4Minutes (2024)

Sadly lacking real story and development.

The actors are good, I enjoyed the 2nd pairing but the main pair are not for me. The series is lacking chemistry and strong story. Especially when all they do is use NC sex for story that makes no sense. It feels like sex is all they want to focus on for lack of acting and story line and plot that does not make sense. Sadly disappointed. Feels like characters are one dimensional and typical with lack of growth. Please focus more on storyline next time instead of their NC moments. Especially since call their trailers only emphasize on the intimate moments just to try to get fans on board.

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Great' wasn't as great as we thought...

Ufff, thank God I dropped this drama by the third episode and then watched it again from the beginning after it ended. I understood that I would only be able to fully grasp it if I watched the entire drama in one go.

Although, to be honest, there wasn't really any deep science that we couldn't understand... In my religion, I had already read that after death, a person's brain stays alive for 7 minutes, and during that time, they see everything they did in their entire life or the memories of things they regret.

Now, in this series, the concept is just about 4 minutes instead of 7... Simply put, in the first 5 episodes of the drama, we are seeing the guilt and memories of the last 4 minutes of 'Great's' life—what he did and what he could have changed but didn't. In episodes 6 and 7, we see what actually happened in real life that 'Great' couldn't change, meaning 'Great' wasn't as great as we thought by episode 5..???... And Tonkla killed the title and also shot 'Great,' taking revenge for his brother's murder... And the part where Tonkla's brother (who returned home at the end of episode 4) was also 'Great's' hallucination because, in the last 4 minutes of his memory, he tried to save him... The scenes related to Tonkla, Korn, and Win are mostly real, not imagined.

"And in the last episode, we are shown 'Tyme's' last 4 minutes, where he wishes that he had met him naturally without any purpose, and had only continued their relationship with genuine love."

Now that's love—Korn, even after hearing the truth from Tonkla, sacrifices himself after Tonkla dies, and they both die lying in the same position as they did during their first date while talking. That was very emotional... And then the mini heart attack at the end of the drama, hahah... Overall, I've never seen a BL series like this. They have played with science very well...

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The cast had less chemistry than Bible with his motorbike

When I saw the trailer of this series I hopped on the moving hype train going on full steam, just because I was anxious to see Bible back on screen.

In the end, Bible did terrific work. But that's pretty much it for this series. The plot was all over the place, every single lick of chemistry was already seen in the trailer, and the pacing made this feel like it was 40 episodes instea d of 8.

I mean cinematography was nice. They made this pretty at parts, at least.

Also Why Don't You Stay should've remained in KP.

Conclusion: I wish to see Bible paired with someone else and in a no-paranormal series.

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A visual stunning midnight BL drama with good acting and a decent plot for a midnight drama.

Virtues:
-The gorgeous cinematography.
-Jespipat Tilapornputt and Asavapatr Ponpiboon's performances are really good.
-The 4 minutes concept and the near death experiences theme.
-The mix between the mistakes of the past Great wished could fix, the raw and messy reality the characters lived and the things that never happened to Tyme but wished would have happen, all of this three timelines told with the central context of being on the verge of dying.

Flaws:
-Some events happen out of the blue, with a poorly elaborated build up, so the development and the characters' relationships, actions and reactions lack credibility at certain moments of the story, special mention to episode 6.
-Some scenes, like the one when Tonkla has the camera right in front of his face to show he's succumbing to his dark side born from his traumas, the one when Great and his father "argue" about the video or the one where Tyme comfronts Great's father are badly directed and filmed, and therefore, acted.
-Sammon repeats things she'd already used in previous plots without giving these resources proper personality.
-Some sequences feel like being watching a TV spot, a beautiful advertisement or a promotional ad for the actors. Including all that in a series is perfectly fine and common, but you must know how to integrate those promotional things in the general story in a proper manner. Unfortunately, here and in Thai series in general, they just throw the promotional things to one's face, which took me out of the story more than once.

To sum up, 4 MInutes is an interesting and enternaining midnight series that is not perfectly written, but is still worth watching if you're looking for a decent BL to watch.

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Good, was waiting for her to be great

I liked the first half of the show and the overall concept it started with on the 4 minutes. The first half was intriguing, perplexing, wonderfully confusing and very enjoyable and I enjoyed the chemistry between what was marketed as the main characters.
However, there was a shift somewhere that changed the whole dynamic of the show. The resolution of the show for me felt no better than the hated ‘it was all a dream’. It got really slow and focused too many really long scenes some characters in a single episode that you forget that there’s other characters in the show. I feel they did too much and followed too many characters to address in 8 episodes.
Maybe because the show only had 8 episodes they fumbled wrapping it up well and left so many loose ends that for me I needed tied.

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It’s not cute love.

8.5 stars rounded up, the only reasons this isn't a solid 10 stars is there are a lot of little things that bothered me in of plot and relationship dynamics , but the rest of the series was lovely so it's ok.

I honestly don’t want to share too much about this series before you look it — it’s best enjoyed knowing as little about it as possible. However, what I will say is the pacing is good, the jumpy timeline builds tension and has you at the edge of your seat, and that ending…Bitter and sweet. How you feel about it may determine your final rating too.
But yeah, apart from that...
It was a unique story but there was a missed opportunity to really make this an the best story, which somehow makes the flaws worse since I get frustrated seeing wasted opportunities.

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Unnecessarily confusing

This is going to piss some people off so if you like the series and have no complaints about it then don't read, if you disagree I don't care, keep it to yourself it's"my" review and "my" opinion, also I'm going to vent a little, with some curses ahead ~~

All good? ... Perfect.

Now, what the fuck was that ?
I binge watched this so it wasn't as confusing to me as - I imagine - to whoever watched it while it was on air, and I have to say I still ended up with too many questions, unnecessary questions about what was real and wasn't, specially for Tonkla-korn relationship.
Direction was all over the place, and that is what it was confusing, story by itself is good, even great and acting was on point even with the questionable characters' morals and behaviours, and sadly that's the only thing I liked about the series, also Den, he was adorable !!! I LOVE HIM!!! MUAH!! He was the best and I loved his interaction with Tyme, cough-even more than with great-cough ??

What I didn't like was somehow all the characters maybe lol I mean they were written in a weird way the only person I felt sorry for was Tyme, Great? Not so much....
I mean Great literally did a hit and run then later they kinda forgot to show his confessing to it IRL and just showed his regret in the 4mins, I know he is sorry and the lady actually committed suicide by jumping in front of him but how would we know now if she actually wanted to die???huh how?? This was all in his 4mins which was led by his feelings and regrets.

so, um, lady, you died, sorry about that I'll just imagine you jumped on purpose and then forget all about it, ok? ?

Now Tonkla revenge? Logically this part was sci-fi lmao I mean anyone with evidences just shows them to anyone, police is big a joke! I mean who in his right mind share sensitive information in the investigation with Normal citizens? Moreover a relative to the dead person? Bitch, please!

What I hated the most was the way the direction went, specially the part where they intentionally showed the real life for Tonkla-korn-Win DURING Great's 4mins, confusing AF unnecessarily!!
Also the reference that the lady who died was the reason for Greats mum death and magically when he let her die he saved his mum but WHAT IS THE PROOF YOU F*CKERS!!!! You just put random connections just like that? Good lord!! ???

Lady, yes you who I killed a few moments ago, hello again, now you would have been the reason to kill my mum so I really am relieved you died!! To save my mum you know? completely logical ~

You see, after everything settles in, and I know it's just a series and fictional and bla bla bla, I just don't like illogical stuff, but ..BUT!! I still think the story was amazing needs some polishing but nonetheless
I know my review doesn't show that, seriously, the story was amazing it could have been much much better, cinematography was Fantastic!! But sadly that doesn't help much when the end product is full of flaws ~

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More of a Scenario Building Exercise than an actual plot

CHEMISTRY:
Okay so hear me out! This has got to be by far the best level of intimacy and bareness I've ever seen in BL so far! Like i have no clue how they've got Fuaiz to shoot those bare sex scenes when he was barely 18 is still goes all over my head, but his level of maturity and acting makes me confident enough that he knows what he's doing and is of legal age.

PLOT:
Now coming to the plot, there were many reminiscence of DFF in the plot and by the end of ep 4 I knew it's going to take the Messier route just as DFF took but not as mad. But the entire 4minutes thing was really messy to be honest. Like what were the writers really trying to convey, like how the scenario building as we do in urban design ?, showed how things would've been different if characters behaved in a certain way in those 4 minutes, or these were mental patients who were living in their own trance struggling to grapple with reality, or actually did time travel? It's seriously a convoluted mess!

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT:
I loved how every character was shown to be a grey character and shown them in their exact realness with no useless fluffy like we see in typical BL dramas, and had managed their own flaws and struggles. Though there was little character development in most of the characters except Korn, for that matter yeah just his realisation what he did wrong was enough for me ?. DFF had really good development and plot build-up, even though this did try really hard with those mind boggling plot twists, but it has lesser of an impact.

ACTING:
Fuaiz and Bas really stole the show, to be real honest. Those two were literally the main characters of the entire show than Jess Bible themselves. Like i really didn't care by the ending of the show as to what shit they were upto, I was most concerned where the rat of Fuaiz is upto ?. Jess is a veteran actor so need not talk much about it, and Bible really didn't have much to offer.

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What could have been

4 Minutes was a missed opportunity on so many levels. The premise that the 4 minutes after a person’s heart has stopped beating, when they are in a state of hypoxia, events from their life will play out in their consciousness was novel. Back when the author of the series was announced as Sammon, a medical doctor, I knew that 4 minutes referred to that brief few minutes between life and death, if the victim is not revived.

At first, the viewer is not aware of what the 4 minutes signifies. Instead, the tendency is to take Great’s explanation at face value, that at times he can see 4 minutes into the future and has a chance to make different choices. For the first few episodes, everything is grounded in this point of view. But gradually the viewer becomes confused about what has happened and is happening. Clearly, everything we are seeing cannot all be reality. More and more contradictions creep in to the story line. We see events that don’t involve Great at all, and then variations of those same events. Whose reality, or 4 minutes are we witnessing? Sometimes we never find out.

Basically, the entire plot is constructed on the premise of reliving choices and potentially choosing differently a second or even third time. All of this takes place in a hypopoxic state, but whose? So many possibilities are thrown at the viewer that at times we aren’t sure what is real and what is imagined. That might have been interesting to explore, but the script never tackles the fundamental question, What is consciousness, what is reality? Instead, we get a repetitive muddle of a plot laced with soft core porn scenes, graphic violence, and individuals you wouldn’t want to meet in real life. By episode 8, I was repelled by all but two of the main characters (and I was certainly no fan of Great and Tyme by then). I especially take exception with serious actors being required to act in soft core porn scenes that do nothing to advance either plot or character development. A less explicit scene could have communicated what was needed. Instead, in these scenes the actors are presented exclusively as sexualized bodies engaged in explicit coupling solely for the titillation of the viewer. The CEO of Be On Cloud is credited as the Intimacy Director,, so the decision to treat his actors in this way was definitely his. How can an actor say “no” to the CEO when called upon to film such scenes and not lose his job? It smacked of exploitation and this did not sit well with me.

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A Lot of 4 Minutes That I'll Never Be Able To Get Back

I had decent expectations for this series because of how long it had been in production and its main cast. However, it fell short. The plot ran off halfway and the end had neither rhyme nor reason.

4 Minutes can be summed up as a bunch of unnecessary deaths. At one point, I figured it was committed to karmic justice but I was wrong. The main characters getting a sort of 'happy ending' is proof that karma and justice lend little to the plot.

I admit that the near-death, psychological storyline was brilliant. I found it fun to unravel what was real and what was not. However, the plot and characters were poorly written.

Spoiler Alert ⬇️

Great was a shit person. He was in a hit-and-run, was complicit to murder, helped dispose of a dead body, was privy to the unlawful confinement of a female schoolmate, let his corrupt parents clean up his messes, and watched a girl get shot in the face when he could've stopped it. The only 'good' he ever did was saving Tyme — and he did that for himself.

Tyme was a huge red flag. He was portrayed as a victim turned vigilante but his actions show he was as cuddly with crime as his parents were. He sought 'justice' based on a few scribbles in his mom's journal, locked in on the wrong target and served their son some revenge porn to get attention. He put his patient (a victim of abuse that needed saving) in more danger just to gather evidence for his mission.

Somehow, both characters get an angelic halo over their heads after their 4-minute experience. They go on a couple of dates, play judge and jury, and make a show of taking responsibility — but it's just Great admitting his part in Dome's murder. All their other acts of delinquency are swept under the rug.

Ton Kla (played by Fuaiz) was the character I was most curious about but we only got bits and pieces of his life that didn't give much away. He was summed up as a serial killer with a kitty ghost friend and a boyfriend who only showed up when he pleased. Korn choosing to die with Ton Kla was unexpected but fitting end to a dark romance, I guess.

The actors who stood out the most in this drama were Bas and Fuaiz. Bas was brilliant as Korn and I found myself equal parts disgusted at and sorry for this character who was so obsessed with pleasing his father that he lost himself in the process. I hope Fuaiz gets more age-appropriate roles where he can show his talent beyond what we've seen in DFF and 4 Minutes.

tldr: good acting. unexpected storyline. poor character development. disjointed plots. not worth a second watch.

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4 Minutes

I will keep it short simply because I just couldn't get into the story. At times I was lost but did carry on watching the whole series. The acting was good. the script was OK but the MLs.. only my opinion didn't connect for me. Yes the Sex scenes were there in all there glory. Tonkla and Korns sex scene at the beginning was well acted but after that we didn't see them till much later as Korn was playing the field so that turned me right off him. Great and Tyme were the other MLs but nothing really happened between them that stood out. Series could have been a lot better. There were to many storylines to follow for me and at times was a frustrating watch.
Well worth watching to make your own take on the series as to some it was great series.

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