ridiculous, the actors are awkward at times, the excessive sighing and eye roll worthy overacting-- it's cringe. But you know, I've watched worse.

Why watch this? Because these two have incredible chemistry, its not just "how many times can we have two attractive men take off their clothes and make out?" like a lot of bls are trying to do these days. Whoever put these two together knew exactly what they were doing, the way they talk to, look at, and touch each other is so intimate. They hadn't even had an intentional kiss yet before I was in a ball blushing, but when they did... holy hell. It's not like it was raunchy, it's just how they touched each other, how their bodies interact together, and the emotions behind the scenes.

So, just watch it, the drama is not amazing, but they are.

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Was it worth the watch? Barely, but yes.

This was a really hard drama to rate, a lot of things have improved in Thai dramas over the past several years, so I wanted to give this a little bit of leeway and try to take it for what it was, so I'll try and be gentle with my review ?

Let's start with the actors, I was honestly really surprised at the quality of acting here, usually you have a lot more side characters that just don't know how to act, but there were several characters that were played really well and carried the show, the whole friend group had pretty good skills overall.

Onto the story-- you have a group of college friends that we follow, going on a journey with them as they fall in love or give into lust. The story is mostly about their relationships and the drama that comes out if jealousy and selfishness, so while spoiling as little as possible, let's get into the couples.

Our main couple, KornKnock (MaxTul)
Holy fucking chemistry. These two blow you away with their intimacy, the way they look at each other, talk to each other, touch each other-- really its the entire reason that this show is so popular. Max is an incredible actor, Tul was a little less so in this, after watching him in Manner of Death, I know he worked hard to get there from this. Maybe it was because he just couldn't quite feel his character though, because Knock was a walking red flag the whole series. I wot go into it so as not to spoil the moments, but he's thetype you wish you could save the ML from because he's so stupid and selfish.

Side couple #1 PhuKavitra the teacher student trope--
I'm personally not into crossing unprofessional lines, it seems like a weird abuse of power and I'm just not a fan, but it wasn't too bad here since it was university. The acting though, these two just did not do it for me, Phu was a cute enough character, but Kavitra, she can't act for shit and it makes you want to skip over their story completely.

Side couple #2 BrightFarm the doctor and patient trope--
Apart from the fact that the doctor hitting on his patient is just ew, holy fucking age gap. They didn't even mention the age gap in the story it was just so obvious and uncomfortable! I had to stop the show at like two scenes where I was legit like ew there's no way, this guy could be his dad, sure enough these actors are TWENTY years apart. Listen, I get that age us just a number, but when you take the inappropriate abuse of authority with the fact that this kid could easily pass for still being in high school, it just felt incredibly gross. Trying to push that aspect off to the side since somehow I don't think it was intentional, their relationship is so red flag all the way through, there's no one rooting for them in the end.

Side note, Yiwha and Fai are both great, they also had good chemistry if they'd been cast as a couple, so I think there was some untapped potential there.

Ultimately, the MaxTul chemistry is what made this show, this level of toxic drama and cliche tropes is high school level bad, but watching this cute little group of friends fight their way through the struggles together was heartwarming in and of itself, so I'll give it some credit. Was it worth the watch? Barely, but yes.

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it's actually better if you mute it

I was trying not to wake anyone up so I was watching some of the episodes muted, and honestly it was a big improvement.

The story is cute, it's realistic in my opinion, a lot of times we give up parts of ourselves when we get into a relationship, and that sacrifice ends up turning into regret. When things go awry, we lose our way and start to question our life direction, and thats exactly what's happening with our ML Seon Yul, he leaves Seoul to take care of his grandpa's farm while his grandpa is away, and does a bit of soul searching while he's there. Cold city boy meets warm country bumpkin Ye Chan, and they start to care for eachother.

The story is cute, but the characters could have used some work. Seon Yuls character is fine and his acting is good, but it would have been nice to get a little more depth to his character, for a short series it's pretty good though. Ye Chan on the other hand, his character is just not it in my opinion, they make him out to be this idiot bumpkin who doesn't know anything and acts like a 6 year old. It was kind of cute and innocent at times, but towards the end he just gets annoyingly dumb, and it's unrealistic. It's like they tried to make him the comedic relief and the love interest at the same time, and it really didn't work out.

Everything else about the series was okay, seriously if they replaced the actor who played Ye Chan, or at least made him act less absurd, this show would have been adorable.

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