Work From Heart (2022)

Well, that was weird!!

I'm being hella optimistic here, but what in them product placements was this?! You know how sometimes, there's a movie scene which just has to be a dream sequence? Too ill-fitting? Too plot-breaking? Damn right. It's what Work From Heart is made of, and they never say sike.

Let's get to the positives:

1. I like the songs! Not enough to look them up, but they were nice distractions from the boring semi-plot.

2. The preachy parts didn't feel as preachy as they usually do. Maybe because everything was just so ridiculous, I could see it fit quite well. Might even catch feels once or twice.

3. Song-Ve. They were cute together. And even had some development.

Point 4 could be something like "good visuals" or "attractive actors", but really. This is a BL. Thai BL. If anything, they always manage to bring in pretty faces.

As for the notable negatives...phew. Do we even want to go there? Let's just say it's boring. Cringe. Occasionally uncomfortable. Not much makes sense. We see blatant discrimination, homophobia, sexual harassment... They even had a 'pretend gay' subplot! I could be actually pissed, if only it wasn't all so ridiculous. Taking this seriously would be an insulting waste of your time, so don't. If you're here for the weird, ride with the weird.

In the end, there's no sane reason to pick WfH over any other boring, no-plot thai BL of late. But I would still gladly watch a GuyFries spin-off of this, so it couldn't have been that bad!! Right?

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Definitely the worst BL I've ever seen, and that's saying something.

There is almost nothing positive to say about this, other than that there are good-looking guys in it.

It's fine to have a drama with comedic elements, but when you intersperse cruelty and phyical and emotional torture with slapstick ladyboy comedy with truly oppressive sound effects, the tonal dissonance is intensely irritating.

As for the drama, it's so overwrought and melodramatic, with really bleak homophobia and a villainous and irredeemable grandfather (who is of course totally forgiven at the end because he just gives up) and nothing pleasant to balance it. I'm getting tired of being lectured by badly written BLs about how love isn't about gender, blah blah blah. The purpose of a drama is to SHOW us this, not have preachy characters rant on and on about what is already obvious to and accepted by the entire audience or we wouldn't be suffering through this to begin with.

The NC-17 scene is so out of nowhere and strange that I had a hard time understanding what I was looking at.

There are other terrible BLs, but this is the first one where I didn't enjoy anything about it at all.

If you're a Gameplay fan, do not watch this if you want to remain a Gameplay fan. For everyone else, just do not watch this. It's terrible and there's no payoff. I didn't think this group could make anything worse than Love With Benefits, but they succeeded, if for no other reason that LWB was shorter.

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Spoilers Ahead!

First: the bad

I took off a full point for the Grandfather being violently homophobic, and suddenly having a change of heart. People don't do a full 180° turnaround when they are that biased against same-sex relationships. Change takes time. The script should have eased him into it. I know it's a short series, but they could have done better.

I took a half point off for the constant product placement. I mean, sheesh! I'd rather they had commercials than product placement every few minutes! I mean....kudos to the writers for leaving out the product placement during the passion scene. That would have been awkward.

I took a half point off for the barrage of love/acceptance education. Monologues such as these are so outdated at this point. Those who aren't accepting of same-sex relationships aren't going to be watching the program in the first place.

Second: The good

HOLY MANICOTTI!!! That was one of the best passion scenes I've seen! And yes, I've seen KinnPorsche. I've seen Nevertheless. I've seen Love In The Air. Etc, etc, etc. But this was one of the few that I've seen that involved realistic kisses and teases and grinding with the clothes still on, as does/can actually happen. AND! The way Gameplay fixed the wardrobe malfunction so expertly! Don't ask, I ain't tellin'. ROFL

The acting was amazing! The comedy relief was amusing without being stupid and insulting, at least in my opinion. The tears were real. There were no hesitations when the actors had to touch each other. I was seriously impressed with all the acting. If I had to rate this series without the "bad" that I have mentioned above, it would get a solid 10.

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that was a slog

Overall: it's slow paced and not funny. Aired on YouTube and WeTV (need vpn to Thailand).

Content Warnings: non con kiss and touching, homophobia, manhandling, hits/slaps

What I Liked:
- few cute moments
- OST
- the het couple (guy with the glasses) was cute
- a few conversations with supportive friends
- the production value is decent

Room For Improvement
- pacing was way too slow (I even watched it on 3x speed). If they had cut this from 45 minutes to 20-30 minutes, then I would have enjoyed it more. Everything is too draggy and boring.
- that ex is a piece of youknowwhat, the non con was not romantic
- choppy/unknown time jumps, did those two scenes happen at the same birthday party?
- I didn't find it funny (like the maid outfit, employee is wearing a crown, toilet humor), the comedy sound effects don't make something funny they can only enhance something that is funny
- stereotype of the effeminate guy not doing work and focusing on his live
- multiple time jumps
- the homophobic grandfathers random and sudden change of heart
- why did the m/m wedding have 6 people and the m/f wedding was a bunch of people?

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Could Have Been Soooooo Much Better

This is a BL series that had potential, but somehow turned horribly wrong. I don't want to blame the actors, because they were only doing what the director obviously wanted. But what was the director thinking??? Except for the main lead actors, they made nearly every other character excessively annoying. The other co-workers at the company were like a poor imitation of slapstick comedy. The stupid continual sound effects lost their effectiveness after the first few times. You could never lose yourself into the story because every few minutes a supporting actor would do something so stupid that it brought you right back to reality reminding you that this was impossibly unreal. Nobody could actually act this stupid. There was no real chemistry between the actors, but that wasn't their fault, it was poor casting. You were never drawn into the drama, but that was the directors fault. If the director had wanted you to take it seriously, the director would have tossed out all the dumb sound effects. If the writers had wanted you to take it seriously they would have left out all the insane nonsense. In the end it just left you scratching your head wondering what were they aiming for? For comedy? For Slapstick? For Absurdness? Obviously not a seriousl love story. Not even a light comical love story. Just plain idiocy that became harder to watch as you progressed through the story. It could have been so much more. It could have been good. But they failed miserably.

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Nonsense

I'm not sure if this series was intending to make a mockery of itself or if it just happened naturally. Maybe it was the English subtitles, but nothing in this series made sense or followed logical patterns. The relationships were odd if not pathetic and forced. The whole thing was a let down minus the music, which was actually kind of cute. I'm sure the actors did the best they could with the subject matter they had and they were all very good looking, but it was still awkward and showed little to no character development. That's all I can say without spoilers.
So here come the spoilers: Dee is super cute, and I've seen the actor before and he's good, but honestly, this character was so poorly written. First, he argues loudly and forcefully with his grandfather about his right to intern at another company so that he can try to learn in an environment where is not already the boss. Seems like he's smart and brave. Nope, he immediately accepts a job as an intern in another company that his grandmother arranges for him. So even though he's not the boss, he's already being given a relatively higher status that regular interns won't have. Later, when he and his ex-boyfriend Ohm meet again, he is adamant that they not get back together but later decides to give in and be with Ohm again because the guy he thinks he loves doesn't love him. Where is the rule that you have to have a boyfriend? Where is it written that if you can't have the person you love, you have to go back to an ex-boyfriend because he likes you? Dee was alone during the time that he and Ohm were broken up, so why does he feel like he has to get back into that relationship? He could have just remained single. Later, when he is in a relationship with Knight (the guy he truly wanted), his grandfather got angry at him for being gay and rather than fighting for his beliefs or telling his grandfather that he can choose to have no contact if that's what he prefers and then doing what his heart wants, he absolutely refuses to fight for his love or his freedom. He lets his grandfather completely control him and acts as though he has no choice in the matter. Knight does all the fighting for them to stay together and the grandfather eventually comes around but Dee never acts. He is always acted upon. They have a name for characters who have no dreams or actions of their own and are simply reacting as the world moves around them, but it sums up to being stupid and pointless. So this is supposed to be the guy we want to get his man and live happily ever after? I'd just like to see him make an actual choice and stick to it. Like, have a little tiny bit of a backbone, please.
Knight makes almost less sense than Dee. First, he clearly behaves as though he hates Dee when they meet at work, but actually he is strongly attracted to him. He pretends to hate him and refuses to work with him until Dee blackmails him. That also makes no sense. What does he have against interns? And why play the jerk the whole time just to suddenly change and tell Dee that you love him? Why play games with people's feelings if you are attracted to them?
Ohm was another character who didn't make sense. He supposedly loved Dee so much, but he was so focused on work that Dee felt alone and broke up with him. Then when he comes back, he practically forces himself on Dee, while Dee makes himself clear that he doesn't want to get back together. Once they get back together, for reasons that I've told you escape me, and finally Dee decides to tell Ohm that he loves Knight and can't be with him anymore, Ohm suddenly decides to be a nice guy and wish Dee well. Why spend so much time following him around and forcing yourself on him if you're just going to walk away happily a little while later?
The side characters were wildly ridiculous and though most of them were clearly supposed to be the comedy of the show, they were more cringey than funny. The side relationships were awkward at best and lacked chemistry. Maybe this is just a really low budget production, but I've seen low budget before (the actor who played Dee did another BL production where he was a cook, I can't remember the name of it and I really enjoyed that series) and this is just not well done. It wasn't well written, and the director made some poor choices about how the characters should play their roles.
There is one other thing that I find strange, although I wouldn't say it was really bad, just weird. In the kissing scene between Dee and Knight in the last episode, they are laying on the bed, kissing and obviously preparing to do more than kissing. Dee (fully clothed) starts bouncing up and down awkwardly and making noises like the two are doing what couples do in the privacy of their room, while Knight is underneath him (also fully clothed). I get it, they didn't want to do a full NC scene. That's okay, but the humping and noises were just weird and out of place. If you're going to do a love scene, even fully clothed, it should be done with the idea of making a good scene that revolves around the feelings of the couple, not just trying to make it look exciting or erotic.
Overall, not a series that I would watch again. If you like awkward comedy and feeling confused, this show is made for you.

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Script is not good

Avg drama i finished within 3 hours why couldn't they do well with the scripting?? The actors were good looking and so awesome at acting and story line was good but all they did was nothing but showing side characters more with dad jokes? Huh and then the lead actor had intimate scenes and cute scenes with his ex which felt the chemistry was so awesome between them i say they shouldn't show too deep intimate scenes with ex so we don't have to ship them than main leads bze its not even second lead syndrome but doesn't look too good on lead characters, and final episode they had intimate scene was it really necessary? And how his grand pa agreed not sure, and how main leads developed feeling i couldn't get anyway i say actors need another series with great story script and i hope actors get a series what they deserve

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Lacks substance

At first I dropped this series after watching the first half of the first episode, because it didn't grab my attention at all. Later on I chose to pick it back up to see if I could give it another chance.
Here is what I believe saves the series:
- The characters are cute enough. Not only Dee and Knight, I'm talking about the secondary characters as well. The atmosphere of chaos that lives in the office starts to feel like home in a short while and while there's lack of depth for everyone, they're all somewhat endearing.
- There's some solid LGBTQ+ representation, with a trans woman who isn't used as a comic relief (and even gets her own romance) and characters who actually identify as gay rather than going for the "I only like you" route.
- The story seems to carry a message overall, which would be to respect other people and their wishes, and not try to get in their way, even when you believe you have good intentions.
- Gameplay and Folk are cute enough to deserve the attention of anyone who wants to watch a BL even just for the mlm ship.

This being said, this series suffers from pretty big flaws that might make many viewers give up: the terrible plot, terrible characterization/introspection, and awful pacing.
The plot is... there, I believe, but it's pretty confusing. Some problems that are introduced in the beginning don't seem to be a big deal in the long run; on the other hand there are other problems that are only introduced toward the end and then quickly resolved. The whole time I had no idea what did I have to worry about.
The characters are all flat, main characters included. There is some personality sprinkled here and there, but the final result looks more like a bunch of caricatures than actual characters with a decent depth. For the same reason I wasn't able to enjoy the romance as much as I wished to: the feelings of their characters, their thoughts and their background are all too foggy or shown too little for me to actually get into it.
Finally, the pacing: it was unbearably slow most of the time and I had trouble keeping up with what was happening because I got distracted multiple times. Some endless scenes could have taken much less screentime and still work, some others would have used more time to be properly shown.

Can't bring myself to recommend this series unless you have nothing better to do.

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Campy & Cute, but poor production & editing bring it down

I enjoyed this show and don't regret watching it once. It was very campy and cute. I was entertained, and many of the characters were adorable.

Overall, I recommend this show to people who enjoy campiness and who aren't annoyed by dorky sound effects or occasionally odd music choices. If you're trying to be a critic and not just going for a laugh, this show is not for you.

I couldn't help but notice that many of these reviews and comments reminded me of the ones on Secret Crush on You. While that show is very clearly and intentionally Campy, this one was a little less clear due to lower production value and poor editing. Some of the transitions were confusing, the sound effects and music choices were odd, and the lack of attention to detail in costuming and set design were distracting (loose threads on clothing, a button about to fall off, a piece of gauze on a wedding veil that got too friendly with scissors).

Additional Character commentary where I took issue:
- Yoya: As a character, her primary personality seems to be that she's a Koreaboo and a Fujoshi. Since we have several gay couples in this, her Fujoshi-ness in some scenes is shown in a way that is creepy and fetishizes them. Those parts were gross.

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Underrated show: Totally Worth a shoT!

Boy, it's way better than I thought it'd be. I actually enjoy this much more than some of the more well-known BLs

Let's start with. I BARELY skipped any scenes, that is how engaging it is.

I guess having it at only 7 episodes cut out the unnecessary filler and details, making it really sweet and compact to watch.

Love the chemistry between the couple too! Plus, it's also funny and cute in its own way. Furthermore, I actually love all characters in the show, which is also rare!

You know how we watch BL for the main couple mostly? Here, I watch for all of them! Of course, my favorite is still the main couple thou :P

Point is, it's WORTH WATCHING, despite the lower rating here in MDL

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it's kinda boring tho

this was not too good not too bad. it is just alright but it is ok there are all good looking guys. idk about you guys but in my opinion i really don't like main lead kissing side roles.. ?.. tbh this series is cringe. the lead character also lacks the chemistry. although they are all cute and handsome this series has unfunny humor and unpleasant plots.. acting is good but this is no for me. i really wasted my time watching it. tbh music is good i like it. but this series contains homophobia, sexual assaults and all .. just don't watch this series.. also so much confusing things are going in this series.. i really love gameplay but this series just didn't went right.. this series is just worst of all. actors were good they were doing fine but the script is not nice.

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Literally Love With Benefits sister

Okay.....

‼️‼️ WAIT A MINUTE!! I JUST CRACKED THE CODE!!!!! LOVE WITH BENEFITS WAS THEM FUCKING FILMING THIS DAMN TV SHOW. EPISODE 6 AT 37:22 MINUTES YOU SEE THEM PRACTICING IT IN LWB..... MY MIND IS BLOWN (or im just crazy for not knowing this) ‼️‼️

Episode 1-2 - I like that it has a lot of the cast members from "Love With Benefits", I like the symbolize of Gameplays character being called "Rabbit" because he had the stuffed rabbit in Love With Benefits, speaking of which, the stuffed rabbit makes an appearance which I thought was really cute.

I think Ohm was a little to aggressive for my liking, so im glad they only made his character appear once in a while.

I said this before but im in love with Max, and he needs to be in more shows.

Episode 3- I must be crazy are Love with Benefits and Work from Heart related??? They mentioned in the Presentation that they needed two couples for "First and Play" and those were the names of there characters in LWB. Also the photo scenes 100% give off LWB.

I definitely skipped through a lot of scenes, the grandma and grandpa made me really mad and I didn't;t want to watch there scenes, I also skipped through Thee & VeVe's story because as much as im a max Stan, I was honestly just here for Dee & Knight

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