My Stand-In (2024)

Romanticized abuser

This drama is like the fictionalized simulator of witnessing someone in an abusive relationship and being unable to help them. The abused person experiences all the abuse and will keep going back even with intervention from loved ones like friends and family.

Joe is used, kidnapped, tied up, and struck with a bat, gets his career destroyed which lead to his death. When he gets a miracle second chance, he goes right back to the same conditions that led to his initial death, working for a scumbag actor and worse selling his body and time to the abusive ex that ruined his life rather than borrow money from a friend he knows is generally a good person and wouldn't take advantage of him.

Ming has been a selfish, unhinged, obsessive, abusive person from the start. All his actions are his own, regardless of Tong manipulating his feelings. He just realigns his obsession from Tong to Joe, he's the same person that would hurt others to satisfy his own obsession. He threatens and manipulates the second Joe into sexual slavery. It's so horrific watching him love bomb Joe and Joe going back to him. Ming has done nothing substantial to show growth or change, just selfishly getting his way. Part of it is the bad writing/directing and another part of it is also the actor can't show any further nuance to Ming. Abusers can truly love the people they abuse and vice versa, but it doesn't change dangerous toxicity of the situation and certainly doesn't redeem the abuser in anyway. The resolution of the show is ultimately unsatisfying and empty.

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Disastrous show with terrible writing!

First of all, let me get this straight! The amount of hype and ig edits endorsed by the PR team has absolutely spoilt the entire drama for everyone! I have don't have much problem with those somewhat beautiful Bollywood edits, but it made me feel like I've already seen the entire show through the reels and there was nothing exciting to be anticipated in every episode, like i already know what's going to happen next. There needs to be certain limits to what extent the clips are released to the public!

Coming back to the show, the kind of hype that was created towards this show had me keenly awaiting for the show to end, so that I could binge watch it to the core! Judging by the premise it gave me hopes that it would deal with actual adult gay complex relationship dynamics which we face in a day to day basis! But I was let down so bad! It was just awful romanticised toxic obsessive 'Girl in trap' BL trope! Even Only Friends did better in showcasing actual gay culture!

THINGS WHAT WORKED:
• Relatively fresh cast was refreshing, yeah Joe was definitely one of the prime most reason I wanted to watch this show
• Miniscule addressal of coming out to family
• Repressed emotions portrayed by Ming towards Tong when he learns about his marriage
• Initial 3-4 episodes did show some potential and were gripping

THINGS THAT MADE CLENCH THE FEW STRANDS OF HAIR LEFT ON MY HEAD:
• The decision of keeping the same actor for portraying both the Old Joe and New Joe just for the sake of pushing the better looking actor shows the shallowness of the director and totally nulls the entire meaning of the show. The New Joe flashed at certain points was so dull and expressionless that it made it absolutely impossible to thing of him being in the character. Like even Chains of Heart does such a convincing job of making both actors likeable.
• The amount of times Joe has spilled the beans from his daily conversations looks so lame and unrealistic.
• Which mother who's spent entirety of her life living in a dilapidated house, just blindly walk in a super expensive villa with a private servant without even getting into any details of how his struggling son was able to provide it.
• The entire redemption arc of Tong was an absolute nonsense filler.
• Cringey trope of promises by his elder brother for helping Ming out from his father.
• Joe's friends did not even take a moment believing that he has been reincarnated
• The usual trope of parents being extremely repulsive and immediately accepting in a flash of a second without any convincing set of repercussions and consequences sets a really bad example to young LGBT individuals, whose lives can be at stake after coming out
• The extremely disturbing stereotypical portrayal of the Indian/Pakistani Sikh or muslim loan shark in an already racially conservative country, which the writer is himself confused about portraying in EP11 is what irked me the most in the entire show. If you are thinking of promoting a show to such a global level, you really need to be sensitive of the racial stereotypes that you are representing.
• The NC scenes had absolutely no build up and lacked intimacy!
• Why does Ming breakdown after the fencing shoot looking at the New Joe's back? He's not even the Old Joe and how does he realise that it was the Old Joe's back not Tong's the entire time when it is the New Joe playing the role.

The amount of plotholes delivered by this script is endless. I could go and on about this ridiculous writing of the show, but I have listed the major factors that frustrated me the most. This is one the biggest let-down of a BL dramas I had in a while.

Viewers beware of the hype, this show is extremely passable!

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I must say the ending is a definition of thrash, I was just annoyed, I expected a better ending. But the acting was good especially from Joe, he played his part really well.
But the story line thrash it. And if I find ming I will put him behind bars, I don't really care what Joe wants, ming smile really irritated me made me wanna puke, what are you smiling at you big, abusive fool, you this ugly bi##h, no tell me

Ming: we don't need to do it from the front (weird creepy smile)
Joe: hahaha ?
You stupid ba##ard no do it from the back. Gosh I give up on Thai drama............. And Joe just die because you are a useless c##t

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"girl in debt" trope adapted to BL

In all earnestness, i have to say that this drama is a total fiasco - read embarassment. Besides the ML - nothing to see here, not even hot scenes.
By ep 4 or so, it's just recollection of the past... By ep 8, it's same story with - supposedly - different ML. It becomes absurdly repetitive: the ML died because of the villain and crazy jealousy of partner, he wakes up in a different body to share same jealous partner and same villain and same name and same life story... The narrative loop is motivated by the "debt" trope, like - the ML cannot escape the circumstances because he is trying to raise money for his sick mom.
I personally dont like most of the cast. Everything looks forced and rushed and unprofessional.
Very predictable too... The ML is to be appreciated post-mortem and coming back from the dead to his repenting lover and friends.
Body-swap trope is supposed to add to the wow factor, but it's not... It also becomes really soon Polichinelle's secret to its dumbest.
The trend of the year seems to be "movie in a movie" trope. I find it annoying and an attempt to ruin the little credibility these dramas already have.
There is some unwilling humour to it, like Joe being recognized because he sneezes during orgasm - LOL is this a new unconfirmed study? Also, his BF always takes him from behind because - we assume - he doesnt want to see his face, though s*x is good and packed with feelings!? I seriously want to know who wrote this stuff!!
I'd say, this lakorn is targeted to housewives while looking down on their intellectual abilities.
Waste of time.

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Plot Line and Poom's acting skills make me stay with My Stand-In.

This series hasn't come out entirely as such I'll updating my review once all 12 episodes are out. I've watched it till Episode 6 and the plot is honestly interesting but the acting skills of most of the characters make it an average.

I love Poom, he is doing great. His mannerism as a stunt man gives the story a lot of dimension cause otherwise it's a shitshow in my opinion seeing as the other characters have no originality. Up and the dude playing Tong are the most annoying beings, demons if I may, in this fantasy world. May is clueless. Wut is great supporting character, love that for Joe. Let's see where it goes from here.

I do like the plot. Not gonna lie, it's peaked my interest to see how the new Joe deals with life with having the insight of people in his life from before the accident. I want him not to fall for the crap again. I want him to be successful. And though the "ship" crap is gonna go on forever, if the dude is toxic, he is toxic, I don't wanna hear nothing.

The nice guy needs to pull up his big boy pants and move on. But this is a work of fiction, and not real life so of course there are going to be people shipping Joe and Ming. But I'm completely against Joe ending up with Ming (Up) or Sol (Porche) for that matter.

Ming deserves the hot and cold behaviour Tong shows him. I have no sympathy for his a$$.




⚠️ Side Note: The way Poom says Minggg with that loving and elongated baby tone, I'm sitting over here listening to everything he says with a "Yes, Sir" attitude cause who wouldn't. The love just seeps out of him and damn, my name ain't Ming but I'm ready Poom. I'm ready.

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What a waste of time

You know, I've seen all this hype about the series and was really intrigued

First of all, there were a lot of people who said "it's so good, the best series of the year, what a hire bar". It avokes interest, isn't it?
Secondly, people said the main character was a red flag even more than Vegas from KP. And I really really love KP and Vegas. So, I expected something similar

So, I waited till the end of the show and then decided to watch everything at once. And you know what ? I'm highly, highly disappointed

The main character - Joe is so stupid it's not even funny. One of his "best decisions" that got my eyes to turn:
- being a virgin for his while life he loses it with a random drunk man for no reason at all
- he asks a person whom he has known for a week or even less to live with him (????)
- he falls in love with a person who doesn't give a fuck about him and demonstrates it clearly and so on
Don't get me wrong I wantched the series only for Poom, he's really pretty and a good actor. But his character is super dumb

The second main lead - Ming. He's a red flag but Vegas is still on top of my list of the most toxic characters. Just a reminder that Vegas tortured his supposed love interest and does other unpleasant things. So, Ming is not the best red flag, and he is stupid. His "best decisions":
- to do everything for Tong who doesn't give a fuck about him
- to waint for Joe for years. Man, you doesn't even love him! Why so out of the blue? And so on
The actor was fine even if sometimes he reminds me of a fish. But it doesn't safe the character

So, let me summarize

1) The plot is horrible and unrealistic with so many holes it's not even funny
2) A lot of questionable moments like with Joe's flat, Ming's relatives and so on
3) The process of shooting is shown really poorly
4) Supportive characters are plain
5) NC senses and fiting sences are just bad

Some positive moments are

1) The music. I think it suits the atmosphere
2) Poom (I've wrote about it above)

To tell the truth, the last five episodes I've watched using 2x speed cause I was bored

Will I watch it again? Never in my life
Will I recommend it? No, save your time

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Warning, long review ahead.

Some of what I liked:
Wut/Sol – They realized that new Joe and Ming would be together again and seemingly stepped back. Or, we just didn’t see them anymore. I choose to believe they decided to leave JoeMing alone to flourish or flounder because they’d done all the advising and helping they could, and you can’t make someone leave a relationship if they don’t want to…you can only support them from a distance and hope for the best. Liked that Sol realized he’s just like Joe, hopelessly in love and can’t get over someone. Good on Sol for going back to Korea to get away from the drama and hurt. Too hard to get over someone you see all the time.

Joe – It took his death for him to start feeling a little more confident in himself and seeing his worth. He didn’t exactly reach the pinnacle on that, but he’s making progress and that’s all any of us can really hope for. I can’t be upset because he fell in love, stayed in love, and forgave his ex. Who among us?! If no one was ever forgiven or got a second chance, where would the world be? I’d love to see him continue standing up for himself and voicing his needs…he never did get to “be the one behind” Ming.

Ming – He did fall in love with Joe, but he was also still obsessed with Tong. Yes, I liked that. Feelings don’t just vanish. Doesn’t matter what drew him to Tong initially, he developed genuine feelings for Tong over time due to the proximity of him dating Ming’s sister. He could never be mad at Tong because there was no reason to…Tong never sent out mixed signals or cheated with Ming, or even hinted that he liked men. Ming was the owner of a one-sided love, so he took out his frustration on Joe, and thus, himself. Did he have a reason to be mad at Joe, you ask. Yes. Joe wasn’t Tong, that was the reason. Ming finally got over that, but it was too late and too much damage had been done. Later, Ming was apologetic, he kept waiting for Joe, he didn’t date (or obsess over) anyone else (until he was drawn to old Joe in his fresh-from-a-coma body), he became famous (I love how easy it is to do that in this series! LOLOL!) so Joe would see him, and he started showing his love and making amends (once he knew old Joe was back).

The Story – There was a lot going on, in a good way! So much content packed into each episode that I felt like each one was a movie. The flashbacks lasted too long for my taste, though. And thank you for not giving me yet another school drama! I’m so over that.

The acting – All the primary players did a phenomenal job! Up has got some range and I’m happy to see him playing a different kind of character (than I’ve seen him play).

Some of what I didn’t like:
Ming – You hit that man over the head (Joe could’ve been concussed or sustained brain damage, but whatever) and kidnapped him. Those are crimes, for shit’s sake!! Joe is dead, so turning yourself into the police is pointless, but Ming could have done some community service on his own or something. I just didn’t see him taking responsibility for that.

Joe – I’m sooooo glad that they didn’t do some Walking Dead nonsense and have Joe survive that fall. I’m curious about the new Joe’s soul, though. Did new Joe choose to walk out the hospital door to escape his loop (he did commit suicide after the stuff with his mom and boyfriend) and that’s why there was a body available for old Joe? I kept dreading the moment when old Joe would be zapped outta that body and new Joe's soul would “wake up”. Did anyone else wonder about that? How could old Joe NOT worry about that?! Seems like, since we’re accepting the supernatural here, original recipe Joe would be trying to find that master guy and ask what happened to new Joe's soul and how much time he has. I also secretly wish new Joe became the one who didn’t want to have sex face-to-face. Hear me out. Old Joe knew the reason Ming always wanted Joe to turn around was because Ming was thinking about/visualizing Tong. So now that we’re done with Tong, new Joe should have had a moment of doubt because he doesn’t have the same face anymore. So, is Ming still thinking of someone else, even though that someone is technically him? This was kinda hinted at in a different way, but I think they should’ve explored it. How we look, and how we think we look, are parts of our identity. Does Joe think he looks better or worse than he did before? Does Ming think he looks better or worse? No good answer, right?! We’re all a little shallow. Season 2 issues, maybe?

Tong – He and his wife should be separated because he absolutely used her for her family’s money and connections. Not saying there wasn’t love there, but his actions warranted a separation and some form of estrangement from the family. At least for a while! You can’t just do all that and say all that and cost us this much money and then pop ‘round for Sunday dinner! Who does that?! More season 2 stuff?

Some stupid shit:
Joe – Dude got shot like 17 times in the back and strolled outta that hospital like it was nothing. Ok, he was shot 3 or 4 times, but that’s a huge deal!! Spine, lungs, ribs, he would not be ok for a minute! Shows/movies never do a good enough job (to me) of showing the passage of time unless they write it out on the screen. I don’t know how long new Joe was in the hospital, but when he got out, he should still be showing signs of pain/discomfort while walking, getting in and out of cars, having sex, etc. I’ve winced more from a paper cut than Joe did after being shot in the back 3 or 4 times...not to mention the guy had been in a 2-year coma just months before all this. And while we're on that, no way this guy can wake up from a coma that long and be strong/healthy enough to be a stuntman so soon. Unused muscles atrophy. Directors, pay attention to detail!!

Joe again - Of course Ming was setting you up after the funeral. You know good and goddamn well that boy ain’t finna burn all your stuff. That’s not even how obsession works. He will NEVER give away or destroy your things. Please send Ming to therapy in the next season! Couples counseling could be funny, and helpful of course.

Still Joe – So, we’ve established that it’s super easy to get famous, and you need money. The guy whose body you’re squatting in, yeah, he used to be a model. Why wouldn’t you pursue that instead of going back to your old job with no explanation for your martial arts and stuntman skills?!

Should I just rename this section “Joe”? – Joe had sex with Ming in Joe’s home (their home) before Ming was told that Joe had been found. Later when they went back, Joe was acting like he hadn’t been there in years. He also acted like they hadn’t just had sex days ago. Just stop. Say you regret it, but don’t act like it didn’t happen.

The brother we didn’t know about (finally something that’s not about Joe!) – Why was he always there when Ming went to see the master? I thought he lived there, before I knew who he was. Made no sense. He was just there so we would be surprised to learn that he was a sibling.

The master – Why?


I thoroughly enjoyed this show, and even the music. I laughed, cried, yelled, clapped. Second chances, undying (literally) love, and the lesson that love does not protect you from anything or anyone. Ppl who love you the most will hurt you the most. But, that’s where those handy-dandy second chances come into play. And second seasons. =P

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It’s compelling but

It is a compelling watch, mostly because of Joe’s actor - he does a good job of emoting and making you feel along with him. The plot is fine, too, I can give credit where credit is due for the attempts to branch out from university student story lines and storylines that are built entirely on miscommunication but…

I hate Ming.

No shade to his actor, because he does a good job at playing him, but there’s really only one villain in the series and it is definitely Ming.

What keeps me coming back is the fact that it’s interesting to watch the dynamic between the two, but it is most certainly an imbalanced power dynamic that Ming regularly and remorselessly exploits. He treats people like they are objects to be bought and sold, and then he absolutely refuses to take accountability for any of his behavior. I’ve heard a lot that in the novel he has a redemption arc, but we’re nearly through the series now and I have not seen much remorse or accountability from him. To be fair, the plot hasn’t really exposed what his motives are, but there isn’t a whole lot the story line could do at this point to make me feel like he’s really “earned” that happy ending. And maybe it won’t end happily, I dunno, I just know that this I wouldn’t call this story romantic.

It’s interesting, sure, and I’ll probably finish it, but Ming makes it hard to have sympathy for the devil.

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This was pointless

This series was just… empty. When I started it, I thought it would be an amazing one —as everyone said it was awesome and so good and even had a ★8.5 rating on MyDramaList—, but it happened to be just an easy one for me.
The story itself was pointless in my opinion. A man in love with another I don’t know why, being treated like sh*t and yet still loving something about it. Also a man who’s in love with his brother-in-law just because he saw his back in a trailer??? I don’t know. The thing about dying and coming back to life in another body is like what?? And Ming somehow felt it was Joe.

I’ll only talk about the main couple as there’s no secondary one *crying*, so let’s start:
There’s not so much to say about them. I couldn’t love their relationship nor buy their love and I hated Ming all along the series, so it was difficult to understand Joe’s feelings for him.

So the only way this series could have had a better ending in my opinion, is if it ended in episode 11, with Joe choosing himself and starting all over again. But no.

So I wouldn’t recommend this, but I also have to say that so many people liked it, so if it is a gender you like, please enjoy it.

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Does More Harm Than Good

This series attraction simply confounds me, honestly. To be sure, the acting is not the issue. But we have seen good acting before in mediocre series without any sort of recognition. Yet, this series seems to be inordinately ‘liked’ which to me makes absolutely no sense. Let me try and explain in reasons that both summarize the story as well as exhibit its massive flaws in the series overall – both in terms of its script and message. Let me emphasize that I have nothing against the acting, per se. It is satisfying but with no one really rising to the top to claim any accolade for outstanding performance. It all seemed rather predictable and pedestrian. You can read my full review of this BL, which for me does more harm than good, at BLBliss.com. It is filled with toxicity, abuse, and exploitation, and I find none of that 'loving'.

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