4Minutes

My take of it

I absolutely love time travel plots. I can eat it all day even if it isn't perfect. and it wasn't hard for me to understand the ending at all. not sure why people got so confused, it was actually simple.

Actually I get why, the series organize the events wrong. It's not that good, in my opinion. They could have organized them so much better in a way that much easier to consume, but it wasn't that bad. At least it does make sense in the end, most of the time. There are parts that didn't make a lot of sense but I forgive them for it.

The thing that really bother me is that the main couple got so little screen time. and that very hurt their story and the series in the end. instead they focus too much on the brother and his crazy lover. while his lover was an interesting character, I admit, with him murdering people, I prefer to know and watch more the main couple. Not sure why they give them so little screen time, it's insane. minor characters should not get so much screen time! it's not their series.

Though I did enjoy the main character's story and events, I wish they got more closure and screen time to become much deeper characters. but for the episodes they got, they were good at least the actors.

overall it could have being much better organize story but it's not that bad. it's nice and short for what they're aiming for.

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started with a bang ended with a whimper

The first half of this show is immaculate. I love everything from the acting, the storytelling, the visuals, the music... I was super hyped for how the second half. And while the acting and most of the other positives carried over into the second half, there was one thing that definitely fell off. The Storytelling.

But in true shit-burger fashion, let's start with a positive first. The cast.

These actors really know how to put up a show and get you invested in the characters. Even though there were a lot of them, I was invested in them all from episode 1. So, yes, definitely a round of applause for Bible, Jes, Bas, Fuaiz, Lilly, and everyone else.

I really enjoyed what Jes did with Tyme's character, he was in no way the stereotypical brooding emotionless stone of a man. From the very beginning he allowed us to see that there is so much more to Tyme than meets the eye. Similar compliments go to Bible, of course. He proved that he has great range. Great was very intriguing, yet irritating and it was thanks to Bible that I was still rooting for him through all the bullshit he pulled. I was going through it with this man, truly.

The cinematography was stunning, as to be expected for the production company of Kinnporsche, I guess. Every shot, ever frame, you felt the love. You could randomly pause this show and it would look amazing. The special effects were underlining the emotions rather than distracting from what was happening on screen. I can't really praise this show for these things enough.

Now to the negatives.

The biggest gripe I had with this show was the ending. But let's start from least to most aggravating.

13. I know the whole thing of this show is that your brain can survive 4 minutes without oxygen when your heart stops or whatever, but--I'm not a doctor or anything--wouldn't it result in brain damage or any other lasting effects if you'd actually nope out for four full minutes? This show is like the five second food bacteria rule but for death. Like these four minutes are some sort of dream land you can go to whenever you are unconscious and only once the clock strikes 4 minutes, you are dead, exactly 240 seconds. Not a second less or more. Then again, it's a show, so, you know.

12. Why do these BLs keep shoving guitars into shows that have nothing to do with music? What was the reason?

11. While I appreciate that we have now reached a point in BL shows where girlfriends have not to be villanized, I'm not sure why Tyme had to have a girlfriend here because she was there for like two scenes(?) and in both scenes they broke up so... Idk.

10. Medical dramas or shows with medical elements are rarely 100% accurate but I still can't help but notice and nag at the little nonsensical stuff like doctors/nurses not wearing mask when they should, a doctor telling a random visitor where to find the surgeon who was performing a surgery this very second, etc.

9. Why did they randomly choose to put a very identifiable Kinnporsche song as the last song for this show? It isn't that big of a deal but I thought it was odd. Why would your last goodbye for this show be a reminder of another show?

8. The different timelines and alternative versions of reality got me tripping. What happened to Manee who had tried to kill herself in the first episode? Last we saw of her she sat in front of the TV and was smiling menacingly and and doing something at the temple. I think she died in the final timeline so that was... pointless? Or am I messing things up? (if anyone could explain this to me, I'd be forever grateful)

7. While I really enjoyed the chemistry of Tonkla and Korn, I wished we would've seen more of them. The flashbacks of their first meeting and relationship was cute but their breakup was... harsh and I didn't really feel like there was much left after they parted ways. Hell, Tonkla lost his brother and Korn didn't think about checking in on him after he threw him out? Only after his own life blew up and he was left with nowhere to turn he suddenly seemed to remember his so-called love of his life. And then they reunite and suddenly everything is well until Tonkla reveals the cheating and then Korn is ready to die with him?? I really, really am a sucker for parallels and that shot of them on the bed and the cut to them on the ground GOT ME but that doesn't erase that their reunion felt very lackluster and sudden. (also Tonkla was revealed to be serial killer but we didn't really get time to sit with that because he died a second later)

6. I don't mind explicit sex scenes, I think that in the right hands they can convey a lot and really add something to a story and the characters. (I'm not sure why Tonkla was begging to do it raw with his men but maybe it was some deeper emotional reason that we were not privy to or can only assume.) We are already familiar with the kind of explicitness BOC shows seem to come with but I was surprised just how much we got and with how many different people. And I didn't mind for the most part, but looking up the age of Tonkla's actor had me clutching my pearls, not gonna lie as he got not one but three very explicit scenes if I remember correctly (no I will not go back and fact check). I hope that he was working with a great intimacy coordinator and was comfortable because that does seem a lot for an 18 year old (same goes for the rest of the cast as well of course). I don't know why BOC feels the need to cast these very young barely 18 actors do to play these roles (at least with Barcode they kept it all PG).

5. I'm not really sure how I feel about the way Tyme's arc ended, to be honest. While I was on-board with everything else, I am not a huge fan of "let go of revenge" trope. Because I am petty and if someone not only killed my parents but also killed my grandma aka my last living relative, you know it's on sight. "You forgive someone not for them but for yourself, you have to let go to be free, if you lose yourself in revenge you will always be trapped" okay maybe that works for you but I can only know peace if they suffer for what they did (for legal reasons this is a joke). I guess that they sort of had to go down that road for Tyme to be still considered a "good (enough) person" and because of the doctor ethics thing they sort of had to do that, but it felt.. easy. I mean this guy was doing it all from revenge porn to willingly have a victim of abuse go back to her abuser to gather information for him, etc. I'm just saying that sometimes you have to let your characters go apeshit and let them own it, and sometimes you have to go a little less apeshit if you want them to still be seen as these Good People TM.

4. I think that applies to Great as well. While I appreciate Great going to the police to "own up" to what he did to Dome and help covering up his murder but the "pep talk" from Tyme felt very tone-deaf. What Great did was bad. You don't cover up a murder accidentally. There is no way to "well, actually" it. What baffled me is that in the OG timeline he decided to leave this woman he ran over to die and somehow that didn't bug him as much as the Dome-thing. Interesting.

3. While I understand that in the end the people Great saved by his 4 minutes power had to die, since it was all in his head, but it felt a bit... comical almost? These people were dropping like flies in what felt like minutes (I was binge watching this show so maybe that's on me). First Manee, then Dome, then Nan, then his mother, then Great himself, then Tyme, then Tonkla and Korn, etc. Like, at some point I wasn't sure who HADN'T died.

2. Like I mentioned, I was going through it with Great. His character was fine in the first few episodes when he had the "look into the future" power (which was in the end meaningless because it was all in his head and nothing of that happened but at least he regrets his actions I guess), but as soon as that fell away and we saw what really happened, he was really messed up. He ran over a woman and left her to die, was friends with a guy who kept his girlfriend locked in his room until she took him back, witnessed him killing a classmate and then helped him hide the body and watch another woman get killed right on front of him without trying to intervene. There's so much blood on his hands, I'm not sure his good deeds could ever outweigh that in the slightest. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate him or anything, but if he had died by Tonkla's hands, I wouldn't have felt sad or bad for him at all.

1. The way this show cut between the in-their-head 4 minutes and the real world timeline without any context or change of color or filter or anything (as a lot of shows do to make it easier for the viewer to differentiate) had me confused big time. I don't know why they decided to cut back and forth like that especially because they decided to show some scenes twice to help you catch up to where in the timeline we are right now but on the other hand decided to change or leave out other scenes and you had to sort of piece it together yourself what had happened like in Great's 4 minutes timeline and what had happened differently in the OG timeline. I think there was a better way to tell this in a less confusing way with a little "Great's 4 Minutes" or filter or color grading thing, but I guess a lot of the "plot twists" and "shockers" were sort of depended on having you think this was real or not real, so maybe they did want to confuse us, I don't know... In the end 4+ characters had their own 4 minutes going on, so that didn't really help at all. During episode 8 my brain was just dial up sound on a loop. I'm sorry, maybe that's a me problem and it actually is super logical and all that time I wasted on that clock app finally caught up to me, but come on.

And to complete the shit-burger and end this review on a sweeter note, let's have a look at another positive: The Chemistry. No matter if it's the main course or the side dish or the desert, it was definitely filled with chemistry. The tension was so thick you could have cut it with a knife. I don't know what BOC is doing to these people but keep it going.

To sum it all up: 4 Minutes was a show with an interesting concept with an amazing cast and crew that started out great but eventually fell off due to confusing storytelling and disappointing character arcs and ending.

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Very interesting and intriguing concept, but lacking in character and relationship depth

Truly interesting and fun concept! I like the whole seeing into the future thing, and it is something that actually have a explanation to it. The show, however, lacks in having a slow start and not that much depth to its characters and their relationships. But it's still fun to see a BL have a more unique concept and a plot-point that is not just connected to romance.

I think the show started out too slow, but also too fast? Many characters and multiple plotlines were introduced at once and I didn't really understand their connections or the overall plot. I think the 4 minutes should have been introduced earlier and more focus should have been put on it. It is introduced in the first episode, but the focus is not there, instead we are introduced to many characters and the side couple already gets established before we even know who the main couple is.

I also think there were way too much fan service for my taste, especially in the first half of the show. I am actually interested in the romance aspect, and I don't think that much fanservice needs to be shown. This show was just waaay too horny in my opinion. They should instead have put more focus on actually establishing the characters.

Even if the start felt slow and a bit over the palce, I was very pleasently surprised by how the 4 minutes thing was explained. I really loved that plotline! Such a cool concept and it really tied the whole story together. They actually gave a solid explanation as to why Great could see into the future. When thinking back on the earlier episoded there were many signs of what were actually happening, but you don't really register it until the whole reveal happen. There are some clever forshadowing, and during the later half you get a the connection. For example that Great essentially has panik attack in the elevator in the first episode.

Just the first half actually kinda made we wanna drop the series, because I just didn't feel that invested and it was just too much fanservice for my taste. But I am glad that I stuck to it since the plot twist actually was very interesting.

I am a bit disappointed in the romance, I don't really feel like there were that big of a connection between the couples. I would have wanted to have the main couple be a bit more established and have them more explored. They seem to be fated together, and there is definitely chemistry there. However, it still feels sort of flat. There aren't that many interactions between them and actually not that much focus on the romance or how their relationship develops.

I think the story of the side couple (Korn and Tonkla) is interesing. There is more depth and history to them, but it still could have been explored more. I also think Tonkla is a interesting character by himself.

Overall, I do wish that the characters were explored more and their various relationships. I would have wanted more time with the characters and for them to have more depth. I think both couples should have been explored more, but also other relationships. For example Korn and Great's relationship, like how close are they as brothers? I would have wanted to see more of Great's reaction to the whole situation about Korn and Tonkla. Since both couples have connections via the plot, it would have been interesting to actually have some interactions between them. I feel like their storylines are too seperated from each other, when they actually should be connected.

The ending felt a little bit rushed, but they still tried to tie everything together in the last episode. I think the show would have benefitted with being a bit longer, just so they would have more time to explore the whole plot and tie up all of the loose ends more nicely. Or some plotlines should have been cut to give more time and depth to other plotlines.

The cinemothography is very solid. There were some nice shots and I liked how some scenes were filmed. Specifically the scenes with Great when he is first experiencing his power. I really like how time and clocks are incorporated into the scenes, always giving the viewer a reminder of the 4 minutes.

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Highly disappointing

4.5 stars because the production was good and the acting was good, sometimes. The plot is all over the place, this show is 80% nudity and love scenes, and the rest is actual storyline. 1.5 star out of my rating goes to Den, who I love dearly because he's not afraid to call Tyme out but he's also funny, the perfect mix of serious and unserious. Job did well in this character. His storyline had such potential (the research) but they really didn't go anywhere with it. I watched this show mostly because of Bible, and though he tried his best, there was only so much you could do with Great's character. You can only do so much to save a sinking ship. Great is a terrible character, completely irredeemable, the definition of a spoiled brat (hats off to Bible for portraying that well, if I hate the character, his acting played a big part in it). Jes's acting peaked in I think episode 6, and I came away from that episode incredibly impressed, I think it's the most emotion I've seen from Tyme's character. Tyme obviously has serious self-esteem issues because who would go back to a man like Great? He should see a therapist. But I actually think Tyme had potential as well. Sad that Jes didn't get to show off more of his acting as this character. Maybe soon, if 8 Hours ends up happening. But to me the ending of the show didn't make sense, Tyme really back-pedalled on his stance of Great. An interesting rendition of Stockholm syndrome, honestly.
Also the amount of nudity involving Fuaiz was concerning, it felt very forced, almost like the director had a fetish of seeing this young boy in these scenes. Yes, he was an adult, and both he and his parents consented (apparently), but that doesn't mean there wasn't a level of exploitation, besides, at his age a person is still developing mentally. So for me, this show was very uncomfortable.
Besides Bible, my other reason of wanting to watch was the initial press conference. The show seemed promising there. I really thought they'd go a different way with this story, and I feel that it really failed to live up to its full potential. The wrong threads were pulled and in the end, it all fell apart. I know they had to do a lot of rewriting or whatever due to what had happened behind the scenes, but they could've done better. They took a long time to release the show so I feel like there was time to make it good. But hey, what do I know? Anyway, I'm not sure what the point of 8 Hours would be, but I'm still going to watch because I'm curious of what they'll make of all of this. And I am a fan of Bible's work, so I'll stick around to see.
Overall, there are some interesting bits in the plot but unfortunately they focused on the wrong things.
Others might hold different opinions and that's fine, but what grabs my attention in shows is the acting, cinematography and writing, not any love scenes or fan service. Again, not a judgement on anyone, just my own opinion, but we all watch things for different reasons.

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It's okay

This was okay. I love Bible, love the guy who played Korn and love the guy who played the doctor in this series, but the guy who played Tonkla; his acting is bad!! His acting was so bad that I almost didn't finish watching this! It felt like his acting was a bit Overkill in some areas, but then not enough Overkill in areas that they're needed to be. He just wasn't a good fit for this, his acting just isn't there. Even when he was in another series that I watched his acting has not changed. Maybe with more practice he'll get better, but wow! He was the only flaw to me in this.

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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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FINALLY.... A STORY!

Finally an original idea!
Finally a concept with a concrete story behind it!
Finally a series that gives real space to the roles to develop!
Finally a series that you watch because you are interested in how its story will develop!
Finally a series whose twists have consistency and explanation!
Finally a series created by people who didn't get bored of their work.
Finally a series whose raison d'être is an idea and not an hour-long commercial forced by actors without a script.

PS Don't get me wrong... I high value the attempt of the series to bring something meaningful and new. It's not perfect in many ways and a lot of things could be fixed but it's miles away from the classic, boring recipes based only on fan love of specific actors. Also my perceptive...if you kept the sex part from the whole series, that's fine and it's perfectly legitimate, but that's probably what you were looking for in the series.

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Wonderful

I'm not a big fan of Thai BLS but this one was pretty good. The acting was amazing and the concept was new and refreshing, cinematography on point. The plot wasn't confusing, yes at first it is a bit weird after episode 5 but I'm slow as hell and figured it out pretty quickly. I do have to say I do not like the fact that there's a lot of NC scenes. If I knew there were that many I'd just watch the cut version, it was just unnecessary. There were so many storylines and characters, I'd rather have more of the main couple I'm not even going to lie. Otherwise this bl is very good. I wouldn't watch it again though.

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