Physical Therapy (2022)

Possibly the worst... anything that I've seen.

You know how when you pass a huge accident on the road you can't help but look? Well, at least in that case something interesting has happened. This more like passing a cactus and staring at it until it does something.

I gave it a '1' for story, because there's no "0". That sounds harsh, but there's actually no plot. There are times you may think there's one, but it's a trick. This series is so random that I almost always had to go back and check that I didn't skip an episode because the current one never really had a connection to any of the past episodes. There are so many random things thrown into this that it's bewildering. There's even an entire new character with apparently nefarious intent (judging by the ominous music cues whenever he appears) thrown into the very last episode that is totally unconnected with anything else and you have no idea (and never find out) what he wants or intends. That happens a lot. This really feels like there was a pile of 30 BL scripts on a desk and someone accidentally knocked them into a shredder and this is what they came up with by randomly taping scraps together. That sounds exaggerated, but it's not.

Let me give you an example: It's hinted that one of the characters has done something wrong. Barely hinted. Then at the end of an episode, everyone's phones start dinging - they all glance at their phones, then turn to stare at the character. And that's it. We never find out what the text said, or what the character in question did, nor does this have any meaningful effect on the story.

Another example: Milk and Pun suddenly have a kid. He's 5 years old as there has been a time jump. There are scenes of Pun being a cute dad. Then the mother shows up and says - "Thanks guys, I'm talking him back." I guess she realized he's old enough to vacuum now or something. To be fair, Pun is depressed, but as is standard for a BL, a damp towel cures him of that.

I slogged through this because the main character, Milk, is so cute that puppies are goblin sharks in comparison (don't google that before bedtime). And Dr. Pun looks extremely good when he steps out of the shower. And I hoped they would get together in some beautiful and romantic way. In the end it seemed like neither of them had anything better to do.

This series is so dreary that when their relationship is formalized everyone is sitting on one side of a table in what I would have thought was a conscious imitation of The Last Supper, but it can't be because there's a story behind the Last Supper and that would mean that whoever wrote this is aware of the idea of a story.

There are BLs where there is no kissing. That's OK in many cases, because they're set in high school and the characters have never dated or kissed anyone before. This series ends with the characters in their 30s, and Milk still acts like the creature from Alien is unhinging its jaw next to him whenever he's in danger of being kissed by Pun. There is a 5-year time jump, during which time they're togther, and they still have never kissed, let alone had sex. Even when Pun proposes marriage, all he gets is a grunt and a peck on the cheek. The lack of intimacy in this is so severe that I don't know what else to call it but homophobia. They don't even directly refer to relationships - it's easy to miss because everyone speaks of them in oblique terms. They could be talking about working together, accidentally bumping into each other in an elevator, running over someone with their car, or being in an LTR - it's hard to tell.

This is full of people pontificating about life and happiness with the profundity of a greeting card you pick up at the supermarket because you forgot your nephew's birthday. There are very, very long monologues about this at random times when it has no relevance to anything else that's going on.

This diretor/screenwriter also did Love Sick 2 and Friend Forever, and after those two valiant attempts has finally succeeded in making the most boring and miserable series possible.

The technical qualities of this are OK, but not ever exceptional. There are a few funny mistakes, like a big red 'X' taped to a bench to indicate where an actor should sit. (To be fair, he sat on it, so it worked.)

Acting: 5. I don't think anyone's actually acting, so it's not any more terrible than people standing around talking, but nobody every really does anything involving more skill than people standing around talking. Son Ravisut makes an impression as Milk, and Petch Jakkaphet makes an impression with his exposed glistening torso, but both of those are shallow qualities. There are occassional glimpses of ability in Son, but I can't be sure given the material. And other than cuteness, there's not really much to recommend him. If you refuse to engage in m/m intimacy, then don't accept a role in a BL.

Music: 1. There are three snippets of stock music the editor downloaded. One is that standard bassoon melody for light moments, then there is something bland for normal stuff, and an ominous track for when something dark is happening. Dark is too strong - more like a tiny diminution of light like when a moth is flying a meter or so from a lamp. That's about as much as the tone of the series ever changes.

Rewatch value: 2 - there is one scene I've rewatched. Dr. Pun takes a shower and stands around for a minute or so glistening and wearing only a towel around his waist.

Overall: 2.5 - This is truly terrible and a complete waste of time. It's absolutely incomprehensible that this could ever have been made.

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My eyes need therapy after watching this series

I've rarely graded a series so harshly as I've graded this one... I saw "'Cause You're My Boy" with Frank and Drake, an entire series that was based on a ridiculous plot; I also saw "Top Secret Together", an entire series based on confusing plot mess after confusing plot mess; I saw "Don't Say No", an entire series dedicated to a character who tried to destroy a relationship (in season one of "Tharn-Type") and then becomes a submissive, whiny crybaby and another character who became a possessive and controlling boyfriend after gathering the courage to confess his feelings; I saw "My Boy" with one actor who looked like the other actor's father, who had zero chemistry and very awkward intimate moments. And I saw "I am Your King season 2" with a hysterical female character, zero acting skills of most of the actors, zero credible storyline. However, "Physical Theraphy" raised (or maybe, lowered?) the bar in terms of poor quality. It is a shame that Peak, a well-known BL actor from the "Make It Right" series, is listed as the director of this mess. Here's why.

1) Plot:
There is not much I can tell you about this. Milk works in a creative design agency with his high school/university friends and dated Ake for a while but at the beginning of the show, they are no longer together and Milk is sad about it. He visits a hospital as they are doing a campaign to re-design the hospital's image and Milk pretends to be a patient to observe the doctors. The synopsis talks about the blooming romance of a patient and his physical therapist and we do get that for about 2 or 3 episodes when Milk suffers an injury and needs Dr. Pun to help, only for Dr. Pun to provide the most detailed assistance of a patient I've ever seen on TV, with him basically spending as much time as he can with Milk using the injury as the excuse. Pun develops feelings for Milk but he is not sure due to his recent breakup with Ake and Pun's mysterious attitude when talking about his family or the past. On the other hand, Pun meets Milk's entire family and all of them are in love with him and want Milk and Pun to end up together. We then know, Pun came from China running away as his family is broke and indebted to the family of a girl named Tzuyu who thinks she and Pun will get married... except Pun doesn't love her... but she insists and even tries to first talk to Milk around episode 4, then to Dr. Yang around episodes 5-8, and then finally accepts she won't win around episode 10... just like that. Milk then finds out that Ake has been depressed for a while and begins to help him recover and they solve their breakup and Ake admits that Pun is the best for Milk and almost gives them his blessing, again, just like that.
Other than that, Dr. Yang is gay but in the closet and he was secretly seeing Milk's friend who we never meet as he dies when his car falls of the edge of a cliff in episode 1. The incident and this friend are never mentioned after some flowers are sent for the funeral, Milk can't attend, and then tries to make Dr. Yang confess he is the mystery boyfriend during his first visit to the hospital but can't get an answer and the issue is never brought up again. Then, Dr. Yang visits Milk at his place in the middle episodes with the excuse of needing help designing a cover for his book... he even seems to be flirting with Milk but again, nothing happens. Yamyen, one of Milk's coworkers, begins flirting with Dr. Yang when both meet at the hospital for the marketing campaign, Dr. Yang rejects him for a while, but then end up having sex in a scene that doesn't match with how Dr. Yang kept rejecting Yamyen for so long only to have passionate sex afterwards. Dr. Yang gets exposed online after that, tries to quit and then writes more books as well. Super well crafted ideas for this storyline, don't you think?
Then we jumped 5 years in the future, Pun and Milk are taking care of the son of Milk's older sister who had an affair with a married man and got pregnant. Pun's parents arrive and spend a few days together and start to mend their relationship. The kid calls them "dad" but in episode 12, Milk's sister returns and tells them she is taking the kid back, just like that... Pun proposes to Milk in the final moments of the episode and that's about it.
The office characters, Milk's coworkers, the few doctors that do appear outside of Dr. Pun and Dr. Yang, the gossiping nurses from the first few episodes, Milk's family, Pun's family, and the Korean guy who is Pun's friend and hires Milk for some work provide ZERO... NOTHING... NADA... to this story... not even to fill-in some airtime... the minor exception are Milk's younger brothers who are funny sometimes... but even the dog who got lost like 3 times in the series is cuter and funnier than most of the characters of this series.
There was no sustained plot or storyline, no connection between much of the series, each couple (Pun-Milk, Yang-Milk's friend, Tim-Rosé) do not go into much detail over the course of 12 boring, dull and excruciatingly long episodes... this series should have been over in 6-8 episodes max. The hospital seem to have 3-4 doctors based on the moment they all have to dance for the marketing campaign but only Dr. Pun and Dr. Yang matter for this series. Nobody works in actual medical cases aside from Milk's injury and Milk's dad heart attack and nobody seems to be doing anything at this hospital besides walking around, gossip, and staring into oblivion. Milk's friends also don't do much work as Milk seems to be the only one working day and night on some projects... at some point they even have a team-building workshop that includes everyone and they sleep as part of an exercise Milk proposed... this has no reason as Milk and his friends were hired by the hospital to do an image re-design so the purpose of having this workshop with both hospital and marketing campaign employees is not clear. We also have weird dynamics between some of the characters as Tim and Rosé are friends but want to be more but Tim can't gather the courage or can't commit, and the time jump makes no sense at all.

2) Acting
I've seen a lot of reviews for other series where the person reviewing complains about the acting but "forgives" everything because how cute the actors are... here, no matter how cute Son (Milk) and Petch (Pun) are, their acting is not 100% terrible but has a lot of bad moments. They seem to have very little chemistry and Son is terrified of being kissed as he makes awkward facial expressions when Pun gets within an inch of his face which makes the lack of too many intimate moments for this couple even more glaring. Folk (Dr. Yang) and Pim (Tzuyu) are stiff as cardboards during their scenes and Folk couldn't convince me of his feelings when being exposed online. The rest are just there but the whole cast could have benefited from longer workshops to develop a bit more cohesion and chemistry and from a better acting coach to guide them through the few challenging scenes this series had.

So, please, save yourself and avoid this show if you can. I know, as a BL fan, we tend to watch almost everything just because is BL or because, if you are like me, don't want to quit watching a show (call it stubbornness or pride)... but in this case, I highly recommend you read a book, knit a sweater, play videogames, clean your room or do something else instead of watching this show that really had nothing of substance to remember it for.

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