Coffee Melody (2022)

Very sweet, but too slow.

So, I loved the fact that couples were not messed with or manipulated by jealous, bitchy females. I hate that trope and it's far too common these days.

This show is cute, sweet and fluffy but excessively slow. There are issues, but they resolve quickly. Most of the issues wouldn't even be blips on the radar of other characters in other shows, which just proves how desperate they were to keep this very soft.

There is minimal character development, growth or change but at least they are good at sharing emotions and hopefully the audience looks at their own lives to find happiness like the characters did.

I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. I did really enjoy certain parts and then was quite bored with others. It was a give and take in that regard. However, if you're looking for a fast, easy watch with little investment then this is perfect.

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Boring!!!

So Sad, Another BL that is so boring it's frustrating to watch. Use your Fast Forward Speed, you won't miss anything.

I am not familiar with these actors, but they don't seem to have a very good skill set and NO ONE in the entire series shows enough emotion to make me believe they have feelings for anyone. That combined with a very boring story and "this has all been done before" plots, makes this a series that pretty much everyone will forget the next day or sooner.

The Music is pretty bad too. I don't think anyone in the series really plays an instrument or sings well. There are no outstanding backgrounds or scenery, just really nothing good to write about.

I'm sorry to be so blunt, but if you have not watched this, it's better to know up front that it's not too good. Yes, there are a couple episodes left, but I probably won't finish them.

It's sad you know, we all look forward anxiously for a new bl to come out, but shows like this one as well as Even Sun, Check Out, LaCuisine and a few others from 2022 are almost enough to make me give up bl series.

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Dull and Disappointing

Sometimes a total disaster of a series, like Unforgotten Night or So Much In Love, can be more entertaining to watch than a thorougly mediocre one. Coffee Melody aspires to be the most mediocre it possibly can without falling over the line into being bad. There are many things that can be individually critiqued, but the quality of this series that most stands out is its dullness.

Part of this is the limp script. Nothing really happens. The main pair meet and like each other and enter into an unearned relationship, there are a couple of minor bumps, all externally driven, and everyone lives happily ever after.

But even then, a featureless script can still create a series that's entertaining - but this production lacks any passion. Was Benz even playing a character, or just being himself? Pavel Naret was apparently neutered, given bad hair, and then directed to be as blandly nice as he could possibly be. The style department couldn't even be bothered to make Titnuea's hair a consistent color - one moment it's deep red, the next it's light pink. That's almost certainly because of the filming schedule, which is based on location, not the story's chronology, but that's the sort of sloppiness that's endemic to this series.

It's largely about musicians and music, but there isn't any until past he halfway mark, and it was underwhelming when it appeared. The sound editing is poor - sometimes the music drowns out the dialog, and other times you can barely hear it. Nobody could be bothered to write or obtain decent background music, so the just played easy-jazz piano Christmas carols.

In the end, this story has nothing to say. Even the difficulties of maintaining a long-distance relationship is papered over by having someone move abroad, and then move right back 5 seconds later. Presumably time has passed, but it was so poorly set up that it came off as unintentionally funny, and his boyfriend reacted as if he'd merely been on an overnight business trip.

There were a few positives: whoever wrote this has a love of coffee that came through, Palm Veerapat who plays Jean was adorable and engaging, and some of the ad-libbed scenes, mostly with Duean Yi's parents, were quite charming.

This isn't terrible. But it's so-so in the most boring way possible. I can't recommend it, and it saddens me, because I was excited Pavel got a role, and I hope this doesn't damage his chances of geting another one.

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It Falls Flat on Many Levels

I placed a spoiler alert at the end of this review.

Thankfully this just had 10-episodes. That being said, this easily could have been a 6-episode series instead.

Overall, the series was cute but was really not that interesting. The ending was very lackluster and anticlimactic. The main story concepts are ok, but the script is greatly underdeveloped and falls short on execution. There were many times it seemed they just had the actors improvise their lines. For the most part, the acting was ok. There are a few actors that excelled from the others. The rest of the actors are not bad or good, they just need to work more on their skills. After a while, I found Plengrak and Duean Yi’s storyline exhausting. Especially the second to last conflict they threw in. See potential spoiler alert at the end of this review if you want more info. It also has too many supporting cast members. There are some audio/sound problems throughout the series. The cinematography is good, but there is a lot of misuse of screen time. The few songs in this were good.

Random Note:
I did not have high expectations before watching this series, but was hoping to be proven wrong. Unfortunately, I was not. The quality of MFlow’s previous productions are not the greatest. They always fall short when it comes to the script and production.

I could be wrong, but I’m sure the “movie” in episode 3 was Second Chance (an earlier production from MFlow Entertainment).

The English subtitles on Viki are ok, but they kept spelling some of the characters names wrong midway through the series. I was getting confuse at first as to who they were talking about.

******Potential Spoiler Alert******

Plengrak and Duean Yi’s relationship conflict in episode 7 was the most annoying. Instead of letting Plengrak explain what was going on, Duean Yi was very immature. This also had a half-baked resolution that does not make sense.

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Wasted Potential i'd say

Well.. what should I say. The story had potential, I enjoyed the show for the first few episodes (max. 5th episode) But i got kind of bored of it afterwards. I ended up putting the speed level on 1.25x to get over with it faster - sounds harsh but sometimes it even felt like it would be at normal speed since they were talking quite slow in my opinion.

What bothered me too - not really something that has something to do with the storyline or the acting - but why did DY had no bed?! Like he had the frame and everything but there was no matress and he either slept on this mini sofa or the floor.

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Coffee Shop done right

Coffee Shop AUs are such a popular genre when it comes to fanfics. Take two guys, put them in a coffee shop, et voila, magic happens. I've myself consumed hundreds (not an exaggeration) of such stories on AO3.

So why does the Coffee Shop AU doesn't translate well when it comes to BLs?

My excitement for the Oxygen series (Thai, 2020) was out of the roof, but the final result was extremely poor. So it took me a while to actually focus on another barista-centred show.

In the past I saw two decently done coffee shop shows: short film One Last Order (S. Korea, 2019) and the coffee shop side of Dark Blue Kiss (Thai, 2019) with Plapodd and Gawin. One Last Order was too short to fully appreciate it, and with Dark Blue Kiss I didn't enjoy the incosistencies with the previous parts.

But here, with Coffee Melody, I'm finally satisfied how the coffee shop story was being played out.

STORY:
Rather basic and not very surprising, very very predictable. Two guys put in a coffee shop. You get the tropes very typical for Thai BLs, jealous exes, miserable parents, annoying friends, shippers. What is missing is a gay crisis, annoying woman chasing the male lead and homophobic parents, and the fact these tropes are not there naturally help the story.

I really enjoyed the fact that the creators focused on fewer pairings and had time to actually develop characters in a proper way. With many BLs taking the attitude "The more couples the better", Coffee Melody takes a different approach and it benefits greatly from this.

What I especially liked is that the story actually does take place in the coffee shop for the majority of each episode. This is what a coffee shop story should be about, after all!!

ACTING:
Ok. Could be better, could be worse. Pavel's decent in the cute sweet barista role, but his crying requires more work. Does he hold as a male lead? Not fully, but Benz's character is more expressive and it helps this couple. Chemistry between Pavel and Benz is passable, but there are no sparks on the screen when they are together. The rest of the cast is doing their role ok, but there are two actors who are stand out:
Palm Veerapat (Jean) and Minty Chuthikan (Chanchao). Palm is not only cute and subtle as Jean, he's possibly the best actor in this show. With Minty I especially liked how she showed her character's development and engagement with other actors.


MUSIC:
For a show with the word "melody" in the title, I was actually very disappointed with the music. Stock background tunes take the majority of the screentime. Even the actors singing "happy birthday" are muted and background music is exposed. The main tune is nice, but nothing that stays in the memory for longer. And it is clear that Benz, despite playing a famous composer, has no idea how to play the piano. It shows, but it's a minor detail.

PRODUCTION:
Also decent. Subtitles available in English for those interested. Last 2 episodes not available on YouTube, which is sad. You get the same props every 2 scenes but again, a detail. Perhaps the budget was low, on the other hand you don't see any product placements/commercials within a show, and this was definitely refreshing for a Thai show, so I'd rather take this over luxurious clothes/cars etc. The coffee shop itself looks lovely fresh and airy.



OVERALL:

I'm not saying that Coffee Melody is the greatest BL to ever BL, but it's a nicely done show, which surprised me in many ways. Solid 7/10.

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What was this?

I love BL shows, and I wish we had them when I was growing up! I am addicted to watching them now, but this was not good! Oye! The acting was so bad; the story was boring, and the overall it was ridiculous! I have enjoyed some of Gameplay's work before, and I really think Nammon needs his own BL, but this show I guess was for the money? I have no idea! They tried to be funny, but fell flat! Some of the story lines were ok, but there was more growth with other characters. I did not even understand when the main couple actually decided they loved each other. It was odd! The weirdo wedding at the end, and the sudden change of the grandfather left me wondering if they had ran out of money and needed to wrap up production. I usually like to leave good review, but this one fell so short!!!!!!!!!

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The actual lead isn't listed

It's coffee. I learnt more about coffee than I did about either of the leads.

This is a concept that should work on paper. A song writer with writer's block and café owner who's lost direction of his passion. A man with a scarred heart and a man who can't write a love song, tell me this doesn't sound good as a concept. The thing is, this story would have worked much better as a melodrama as opposed to the comedic route they took. Even then, they didn't really know how to pull off the angst that is guarantee when you have a drama with two lost individuals.

Even if it doesn't work as a slice of life/melo series because it may be too long or have too many inconsequential scenes, it makes no difference. It's not like that's what they didn't already do with this. Put aside the concept and this was just.. boring.

It says a lot about a show when you would rather watch the side couples who barely have screentime over the leads. The leads didn't have much screentime together either, but I'll get to that in a while. They were cute for a while, all the blatant flirting was bound to come home to roost though because after the initial episodes it was conflict upon misunderstanding upon conflict. They even had the ex return for a conflict that ended as weirdly as it began. They didn't talk to each other and when they did it was all very surface level deep. The more I describe it, the more it sounds like angst, but it just didn't work.

Instead of spending time on developing their relationship though, they spent so much time on the band, their label, the coffee shop. Even though they were integral locations for each of the leads and several of the supporting characters, most of the scenes and characters in those locations felt like filler.

I did however love the friendship between Yi and Jao, the one between Nuea and Plaeng, all the friendships in fact. The band, Gene and Plaeng, the employees in the coffee shop, I loved it all. I also liked Yi's family, again not showcased much but realistic and supportive.

I don't mind the ending as much as I should since there is a special, but that was indeed a weak ending to a weak story. At its core, it was indeed a filler series.

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Light-hearted and comforting

Coffee Melody is light-hearted and comforting. Worth watching if you are looking for something that isn’t too heavy or complicated. However, those who are looking for lots of drama, action and tension will definitely struggle with this. I did feel that it was drawn out too much towards the end and episodes could have been condensed. It was awesome seeing how supportive Duean Yi’s parents were of his career in music and his relationship with Plengrak. Duean Yi standing up for his brothers passion for music was also nice to see. All in all, a nice show that has good chemistry and relationships.

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Good "in-between-BL's" watch

Binged in 1 evening. Not because it was that entertaining, but because I had nothing better to do. And that's the perfect time to watch this BL drama. There's not much substance, there's not much story, there's nothing iconic. It's just nice.

What I liked:
The developing romances are sweet and steady. Some might say slow and boring, but I prefer steady. Again, nothing extreme except for the odd butterfly.
Some of the plotlines are cringey because overused tropes, Some scenes are unnecessary and unnecessarily long. There's a skip button for that. Just FF to the next romantic stare, tease or little kiss and you'll be fine. I loved the sweetness in the couples. And the fun they had together. Thats always so overlooked. Couples should have fun and frolic as much as possible. They are newly in love after all.

What I didn't like:
I have no idea when or why the shirts came off. Surely not just for sleeping? But no hints to anything else happening. Weird. Decide to have a love scene and passion or decide to not have that. This innuendo (if you can even call it that) is stupid. The ex showing up and then no room for communication or explanation just a storm-off while there was not even anything really happening? Stupid. Giving the Record Boss the time of day after his toxic behavior? Stupid. Giving us a return scene of 1 minute? Stupid.

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Nothing special but a good binge watch

I'm finally getting around to write a little review for this. It won't be very long but there are some points I feel worth mentioning.

I finished this show a week ago when it was already done airing. It's nothing special really. The acting was alright, enough to make you believe the romance; there was definitely some chemistry.

The first 3 episodes started off really good. Instead of having a shy lead we had a man who knew what he wanted and went for it aggressively. It was a fresh wind honestly. In a lot of BLs, one male lead gets depicted as the "feminine" one and is shy without any desires, which is rooted in patriarchy and misogyny. But this show had two confident gays, which was a redeeming factor.

The story was dragging though and nothing really happened. The story arch was a simple quarrel that could've been solved with better communication. Not having lots of story going on isn't always bad if they focus more on the characters development of feelings and themselves. But that didn't really happen either. Both of them were the same at the end of the show just like we met them the first time.

Overall, this show did nothing WRONG. Im not mad at it and I'm also not mad about the time I spent watching it. It's a good binge watch with not a lot of impact. I had this on while cleaning and working :D

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Kinda What Everyone Else is Saying ... Boring

I really so badly wanted to like this series. Was one of the only reasons because Pavel was in this? Yes, but so what? But after multiple attempts all ending in failure, I'm going to have to finally call this series quits. I tried so many times to really get myself into this series, but it's just so hard. On top of this being molasses-slow, there are just so many sub-plots besides the already boring main one that is so uninteresting, I'd rather watch paint dry. Coffee Melody was sadly a miss, and for anyone who was able to make it through, I give you my undying love.

Let's Dive In.

I think the first few episodes are promising. It does a lot of character build-up which I don't mind, and we get some pretty decent moments between couples and friends. But by episode 5, I feel like I'm just treading my way through the mud. Our main couple was already going through relationship problems that just wasn't working for me, and every other chracter that wasn't them was excruciatingly tiresome. There was nothing drawing me to continue this series. I thought the other side BL couple was kind of cute, but they just weren't enough. Don't get me started on whatever Yi's sister or aunt or friend or whatever had with that one guy and that ridiculously odd trying-to-be couple in the band.

I also just don't think Pavel and Benz work for me. I think it was their fast-paced relationship. I'm more for slow-burns, but I don't mind fast relationship builds, it's just that it does nothing for these two. There's no connection, no chemistry, no yearning, no nothing. The only thing I could come to appreciate was the fact that Pavel can kiss anybody and make it look 5-star, that's it. Other than that, no. It went too quickly with no real commitment between the characters.

Ratings:

Story: 4 - very little story and even the one we got was boring. There was just so much random shit that was so unnecessary for the story. The meetings about Yi's music, the band, the het couple -- I could go on. Instead of focusing on so many other aspects, they should've focused on telling a better story for the main couple and leaving it at that. I'll give a 2 to the side BL couple that I kind of enjoyed, and another 2 only because Pavel was in it and anything less than a 4 is undeserving of him.

Acting: 7 - Not terrible. cutting it close to below mediocre, but the acting was not their biggest issue. Pavel and Benz did decent, I think Jean and the red-haired dude might have outdone everyone else, but they weren't even like show-stopping amazing, they just had an ounce of better chemistry. Janjao was good too. Everyone else was forgettable, and Beam who played Sekram was so god awful I'm almost postive they grabbed him off the corner of the bus stop.

Music: 5 - Didn't pay any attention to it. Wasn't distracting, so there's a point.

Rewatch Value: 1 - Fuck no.

Overall, I think I'm just more upset at how this series has done nothing for Pavel. With all he went through, I was hoping this was really going to shine through and we'd get to see him being amazing and beautiful, but instead, he was just beautiful. I don't think I liked this role for him, not saying that he can only play a bad boy, but this role was just weird. He just smiled and talked. That's really the only way I can describe his character. We all know Pavel can do better, but this role and this production have kind of stumped his abilities. Hopefully, we'll see him in another series where he can really showcase his skills. I skipped to the last episode only to watch the side BL couple kiss (meh) and then I ended it there. Kind of disappointed this series didn't become what I wanted it to.

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