Enemies with Benefits

EWB is just pure art

Although, presumably, at first glance Enemies with Benefits seems focused on the complicated relationship between Lal and Wine, it's actually so extensive. The two worlds—work and feelings—collided extremely frequently, beautifully portraying the difficult choices that must be made in the name of love.
We can really see the trauma and its consequences in Wine's life—whereby I truly congratulate Jingjing on an excellent performance—and the motives behind her actions in her love life. This is a very well-executed representation of SA victims.
As for Lal, she is just one vast green forest.

Read More

When they let you dive into the world of the characters

One of the biggest driving factors of this drama was the relatability of the characters and how every scene made me feel like I was part of their universe

The plot was simple yet heart touching. The contradicting life of two different person and how the fate of twist bind them together. It showed the world of corporate and the struggle women face there. The second half of the story held much more depth. The storyline was multi dimensional with comedy, emotion, romance as a compact set. I loved how they showed the character development of each character, especially Wine. It was subtle yet very realistic. The way they depicted the past traumas and how with each other they were able to overcome everything was so satisfying to watch. I felt content with the friendship the girls had created. I was expecting A little more banter between Lal and Wine and maybe a little more angst and the love hate relationship since it explicitly says enemies but the fluff came too soon for me. It feels so good to see GLs highlighting workplace struggle of women.

The direction was clean, not rushed or filled with unnecessary scenes to prolong the show. The set design was beautiful as if it came right from a shouju manga. They perfectly caught the slightly Japanese style the novel was aiming for with set, color-grading and style of direction. The cute little animated characters in the middle made it so narak. The stylist deserves a special applaud for the gorgeous outfit.

JanJing has insane chemistry both on and off screen. They genuinely seem to have a great bind which reflected int he drama as well. They e emotional scenes were top notch. I could feel their emotions through the screen. I wish we had more KapookCiize but even with whatever they were given they did an amazing job. Ploypach and JJ kept it light. The entire cast fir perfectly and created an amazing drama.

This was my second GL and I am highly satisfied with tit. Definitely a great watch. Give it a try and you will have a taste of everything.

Read More

A show from woman to women

I love how absolutely clear whenever a story is written by a woman. It touches themes and it’s so delicate on some points that u cannot not like it, especially if you are a woman.

But first things first. I totally entered this expecting a soft, fluffy, maybe a little spicy but overall very funny show, something that would entertain me and keep my head light for some time. BOY I WAS WRONG! It was such a train wreck, an unexpected one, to the point where i was emotionally drained and honestly glad it was over the moment i actually finished it. Not because it was bad (quite the opposite) but because damn, you literally couldn’t catch a break in this show.

L’altro and Wine were very much in love since episode one and it took the astonishing amount of 12 crazy long episodes to actually get together in a relationship. It felt weirdly realistic, because at the end of the day what happened between and around them justified their behavior. I’ve read everywhere complaint towards Wine and her behavior, but i truly want to say something. This is s show, so ofc its not that deep and it’s up to everybody interpretation, but could you genuinely imagine how it must fee being in wine place? Without a father, with a mother that cares more about facts than the emotions of her own daughter, dating someone who was with you not for you but for how you looked, then being accused by everyone on the whole agency to have slept her way to her position, being molested and almost sexually assaulted by your coworker and when you denounce it you don’t get acknowledged, but they actually fire you because you are the one creating an hostile work environment. I don’t see how anyone can end up in any different way from her: cold and very diffident towards any person that tries to gets closer to you. Yeah, she dragged it out, yeah, it was extremely infuriating to see her keep leaving, never actually giving an answer to lal, making mistakes that could have easily been prevented by talking instead of running away every time. But at the end of the day, isn’t being difficult and not being just passive robots what makes us humans, humans?

All on the other hand was Asante, nd knew to not let her go, especially when she needed it so much. She was very literally the it girl of the show, girlbos, peak character, literally one of the best main lead ever written. Loved her.

i especially loved the well, 2-seconds-screentime second couple, i found them so cute and pretty and i found tangkwa very relatable cause i am someone who overthinks and gets over paranoid whenever i am around people that i care about. I wished that they could have explored it just a little little bit more, but I’m ok with this. Proud was another amazing character.

As i said before i really really really loved how hey actually took some very important topics that are very female related and did not shy away from talking about it. I loved how they didn’t have any problem talking about periods, which like hell yeah, i know it sounds so like a non problem but thinking about it, I don’t remember a single show before this one when period were mentioned so normally, even in shows that are female dominated. And i mean, i am a woman and i do talk about it, it is a topic that its not like it should become the protagonist of a show but ir shouldn’t be exactly be a taboo, given how normal of a topic it is between girls.

And especially i found the topic of work arassement to be treated very well. I liked the speeches that they made at the end, i like how disgusting Korn character was, how he tried to maniupulate other, how they realized that some people just never change and never gets better, and i loved how, regardless of how bad it may sounds, they said to “push forward “ denouncing him to the police , instead of like “leaving him be” because he has a family an a young daughter. Given tat the public of this show is prevailing female, its a beautiful and extremely important message to send, to keep your head up and not stop or compromise to keep his reputation or his family instant. That’s important and beautiful.
Plus, nice touch with how wine behaved near him. It was perfect, and it really incapsulated the feeling of having to deal this close with some that previously molested you. I found it heartbreaking, but writing wise it was a very well made choice.

I don’t have many words to spend on the acting cast cause honestly they all did very very great. Well actually i wanna praise specifically Jingjing, cause she pulled off wine perfectly, and Wine was by far the most difficult character to ply, yet i felt every single emotion. Oh and kudos to whoever played Korn (opposite forgot his name) cause he genuinely made me wanna punch is face over and over and over again like conveying that level of disgust in a human is crazy so like props to him for that.

The staff did a pretty great job with this show. The editing wasn’t confused, the pace was pretty good (like finally a show that doesn’t sound rushed or slowed down but it actually felt pretty balanced). The styling and makeup were amazing, like literally i wanna know who decided every single wine and lal outfit and i want to steal their closet cause honestly it was just that good and wine is so pretty that she pulled off everything so nicely omg.
The coloring is not my favorite, I’m not exactly into pretty and soft lighting, but i think it made sense with majority of the story, and honestly when it needed to have a more serious tone, those scenes happened in the dark, so honestly I’m pretty ok with that.. love the little doodles that kept appearing here and there.

Overall it was a very good show, that i do recommend to anybody. Not sure how rewatchable it is, given how deep and dark the story gets, but overall it was genuinely amazing and a great experience.

Ps. Bas and Numnim should have been fired i am so sorry those two couldn’t do their job to save their life

Pps. Figured out the spy minute 1 of the show, so on that we can lowkey work on a little

Read More

GL with great chemistry and many intimate scenes

I waited for this GL drama for months after seeing a YouTube short and it was worth it. It delivers enemies to lovers, office romance and a secret relationship, all done in a way I enjoy. The early enemy phase feels real and they never switch into that usual act where couples pretend to hate each other in front of coworkers. When colleagues think they are still hostile it is usually because they are in the middle of a lovers quarrel.

The early episodes are great, but the later ones lose direction. The final villain makes the story repeat itself and the couple breaks up and reunites too often, mostly because one person acts without talking. Communication issues are a classic drama flaw and it shows here.

The chemistry is strong, the supporting cast works well and there are plenty of intimate scenes. Despite the weaker parts it is a very enjoyable watch.

Read More

My new favourite GL

I really really liked this one.
This is the first Drama where I was watching each episode minutes after it came out. I was hooked from ep 1.
It's cheesy, funny, romantic and at some parts sad. It's a Drama that has it all.

The good:
- Great Chemistry thoughout the whole cast, but especially between Wine and Lal ( I hope we will see more dramas with them)
- The side characters are so much fun. They have some of the funniest moments
- Hot scenes and not just one ;)
- The story get's right started, no 8 episodes of getting to know each other
- It doesn't shy away from certain themes like sexual harassment. I don't want to say too much, but I loved how the character actually struggled with it and it wasn't just brushed of and only included for shock
- Overall I had a really good time :D

The bad:
- My only pet peeve is the production quality. Most of the time it is good, but in almost every episode there is a scene with bad audio, weird lighting or something similar.
- They also overdo the sound effects sometimes. But almost every Drama which has comedic elements uses them too much for my taste.


I would recommend everyone who wants to have a good time to watch this. It's my new favourite drama.
Bye!-I have to go watch it again :)

Read More

Bello

Devo dire carino, forse il primo GL della GMMTV che ho apprezzato al 100% (e non mi aveva dato vibes un po' mah tipo a metà come è successo con alcuni altri). Jan e JingJin mi sono sembrate molto valide e sono contenta che la GMMTV si stia finalmente approcciando anche a serie non ambientate fra università e superiori e ho avuto delle belle vibes, sia dalla coppia che dalla trama. Mi è piaciuta la parte in cui si parla di quello che Wine ha passato sul posto di lavoro e sul trauma che ha passato, e mi è piaciuto sopratutto il fatto che non si sia risolto tutto una volta indagato il tipo, ma si spieghi del fatto che l'azienda prenda le precuazioni e sopratutto, che anche la capa si prende le sue responsabilità nel non aver creduto a quello che dicevano Lal e Wine. Mi piace molto e mi sembra corretto, nel senso che molto spesso ora si vedono serie dove ci sono traumi importanti per i personaggi e tutto sembra risolversi a tarallucci e fichi. Insomma sono contenta di vedere finalmente qualcosa di diverso. Sono anche molto contenta che finalmento Kapook e Ciize si siano laureate all'università delle coppie fisse e sono finalmente riuscite a finire una serie insieme. Insomma, molto carina. Poi mi sono veramente piaciute Lal e Wine, mi davano proprio la sensazione di sofficità e profumo, non so spiegarmi. Detto ciò non vedo l'ora di vedere anche la seconda parte, con il loro matrimonio e vedere Bake with Feelings...

Read More

very strong start but disappointing ending

Honestly, this series began so good and i enjoyed most of the initial episodes immensely, especially their bickering scenes and then their practically honeymoon stage.

BUT i feel like this series should have been longer, especially when the ending was just not satisfying enough for me. i think we definitely needed more of wine chasing lal after how many times wine rejected lal or drew a harsh boundary (nothing wrong with a boundaries but each time, she would hurt lal because she was actively pushing her away using them no matter how much space lal gave)

overall it was solid but if i rewatched it, i think i'd stick to the first half of the show and skip the ending altogether

Read More

Here we go, it's another Thai GL. The chemistry is great, the characters are more than interesting & fun enough, but I have two big issues with this show.
Firstly the main concept related to the title dies way too soon. It feels like they are not really doing the friends with benefits thing from very very early on & also they are not even really pretending very effectively on the enemies part. Quoting "they'll do anything to keep it a secret, pretending to be enemies so that absolutely no one at work finds out"from the MDL description all I can say that this is totally false. The real issue here of course is not that they are basically dating from week 2 of their relationship, but rather that they are talking the talk & not walking the walk, meaning that the whole concept is really not working & is very forced.
Secondly the -largely- corporate plot in the final 3-4 episodes is quite weak, meaning that it's actually difficult to reach the closing credits. It feels like cutting this & aiming for 8 episodes would've been better.

Anyway Lal is pretty wonderful gl drama character carrying the entire show. The actress really did a wonderful job with her endlessly amusing facial expressions etc. So it's kind of worth watching just for Lal I suppose..

I don't have it in me to rate this above 7.5, but still it's way more watchable & less formulaic than 99% of contemporary kdramas.

Read More