Step by Step (2023)

Never again. So many people hype it up giving it the attention it hasn't earned. The characters were unbearable, I skipped more than watching it. The interaction that Pat had with his colleague was the only bit I enjoyed as they got to be themselves with no expectations or worries. The ex was interesting as he seemed the silent type, never thought he would threaten Jeng but hey do we really know anyone? Don't fully understand why they broke up in the first place. The ending was so confusing as there was lack of communication making it so awkward to watch forced conversations

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A THAI VERSION OF UNINTENTIONAL LOVE STORY AS THEIR NEXT PROJECT?!!

I enjoyed most of the series until about the end of episode 10, but episode 11 and the beginning of episode 12 were pretty disappointing. Some of the crying scenes really did not need to make the cut so I think that the script itself needed some work. It seemed that emotional scenes might have been a bit difficult for Ben to get into. However, I think that Ben has great potential as an actor and since this was his first project, I'm sure he's improved with some practice. Now that he's probably more comfortable with his partner Man, he's very likely to do much better in his next project with him. If they work together again in another series, I think they would be a good pair for a Thai remake of the Korean series "Unintentional Love Story". Man would be a perfect Yoon Tae Joon with a serious demeanor. And Ben would be a great, cheerful, and animated version of Ji Won Young.

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A bl with huge potential fell flat due to poor execution

Well I am going to come straight to the point and jot down the positive points first
1. This was a bl with immense potential cuz it had actors with extremely good visuals. Plus the actor who played Mr Jeng was on point with his mannerisms and expressions. I loved the character.
2. There were scenes that honestly made me laugh. No sarcasm I really did laugh and giggle.
3. I loved few side characters like Chot and I really wish they make a sequel of him and Krit his partner falling in love 8 years back.
4. The bl was realistic in many ways how toxic office culture is.
But that's it I guess.
Now comes the reason why this fell flat
1. There was no binding agent in the various sub plots. Some items didn't even mean sense as to why they were added.
2. Mr Jeng is the only round character who had a change in his personality and although it's being said that Pat has become more mature, his constant whinning infront of his colleagues was heavily unrealistic and honestly irritating, which ultimately makes him a flat character that never changes throughout.
3. The actor playing Pat has to go through a lot of acting classes to be able to perfect the role of Pat cuz even if you're a fresher, at one point you don't break down and cry in front of colleagues even if you're being fired. You express your disappointment through subtle expressions and words, not by letting your snot drool over your face.
4. I didn't realise this was a mature bl until the very end episodes. In the first episodes, it seemed there was chemistry but it severely lacked in the middle and even in the end in the bed scenes. Man aka Mr Jeng did his best to bring the chemistry but unfortunately only one actor cannot drag the entire show.
5. The intimacy was too sudden. Why Pat couldn't believe Me Jeng liked him and why he suddenly started liking him was beyond me. Gay men have a radar where was that. We never had our bosses running us favors even as women and even if they do we get the hint.
Basically, the direction was at loss. Screenwriters were being misled to make sure there were enough scenes for promoting the drinks and what not. As a director, one must know how to make art and make profits alongside. I feel bas for the plot really had high potential to be a super hot drama.

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I had to make up my own mind ...

There were such wildly mixed reviews of this show among BL friends in my community that I had to watch it myself to decide. And overall ... I liked it and admired what it tackled and how.
SUPERVISOR/SUBORDINATE DYNAMIC - First of all, I usually hate this plot, which sucks for me since it seems that so many Asian dramas love this premise. This, along with the high school kid and older person always gives me the ick because of the obvious power imbalances. Usually, I have to let this go while watching and just pretend it's a fantasy or that both are colleagues, not manager/employee, but it can be challenging. What I liked about this series is that even though it seemed to romanticize this at first, it did not lose the plot. Eventually, the real issues inherent in this dynamic came to a head and had to be addressed ... in multiple ways. It made the ick feel so much better. And in the end, the power dynamic was nullified to be a non-issue, so I felt better about shipping them.
INTERIORITY - I really loved how much we got of both characters and their private lives. Not some half-a**ed trauma flashback and extreme phobia. They both had issues that were ingrained and present from the start, persisted throughout the series, and was cause the 11th-hour breakup. It's perhaps one of my favorite BL breakups because I felt it made complete sense. I identified with the injuried party so much. Praise to Man and Ben for having to tackle so many emotionally nuanced scenes. While some may think Ben had to cry too much as Pat, I related to how he felt too much sometimes and had problems regulating his emotions because he cares so deeply about doing good work. I've been there!
SUPPORTING CAST - I loved seeing so many Lovely Writer favorites return, and in different ways. Up as the ex Put wasn't just a 2D cardboard cutout mean ex but someone who had his own faults and was slightly sad because of them. I almost didn't recognize Kenji as Toh ... and I felt he was underutilized. Zorzo was so fun as Ae, especially when she was paired with Bruce as Chot -- yay he got to play such a fun character this time around! They even gave redemption to one previously annoying character Ying. What a loveable bunch. ... But this brings us to a failure...
2ND COUPLE -- As many have said, Jaab & Jen's storyline had so much potential, but wasn't given any sort of resolution. Even if there's an idea of continuing their story later in a short or something, I felt we were still left hanging. One extra scene could've left viewers from feeling so unmoored. That said, they had a very hot kiss, and I think that's one reason we were left hanging on this.
UNDERSTATED HUMOR - While Chot and Ae gave me the best moments, there were a couple really unexpected, fun things that happened that made me actually laugh out loud with how real it was. One involved MLM, and if you've ever been on the receiving end of that pitch, you may also admire Pat's swift evasion strategy.
TIMELINE - There are maybe 2 major timejumps that happen. One is less obvious but once you notice one character's body changes then you can follow. This is more of a timelapse than a timejump, but because of this it may not be that obvious. I wasn't too confused but some sort of time markers would've been better. The second time jump I felt was absolutely earned and necessary. That said, because of that, I needed more from the 2nd Couple.
WORKPLACE DETAILS - I love workplace dramas where they actually work and we can see the ins and outs, the challenges, the strategries. Start-Up and Forecasting Love and Weather are both k-dramas that do that well. Lovely Writer was more about the industry than the work, but that still was fun. This one lets you in on the many levels of digital marketing, from concept, audience and budget to slideshow, pitch and execution. There's an element of entertainment in here also because they use influencers, and of course a bit of meta commentary about BL (although not as strong as in Lovely Writer). I love this ish! Only downside -- there was a bit TOO much office gossip & meanness at the beginning to the point it felt cartoonish. The thing is, I've dealt with narcissistic bosses, being used for being reliable, being underestimated, passed over or worse -- had accusations lobbed at me. So yes, there's definitely a truth to it.
PARENTS - As with in Lovely Writer, I think this series does intergenerational relationships well. Pat's parents were fully realized people .. while Jeng's was, well, a villain. That felt true to how Jeng's issues though. Some interesting scenes with Pat's parents, and their divorce is never judged.

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The timeline stopped making sense in the end

I was really looking forward to this and I really enjoyed it at first. I actually liked the fact that we got to see everyone at the office working, doing projects, have actual conversations and meetings related to work. It was mundane things that are often overlooked. It also made a lot of sense with how the story between Jeng and Pat was developing.

However, as the story progressed, I felt like the focus on the office related things became a bit too much. There was very little development in the relationships of characters and almost no character development. Instead, it was all work, work, work.

Jeng & Pat: Jeng has a very strong presence, kind of mysterious but also very intriguing. I know he is supposed to be this cold and ruthless boss, but I don’t really get that from him. I think he does tend to micromanage everything, which in turn makes him appear like he doesn’t trust his subordinates. He is not rude, but he expects people to do their work – something most were not used to. He is trying his best to make the department succeed. I found Pat adorable at first. He is a people pleaser and finds it hard to refuse others, but he is a good person. He does find it hard to deal with his emotions sometimes, but I can also understand his reactions. Sometimes it just all becomes too much, and you need to let it out somehow. However, as the story progressed, I started to find him a bit annoying at times. He is not really someone who is good at handling stress or work-related confrontations, which is something that often happens in his line of work. Their relationship was slow to progress, but when it did, it really went from zero to a hundred.

Whoever paired Man and Ben as Jeng and Pat deserves a raise. I absolutely love their height difference. They have great chemistry and did great portraying the longing the two characters had for one another. I did find some of their intimate scenes a bit awkward, like the focus was on everything except the intimaciy. Which made their actions appear stiff. The crying scenes were not beliveable either.

Put: there is something about him that just doesn’t sit well with me. He obviously hurt Pat a lot in the past, but it also seems very realistic for Pat to want to try and make it work with him again. It’s a sad reality that a lot of people go back to their ex at some point. It’s usually a bad idea in real life, and I think it’s a bad idea for Pat too.

Jaab & Jen: Jaab is a cutie too. I am not really a fan of him going after a taken man, but Jen doesn’t seem that indifferent either. There is obviously something on his side as well. Jaab just seems to be a bit more lovestruck. Or maybe lovesick. The two also confuse me a lot. I am not sure if we are just missing a big part of their story, but there are certain things about them that just don’t make any sense.

As for the side characters, most of the office workers are horrible. But I think it does show reality of such work – there are always those who gossip and do nothing, and then there are people who do everything and get no recognition. I really liked Nan. She is an excellent mentor to Pat. And Chot is so sweet! I really love his interactions with Pat. Plus Chot and his boyfriend are so adorable together! I do have a lot of complaints on what they did with some other office workers in the end, it came very out of the blue too.

Pat’s friend group is something! I really love the dynamics between Pat and Ae in particular. And the way Kanun treats the two is kind of funny. He seems to be the voice of reason while dealing with two troublemakers.

I liked the pacing of the story at first. It was a slowburn romance and I knew that going into it. The episodes were long, it felt like each one was longer than the previous one, with the finale topping the charts at 1h 42min. I think they could have done much better with the storyline distribution for it to make more sense. They tried to cram so much into the last two episodes, that it ended up being sloppy, messy and rushed. We were jumping around and forward, making me confused on when things happened and how.

A major letdown for me was how almost everything was left unresolved or never properly addressed. I guess we got an ending, but we didn’t really get any solid conclusions. I also found the fact that episodes continued from a different place than they ended annoying. There were a few scenes that should have been continued from when we finished in the previous episode, but they weren't. Even the change from ep1 to ep2 had that.

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Good series with some flaws

I really like this series so far. The story is interesting, the dialogues feel natural and I like the slowburn romance between the main leads, as well as the story of Jane and Jaab.

However, episode 6 left me unsatisfied in some ways.
For example: I feel like Jaab's character is a bit too much at times. The constant pouty face during the scene with his mum made me cringe. He is supposed to be an immature person but somehow it just felt like bad acting during this scene (which should not the case because he did a great job in the previous episodes).
Speaking of unnatural acting, why the hell does Pat always look like he was asked to eat a pile of crap, whenever Jeng asks him to spend time together? Who would dare to look at their boss like this after a nice dinner invitation??? Even if you don't want to go, at least be subtle!
The episodes are pretty long, while little happens storywise. Some scenes could be cut without making a difference.

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despite everything i enjoyed it

I got interested in this series when i saw for the time the pilot trailer because at that time it was even not planned to come out many bls with office romance that nowadays exists. So when i saw the first episode i enjoyed so on and even didn't complain about the slow pace but I'm a little disappointed being more than hour per episode and until episode 10 love is mutual and maybe that's not that bad but then they rushed everything and later you are telling me the didn't talk for 2 years. I think is fine how the took all the situation with Pat's ex but everything should be shorter i don't if was actually necessary the tell us everything about Jiang group does.

Characters:

Nan: Talking aboutn Jiang group i'm glad to see Nan because there are not many girls in bls, but they took it from us for about many episodes and and returned it for the last 3 ones.

Ying: i don't why they made us hate her to the beginning just because she likes to gossip and at the end we love how she defends Pat.

The straight couple: ... I mean what was that, they have more story than the secondary couple. Honestly, i don't care if they are straight my point here is what was the purpose of them.

Chot: I think his story was interesting but they also didn't show us much

Jeng: For me one of the best characters, i related to him as older sibling and i really like his development

Pat: at the beginning i related to Pat because i thought he was a sensitive person but then I think he is a little bit immature and maybe and emotionally unstable and i didn't like at the he didn't considered Jeng's feelings.


Acting:

I feel like Dee hup was like, let's take mostly of the cast of lovely writer and don't tell Kao (I'm joking because i think Kao actually couldn't be there because he signed with other company) i think the characters from lovely writer have the same attitude for Step by step so i feel like it's nothing new, now with Man i think he made a great Job and portrait right all the emotions, this the first project of Ben so of course he has a long way to go but he did his best and we love both of them 🫶

Talking about Up I also think he made a great job because his character it's really different from lovely writer

Some good aspects:

Dee hup queen of consent.

My final thoughts:

They should have handled the pace of the story better, too long for some stuff, short for the other... like, at a very lacking level.

Honestly it wasn't that great as i expected but i love dee hup projects so i'm rooting for their next one, 'I feel you linger in the air' i hope the don't mess up this one 😭 because i have high expectations for this.

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Worth the steps

Honestly, the story develops pretty much like the name "step by step". It is definitely slow burn and demands your patience for the romance to blossom. But I will consider the fact that this is not the story of a couple living their love-life, but a couple (or two) navigating through their life to their ultimate love .
If you are into stories which you can relate to in your life, this one is for you. There are no lies here, it shows life at its realest form. No exaggerated scenes, no unbelievable happenings.
The actor portraying Jeng is the cherry on top of the cake, he's such a natural actor. He perfectly shows the emotions and confusions and awkwardness of his character and is a delight to watch.
A little unclear about how the side couple's story ends, but probably (hopefully) its for a second season.
Totally recommend, its worth it.

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TAKE A STEP, IT AIN'T THAT BAD

There is always that one employee who is bullied in an office, and there is always a strict and indifferent office chief, and there is definitely always a love triangle between people that you know. This series has been a refreshing breeze blown into the BL industry.
Step by step showcased a real life development of a realtionship of working adults, without that Love at first sight effect nor the Magic of television bringing characters together with little effort; it was real, full of endeavors and persuasive. There was that employee getting pushed to the limit of resigning soothed by his self-reflective office chief and they spent time and mercy on one another and on themselves. In time, they found out their hearts had already reserved a place for the other person. That was full-proof and credible. It also brought up the genuine confusion and hesitation of people being in love with someone out of their reach. The absence of crazy mind-bending dramas were actually good in this series because we actually got to see how love hurts, how love lifts, how envy and disappointment projected into actions. Almost everything were close to reality, understandable and well-captured.
However, the series seemed to had taken a turn for worse since the latter-half of ep 9 to the end. Suddenly, the character, the integrity of the series just went off; we had jumbled timeline, we had people making nonsense drama, we had characters going against their nature and made bad decisions, we had plot holes-making time jump and we had problems being solved so easily that it should have been illigal. It became so off-putting and dissuasive when now, I can't figure out what had happened during that time jump, I can't piece together any development of the characters and I was so surprised to see nonsense drama appeared making the core value of the series depreciated.
All things aside, I do love the acting of the actors, almost everybody did their parts wonderfully and they were expressive and persuasive; making the whole journey became enjoyable despite the down turn that I mentioned.
All in all, this series didn't win the prize for me but It definitely did what it could and I would recommend everybody to give it a try, you'll be stunned by the main couple's chemistry.

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So far meh

I have finally made up my mind and i am watching this but personally to me this series is booring. Kept watching, take a break and coming back. Its like a boss and a babe just slower and boooring. The main cast pat his facial expression just pissing me tf off. I hope later down it picks up because i Am at episode 4 for the longest while. I know its called step by step but come on nah man. The other brother whos in love with the pete look alike to me hes just beautiful and thats about it and the pete look alike 🙄😒 but as i said before Lets see if i can reach to 10 because right now i dont know.

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TESTING MY PATIENCE STEP BY STEP

The starter is doing great but after episode 4 it's getting boring and I couldn't afford nor waste my time to watch this series. The uke is great but the seme-... Im sorry but I really get bored just watching him playing this character. Like no emotion, his eyes are empty. The casting is great but I don't think the director being fair to Man when they decided to hire Up as the second lead. Obviously I like Up to be pair with Ben better. I mean HELLO??? Anyway, I think the gap of acting skills are huge between Man and Up. Up looks much sincere and his eyes are sparkling with admiration when playing the character Put whenever he is looking at Pat. I am sorry but this series DISAPPOINT ME SO MUCH. The review is 7.5 which is total nonsense. There is no real conflict in this series just a bunch of office workers gossiping about his boss and there is no heart throbbing scenes either. I can count how many times I doze off while watching this series and I feel like they are trying to give off the same vibe with 'A Boss and A Babe' but failed miserably. Anyway, I am dropping this. Never going to continue watch this.

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