This review may contain spoilers
unnecessarily slow/too many flashbacks
Overall: all of these stories could have been told in half (or less) of their time and they needed to air two episodes per week instead of spreading the series out over 6 months. Some episodes had way too many flashbacks as well. Aired on iQIYI and re-aired on YouTube.You Are My Soul Mate eps 7 & 8, 8
A standard Thai BL. Had some stupid poor communication but decent kissing.
Lucky Love eps 9 & 10, 7.5
Standard enemies to lovers. Wanted the new partner to be less aggressive with someone who just got out of an abusive relationship. Content warnings: intimate partner violence, sexual assault, punches/fight, vomiting
Fake Love eps 15 & 16, 7.5
Start at 38:30 in episode 15 and then watch all of episode 16. Standard aggressive pursuer/reluctant pursuee with some nonsense plot things. Content warnings: blackmail, stalking, vomiting, manhandling, non con touching, fight off screen, blood
Marry Go Round eps 3 & 4, 7.5
Nice to have an established couple but we needed more of them and less of the invasive fujoshi character. This is a crack comedy that didn't make me laugh. Note there is an ending scene after the initial credits. Content warnings: homophobia
The Camp Fire eps 11 & 12, 7.5
Slow pacing with some jump scares throughout (you could start at 30 minutes in episode 11 and miss basically nothing). I'm not sure how to feel about the end. Same actors as Love Stage (Thai version). Content warnings: brief scary images/jump scares, death off screen/death/blood (it's complicated)
Right Time, Right Love eps 5 & 6, 7
Bad that his friend asked him to talk it out with his abuser. They really needed a time skip to give some healing time between starting a new relationship. Content warnings: past intimate partner violence, manhandling, mental health struggles
Pisces of Me eps 17 & 18, 7
The incorrect subtitles made this more confusing than it needed to be (ie should have been "our mom" instead of "my mom"). The two guys are fraternal twins, I didn't get incest from the plot. Start ep 17 at 47 minutes and then start ep 18 at 35 minutes. Content warnings: non con kissing, blackmail, fight, a little blood/small injury
1626 eps 19 & 20, 6.5
Way too many flashbacks/forwards. Not a BL unless they were saying "I love you" in morse code.
I Wish You Love eps 23 & 24, 6.5
A guy gets a magical mirror and tracks down the guy who he sees in it, start ep 23 at 25 minutes. No idea why 2 people can't contact each other for years (social media, common friends, going to old addresses, etc) but I set that aside. Confusing way to start the second part. Wish they had made the ending more clear but I can guess what happened. Content warnings: illness, death (implied)
Refund Love eps 21 & 22, 6.5
Flashbacks made up 75% of the plot. Skip all of ep 21 and just watch ep 22. Did like that there was some GL but needed to have more sweet moments/relationship development and less constant flashbacks.
Casanova Begins eps 1 & 2, 6.5
Very confused with who was who and their relationships. Good attempt to try something different but the exposition dump and some nonsense things didn't hook me. Content warnings: death, attempted suicide, manhandling
Friends Forever eps 13 & 14, 6
This is not a romance story but a morality tale. I would have rated this higher if they had tightened the story up and removed the never-ending flashbacks. For the good, a character got actual consequences for his terrible actions. Content warnings: murder, intimate partner violence, coach/university student, drugging, manhandling
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An Incoherent Mess
My sympathy goes out to those who started this series way back in August 2023 when it first began. I know myself too well to realize that a series of this magnitude and depth would not have held my attention for very long as it is an anthology of 12 short stories of two episodes each. I would have forgotten the plots to most of the substories. As it was, even with binge watching this and taking copious notes, there is not much here to capture your attention for very long, and most of these stories become forgettable soon after they are seen. With only two episodes per story, you got very little plot, no character development, and even less understandable conclusions of what the stories were about. Some were comedies, although I found none of them funny at all. Silly yes, but not funny. Some were metaphysical or occult which were incomprehensibly difficult to navigate the point to the story. Most were just drab and dull. Others were just amateurish confusing messes.Was this review helpful to you?
It's a wide universe..
First off, with the sheer amount of stories, they probably should have aired two episodes a week. It is an anthology, but several characters appear in multiple stories and there is a sense of continuation to them all. They are set in the same universe after all.While there wasn't anything extraordinary about these stories, some of them were mildly interesting, others were plain boring, and some seemed borderline criminal (before they changed the synopsis), but something they all had in common was the fact that the premises were kind of interesting. This seemed like a set of pilot episodes to determine which one would garner the most attention and love, that would then be developed into a full length series, like an En of Love type of deal. Fair, but considering they had neither the airtime to fully develop most stories, nor the fact that they didn't realise if they weren't going to fully develop it, there wasn't a need to extend it for as long as they did just to fill the runtime was a huge misstep on their part.
That isn't to say that the anthology didn't have it's moments. I enjoyed several stories that had the hints of a good plot, solid acting and most importantly, potential to be done better, in case they do. While the rest didn't lack in potential, they failed to capture my attention because of repetitive and boring scenes, weak acting and poor execution.
I would definitely watch stories like Marry Go Round (although that's mostly for the leads), You Are My So(ul) Mate, Lucky Love and The Camp Fire if they were developed into full length series', as is. As for the rest, even though I'm interested in seeing if they would be remade, it'll take a great executional overhaul for me to give them a try.
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Purpose unclear, mildly ok parts
This series consists of 12 2-ep stories of love. Most of them are about the beginning of love, but in some the failure of the same. I was left with the feeling that these were all stories that could at some point be made into a full series, but were not due to lack of funds or otherwise, It all feels rushed, low budget with unknown actors thet we have either not seen before or only in supporting roles. Some themes really deserved more time and attention, such as Friends Forever and Pisces Of Me. Some should be fast forgotten, such as Marry Go Round and Fake Love. Some are really good in this short form, like You Are My SoulMate and Lucky Love. On average it was a 5,5/10 for me.Casanova Begins: 5/10 huh, why?
Marry Go Round 4/10 Cringeee
Right Time, Right You 7/10 Great chemistry
You Are My So(ul) Mate 7,5/10
Lucky Love 7,5/10
The Camp Fire 6,5/10 (reveal ruined it, wth)
Friends Forever7/10 so sad
Fake Love 4/10 bad directing bad editing gaps, repetitions
Pisces of Me 5/10 heavy subject too rushed
1626 7/10 what happened next?
Refund Love 6/10 fun concept, badly executed
I Wish You Love 6/10 melancholic
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Extremely Confusing
12 stories. I liked some of them and said WTH on the rest. Some of the storylines and editing were so bad that I couldn’t even tell you what happened. As others have said, for only two episodes per story, they wasted a lot of time on flashbacks.These stories covered a wide range of human emotions and difficult situations. Some of the episodes I cried my eyes out. I think the writers were going for grabbing the viewer’s emotions but, honestly, they did not tell all the stories clearly. At the end of a few, I asked myself “what just happened?”. This series could have been so much better. The ideas behind the stories were good and nothing I have ever seen before. Just executed poorly.
Overall, I’m not mad that I watched it. It had a few good points. The actors did a good job.
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A kind of A-Z of different possible BL themes
I watched most of these stories towards the end of the period in which the show aired, so I can't voice the criticism that the series was too long and drawn out.To be honest, I wasn't expecting a lot. However, by the end of the series I was suitably impressed by the range of plots and themes. There was also a nice mixture of comedy and pathos from the comedy of errors in Marry Go Round to the shocking denouement in Friends Forever, as well as the knotty ethical dimension to a story like (1626). And in between we had the understated and very relatable tension of Right Place, Right You, Lucky Love and Fake Love, for example. Those last three, in particular, were good examples of how situations do not have to be particularly dramatic to hit home.
Although there is often an expectation that series of this kind should be perfect, rounded products that are aesthetically and emotionally satisfying, I think there is also a place for productions that are innovative and engaging without quite overcoming a sense that they are 'a work in progress'. My Universe is not perfect by any means, but you got the impression it was trying to bring a nuanced approach to a number of classic tropes and to some extent it achieved that aim.
Another highlight for me was the haunting beauty of the little musical interlude that marked breaks within individual episodes, as well as appearing at certain moments to highlight emotional realisation. There was a nice example of this in Lucky Love.
Overall, I found quite a lot to like in this series despite some weaknesses. It had an individual feel to it and the fact that things were not always sorted out neatly at the end of every story added a certain realism too. Conversely, the twist at the end of Refund Love seemed somehow to fit as well.
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Wasnt that bad, but also wasnt that good
In my opinion, i think Mok & Phat, Korn & Butr and Jeng & Meen deserve their own series, as it did not feel completed, they should have more episodes together so we can actually understand the context. For example, Jeng and Meen should be able to express their feeling a bit more so we know what happened with null, and if Jeng and Meen are officialy together, and the same with Mok and Phat! Overall i rate it a 6.5Was this review helpful to you?
It had many down and very little ups
I do think this is a nice opportunity to give a chance to different actors and parings to show their potential, as well as to try out some different plots. I liked the fact that they were very different from one another. The acting was pretty weak in all of them though. There were some actors that were better but seeing that most of them have at least some minor roles under their belt, I was expecting more.There are some connections between a few stories, but not all of them. To be honest, even with the few connections that there are, the stories are not really connected with one another. Sure, the characters are the same, but the focus is on something different, and the storylines from other stories are never referenced. So technically speaking, each story can be considered as a standalone.
I found it a bit annoying waiting a week between two episodes, only to then have it end and start with a new story again. It was hard to keep up with everything and everyone, especially as there was a new world building and new characters every other week. Maybe it would have been easier to have the episodes either be longer and make it into a single episode for each story or have the two joint episodes air in the same week (e.g. Saturday and Sunday).
The timeline of how the events of each story follow one another is a bit unclear. Do these “love stories” follow each other in the order they were aired or is there a different order? And alternative universe for each of them maybe? I think this reflects on the fact that the same characters appear in different stories, but their love lives are never referenced. And there are some inconsistencies with the characters themselves as well.
At some point, it all started to feel very lazily done and with very little effort. There was a lot of flashbacks about things we just saw, multiple times in a row. There are a few stories that probably have enough “new” footage for one episode and not two. Yet they stretched it into two with all the flashbacks and plots full of holes and inconsistencies. It could have been much better.
The plot holes, weak acting and often poor chemistry, badly placed comedic inserts and lack of logical and good story development were my biggest complaints for most of the stories. Down below links to a review of each individual story.
Casanova begins: https://mydramalist.com/profile/RoseQ/reviews/299603
Marry Go Round: https://mydramalist.com/profile/RoseQ/reviews/302587
Right Time Right You: https://mydramalist.com/profile/RoseQ/reviews/305975
You Are My So(ul) Mate: https://mydramalist.com/profile/RoseQ/reviews/308677
Lucky Love: https://mydramalist.com/profile/RoseQ/reviews/311567
The Camp Fire: https://mydramalist.com/profile/RoseQ/reviews/314827
Friends Forever: https://mydramalist.com/profile/RoseQ/reviews/317891
Fake Love: https://mydramalist.com/profile/RoseQ/reviews/321167
Pisces of Me: https://mydramalist.com/profile/RoseQ/reviews/324415
1626: https://mydramalist.com/profile/RoseQ/reviews/328753
Refund Love: https://mydramalist.com/profile/RoseQ/reviews/336301
I Wish You Love: https://mydramalist.com/profile/RoseQ/reviews/336311
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