Never Let Me Go (2022)

Easy to watch but doesn't mean it was flawless

Right off the bat a lot of the story didn't make sense but somehow from episodes 1-9, I found it super easy to watch. Mostly because there was more 'telling' than showing so conflicts, emotions, etc. moved at a quick pace. Episodes 10-12 became extremely hard to watch and took me four days to complete. Despite it being nice and easy to watch, the show had many, many flaws. But I'll only list the four biggest ones otherwise I'd be here all day.

1. The setting; a public high school for rich kids or kids whose parents have good connections. Wtf
2. The characters are supposedly high school seniors, 18/19, but act like uni dropouts. For instance, underage drinking wasn't considered an issue as there were multiple drinking scenes
3. The leads' relationships with their parents fell far from reality. Towards the end, Palm talks about how his mother was dead and he had this questionable(?) smile on his face. I swear if there weren't English subs, I would have thought he was talking about how nice the weather was. I understand that the hospital was far away, but Palm made no effort whatsoever to save his mother and just abruptly declared that she was dead. That would be understandable if we saw him check for a pulse, or listen for any breathing or a heartbeat but we saw none of that and he did none of that. Instead, he screamed 'mom' 10 times and shook her arm a few times and somehow the show believes that's good enough to convince us this 18/19 y.o. knows when a human being who's just been shot is really dead?? Okay, Dr. Teenager.
4. Why did a French and Chinese gay couple decide Thailand was the perfect place to get married when it's not legal in the first place...?

Finally. Rather than saying 'Yay everything's been resolved, let's overwhelm our audience with happy love scenes from our leads' the show took that 'No we need a separation to show that the leads really do love each other but just didn't think they were good enough together' route. That might have been fine but the leads were literally separated in the final episode for a little over 10 minutes, not to mention during those 10 minutes, they played a 2-minute and 20-ish seconds flashback of Diao and Palm together! It didn't feel like they were separated, it felt like they had made plans for an island getaway but Diao had to delay his flight a day or two for some last-minute business meeting. Unlike its strong opening, it had a weak ending. A lot of their conversations at the end also fell flat and contradicted a lot of what they said and did in previous episodes.

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glad i didn't let go

the perfect casting + the perfect plot + the perfect acting + the perfect storyline = the perfect drama. from the first second till the last, i was into it.

it was the first time i saw perth acting in a gmmtv drama (i know him since LBC, which is a wabi sabi drama) and the first time seeing chimon. they both did a great job! perth's acting on beyond words.

pond and phuwin also got better, since FUTS! it looked more natural, spontaneous. phuwin looks more confident, more comfortable in front of cameras. they both (pond and phuwin) did really good at portraying their characters' emotions and feelings. when they were sad, you were sad. when they were happy, you were happy, etc. i also loved how they made dancing their thing!

the colors were pretty, the atmosphere was heavy and calming at the same time. what about the cinematography ? insane.

the only thing that stopped me from rating this 10/10 is that part with the couple at the bar, on the island (wu/david). making them interact with the main couple at the bar, why not. but what's the point of creating a story for them ? i didn't understand how it could be useful in the storyline, knowing it didn't have any impact on the main couple. that just made me cringe, to be honest.

but anyways, "never let me go" goes immediately on my top 5 best dramas ever! it really deserves a lot more, the cast and the storyline are literally perfect.

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PONDPHUWIN IS GOOD BUT CAN WE TALK ABOUT PERTH?

I know I know that the main couple is PondPhuwin but I couldn't help but to think about Perth all the god damn time!! I never thought Perth as a good actor but UM HELLO????? I am clearly wrong! He is a good damn actor and the way he express his feelings, good god! Can I just compliment the outfit coordinator as well? Perth's outfit is just... LORD HAVE MERCY! Anyway, let's talk about the characters first.

I don't have any single complain about the characters. For Neung's character, I really like how immature he is at the beginning of the series however soon, he has character development episodes by episodes. He started to get less selfish and open up to the other characters. Phuwin shows great acting by showing how spoiled Neung's character is and how difficult for him to open up to anyone since most of the people that approach him must want something. AND LORD, CAN WE JUST TALK ABOUT PHUWIN'S ENGLISH? MY GOD!!! I didn't think I could move on from Bible's english in KinnPorsche series but MISS GURL-... Phuwin's english is damn good and apparently he is fluent in English. Anyway, I kind of understand why Neung is being so stubborn since he is always all alone, so that's the logic why he is being like that.

POND. POND. POND. HM.... GORGEOUS and I like how he is portraying Palm. As a servant that is loyal to his master, always look down and being all protective of his master. THOUGH, I was about to complain about why is he being so weak during action scene, it's a logic explanation since he is just 18. His character I mean so he doesn't have that much energy to protect Neung. I wish the action scene where he was doing his laundry could be develop better cause they have so much potential like they could have use the bamboo ladder as a prop. What a waste. But, seriously, love them.

KISS SCENES ARE DA BOMB. When I said DA BOMB i mean DA BOMB. Not some high school peck on the lips kind of shit. Their kiss scenes are *chef kiss*. I love it when they kiss, they show that they are really passionate with each other, like they longing for each other's presence.

overall, I just love them so fucking much and I hope they have more series upcoming <3

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and i still want to know what grade they Got for the chinese class paper

Overall it is a nice Story to watch, also there are sometimes logical failures (like nueng drives the motocycle while Holding the break ) and the feeling like some scenes have been skipped....
the "i love you and never leave you" but then both of them decide to Do exactly what they promised Not to Do part was very tiering for me. Also the acting from the mother could have been more motherly , the facial expression was sometimes a bit hard/Cold.
but i liked watching the Show as a whole also i still want to know weich grade they get for their work in the chinese class.

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Worth the time spent; I especially loved Nueng's character evolution.

For some reason, my impression of this series in the past year was that it is boring and poorly acted (based on random reviews in the YouTube comment sections of various other BL shows). I finally gave this a chance only because I didn't know what else to watch.

Overall, the story is satisfying and worth the time spent. It reminds me a bit of Not Me (plot-wise), which I really liked. I especially loved episode 9, which was when I realized how much more effectively this series uses music, compared to most other BL shows.

Probably just a pet peeve (and I hardly know much about writing stories), but although "show, don't tell" is a pretty solid rule to stick by, at least a couple of times, I was irritated by the use of flashbacks when what was being shown could have simply been said naturally as part of an ongoing conversation. It was jarring and felt out of place. I barely remember now but I think one of those scenes was of Nueng talking with his mother in the hospital after she regained consciousness.

Original review @ YouTube comment section of ep 12 4/4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20Q6ZWJX4fk)

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This review contains spoilers

Never Let me Go was kind of a mess for a character-driven viewer like me.

Its cinematography, camera language, colour grading, editing and choice of music were all really good. The drama was a sight to behold most of the times.

But I personally found the drama lacking when it comes the writing and the acting which are - to me - the backbone of a show.

Writing-wise, I lost count of the plotholes and the number of times the story made no sense - there are many examples of such occurrences in the comments.

Worse in my book (because I'm unfortunately used to suspending my rational thinking when watching dramas), the characters were sometimes inconsistently written, Nuengdiao particularly, who was at times shown as someone who knew how to easily navigate the dark side of being from a wealthy/influential family (when he used his influence and connections to get Palm's mom and dad released for example) and at times being completely incompetent or unknowledgeable at it (when he did nothing at all to prepare for his uncle's attack in the second part of the show, though he knew it was coming).

Some actions also made no sense from a character's point of view (such as Nuengdiao enjoying himself on an island with Palm while not knowing his shot-to-death mother's condition, or the way Palm announced his mom's death to his father, not even taking him apart to tell him the news, not even taking any caution while doing so).

Acting-wise, I know Phuwin and Pond didn't have a lot to work with, given the way their characters are written, but I still think their acting needs improving, especially Pond's in highly emotional scenes. Nonetheless, their chemistry is great.

Relationship-wise, I could never quite truly engage with Palm and Nuengdiao's relationship. There's being boyfriends and there's being actually willing to sacrifice your life for one another, and I never quite understood how we got from one to the other. I also constantly felt like the show was telling me one thing (how their relationship was epic, one of kind, unbreakable despite the challenges etc.) and showing me another (Nuengdiao and Palm breaking up two times instead of working through their difficulties, or failing to work as a team in high-pressure circumstances). I also would have loved the show to work its romance more within the plot because some romantic scenes of the last eps (the restaurant scene for example) felt really tonally jarring to me in the context of an imminent attack from Nuengdiao's uncle. All in all, I never felt Nuengdiao and Palm were the mythical OTP they advertised.

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Just here for the nature shots!

The only reason I finished this series is because of the AMAZING nature shots. The view of the mountains and all the greenery were absolutely stunning. I wish I could get a video of just that!

The acting/story
The acting was ehh okay but not great. Pond and Phuwin are both good actors, but I felt like the story line just couldn’t let them shine. They had more chemistry behind the scenes. It seems odd that the story was so blah, because the director and writers all have good dramas under their belts. But this drama just seemed lacking.

I liked the “bodyguard” troupe, but I felt the story was rushed with unnecessary details that took the up the place of a steady storyline. They tried to fit too much into the series with out focusing on how the flow went.

The soundtrack was okay, nothing special.

Rewatch value
2 stars… only because the cinematography and maybe because I like Pond and Phuwin. But it would be at the bottom of my rewatch list.

The our sky sequel episodes was a little better but not much.

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very interesting concept but the execution was lacking

This show had a very interesting premise but, in my eyes, didn’t allow itself to go down an either darker or more lighthearted road and therefore couldn’t utilize iit. This show dealt with death and abuse but kept it all very PG-13. You definitely can still make a dark show with that rating, but this show specifically failed. This show wasn’t able to juggle and perfectly balance out romantic, dramatic, and sad moments. Therefore, it would’ve been easier if they just leaned more in a darker or lighter direction.

To give an example. At one point, Nueng’s mother and Palm’s father both get shot by assassins. And their knee-jerk reaction is to flee to a beach and hide there for idk how long and just chill there and have fun. They try to make it seem like Nueng has the best time of his life to lay the groundwork for the finale, but it doesn’t work. One moment Nueng is there, having the time of his life (even saying that he’s never been happier) and then we are reminded “oh right, the mom could be dead by now” but this show doesn’t want us to dwell on that too long, because oh look! another cute moment between our leads!

So, either this show goes into a darker direction and let’s Nueng and Palm show more humanity and worry about their parents or they go down a more lighthearted road and tell us “yeah they are fine, now look at them swimming in the ocean!” both doesn’t work. Or rather, this show didn’t make it work.

While Nueng and Palm had a stronger beginning, their ending felt weak. I absolutely love the bodyguard trope. There is just so much external and internal conflict right at your feet but the writers stepped over it. There was some interesting back and forth and testing boundaries and how far they could go. Especially since Palm’s dad seemed really really concerned his son might overstep a line and get them fired or something. And after Nueng’s outburst at the dance, yelling at Palm to “know your place” and calling him a mere bodyguard, etc. In the end it was a bigger deal to me than Palm it seemed. It should’ve laid the groundwork for future insecurities and struggles. You tell me that everyone around Palm kept telling him that there was a clear boundary that Palm shouldn’t dare to cross and that he was worth less than Nueng and he was only there to protect the rich and wealthy and he was like “yeah, anyway”? A shame. Palm just seemed to get over it too quickly, after his own father was telling him the same. It’s like everyone around Palm kept telling him the same thing and Palm just ignored it as best as he could.

The writers were also such cowards and didn’t like to address the obvious classism. They constantly brought it up but as soon as it could’ve actually made things interesting, they dropped it. Same goes for the “bad rich and good rich people” mentality. In BL there are only two types of rich people. The Good Rich People and the Bad Rich People. Nueng rarely gets called out on his privilege because he wants to help the less fortunate by playing piano for a dance club for seniors. His family is apparently stupidly rich but they are good rich people, so it’s fine. You can say about Not Me what you want, but at least they were very clear about one thing (and I am grossly simplifying here) “there is no such thing as good rich people because as long as they are hoarding their money and don’t help others with it, they are bad rich people”.

The bullying at school was definitely a choice. And to have the class president constantly come in after a “prank” and yell “guys come on, stop it” and his “I am the class president I can take care of it” obviously you can’t, Ben.

Also, you shouldn’t give away your villain if you aren’t doing anything with it. I was a bit let down after they revealed who killed Nueng’s father immediately. There was no mystery aspect to it, instead we got many mustache-twirling evil-laughter scenes with him. I always cringe when a grown-ass man is after a teenager. The only good thing about it was that it introduced an opportunity to us for a very interesting character that this show didn’t allow to become something great. Chopper.

I would’ve loved it if they allowed Chopper to be more of a flawed character. He remained pretty solid throughout the show, always trying to do the right thing and stopping his father for the most part. And I wish they would’ve given him a bit more room to explore him trying to help his father by spying on Nueng, or idk.

Chopper was by far the most interesting character for me. He was the most morally gray out of the teenage cast and definitely had a lot of internal struggles that were brushed over. His dynamic with Nueng was great. The “doesn’t matter if our parents hate each other, it has nothing to do with us” was a feast they didn’t eat. They never allowed Chopper to get close to Nueng, so his betrayal of never telling him what his father did, didn’t hit as hard. Especially when Nueng returned from the beach and tossed him aside. So much angst and drama that they chose to ignore.

With that we come to my next point. Chopper and Ben’s relationship was a mere fraction of what it could’ve been. Basically, Chopper confessed his feelings for Ben and Ben rejecting, causing them to grow apart. And right after we find that out, Ben and Chopper both insinuate that they have feelings for each other and make it more or less known to the other. And after that there isn’t much development until they…suddenly decide to move in together. We don’t even get a dead fish kiss, imagine that. Not even a high five.

On top of that, this show wanted to frame Ben as Chopper’s moral compass. Ben telling Chopper to betray his father and stop him from committing more crimes and get more people killed felt ultimately flat because Chopper was never trying to do anything but that. He tried to reason with his father, but you can’t expect a teenager to stand up to his father who literally cuts people’s hands off IN FRONT OF HIM for a living.

The whole “you should stop your father” felt really insensitive coming from Ben, after he couldn’t stand up to his own father and be honest about the kiss. It was really hypocritical. And after everything, Chopper get’s shipped off to England to follow Ben to university (and we never get a scene where Chopper and Ben talk about moving to Europe together since it… seems like a pretty big move). We don’t even get a heartbreaking goodbye between Chopper and his father. He seemed devastated after he got shot and the next scene is him being sad about his father being in jail and that’s it. He rides off into the sunset with Ben never to be seen or heard from again. And there goes the most interesting character, wasted.

Same goes for Palm and his mother. At first it seemed like Palm had a lot of resentment toward her for leaving him and his dad behind. But after she explained that she wanted to flirt and party and live her life and just wasn’t ready for a child, all seemed forgiven. And then she’s killed and Palm shed a tear or two and that’s it. Nueng got almost the entire show whining and crying over his dead father and injured mother, but Palm didn’t even get an episode or two for his injured father and dead mother? Seems fair.

I wish they would’ve divided the focus on Palm and Nueng more equally, instead of blatantly favoring Nueng and his family over Palm’s (in a way it’s poetic how the rich family get’s more screen time and is favored over the poor family).

Or, and here I come with a drastic change, make this show about Chopper and Nueng. Two cousins who really love and care about each other are thrust into a family feud that neither of them want to deal with because “no matter if our parents hate each other, it has nothing to do with us”. More or less, the bad buddy road if you will but without the romance and more family bonding. I know that this show is about Palm and Nueng and I really love the bodyguard trope, I do. But I feel like there was so much unexplored potential with Nueng and Chopper.

The ending was okay, even though I’m really over the “separating the couple for ages in their time but for five minutes on screen” trope. Even though I did understand it from their perspective at the very least. I know that many wanted a sad ending but I personally am not really a big fan of those, so for all it’s worth, the ending was fine.

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Oh the bodyguard trope....

Am I gonna love a bodyguard plot? Of course. Every time.

I thought this one did a good job of building the relationship before the romance even started. The cinematography reminded me a bit of ITSAY, with beautiful beach shots throughout the show. Pond and Phuwin do a fantastic job as Palm and Nueng, and their chemistry is great.

Biggest complaint with this show is the frustration you feel as a viewer from the back and forth of "you're better off without me!" between the two of them. Luckily, it was never too drawn out, but it was still a bit overdone. The way they wove the legend into the show was really well done, and I loved that they kept that until the end. I was expecting this one to be way sadder than it was, and I'm glad it wasn't! It was a great balance between conflict, tragedy, and relief/happiness that it made each episode worth waiting for.

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mixed feelings

it's a good bl but it has its pros and cons, so let's list it.

PRO.
-the story is good, it's entertaining, has some angst moments, romance, drama, etc.
- Acting of the main couple can be better since it's a bl with lot of drama that requires more emotions but It wasn't horrible. phuwin's acting when pond's character gets shot was the only moment I really felt the impact of the scene with both of them.
-Perth acting is so good, he did an amazing job with the character.
- I liked the picture, it was my fav thing lmao

CONS.
-even if the story is good, there were situations that didn't make sense.
-Some episodes were boring and it did take me a long time to finish them. I was really close to drop the bl
- there's moments where the acting should be dramatic but didn't feel like it, so the plot and drama were ruined lmao.
-first episodes were so good but the last ones are kind of boring so it can make the viewer lose interest in the show

Conclusion.

tbh I don't think it's a bl that I'll rewatch, it wasn't bad but I didn't connect with any character. i don't think is a waste of time but if someone doesn't watch it, I don't think they are missing an important series.

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Doesn't deserve the negative comments it receives.

Oh whoa! There were bad reviews but listen, LISTEN! The tension. The stolen looks. The slight touches. The lingering of eyes. The double meaning behind words. Dare I say it was an acting masterpiece? Yes, yes I do. I have been watching BLs for over four years and this was definitely worth the watch. Don't expect a mafia BL; it's about a rich family (as stated in the series' details) in conflict with others, but it covers the same things. It reminded me of Kinnporsche but with a younger cast (the mc being 18). AND the acting?! Pond played the role of a shy servant turning into a friend and into even more PERFECTLY! Pond and Phuwin both had awesome acting skills; the way they portrayed their characters' feelings and thoughts even without words made me scream more than once. The way Phuwin could portray his character's jealous with purely bodylanguage made me respect him even more as an actor. Even before they admitted it to themselves, you could see the growing love in their eyes which was enough to give me shivers. Whoever dares to say they lack chemistry must lack something themselves. They're one of the BL couples with the most chemistry I've encountered so far and maybe the best kisses in the whole of BL.
I don't get why there are so many bad reviews about this masterpiece.
OH AND HOW COULD I FORGET…the eye candy!! Pondphuwin are a beautiful duo and I hate to be superficial but it must be added to the review; the many shirtless scenes are definitely a present given to us by the Lord Himself ><

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